http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/06/cia-using-secret-drone-base-in-saudi-arabia-for-two-years/
The US news media has known about the base’s existence since September 2011 when it was used to assassinate American citizen and suspected al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki, but did not disclose the information because of an “informal agreement” with the Obama administration to keep it secret.
“Children are the best soldiers I know,” declared former Syrian Sgt. Abdel Razzaq, a defector who is now training child soldiers to “not be scared of war and not to hesitate when the time comes to kill.”
The US Marines currently have two battalions “permanently” deployed across the Pacific Rim, mostly Okinawa and Guam. This will be increased to add a third battalion, with an increase in troops in Okinawa, as well as Vietnam and Cambodia.
CIA Using Secret Drone Base in Saudi Arabia for Two Years
The drone war's potential for blowback is heightened considerably by the base in Saudi Arabia
by John Glaser, February 06, 2013
The US Central Intelligence Agency has been launching armed drones from a secret airbase in Saudi Arabia for the past two years, primarily to hit targets in neighboring Yemen.
The US news media has known about the base’s existence since September 2011 when it was used to assassinate American citizen and suspected al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki, but did not disclose the information because of an “informal agreement” with the Obama administration to keep it secret.
Senior US officials expressed concern that disclosure could undermine cooperation with Saudi Arabia and ultimately prevent the US from waging the drone war in Yemen. But the New York Times revealed the story this week, breaking the informal agreement.
The drone war rests on very shaky legal grounds as it is. The Obama administration has staunchly refused to make public the official legal rationale for its targeted killing program, which contradicts international laws requiring an imminent threat to justify the use of force.
Human rights officials at the United Nations have launched an investigation into the Obama administration’s drone war and reports of high numbers of civilian casualties.
The expanding drone war in Yemen, which often kills civilians, does in fact cause blowback and help al-Qaeda recruitment - as attested to by numerous Yemen experts,investigative reporting on the ground, polling, testimony from Yemen activists, and the actual fact that recent bungled terrorist attacks aimed at the US have cited such drone attacks as motivating factors.
After another September drone strike that killed 13 civilians, a local Yemeni activist told CNN, “I would not be surprised if a hundred tribesmen joined the lines of al Qaeda as a result of the latest drone mistake. This part of Yemen takes revenge very seriously.”
“Our entire village is angry at the government and the Americans,” a Yemeni villager named Mohammed told the Post. “If the Americans are responsible, I would have no choice but to sympathize with al-Qaeda because al-Qaeda is fighting America.”
But the secret US drone base in Saudi puts added weight to issues of blowback.
“Osama bin Laden began his jihad against the United States largely because he was incensed that American troops were stationed in his homeland, Saudi Arabia, proximate to Islamic holy sites,” writes The Atlantic‘s Conor Friedersdorf, before citing extensive polling showing that millions of Muslims across the Arab world said their opinion of the US would significantly improve if it moved all military bases out of Saudi Arabia.
“In 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, the United States announced that it would pull its troops out of Saudi Arabia, though some remain there,” Friedersdorf writes. “It would’ve been nice to publicly debate whether the strategic value of a drone base in Saudi Arabia outweighs the potential for blowback,” before the Obama administration secretly established the base two years ago.
and child soldiers hyped by the syrian rebels - recall when that was frowned upon in Africa.......
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/06/syrias-rebels-hype-their-child-soldier-training/
Syria’s Rebels Hype Their Child Soldier Training
'Children Are the Best Soldiers I Know,' Military Defector Insists
by Jason Ditz, February 06, 2013
It’s one of those things you’re not supposed to brag about, but Syrian rebels are praising their ability to attract child soldiers and turn them into “killing machines” to use against the Assad government.
“Children are the best soldiers I know,” declared former Syrian Sgt. Abdel Razzaq, a defector who is now training child soldiers to “not be scared of war and not to hesitate when the time comes to kill.”
Razzaq’s “academy,” a former school in a rebel-held part of the Aleppo Province, insists that they do not force anyone into joining, and that they have no shortage of children eager to join up and learn to fight.
UNICEF seemed to back this in their own statements, saying that there was “no active recruitment of children” and that it was rather parents pushing their teenaged children to join the war. International law still prohibits anyone from using child soldiers.
and Us implements more Iran sanctions ahead of Febuary 26th nuclear talks..
http://news.yahoo.com/u-sanctions-iran-broadcasters-alleged-censorship-162422365.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it had sanctioned Iran's main agency in charge of broadcasting for helping the government censor Western reports, part of a broader effort by Washington to pressure Tehran's nuclear program.
The Treasury Department also said sanctions that shackle Iran's oil earnings took effect, as scheduled, on Wednesday. Iran's earnings now have to be credited to accounts in countries that buy Iranian crude.
Under the conditions, Tehran can only use the funds to buy goods from its oil customers, preventing the money from being repatriated and used on the nuclear program the West believes is developing weapons. Iran says the program is for purely civilian purposes.
"This will significantly restrict Iran's ability to make use of the oil revenue that it's earning," a senior U.S. official told reporters about the sanctions.
In its crackdown on Iran's state-sponsored media, the Treasury named the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, its director, Ezzatollah Zarghami, and others as subject to sanctions that effectively block their access to the U.S. financial system.
Human rights groups have said Iran is using state media reports to trample dissent, and have pointed to forced confessions of political detainees in front of state media outlets.Iran is using social media to hunt down political activists and is engaged in a campaign to filter out unwanted television content, the senior U.S. official said. After Iran's 2009 presidential election, the government increased its jamming of foreign channels, including the BBC and Voice of America, the Treasury said.
The United States will target people and organizations in Iran "responsible for human right abuses, especially those who deny the Iranian people their basic freedoms of expression, assembly and speech," said David Cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury.
The new sanctions also target the Iranian Cyber Police, a unit formed in 2009 that has hacked into email accounts related to political action, deleted anti-government blogs and arrested bloggers, the Treasury said. The Iran Electronics Industries, which the Treasury said had helped the government crush activism by monitoring text messages, was also targeted by the sanctions.
ECONOMIC PRESSURE
Iran's currency, the rial, has lost about half its value against the dollar in the past year as U.S. and EU sanctions halved the country's oil exports.
The new sanctions on oil revenues do not specifically try to deepen cuts in Iran's oil exports.
But the measures could reward Iran's oil customers for working with the United States on the sanctions by forcing Tehran to buy their products. "By bottling up this revenue in each one of these countries, it will I think enhance the attractiveness of the goods they sell to Iran," he said.
The extra revenues from sales of their goods could make it easier for India, Turkey and South Korea and other Iran oil customers to continue to seek alternatives to Iranian oil even if petroleum prices go higher.
Washington is expected to keep pressuring Iran's customers to make deeper cuts, as dictated by the U.S. sanctions law.
The new measure has not sat well with all of Iran's customers. India, Iran's second largest oil customer, plans to seek an exception to the new provision.
The United States has granted all 20 of Iran's major oil buyers 180-day exemptions to the sanctions in return for their reduced purchases of the petroleum. The exceptions to China, India and others were granted in December.
While we consider US actions in the Middle East and Africa - Drone or boots on the ground , note Marines heading to Vietnam and Cambodia....
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/06/asia-surge-us-marines-heading-to-vietnam-cambodia/
Asia Surge: US Marines Heading to Vietnam, Cambodia
US Hopes to Increase Presence Across Pacific
by Jason Ditz, February 06, 2013
Obama Administration officials have hyped their planned “Asian pivot” for awhile, an effort to get more US combat troops deployed in nations across the Pacific Rim in spite of the US not actually being in any wars there. Today Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos revealed his branch’s plans.
The US Marines currently have two battalions “permanently” deployed across the Pacific Rim, mostly Okinawa and Guam. This will be increased to add a third battalion, with an increase in troops in Okinawa, as well as Vietnam and Cambodia.
The Vietnam mission is scheduled for July, and will center around training locals in disposing of unexploded land mines still littering the nation since the US war in that nation a generation ago, while the Cambodia deployment will increase US ties with the regime there.
Amos expressed hope that the Vietnam deployment would build relationships to the point where the Marines could establish a training and operational relationship with the Vietnamese military, while Lt. Gen. Terry Robling says that deployments into Malaysia, Indonesia and even India are also “on the horizon.”
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