US ignored Afghan drugs now financing Taliban

"To fight a Taliban insurgency flush with drug money for recruits and weapons, the Bush administration recognizes that it must also combat the drug trafficking it had largely ignored for years. But plans to clear poppy fields and pursue major drug figures have been frustrated by corruption in the Afghan government, and derided by critics as belated half-measures or missteps not likely to have much impact.
. . . The State Department and Pentagon repeatedly clashed over drug policy, according to current and former officials who were interviewed. Pentagon leaders refused to bomb drug laboratories and often balked at helping other agencies and the Afghan government destroy poppy fields, disrupt opium shipments or capture major traffickers, the officials say.
And the C.I.A. and military turned a blind eye to drug-related activities by prominent warlords or political figures they had installed in power, Afghan and American officials say.
. . . Administration officials say they had believed they could eliminate the insurgency first, then tackle the drug trade. “Now people recognize that it’s all related, and it’s one issue,” said Thomas Schweich, the State Department’s coordinator for counternarcotics in Afghanistan."

source
Risen, James. (The New York Times). Poppy Fields Are Now a Front Line in Afghan War. May 16, 2007.

posted: friday, may 18, 2007, 6:11 PM ET

tags: afghanistan drug

Security contractor laws not enforced, Blackwater president says

"Actually, there are quite a few federal laws that regulate [private security] contractors. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) creates jurisdiction for federal court trials, and the wrongdoing itself is covered under statutes like the War Crimes Act, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, the Anti-Torture Statute, the Defense Base Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and a whole raft of other domestic regulations, not to mention international prohibitions. The issue has never been about regulation; rather, it has always been about a lack of enforcement.
. . . Author Jeremy Scahill has called Blackwater’s founder a “Christian supremacist” and has claimed that he has created, 'a private army to defend Christendom around the world against secularists.'
. . . [Blackwater founder and CEO Erik] Prince is a practicing Roman Catholic and I assure you is no radical. His views, which others have inflated to serve their own agendas, are his own and he makes no effort to force them on anyone at Blackwater." [1]

"In his new best-selling book, 'Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army' (Nation), the writer Jeremy Scahill describes the company as the private and secretive Praetorian Guard of the Bush administration. He has called Blackwater, 'one of the greatest beneficiaries of the ‘war on terror,’ ' profiting from lucrative contracts with the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, and deploying battalions of secret soldiers in nine countries, notably Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater USA since October 2001, keeps a decidedly low profile, but he recently granted an interview to the author R. J. Hillhouse, who runs an unusual blog on security and intelligence called The Spy Who Billed Me. She is both skeptical and sympathetic toward private military contractors, which are dominated by companies like Blackwater, and often run by special-operations veterans like Mr. Jackson and retired C.I.A. officers." [2]

sources
[1] Hillhouse, R.J. (The Spy Who Billed Me). Exclusive Interview: Blackwater USA's President Gary Jackson. April 26, 2007.
[2] Weiner, Tim. (The New York Times). A Security Contractor Defends His Team, Which, He Says, Is Not a Private Army. April 29, 2007.

posted: tuesday, may 1, 2007, 4:04 PM ET

tags: iraq contractor blackwater gary jackson

Alt intel briefing leading up to Iraq invasion questioned

"Senate Democrats and Republicans disagreed yesterday over the meaning and importance of a Defense Department inspector general's conclusion that a Pentagon policy office produced and gave senior policymakers 'alternative intelligence assessments on Iraq and Al Qaida relations' that were 'inconsistent' with the intelligence community's consensus view in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Acting Defense Department Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had no evidence that the Pentagon activities were illegal and said they were authorized by then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz.
. . . Democratic senators used Gimble's report and testimony to bolster their contention that the administration misused intelligence to promote the urgency of invading Iraq. Republicans implied that the intelligence community had soft-pedaled crucial reports of a close al-Qaeda relationship with Saddam Hussein and that [former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas J.] Feith's office had put them in the proper perspective."

source
Pincus, Walter & DeYoung, Karen. (The Washington Post). Senators Debate Significance of Pentagon Report On Intelligence. February 10, 2007.

posted: sunday, february 11, 2007, 11:25 AM ET

tags: iraq feith thomas gimbel

America should help Hezbollah be part of Lebanese government

"Last month the White House issued an official statement citing 'attempts by Syria, Iran, and their allies within Lebanon to foment instability and violence' and insisting the United States would 'continue its efforts with allied nations and democratic forces in Lebanon to resist these efforts.' In other words, we’re still trying to rile Lebanese sentiment as a wedge against our enemies in the region.
A far more genuine American commitment to Lebanon would focus on helping the parties to come up with a reasonable formula to redress the under-representation of Shiites in the power structure while getting greater government control over Hezbollah’s war-making capacity.
Make no mistake: Hezbollah is no friend to America. As a former United States intelligence officer, I know there are a few accounts yet to be settled with that organization. But Washington will never achieve its objectives in the Middle East — including its obligation to ensure Israel’s long-term security — unless it puts emotions aside and deals realistically with facts on the ground. Like it or not, Hezbollah is one of those facts. A less-than-pliable but strong government in Lebanon would be far preferable to no real government at all, which is what we have now."

Op-ed by Robert Grenier, former director of the CIA's counterintelligence center.

source
The New York Times. If You Love Lebanon, Set It Free. December 17, 2006.

song: There's no ceasefire in Lebanon, baby

posted: tuesday, december 19, 2006, 11:08 AM ET

lebanon manipulation America cia song

Better intelligence needed on insurgency and militias, says Iraq Study Group / Some insurgents want contact

"The Iraq Study Group's "final report harshly criticized United States intelligence officials for failing to answer basic questions about the nature of the Sunni insurgency or the increasingly powerful Shiite militias, both of which pose grave threats to American forces.
The intelligence community has had some success hunting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the report found, but that terrorist organization is small and is not the main enemy confronting American troops.
. . . The study group’s findings echo complaints quietly voiced in recent months by a number of current and former American officials, who have warned of the failure by American intelligence officers in Iraq to adequately penetrate the Sunni insurgency. These officials say the level of violence in Baghdad makes it extremely difficult for American intelligence officers to move around the country to gather information, and as a result they rely far too heavily on Iraqis who come to them in the Green Zone or to other major American bases, and on information from the intelligence service of the new Iraqi government.
That leaves the Central Intelligence Agency and American military intelligence vulnerable to manipulation by Iraqis who feed the Americans disinformation because they have an ax to grind or simply as a way to make money by selling information to the United States." [1]

"To arrest the slide to civil war, international mediators must negotiate directly with the elements of the Sunni insurgency (secular nationalists and more tactical Islamists) that have been seeking talks with the United States for three years." [2]

"Iraq's ambassador to Jordan, Saad al-Hayani, says that meetings have taken place in the Iraqi Embassy here between US representatives and members of the resistance in the past few months, as well as between Iraqis who have accepted and rejected the political process under US occupation, some of whom were directly involved with the insurgency.
. . . Moayed Abu Subieh, a Jordanian journalist who has written about such meetings, says that for the majority of those fighting, their foremost demand remains US withdrawal. Previously, insurgent groups had called for a timetable for withdrawal as a condition for laying down arms, but that demand appears to have solidified into a call for immediate withdrawal.
Mr. Abu Subieh, who writes for Al-Ghad, says that he has knowledge that talks have occurred between US officials and members of the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up mostly of members of Mr. Hussein's former military and has been claiming responsibility for attacks on US troops since 2003.
. . . Others, however, say that such meetings are of little significance. "As far as we know, America has not spoken with any of the really active resistance," says Bashar al-Faili, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), a Sunni political group." [3]

source
[1] The New York Times. Sunni and Shiite Insurgents Remain Mystery to U.S., Iraq Report Charges. December 11, 2006.
[2] The New York Times. Close the Bases. December 10, 2006. (Larry Diamond).
[3] The Christian Science Monitor. Quiet US bid to talk to Iraqi insurgents. December 07, 2006.

posting: thursday, december 14, 2006, 3:18 PM ET
update: monday, december 25, 2006, 7:03 PM ET