Every War Begins with A Lie : is Taliban = 911?

Google it and you'll find the Times report repeated and amplified 5,785 times more.

Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.

Your eyelids are getting heavy. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.

And every war begins with a lie.

As the poet T.S. Eliot warned,

"The last temptation is the greatest treason
To do the right thing for the wrong reason."

Taliban = 9/11? Innocents, by the thousands and thousands, have paid and will pay in blood for this treasonous falsehood.

Read further Afghanistan by Hypnosis.

Dear Mr President...

Does it pays for war in Afghanistan? Message to OBAMA

EXCLUSIVE: Air Raid Victim Tells Obama to Leave Afghanistan at Once:



EXCLUSIVE: Afghan Refugee Describes Horror of US Bombings

BUSH WAR CRIMES ARE JEOPARDIZING PUBLIC HEALTH IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ

By Sherwood Ross

As commander-in-chief of the military, former President George W. Bush was responsible for U.S. attacks on hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mistreatment of their personnel and patients, and the denial of medical supplies to them and to the general populations of those nations, an authority on war crimes says.

One of the most egregious of the Bush war crimes, the force-feeding of prisoners, is being continued by the Obama administration even though it is in violation of medical ethics and the first Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1977, the authority notes.

In a new book that compiles the war crimes committed by U.S. forces, “George W. Bush, War Criminal?”(Praeger), political scientist/author Michael Haas writes:

“In 2001, the children’s hospital in Kabul was bombed, and the hospital in Herat (both in Afghanistan) was targeted, resulting in about one hundred deaths.. The al-Nouman Hospital in Baghdad was hit in the initial bombing in 2003 resulting in the deaths of five persons” and the Central Health Center in Falluja (Iraq) was bombed in November, 2004, killing 35 patients and 24 hospital employees.

Moreover, the Nazzal Emergency Hospital in Falluja, run by a Saudi Arabian Islamic charity, “was reduced to rubble,” Haas writes, and when U.S. troops entered Falluja’s General Hospital, they forced all hospital employees and patients to lie on the ground and tied their hands behind their backs.”

The above acts violated the Red Cross Convention of 1864, which requires that “ambulances and military hospitals shall be acknowledged to be neutral…and shall be protected and respected by belligerents so long as any sick or wounded may be therein.” The acts also violate the 1929 Geneva Convention that says personnel ministering to the sick “shall be respected and protected under all circumstances.”

What’s more, on March 4, 2007, U.S. marines left the Jalalabad, Afghanistan, battlefield “without attending to those whom they had wounded,” Haas writes, and in July, 2008, U.S. soldiers blocked Afghan villagers from rescuing wounded civilians they sought to take to the hospital. This violates Article 1 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 that states “The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.”

Haas also notes that when Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld issued an order denying prisoners the right to see a physician for six weeks from December 2, 2002, to January 15, 2003, even though the Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 15, states, “The Power detaining prisoners of war shall be bound to provide free of charge for their maintenance and for the medical attention required by the state of health.”

Haas writes that prisoners suffering from asthma, diabetes, heart conditions, hepatitis, leg wounds, and other maladies went untreated in the Middle Eastern countries invaded by the U.S. and that doctor visits also have been denied to Guantanamo prisoners “to induce cooperation.”

“Medical facilities, medicines, staff, and supplies were inadequate for the large number of prisoners at Abu Ghraib (Iraq),” Haas writes, and prisoners at Guantanamo were force fed even though the Tokyo Declaration of 1975 prohibits physicians to interfere medically with those who want to stop eating.

And where the Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 55, states, “the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population,” American and British vetoes in the Security Council blocked the release of $500 million in funds from the UN’s Iraqi oil-for-food account. Instead, they diverted the money to the Coalition Provisional Authority(CPA), “which failed to purchase needed supplies,” Haas writes..

And where the Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 56, states “Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties,” on May 23, 2003, the CPA fired top-level Iraqi government employees, including medical personnel. “The best hospital in Baghdad was converted into an American military hospital,” Haas writes, and the health administrator sent by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Frederick Burkle, was fired after one week “because he lacked political connections..” Haas adds that his replacement “failed to authorize funds for emergency rooms to treat victims of the insurgency, the most important medical problem at the time.”

According to Haas, a Belgian physician that visited 25 medical facilities in April, 2004, concluded, “Nowhere had any new medical material arrived since the end of the war” and that there was no sterile treatment at Al Nour Hospital, “as a result of which all patients with major burns are doomed to die.”

Haas states “the main result of the misoccupation of Iraq is an actual reduction in the state of public health.” He notes U.S. authorities actually “reduced the number of medicines available while occupying the country” and that children continue to be stricken with leukemia because the U.S. military “refuse to use Geiger counters to locate and dispose of ordnance containing depleted uranium despite pleading from the World Health Organization. “In matters of health, the Americans have descended like a plague of locusts on Afghanistan and Iraq,” Haas concluded.

Haas’s book lists 269 separate categories of war crimes for which former President George W. Bush was responsible. The book is arranged so that each category and the applicable war crimes statutes appear together. While those crimes concerning torture and the absence of due process are best known, the Haas book includes a wide range of war crimes violations from the failure to respect the legal framework of the invaded countries to the failure to promptly repatriate prisoners of war to the failure to protect public property.

Article taken from here.

The Petition of the Religious Leaders for 911 Truth

The religions of the world share universal values of love, truth, and justice, and believe in helping those who are oppressed or otherwise in need. Many religious persons try to engage in activities to make the world a better place, and they trust in a Higher Power to assist them.

When faced with actions that conflict with the universal moral principle that we should not do to others what we would not want done to ourselves or our loved ones, members of faith communities have a responsibility to voice their opposition to those actions. Many religious leaders throughout history have publicly challenged morally unacceptable practices---recently, for example, in the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements.

A significant moral challenge has emerged due to glaring discrepancies between the official version of the events of September 11, 2001, and the results of extensive independent research by individuals with relevant scientific or professional expertise.

“Independent” here means independent from the U.S. administration that was in power at the time of the 9/11 attacks. The official reports about 9/11 were not independent in this sense. The 9/11 Commission was run by its executive director, Philip Zelikow, who was closely associated with the Bush administration. The official reports on the World Trade Center were produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which, as an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, was run by people employed by the Bush administration.

The independent research, which has led to conclusions that differ radically from the official account, has been carried out by scientists and professionals in many relevant fields. It has led to the creation of several professional organizations, including Veterans for 9/11 Truth, S.P.I.N.E.: The Scientific Panel for the Investigation of Nine-Eleven, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Firefighters for 9/11 Truth, Lawyers for 9/11 Truth, Healthcare Professionals for 9/11 Truth, and Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth.

As a result of this extensive research carried out by scientists and professionals, it can now be seen that the official account of 9/11 is false beyond any reasonable doubt.

This conclusion presents a significant moral challenge because this false account has been used as the pretext for the so-called War on Terror, which has had enormous negative consequences, including:

1. the killing and maiming of millions of innocent people;
2. the portrayal of Islam as an inherently violent religion, of Muslims as especially likely to be terrorists, and of Muslim nations as devoid of any right not to be attacked;
3. the employment of torture, extraordinary rendition, and other practices---including curtailment of the civil liberties of American citizens---that violate the US Constitution, international law, and the moral conscience of the world;
4. the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars for militaristic, imperialistic purposes; and
5. the acceleration of the ecological destruction of our planet, including widespread radioactive poisoning caused by depleted uranium munitions.

Because the false account of 9/11, besides being an enormous lie told to the American public and the world as a whole, has led to all these evils, it is incumbent on religious leaders, once they realize that the official account is a lie, to speak out, because to fail to speak out is to acquiesce to the cover-up.

Religious leaders from every tradition are encouraged to sign the petition and thereby become members of Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth. "Religious Leaders" are here defined as people who exercise (or have exercised) a leadership role, whether in a lay or professional capacity, in or on behalf of some religious community or organization, or who teach (or have taught) religion from a faith perspective.

Becoming a member of Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth will not necessitate any further action other than signing the petition---although further action to spread 9/11 truth is certainly encouraged.

If you are ready to join Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth and would like to sign the petition, go to the Sign the Petition page and state your name, religious affiliation, and leadership role, along with (optional) anything you would like to say about your reason for signing.

PETITION

WHEREAS religious leaders seek to promote various universal values, including love, justice, and truth; and

WHEREAS religious leaders throughout history have spoken out on moral issues; and

WHEREAS the official account of 9/11 has been shown by scientists and professionals in relevant fields to be false beyond a reasonable doubt; and

WHEREAS the official account of 9/11 has been used as a pretext for wars that have killed and maimed millions of innocent people and caused enormous ecological damage to our planet; and

WHEREAS the official account of 9/11 has been used to increase military spending and thereby to withhold needed spending for health, education, welfare, infrastructure, and the environment; and

WHEREAS the official account of 9/11 has been used to indict Islam as an inherently violent religion and to justify discrimination against Muslims and attacks on Muslim countries; and

WHEREAS the official reports about 9/11 have been produced by individuals closely affiliated with, or even employed by, the Bush administration;

THEREFORE we, the undersigned members of Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth, ask President Obama to authorize a new, truly independent, investigation into the attacks of 9/11 immediately, because such an investigation is long overdue, being owed to the 9/11 families, the American people, and the peoples of the world - especially the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Text taken form here.

The Fantasy of Washington in Aghanistan

Butcher and Bolt: Two Hundred Years of Foreign Engagement in Afghanistan

David Loyn is a foreign correspondent with extensive experience in Afghanistan. His first book, Frontline was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2006. Butcher and Bolt is a history of foreign engagement in Afghanistan beginning with the first British mission 200 years ago.

Butcher and Bolt challenges such rigidity of thinking. Loyn rubbishes the Americans' supernatural belief in technology above all things, and points out that the Taliban have one and a half million recruits in Pakistan's madrasas, just over the border. It is a bleak conclusion to a book that should be a must-read for every politician who sends our squaddies into Afghanistan - but one based fairly and squarely on the weight of history.

The Afghan narrative is almost absurdly unchanging. Any foreign military adventure in Afghanistan is doomed to fail: the land is unforgiving and the people are hostile, secure in their Islamic faith - which ratchets up to a fresh level of purist absolutism with every bomb that falls. They may lose battle after battle, but still they fight.

Loyn writes well of the Soviet invasion, of how the Soviet generals bombed, tortured and shot civilians willy-nilly, and yet still they lost and had to leave Afghanistan in defeat. He quotes the great Italian journalist Tiziano Terzani:

"War is not a profession for Bin Laden and his people. It's a mission. Its roots lie in the faith they acquired in the close-minded Quranic schools, and above all in their deep feelings of defeat and impotence, in the humiliation of a civilisation, Islam, which was once great and feared but which now finds itself increasingly marginalised and offended by the overwhelming power and arrogance of the west."

Is there a solution? Probably not. Absolutist Islam lacks the means but not the will to defeat the west. The west has the means but not the will to defeat absolutist Islam, least of all inside Afghanistan. However, it might help if we dumped well-intentioned fantasy. Loyn makes the point, again and again, that first British, then Soviet, and now US policy on Afghanistan has been formed by tellers of fairy tales in London, Moscow and Washington and not by the complicated and difficult reality on the ground. It is clear that he admires much about Afghans. He is one of very few reporters who have spent time with the Taliban - and found the men who protected him personally honourable, respected by their communities and very much in control on the ground. He is not mindless of the dark side in Afghanistan: of how, in the chaos after the Russians left, a tank battle took place between two commanders as they both wanted sex with the same boy; how the Taliban murders schoolteachers who seek to give girls an education; how the Taliban's logic acts like a kind of "anti-matter", a black hole that engulfs the western mind.

Loyn is clear that much of the "mud" attached to the Taliban can more accurately be applied to the entire Afghan mindset, especially that of the Pashtun heartland: deeply conservative, contemptuous of externally imposed "democracy", unbothered about liberal rights or the education of women. He writes that "the simple narrative of heroes and demons - 'mujahedin good, Taliban bad' - imposed on Afghanistan was another externally drawn picture: an Afghanistan of the western mind".

Read more The Killing Field by John Sweeney.