Wayne Madsen

The recent passage of a resolution by the Turkish parliament to authorize cross-border retaliatory military action against Syria after a recent barrage of mortar rounds from Syria into Turkey is a sign that Turkey, working with NATO's neoconservative Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is hoping to invoke for the second time in its history the NATO collective security authorization, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty that stipulates an act of aggression against one NATO member is an attack on all. The first time Article 5 was invoked after the 9/11 attacks on the United States…

Rasmussen is the perfect facilitator to engineer NATO action in Syria. He was a leading cheerleader for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, including the shedding Danish military blood in the senseless military operations.

And after Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay was caught red-handed lying about Syria officially apologizing for the shelling when, in fact, the shelling was carried out by units of the Turkish-supported Free Syrian Army, Turkey is taking a page from the "false flag" military doctrine practiced for decades by Israel. Five civilians in the Turkish village of Akçakale were killed in the October 3 mortar barrage from Syria but in false flag actions, it is innocent civilians who are the key to success. Civilian deaths help whip up war fever by the general public against a real or imagined enemy. An October 5 mortar round from Syria landed in the Turkish village of Aşağıpulluyazı in the restive Turkish province of Hatay, where there exists a sizable Alawite community that feels a kinship with the dominant Alawite government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey’s standard response to any fire from Syrian territory – regardless of its source – would be met with Turkish artillery fire. Borrowing a page from Israeli “price tag” attacks on Palestinian Muslims and Christians, Davutoglu said that Turkey would respond one-for –one, for each artillery round from Syrian soil. The Turkish policy is obviously aimed at increasing tensions.

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Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

By making a 6-hour unannounced trip to Afghanistan last night, Obama proved that his military strategy and surge of 30,000 troops, his morale-boosting propaganda, all have failed to make a dent.

The Mujahideen have further driven the enemy into the corner, to the extent that now he is not able to visit Afghanistan in the light of the day. He comes during the night and hurries back in the darkness, ironically acting like a thief.

Similarly, the brief speech of Obama to American soldiers in a military base, being dotted with his low- pitched and jittery-fraught voice was demonstrating the scope of the American military's fear and mistrust in Afghanistan. There was no word in Obama's speech, indicating any military achievement or at least giving good news to troops to boost their morale. Obama admitted in clear terms that their enemy (Taliban) were a determined and resolute opponent. However, he claimed that they would not defeat the Americans.

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Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

This is a main question that every one asks. Does America want peace in Afghanistan? However, the following data can help us reach a rational conclusion: At the beginning of 2009, American had 30,000 troops in Afghanistan which they increased to 68,000 soldiers until the end of the year. This shows 110 percent boost of military man power. In December 2009, US president Obama announced 30,000 more troops for Afghanistan, showing further 30% increase. In January this year in London Conference on Afghanistan, US supported Hamid Karzai program of reintegration and reconciliation with Taliban i.e. the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Two weeks later, on 13 February, Pentagon launched a massive military operation against Marjah Township in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, violating their commitment to work for peace in the country. Now they are talking of taking the offensive to Kandahar.

So far, America has built 700 bases in the country, the major of them being in Kandahar and Bagram. They allocate hundreds of millions of dollars each year for construction of more bases in Afghanistan. In view of these facts, no one can say America wants peace in Afghanistan. They have hidden and long-term colonialist objectives, not only in Afghanistan but in the whole region. By using Afghanistan as outpost, Washington wants to follows its policy of expansionism, regime change and disintegration in the neighboring countries.

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Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

For the last two weeks, a 15,000-strong army of NATO, British and American forces has been carrying out military operations in a small are i.e. Marjah which is located in Nad Ali district. A number of jet bombers of the enemy including unmanned drones and 60 gunship helicopters are taking part in the operations. In addition to this, the enemy have brought to the battle field their huge and most advanced tanks by the name of Abraham and Shifton, which approximately weigh 65 tons. But despite the preparations, boasts and propaganda stunts, the enemy have not been able to make any headway against a small group of Mujahideen who are not more than 1000 armed men and their weapons are no match with those of the enemy. But still the sacrificing and committed Mujahideen have bravely blocked the invaders’ way successfully.

Skilled snipers have put shock and awe into the ranks of the enemy. The Mujahideen have blown up 53 tanks; shot down two unmanned drones and one helicopter besides killing tens of soldiers. An Afghan honor-loving woman made history by shooting soldiers pointblank in the bazaar. She revived the memory of Malalai of the past and proved by her heroic act, that still there are many sisters-in-arms of Malalai in this land. If we count the crews in the tanks which have been destroyed, we can easily conclude that the enemy losses are more than one hundred soldiers.

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Pepe Escobar

There must be some way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief - Bob Dylan,
"All Along the Watchtower"

Something's happening in AfPak, but you don't know what it is, do you Mr Beltway think-tanker?

As Washington mashes up the "Taliban" - be they Afghan neo-Taliban or Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) - in Empire of Chaos logic to justify perennial United States/North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops stationed in AfPak, an increasing number of Pashtuns living on both sides of the border have seized the opportunity and started to look to the Taliban as a convenient facilitator for the emergence of Pashtunistan. But the Pentagon, make no mistake, knows exactly how to play its New Great Game in Eurasia. Balkanization of AfPak - the break-up of both Afghanistan and Pakistan - will engineer, among other states, an independent Pashtunistan and an independent Balochistan. Empire of Chaos logic is still British imperial divide-and-rule, remixed; and, at least in theory, yields territories much easier to control.

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Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

A few days ago, a strong reaction came from the United Nations Security Council following the killings of Western nationals whom the United Nations calls its staff members but the Mujahideen say, they were organizers of the runoff election. The UN Secretary General said that he would join efforts with other members of the Security Council to find those behind this incident and punish them.

On the other hand, we have hundreds of examples in which we find the United Nations behaving with the Islamic Ummah unfairly, improperly and pitilessly as far as global and regional issues are concerned. When it comes to the protection of the rights of the Ummah, this World Body, particularly, the Security Council becomes silent at once. They have chosen the way of suppressing and oppressing the Ummah and supporting the brutal and arrogant invaders.

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08/18/09 Eric Margolis The US Denounces Iran While running fake elections in Afghanistan
08/18/09 Chris Floyd The Gadarene Gambit: Surging Over the Cliff in Afghanistan
08/20/09 Pepe Escobar The Afghan pipe dream
08/28/09 Patrick Martin Washington’s double standard: The elections in Iran and Afghanistan
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10/22/09 Eric S. Margolis Flames From Afghanistan Ignite Pakistan
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11/04/09 Malalai Joya Speech of Malalai Joya: No nation can liberate another
11/05/09 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Why the UN is so disturbed at the Murder of the Western Nationals?
11/05/09 William Bowles The nerve of these guys! Karzai 'wins' anyway
11/06/09 William Bowles Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires or just a graveyard with a pipeline running through it?
11/06/09 Gwynne Dyer Last Exit From Afghanistan
11/12/09 Christopher King The Afghanistan war on Remembrance Sunday
11/17/09 Pepe Escobar UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO: Welcome to Pashtunistan
11/23/09 Olivia Ward 'Liberation was just a big lie'
11/24/09 Eric S. Margolis The Pot Calls The Kettle Black
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12/03/09 Stephen Lendman Obamathink on Afghanistan: Escalate to Exit
12/03/09 Justin Raimondo Obama’s War Speech: An Unconvincing Flop
12/11/09 William Blum The Anti-Empire Report -Yeswecanistan
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01/02/10 Peter Dale Scott Obama and Afghanistan: America’s Drug-Corrupted War
01/08/10 What Really Happened Afghan My Lai Massacre
01/20/10 Jeremy Scahill Blackwater Wants to Surge its Armed Force in Afghanistan
01/21/10 Jeffrey Kaye Afghanistan: Women Dying and Torture Run Amuck
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02/28/10 Gwynne Dyer Afghanistan guerrilla war will have a predictable result
02/02/10 Anand Gopal Terror comes at night in Afghanistan
02/03/10 Mehdi Hasan Malalai Joya Intervieved by Mehdi Hasan
02/03/10 Nick Turse Drone surge: Today, tomorrow and 2047
02/15/10 Johann Hari Obama's secret prisons in Afghanistan endanger us all
02/15/10 Chris Floyd The Last Station: Surging Into the Savage Past in Afghanistan
02/17/10 Chris Floyd All Systems Go: No Disfunction in Profitable Afghan Enterprise
02/17/10 Chris Floyd Collateral Accumulation: Passing on the Abiding Wisdom of Empire
02/20/10 David Lindorff Battle for Marjah: The US has Already Lost
02/21/10 Christopher King Dutch government falls over Afghanistan
02/24/10 Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Marjah Operations are an Exemplary Lesson for the Invaders
02/24/10 Chris Floyd Many Thousand Gone
02/28/10 Gwynne Dyer Afghanistan guerrilla war will have a predictable result
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03/07/10 James Lucas Destroying Afghanistan
03/09/10 Gareth Porter Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War
03/12/10 Chris Floyd Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion
03/16/10 David Lindorff This Time It's Pregnant Women: Another US Atrocity in the Bush-Obama War in Afghanistan
03/20/10 Chris Floyd Night Riders: Afghan Atrocity and American Values
03/27/10 Chris Floyd An Unaccustomed Truth: American Commander Admits Afghan Atrocities
03/30/10 Rethink Afghanistan NATO Tries to Silence a Truth-Teller in Afghanistan After Killing Pregnant Women
03/30/10 Bill Van Auken Obama’s visit underscores US crisis in Afghanistan
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04/01/10 Richard North "We will not prevail in Afghanistan"
04/03/10 Victor Korgun The Afghan dilemma
04/06/10 Stephen Lendman US-Committed Atrocities in Afghanistan
04/06/10 Tom Eley US Special Forces covered up massacre of Afghans
04/06/10 Stephen Lendman US-Committed Atrocities in Afghanistan
04/14/10 Marc W. Herold Obama’s Unspoken Trade-Off: Dead US/NATO Occupation Troops versus Dead Afghan Civilians?
04/16/10 The Anti Press Special Forces Death Squads in Afghanistan
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