Boehner: Afghanistan now more important

Boehner: Afghanistan now more important
From NBC's Shawna Thomas

House Speaker John Boehner sees the death of Osama bin Laden as proof that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a necessity for the country’s safety. "It's important that we remain vigilant in our efforts to defeat terrorist enemies and protect the American people,” he said during a late afternoon press conference at the Capitol. “This makes our engagement in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan more important not less.”

Surrounded by most of the Republican leadership in the House, Boehner began with talk of unity. “The tragic events of 9/11 10 years ago remind us that we’re all Americans and that what unites us as Americans is far greater than what divides us.” He honored the troops and the intelligence community, as well as those who died on September 11, but he and three other members who spoke -- Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and GOP Conference Chair Jeb Hensarling -- all seemed to express a renewed commitment to American armed forces. Their choice of words was striking in the context of the continued spending debate. (Remember, the Defense Department was appropriated billions more than what it got last in fiscal year 2010 in last month’s compromise, but is a huge piece of the spending pie that will have to be dealt with.)

Hensarling, who was last to speak, congratulated President Obama, while reminding everyone that the war isn’t over. “One thing that has not changed after today is that the price of liberty remains eternal vigilance,” he said.
.

Deadline for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay Extended

Deadline for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay Extended The deadline for eligible service members, veterans and their beneficiaries to apply for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay (RSLSP) has been extended to April 8, 2011, allowing personnel more time to apply for the benefits they've earned under the program guidelines.

The deadline extension is included in the continuing resolution signed by President Obama Friday, providing funding for federal government operations through April 8, 2011.

Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay was established to compensate for the hardships military members encountered when their service was involuntarily extended under Stop Loss Authority between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2009. Eligible members or their beneficiaries may submit a claim to their respective military service in order to receive the benefit of $500 for each full or partial month served in a Stop Loss status.

When RSLSP began on Oct. 21, 2009, the services estimated 145,000 service members, veterans and beneficiaries were eligible for this benefit. Because the majority of those eligible had separated from the military, the services have engaged in extensive and persistent outreach efforts to reach them and remind them to apply. Outreach efforts including direct mail, engaging military and veteran service organizations, social networks and media outlets, will continue through April 8,2011.

To apply for more information, or to gather more information on RSLSP, including submission requirements and service-specific links, go to http://www.defense.gov/stoploss.

Wounded Warriors Need VA To Step Up

Wounded Warrior Project calls on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the White House to make good on promised benefits.Caregivers of veterans recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) at risk for being left out of Congressionally mandated benefits by VA

Jacksonville, FL (March 7, 2011) As we enter Brain Injury Awareness Month, the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is committed to ensuring that veterans injured during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and their caregivers receive the benefits included in the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act signed into law last year by President Obama.

“In 2010, Congress put assistance in place to ensure that the caregivers of these brave men and women are able to continue providing the necessary support for their recovery,” said Steve Nardizzi, Executive Director of WWP. “Nearly a year later and ironically coinciding with Brain Injury Awareness Month, family caregivers of as many as 2,500 severely brain-injured warriors may now be ineligible to receive benefits promised under a plan the VA continues to defend.”

“Last month, the VA submitted a plan that would shrink the number of families qualifying for benefits by more than three-quarters, hitting those with cognitive and related brain-injury impairments hardest,” Nardizzi continued. “It is unacceptable for the Administration to deviate so dramatically from the clear direction Congress set, and jeopardize the care of these service members to meet a new agenda.”

TBI has emerged as one of the signature wounds of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, amazing strides have been made in the medical intervention and treatment of TBI. But with that comes a long road of treatment and care for these veterans when they return home. It’s a labor of love for the family caregivers of these severely wounded warriors, but also an all-consuming one in which many families have had to commit all of their resources to their loved one’s recovery process.

In providing for caregiver assistance, Congress clearly specified that the law covers caregivers of veterans who sustained traumatic brain injury in the line of duty and who were “in need of personal care services because of…a need for supervision or protection based on symptoms or residuals of neurological or other impairment or injury.” It is apparent when reviewing the Act as a whole, that the rehabilitation of veterans with traumatic brain injury was an intended goal with respect to each of these provisions.

WWP is calling on the Administration and the VA to recognize the severity and complexity of these injuries and guarantee that these American heroes and their families are provided the best support and care possible.

Join the effort to secure what has been promised to the caregivers of our nation’s heroes:

Visit us on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/caregiversNOW Learn more at www.woundedwarriorproject.org ==========
About Wounded Warrior Project

The mission of the Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) is to honor and empower wounded warriors. WWP’s purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and service to meet their needs. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, FL. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.

Gen Amos's speech last night @George Schultz series

I want to thank the World Affairs Council of Northern California and the Marines’ Memorial Association for inviting me here tonight to speak about our Nation’s Marine Corps.

I’m also grateful for Major General Mike Myatt’s faithfulness to our Nation over many years...And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank Secretary George Shultz, for whom this lecture series is named. He is a renowned leader, diplomat and – most importantly – a United States Marine.

Six months ago, Secretary Gates stood right here at this podium and asked some very pointed questions about the capabilities and future of the Marine Corps. He challenged the Corps to, “define the unique mission of the Marines going forward.” When the boss challenges you to do something, you probably ought to take it seriously…and we did.

Prior to becoming Commandant, I spent considerable energy and time with some of our brightest folks to look critically at defining the role of the Marine Corps in our Nation’s defense. It was as important for us as Marines to clearly know where we fit in the future security environment as it was for our civilian leadership. The results of those extensive efforts were published in October in my Commandant’s Planning Guidance. Our mission set is unambiguously framed and defined as follows...
“The Marine Corps is America’s Expeditionary Force in Readiness — a balanced air-ground-logistics team. We are forward-deployed and forward-engaged — shaping, training, deterring and responding to all manner of crises and contingencies. We create options and decision space for our Nation’s leaders. Alert and ready, we respond to today’s crisis, with today’s force…TODAY. Teaming with other services, allies and interagency partners, we enable and participate in joint and combined operations of any magnitude. Responsive and scalable, we operate independent of local infrastructure. A middleweight force, we are light enough to get there quickly, but heavy enough to carry the day upon arrival. We operate throughout the spectrum of threats — irregular, hybrid, or conventional — or the shady areas where they overlap. Marines are ready to respond whenever the Nation calls…wherever the President may direct.”

In every location that we’ve deployed in the past 10 years — Pakistan, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast, Lebanon, South America, the Gulf of Aden, and the Philippines — Marine forces were: engaging with our allies, conducting full spectrum combat and Counter Insurgency operations, enabling the Joint Force, providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, evacuating personnel from embassies, deterring aggression, or contributing to assured access. Clearly, Marines have been responding and engaging throughout the range of military operations.

I refer to our Marine Corps of today as a ‘middleweight force.’ I liken it to boxing, where a middleweight boxer can box up into the heavy weight division or box down to the lightweight division simply by changing his weight and training regime. The same is true for the Marine Corps. We fill the void in our Nation’s defense for an agile force that is comfortable operating at the high and low ends of the threat spectrum, or the more likely ambiguous areas in between. Larger than special operations forces, but lighter and more expeditionary than conventional Army units, we engage and respond quickly – often from the sea – with enough force to carry the day upon arrival.

To Marines, the notion of ‘expeditionary’ is a state of mind that drives the way we organize our forces, the way we train and the kind of equipment we buy. This necessitates a high state of unit readiness and an ability to sustain ourselves logistically. We integrate logistics to provide the “middleweight force” the agility to get into position, the endurance to allow it to last all 12 rounds and the power to deliver the knockout punch when the time is right. Our logistics capability is the equivalent of packing up Walmart, Home Depot, AutoZone, and your local pharmacy and being able to place it – ready to go – anywhere in the world in 96 hours.

We are our nation’s crisis response force. Crisis response is incompatible with tiered readiness. You’re either ready to respond to today’s crisis, with today’s force… TODAY, or you’re late and risk being irrelevant.

Factoring all aspects of our role in the Nation’s defense, the United States Marine Corps affords the following three strategic advantages:

•We provide a versatile ‘middleweight’ capability to respond across the range of military operations.

•We possess an inherent agility that buys time for national leaders and provides them decision space to better analyze developing situations.

•And finally, we bring an enabling and partnering capability to joint and combined operations of any magnitude.

Let me give you a perfect example of the utility of America’s Expeditionary Force in Readiness…

Just weeks after 9/11, Task Force 58, under the capable direction of now CENTCOM Commander General Jim Mattis, rapidly aggregated two Marine Expeditionary Units that were already afloat half way around the world, a total of 4,400 combat-ready Marines from six amphibious ships. One Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) (pronounced MEW) had been conducting training with the Egyptians, while the other had been providing humanitarian assistance in East Timor. Both raced full speed to the coast of Pakistan.

With all six ships aggregated off the coast of Pakistan, Task Force 58 launched north into Afghanistan in the dark of night, securing three critical lodgments in hostile terrain: Forward Operating Base Rhino, Kandahar Airfield and the American Embassy in Kabul. As important, these actions provided decision space for our National leaders, and facilitated the introduction of follow-on forces. Task Force 58’s efforts maintained pressure on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, enabled special operations forces and interagency operations, and facilitated the prosecution of high value targets. This was the versatile and potent middleweight force that we are talking about.

You may ask, “Well, that was almost ten years ago, what has the Marine Corps done for our Nation lately?” Let’s turn the clock forward to just this past fall.
The 2,500 Marines of the 15th MEU were operating off the coast of Karachi assisting the flood-stricken people of northern Pakistan. While Marine heavy lift helicopters were rescuing families and providing food and medical support 400 miles deep into Pakistan, Marine Corps Harriers flying off the USS Pelelieu were conducting close air support missions inside Afghanistan. Simultaneously, the USS Dubuque sailed over 1,000 miles west to the Gulf of Aden and rescued the crew of the pirated ship Magellan Star from Somali pirates. All of this was happening at the same time, and all of this capability came from a single Marine Expeditionary Unit.

With the flooding in Pakistan worsening, our nation’s leadership sailed the 26th MEU from North Carolina a month early to help mitigate the humanitarian crisis. Not waiting for the twenty-plus day transit to complete, the 26th MEU sent its four heavy lift CH-53 helicopters via Air Force C-17s to Pakistan to support the ongoing 15th MEU relief operations. Once the 26th MEU arrived, it teamed up with the 15th MEU to conclude the flood relief efforts and to assume further CENTCOM responsibilities as the theater reserve.

This past December, the 26th MEU received the CENTCOM Commander’s warning order to deploy two-thirds of its force into Afghanistan to consolidate gains in the Marine Corps’ zone in Helmand Province. Within three days of Secretary Gate’s approval of this action, elements of the 26th MEU – 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, armed with reinforcements and a detachment of MV-22 Ospreys and AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters – were on the ground in Afghanistan.

In short order, the Marines of the 26th MEU had commenced combat operations southwest of Sangin, in direct support of General Petreaus’ winter campaign. Their efforts are further driving a wedge between the insurgents and the local Afghan populace. Meanwhile, the remaining elements of the 26th MEU are still out at sea fulfilling theater reserve responsibilities in CENTCOM for whatever may occur.
In 1957, Lieutenant General “Brute” Krulak wrote, “when trouble comes…there will be Marines — somewhere — who, through hard work, have made and kept themselves ready to do something useful about it, and to do it at once.” Spoken more plainly, and harkening back to the old FEDEX commercial, “When it absolutely, positively has to be accomplished overnite…send in the Marines.”

Let me switch gears and speak about our Marine Corps in transition. Over the past six years, we have grown accustomed to large sums of Supplemental and Overseas Contingency Operations funds. We’ve grown into what I like to characterize as a “culture of plenty.”

The Marine Corps has always given our Nation the “best bang for its buck.” In Fiscal Year 2010, the United States Marine Corps consumed only 8.5 % of the DOD budget, while it provided our Nation 31% of its ground operating forces, 12% of its fighter/attack aircraft and 19% of the Nation’s attack helicopters.

In today’s fiscally constrained environment, we must continue to improve our efficiency. Marines have historically been known as “the Penny Pinchers.” At the end of the day, Congress and the American people know that the Marine Corps is a value and that we only ask for what we truly need. During my four years as Commandant of the Marine Corps, we will rededicate ourselves to our frugal roots, while maintaining the high state of preparedness required of America’s Expeditionary Force in Readiness.

In early September, the Marine Corps began an internally-driven, comprehensive Force Structure Review. Armed with the “mission of the Marine Corps” from my Planning Guidance, and using the future security environment as the backdrop in which we will most likely operate, a team of our brightest Marines and Civilian Marines, guided by myself and the top leadership of our Corps, crafted a post-Afghanistan Marine Corps. Yesterday, I briefed Secretary Gates and our senior leadership on the results of this study, and Congress is being briefed, as well. As a result of our review, the Marine Corps will:

• Right-size the Marine Corps for a post Afghanistan world
• Build capabilities that support a “middleweight force” whose role is to respond to today’s crisis… TODAY
• Fully institutionalize the lessons learned during nine years of combat and counter insurgency missions
• Assure access, preserve freedom of maneuver and deny sanctuary against irregular, hybrid and conventional threats
• Maintain a force with a minimum capability to simultaneously deploy two Brigade’s worth of assault forces from 33 amphibious ships
• Eliminate unnecessary HQ’s and flatten the Marine Corps command structure where it makes sense to do so
• Build regionally-aligned Marine Expeditionary Brigade Command Elements that provide scalable, Joint Task Force-capable, crisis response command and control for our Regional Combatant Commanders
•Maintain Reserve force structure at current levels while internally reorganizing for increased operational relevance with the Total Force
•Increase Marine Cyber-forces by 67% and Marine Special Operations Command by 44%
• Turn high demand/low density forces into high demand/‘right density’ forces
• Transition 7% of non-operational forces to operational billets
• Reorganize and Consolidate Irregular Warfare Organizations
• Restructure our logistics groups to increase the depth, availability and responsiveness of our combat service support.

Last month I recommended to the Secretary of Defense that we cancel the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program. I recommended this adjustment as an opportunity to cut an onerous fiscal program, thus allowing the Marine Corps the ability to recapitalize on savings from the cancellation of EFV. As the Secretary affirmed last month, the cancellation of the EFV is by no means a rejection of the Marine Corps’ amphibious assault mission. I want all here tonight to know that I remain absolutely committed to develop and field a more affordable solution.

In the complex future security environment, the execution of amphibious operations requires the use of the sea as maneuver space. A New Amphibious Vehicle enables the rapid and seamless projection of ready-to-fight Marine units from sea to land in permissive, uncertain, and hostile environments. Once on land, a properly configured modern amphibious vehicle bolsters the lethality and versatility of the Marine rifle squad. As a result of the cancellation of the EFV, approximately $2.8 billion of the program’s assets will be reinvested in a comprehensive, three-pronged approach for our future ground vehicles.

First, we will immediately begin the process to develop our New Amphibious Vehicle. Second, to ensure continued capability to maneuver from ship-to-shore until the next generation of systems is brought on line, we will upgrade a portion of our existing legacy amphibious vehicle fleet with new engines, electronics, and armaments. Finally, we will accelerate the production of our wheeled Marine Personnel carrier.
In addition, to further demonstrate our renewed commitment to frugality and innovation, we will reduce our total number of vehicles from 44,000 to 32,500, and recapitalize a portion of our legacy HMMWVs. In collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, we are testing some interesting concepts now at our Warfighting Lab that could markedly improve portions of our existing fleet of HMMWV’s, and in doing so, speed up our ground vehicle recapitalization efforts while saving millions of tax payer dollars.

Despite some minor engineering setbacks, the F-35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) remains vital to the Marine Corps’ doctrine of conducting expeditionary operations. We currently have three different Type/Model/ Series aircraft – F-18 Hornets, AV-8 Harriers and E/A-6B Prowlers – that the F-35B will replace. The efficiency gained in training, maintenance, and support realized when the Marine Corps is operating a single aircraft – vice three – will save the Nation over $1 billion a year.

The capability inherent in a Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing jet facilitates our doctrinal form of maneuver warfare and our need for close air support in the many austere conditions and locations where we will likely operate in the future. When evaluating runways around the globe, there are 10 times as many 3,000-foot runways capable of handling the STOVL JSF variant as there are 8,000-foot runways required for conventional fighter aircraft. The Marine Corps maintains the organic ability to build an expeditionary 3,000-foot runway in a matter of days in support of STOVL missions conducted in uncertain, non-permissive, or remote environments, which are the likely places where we expect to be employed.

We built two of these “expeditionary airfields” in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan, in anticipation of heavy combat operations in Marjah and throughout the Marine zone. The quick sortie turnaround for our Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets resulting from these forward expeditionary airfields significantly changed the tempo of the battle for Marjah.

In light of the decision announced in January relative to the STOVL JSF, the Marine Corps is committed to working closely with industry during the next two years to get this platform back on track in terms of cost, performance and schedule. I am personally tracking the progress of the F-35B on a daily/weekly/monthly basis via meetings with government and industry, and through a detailed set of metrics that I maintain in my office. My intent is to do the same thing with our New Amphibious Vehicle, once it begins development.

Another main effort is a concept called “Lightening the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF).” This means reducing the size, weight and energy expenditure of our forces from the individual rifleman to wholesale components of the MAGTF. Over the past decade of operations, we have become tethered to equipment sets resulting from the emergence of new threats, most notably the improvised explosive device. We have also become overly accustomed to the acquisition of resources that, in some cases, are incompatible with the ethos of an agile, expeditionary force. We are currently developing a plan for reducing the size and weight of Marine Expeditionary Units and Marine Expeditionary Brigades so that they can begin to fit within likely lift constraints. I intend for this effort to begin this year in earnest and be fully registered in the next two budget cycles.

Finally, the Marine Corps is leading the development of expeditionary energy solutions for the Department of Defense and the Navy; reducing energy demand in our platforms and systems, increasing the use of renewable energy, and instilling an “ethos of energy and water efficiency” in every Marine.

As I close tonight, I want to remind you that your Marines have been busy. They have been providing assistance in Haiti, in Pakistan, capturing Pirates, fighting in Afghanistan, training partner nation forces and forward-deployed throughout the world over this past year. As we gather here tonite in this wonderful Memorial Club, there are roughly 32,000 Marines forward deployed. Many of these Marines are living in hard conditions and in great danger, but all are doing the Nation’s bidding. I ask that you keep them in your thoughts and in your prayers.

Secretary Gates said here this past summer, “The Marines’ unique ability to project combat forces from the sea under uncertain circumstances – forces quickly able to protect and sustain themselves – is a capability that America has needed in this past decade, and will require in the future.” I want to assure you that the Marine Corps will remain our Nation’s Expeditionary Force in Readiness and remain the force-of-choice for crisis response.

Petraeus Cites ‘Impressive’ Progress in Letter to Troops

Petraeus Cites ‘Impressive’ Progress in Letter to Troops

By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2011 – Continued hard work will lead to sustained progress in Afghanistan this year, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force there told his troops in a letter dated today.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus addressed his comments to ISAF’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians.

They and their Afghan counterparts “did tremendous work in 2010,” Petraeus wrote, terming their progress “impressive.”

ISAF’s core objective in Afghanistan is to ensure that country never again becomes a sanctuary for al-Qaida or other transnational extremists, Petraeus wrote. Achieving that objective requires “a comprehensive civil-military campaign” aimed at helping Afghanistan develop the ability to secure and govern itself, he added.

Additional ISAF forces, the growth of the Afghan army and police, an increase in the number of civilian partners, and the associated funding to enable it all contributed to 2010’s gains, Petraeus wrote. The effort received a boost, the general noted, when NATO leaders at the alliance’s November summit in Lisbon, Portugal, endorsed Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s goal of Afghan forces taking the security lead throughout his nation by the end of 2014.

Afghan and coalition forces increased security in Kabul, Helmand and Kandahar provinces over 2010, Petraeus wrote, and advanced security conditions in the east, west and north.

“The beginning of Afghan-led reintegration of reconcilable insurgents, and the relentless pace of targeted operations by ISAF and Afghan special operations forces” also aided security growth, Petraeus wrote.

“Now, in fact, the insurgents increasingly are responding to our operations, rather than vice-versa, and there are numerous reports of unprecedented discord among the Quetta Shura, the Taliban senior leadership body,” Petraeus noted.

Progress in Afghanistan over 2010 was not easy, Petraeus acknowledged.

“To the contrary, our successes entailed hard fighting, tough losses, and periodic setbacks. … You had to transition from intense combat to complex stability operations –- and back again –- on innumerable occasions, sometimes on the same day,” he wrote. “Your versatility, skill, determination and courage have truly been the stuff of history.”

Work ahead in 2011 will remain challenging, Petraeus told his troops.

Afghanistan and ISAF forces must extend the security “bubbles” around Kabul and in the east and west of the country, while halting and reversing insurgent advances in the north and northeast, the general wrote. ISAF must also support increased Afghan self-governance and anti-corruption efforts, he added. “We will need to pursue initiatives to ensure that our contracting and procurement activities are part of the solution rather than a continuing part of the problem,” he wrote.

Given the “skill and will” that coalition and Afghan troops have demonstrated over the past year, Petraeus wrote, he is confident they “will prove equal to the difficult tasks that lie ahead.”

Biden calls on Pakistan to step up

Biden calls on Pakistani's to step up

By Patricia Zengerle and Chris Allbritton
Reuters, 1/12/2010

ISLAMABAD — Vice President Joe Biden attempted on Wednesday to dispel what he called common anti-American misperceptions in Pakistan while urging the government to fight growing religious extremism.

Biden's comments at a news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani come as the United States seeks to put further pressure on Pakistan to take on Islamist militants who have taken refuge in Pakistani border sanctuaries from where they attack Western forces in Afghanistan.

Commenting on the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer last week at the hands of his own bodyguard for supporting changes in a controversial blasphemy law, Biden said the United States was "saddened by cold-blooded murder of a decent, brave man."

"The governor was killed simply because he was a voice of tolerance and understanding," he said.

"As you know all too well ... societies that tolerate such actions end up being consumed by those actions."

Earlier, Biden called Amna Taseer, the widow of the slain governor, to express his condolences on behalf of the president and the American people.

In addition to economic, political and security crises, Pakistan is beset by a growing religious extremism among the poor and middle class, which often translates into suspicion toward the United States and the West in general.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoices
Advertise | AdChoices
Militant groups have exploited grievances, exacerbated by U.S. drone attacks in the west of the country, to build support.

"We know that there are those -- I am not talking about leadership, I am talking about the public discourse -- that in America's fight against al Qaeda, we've imposed a war upon Pakistan," Biden said.

"They (al Qaeda) continue to plot attacks against the United States and our interests to this very day," he said. "They have found refuge in the most remote portions of your country."

Pakistan often denies the presence of al Qaeda leadership on its soil.

SELF-INTEREST OF BOTH

But Biden also expressed American support for Pakistan in the form of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Law, which provides $7.5 billion in civilian aid over five years. Biden was an early sponsor of the bill when he was a senator.

"A close partnership with Pakistan and its people is in the vital self-interest of the United States of America," he said. "And ... in the vital self-interest of Pakistan as well."

The vice president arrived in Islamabad after two days in Kabul, where he said Pakistan needed to do more to help the United States in its battle against Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan as it prepares to withdraw its troops from there.

Pakistan is one of the largest non-NATO recipients of U.S. military aid -- it is expected to receive about $3 billion this year -- but ties are constantly on edge because of conflicting interests in the region.

Pakistan most pressing worry is the tentative 2011 timeline for the beginning of a U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan. It wants assurances that its interests in Kabul will be protected -- and Indian influence checked -- while at the same time the United States won't leave chaos for Pakistan to clean up, as happened in the early 1990s after the Soviet pull-out.

Washington's concern is that it won't be able to begin its drawdown if Pakistan continues to refuse to crack down on militant safe havens in its ethnic Pashtun border areas.

Washington has been pressing Islamabad to move against militants in the North Waziristan region as it has in other parts of the country. Pakistan's military has launched several offensives in the northwest but has said it does not have the capacity to do more.

Soldier Suffering from PTSD Threatened with Redeployment

Soldier Suffering from PTSD Threatened with Redeployment
January 6, 2010

(FORT CAMPBELL, KY.Less than two months after surrendering himself at Fort Campbell from AWOL status, Army Spc. Jeff Hanks awaits imminent redeployment to Afghanistan without having received treatment for war wounds.

Hanks, who has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, returned to the U.S. on leave this past September suffering from symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and likely Traumatic Brain Injury. He sought treatment on two military bases before refusing to redeploy and going Absent Without Official Leave in order to get civilian medical attention.

Hanks has demanded that the Army respect his right to heal. With the help of the Operation Recovery campaign [http://www.ivaw.org/operation-recovery], he turned himself in to Fort Campbell on Veterans Day, ready to face the consequences but demanding treatment. Since then, he has been juggled between a series of military counselors who have provided no diagnoses, and proposals for long-term treatment have been denied by his commanders.

This week, Jeff Hanks’ commanders informed him he was scheduled to redeploy to Afghanistan on January 9. The Army's mandatory pre-deployment mental health screenings denied Hank's PTSD, contradicting positive diagnoses by three separate civilian therapists he received while AWOL. Results of an MRI test yesterday will not be available until after he is in Afghanistan. Like many soldiers have reported lately, the Army behavioral health specialist who screened Hanks suggested he seek treatment while deployed in Afghanistan.

“Four different mental health providers have diagnosed Jeff with PTSD, have advised treatment, and he has been denied treatment every single time. I am very worried about him,” says Johanna Buwalda, a licensed clinical counselor who counsels war veterans and has worked directly with Hanks since October. “Our soldiers deserve the right to heal.”

Hanks’ lawyer reports that Jeff’s situation remains tenuous but all signs point to orders to redeploy. For now, it is unclear how Jeff will react if officially ordered to redeploy, but he continues to stress his demands for adequate treatment before redeployment.

******
Operation Recovery is a national effort led by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to stop the deployment of traumatized troops and the abuse of troops’ right to heal. For more information, go to: http://www.ivaw.org/operation-recovery.

Gen John Kelly talk last week

Please read this speech written by Lt. Gen.John F. Kelly. He delivered it four days after his son Robert, platoon commander of First Platoon, Lima Company, 3/5 was
killed in action in the District of Sangin, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.


SEMPER FI SOCIETY OF ST LOUIS Speech by LtGen John Kelly, 13 Nov 2010

Nine years ago three of the four commercial aircraft took off from Boston, Newark, and Washington. Took off fully loaded with men, women and children-all innocent, and all soon to die. These aircraft were targeted at the World Trade Towers in New York, the Pentagon, and likely the Capitol in Washington, D.C... found their mark. No American alive old enough to remember will ever forget exactly where they were, exactly what they were doing, and exactly who they were with at the moment they watched the aircraft dive into the World Trade Towers on what was, until then, a beautiful morning in New York City. Within the hour 3,000 blameless human beings would be vaporized, incinerated, or crushed in the most agonizing ways imaginable. The most wretched among them-over 200-driven mad by heat, hopelessness, and utter desperation leapt to their deaths from 1,000 feet above Lower Manhattan. We soon learned hundreds more were murdered at the Pentagon, and in a Pennsylvania farmer's field.

Once the buildings had collapsed and the immensity of the attack began to register most of us had no idea of what to do, or where to turn. As a nation, we were scared like we had not been scared for generations. Parents hugged their children to gain as much as to give comfort. Strangers embraced in the streets stunned and crying on one another's shoulders seeking solace, as much as to give it. Instantaneously, American patriotism soared not "as the last refuge" as our national-cynical class would say, but in the darkest times Americans seek refuge in family, and in country, remembering that strong men and women have always stepped forward to protect the nation when the need was dire-and it was so God awful dire that day-and remains so today.

There was, however, a small segment of America that made very different choices that day; actions the rest of America stood in awe of on 9/11 and every day since. The first were our firefighters and police, their ranks decimated that day as they ran towards-not away from-danger and certain death. They were doing what they'd sworn to do-"protect and serve"-and went to their graves having fulfilled their sacred oath. Then there was you Armed Forces, and I know I am a little biased in my opinion here, but the best of them are Marines. Most wearing the Eagle, Globe and Anchor today joined the unbroken ranks of American heroes after that fateful day not for money, or promises of bonuses or travel to exotic liberty ports, but for one reason and one reason alone; because of the terrible assault on our way of life by men they knew must be killed and extremist ideology that must be destroyed. A plastic flag in their car window was not their response to the murderous assault on our country. No, their response was a commitment to protect the nation swearing an oath to their God to do so, to their deaths. When future generations ask why America is still free and the heyday of Al Qaeda and their terrorist allies was counted in days rather than in centuries as the extremists themselves predicted, our hometown heroes-soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines-can say, "because of me and people like me who risked all to protect millions who will never know my name."

As we sit here right now, we should not lose sight of the fact that America is at risk in a way it has never been before. Our enemy fights for an ideology based on an irrational hatred of who we are. Make no mistake about that no matter what certain elements of the "chattering class" relentlessly churn out. We did not start this fight, and it will not end until the extremists understand that we as a people will never lose our faith or our courage. If they persist, these terrorists and extremists and the nations that provide them sanctuary, they must know they will continue to be tracked down and captured or killed. America's civilian and military protectors both here at home and overseas have for nearly nine years fought
this enemy to a standstill and have never for a second "wondered why." They know, and are not afraid. Their struggle is your struggle. They hold in disdain those who claim to support them but not the cause that takes their innocence, their limbs, and even their lives. As a democracy-"We the People"-and that by definition is every one of us-sent them away from home and hearth to fight our enemies. We are all responsible. I know it doesn't apply to those of us here tonight but if anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service, and not support the cause for which they fight-America's survival-then they are lying to themselves and rationalizing away something in their lives, but, more importantly, they are slighting our warriors and mocking their commitment to the nation.

Since this generation's "day of infamy" the American military has handed our ruthless enemy defeat-after-defeat but it will go on for years, if not decades, before this curse has been eradicated. We have done this by unceasing pursuit day and night into whatever miserable lair Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their allies, might slither into to lay in wait for future opportunities to strike a blow at freedom. America's warriors have never lost faith in their mission, or doubted the correctness of their cause. They face dangers everyday that their countrymen safe and comfortable this night cannot imagine. But this has always been the case in all the wars our military have been sent to fight. Not to build empires, or
enslave peoples, but to free those held in the grip of tyrants while at the same time protecting our nation, its citizens, and our shared values. And, ladies and gentlemen, think about this, the only territory we as a people have ever asked for from any nation we have fought alongside, or against, since our founding, the entire extent of our overseas empire, as a few hundred acres of land for the 24 American cemeteries scattered around the globe. It is in these cemeteries where 220,000 of our sons and daughters rest in glory for eternity, or are memorialized forever because their earthly remains are lost forever in the deepest depths of the oceans, or never recovered from far flung and nameless battlefields. As a people, we can be proud because billions across the planet today live free, and billions yet unborn will also enjoy the same freedom and a chance at prosperity because America sent its sons and daughters out to fight and die for them, as much as for us.

Yes, we are at war, and are winning, but you wouldn't know it because successes go unreported, and only when something does go sufficiently or is sufficiently controversial, it is highlighted by the media elite that then sets up the "know it all" chattering class to offer their endless criticism. These self-proclaimed experts always seem to know better---but have never themselves been in the arena. We are at war and like it or not, that is a fact. It is not Bush's war, and it is not Obama's war, it is our war and we can't run away from it. Even if we wanted to surrender, there is no one to surrender to. Our enemy is savage, offers absolutely no quarter, and has a single focus and that is either kill every one of us here at home, or enslave us with a sick form of extremism that serves no God or purpose that decent men and women could ever grasp. St Louis is as much at risk as is New York and Washington, D.C... Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our merciless enemy would do it today, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. If, and most in the know predict that it is only a matter of time, he acquires nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, these extremists will use these weapons of mass murder against us without a moment's hesitation. These butchers we fight killed more than 3,000 innocents on 9/11. As horrible as that death toll was, consider for a moment that the monsters that organized those strikes against New York and Washington, D.C. killed only 3,000 not because that was enough to make their sick and demented point, but because he couldn't figure out how to kill 30,000, or 300,000, or 30 million of us that terrible day. I don't know why they hate us, and I don't care. We have a saying in the Marine Corps andthat is "no better friend, no worse enemy, than a U.S. Marine." We always hope for the first, friendship, but are certainly more than ready for the second. If its death they want, its death they will get, and the Marines will continue showing them the way to hell if that's what will make them happy.

Because our America hasn't been successfully attacked since 9/11 many forget because we want to forget.to move on. As Americans we all dream and hope for peace, but we must be realistic and acknowledge that hope is never an option or course of action when the stakes are so high. Others are less realistic or less committed, or are working their own agendas, and look for way to blame past presidents or in some other way to rationalize a way out of this war. The problem is our enemy is not willing to let us go. Regardless of how much we wish this nightmare would go away, our enemy will stay forever on the offensive until he hurts us so badly we surrender, or we kill him first. To him, this is not about our friendship with Israel, or about territory, resources, jobs, or economic opportunity in the Middle East. No, it is about us as a people. About our freedom to worship any God we please in any way we want. It is about the worth of every man, and the worth of every woman, and their equality in the eyes of God and the law; of how we live our lives with our families, inside the privacy of our own homes. It's about the God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable right." As Americans we hold these truths to be self-evident. He doesn't. We love what we have; he despises who we are. Our positions can never be reconciled. He cannot be deterred; only defeated. Compromise is out of the question.

The comforting news for every American is that our men and women in uniform, and every Marine, is as good today as any in our history. As good as what their heroic, under-appreciated, and largely abandoned fathers and uncles were in Vietnam, and their grandfathers were in Korea and World War II. They have the same steel in their backs and have made their own mark etching forever places like Ramadi, Fallujah, and Baghdad, Iraq, and Helmand and Sanguin, Afghanistan that are now part of the legend and stand just as proudly alongside Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Inchon, Hue City, Khe Sanh, and Ashau Valley, Vietnam. None of them have every asked what their country could do for them, but always and with their lives asked what they could do for America. While some might think we have produced yet another generation of materialistic, consumeristic and self-absorbed young people, those who serve today have broken the mold and stepped out as real men, and real women, who are already making their own way in life while protecting ours. They know the real strength of a platoon, a battalion, or a country that is not worshiping at the altar of diversity, but in a melting point that stitches and strengthens by a sense of shared history, values, customs, hopes and dreams all of which unifies a people making them stronger, as opposed to an unruly gaggle of "hyphenated" or "multi-cultural individuals."

And what are they like in combat in this war? Like Marines have been throughout our history. In my three tours in combat as an infantry officer and commanding general, I never saw one of them hesitate, or do anything other than lean into the fire and with no apparent fear of death or injury take the fight to our enemies. As anyone who has ever experienced combat knows, when it starts, when the explosions and tracers are everywhere and the calls for the Corpsman are screamed from the throats of men who know they are dying-when seconds seem like hours and it all becomes slow motion and fast forward at the same time-and the only rational act is to stop, get down, save yourself-they don't. When no one would call them coward for cowering behind a wall or in a hole, slave to the most basic of all human instincts-survival-none of them do. It doesn't matter if it's an IED, a suicide bomber, mortar attack, sniper, fighting in the upstairs room of a house, or all of it at once; they talk, swagger, and, most importantly, fight today in the same way America's Marines have since Tun Tavern. They also know whose shoulders they stand on, and they will never shame any Marine living or dead. We can also take comfort in the fact that these young Americans are not born killers, but are good and decent young men and women who for going on ten years have performed remarkable acts of bravery and selflessness to a cause they have decided is bigger and more important than themselves. Only a few months ago they were delivering your paper, stocking shelves in the local grocery store, worshiping in church on Sunday, or playing hockey on local ice. Like my own two sons who are Marines and have fought in Iraq, and today in Sanguin, Afghanistan, they are also the same kids that drove their cars too fast for your liking, and played the God-awful music of their generation too loud, but have no doubt they are the finest of their generation. Like those who went before them in uniform, we owe them everything. We owe them our safety. We owe them our prosperity. We owe them our freedom. We owe them our lives. Any one of them could have done something more self-serving with their lives as the vast majority of their age group elected to do after high school and college, but no, they chose to serve knowing full well a brutal war was in their future. They did not avoid the basic and cherished responsibility of a citizen-the defense of country-they welcomed it. They are the very best this country produces, and have put every one of us ahead of themselves. All are heroes for simply stepping forward, and we as a people owe a debt we can never fully pay. Their legacy will be of selfless valor, the country we live in, the way we live our lives, and the freedoms the rest of their countrymen take for granted.

I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are; about the quality
of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they bring to our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans. Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 "The Walking Dead," and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines. The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda. Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America's exist simultaneously depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.

The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like: "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?" I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like: "Yes Sergeant," with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, "No kidding sweetheart, we know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, al Anbar, Iraq.

A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way-perhaps 60-70 yards in length-and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young Marines didn't have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event-just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.

I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many were injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, they'd run like any normal man would to save his life. "What he didn't know until then," he said, "and what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal." Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did. No sane man. They saved us all." What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.

You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives.

Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: “let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two Marines had about five seconds left to live.

It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were-some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.

For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop.the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore into the body of the son-of-a-bitch who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers-American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder- width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.

The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight-for you.We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow to man while he lived on this earth-freedom. We also believe he gave us another gift nearly as precious-our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines-to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on this earth can every steal it away. It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the "land of the free and home of the brave" so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm. God Bless America, and SEMPER FIDELIS

Veterans Day - VA Loans

Veterans Day: An Honored National Holiday
By Kevin Pearia, guest writer

The celebration of the 2010 Veterans Day marks the 72nd year of the national holiday. Once celebrated worldwide as Armistice Day, Veterans Day is now a United States National holiday taking place each year on the 11th of November. The date commemorates the signing of the WWI Armistice by the Allied Powers and Germany at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month with Veterans Day ceremonies commencing at Arlington National Cemetery.

Although American flags can be seen throughout the US to honor the brave men and women who have dedicated themselves to their country through military service, other countries also celebrate Veterans Day. Great Britain, Belgium, Canada, and France all honor the 11th of November, but have declared different names for the holiday. Nearly every country, including the US, commemorates the holiday with red poppies and two-minutes of silence to honor brave service men and women worldwide.

To continue its tradition of honoring veterans and active duty service members, the Department of Veterans Affairs offers them a wide variety of benefits. Veterans are able to obtain educational assistance, job training, health benefits, and even obtain a loan through the VA Home Loan program.

The VA Home Loan program has helped 18+ million veterans and active-duty service members achieve homeownership since 1944, and it remains one of the most accessible and beneficial home loan programs available to military members. Service men and women interested in purchasing a home through the VA Home Loan program can expect:
 competitive interest rates
 flexible loan terms
 zero down payment required
 no mortgage insurance required

VA loans also have high loan limits, and military members can even determine their potential loan limit using the VA's loan calculator. The VA loan calculator not only provides users with the amount of their potential home loan, but it will also help them determine what can be done to increase their loan limit if they so desire.

The VA Home Loan program strives to make homeownership accessible to all veterans and active duty service members. In fact, nearly 80% of all military members who have qualified for a VA loan would not have qualified for a conventional loan. To be eligible for application, military members must meet one of the following initial requirements in addition to submitting a copy of their Certificate of Eligibility:
 Have served 181 days on active duty or 3 months during war time
 Or have served 6 years in the National Guard or Reserves
 Or be the spouse of a service member killed in action

Although the VA home loan program has no income or credit requirements, most VA-approved lenders will desire a credit score of at least 620 to secure financing. Even those with less than perfect credit are encouraged to apply, as those with history of bankruptcy or foreclosure have been approved in the past.

Further information is available at: www.vamortgagecenter.com

"The Karachi Project" ISI and AQ look to control Karachi

"The Karachi Project"

By Ali K. Chisti
Foreignpolicy.com

In a dramatic series of raids in February, Pakistani authorities captured more than two dozen top al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban, and Pakistani Taliban leaders, mostly in Pashtun areas on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. The list included Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar's top deputy, Mullah Baradar, whose capture raised hopes that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was finally gaining momentum.

The arrests also sparked a debate in Kabul and Washington over the seeming policy shift on the part of Pakistan, which for years had resisted cracking down on top insurgent leaders despite repeated entreaties from the United States. Some accounts suggested that Pakistan had nabbed Baradar to prevent him from cutting a separate peace deal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was reportedly angered by his arrest.

In fact, NATO sources say, most of the Afghan Taliban frontier leadership -- known as the Quetta Shura -- had for at least three years been sheltered in Karachi under an ultra-secret program run by the Pakistani security establishment and known as the "Karachi Project." The idea that most of the leadership of Taliban's was stationed in Quetta was a "smoke screen," a top NATO source told me. "In reality, it's Karachi Shura," confirmed a top NATO commander.

The origins of the Karachi Project reportedly date back to 2003, when, under intense U.S. pressure, then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf closed "Forward Section 23," a combo of safe houses and camps in Indian-occupied Kashmir that had provided cover and refuge to top militants. The Karachi branch of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate then became the hub for anti-India activities, the Asia Times has reported, led by a coalition of militant groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harukat ul-Jihad al-Islami, as well as elements of the Karachi criminal underworld. According to a recent account in the Guardian, citing "classified Indian government documents," at least two serving ISI officers played a role in the Nov. 26, 2008, attacks in Mumbai, which were launched from Karachi.

While analysts have for years accused Pakistan's security establishment of playing a double game with militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba -- disavowing responsibility for their actions while retaining them as "strategic assets" to be deployed against India -- recent revelations emerging from the interrogation of David Headley, a Pakistani-American accused of complicity in the Mumbai attacks, threaten to blow the game wide open.

In Headley's telling, Pakistan is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between "good" jihadi groups -- those that launch attacks in India or Afghanistan -- and "bad" ones that wage against the Pakistani state. Indeed, that may have been the motive for the Mumbai assault.

According to the Guardian, Headley "told the investigators that the ISI hoped the Mumbai attack would slow or stop growing ‘integration' between groups active in Kashmir, with whom the agency had maintained a long relationship, and ‘Taliban-based outfits' in Pakistan and Afghanistan which were a threat to the Pakistani state."
The Karachi Project works under the direct supervision of the ISI, according to accounts in the Indian press confirmed by multiple sources, and also shelters Daud Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, infamous Indian gangsters accused of orchestrating in the 1993 attacks in Mumbai, as well as the Bhaktbal brothers, cofounders of the Indian Mujahideen, the largest Indian jihadi group.

Whether or not one believes such accounts, it is worth noting that Mullah Baradar was reportedly caught at Khudamul Qurun, a hard-line religious seminary located in an area of Karachi that is under the sway of a major Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, whose leaders were previously accused of sheltering high-profile al Qaeda leaders like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, and other top al Qaeda leaders. Safe houses like this particular seminary are placed and well protected by the Pakistan security establishment.

A former intelligence chief who is actively monitoring the situation noted, "Over the years, it's Karachi which has seen more al Qaeda and Taliban activity than anywhere else."

Corporate America suppoting the troops - Crown Royal Steps Up

Iconic Crown Royal Bags Being Shipped to Troops Overseas

It’s still purple! The iconic Crown Royal purple bag is heading to Afghanistan, but in camouflage

ATLANTA (Sept. 16, 2010) – On their most important mission to date, camouflage-designed Crown Royal purple bags will be packed with gift items for America’s bravest, just in time for the holidays. Crown Royal, teaming up with non-profit Operation Troop Aid, is dispatching 10,000 of the specially designed bags to legal-drinking age troops on overseas deployment, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Volunteers in select events across the country will stuff the bags with personal care items, snacks and phone cards. “I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for troops to be away from their family and friends, especially during the holidays,” said Yvonne Briese, Crown Royal Brand Director. “We hope they like the CAMObags
and that this small gesture shows we are thinking about them back home and wishing them a safe return.”

Included in the bag, service members will receive well-wishes in the form of a hand-written message from each member of the Crown Royal team, including NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth, legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson, along with thousands of Diageo employees and partners.

To kickoff the program, a special event was held earlier today in Atlanta at Piedmont Park. During the event, hosted by legendary football coach and Crown Royal spokesperson Jimmy Johnson, the first Operation CAMO Care Packages were filled, and the parties unveiled a special mural that represents the program’s mission to ensure that soldiers serving abroad are reminded that those at home truly admire
and acknowledge their on-going commitment to protecting this country.

“After traveling to Afghanistan last year, I witnessed first-hand the daily struggles experienced by our troops to keep this great country of ours safe, and it had a profound affect on me,” Johnson said. “When one of the troops opens a Crown Royal CAMO bag, I hope they crack a smile and are reassured that home is not that far away.”

Operation CAMO Care Package kits include personal care items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste,comb, soap, shampoo, body wash, shaving cream, disposable razor and sunscreen. Soldiers will also find snacks such as trail mix, peanuts, cookies and candies. Select units will also receive 120-minute international phone cards to call their loved ones.

For more information on Operation CAMO Care Package and Crown Royal’s commitment to supporting the military, visit www.crownroyal.com/military. Crown Royal reminds adult consumers to always please drink responsibly.

Funding Pakistan's Jihad Against the West

Funding Pakistan’s Jihad

By Ali K Chishti

Karachi. While it may be true that over the years the militants have developed a vast and effective network for raising funds by taking as much as a rupee from a poor man to millions from the rich, donations are pouring in for jihad from every segment of society

All the commitment and fanaticism notwithstanding, terrorist operations cannot be run without funds. Funds for jihad are required for procuring weapons, financing training camps, providing logistical support, compensating the families of jihadis, paying instructors and also the wide networks of agents and running recruitment offices.

During the Afghan war, western governments were a major source of funding and weapons for the groups engaged in taking on the Soviet occupation army in Afghanistan. Much of these funds came from covert accounts of the states funding the Afghans. Islamic countries also poured in billions of dollars into the coffers of the jihadi groups. While the role of Saudi Arabia has been limited to the provision of funds to the Islamist and jihadi organisations, the Kingdom, to this day, is the biggest source of official and private funding to Islamist and jihadist organisations in Pakistan, and it is to their credit that certain Deobandi and Ahle-Hadith extremist organisations became so powerful with the growth in their size.

One also has to see the Saudi financial support to Deobandi organisations in the context of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran post the Iranian revolution where both these countries had supported militant sectarian organisations to organise attacks and counter-attacks on each other’s sects and fought a proxy war inside Pakistan.

So open was Saudi support to Sipah-e-Sahaba (now the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jundullah) that the Saudi government, in 2000, gave out Rs 17 million to fund hardcore militant madrassas in Jhang alone. Another Saudi charity, called the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), is an affiliate of the Saudi welfare organisation, Rabita Alam-e-Islami, which in turn helped to set up the Rabita Trust in Pakistan that was banned after 9/11 because of a strong bin Laden connection. The most interesting aspect of the Trust was that its chairman was none other than General Pervez Musharraf, the chief of army staff. To save embarrassment to a close ally, a state department official said, “We do not think the prominent people who have their names on it were aware of the infiltration.”

In fact, so murky is the source of funds coming from Saudi Arabia that the leader of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Maulana Fazlur Rahman Khalil said, “The US had instructed, through Rabita Alam-e-Islami that we should initiate jihad in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, to which I replied that we have grown up now. We do not do jihad at your bidding.”

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s (LeT’s) parent organisation, the Dawat wal Irshad, initially also attracted the sympathy of certain Arab donors interested in purifying Islam in the subcontinent, which is considered to have been tainted by the influence of Hinduism. In fact, one such Saudi donor, Abu Abdul Aziz, who invested millions of dollars on LeT, LeJ and various jihadi organisations, even donated Rs 10 million to make a mosque at Markaz-e-Dawa’s headquarters.

And while it may be true that over the years the militants have developed a vast and effective network for raising funds by taking as much as a rupee from a poor man to millions from the rich, donations are pouring in for jihad from every segment of society. And while many jihadi organisations collect sacrificial hides to raise funds, many have started raising their capital from publishing magazines to even the property business, and now, as a jihadi told me sheepishly, “the national disaster business”. In a report published by the Aga Khan Development Network in 1998, approximately 50 percent of Pakistanis gave an estimated amount of Rs 770 billion in money, goods and time, of which 90 percent of the surveyed donors cited religious faith as the motivation for giving.

If all this foreign and local funding were not enough, the Pakistani government gives out an estimated Rs 20-35 billion in grants to madrassas and jihadi movements indirectly from government resources like zakat or iqra funds. Another funding source after the crackdown on Saudi sources and tighter monetary controls is the Afghan Transit Trade, which is a cash cow for jihadis and certain rogue establishment actors who exploit the trade for procuring weapons and narcotics smuggling, earning millions of dollars to be funnelled into proxy wars from Afghanistan to Pakistan. There was a reason why the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) offered $ 10 million to replace American aid. The hundi trade is another source that is ‘welcomed’ by the State Bank of Pakistan, as it has, over the years, been buying billions of dollars to shore up its balance of payment positions. The hundi trade helps launder money for jihadis but in the land of the pure, jihad is used as a weapon to further our so-called strategic plans.

Even after 9/11, much of what is happening inside the tribal belt is a bit of a charade. In fact, what earlier used to be taking place openly has now been pushed behind the curtain, otherwise it is business as usual. Every time the Americans start getting impatient, the Pakistanis make a show of launching an operation in the tribal belt. There are arrests of Afghan and Arab jihadis or the killings of certain individuals until everything returns to normal. One big reason why our own Pakistani government will never really close the funding source and cut the roots of jihadis is because doing so would have a direct impact on the various jihads it is involved with to suit certain foreign policy goals. Moreover, by shutting down these rackets, the Pakistani state will lose an important leverage over deciding affairs inside Afghanistan. Often, the Pakistani state has used smuggling as a carrot for the various Afghan warlords and agents, and in return has managed to get them to do Pakistan’s bidding inside Afghanistan. This currency of power will be lost if Pakistan were to curb the illegal rackets. But, in the process of taking action on this trade, what will happen is that the Pakistani state will try to regain total and complete control over this trade, something it was gradually losing out on with the increasing privatisation of jihad.

===========
The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at akchishti@hotmail.com

"Brigade 313" prepares plan to attack Commonwealth Games

"Brigade 313" prepares plan to attack Commonwealth Games

By Ali K Chishti

Daily Times: http://tinyurl.com/32yd4se
Karachi, Sept 30, 2010

It can be confirmed that al Qaeda and a group based in North Waziristan calling itself “Brigade 313”, which is made up of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allied extremist group members, including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Karachi-based Jandullah, has prepared a plan to attack the 19th Commonwealth Games, which are due to be held in News Delhi from October 3 to October 14, Daily Times has learnt.

Previously, those who have been described as “stateless actors” by the government, attacked various targets in India’s financial hub, Mumbai, which strained the relations between India and Pakistan and brought them on the brink of war.

The intelligence has originated from Kabul where a western military source confirmed that, “We intercepted certain conversations that gave us the impression that the attack on an important sporting event is due in India.”

It has also been confirmed that some of the information originated from a German national named, Ahmed Siddiqui, 36, who has been caught in Kabul under suspicion of carrying out a terrorist plot in the West. The intelligence about such an attack had also been passed on to the Indians.

Daily Times has been told that Ilyas Kashmiri, who heads al Qaeda’s Brigade 313 and who is a former rogue SSG commando, will be heading the whole operation to carry out this terrorist plot in New Delhi. Kashmiri had been linked to have actually orchestrated the Mumbai attacks and to have links with the Dylands-Posten plot to carry out the assassination of General Alvi, who commanded the Pakistan Army’s elite Special Services Group (SSG). Kashmiri is now based in North Waziristan and heads what is now called the Punjabi Taliban.

The Interior Ministry, along with various security establishments in Pakistan, after the news that there could have been another terrorist plot originating from Pakistan are in a ‘state of panic’, where according to one senior ministry member, “We are seriously investigating and taking all precautions that we could and have been extra-vigilant. Surely another 26/11 or a high-profile terrorist incident now in India would definitely be a major blow, something that none of us wants.”

A New Delhi based security analyst, Bharat Swami, told Daily Times, “Another attack from Pakistan would leave India no other option but to target militant camps inside Pakistan and could end all diplomatic relations with Pakistan.”

The Pakistani Foreign Office’s spokesman declined to comment on the story, but termed it ‘baseless’. Western diplomat in close contact with security officials told Daily Times that, “This is what we fear the most… we all have our fingers crossed on this one, but if such an incident does take place, we will be packing our bags.”

India only recently raised the level of security for the 19th Commonwealth Games and deputed more than 100,000 security officials, including elite commandoes, for providing security to the participants.

Obama: "The Cancer is in Pakistan"

From the Bob Woodward book "Obama's War"

President Obama dispatched his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta to Pakistan for a series of urgent, secret meetings on May 19, 2010.

Less than three weeks earlier, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen born in Pakistan had tried to blow up an SUV in New York City's Times Square. The crude bomb - which a Pakistan-based terrorist group had taught him to make - smoked but did not explode. Only luck had prevented a catastrophe.

"We're living on borrowed time," Jones told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at their meeting in Islamabad. "We consider the Times Square attempt a successful plot because neither the American nor the Pakistani intelligence agencies could intercept or stop it."

Jones thought that Pakistan - a U.S. ally with an a la carte approach of going after some terrorist groups and supporting others - was playing Russian roulette. The chamber had turned out to be empty the past several times, but Jones thought it was only a matter of time before there was a round in it.

Fears about Pakistan had been driving President Obama's national security team for more than a year. Obama had said toward the start of his fall 2009 Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review that the more pressing U.S. interests were really in Pakistan, a nuclear power with a fragile civilian government, a dominant military and an intelligence service that sponsored terrorist groups.

Not only did al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban operate from safe havens within Pakistan, but - as U.S. intelligence officials had repeatedly warned Obama - terrorist groups were recruiting Westerners whose passports would allow them to move freely in Europe and North America.

Safe havens would no longer be tolerated, Obama had decided. "We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan," he declared during an Oval Office meeting on Nov. 25, 2009, near the end of the strategy review. The reason to create a secure, self-governing Afghanistan, he said, was "so the cancer doesn't spread there."

Jones and Panetta had gone to Pakistan to tell Zardari that Obama wanted four things to help prevent a terrorist attack on U.S. soil: full intelligence sharing, more reliable cooperation on counterterrorism, faster approval of visas for U.S. personnel traveling to Pakistan and, despite past refusals, access to airline passenger data.

If, God forbid, the SUV had blown up in Times Square, Jones told Zardari, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Should a future attempt be successful, Obama would be forced to do things that Pakistan would not like. "No one will be able to stop the response and consequences," the security adviser said. "This is not a threat, just a statement of political fact."

Jones did not give specifics about what he meant. The Obama administration had a "retribution" plan, one of the most sensitive and secretive of all military contingencies. The plan called for bombing about 150 identified terrorist camps in a brutal, punishing attack inside Pakistan.

Profiling Pakistani Jihadists

ANALYSIS: Profiling Pakistani Jihadists

By Ali K Chishti

Karaci: One major draw for jihadis in Pakistan is the clout a religious militant enjoys with the law-enforcement agencies. The militant organisation gives otherwise powerless men a strong sense of identity in an increasingly fragmented social structure

What kind of people are rushing to join jihadi organisations? Where are they coming from? What is their family and educational background? And most importantly, what motivates them to put their lives on the line for missions that really have nothing material to do with them? What really prompts a Punjabi, Sindhi, Baloch or Pashtun to become a member of a suicide squad? Or, for that matter, what makes these people participate in far off conflicts that have no bearing on their lives, except maybe emotional attachment? What is behind their fanaticism and their commitment? How are they recruited?

All such profiling conducted by various think-tanks gives us a small hint of the demonic mindset that we are dealing with in the fight against radical Islamic terror groups. Another frightening reality that emerges from a close study of jihadis is that they do not come from any one particular education stream, family background, region or even economic background. The spirit of jihad transcends these boundaries and stereotypes. In other words, jihadis are now coming from every social, economic and cultural strata of Pakistani society. This means that our country itself has become one big Jihad Inc. The role of mullahs in motivating and recruiting young men for jihad clearly comes out when profiling jihadis but equally important is the fact that economic factors and a breakdown in traditional social structures too are motivating many people to take to jihad.

Jihad in this part of the world is seen as lending a sense of purpose to the lives of many people who otherwise would be pushovers in society. One major draw for jihadis in Pakistan is the clout a religious militant enjoys with the law enforcement agencies. A black tinted four-by-four and a suspicious number plate with occupants sporting militia-style clothing, long hair and beards is bound to arouse suspicion and get the vehicle pulled over at any check post. If you are a religious militant, however, you are simply waved through with a level of ‘respect’ unthinkable for most Pakistanis. Obviously, being above the law holds great appeal for the jobless. The militant organisation gives otherwise powerless men a strong sense of identity in an increasingly fragmented social structure.

Only recently a research paper published on the very subject reveals that a vast number of recruits come from formal schools and lack any real religious knowledge or motivation. The primary cause behind militancy, it is argued, is unemployment and poverty. There are the middle class jihadis like Shehzad Tanvir or Sheikh Omar, who has been convicted of murdering Daniel Pearl. There is a popular misconception that young Pakistani men who volunteer for jihad invariably do so out of a lack of viable economic options. This is particularly untrue in Karachi where most budding jihadis hail from middle, upper middle or even upper class families. A similar trend prevails in other large cities that, in turn, explodes another myth that Pakistan’s ‘non-state actors’ are largely confined to the country’s tribal and northern areas.

“I am proud of my son although the only regret I have is that I do not have another son to send for this noble cause,” says a middle-aged man whose only son is believed dead somewhere in Afghanistan. Another jihadi now turned tableeghi, Mehmood, who in his late 20s managed to come back to Karachi in one piece, maintains that misconceptions abound concerning the current reality in Afghanistan. He says, “Some people accuse the Taliban of retreating without informing the Pakistani and Arab mujaheedin, a move that allegedly resulted in their slaughter by the Northern Alliance. That is totally incorrect.” While pulling back, the Taliban asked all their foreign allies to withdraw with them. The Pakistani and Arab mujahideen, however, decided to keep on fighting even though they knew that they would get killed. Most of them preferred to die as they had already burnt their bridges.

One would imagine that most of those planning to take part in the holy war would be from the militant cadres of jihadi organisations. However, it has become patently obvious that this modern version of the David and Goliath fable has an emotive appeal across the spectrum of Pakistani society too. Many, even those who do not agree with the Taliban’s obscurantist version of Islam, have found inspiration in the obdurate refusal of one of the world’s poorest Muslim countries to give in to the demands of the only global superpower.

Finally, there is the myth and misconception that jihadis are only Pashtuns and Punjabis. The records provided by different jihadi organisations and research material available show that the number of martyrs from Sindh has already touched 500 in the FATA region alone. In the early 2000s, when our proxies were primarily targeted towards the east, 85 of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, 175 of Hizbul Mujahideen and 51 of Lashkar-e-Islam were Sindhi-speaking jihadis. In the case of Balochistan, the list of casualties published by various jihadi organisations shows that from 1999 to March 2002, there were 112 so-called martyrs from Balochistan, most of whom died in Afghanistan, indicating that the jihad phenomenon in Pakistan has gone viral in almost every segment of our society.

===========

The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at akchishti@hotmail.com

"Building on Faith" By the Imam of the proposed NYC mosque

Building on Faith

By FEISAL ABDUL RAUF

AS my flight approached America last weekend, my mind circled back to the furor that has broken out over plans to build Cordoba House, a community center in Lower Manhattan.I have been away from home for two months, speaking abroad about cooperation among people from different religions. Every day, including the past two weeks spent representing my country on a State Department tour in the Middle East, I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels.

We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become. The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship.

Many people wondered why I did not speak out more, and sooner, about this project. I felt that it would not be right to comment from abroad. It would be better if I addressed these issues once I returned home to America, and after I could confer with leaders of other faiths who have been deliberating with us over this project. My life’s work has been focused on building bridges between religious groups and never has that been as important as it is now.

We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons.

Above all, the project will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years. Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims. Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures.

Our broader mission — to strengthen relations between the Western and Muslim worlds and to help counter radical ideology — lies not in skirting the margins of issues that have polarized relations within the Muslim world and between non-Muslims and Muslims. It lies in confronting them as a joint multifaith, multinational effort.

From the political conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians to the building of a community center in Lower Manhattan, Muslims and members of all faiths must work together if we are ever going to succeed in fostering understanding and peace.

At Cordoba House, we envision shared space for community activities, like a swimming pool, classrooms and a play space for children. There will be separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews and men and women of other faiths. The center will also include a multifaith memorial dedicated to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.

Cordoba House will be built on the two fundamental commandments common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam: to love the Lord our creator with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength; and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We want to foster a culture of worship authentic to each religious tradition, and also a culture of forging personal bonds across religious traditions.

I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion. (Construction has not even begun yet.) I know there will be interest in our financing, and so we will clearly identify all of our financial backers.

Lost amid the commotion is the good that has come out of the recent discussion. I want to draw attention, specifically, to the open, law-based and tolerant actions that have taken place, and that are particularly striking for Muslims.

President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both spoke out in support of our project. As I traveled overseas, I saw firsthand how their words and actions made a tremendous impact on the Muslim street and on Muslim leaders. It was striking: a Christian president and a Jewish mayor of New York supporting the rights of Muslims. Their statements sent a powerful message about what America stands for, and will be remembered as a milestone in improving American-Muslim relations.

The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith. These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide. This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides. The paradigm of a clash between the West and the Muslim world will continue, as it has in recent decades at terrible cost. It is a paradigm we must shift.

From those who recognize our rights, from grassroots organizers to heads of state, I sense a global desire to build on this positive momentum and to be part of a global movement to heal relations and bring peace. This is an opportunity we must grasp.

I therefore call upon all Americans to rise to this challenge. Let us commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 by pausing to reflect and meditate and tone down the vitriol and rhetoric that serves only to strengthen the radicals and weaken our friends’ belief in our values.

The very word “islam” comes from a word cognate to shalom, which means peace in Hebrew. The Koran declares in its 36th chapter, regarded by the Prophet Muhammad as the heart of the Koran, in a verse deemed the heart of this chapter, “Peace is a word spoken from a merciful Lord.”

How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?
====================

Feisal Abdul Rauf is the chairman of the Cordoba Initiative and the imam of the Farah mosque in Lower Manhattan.