Blood baths in Iraq......
The Pakistani statement reiterated the government’s belief that such strikes are a violation of national sovereignty and are creating many more militants than they are stopping. It was the first US strike since Pakistan’s election earlier this month, and the first since President Obama’s promise of additional transparency and accountability.
White House spokesman Jay Carney insisted that the promise of transparency had been fulfilled by delivering the speech in which the promise was made itself, and then went on insist that they would not comment on specific anti-terrorism operations.
Hammond downplayed the revelation, and dismissed claims from human rights lawyer Phil Shiner that the prison amounted to a “secret facility,” even though its existence as a detention center wasn’t public knowledge. He claimed the detainees could be transferred to the Afghan government in a “matter of days,” though at least one of the 90 has reportedly been held for over a full year.
Baghdad Wedding Bloodbath; 69 Iraqis Killed
by Margaret Griffis, May 29, 2013
At least 69 Iraqis were killed and 169 more were wounded. These numbers include previously unreported casualties that occurred in yesterday’s violence. In three of those attacks, the figures were revised considerably upwards. Sometimes the numbers in attacks can rise throughout the day. This is often due to confusion following them.
In Baghdad, a bomb at a wedding killed 18 celebrants in the Jihad neighborhood; at least 44 were wounded. A second bomb killed 12 and wounded 31 more. A third blast left 10 dead and 25 wounded in Ghazaliya.
Authorities also raised the number of those killed in yesterday’s Doura attack by eight more dead and 24 more wounded. The numbers in the Shabb bombing were increased by 10 killed and 25 wounded.
Three people were killed and 13 more were wounded at a football field in Baquba.
The numbers in a bombing in Hibhib were increased by three dead and one wounded.
Near the Syrian border at the al-Walid crossing, three policemen were killed in a clash.
A bomb targeting the governor of Salah ad Din province wounded five bodyguardsnear Tikrit.
In Abu Ghraib, a brigadier general was assassinated.
Gunmen in Riyadh killed a Sahwa leader.
Gunmen wounded a surgeon in Karbala. Two kidnapping victims were released in Anbar.
Pakistan Drone Wars continue - this despite Pakistan Election and new US Drone policy....
Pakistan Slams US Drone Strike Against North Waziristan
White House Refuses Any Comment on Attack
by Jason Ditz, May 29, 2013
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry was quick to issue a statement today condemning the latest US drone strike against the country’s tribal areas. The attack killed seven people, and according to some reports a high-ranking member of the Pakistani Taliban may have been among them.
The Pakistani statement reiterated the government’s belief that such strikes are a violation of national sovereignty and are creating many more militants than they are stopping. It was the first US strike since Pakistan’s election earlier this month, and the first since President Obama’s promise of additional transparency and accountability.
In the first indication of how much (or indeed how little) that promise actually means, the White House has declined all comments related to today’s strike, refusing to either confirm or deny that the attack even took place. This is, of course, the strategy the Obama Administration has been using from the start, with strikes killing thousands of Pakistanis, most of them unidentified “suspects.”
The strikes have fuelled considerable tensions with Pakistan, and the incoming government has promised to be more proactive in preventing future US strikes. Though the outgoing PPP criticized the drones publicly, there was a perception in both Pakistan and the US that they tacitly supported the program, and that perception was a big part of the PPP’s monumental collapse in this year’s elections.
and....
Despite Promises of Transparency, White House Not Talking on Drone Strike
Carney Insists Obama's Previous Speech Was the Transparency
by Jason Ditz, May 29, 2013
President Obama’s recent speech promising more transparency on the US drone strike program hasn’t amounted to much today, when the first drone strike since the speech killed seven in Pakistan, and the White House did what it always does, declined specific comment.
White House spokesman Jay Carney insisted that the promise of transparency had been fulfilled by delivering the speech in which the promise was made itself, and then went on insist that they would not comment on specific anti-terrorism operations.
The only comment that even hinted at a pretext for the attack was Carney reiterating President Obama’s comment that the US was obliged to continue operations in and around Afghanistan during the NATO occupation.
Carney did address the report of Wali-ur Rehman’s death however, saying it would weaken the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but adding that they weren’t in a position to confirm it. The TTP has denied the reports, saying Rehman’s death was, as in the past, greatly exaggerated.
Afghanistan news of the day.....
Britain Admits to 90 Secret Prisoners in Afghanistan
Some Detainees Held Over a Year Without Charges
by Jason Ditz, May 29, 2013
Defense Secretary Philip Hammond has admitted that the British government isholding scores of “suspects” in military custody in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, with the detainees being held without charges, without access to a lawyer, and indeed with access to any legal system.
Hammond downplayed the revelation, and dismissed claims from human rights lawyer Phil Shiner that the prison amounted to a “secret facility,” even though its existence as a detention center wasn’t public knowledge. He claimed the detainees could be transferred to the Afghan government in a “matter of days,” though at least one of the 90 has reportedly been held for over a full year.
The decision to start detaining suspects came after repeated reports of widespread torture in the Afghan prison system. Hammond complained that it was disingenuous for Shiner to complain about the open-ended detentions without charges when it was Shiner’s own firm that pointed out that transferring captives to the custody of a nation practising torture was in violation of the UN Convention on Human Rights.
NATO’s own rules of engagement say they can only hold detainees without charges for 96 hours, however, and the British military appears to have just openly flouted this, insisting that if they couldn’t send them to disappear into an Afghan torture dungeon they’d just have to keep them more or less permanently on a British military base. Hammond insisted some of the unnamed captives posed a threat to British occupation forces in Afghanistan, meaning if the Afghan torture situation is never addressed, as seems likely, they are apparently prepared to just keep holding them without charges.
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