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If you thought the end of American intervention in foreign wars was nearing, think again. President Obama has been replacing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with private contractors—some 250,000 are currently deployed overseas—including Black Water (operating under another alias.)

Contractors are not subject to the same guidelines as our soldiers, and thus, have not been held accountable for the misdeeds they have afflicted upon civilian populations in the past.

This story has largely flown under the radar of the mainstream media, but will surely induce outrage at some uncertain point in the future.

Source: Examiner

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The top U.S. military officer warned on Tuesday that time is running out for dialogue with Tehran to avoid either a nuclear-armed Iran or a possible military strike against the Islamic Republic.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it is critical for diplomatic efforts to reach a solution before Iran develops a nuclear weapon or faces an Israeli or U.S. strike to turn back its nuclear program.

“That window is a very narrow window,” Mullen told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

“There’s a great deal that certainly depends on the dialogue and the engagement,” he said. “I’m hopeful that that dialogue is productive. I worry about it a great deal if it’s not.”

Mullen noted that some forecasters believe Iran could be as little as a year away from developing a nuclear bomb, adding: “The clock has continued to tick.”

The Obama administration hopes to coax Tehran into negotiating over its nuclear program. Washington and its allies say the program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, but Iran insists it is a civilian electricity program.

Israel has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence and points to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

That has raised concerns that Israel could ultimately carry out a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview the United States had “absolutely not” given Israel a green light to attack Iran over its nuclear program, but he said Washington cannot “dictate to other countries what their security interests are.”

“It is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran’s nuclear capabilities in a peaceful way through diplomatic channels,” Obama told CNN during his trip to Russia.

Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday that Israel had a sovereign right to act in its best interest in dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The comment was seen by some as giving Israel a green light to attack.

Mullen told his audience that Washington must keep all options on the table as it pursues dialogue with Iran, “including certainly military options.”

But he said a military strike — like the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb itself — would be “very destabilizing” for the Middle East and pose unpredictable consequences for U.S. allies and interests.

“It (a military strike) is a really important place to not go, if we can not go there in any way, shape or form,” the admiral said.

Source: Reuters

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US won’t stand in Israel’s way on Iran: Biden

US Vice President Joe Biden said, in an television interview, that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its dealings with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” Biden told ABC television’s “This Week” Sunday.

“Whether we agree or not. They’re entitled to do that… We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they’re existentially threatened.”

But the top US military officer meanwhile warned of the dangers posed by any military strike against Iran.

“It could be very destabilizing, and it is the unintended consequences of that which aren’t predictable,” Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told “Fox News Sunday.”

However, he added: “I think it’s very important, as we deal with Iran, that we don’t take any options, including military options, off the table.”

A senior Iranian official visiting Japan said Monday his country would respond “in a very full-scale and very decisive way” if it were attacked by Israel.

“I think that America and Israel are fully aware what kind of result such a wrong judgement will entail,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to see progress on his diplomatic outreach to Iran by year’s end, while not excluding a “range of steps,” including tougher sanctions, if Tehran continued its controversial nuclear drive.

Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a possible military strike against Iran, insisting that Tehran, which the Mossad spy agency could have a ready-to-launch nuclear bomb within five years, must not obtain nuclear weapons.

“If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice,” Biden said. “But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed.”

Israel, the region’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, contends — as does the West — that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear arsenal, despite Tehran’s repeated denials.

The Jewish state has also called the Islamic Republic a threat to its existence, citing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call to wipe Israel off the map.

Biden also confirmed that the Obama administration remains open to pursuing negotiations with Tehran, despite the regime’s crackdown on protesters following a disputed election outcome last month that saw Ahmadinejad return to power.

“If the Iranians respond to the offer of engagement, we will engage,” Biden said. “The offer’s on the table.”

Mullen declined to say whether the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran would be sufficient to outweigh the negative consequences of a US military strike on Tehran’s weapons program.

“I think both outcomes are really, really bad outcomes. And that speaks to the very narrow space that we have to try to resolve this so that neither one of those things occur,” he said.

Source: AFP

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Soldiers diagnosed by Army substance abuse counselors with alcoholism or alcohol abuse, such as binge drinking, increased from 6.1 per 1,000 soldiers in 2003 to an estimated 11.4 as of March 31, according to the data. The latest data cover the first six months of the fiscal year that began in October.

“We’re seeing a lot of alcohol consumption,” Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff, told top officers during a briefing on the Army’s growing number of suicides.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concern. “I’m sure there are many factors for the rising numbers (of enrollments) … but I can’t believe the stress our people are under after eight years of combat isn’t taking a toll,” he said.

Likewise, Marines who screen positive for drug or alcohol problems increased 12% from 2005 to 2008, according to Marine Corps statistics. In addition, there were 1,060 drunken-driving cases involving Marines during the first seven months of fiscal 2009, which began in October, compared with 1,430 cases in all of fiscal 2008.

In an interview last week, Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent said alcohol abuse is an indication of the stress, particularly with the ongoing cycle of combat deployments. “Alcohol can tie into a lot of things, and we’re just keeping a close eye on it,” Kent said.

Mullen and Chiarelli said the U.S. needs to reduce the overall number of deployed troops as planned to ease the strain.

Concerns about alcohol abuse led Chiarelli to issue a memo in May urging commanders to treat and, where necessary under Army rules, punish soldiers who test positive for substance abuse or fail blood-alcohol tests. During a visit to six Army installations this year, Chiarelli said, he found hundreds of cases where soldiers who failed those tests, in some cases more than once, were not treated for the problem or processed for possible discharge, as required by Army regulation.

Enrollments in drug abuse treatment programs have remained largely unchanged in the Army during the war, rising from 3.7 per 1,000 in 2003 to an estimated 4.2 as of May.

Chiarelli said top staff officers might not properly deal with the problem because of a need to “keep their numbers up” for combat deployments.

He said identifying and treating substance and alcohol abuse will help improve the Army’s mental health care and curb suicides, which reached a record 142 cases in 2008. There have been 82 confirmed or suspected suicides this year among active-duty, compared with 51 for the same period in 2008.

Source: USA Today

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CIA director Leon Panetta says it’s almost as if former vice president Dick Cheney would like to see another attack on the United States to prove he is right in criticizing President Barack Obama for abandoning the “harsh interrogation” of terrorism suspects.

“I think he smells some blood in the water on the national security issue,” Panetta said in an interview published in The New Yorker magazine’s June 22 issue.

“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

Cheney, who was a key advocate in the Bush administration of controversial interrogation methods such as waterboarding, has become as a leading Republican critic of Obama’s ban on harsh interrogations and his plan to shut the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a blistering May 21 speech, Cheney said Obama’s reversal of Bush-era policies were “unwise in the extreme” that would make the American people less safe.

Panetta called Cheney’s actions “dangerous politics.”

He told The New Yorker he had favored the creation of an independent truth commission to look into the detainee polices of former President George W. Bush. But the idea died in April when Obama decided such a panel could be seen as politically vindictive.

Source: Reuters

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Hillary Clinton refused yesterday to rule out a pre-emptive Israeli military strike on Iran. It was the first time that a senior member of the Obama Administration had openly discussed such a possibility.

The US Secretary Of State, speaking a few days before elections in Iran that will determine the fate of President Ahmadinejad, also warned that the country would face retaliation if it launched a nuclear attack on Israel.

As President Obama extends “an open hand”, seeking direct talks with Tehran in his attempt to halt its nuclear programme, Mrs Clinton appeared ready to unnerve the Iranian leadership with talk of a pre-emptive strike “the way that we did attack Iraq”. She said that she was trying to put herself in the shoes of the Iranian leadership, but added that Tehran “might have some other enemies that would do that [deliver a pre-emptive strike] to them”. It was a clear reference to Israel, where Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, has talked about the possibility of military action to halt Iran’s nuclear programme — something he views as a threat to the Jewish state.

Mrs Clinton, interviewed on the ABC programme This Week a year after she conceded to Mr Obama in the Democratic primary race, said that it was US policy that a nuclear attack by Iran on Israel would be seen as an attack on the US.

“I don’t think there is any doubt in anyone’s mind that were Israel to suffer a nuclear attack by Iran, there would be retaliation,” she said, though she did not spell out who would retaliate. She was responding to a question about her statement as a presidential candidate last year, when she said Iran would “incur massive retaliation from the United States” if it attacked Israel.

Yesterday she said: “Part of what we have to make clear to the Iranians is that their pursuit of nuclear weapons will actually trigger greater insecurity.” She noted that Israel and Arab states were “deeply concerned about Iran having nuclear weapons”.

She added: “So, does Iran want to face a battery of nuclear countries?”

Source: Times Online

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President Barack Obama pledged to “seek a new beginning” between the U.S. and the Muslim world, calling for people in both societies to find common ground and end a “cycle of suspicion and discord.”

In a speech at Cairo University today, Obama touched on sources of tension from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to religious freedom to women’s rights, democracy and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. Some of his most direct language was used to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While he called the U.S. bond with Israel “unbreakable” and insisted that Hamas must stop all violence against Israelis, Obama said Israel must abandon its West bank settlements and recognize Palestinian aspirations for statehood.

“Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s,” Obama said. He called the Palestinian’s situation in the West Bank and Gaza “intolerable” and said, “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”

The 55-minute address was part of an effort by Obama to lift U.S. standing with Muslims at a moment when the administration is working to reignite the Middle East peace process, waging war against Islamic insurgents in two countries, and battling to choke off support for al-Qaeda and other terrorists.

History With Islam

The president was interrupted several times by applause and he cited the Koran in at least four instances. Obama also reminded the audience that his father was from a Muslim family and he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

“That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t,” Obama said. “And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

Nathan Brown, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University in Washington, said Obama “managed to thread the needle” with the speech by addressing a broad audience on tough issues “without sounding like he’s lecturing or hectoring.”

Obama’s language on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was “blunt but it was gentle on both sides,” Brown said.

Political Capital

Mark Heller, political scientist at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, said Obama’s repeated use of the term Palestine is significant in that “it may buy Obama a little bit of political capital” with the Arab world.

“When they get into tough issues, he’s going to be able to say, ‘You can’t accuse me of being fundamentally hostile” because he’s promoted Palestinian statehood and used their favored term to do it,” Heller said.

In addition to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama outlined five other sources of tension between the U.S. and Muslims: Violent extremism “in all its forms”; stopping nuclear weapons development in Iran; the spread of democracy; religious freedom and the rights of women.

Citing a verse in the Koran that tells Muslims to “speak always the truth,” Obama said that that in order to move forward, “we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors.”

Fighting Extremism

Discussing violent extremism, Obama said that he will “relentlessly” fight terrorist extremists in order to protect the American people. He reiterated his commitment to withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by 2012 and defended the U.S. war in Afghanistan as a “necessity” after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Obama explained his strategy for improving Afghanistan’s governance, focusing more aid and attention on neighboring Pakistan. Obama plans to send an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents are increasing attacks and ramping up pressure on the U.S.-backed government.

“Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there,” Obama said. “We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case.”

Iran

On Iran, Obama reaffirmed longstanding U.S. policy, saying any country, including Iran, “should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

Earlier in the speech he called Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust “baseless, ignorant, and hateful.”

“Threatening Israel with destruction — or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews — is deeply wrong and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve,” Obama said.

When Obama began discussing democracy, the younger members of the audience clapped and cheered.

“I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose,” Obama said. “Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.”

Religious Freedom

Talking of religious freedom, Obama called on Muslims to uphold “the richness of religious diversity.”

“Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of another’s,” Obama said. “The divisions between Sunni and Shiite have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.”

On women’s rights, Obama said that “a woman who is denied an education is denied equality.”

Concluding his speech, Obama pledged to work with the Muslim world on economic development, education, science and technology.

“All these things must be done in partnership,” Obama said. “Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life.”

Source: Bloomberg

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The US administration asks an appeals court to stop the release of prisoner abuse images, showing that Obama has fully backtracked on his promise of transparency.

In a motion filed Thursday in a New York federal appeals court, the Obama administration said that it did not want the photos to be available to the public, arguing that they could lead to violence against US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Pakistan.

“[Distributing the photos poses] a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American and coalition forces, as well as civilian personnel, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the motion said.

The court filing also included two semi-classified statements by the top US commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, and the head of US Central Command General David Petraeus, who leads US military activities in the Middle East and Central Asia.

“[The release of the images] would… further endanger the lives of US soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors, civilians and contractors,” said Petraeus.

Odierno also claimed that Iraqi officials had told him the release of the photos, which are believed to number in the thousands, could disrupt democratic progress in Iraq before the national elections.

Last month, Obama’s administration said that it would comply with a court order, which was issued following a lengthy Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The order said the pictures must be released by May 28.

Earlier in May, however, Barack Obama reversed his position, saying that he did not feel comfortable with his previous decision.

The new US administration’s U-turn on the issue drew a heavy backlash from the ACLU, which expressed outrage and said the decision “makes a mockery” of Obama’s campaign promise of transparency.

While Amnesty International said that it was disappointed, other US human rights groups also accused Obama of following in the footsteps of former president George W. Bush.

News of the US government’s official stance came as Press TV released some images of the maltreatment of prisoners by US soldiers, confirming an earlier Daily Telegraph report, which revealed the photos of abuse at Iraqi jails include images of rape and sexual assault.

Washington-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen emailed the horrific images to Press TV, rejecting allegations by neoconservative media that they were fake.

Madsen said when some of the disputed photos were randomly published by the Boston Globe in 2004, neoconservatives made the same accusations against the paper.

The Daily Telegraph report focused on information provided by Major General Antonio Taguba, a former army officer who published a report in 2004 into the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Contradicting an Obama administration claim that photos did not include pictures of sexual abuse, Taguba said the images showed mistreatment, torture, and rape.

Source: PressTV

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The commander of Fort Campbell army base in Kentucky has ordered a three-day suspension of regular duties to focus on a spike in suicides among his troops amid concern over a wider trend across the armed services.

The “stand-down” on Friday entered its third day at Fort Campbell, which is home to the famed 101st Airborne Division and has recorded the highest rate of suicide in the army, with at least 11 confirmed or suspected suicides.

Brigadier General Stephen Townsend announced the stand-down to focus attention on the problem after two more soldiers took their lives last week.

“It’s bad for soldiers, it’s bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it’s got to stop now. Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now,” he told troops.

“Suicide is a permanent solution to what is only a temporary problem,” Townsend said.

“No matter how bad your problem seems today, trust me, it’s not the end of the world. It will be better tomorrow. Don’t take away your tomorrow.”

The trauma of combat combined with the effect of repeated tours has led to a record rise in suicides across the armed services and particularly the US Army — which has carried the heaviest burden in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year 128 soldiers took their lives, up from 115 in 2007, as tours of duty since 2001 have come ever more frequently and last longer.

With 64 confirmed or suspected suicides so far this year, the army looks likely to surpass last year’s record numbers.

The 20.2 per 100,000 suicide rate among US soldiers is above the national record of 19.5 per 100,000 in 2005 in the United States.

Earlier this month a US soldier, Sergeant John Russell, allegedly sprayed his comrades with lethal gunfire at a mental health clinic at a US base in Baghdad, and he has been charged with five counts of murder.

The case has underlined concerns about the psychological well-being of those serving in the military.

Due to worries over the state of Russell’s mental health, his commanding officer about a week earlier had ordered that the soldier’s weapon be confiscated and that he should go for counselling, officials said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said he believes the suicides are tied to the repeated deployments that have put a strain on soldiers and their families.

In his visits to US military posts, Mullen regularly appeals to troops to look out for comrades that seem troubled and has acknowledged soldiers are reluctant to seek counselling because they worry it might hold back their career.

In a 2008 poll by the American Psychological Association (APA), 61 percent of servicemen and women said that asking for help to treat psychological problems would have a negative impact on their career, and 53 percent said it would decrease their status among their peers.

“Our stress levels are up, and we have to realize that stress is driving a lot of this, and we?ve got to look at ways to relieve that stress,” Mullen said last month during a visit to a Texas military base.

“The first big step in taking care of our problem is acknowledging that you have one — and we do,” Mullen said. “Suicide is never easy, (and) solving it won?t be easy. But everyone in leadership is focused on it.”

In March, military leaders ordered a stand-down at every US Army installation to focus on preventing suicides.

The Fort Campbell event was designed to free up soldiers and their officers from daily routines to ensure the problem received their undivided attention, spokeswoman Kelly Tyler said.

The stand-down was meant to remind soldiers “that they have an accountability to themselves and to their peers” and “to remind leaders they are also accountable for the well-being of their soldiers,” she told AFP.

Source: Raw Story

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