04/07/13 American airstrike kills dozens in Afghanistan

Other Occupation News:

05/22/13 AP: Suicide bomber kills anti-Taliban village elder, 3 others in busy market

05/22/13 KP: Suicide blast in Ghazni province, 7 killed 13 injured

U.S. Afghanistan Occupation Casualties

Pictures: Deaths in Afghanistan: A look at the faces of American lives lost

This list includes fatal U.S. government casualties military and civilian in the Occupation Of Afghanistan. Its totals will usually be slightly less than those in media reports because they are based on Defense Department reports of each casualty’s name and other personal details, which are not released until next of kin are notified. The information is cross-checked with reports by the Associated Press and local news media and periodic updates by the Defense Department.

Total To Date:

Killed: 2,227

Wounded: Can not find a reliable source.

Names of the Dead:

Recent Confirmations

Color denotes today’s confirmation:

Spc. Dwayne W. Flores, 22, of Sinajana, Guam…assigned to the 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Fort Juan Muna, Guam…died May 16, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device.

Sgt. Eugene M Aguon, 23, of Mangilao, Guam… assigned to the 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Fort Juan Muna, Guam…died May 16, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device.

 Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey C. Baker, 29, of Hesperia, Calif., assigned to 766th Ordnance Company, 63rd Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance Group, Fort Stewart, Ga…died May 14, in Sanjaray, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

Spc. Mitchell K. Daehling, 24, of Dalton, Mass., both assigned to 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 14, in Sanjaray, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

 Spc. William J. Gilbert, 24, of Hacienda Heights, Calif., both assigned to 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 14, in Sanjaray, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. 1st Class Trenton L. Rhea, 33, of Oakley, Kan., died May 15, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after drowning while attempting to cross a body of water during combat operations. He was assigned to the 603rd Military Police Company, 530th Military Police Battalion, 300th Military Police Brigade, 200th Military Police Command, Belton, Mo.

Spc. Brandon J. Prescott, 24, of Bend, Ore… assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36thInfantry, 1stBrigade Combat Team, 1stArmored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when their vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.

Spc. Thomas P. Murach, 22, of Meridian, Idaho… assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36thInfantry, 1stBrigade Combat Team, 1stArmored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when their vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.

Spc. Kevin Cardoza, 19, of Mercedes, Texas… assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36thInfantry, 1stBrigade Combat Team, 1stArmored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when their vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.

Staff Sgt. Francis G. Phillips IV, 28, of Meridian, N.Y… assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36thInfantry, 1stBrigade Combat Team, 1stArmored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when their vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.

1stLt. Brandon J. Landrum, 26, of Lawton, Okla… assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36thInfantry, 1stBrigade Combat Team, 1stArmored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas…died May 4, in Maiwand, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when their vehicle was attacked by an enemy improvised explosive device.

They died May 3, near Chon-Aryk, Kyrgyzstan, in the crash of a KC-135 aircraft.  The airmen were assigned to the 93rd Air Refueling Squadron, Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.  The cause of the crash is under investigation. 

Killed were: 

            Capt. Mark T. Voss, 27, of Colorado Springs, Colo.,  

            Capt. Victoria A. Pinckney, 27, of Palmdale, Calif., and 

            Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III, 30, of Bakersfield, Calif.  

They died May 2, in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident. They were assigned to 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Killed were:

Spc. Trinidad Santiago Jr., 25, of San Diego, Calif., and

Pfc. Charles P. McClure, 21, of Stratford, Okla.

Staff Sgt. Michael H. Simpson, 30, of San Antonio, Texas, died May 1 in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit on April 27, with an improvised explosive device in Arian, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

Afghanistan Occupation Confirmed U.S Casualties – Since June 1, 2009

News

News Bulletin

The main headlines on Al Jazeera English, featuring the latest news and reports from around the world.

Ahmadinejad to appeal Iran poll-ban on ally

Middle East

Law to promote patriotism in Russia

Is Obama squeezing media freedom?

Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Abu Faraj al-Libi, one of the detainees there, was allegedly seized in Pakistan in 2005, flown to Afghanistan, switched to another aircraft and taken to the US base via Romania. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty

• New light shed on US’s extraordinary rendition programme

  Online project uncovers details of way in which CIA carried out kidnaps and secret detentions following September 11 attacks  

• TheRendition Project interactive

• CIA rendition flights explained

• Environment

• Climate change

Heatwave deaths in New York city could rise by up to 22%, study shows

New temperature norms under climate change will increase weather-related deaths in metropolitan areas in coming decades

• Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent

A man tries to cool himself with a bottle of water during the a heatwave in New York City. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

New York city could experience up to 22% more deaths from extreme summertime heat in the coming decade under global warming, according to a study of the impact of climate trends.

The higher deaths will be partially offset by a reduction in deaths due to the milder winters predicted in Manhattan.

Opinion

Al Jazeera deletes its own controversial Op-Ed, then refuses to comment

The bizarre behavior by the media giant reflects brewing tensions as it seeks to enter the US television market

• 
• Glenn Greenwald
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 May 2013 10.04 EDT

A general view shows the newsroom at the headquarters of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera English-language channel in Doha in this February 7, 2011 Photograph: Fadi Al-Assaad/REUTERS

News

News Bulletin

The main headlines on Al Jazeera English, featuring the latest news and reports from around the world.

Afghan forces in deadly battle with Taliban

Central & South Asia

Bombings continue across Iraq

Middle East

The power to go to war

Registered nurse ‘Leonato’ says he ‘hasn’t seen anybody in pain’ from the force-feeding [Jason Leopold/Al Jazeera]

Physician dismisses force-feeding concerns

Jason Leopold

21 May 2013 08:20 GMT

Senior Guantanamo physician dismisses ethical concerns about force-feeding prisoners, and defends the ongoing practice.

• 
  

  Apple CEO Tim Cook testifies at Senate hearing over tax practices – live

  Apple has denied findings by congressional investigators that they use ‘highly questionable’ tax minimization strategy. Follow it live here

  • Apple tax row: Ireland says its tax regime is not to blame

  • Senators accuse Apple of ‘highly questionable’ billion-dollar tax avoidance scheme

  • Apple joins BlackBerry and Samsung in getting Pentagon approval

  

Opinion

• 

  Obama DOJ accuses journalist of committing crimes

  

  Glenn Greenwald Yet another serious escalation of the Obama administration’s attacks on press freedoms emerges

  

The United States is truly engaged in an endless war.

In a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces Thursday morning entitled Oversight: The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, Pentagon officials argued that the wide-ranging counter-terrorism laws implemented after 9/11 will continue to be the law of the land until “hostilities with al-Qaeda,” or any individuals potentially associated with the group, come to an end.

“This is the most astounding and astoundingly disturbing hearing I have been to since I have been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today”
- Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)During the hearing, lawmakers questioned the panel on the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and weighed further actions. It was the first Senate hearing on the potential rewriting of the AUMF.

The rule empowers the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

This widespread directive has enabled the Commander in Chief to oversee everything from the rendition, transfer and indefinite detention of “suspects,” to the authorization of lethal drone strikes.

Further, Pentagon officials argued Thursday that under the AUMF troops could be sent to Syria, Yemen and the Congo without new congressional authorization.

Testifying before the panel, Michael A. Sheehan, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations, defended the rationale saying that if a terrorist organization outside of al-Qaeda, the Taliban or any other “associated forces” began to threaten the United States, “Then we might have to look at different authorities or extended authority or adjustment of authority to go after that organization.”

Sheehan added that “when hostilities with al-Qaeda end, the AUMF will no longer be in force,” ignoring the verified, self-perpetuating nature of the “global war on terror” in that American militarism has only increased hostilities worldwide.

“This is the most astounding and astoundingly disturbing hearing I have been to since I have been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today,” said Senator Angus King (I-Maine) at the hearing Thursday.

“I’m just a little old lawyer from Brunswick, Maine, but I don’t see how you can possibly read this to be in comport with the Constitution,” King said. “Under your reading, we’ve granted unbelievable powers to the president and it’s a very dangerous precedent.”

“You guys have invented this term, associated forces, that’s nowhere in this document,” he added. “It’s the justification for everything, and it renders the war powers of Congress null and void.”

Encouraging the lawmakers to retire the AUMF, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, explained that there is “no more important distinction than the line between peace and war,” because during peacetime a suspect can only be detained after full due process. Whereas in war, governments can kill at will.

He continued:

[T]he combination of a declared global war and the newly enhanced capacity to kill individual targets far from any traditional battlefield poses new dangers to basic rights—ones that will only grow as the US role in the Afghan armed conflict winds down. That leaves only al-Qaeda and similar armed groups but without the elements that traditionally limit use of the war power: the control of territory and a recognizable battlefield. To paint the problem most starkly, might a government that wants to kill a particular person simply declare “war” on him and shoot him, circumventing the basic due-process rights to which the target would ordinarily be entitled?

Calling the AUMF a “blank check written in advance,” Roth added that although President Obama has formally dropped the Bush administration’s use of the phrase “global war on terror,” he noted that their interpretation of the rule “looks very similar.”

Democracy Now! posted this excerpt from Thursday’s hearing:

.

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Saturday, 18 May 2013

The AP Seizures and the Frightening Web They’ve Uncovered

Alfredo Lopez, Op-Ed: This week, we learned that the Obama Justice Department seized two months of records of at least 20 phone lines used by Associated Press reporters. These include phone lines in the AP’s New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn offices as well as the main AP number in the House of Representatives press gallery, the private phones and cell phones belonging to AP reporters and a fax line in one AP office. In many ways, this is the most blatant act of media information seizure in memory.

Genetically Modified Democracy: Monsanto and Congress Move to Stomp on States’ Rights

Ronnie Cummins, News Analysis: Reliable sources in Washington D.C. have informed the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that Monsanto has begun secretly lobbying its Congressional allies to attach one or more “Monsanto Riders” or amendments to the 2013 Farm Bill that would preempt or prohibit states from requiring labels on genetically engineered (GE) foods. In response to this blatant violation of states’ rights to legislate, and consumers’ right to know, the OCA and a nationwide alliance have launched a petition to put every member of Congress on notice: If you support any Farm Bill amendment that would nullify states’ rights to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we’ll vote—or throw—you out of office.

Robert Reich | The IRS and the Real Scandal

Robert Reich, Op-Ed: The IRS has interpreted our tax laws to allow big corporations and wealthy individuals to make unlimited secret campaign donations through sham political fronts called “social welfare organizations,” like Karl Rove’s “Crossroads,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and “ Priorities USA.” This is the real scandal and the real abuse, Congressman Camp. Your indignation over the IRS’s alleged “targeting” of conservative groups is a distraction from the main event.

How the IRS’s Nonprofit Division Got So Dysfunctional

Justin Elliott and Kim Barker, News Investigation: The IRS division responsible for flagging Tea Party groups has long been an agency afterthought, beset by mismanagement, financial constraints and an unwillingness to spell out just what it expects from social welfare nonprofits, former officials and experts say. The controversy that erupted in the past week, leading to the ousting of the acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner, an investigation by the FBI, and congressional hearings that kicked off Friday, comes against a backdrop of dysfunction brewing for years.

The People Provide Obama a Path to Escape the Quagmire of the Marijuana War

Kevin Zeese, Op-Ed: The U.S. is stuck in a marijuana war quagmire. When Justice Brandeis described the states as “laboratories for democracy” he warned “to stay experimentation in things social and economic is a grave responsibility.” “Denial of the right to experiment may be fraught with serious consequences to the nation.” The president should let democracy and federalism work and follow the path the people have presented and escape the quagmire of marijuana prohibition.

GOP Sources Altered Benghazi Emails to Suggest Cover-Up, Reporter Confirms

Rebecca Leber, News Investigation: Since September, Republicans have claimed the Obama administration covered up the truth about the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya by altering the talking points Susan Rice used on the Sunday morning talk shows. To bolster the story, Republicans misquoted or significantly embellished the emails officials used to draft Rice’s remarks, the CBS Evening News reported Thursday. Since the congressional hearings last week, the White House on Wednesday released a hundred pages of emails from after the consulate attack.

Obama Worse than Nixon? Pentagon Papers Attorney Decries AP Phone Probe, Julian Assange Persecution

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Video Interview: The Justice Department’s disclosure that it had secretly subpoenaed phone records from the Associated Press has prompted a wave of comparisons between President Obama and Richard Nixon. Four decades ago, the Nixon administration attempted to block The New York Times from publishing a secret history of the Vietnam War leaked to the newspaper by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. The question was raised again of whether the Obama administration’s probe of the emails of Associated Press reporters and editors recalls Nixon’s targeting of the press. This time the question was posed directly to President Obama.

Consumers Not the Best Drivers in Health Care

Froma Harrop, Op-Ed: Yes, there are those who could easily afford health coverage and don’t buy it, preferring to roll the dice that nothing awful will happen. If they lose, they’re still let into the emergency room. The responsible ones will pay for their care. When they’re old enough, they’ll have Medicare. And if conservatives have their way, forcing more means-testing into Medicare, those who didn’t protect their finances by buying insurance will pay less into the program than those who did. ObamaCare does not get into the backstory of why people don’t have health coverage. What it does is make sure they get it.

Occupying the Barbie Dreamhouse: Berliners Take on Mattel

Louise Osborne, News Report: A luxurious life-size playhouse complete with a kitchen ready to bake cupcakes, a walk-in closet and a dazzling jewelry display—all in pink. Every little girl’s dream, or so believes Mattel and EMS Entertainment, the masterminds behind the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience soon to open its doors in the center of Berlin. But a youth group linked to Germany’s Left Party thinks differently. And while they cannot prevent the attraction opening on May 16, they want parents to think twice about bringing their children to a real-life dollhouse they say embodies tired and damaging female stereotypes.

Billionaires Unchained

Andy Kroll, Op-Ed: Billionaires with an axe to grind, now is your time. Not since the days before a bumbling crew of would-be break-in artists set into motion the fabled Watergate scandal, leading to the first far-reaching restrictions on money in American politics, have you been so free to meddle. There is no limit to the amount of money you can give to elect your friends and allies to political office, to defeat those with whom you disagree, to shape or stunt or kill policy, and above all to influence the tone and content of political discussion in this country.

A Penny a Pound, Plus Power: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Changes History

Beverly Bell, News Analysis: For most tomato pickers in the U.S., a bucket brings in 50 cents, a piece rate that has remained virtually unchanged for more than 30 years. Because the rate is set so low, a worker has to pick more than two and a quarter tons of tomatoes per day—the weight of a young elephant—to make the minimum wage. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is transforming all of this. CIW members hope that soon all tomato pickers throughout the country will have greater rights and wages, and then all agricultural workers, with the establishment of an industry-wide standard.

Barack Obama’s imperial presidency is just what his controversial predecessor wanted.

This month, I spoke at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal with some of its survivors at the National Press Club. While much of the discussion looked back at the historic clash with President Nixon, I was struck by a different question: Who actually won? From unilateral military actions to warrantless surveillance that were key parts of the basis for Nixon’s impending impeachment, the painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments. Consider a few examples:

Warrantless surveillance

Nixon’s use of warrantless surveillance led to the creation of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). But the reform turned out to be more form than substance. The secret court turned “probable cause” into a meaningless standard, virtually guaranteeing any surveillance the government wanted. After hundreds of thousands of applications over decades, only a couple have ever been denied.

Last month, the Supreme Court crushed any remaining illusions regarding FISA when it sided with the Obama administration in ruling that potential targets of such spying had to have proof they were spied upon before filing lawsuits, even if the government has declared such evidence to be secret. That’s only the latest among dozens of lawsuits the administration has blocked while surveillance expands exponentially.

Unilateral military action

Nixon’s impeachment included the charge that he evaded Congress’ sole authority to declare war by invading Cambodia. In the Libyan “mission,” Obama announced that only he had the inherent authority to decide what is a “war” and that so long as he called it something different, no congressional approval or even consultation was necessary. He proceeded to bomb a nation’s capital, destroy military units and spend more than a billion dollars in support of one side in a civil war.

Kill lists

Nixon ordered a burglary to find evidence to use against Daniel Ellsberg, who gave the famed Pentagon Papers to the press, and later tried to imprison him. Ellsberg was later told of a secret plot by the White House “plumbers” to “incapacitate” him in a physical attack. It was a shocking revelation. That’s nothing compared with Obama’s assertion of the right to kill any U.S. citizen without a charge, let alone conviction, based on his sole authority. A recently leaked memo argues that the president has a right to kill a citizen even when he lacks “clear evidence (of) a specific attack” being planned.

Attacking whistle-blowers

Nixon was known for his attacks on whistle-blowers. He used the Espionage Act of 1917 to bring a rare criminal case against Ellsberg. Nixon was vilified for the abuse of the law. Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined. While refusing to prosecute anyone for actual torture, the Obama administration has prosecuted former CIA employee John Kiriakou for disclosing the torture program.

Other Nixonesque areas include Obama’s overuse of classification laws and withholding material from Congress. There are even missing tapes. In the torture scandal, CIA officials admitted to destroying tapes that they feared could be used against them in criminal cases. Of course, Nixon had missing tapes, but Rose Mary Woods claimed to have erased them by mistake, as opposed to current officials who openly admit to intentional destruction.

Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half. Many Democrats and progressive activists find themselves unable to oppose Obama for the authoritarian powers he has assumed. It is not simply a case of personality trumping principle; it is a cult of personality.

Long after Watergate, not only has the presidency changed. We have changed. We have become accustomed to elements of a security state such as massive surveillance and executive authority without judicial oversight. We have finally answered a question left by Benjamin Franklin in 1787, when a Mrs. Powel confronted him after the Constitutional Convention and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His chilling response: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We appear to have grown weary of the republic and traded it for promises of security from a shining political personality. Somewhere, Nixon must be wondering how it could have been this easy.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.

The O’Leary: If an institution accepts funds from the American government they should not be able to operate in ways that are against our laws.