Blackwater ‘IN’ Pakistan – Rehman Malik, Patterson & Clinton all LIED to the People of Pakistan

In an interview with Express News [transcript on DoD], Robert Gates confirmed in some clear terms that private security firms Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan. “They’re operating as individual companies here in Pakistan” – so technically by all counts this statement more or less proves that Anne Patterson, Hilary Clinton and Rehman Malik all have being LYING to the people of Pakistan. Where over the past few months they have one after the other vehemently denied the presence of Blackwater and its operatives in Pakistan. Rehman Malik is on record to quit. In an attempt to soften the blow the US Department of Defense is covering up their statement by that updating reporters that Mr. Gates had been speaking about contractor oversight more generally and that the Pentagon didn’t employ Xe in Pakistan – which we all know is yet another lie, since even Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, confessed to his organizations involvement in Pakistan barely a month back in the Vanity Fair article.

I can’t complain much if foreign agents like Anne Patterson and Hilary Clinton lied to our people, as they probably were protecting the interests of their own government, but what irks me is that our own Ministers (& President) knowingly continue to lie to their people literally selling our soul to the highest bidder and yet had the audacity to deny the real facts while our country continued to burn under our noses.

Guess it will be a fruitless exercise, but I call for an immediate resignation of Rehman Malik from the Ministry of Interior – I do not know if he is man enough to be called an honorable gentleman who might at least have the courtesy to honor his statement, or even have the respect to give a simple courtesy apology – but maybe that’s asking too much from a professional crook and a hard core liar

Pakistan Army ‘Not Impressed’ With US Offered Drones

The disappointment is understandable since unlike the drones that fly and take out targets inside Pakistan’s Fata region, the ones being offered to Pakistan are unarmed and commonly used for intelligence gathering.

Later, when DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas was asked about the overall weapons being provided to Pakistan for counterinsurgency and other military supplies, he remarked, “Too little, too late”.
It was US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who, in a meeting with the media at the residence of the US ambassador, said the US was enhancing Pakistan’s intelligence capabilities. He said the offer comes because Islamabad had requested for them. “We have a lot of information on the Afghan side that we share … we also help Pakistan build its own capacity. We will be providing them with UAVs (Shadow) together with equipment and training,” he said.

To a question whether the US was attaching any conditions to these UAVs, he replied, “I do not know”. In the past, the US was wary of passing on the drone technology to Pakistan as Islamabad could use it in areas other than it had specifically been given for.
One American journalist accompanying him asked about the possibility of stopping arms sale to India and Pakistan altogether. “We have to judge each country’s requirement on its own. We sell Pakistan F-16s and we sell India transport aircraft. We make a decision judiciously,” Gates replied.
Gates appeared relaxed with the questions being thrown at him by the local and US media but it was the ‘D’ word that he refused to entertain. Though several questions relating to US drones were asked, he shrugged them off and would not even give an answer as to whom in the US this question could be put.
When he said that there were no US bases inside Pakistan. he refused a reply when asked from where these US drones flew. Amongst the defence secretary’s aides in uniform that greeted the media before he arrived were those who offered their greetings in chaste Urdu and one of them also spoke excellent Pashto!
As if on cue, the Pakistan military’s announcement that it could not overstretch itself in fresh areas of operation also saw Gates admitting to a query that a ‘trust deficit’ existed. “There is responsibility on both sides. From the US side, we turned away from Afghanistan in 1989. We could have remained engaged but we did not even try. Then the Pressler Amendment brought an end to military-to-military conversation for 12 years when we had no contacts. We cannot rebuild trust through rhetoric,” he said.
Turning to the present moment, Gates said that the US was deeply impressed with Pakistan’s military operations and the level of activity and clearing of areas. “Very impressive. Pakistan is a sovereign state and makes its own decisions on future operations. The past year has been extraordinary. Let me put it this way. If we are in a car together, it is Pakistan in the driving seat with its foot on the accelerator. We are prepared to help and also express our condolences to the 3,000 Pakistani soldiers killed. General Kayani gave me a detailed briefing,” explained the defence secretary.
To a query about the Coalition Support Fund that has been held up and which Pakistan needs on an emergency basis, Gates replied, “It will come and we are also reviving $500 million deferred payment.”
He explained instances in the past where Pakistan’s procedures lacked proper documentation. “We are working with Pakistan on the documentation and will give it to Congress. We are working on it now and some people we are seeking to add to the US Embassy will help,” he said.
When a question of opening up dialogue with the Taliban inside Afghanistan was put to him, he replied, “Afghanistan has its own reconciliation and reintegration plan. It is how low-level Taliban can work in their own community. These are Taliban foot soldiers who work for money. As economic development proceeds and there is greater security, more and more foot soldiers will come back,” he pointed out. But he did not agree that there were any chances of the Taliban forming the next government in Kabul. However, he did say that there were conditions if they wanted a future political role.
“If the adversaries are willing to become part of the political fabric of Afghanistan and they are prepared to play a legitimate role, abide by the Constitution and recognise the Kabul government. What do the Taliban make of Afghanistan? It was a desert (during their last government). “Are they ready to rebuild?”
To several queries regarding the role of India in the region, Gates said that the last thing he wanted to avoid was another Mumbai-like attack. “We all have common enemies and in the past year they tried to destabilise Pakistan itself. We have regional problems that need regional cooperation,” he said.
He said the US was ready to play a constructive role between India and Pakistan and was well prepared. “In 1990 then President Bush sent me to the region and we made suggestions. Both parties do not want intervention and we are comfortable with that,” he said.
When told that with Kashmir unresolved, now more issues, like India’s role in Afghanistan, were leading to confrontation, Gates replied, “Al-Qaeda does not care about Kashmir. Kashmir is an issue for both sides.”
He said he was unaware that at the forthcoming London conference, a formal role would be offered to India. But he acknowledged that India had significant development programmes. Calling al-Qaeda a cancer, Gates did not mince his words when he said: “They are all bad”. Refusing to distinguish between the Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and the various Lashkars, he said it would be a mistake to look at them individually.

CIA Hosts Drink and Dance Party For Pakistani Journalists at US Embassy Islamabad

CIA Public Relations at work? Do you expect this “Pakistani media” would tell you the truth and serves the interests of Islam and Pakistan? If you still believe that then may Allah help you and show you the righteous path before its too late for all of us.

11 Clear Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Headed Into The Toilet

From:www.appkilab.com
The vast majority of the talking heads on television are still speaking of the current economic collapse as if it is a temporary "recession" that will soon be over. So far, the vast majority of the American people seem to believe this as well, although for many Americans there is a very deep gnawing in the pit of their stomachs that is telling them that there is something very, very wrong this time around. The truth is that the foundations of the U.S. economy have been destroyed by an orgy of government, corporate and individual debt that has gone on for decades. It was the greatest party in the history of the world, but now the party is over. The following are 11 signs from just this past month that show that the U.S. economy is headed into the toilet and will not be recovering....

#1) When even Wal-Mart is closing stores you know things are bad. Wal-Mart announced on Monday that it will close 10 money-losing Sam's Club stores and will cut 1,500 jobs in order to reduce costs. So if even Wal-Mart has to shut down stores, what chance do other retailers have?

#2) Americans are going broke at a staggering pace. 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#3) American workers are working harder than ever and yet making less. After adjusting for inflation, pay for production and non-supervisory workers (80 percent of the private workforce) is 9% lower than it was in 1973. But those Americans who do still have jobs are the fortunate ones.

#4) Unemployment is absolutely exploding all over the United States. Minority groups have been hit particularly hard. For example, unemployment on many U.S. Indian reservations is over 80 percent.

#5) Unfortunately the employment situation is showing no signs of turning around. December was actually the worst month for U.S. unemployment since the so-called "Great Recession" began.

#6) So just how bad are things when compared to past recessions? During the 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them back. This time the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs will stop any time soon.

#7) Can you imagine trying to get your first job in this economic climate? Our young men and women either can't get work or have given up on work altogether. The percentage of Americans 16 to 24 who have jobs is 13 percent lower than ten years ago.

#8) So where did all the jobs go? Over the past few decades we have allowed the corporate giants to ship mountains of American jobs overseas, and there are signs that this trend is only going to get worse. In fact, Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades. So get ready for even more of our jobs to be shipped off to Mexico, China and India.

#9) All of these job losses are leading to defaults on mortgages. Over the past couple of years we have seen the American Dream in reverse. According to a report that was just released, delinquent home loans at government-controlled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged 20 percent from July through September.

#10) But that is nothing compared to what is coming. A massive "second wave" of mortgage defaults is getting ready to hit the U.S. economy starting in 2010. In fact, this "second wave" is so frightening that even 60 Minutes is reporting on it.

#11) Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has announced that it made a record profit of $46.1 billion in 2009. Apparently during this economic crisis it is a very good time to be a bankster.

From: www.appkilab.com

U.S. Wars and the Opium Trade

When Turkey in the late 1940s became a site of NATO and US forces its rank became cemented as the number one supplier of opium to the heroin markets of the US and Europe. This illegal opium market was primarily centered in Europe, where the final processing into heroin was done before going on to the market for the rest of the world. Its profits were therefore also made largely by Europeans. In 1968 research ordered by the Nixon Administration revealed that this Turkish opium crop supplied 80% of the opium destined to become heroin for the illegal markets of Europe and the US .

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan. 
The Nixon Administration, claiming a threat to the security of the Nation by this situation in the newly proclaimed “war on drugs”, began a multi-pronged effort to limit the amount of opium produced in Turkey from reaching the United States. (2) The foremost of these (and actually the only one that produced even a modicum of success) was a program to buy the crop from the farmers in Turkey (where they still grow it to this day) at outlandish figures that increased by the year, eventually reaching over $25 per kilogram the US taxpayer was forced to spend in an attempt to buy up the entire opium crop of Turkey. This decision was made, all the while seeming to ignore the fact that the illegal channels could pay even $100 a kilogram and it wouldn’t affect the price of a $5 New York City addict’s dose by any more than 1c.(3) It also ignored the fact that the crop can be grown virtually anywhere in the world, that when the entire crop in Turkey was then bought (at inflated prices and at the expense of taxpayers) that it would then leave the entire rest of the world to take its place. But by then Turkey’s prominence as the number one supplier of opium to be manufactured into heroin for US demand had already begun to get competition from South East Asia during the Vietnam War, a market which in turn receded after the US pulled out of Vietnam.

Now, most average, right-thinking Americans might think that the Nixon Administration’s goal in this effort was to raise the price of a dose of heroin by 1c, thereby making heroin addicts in the US finally realize that its just not worth it anymore. But in any case, that was not the effect. The effect was to hand a monopoly to the new opium market (now suddenly much cheaper!) that had been created as US military involvement in Vietnam ramped up. That was the effect, I’ll let you decide what the goal was.

The opium bound for the US heroin market in S.E. Asia was produced primarily in Laos, flown on the CIA’s Air America to Vietnam, where it was converted into heroin then smuggled into the States by US military couriers.(4)(5)

Now starting in 2002, its Afghanistan. And it has always been a part of the culture there to grow opium poppies, as is true of Turkey, where over 100,000 farmers grow it today legally.(6) However, the Taliban had all but wiped the crop out in Afghanistan in short order after they came to power until… the “war” in Afghanistan began. The year after the beginning of the occupation, (by both UN and US estimates) an over 3000% increase in the production of opium occurred over the Taliban days.(7) As it remains to this day. This opium crop, which as the US Military admits, soldiers now stand guard over… supplies 92% of the illegally produced opium in the world supplying the majority of the heroin for both the United States and Europe. Somehow yet again, a monopoly has been created.

The $39 billion that the US has spent in Afghanistan (allegedly) for reconstruction since 2002 must have gone into reconstructing the $65 billion a year opium industry. When you look at the size of the country, the number of people that live there and how desperately poor almost all of are you might tend to think that some of that money is being diverted elsewhere. Now, the corporate controlled media (if they were forced into talking about it, that is) would have you believe that all that money is being diverted to the people dressed in rags working the poppy fields. The same ones that have their schools and weddings blown up in drone attacks.

As for myself, I tend to think it might be getting diverted by the people that are entrusted to hand that money out and administrate the country. The same ones that guard over the opium fields…
Its just a hunch.

                                           Afghanistan opium poppy cultivation, 1994-2007 (hectares).

1) Moynihan, Daniel P. (Assistant to the President) ‘Memorandum for Honorable John N. Mitchell, Attorney General’ (18 September 1969); in: Foreign Relations.

2) “The President is convinced that the problem of narcotics addiction in the U.S. has reached proportions constituting a threat to our national stability.” Henry A. Kissinger, ‘Memo: Study of Means to Stop International Traffic in Heroin(Sept 29, 1969): in Foreign Relations

3) Licit and Illicit Drugs Consumers Union ISBN 0-316-15340-0

4) Special Study Mission June ,1971 United States House of Representatives Special Study Mission June ,1971

5) Alfred McCoy The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (Harper and Row, 1972)

6) http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2008-07-01-voa18-66756627.html?moddate=2008-07-01

7) Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) (PDF). Annual Opium Poppy Survey 2001. http://www.unodc.org/afg/reports_surveys.html

Nuclear Weapons Used On Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza Have Worldwide Effects

UK, December 12, 2009, (Pal Telegraph) – We have seen the terrible consequences to human life and the environment that has been caused by weapons that contain uranium components. Genetically speaking the US and UK have destroyed the DNA of the Iraqi people as well as causing catastrophic effects on the environment.

Presidents and Prime Ministers really have a lot to answer for when they started the wars in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and now Pakistan. We are now seeing their continued aggression and intimidation against Iran and North Korea and one wonders that they have up their sleeve.

What we the public do not understand is that these very acts alone and the weapons being used are creating a mass genocide of millions of people around the world. It has become the most evil act imaginable against humankind.


Let’s just take a moment and see what is really going on as a direct result of US manufactured weapons and how these weapons have or still are being used by US, UK, NATO countries and the IDF in the above areas of conflict. Should however, this extend to Iran, then we are about to see the catastrophic contamination of the entire Middle East within one week and the rest of the world within two weeks or more…subject to prevailing winds and weather systems. When the reporter threw his shoe at GW Bush he certainly was speaking for all the people of the Middle East.
Iraq and Afghanistan are at the centre of this evil act and therefore I will try to explain the complexity of the contamination/pollution that has already taken place and that will continue to take place both locally and beyond.

We can first look at one of the most important river systems in the world that of the Himalayas and what such contamination can do that has and will affect millions of people and their livelihood. The Himalayas lies directly under the main downwind air flow path from Afghanistan and to some extent from Iraq. The usage of weapons containing uranium components has been much more intense in Afghanistan than in Iraq. The main onslaught started with carpet bombing of the Tora Bora Mountains up in the north west of Afghanistan and the extensive use of such weapons continues to this day as well as across the border in Pakistan. The initial impact is a dramatic rise in Cancers, Diabetes, Brain disorders, Infertility, Still Birth and gross birth defects. This is now showing up in statistics in places such as the Punjab but what happens further afield.

The Himalayas is the birthplace of many rivers for South East Asia and therefore the water catchment area for these magnificent rivers extends from the Himalayas all the way down into the Indian Continent, China, Indo China Peninsula and the Far East. The Himalayas gives birth to the following rivers:: Indus, Sutlej, Chenab, Beas, Ravi, Jhelum, Spiti, Ganga (Ganges), Ghaghara,Yamuna and Brahmaputra on the Indian side and over the border in China we have the following rivers Tarim, (which is the longest inland river of China), Haung (Yellow River), Yangtze, Wu River, Hongshui and many other tributaries. To the southeast we have the Mighty Mekong, Red River, Salween, Chindwin and the Irrawaddy. To the west over in Afghanistan itself we have the Helmand and the Hari Rud rivers. To the northwest we have the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers. One could go on forever with other tributaries but these are the main lifeline rivers of many countries.

So many lives depend on these river systems that the economies of emerging Asia could be ravaged and there could be immense contamination leading to many thousands if not millions of deaths, social upheaval, including the loss of food security and employment. About 450 million people draw water, food and electricity supplies from the Yangtze alone, while many more use it for transportation.

The Mekong River basin supports 60 million people, including parts of China, Myanmar and Vietnam, nearly one-third of Thailand and most of Cambodia and Laos. It supplies two of the world’s most important rice bowls, central Thailand and the delta region of southern Vietnam.

In India, the Ganges Plain comprises one-third of the country’s land area and 120 million people rely on its waters for fishing and farming. Tens of millions live on tributaries of the Ganges in Bangladesh. As habitats are progressively destroyed, the ecological toll would mount and be irreversible. So that is the big picture, rather gloomy isn’t it?

So who is responsible for this genocide of epic proportions? As you have already guessed it is the manufacturers, exporters and users of most of these weapons, mainly the USA and its associated allies the UK, NATO countries and Israel.

Let’s look now as to how this happens by showing you a typical wind flow chart for the region. This chart is based on aviation flight planning data for a given day and shows the wind patterns at low – medium – high levels. It clearly reveals that the problem does not stop at the Himalayas but rather continues on its journey around the world. If we take depleted uranium as one example, the highly toxic/radioactive aerosols (nanoparticles) can reach the UK within one week and cover most of the planet within two weeks (even shorter if they hitch a ride on a jet stream).

On this particular example we can see that if weapons were used containing uranium components in either Gaza, Iraq or Afghanistan (which is more than likely) we would see the uranium laced aerosols travel to all corners of the globe. However, in this particular example the main concentration would head east passing over the northern areas of Pakistan and India, over the Himalayas, over China and then on this particular day would enter a very complex low pressure system over Japan where it would be rained out of the atmosphere into the soil, crops and water systems of Japan putting that nations residents at risk. Whilst in transit it can be inhaled, adsorbed or ingested by millions of people who live below its path.

We have seen the health results of these terrible weapons in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and now Pakistan. Because these contaminated nanoparticles do not recognize international border and are totally indiscriminate it also means that the US, UK, NATO and IDF forces, that use these weapons, are also at grave risk. What was even more remarkable was that when the Israeli military used these weapons in Lebanon (2006) and on Gaza in 2008/9 they did in actual fact “Nuke” themselves with dramatic rises in Cancers, Diabetes and Infertility etc.

I find it incredible that Obama has now received his Nobel Peace Prize for his continued war effort in Afghanistan and for sending thousands of extra troops into battle. This war, just like the Iraqi war, has nothing to do with democracy but all to do with economic greed for oil and for clearing the way for the TAPI pipeline.

Is Obama Really Preparing For Civil War?

According to an obscure report in the European Union Times (EUTimes.net), “Russian Military Analysts are reporting to Prime Minister Putin that US President Barack Obama has issued an order to his Northern Command’s (USNORTHCOM) top leader, US Air Force General Gene Renuart, to ‘begin immediately’ increasing his military forces to 1 million troops by January 30, 2010, in what these reports warn is an expected outbreak of civil war within the United States before the end of winter.“According to these reports, Obama has had over these past weeks ‘numerous’ meetings with his war council abut how best to manage the expected implosion of his Nation’s banking system while at the same time attempting to keep the United States military hegemony over the World in what Russian Military Analysts state is a ‘last ditch gambit’ whose success is ‘far from certain.’”

The EU Times article continues by saying, “To the fears of Obama over the United States erupting into civil war once the full extent of the rape and pillaging of these peoples by their banks and government becomes known to them, grim evidence now shows the likelihood of this occurring much sooner than later.”

The Times story goes on to say that there are “over 220 million American people armed to the teeth and ready to explode.”

The Times article concludes by saying, “Though the coming civil war in the United States is being virtually ignored by their propaganda media, the same cannot be said of Russia, where leading Russian political analyst, Professor Igor Panarin has long warned that the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the US is heading for collapse.”

Many of us would be inclined to pooh-pooh such a story, but then there is this column from Bloomberg.com entitled “Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public,” written by Alice Schroeder. According to Ms Schroeder:

“‘I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,’ said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.”

There is no doubt that the American people have good reason to despise these international banksters epitomized by Goldman Sachs. Even one of Goldman’s poster-boys, Henry Paulson, US Treasury secretary and former Goldman CEO, admitted that the American people were fed up. Schroeder quotes Paulson as saying, during testimony to Congress last summer, “[People] were unhappy with the big discrepancies in wealth, but they at least believed in the system and in some form of market-driven capitalism. But if we had a complete meltdown, it could lead to people questioning the basis of the system.”

Schroeder correctly opines, “There you have it. The bailout was meant to keep the curtain drawn on the way the rich make money, not from the free market, but from the lack of one. Goldman Sachs blew its cover when the firm’s revenue from trading reached a record $27 billion in the first nine months of this year, and a public that was writhing in financial agony caught on that the profits earned on taxpayer capital were going to pay employee bonuses.”

Schroeder concludes her column by saying, “And if the proles [proletariat: plebs, working class, peasants] really do appear brandishing pitchforks at the doors of Park Avenue and the gates of Round Hill Road, you can be sure that the Goldman guys and their families will be holed up in their safe rooms with their firearms.”

So, do Wall Street and Russian analysts know something that we don’t know? Is this why George W. Bush initiated USNORTHCOM to begin with? Is this why Barack Obama is beefing up USNORTHCOM? This would help explain the reports of all those potential detention camps that have been constructed (including the abandoned military installations that have refurbished security fences, guard towers, etc., around them). Has the American people’s disgust with these crooks and thieves within the federal government and Wall Street reached a boiling point?

There is no question that people are angry, and for good reason.

The fraudulent financial policies of the Federal Reserve and its lackeys in the White House and Congress have literally bankrupted the country. Real unemployment is most likely over 20%. Taxes (along with costly fees, regulations, restrictions, penalties, mandates, etc.) at every level are going through the ceiling. America’s jobs have been outsourced. Barack Obama continues G.W. Bush’s irresponsibility, digging America deeper and deeper into foreign entanglements, at the cost of trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. The IRS continues to harass and harangue honest citizens, squeezing them like the proverbial turnip. And now, add the insanity of a global climate treaty being hammered out in Copenhagen, and a universal health care bill being rammed through Congress, and the outlook is even gloomier.

I feel very comfortable in saying that the usurpations of power, the encroachments upon liberty, and the arrogant tax-and-spend policies emanating from Washington, D.C., and Wall Street these days are far more egregious than what George Washington and the boys were enduring in 1775-76 at the hands of the British Crown. There is no doubt in my mind that if Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Sam Adams were alive today, they would have given cause for the Goldman Sachs banksters to retreat to their bunkers years ago!

The fact is, we do need a revolution! But not a revolution of anarchy and pitchforks. (The history of France should be ample evidence of the futility of this strategy.) We need a revolution of the individual states: to reclaim their sovereignty and fight for the liberties of their sovereigns (We the People). That is exactly what our forefathers did in ‘76.

America’s founding document (the Declaration of Independence) declares that our states are “free and independent.” And so they are. We are not “one nation” with one all-powerful central government. We are a confederation of nation-states, united in a voluntary union, with each State reserving to itself the power and authority of self-determination, and ceding to the federal government limited, specifically delineated duties and limitations–limitations that have been totally ignored to the point that, for all intents and purposes, our once-great constitutional republic has been thoroughly expunged. Therefore, it is NOW time for the states to stand up to this meddlesome, every-growing tyranny that is known as Washington, D.C., and defend the rights and liberties of their citizens!

What Dr. Ed Vieira (an attorney with 4 earned degrees from Harvard, who has successfully argued cases before the US Supreme Court) wrote a few weeks ago should serve as a template for every State governor and legislature that truly cares about liberty. See Ed’s column at:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwin201.htm

As Vieira says, the states should resurrect their militias. Many–if not all–states have the legal authority for such entities in their constitutions. In some states they are called the State Guard. Some plainly use the word “militia.” Whatever they are called, they need to be activated. And all that is necessary for this to be accomplished is the order of the governor. It’s that simple!

And as Vieira said, states need to adopt an alternative currency–including, and most especially, gold and silver. In other words, they need to develop their own private economies, complete with their own banks and exchange mediums. They also need to reject the multinational agribusiness and develop their own in-State agricultural and energy businesses.

I would dare say that the first State that determines to follow Vieira’s sagacious counsel (and rumblings of this have already begun in states such as Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, New Hampshire, Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, etc.) would have so many liberty-loving patriots flock there that its economy would explode with prosperity–resulting in a domino effect of many other states following suit–and the revolution that this country so desperately needs would indeed take place. Furthermore, such a revolution would be constitutional, lawful, moral, and, yes, in compliance with the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.

In the meantime, is Barack Obama really worried about civil war? He might be. It is my observation that Washington politicians and bureaucrats are the most paranoid people on the planet. The problem is–as with most power-hungry Machiavellians–their paranoia often translates into more oppression and less liberty for the citizenry. And if this is true, it simply means that the states need to hurry up and do what needs to be done!

Operation Enduring Turmoil"Black Water"

Pakistan has been labeled the most dangerous country in the world, (a safe haven for terrorists). The leaders of our country are eager to invade and the mainstream media is working tirelessly to create the fear that will allow them do so. The fact that only six corporations dominate our major media outlets, it’s obvious that our information sources serve the interests of the controlling. For that reason, I set out on a trip to Pakistan to find out what is actually going on in that country. What I discovered shocked me.

The first stop of my trip was Islamabad, Pakistan, the nation’s capital. Islamabad has been victim to many suicide attacks in recent years. Thousands of people have been murdered by the hands of the terrorists, aka Blackwater. Blackwater has been confirmed by former CIA officials to having over 3,000 operatives present throughout the country. Pakistan’s International News reported on the increasing suspicious movement of foreigners in Peshawar, Pakistan. A local resident stated, “What we have been hearing about the presence of Blackwater or other suspicious foreigners in Peshawar and Pakistan is alarming.” Investigative Journalist, Wayne Madsen, in a Russia Today interview stated, “I’ve been told by private military contract sources that a former British SAS officer is basically putting ads in local newspapers in Pakistan looking to rent compounds for this influx of private military contractors.” Madsen also talked about how three former Pakistani generals have been giving speeches, stating that private military contractors are present in Islamabad and Peshawar.

We all know about the ruthless killings of countless innocent civilians Blackwater is responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan. These murderers are loyal to nothing but a paycheck, and their presence in Pakistan has angered many. I set out to find where I can find these mercenaries, and what their agenda is in Pakistan. By talking to different independent media outlets I was able to locate the area which has been allotted to Blackwater mercenaries in Islamabad (In case you’re wondering, they stay in the F-7 region.) Now it’s not easy getting close to the area because security is extremely tight. Driving by was about as close as I could get.

However, talking to different people about Blackwater and their agenda opened a lot of doors for me. The US can’t invade Pakistan without a reason. Blackwater USA has been contracted to destabilize the country and pave a reason to invade. Along with Blackwater, intelligence agencies CIA, Mossad, and Raw have been reported to be working in Pakistan as well. Now you’re probably questioning, how would Blackwater and these agencies destabilize Pakistan? Well they are playing with the ‘terror’ card, like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who is really behind these suicide bombings that occur on a daily basis in Pakistan? In order to answer this, let’s look at the facts.

On September 20, 2008 a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing 54 and wounding 266. The media fed us the usual ‘terrorist attack’ story, like they did on 9/11. But according to a report by Tariq Butt of the Saudi Gazette, witnesses said that Marines unloaded a US embassy truckload of steel boxes and shifted them inside the Marriott Hotel on Wednesday, three days before the bombing. It was a high-security operation carried out with both the main gates of the hotel closed. Only the US Marines could approach the truck to unload the steel boxes and shift them inside the hotel. Hotel sources said the boxes were not passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the lobby and were shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott.

Incidents like the Marriott Hotel bombing occur on a daily basis in Pakistan. Circumstantial evidence proves the fact that Blackwater and other intelligence agencies are heavily involved in these bombings, and are using them to destabilize the country and create a scare by pointing the blame to the so called ‘extremists.’ Recently, Peshawar was victim to a devastating bomb blast in which 117 innocent Pakistani’s were killed. Local news agency NNI has reported that Hakimullah Mehsud, the Chief of the Pakistani- Pashtun Movement in Pakistan, has blamed Blackwater for the bomb blast. Mehsud claimed that “Blackwater are involved in attacks in public places to [maliciously] blame the militants.”

Blackwater and other intelligence agencies are playing their cards differently throughout the country. In some parts, including Islamabad, they created a war between the militants and the government. In others, however, we see a war between Shi’ites and Sunnis. This topic takes me to my next stop, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. This city has seen more bomb blasts than any other city in the country. Over 4,000 people have been killed in the last few years. As I entered the city I was in complete shock from what I saw. What was once a peaceful, growing city was now a chaotic police state. The military roamed the streets fully armed with machine guns and tanks. Soldiers with AK-47’s were stationed on every corner of the city. All schools and universities were shut down, and we were living under a curfew. I had to watch my back 24/7 with the worry that a bomb could explode, or someone, out of nowhere, would start shooting innocent people.

Most days, while reporting, people would tell me to go home and stay safe; there has been a bomb threat. I could sense the tension between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites everywhere I went. Many sources told me that a war was created between the two sects. What confused me was that Sunni’s and Shi’ites have lived in Pakistan for decades, and have never fought like this. Why have they begun to kill each other now? I spoke with Sunni and Shi’ite leaders, and both agreed that a third party is involved.

Immediately, I thought of Blackwater’s involvement in the Sunni/Shiite war in Iraq. I then spoke with local media outlets and party leaders about Blackwater, and like I had predicted, they confirmed their presence. Blackwater is out there buying and recruiting terrorists. According to locals I spoke with, Blackwater is recruiting by offering money to poverty stricken individuals for carrying out missions. These recruits are completely blind to what they will commit. For example, a paid recruit could be assigned to deliver a package, that package would then automatically detonate along the way, successfully completing the mission. I spoke with former members of the Taliban, and they said, “These bomb blasts are not the work of Muslims willingly killing themselves along with hundreds of brothers, sisters, and children. Pakistan has been stained with bloodshed by the hands of Blackwater, Mossad, CIA, and Raw.”

The reason we have not heard much about Blackwater in Pakistan, is because journalists in the country are being silenced for speaking out. A recent example of this is that of Dr. Shireen Mazari, a respected journalist for The News and a defense analyst. Two months back, Dr. Mazari’s weekly column was censored when she exposed the presence of Blackwater mercenaries in Pakistan. According to Crescent Online, US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, accused Dr. Mazari of spreading “wildly incorrect” information that had “compromised the security of Americans.” I spoke with a journalist (for security purposes, he wished to remain anonymous) in Islamabad, Pakistan, about why journalists are being silenced. He said, “Saying the word ‘Blackwater’ is a crime for journalists, there is no code of conduct, they’ll either kill you or your family, it’s that simple.” He told me how Blackwater has supreme authority in Pakistan, because of the corrupt government. The so called ‘democratic’ government of Pakistan has been sold to the interests of the New World Order. There is no law or order coming from Islamabad. The politicians, the media, and the military officials are puppets being pulled by President Obama and his handlers.

President Obama once said, “I have great respect for the Pakistani people.” Murdering over 800 reported innocent Pakistani men, women, and children Mr. President is not respect. The media jumped all over the fact that we successfully killed leading Taliban militant, Baitullah Mehsud, but barely touched on the hundreds murdered along the way. D.I. Khan is now home to many of the surviving refugees from Waziristan. I had the opportunity to speak with these individuals about their situation and feelings towards this heinous crime. Hamid Abdullah, a refugee barely surviving, lost his wife and children in the attacks. In his native tongue, Pashto, he said, “America has been ruthless to us, they have killed our families and we have nothing left, but our faith in Allah. Obama believes his plan will succeed, however, in the words of the Holy Qur’an, Although they plan, Allah also plans. And Allah is the Best of Planners.” Abdullah and others currently live in refugee camps whose conditions are the worst of the worst.

What is the real reason behind this agenda to deteriorate Pakistan? In order to put the puzzle pieces together, let’s start by looking at what the media and our leaders are feeding us. To start off, PNAC signer, Richard Holbrooke, has urged the absolute necessity for passing the Kerry-Lugar bill, the 5 year $1.5 billion aid package given to Pakistan to help fight the so called “war on terror”. Furthermore, an article from the Huffington Post, reports that advisors to President Obama’s administration say their worst security nightmare is the possibility that Pakistan — a nuclear-armed country — might fall under the control of Al-Qaeda militants. Lastly, PNAC contributor Henry Sokolski, in an article, implies that Pakistani-Chinese relations pose a threat to the world, and that something must be done to suppress it. Further investigating these assumptions reveals a far larger picture from what they are showing us.

The Kerry-Lugar bill drafted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry and ranking Republican Richard Lugar, authorizes a grant of $1.5 billion annually for 5 years. The bill explicitly and falsely states that “Pakistan has been a nuclear proliferator; and that parts of its territories are safe havens for terrorist networks.” The bill gives President Obama the power to “develop a comprehensive interagency regional security strategy to eliminate terrorist threats and close safe havens in Pakistan, by working with the government of Pakistan — to best implement effective counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts in and near the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including the FATA, the NWFP, parts of Balochistan and parts of Punjab.” In other words, the President of the United States’ power has now been extended to the different provinces of Pakistan. He may now make decisions for not only the US, but also for the sovereign state of Pakistan. The Kerry-Lugar bill will successfully end Pakistan’s sovereignty. The people are very angered by it, in fact it is known in Pakistan as the “document of surrender.”

Pakistan is one of the few sovereign nations with nuclear power and it has been increasingly evident that the globalists wish to suppress it. The media has created this false scare among the American public that the so called “terrorists” are living freely in Pakistan, and they will overthrow the deteriorating government and establish Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism. So therefore, America must invade Pakistan, and stabilize the situation, before the ‘terrorists’ get their hands on the nuclear weapons. An example of this would be Fredrick W. Kagen’s article for the New York Times, he writes, “As the government of Pakistan totters, we must face a fact: The United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss.” The fact of the matter is, Pakistan is suffering the effects of a U.S. led war. Why invade a sovereign country that has neither threatened nor attacked the United States?

The next threat to the agenda for the New World Order lies behind the growth of Pakistani and Chinese relations. In order for China to sustain its status as the emerging economic superpower, it must take all the necessary steps required in order to have sufficient energy resources for the near future. According to Pakistani think tank, BrassTacks, Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean became visible in 2002, when they invested heavily and began work on the Gwadar Port, located in Baluchestan, a province of Pakistan. The Gwadar Port has its benefits for both Pakistan and China. According to Abdus Sattar Ghazali, executive editor for American Muslim Perspective, “The cost benefits to China of using Gwadar as the port for western China’s imports and exports are as evident as the long-term economic benefits to Pakistan of Gwadar becoming a port for Chinese goods.” Not only does Gwadar enable China to fulfill its energy needs, but it will also provide a strategic military footprint in the Arabian Sea, which has the United States worried.

In order to halt this, the globalists need to block China’s access to the Arabian Sea by way of Gwadar. According to BrassTacks, to do this, “there needs to be a ‘new Pakistan’ as indicated in Operation Enduring Turmoil.” Operation Enduring Turmoil is PNAC’s plan to disassemble Pakistan into three parts. According to a “game plan” drawn out by Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, in a 2006 article of the Armed Forces Journal, “Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren [and] would also lose its Baluch territory to Free Baluchistan. The remaining ‘natural’ Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.” With this done, what was once the NWFP, a province of Pakistan, is now part of Afghanistan, and what was once Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan, is now its own state, Free Baluchistan. This would force China to impossibly go through Afghanistan and Free Baluchistan in order to reach the Arabian Sea. Such an arrangement would cut China’s route to the Arabian Sea. See the map below for a detailed summary of the plan.

Pakistan has become a product of the New World Order. The agenda has been outlined, and is in effect as we speak. The country has been invaded from all ends and the people have been silenced. My trip to Pakistan answered so many questions I had about the region. Seeing the destruction of Pakistan with my own eyes really blew me away. I realize that after Pakistan, they will move along to another region and continue their plan for a New World Order. What we see happen in these countries will very well happen here in America, some of which we have already seen. The destruction of these countries are not only accomplishing an agenda, but are also being used as testing grounds. We need to get out there and expose the New World Order agenda before it is too late. I hope my report answered questions that you might have had, and gave you a broader scope on what is actually going on in Pakistan. Keep fighting the New World Order and may god be with us all.

By: Saad Ali from pakalert

Blackwater Secret War in Pakistan

Blackwater Secret War in Pakistan

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so “compartmentalized” that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, “We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature.” A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. “We don’t have any contracts to do that work for us. We don’t contract that kind of work out, period,” the official said. “There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services.” The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. “This is a parallel operation to the CIA,” said the source. “They are two separate beasts.” The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war–knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country. Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies the company is operating in Pakistan. “Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government,” Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has “no other operations of any kind in Pakistan.”

A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source’s claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater’s covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, “From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct,” adding, “There’s no question that’s occurring.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me because we’ve outsourced nearly everything,” said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater’s role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater’s involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. “Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don’t have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it’s that simple. It would not surprise me.”
The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi
The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan is “not really visible, and that’s why nobody has cracked down on it,” said the source. Blackwater’s operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. “It’s Blackwater via JSOC, and it’s a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis.” The main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations center. “It’s a very rudimentary operation,” says the source. “I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It’s very bare bones, and that’s the point.”

Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA’s counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a “media-scouring/open-source network,” according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive. “They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them,” he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.

The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater’s classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, “The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you’re doing is really one military guy to another.” Blackwater’s first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified “black” operations. “With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above ’secret’–even though you have no business doing so,” said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that “do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust,” he added. “Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That’s exactly what it is: a circle of love.” Blackwater, therefore, has access to “all source” reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. “That’s how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors,” said the source. “We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don’t unless they ask.”

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have “conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up,” he said, adding, “They have a sizable force in Pakistan–not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way–but to support a legitimate contract that’s classified for JSOC.” Blackwater’s Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT “was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it.” Some of the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers. “Nobody even gives them a second thought.”

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as “Qatar cubed,” in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. “This is supposed to be the brave new world,” he says. “This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it’s meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It’s strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don’t have to deal with that because they’re operating under a classified mandate.”

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. “That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don’t know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan,” he said. “So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?”
Pakistan’s Military Contracting Maze
Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. “The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets,” he said. “It’s not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people.” Instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives who work for the State Department, which he calls “Blackwater Vanilla,” and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program. “Good or bad, there’s a small number of people who know how to pull off an operation like that. That’s probably a good thing,” said the source. “It’s the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these types of operations because they’re the only people that know how and they went where the money was. It’s not trigger-happy fucks, like some of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill innocent civilians. They’re very good at what they do.”

The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said, “that’s not entirely accurate.” While he concurred with the military intelligence source’s description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive, Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral’s main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries.

A spokesperson for the US State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral. “We cannot help you,” said department spokesperson David McKeeby after checking with the relevant DDTC officials. “You’ll have to contact the companies directly.” Blackwater’s Corallo said the company has “no operations of any kind” in Pakistan other than the one employee working for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The Nation.

According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues “regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States.” Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas $15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues.

For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. “Ali and Erik have a pretty close relationship,” he said. “They’ve met many times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one another.” Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan.

According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also integrate with Kestral’s forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with the Pakistani Interior Ministry’s paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as “frontier scouts”). The Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater “is providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations] and Kestral’s folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they’re having the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go out with the teams when they’re executing the job,” he said. “You can see how that can lead to other things in the border areas.” He said that when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. “You’ve got BW guys that are assisting… and they’re all going to want to go on the jobs–so they’re going to go with them,” he said. “So, the things that you’re seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came in and raided this house or did this or did that–in some of those cases, you’re going to have Western folks that are right there at the house, if not in the house.” Blackwater, he said, is paid by the Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. “That gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, ‘Hey, no, we don’t have any Westerners doing this. It’s all local and our people are doing it.’ But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work.”

The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the Frontier Corps, saying, “There’s no real oversight. It’s not really on people’s radar screen.”

In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the weapons were being used by “a private American security contractor.” The statement said, “Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also certified the shipments.”
Who is Behind the Drone Attacks?
Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works for the CIA at “hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft.” In February, The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. “Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it’s JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes.” The Pentagon has stated bluntly, “There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan.”

The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan, as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that Blackwater is working on JSOC’s drone bombings as well. “It’s Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC,” said the source. When civilians are killed, “people go, ‘Oh, it’s the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked.’ Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that’s JSOC [hitting] somebody they’ve identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they’ve culled the intelligence themselves or it’s been shared with them and they take that person out and that’s how it works.”

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. “Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that,” he says. “Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don’t care. If there’s one person they’re going after and there’s thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That’s the mentality.” He added, “They’re not accountable to anybody and they know that. It’s an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?”

In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes, Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military intelligence source.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the norms of international relations. “The immediate question is, How do you define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?” asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. “Let’s forget Blackwater for a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military operations in Pakistan that aren’t about logistics or getting food to Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence, physical force inside of Pakistani territory.”

By pakalert