Syria .........
West to turn down Syria’s chemical weapons transport equipment request - report
Syria’s request for military transport equipment to move chemical weapons materials out of the country will be reportedly turned down by the West as the desired hardware could potentially be used against the rebels, according to a media report.
Syria’s President Bashar Assad's administration submitted a list of transport equipment it believes it will need to safely move the chemical weapons materials via road convoys from Damascus to the coast through the conflict zone, where it can then be transported out of the country, diplomats told Reuters.
Two of the Western governments referred to the submission as a “long shopping list,” arguing that it will be denied since the equipment could be used to help Assad forces in the civil war.
"There is no way that the regime will be supplied with equipment that could be used by the army to kill more innocent Syrians," Reuters quoted one diplomat, whose government could block any consensus of the international watchdog responsible for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). "It's not going to happen."
According to the sources, Syria requested dozens of armored vehicles, generators and field kitchens to transport 1,300 tonnes of chemicals to the Mediterranean port of Latakia to comply with the UN deal to eliminate chemical weapons in the country.
Syria also asked for new communications links between Damascus and the coastal towns, arguing that it needed secured roads to move the chemical materials, as the rebels threaten the area in between the capital and the Mediterranean coast.
A second diplomat from another Western power confirmed to Reuters that Syria “will not get it from us and I don't think the UN, or EU which has applied sanctions, will do so either."
Western powers expressed confidence that Syria is able to transport chemical materials without the additional equipment.
One of the sources clarified that the West might review a revised list for possible approval, to include equipment such as flatbed trucks with the condition that they will be moved out of Syria along with the chemical weapons.
The Syrian foreign ministry has not made a comment so far and it remains unclear whether the decision will affect the timetable for chemical weapons destruction. If refused by the OPCW, Syria could potentially turn to Russia with the request.
Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed to hand over his country’s chemical arms for destruction under the terms of a US-Russian agreement brokered in September.
At the end of October, the OPCW said that Syria's entire declared stock of chemical weapons had been placed under seal. The organization admitted that Damascus has complied with the watchdog’s requirement for the complete elimination of chemical weapons and production units in Syria before November 1.
Major sponsors of the agreement would like to see most of the chemical materials out of the country by December, according to a draft agreement seen by Reuters.
The next interim deadline is November 15, which is supposed to produce a detailed plan for how Syria will remove or destroy the toxins, chemical weapons and "precursor" materials that can be used to make poisons, by a target finish date of mid-2014.
The location of where the chemical weapons that cannot be destroyed in Syria might be relocated to is still being debated, with Albania remaining as one of the possibilities.
Veterans Day items.......
PHARMA & HEALTHCARE
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11/04/2013 @ 9:46AM |2,114 views
Report: A Million Veterans Injured In Iraq, Afghanistan Wars
The International Business Times reported Friday that the Department of Veterans Affairs had stopped releasing the number of non-fatal casualties of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, thus concealing what the paper called a “grim milestone” of 1 million injuries.
All that can be said with any certainty is that as of last December more than 900,000 service men and women had been treated at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics since returning from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the monthly rate of new patients to these facilities as of the end of 2012 was around 10,000. Beyond that, the picture gets murky. In March, VA abruptly stopped releasing statistics on non-fatal war casualties to the public. However, experts say that there is no reason to suspect the monthly rate of new patients has changed…VA stopped preparing and releasing these reports on health care use and disability claims involving the 2.6 million U.S. service members who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan without warning, claiming unspecified “security” reasons.
After the story was published, the International Business Times reported that VA announced it would release updated figures in November.
Traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to my own reporting, account many non-fatal casualties treated by VA. Nearly 270,000 brain injuries have been diagnosed by the Defense Department since 2001, most of them were likely sustained in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s estimatedthat 1 in 5 veterans of those conflicts have PTSD, a number that reached 300,000 several years ago and is probably much higher now.
The 1 million mark, though bleak, does not necessarily reflect a drastic increase in the number of catastrophic injuries. Earlier this year, I reported that of the more than 50,000 service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who are considered polytrauma patients, 1,600 have moderate to severe brain injuries, 1,400 are amputees, and 900 were severely burned. Since then, about 200 service members have lost limbs in a combat zone.
As the International Business Times points out, releasing the number of wartime injuries is not only essential to government transparency, but also to determining funding levels and influencing decisions about treatment and research.
Read the full story here.
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Happy Veteran’s Day: 40% of NYC Vets Need Food Assistance
November 11, 2013
Source: Michael Snyder, Guest Post
Just the sort of headline you’d expect four years into an economic recovery. Well at least we bailed out
the TBTF banksand saved Wall Street bonuses !
the TBTF banksand saved Wall Street bonuses !
From CBS:
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Veterans are returning to New York City from their service only to be
faced with going hungry, the head a city food bank said.
“On this Veterans Day, when we’re waving our flags — I need every New Yorker to know — 40 percent
of New York City veterans are relying on soup kitchens and pantries,” Purvis said.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Veterans are returning to New York City from their service only to be
faced with going hungry, the head a city food bank said.
“On this Veterans Day, when we’re waving our flags — I need every New Yorker to know — 40 percent
of New York City veterans are relying on soup kitchens and pantries,” Purvis said.
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Member of U.S. Army National Guard's Tactical Human Intelligence Team commits suicide; his suicide note says he was forced to commit "war crimes, crimes against humanity" in Iraq
November 11, 2013
Source: NY Times
Our son Daniel enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2003. We were proud, though a bit frightened for him, but he was reassuring and confident that it was the correct path. He went to war as a member of a Tactical Human Intelligence Team. He celebrated his 21st birthday at Fort Hood in Texas, then deployed to Iraq for 13 months.Read More...
He came home a chain smoker, a habit he had developed to “fit in” with the Iraqis with whom he interacted. He was jittery and cautious. He would tell a story or two or relate a particular incident, but he frequently said that much of his tour was classified and that he would tell us about it “in 10 years, when it’s declassified.” He expressed a desire to return to Iraq to continue helping, and he was proud when he told us that he had qualified to study Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., a 15-month course.
In June 2006, his National Guard unit assigned him to a position with L-3 Communications, a large defense contractor, in Washington, D.C. About six months later, he told us that L-3 needed someone to go to Iraq to provide analysis, and that he had volunteered. He seemed so happy to have been given this chance to go back and help. He deployed in early 2007. We found out later that he also participated in many Special Operations missions.
Daniel returned home in the fall of 2007. In conversations over the next few months, he told us that he had made several attempts to get medical treatment for an array of health problems. Because his National Guard unit was still in ready reserve status, the Veterans Affairs Department medical center in Phoenix refused him treatment because he was not yet officially a veteran. The local Defense Department health care facility denied him services because he was not on active duty. He told us that he had suffered innumerable concussions in the course of more than 400 missions in the turret of a Humvee. He spoke of having flashbacks, and he appeared tense and nervous in person.
Afghanistan.......
http://www.khaama.com/political-group-oppose-with-the-afghan-us-security-deal-2530
Political group oppose with the Afghan-US security deal
By GHANIZADA - Sun Nov 10, 8:32 pm
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A large gathering was organized in capital Kabul by the national unity front of Afghanistan to oppose with the presence of US troops and military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
The gathering attended by members of the political group, religious clerics, tribal elders and university students, insisted that the presence of US military beyond 2014 is not in the interest of Afghanistan.
This comes as a national grand council (Loya Jirga) is expected to be organized within the next few days to debate the bilateral security agreement between Kabul and Washington, which will decide regarding the presence of US military in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
Members of the national unity front criticized the government of Afghanistan for organizing the national grand council and accused the government for paving the way for the presence of US military in Afghanistan.
Wahid Muzhda, spokesman for the national unity front of Afghanistan said the bilateral security agreement will only pave the way for the presence of US military in Afghanistan which paves the way for CIA and drone operations against the regional nations.
Mr. Muzhda further added that the Afghan people will not achieve anything from security deal with Washington, and will adversely affect the foreign relations of Afghanistan with the regional countries despite the pact will result in continued war and insurgency in the country.
He also warned the participants of the national grand council and said that those who votes for the security deal will be considered as national traitors and their names will remain in the history.
This is not the first time the national unity front of Afghanistan has expressed it’s opposition with the Afghan-US security deal. The political group in the past has also urged the government of Afghanistan not to sign a deal with Washington.
However, political analysts and leaders who support the security deal believe that the pact will ensure long term peace and stability in Afghanistan and will help Afghanistan’s economic growth and will prevent regional nations interference in the country.
http://www.khaama.com/afghanistan-rejects-pentagon-report-on-afghan-forces-casualties-2531
Afghanistan rejects Pentagon report on Afghan forces casualties
By GHANIZADA - Sun Nov 10, 8:54 pm
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The ministry of defense of Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the recent report by Pentagon regarding the Afghan security forces casualties.
Gen. Zahir Azimi, defense ministry spokesman said the report by Pentagon does not reflect the truth regarding the casualties of the Afghan security forces.
Pentagon in its congressional report informed of a spike in Afghan security forces casualties and said that Afghan national army and Afghan national police casualties have increased by 79 percent in 2013.
The Pengaton report also stated that the coalition security forces casualties have reduced by 60 percent, and the report cited Afghan security forces lead in combat operations as the main reason behind growing casualties.
Pentagon also warned that the Afghan national security forces will be at great risk without the support of the international community beyond 2014.
However, Afghan defense ministry rejected Pentagon’s report which suggested that the Afghan security forces casualties have increased by 79 percent.
The Afghan defense ministry however confirmed that the Afghan security forces casualties have increased as compared to the previous years.
The ministry in a statement said Afghan security forces casualties have increased by 14 percent due to security transition.
The statement further added that Pentagon’s report regarding Afghan security forces casualties is not correct, and insisted that Afghan security forces casualties have increased but not to the extent of 80 percent.
http://www.khaama.com/top-haqqani-leader-nasiruddin-haqqani-shot-dead-in-islamabad-3067
Top Haqqani leader Nasiruddin Haqqani shot dead in Islamabad
By GHANIZADA - Mon Nov 11, 2:03 pm
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According to reports, unknown gunmen have shot dead a senior Haqqani Network leader, Nasiruddin Haqqani in Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad.
Nasiruddin Haqqani, son of Haqqani Network’s top leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani was shot dead near his house in Islamabad late Sunday night, an Afghan intelligence official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.
Nasiruddin Haqqani is a a key financier and emissary of the network and was placed on terrorists list by US Department of State in July 2010.
Sources from the Taliban group and Pakistani intelligence quoted by local media agencies have confirmed that Nasiruddin Haqqani was shot dead in Islam.
The sources have further added that the dead body of Nasiruddin Haqqani has been taken to Miranshah where he will be buried.
No group has so far claimed responsibility behind the incident.
and.......
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/11/senior_haqqani_netwo_3.php
Senior Haqqani Network leader killed in Pakistan: report
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Click to view slide show of the Haqqani Network. Pictured is Nasiruddin Haqqani.
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Nasiruddin Haqqani, a senior leader and financier in the al Qaeda-linked Taliban subgroup known as the Haqqani Network, is reported to have been killed during a clash in Pakistan last night.
Numerous Pakistani news outlets have reported that Nasiruddin was killed in a shooting on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Gunmen on motorcycles killed Nasiruddin as he and two others were driving in a car outside Islamabad, The News reported. Some Pakistani intelligence officials are claiming, however, that he was killed "in a clash in an Afghan area close to Pakistan," Dawn reported.
Nasiruddin's body is said to have been taken to Miramshah, the seat of power of the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan, and prayers are being held at the Haqqani Network's mosque.
The Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban have not officially confirmed the reports of Nasiruddin's death.
But the senior spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is allied with the Haqqani Network, said Nasiruddin was killed and blamed the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, Pakistan's military intelligence service.
"Nasiruddin Haqqani has been martyred by ISI," Shahidullah Shahid, told AFP. "He was killed because he bravely supported Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud."
Hakeemullah was killed in a US drone strike in Miramshah on Nov. 1.
If Nasiruddin's death is confirmed, he would be the fourth senior Haqqani Network leader killed in the past two years. The other three leaders were killed by US drone strikes. Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a deputy to Haqqani Network operational commander Sirajuddin Haqqani who served as the Taliban's shadow governor in Paktika province, Afghanistan, was killed in a drone strike in September 2013. Badruddin Haqqani, a top deputy and brother of Sirajuddin, was killed in a drone strike sometime in August 2012. And Jan Baz Zadran, Sirajuddin's Haqqani's deputy who served as the third in command for the terror network, was killed in a drone strike in October 2011.
Nasiruddin is a key financier and "emissary" for the Haqqani Network. He is one of several brothers of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the overall operational leader of the Haqqani Network as well as the leader of the Miramshah Regional Military Shura, one of the Afghan Taliban's four regional commands. Siraj was designated by the Treasury Department as a terrorist in March 2008; and in March 2009, the State Department put out a bounty of $5 million for information leading to his capture. US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that Siraj is a member of al Qaeda's top council.
The US Treasury Department added Nasiruddin to its list of specially designated global terrorists in July 2010. According to the Treasury, he traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates between 2004-2009 to carry out fundraising for the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and the Taliban.
"As of mid-2007, [Nasiruddin] Haqqani reportedly received funding from "donations from the Gulf region, drug trafficking, and payments from al Qaeda," Treasury stated. "In 2004, he traveled to Saudi Arabia with a Taliban associate to raise funds for the Taliban."
Nasiruddin is based out of Miramshah in the tribal agency of North Waziristan in Pakistan. He is known to speak Arabic and is also a close aide to his father.
The Haqqani Network has extensive links with al Qaeda and the Taliban, and its relationship with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has allowed the network to survive and thrive in its fortress stronghold of North Waziristan. The Haqqanis control large swaths of the tribal area and run a parallel administration with courts, recruiting centers, tax offices, and security forces. They have established multiple training camps and safe houses used by al Qaeda leaders and operatives, as well as by Taliban foot soldiers preparing to fight in Afghanistan.
The Haqqani Network has been implicated in some of the biggest terror attacks in the Afghan capital city of Kabul, including the January 2008 suicide assault on the Serena hotel, the February 2009 assault on Afghan ministries, and the July 2008 and October 2009 suicide attacks against the Indian embassy. American intelligence agencies confronted the Pakistani government with evidence, including communications intercepts, which proved the ISI's direct involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing. [See LWJ report Pakistan's Jihad and Threat Matrix report Pakistan backs Afghan Taliban for additional information on the ISI's complicity in attacks in Afghanistan and the region.]
Despite the known presence of al Qaeda and other foreign groups in North Waziristan, and requests by the US that action be taken against these groups, the Pakistani military has indicated that it has no plans to take on the Haqqani Network or allied Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. The Haqqanis and Bahadar's fighters are considered "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military establishment as they do not carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/11/us_continues_to_main.php
US continues to claim al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan is minimal
Earlier this week, the US military claimed that al Qaeda has a "limited presence" in Afghanistan and is confined to "the remote areas of eastern Afghanistan." Although Obama administration and military officials have stated for the past four years that al Qaeda has a minimal presence in Afghanistan, the group and its allies continue to sustain operations in the country.
The claim was made in the newly released Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, a semiannual update prepared by the Department of Defense.
"AQ [Al Qaeda] maintains a limited presence in the remote areas of eastern Afghanistan such as Kunar and Nuristan, and maintains a seasonal presence in other provinces," the report states.
"During the reporting period [from April 1 to Sept. 30] , sustained counterterrorism (CT) operations exerted pressure on AQ personnel and networks, and eliminated dozens of al Qaeda (AQ) operatives and facilitators, restricting AQ movements to isolated areas within northeastern Afghanistan," the report continues.
"ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force] estimates that the number of AQ fighters in Afghanistan remains very low, but the AQ relationship with local Afghan Taliban formations remains intact."
While claiming that al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan is minimal, the report does not mention al Qaeda-allied groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other organizations that fight in Afghanistan and also are part of the global jihad. A plot by the IMU to conduct attacks in Europe was broken up after an IMU operative was captured in Afghanistan in 2010.
US officials downplay al Qaeda's importance in Afghanistan
US military officials continue to downplay al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan, despite ample evidence that the group is active in the country as well as in Pakistan.
In an interview on July 28, General Joseph Dunford Jr., the Coalition commander in Afghanistan, said al Qaeda was merely a "shell" of its former self, with only about 75 members in Afghanistan, who were mostly too busy trying to stay alive to plan attacks against the West, the New York Times reported.
Similarly, Major General Joseph Osterman, the deputy operations commander of the International Security Assistance Force, said in July that al Qaeda is fighting for its survival in Afghanistan and is isolated primarily in Nuristan province.
"They are less than 100, I would say, and they are in fact just trying to survive at this point," Osterman told Reuters. "I think what you find is that it's not necessarily that they have got a springboard in there."
Since the summer of 2010, Obama administration officials have been consistently claiming that 50 to 100 al Qaeda operatives are present in Afghanistan [for examples, see Threat Matrix reports, The 'only 50 to 100' al Qaeda in Afghanistan fallacy, from July 2010; and How many al Qaeda operatives are now left in Afghanistan?, from April 2011]. The claims of a limited presence of al Qaeda have been used to justify US disengagement from Afghanistan.
But a study by The Long War Journal that looks at ISAF's own reports on its raids against al Qaeda since 2007 paints a different picture. Since 2007, ISAF has conducted 357 reported raids against al Qaeda and allied groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, in Balkh, Farah, Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, Khost, Kunar, Kunduz, Laghman, Logar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Paktika, Sar-i-Pul, Takhar, Wardak, and Zabul, or 17 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Many of these raids have taken place over the past three years.
ISAF data on the location of al Qaeda's network in Afghanistan is mirrored by al Qaeda's propaganda. Al Qaeda routinely reports on its Afghan operations in Vanguards of Khorasan, a magazine produced for its members and supporters. Al Qaeda has reported on operations in all of the provinces in which ISAF has conducted raids.
Al Qaeda operatives serve as military advisers to the Taliban, and also fight in small formations throughout the country.
At the end of June, after completing its transition of security responsibilities to the Afghan National Security Forces, ISAF stopped reporting on its raids against al Qaeda, shutting off information on the targeting of al Qaeda's network in Afghanistan.
