http://www.propublica.org/article/have-u.s.-drones-become-a-counterinsurgency-air-force-for-our-allies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20525954
28 November 2012 Last updated at 07:06 ET
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2012/11/27/carnage-across-iraq-42-killed-191-wounded/
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/27/audit-describes-corrupt-kabul-bank-as-ponzi-scheme/
“From its very beginning,” according to a confidential audit of Kabul Bank by the Kroll investigative firm, “the bank was a well-concealed Ponzi scheme.”
http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/syria-charged-turkey-with-air-piracy-new-documents-say-schoofs-and-larson.html
http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/egypt-polarized-as-200000-tahrir-demonstrators-and-crowds-in-other-cities-protest-morsis-temporary-dictatorship.html
Have U.S. Drones Become a ‘Counterinsurgency Air Force’ for Our Allies?
An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft sits in a shelter in Iraq before a mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Erik Gudmundson)
On Sunday the New York Times
reported that the Obama administration, prompted by the possibility of losing the election, has been developing a “formal rule book” to govern the use of drone strikes, which have killed roughly 2,500 people under President Obama.
One aspect of the piece in particular caught our eye: While administration officials frequently talk about how drone strikes target suspected terrorists plotting against the U.S., the Times says the U.S. has shifted away from that. Instead, it has often targeted enemies of allied governments in countries such as Yemen and Pakistan. From the Times:
[F]or at least two years in Pakistan, partly because of the C.I.A.’s success in decimating Al Qaeda’s top ranks, most strikes have been directed at militants whose main battle is with the Pakistani authorities or who fight with the Taliban against American troops in Afghanistan.
In Yemen, some strikes apparently launched by the United States killed militants who were preparing to attack Yemeni military forces. Some of those killed were wearing suicide vests, according to Yemeni news reports.
To learn more about this underappreciated aspect of U.S. drone policy, I spoke to Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who has been critical of U.S. drone policy and was quoted in the Times piece. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You were quoted over the weekend arguing that the U.S., with the campaign of drone strikes, is acting as the “counterinsurgency air force of Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.” How did you come to this conclusion?
Under the Obama administration, officials have argued that the drone strikes are only hitting operational Al Qaeda leaders or people who posed significant and imminent threats to the U.S. homeland. If you actually look at the vast majority of people who have been targeted by the United States, that’s not who they are.
There are a couple pieces of data showing this. Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation has done estimates on who among those killed could be considered “militant leaders” — either of the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, or Al Qaeda. Under the Bush administration, about 30 percent of those killed could be considered militant leaders. Under Obama, that figure is only 13 percent.
Most of the people who are killed don’t have as their objective to strike the U.S. homeland. Most of the people who are killed by drones want to impose some degree of sharia law where they live, they want to fight a defensive jihad against security service and the central government, or they want to unseat what they perceive as an apostate regime that rules their country.
Why does this distinction matter so much?
This is a huge outstanding dilemma. Is the primary purpose of the drone attacks counter-terrorism, or is it counter-insurgency? If it’s counter-insurgency, that is a very different mission, and you have to rethink the justifications and rethink what the ultimate goal is of using lethal force.
There was a February article in the New York Times reporting that the goal of U.S. policy in Yemen was to kill about two dozen Al Qaeda leaders. There’s been about 50 drone strikes in Yemen since that article. Meanwhile, according to U.S. government statements, the size of AQAP has grown from “several hundred” to “a few thousand members.” So the question is, who is actually being targeted, and how does this further U.S. counterterrorism objectives?
Is this use of drone strikes to kill people who are not imminent threats to the U.S. new?
No. The marked shift was in summer 2008 when the Bush administration decided to significantly lower the threshold of who could be attacked.
The purpose of this change was to reduce threats to U.S. servicemembers in southern Afghanistan and to intervene where some suicide attacks were organized in the tribal areas of Pakistan. This was the time when the “signature strikes” really became ingrained. Bush administration officials called this the “‘reasonable man’ standard,” and if you were displaying what are called “patterns of behavior,” you could be killed.
People mistakenly think that this policy started under Obama, but it didn’t. It did accelerate markedly under Obama. He has had more drones to do this, was much more vigorous about authorizing their use, and expanded the signature strikes into Yemen.
How does this use of drone attacks square with official administration statements describing the policy?
They will never say that the United States uses drones to fight local insurgencies. If they made that case, they would have to create a new bastion of justifications. The current stated justifications are very carefully thought out and very deliberate to loosely adhere to the post-9/11 Authorization to Use Military Force and principles of Article 51 of the UN Charter, governing the use of force.
There has been a long-term fight with people within the administration who want to reform the policy and think the U.S. needs to be more transparent — both for domestic reasons and because of the precedents being set for the use of drone strikes. If other countries follow our practice in how they will use drone strikes, that would be a very unstable, dangerous world to live in.
***
Note: We asked White House spokesman Tommy Vietor to respond the notion that drones strikes often involve those who are not a threat to the U.S. He declined to comment.
28 November 2012 Last updated at 07:06 ET
Saudi diplomat shot dead in Yemen capital Sanaa
A Saudi diplomat and his bodyguard have been shot dead in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, officials say.
Gunmen opened fire on the diplomat's car, causing it to flip over, security officials said.
Arabic broadcaster al-Arabiya said the gunmen were dressed as members of the security services.
Saudi Arabia is deeply involved with its unstable and impoverished southern neighbour. Yemen is battling Islamist militants with US assistance.
"Gunmen opened fire at the Saudi diplomat's car in a neighbourhood in southern Sanaa, killing him and his Yemeni bodyguard," a Yemeni security official was quoted by Reuters as saying.
He said the diplomat was the assistant military attache at the Saudi embassy.
Saudi Arabia has been battling al-Qaeda-inspired militants and it is well known that supporters of the Islamist group are exploiting the lawlessness in Yemen to set up bases there.
Correspondents say a number of Saudi jihadists are believed to have crossed the border to join al-Qaeda and similar groups in southern Yemen.
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia's deputy consul in Yemen was kidnapped by al-Qaeda.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2012/11/27/carnage-across-iraq-42-killed-191-wounded/
Carnage Across Iraq: 42 Killed, 191 Wounded
by Margaret Griffis, November 27, 2012
Relatively peaceful Ashoura observances over the weekend were followed a spate of violence today. Shi’ite mosques were hit in Baghdad, while a Kurdish political office was targeted in Kirkuk. When significant attacks occur, many smaller attacks also get reported. Today was no different. Overall, at least 42 people were killed and 191 more were wounded.
In Baghdad, nine people were killed and 20 more were wounded in a blast at a mosque in Hurriya. Six were killed and 32 more were wounded minutes later when another bomb exploded at the Gaereat Mosque. In Shoala, a third bomb killed seven and wounded 21 more.
Five people were killed and 58 more were wounded when three bombs exploded in a Kurdish residential area in Kirkuk. A bomb wounded an education official. At least one other person was killed in bombings.
A double bombing in nearby Hawija left two dead and five wounded.
A bomb in Ramadi killed six and wounded 10 more.
Gunmen killed two policemen in Hammam al-Alil.
One Sahwa member was killed and two more were wounded when gunmen attacked aDiyala checkpoint.
In Khan Bani Saad, a one person was killed and six more were wounded in several blasts.
A Sahwa member was killed near his Buhriz home.
Gunmen near Nasariya killed a policeman.
Five civilians were wounded in a bombing in Taji.
In Mosul, a bomb at a female lawmaker’s home wounded eight people when it exploded. A bomb wounded three people, including a policeman.
Bomb blasts wounded five soldiers in Tuz Khormato. Another blast wounded four civilians.
A bomb in Jurf al-Meleh wounded three policemen.
Three people were wounded in a shooting in Suleimaniya.
In Falluja, three soldiers were wounded in a blast.
A bomb targeting a policeman in Gatoun wounded two civilians instead.
Two car bombs were discovered in Tikrit.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/27/audit-describes-corrupt-kabul-bank-as-ponzi-scheme/
Audit Describes Corrupt Kabul Bank as ‘Ponzi Scheme’
The bank was in the business of institutionalizing large-scale theft for the benefit of a few Afghan government cronies
by John Glaser, November 27, 2012
An audit of the Kabul Bank in Afghanistan, long touted by US and Afghan officials as a sign of nation-building progress, has revealed that the bank was instead institutionalizing large-scale theft for the benefit of a few Afghan government cronies carelessly supported by Washington.
“From its very beginning,” according to a confidential audit of Kabul Bank by the Kroll investigative firm, “the bank was a well-concealed Ponzi scheme.”
“Afghan and American officials had for years promoted Kabul Bank as a prime example of how Western-style banking was transforming a war-ravaged economy,” reports The New York Times. In reality, it was “institutionalizing fraud that reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars and obliterated Afghans’ trust after regulators finally seized the bank in August 2010 and the theft was revealed.”
According to the Times, “the audit asserts that Kabul Bank had little reason to exist other than to allow a narrow clique tied to President Hamid Karzai’s government to siphon riches from depositors, who were the bank’s only substantial source of revenue.”
The revelations are in line with an almost universal understanding of the Afghan government’s deep corruption, which Washington continues to prop up with billions of dollars and security assistance.
The Obama administration will continue to prop up the corrupt and ruthless Kabul regime for the foreseeable future, as negotiations for a new agreement to govern the presence of about 10,000 US troops beyond the much vaunted 2014 withdrawal date, perhaps until 2024.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/syria-charged-turkey-with-air-piracy-new-documents-say-schoofs-and-larson.html
http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-may-be-printing-banknotes-keep-syrian-regime-going-report-901008
Russia may be helping to prop up the bloody, but beleaguered, regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by airlifting billions in dollars in cash to pay his soldiers and bureaucrats.
According to a study by ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit investigative news source, at least 200 – maybe as many as 240 -- tons of bank notes were transported from Moscow to Damascus on a Syrian government plane over the summer, flight records and manifests indicate.
Russia, along with China, has steadfastly supported Assad since the rebellion against his regime erupted some 20 months ago at a cost of some 40,000 lives and counting.
But the endless onslaught against rebels and civilians has come at a grave price for the Syrian economy and the regime's stability – sanctions by the West and the prohibition of printing Syrian currency have hindered Assad's ability to carry out his crackdown. (EU sanctions meant that an Austrian bank lost its right to mint Syrian banknotes).
“Having currency that you can put into circulation is certainly something that is important in terms of running an economy and more so in an economy that has become more cash-based as things deteriorate,” Daniel Glaser, assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, told ProPublica. “It is certainly something the Syrian government wants to do, to pay soldiers or pay anybody anything."
Sanctions by the U.S. are also crippling the Syrian military.
“Increasingly, it is more difficult to finance the war machine and the cost of the war is becoming more expensive for the Assad regime,” an anonymous U.S. government official told the service. "Targeted sanctions on those leading the violence are working and start to bite into their pocket books.”
Syria itself has even admitted in the past that Russia is printing cash for them,
In August, the official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted Qadr Jamil, Syria’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, as saying that a financial deal with Moscow represented a “triumph” over Western sanctions.
Ibrahim Saif, a political economist based in Jordan and a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said he thinks that Damascus is exchanging old money for new notes, but also printing money because they need new notes.
“Most of the government revenue that comes from taxes, in terms of other services, it’s almost now dried up,” he said. “[But] they continue to pay salaries. They have not shown any signs of weakness in fulfilling their domestic obligations. The only way they can do this is to get some sort of cash in the market.”
Saif further estimated that since the rebellion exploded, Syria's foreign currency reserves have dropped from $17 billion to about $6 billion to $8 billion, with about $500 million spent every month to keep the government in business.
“It’s possible the Syrians are acquiring foreign currency reserves, either euros or U.S. dollars, which they would need to conduct any serious commerce,” said Juan Zarate, a former assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes.
Syria itself has even admitted in the past that Russia is printing cash for them,
In August, the official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted Qadr Jamil, Syria’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, as saying that a financial deal with Moscow represented a “triumph” over Western sanctions.
Ibrahim Saif, a political economist based in Jordan and a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said he thinks that Damascus is exchanging old money for new notes, but also printing money because they need new notes.
“Most of the government revenue that comes from taxes, in terms of other services, it’s almost now dried up,” he said. “[But] they continue to pay salaries. They have not shown any signs of weakness in fulfilling their domestic obligations. The only way they can do this is to get some sort of cash in the market.”
Saif further estimated that since the rebellion exploded, Syria's foreign currency reserves have dropped from $17 billion to about $6 billion to $8 billion, with about $500 million spent every month to keep the government in business.
“It’s possible the Syrians are acquiring foreign currency reserves, either euros or U.S. dollars, which they would need to conduct any serious commerce,” said Juan Zarate, a former assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes.
Syria Charged Turkey with “Air Piracy,” New Documents Say (Schoofs and Larson)
Posted on 11/28/2012 by Juan
Mark Schoofs and Jeff Larson write at ProPublica:
Documents posted online Monday by hackers associated with the online group Anonymous appear to give new details on a Syrian passenger flight from Moscow to Damascus that Turkish fighter jets forced to land last month. The incident sparked a diplomatic row between the two neighbors that have grown increasingly at odds as the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attempts to crush a popular uprising.
The documents, which include letters from the chief executive of Syrian Arab Airlines, as well as a cargo manifest, could not be immediately authenticated. But they dovetail with what has been reported about the flight by Reuters and other news organizations.
ProPublica reported this week that a Syrian government plane ferried what flight records describe as more than 200 tons of “bank notes” from Moscow.
The letters from the CEO of Syrian Arab Airlines, if authentic, give the airline’s account of how the Turkish military forced down the civilian passenger plane, an Airbus A320. The letters are addressed to officials with the International Air Transport Association and the Arab Air Carriers Organization and appear to be official complaints about Turkey’s actions, which the Syrian CEO labels “air piracy.”
The letters, which are almost identical and are written in both English and Arabic, detail what happened to Flight 442 from Moscow to Damascus on October 10. They contend that without warning, two F-16 warplanes of the Turkish air force approached the Syrian passenger jet three times, zooming in as close as 50 meters. The fighter jets forced the passenger plane to land in a side area at Ankara airport. After two hours, Turkish commandos “stormed into the plane, sparking panic and dread among the passengers.”
The letters go on to allege that Turkish armed forces searched the plane for more than seven hours, eventually confiscating ten parcels weighing a total of 340 kilograms. In the letters and the cargo manifest, the contents are described as electronic equipment.
The Turkish Prime Minister told reporters that the cargo contained ammunition destined for Syria’s defense ministry. Russia’s foreign minister said the cargo included only parts for radar installations, and that such components were allowed under international transportation agreements.
The plane, which was allowed to continue its flight the next day, reportedly carried 37 passengers and crew, of whom 17 were Russian nationals. Russia objected that Turkey endangered the lives and security of the passengers.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/egypt-polarized-as-200000-tahrir-demonstrators-and-crowds-in-other-cities-protest-morsis-temporary-dictatorship.html
Egypt Polarized as 200,000 Tahrir demonstrators and Crowds in other Cities protest Morsi’s “Temporary Dictatorship”
Posted on 11/28/2012 by Juan
On Wednesday morning, in the wake of a huge demonstration downtown Cairo, the crowds assembled in Tahrir Square faced tear gas barrages whenever they moved out of the center of the square. Some 36 persons were wounded in Port Said in clashes Wednesday between anti-government forces and the Muslim Brotherhood. The fight began when three Ultras (soccer fanatics) of the Green Eagle soccer club in the city were attacked when they passed near the Muslim Brotherhood HQ.
Liberals, leftists, nationalists, Muslims, Christians, trade unions, professionals, movie stars, lawyers and judges united on Tuesday throughout Egypt to deploy a whole range of protest techniques against last Thursday’s Executive Order of President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, which put him above all judicial authority. Some clashes broke out with Morsi followers, and some 76 were injured.
The crowd at the downtown Tahrir Square was estimated by some newspapers at 200,000, among the largest demonstrations held since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February, 2011. It is worrisome that many in the crowd have started to demand ‘the fall of the regime’ and the ‘departure of Morsi.’ Since he is an elected leader, it would be undemocratic for him to be unseated by crowd action, and the danger that the Muslim Brotherhood might be radicalized by losing the fruits of both of its electoral victories is great.
The spokesman for the Egyptian military Pointedly underlined that the army is there to defend the interests of the nation and that its sole loyalty is to the people. He did not say anything about protecting the government, raising the question of where the army’s loyalty might lie if the political polarization worsens.
Performing artists had their own column in the march in Cairo.
Journalists and attorneys were organized by their guilds to participate. Even a group of judges marched, single file, into Tahrir Square. Cairo’s courts were closed and on strike for the third day running in protest against the insult of the president’s decree. A huge procession walked from the slum of Shubra to Tahrir Square Tuesday, joined by Muhammad Elbaradei (former head of the IAEA). About half of the densely packed population of Shubra is Christian, and as a working class district its parties include the Free Egyptians, the Social Democratic Egyptian Party, the Popular Coalition, and the Revolutionary Socialist Movement. Unfortunately, they are good at mobilizing for marches and rallies, but not good at winning elections. They insisted on the abrogation of Morsi’s Executive Order.
Journalists and attorneys were organized by their guilds to participate. Even a group of judges marched, single file, into Tahrir Square. Cairo’s courts were closed and on strike for the third day running in protest against the insult of the president’s decree. A huge procession walked from the slum of Shubra to Tahrir Square Tuesday, joined by Muhammad Elbaradei (former head of the IAEA). About half of the densely packed population of Shubra is Christian, and as a working class district its parties include the Free Egyptians, the Social Democratic Egyptian Party, the Popular Coalition, and the Revolutionary Socialist Movement. Unfortunately, they are good at mobilizing for marches and rallies, but not good at winning elections. They insisted on the abrogation of Morsi’s Executive Order.
Among the demands of the protesters was that the Constituent Assembly writing the constitution be reconstituted. I had begun with 100 members, but 22 have withdrawn, along with 7 reserve members, and the remaining 78 are disproportionately loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, raising fears that the constitution will be overly religious in character.
There were similar demonstrations, some of them quite large, in other cities, including Alexandria, where crowds invaded the HQ of the FJP and tossed papers out the window. In the Delta city of Mansoura, 25 were hurt when an angry crowd set fire to part of the HQ of the Freedom and Justice Party, the civil wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. In al-Mahalla just north of Cairo, a working-class city of factories, 50 were injured in clashes between protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood. Euronews reports:
Morsi’s claim of extra-judicial power struck many Egyptians as a creeping dictatorship, and there are fears that the Brotherhood was plotting to bring back the dissolved parliament of fall, 2011, which was dominated by members of the Brotherhood party, Freedom and Justice, and by hard line Salafi fundamentalists. With the presidency and parliament and an established principle that both were beyond the authority of the judiciary, the Brotherhood could hope to rule Egypt as a virtual one-party state, succeeding the one-party dominance of Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic party.
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