Military Industrial Complex

Wars sending U.S. into ruin
Obama the peace president is fighting battles his country cannot afford
By Eric Margolis, QMI Agency | Toronto Sun

U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health.

In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt.

More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks.

Washington’s deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion US this year. The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, to which the U.S. already owes $1.5 trillion. Debt service will cost $250 billion.

To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.

Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military “contractors” (mercenaries and workers); and veterans’ costs. Add $75 billion (nearly four times Canada’s total defence budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees.

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan “surge” of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion — more than Germany’s total defence budget.

No wonder U.S. defence stocks rose after Peace Laureate Obama’s “austerity” budget. Read more.

The Sword and The Shield
By Bruce Gagnon | Organizing Notes

So the strategy is clear. Surround Russia and China with mobile "missile defense" systems whose job is to take out their retaliatory capability after a U.S. first-strike against their nuclear weapons. Russia and China then build counter-measures to the U.S. missile defense systems and then the Pentagon in return counters with the new "global strike" systems that are today under development.

All this means one thing - an extended arms race with Russia and China which will mean huge profits for the weapons industry and the very likely reality that no effective arms control treaties will be negotiated during this administration. Why would Russia and China negotiate to seriously reduce their nuclear arsenals when the U.S. is surrounding them with missile defense and building new global strike systems?

The latest word is that Romania will be hosting the U.S. Army's ground-based "missile defense" systems. Russia is not pleased with these developments.

News that the U.S. is also about to deploy a PAC-3 missile battery in Poland led Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, to recently state: "Do they really think that we will calmly watch the location of a rocket system, at a distance of 60 km from Kaliningrad?"

The deployment of SM-3, with several times the reach of the Patriot, on land and sea (the SM-3 will soon be converted to be deployed on land like the PAC-3) in the same Baltic Sea neighborhood will only makes matters more dangerous.

These same Army Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) systems are going to be deployed in Taiwan as the U.S. continues its military encirclement of China. U.S. PAC-3 systems have already been deployed in Japan and South Korea.

The Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), now deployed in the Persian Gulf and soon to be permanently based on Navy Aegis destroyers in the Baltic, South China, Mediterranean and Black Seas, has a range of 500 kilometers but can be enhanced for longer distances. The latest word is that Romania will be hosting the U.S. Army's ground-based "missile defense" systems. Russia is not pleased with these developments. Read more.

"Brownbaggers Not Teabaggers!" | Press Release
Vigils Against War Funding Spread Across Nation

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) organized "brownbag" lunch vigils against war funding at noon on Wednesday, January 20th, at the district offices of 22 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

On February 17th, PDA will be joined by CODEPINK, AfterDowningStreet, Democrats.com, the California Nurses Assn./National Nurses United, and United for Peace and Justice in holding brownbag vigils outside (or inside) at least 36 congress members' offices.

Brownbaggers are demanding commitments to vote against more money for war. Slogans on their posters include: "Healthcare not Warfare," "Corporations out of Politics," "Bailout Main Street not Wall Street," and "Brownbaggers not Teabaggers".

Vigils have been planned in the following districts: AZ-5, CA-6, CA-9, CA-10, CA-18, CA-22, CA-23, CA-40, CA-42, CA-45, CA-46, CA-48, CA-50, CA-53, FL-9, FL-10, FL-17, ID-01, IN-9, MA-1, MA-2, MA-3, MA-10, MI-9, NY-18, NY-28, OH-13, OH-17, PA-02, PA-7, PA-15, WA-2, WA-3, WA-6, WI-3, WI-7. These are almost all at noon on Wednesday the 17th, but a few are at odd times, so check the details: http://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil

Brownbaggers are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any bills that fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment. As lesser steps in the same direction, PDA is encouraging congress members to cosponsor HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Congress members' commitments are tracked at http://defundwar.org

"We have to choose between jobs and wars," said PDA's national director Tim Carpenter. "The American people are on one side, but our so-called representatives in Congress are on the other. The Supreme Court is busy increasing corporate control of our elected officials. We need to be busy enforcing the people's control before it is too late."

"Without wasteful war and military spending," said PDA's deputy director Laura Bonham, "we could have healthcare, jobs, housing, education, retirement security, environmental sustainability, diplomacy and foreign aid. No longer will we take seriously anyone's claim to support these things while voting to fund more war."

Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Injustice
By Stephen Lendman

On February 3, a Department of Justice press release headlined "Aafia Siddiqui Found Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court of Attempting to Murder US Nationals in Afghanistan and Six Additional Charges."

At her scheduled May 6 sentencing, she "faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the attempted murder and armed assault charges; life in prison on the firearms charge; and eight years in prison on each of the remaining assault charges. SIDDIQUI faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on the firearms charge."

On February 3, New York Times writer CJ Hughes headlined: "Pakistani Scientist Found Guilty of Shootings," convicting her on all seven counts, including attempted murder - "capping a trial that drew notice for its terrorist implications as well as its theatrics," but omitting convincing evidence of Siddiqui's innocence. Instead, Hughes said she was arrested with "instructions (in her purse) on making explosives and a list of New York landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building." Her defense team acknowledged their existence, but Siddiqui denied packing them or knowing of their origin. She later suggested she copied them from a magazine, planned no terrorist acts, nor did her indictment claim them.

Hughes also said she "raised suspicions when she and her three children vanished in Pakistan in 2003." She didn't vanish. Her mother said she "left the family home in Gulshan-e-lqbal in a taxi on March 30, 2003 to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, but never reached the airport." Pakistani intelligence agents abducted her, turned her over to US authorities, after which her long ordeal of secret imprisonment, interrogations, and years of brutalizing torture began, even though she wasn't charged.

Her son Mohammed was later released on condition he say nothing. Her other two children, Maryam and Suleman, disappeared and may have been killed.

US to launch Fallujah-style attack in Afghanistan
By Bill Van Auken | WSWS

As US and British troops prepare to attack the town of Marjah in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, military commanders and the media are openly comparing the operation to the November 2004 siege of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest war crimes of the Iraq war.

The operation in central Helmand province, long an area of intense resistance to the US-led occupation, will constitute the largest military offensive since Washington invaded the country in October 2001. At least 15,000 troops are expected to lay siege to the Helmand river valley town, which has 80,000 inhabitants and is said by the US military to be a stronghold of the Taliban.

A total of 125,000 people live in the district around Marjah, which is an agricultural center 350 miles west of Kabul. The population has been swelled by Afghans fleeing villages occupied by US Marines last summer, following President Barack Obama’s order shortly after he took office to send 21,000 more troops into Afghanistan.

US Marines, frustrated and enraged over casualties suffered at the hands of an unseen enemy who is able to attack and then blend back into the local population, will be unleashed against the town in a violent military assault, with predictable results. Read more.

Joshua Tabor, Who Served in Iraq, Accused of Waterboarding Daughter
Authorities Say the 4-Year-Old Was Punished Because She Wouldn't Say Her ABCs
By Emily Friedman | ABC News

An Army sergeant who served in Iraq for 15 months has been restricted to his Washington military base after being accused of waterboarding his 4-year-old daughter because she refused to recite her ABCs.

Joshua Ryan Tabor, 27, was arrested on Jan. 31 and charged with assaulting a child after police in Yelm, Wash., responded to a call of a disturbance at Tabor's home and then later found the little girl hiding in a locked bathroom, according to Police Chief Todd Stancil.

"We had a report of [Tabor] walking around his neighborhood holding a Kevlar helmet and threatening to bust out windows," Stancil told ABCNews.com today. "In the process of talking to Tabor's girlfriend about what was going on, we learned that he had also been abusing his daughter."

Stancil said that when the cops coaxed the little girl out of the bathroom they saw that she was covered in "multiple bruises pretty much all over her body."

"She was very open with us," Stancil said of the young girl, whose name is not being released because she is a minor. "She basically came right out and said, 'Daddy does this to me. He uses his hands.'" Read more.

International coverage:
U.S. soldier 'waterboarded his own daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet' | Mail Online

Vicenza, Italy: 50 activists enter site, chain themselves to cranes to stop military base
By Kyle | DMZ Hawaii

Fifty women and men of Vicenza entered today in the construction site of the new US military base at Dal Molin and chained themselves to the cranes and the working machineries used to build the foundations of the military installation, and that every day are damaging the “vicentina” groundwater. Recent surveys have produced evidence of unjustified increase of water level in some residential areas.

"Today we want set legality as first priority – they declared passing the fence of the site – the construction site must stop in order to defend health, safety and history of the “vicentina” community: groundwater resources and archeological findings must be preserved. Since the early days of this story we stated that this territory has a priceless value for the local community; but, at the same time, it’s particulary fragile, delicate, because under the green carpet it preserves one of the essential elements of life, water." Read more.

Guam may host Army fast ships
By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno | Pacific Daily News

Guam is one of several areas being considered as a station for up to a dozen high-speed catamaran-style military ships each capable of transporting more than 300 people per ship, according to an Army Environmental Command announcement.

Hawaii, San Diego and Seattle are also being considered, according to the command’s announcement, which was issued as an advertisement in the Pacific Daily News to solicit public comments.

A cooperative effort between the Navy and the Army, the Joint High Speed Vehicles, or JHSVs will be used for fast intra-theater transportation of troops, vehicles and equipment, according to an earlier Defense Department announcement of the program on defenselink.mil.

“JHSVs will be capable of transporting 700 short tons (within) 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots, and can operate in shallow-draft ports and waterways, interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities, and on/off-loading a combat-loaded Abrams Main Battle Tan k,” according to the Defense Department.

These ships all give commanders the ability to roll on a company with full gear and equipment, or roll on a full infantry battalion if used only as a troop transport, haul it intra-theater distances, then move their shallow draft safely into austere ports to roll them off, according www.defenseindustrydaily.com.

Initial uses of the high-speed vessels have led to a $1.6 billion program called the Joint High Speed Vessel, which could involve up to 10 ships, according to defenseinustrydaily.com.

The Army Environmental Command notice for public comment says up to 12 Joint High Speed Vessels will be stationed. Read more, submit comments.

Kucinich Challenges Potential Extrajudicial Killing of Americans | Press Release

Washington, Feb 5 -
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) yesterday wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder following news reports that Americans have been included on targeted assassination lists maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The reports indicate that the President has authorized military operations with the express understanding that Americans might be killed under this policy. In the letter, Kucinich requests the legal basis for revoking the constitutional rights of any American citizens.

“Due process of law is a fundamental principle in our Constitutional structure. Even the most superficial reading of Article XIV makes it clear that extrajudicial killings of U.S. citizens by the U.S. government or its agents are by definition outside the law,” wrote Kucinich.

“The government has the right and the obligation to protect the citizens of this country. However, I reject the notion that we can accomplish this goal only by violating international law and trampling on the Constitution. Protecting the constitutional rights of some citizens should not require revoking the constitutional rights of other citizens,” said Kucinich in the letter.

Read the full letter here.

British Authorities Probing New Claims Soldiers Tortured, Raped Iraqi Prisoners
By Jason Leopold | Truthout | 14 November 2009

Britain's Ministry of Defense has launched an investigation into new claims that soldiers sexually abused Iraqi detainees and subjected them to mock executions, hooding, and used dogs to incite fear--interrogation methods that were also used by US soldiers and personally approved by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The charges come on the heels of Britian's complete withdrawal from Iraq last summer.

The allegations by former Iraqi detainees include one in which a 16-year-old Iraqi boy claims he was raped by two British soldiers on an army base. One of the victims has likened the alleged abuse to the torture and sexual humiliation that took place in Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison, which was run by US forces.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed it is probing 33 cases of sexual abuse and torture.

But in a letter sent to Britain's Ministry of Defense, Phil Shiner, the attorney representing the Iraqis who leveled the charges, said he has it "on good authority that there are hundreds of cases that are going uninvestigated. Read more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Noel Shachtman from Wired's Danger Room: 3 G.I.s Killed in Pakistan. Now Can We Start Treating This Like a Real War? (Updated Once More)

Pentagon appears to impede independent autopsy of Gitmo ’suicide’
By Diana Sweet | Raw Story

The family of a former Gitmo detainee are still waiting years later for answers regarding the events leading up to their son's death. Hope that a second autopsy would provide those answers has been at a standstill as the doctor who performed the autopsy waits for U.S. officials to respond to a request for the return of the deceased's missing throat, a request the Pentagon now appears to be denying was ever made.

Ahmed Ali Al-Salami was one of three inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba's Naval base whose death in 2006 was ruled a suicide by the U.S. military. The suicides, referred to at the time as "an act of asymmetrical warfare" by Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo have been called into new focus in January of this year.

A report published in Harper's Magazine, and written by constitutional scholar and Contributing Editor of Harper's Scott Horton, includes details provided to Harper's by four members of a U.S. military intelligence unit assigned to Guantanamo Bay. "All four soldiers say they were ordered by their commanding officer not to speak out, and all four soldiers provide evidence that authorities initiated a cover-up within hours of the prisoners’ deaths," reported Horton. It also seems that rather than supplying the deceased's missing throat and other necessary items, the Pentagon is attempting to cast aspersions on Horton's report, 'The Guantanamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle.' Read more.

Blair War Crimes Foundation Announcement | UN Observer & International Report

The Blair War Crimes Foundation (which aims to bring Tony Blair to trial) is pleased to announce that we are now utilising our resources for Bill Bowring, Professor of International Law at Birkbeck College, University of London, and his colleagues, in their submission to the International Criminal Court at The Hague asking for a preliminary investigation of Blair and his colleagues for war crimes committed in 2003-4.

The Foundation's Declaration has been signed by Derek Jacobi, Naji Haraj, John Pilger, Noam Chomski, Ben Griffin, Bruce Kent, Ken Loach, Haifa Zangana, Tahrir Swift, and 6,113 other signatories.

It is hoped that the unexpected revelations emerging from the Chilcot Inquiry, added to the Report prepared by Prof Bowring and his colleagues in 2004, will help to persuade the Prosecutor at the ICC to commence an investigation. The Report not only found substantial evidence of commission of war crimes, but also asserted that under the international legal principle of "joint enterprise", Blair and others could be held liable for crimes committed by US forces, since both the USA and UK had embarked on an illegal course of action.

Signed by Joint Secretaries the Blair War Crimes Foundation, Dr. David Halpin and Nicholas Wood on behalf of 6,113 other signatories (as of 2 Feb 2010).

Please also see:

• Iraq inquiry - day by day timeline of evidence given

• Chilcot War Inquiry: Professor to launch 'Nuremberg' war crimes prosecution against Blair

McKinney To Receive Munich American Peace Committee Peace Prize | Press Release

"Clearly, the MAPC gave more thought to the significance of those whose struggle for peace is based on principle . . . than did the Nobel Peace Committee that rewarded our President for war."

Former Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party Presidential Nominee announced today that she has been invited to participate in an International Peace Conference scheduled to take place in Munich, Germany on February 6 - 7, 2010 while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meets in the same city to plan war. McKinney, a long-time proponent of abolishing NATO, is scheduled to speak on February 6 at a rally to protest the NATO "security" conference. After the rally, McKinney will participate in the International Peace Conference whose schedule and call to demonstrate against NATO war policies are included below.

Included in McKinney's program is a meeting with the Munich American Peace Committee (MAPC) which will present to McKinney its third annual award, "Peace through Conscience," during the ceremonies of the Munich Peace Conference on the evening of February 6, 2010. The MAPC Peace Prize is normally awarded by the previous year's winner. In McKinney's case the honors will be done by André Shepherd, a U.S. Army deserter from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and asylum seeker in Germany. Said McKinney of her selection for the award, "I am humbled to be so recognized. Clearly, the MAPC gave more thought to the significance of those whose struggle for peace is based on principle and an unshakable commitment, despite the personal sacrifices required, than did the Nobel Peace Committee that rewarded our President for war." McKinney continued, "In this way of thinking, peace is now war, lies are now truth, and ignorance is strength."

McKinney calls on Americans across Germany to converge on Munich and protest U.S. and NATO war policies. McKinney will meet with American ex-patriots in multiple meetings while in Munich.

Last Week: US Iraq Casualties Rise to 73,758
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered nine combat casualties in the week ending February 2, 2010* as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 73,758. The total includes 35,126 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 38,632 (as of Jan 2, 2010) dead, injured and sick from "non-hostile" causes requiring medical evacuation.

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, Iraq Coalition Casualties names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq but are not counted by the Pentagon.

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,378 as of Feb 2, 2010) but rarely mentioning the 31,648 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they almost always ignore the 37,732 (as of Jan 2,2010)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,378 reported deaths include 900 (up one) who died from those same causes, including at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 197 suicides through Jan. 2, 2010.***

Key:

* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesday).
** New York Times, Jan 26, 2009
*** http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/oif-total.pdf