Circling the Drain » military

Discussion of Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan

Klaus — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:57:42 +0000

Jeremy Scahill on GritTV

Ever wonder why Pakistanis fear the US more than they fear the Taliban? In this appearance on GRITtv, Jeremy Scahill provides some good reasons why they might, and why you should too:

Beginning almost immediately after September 11th, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld essential segregated JSOC (about JSOC) from the rest of the military. And the idea there was that they were going to create a sort of stand-alone military force that would reply directly to the administration rather than the military chain of command. So essentially JSOC has an open classified mandate where they can take people — snatch then, they can carry out targeted assassination, and they also run their own bombing campaign inside of Pakistan, I’m told, that runs parallel to the CIA’s. And one of the reasons why this is significant is that all of the actions of the CIA have to be briefed to the so-called “Gang of Eight” — in the intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein and others — and these operations, I’m told, are not being briefed to the Congress.

In other words, while the United States States trumpets the rule of law, it is by and large a country that routinely circumvents any pesky law that stands in the way of profit, subjugation, or imperialism. (The scary thing is that, where Blackwater are concerned, the US military may actually agree with my sentiments.)

Jeremy Scahill has his own blog, and is an active twitterer.

(via YouTube)

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Bush Legalizes Martial Law

Klaus — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:42:39 +0000

Signed on October 17th, Public Law 109-364 (H.R.5122) allows the President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere in America, and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress public disorder.”

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Beginning of the End of America

Klaus — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:31:58 +0000

Keith Olbermann identifies the beginning of the end of America

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Semper Fucked

Klaus — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 05:23:39 +0000

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate groups have been infiltrating the US military. But isn’t this splitting hairs? I mean, I’m sure that not every bright-eyed, camo-wearing jingo enlisted specifically to rape the poor–no one can deny that the job has its perks.

But it doesn’t require much of an imagination to realize that anyone seeking to bear arms in these times has a charred little hate cinder somewhere beneath their flag tattoo.

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