Tag Archives: oil

International, U.S.

World War 3: Proof that U.S. forces officially operating in Rogue Mode, detainees placed in prisons known to U.S. forces as torture sites

“They said they would rape me, and one time they took a stick and dipped it into chili powder and threatened to insert the stick into my anus. They tried to pull off my pants. When they did that, I confessed to everything they wanted.”-prisoner at Kandahar prison

“After [the torture] was finished I told them that I only confessed because of the beating. But they responded to that by beating me again. I swear by God and by my children that I am innocent.”-prisoner at Kandahar prison

U.S. forces know prisons use torture because they were told about it in an order in 2011!  However, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has evidence of several cases where people were sent to the torture prisons, after U.S. personnel were ordered to stop such practices, and it looks like U.S. forces also operate their own torture centers!

The United States detains thousands of individuals all across Afghanistan, with the majority held in the Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP) as well as a number of temporary detention sites, including a secretive U.S. screening facility at Bagram Air Base run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).-report titled Torture, Transfers, and Denial of Due Process: The Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghanistan

Investigators discovered there are U.S. units that officially operate outside NATO/ISAF command, even though there’s only one commander for Afghan operations: USMC General John Allen.  However there are some U.S. units that are even exempt from General Allen’s authority!

It is important to note that some U.S. forces in Afghanistan operate as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), a U.S. led counter-terrorism coalition that is separate from ISAF forces. Known as U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), most of these non-ISAF U.S. forces are special operations forces and also referred to as Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan (CFSOCC-A). CFSOCC-A forces frequently conduct operations in which individuals are detained. USFOR-A is under the command of General John Allen, who also serves as the commander of ISAF (COM-ISAF). There are also a number of U.S. military units that operate separately from ISAF and USFOR-A forces, and are not under the command of General Allen.-report titled Torture, Transfers, and Denial of Due Process: The Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghanistan

Investigators also discovered that prisoners have tried to report the torture, but are punished for doing so: “I have nothing else to say. They will put me somewhere else after I talk to you. They will disappear me.”-prisoner in Herat prison

They even torture children: “We wrote a complaint letter once, but the director found out, and then we got hit very hard with the pipe after that.”-child prisoner Juvenile Corrections Center in Helmand

The latest investigation was conducted between February 2011 and January 2012.  In September 2011, the United Nations said they found evidence of torture at 16 detention centers in Afghanistan.

The latest report also talks about coalition forces and goes into detail about torture run by U.S. supported Afghan prisons.  Torture, Transfers, and Denial of Due Process:The Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghanistan

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. citizen killed in Yemen, anti-U.S. protests rage, foreign teachers being targeted

March 18, 2012, as protest against the U.S. puppet government of Yemen rage on, a U.S. citizen is assassinated.

Witnesses say two men on a motorcycle shot and killed the director of the Swedish Language Center, located in the city of Taez.  The director is a U.S. citizen.

This follows the kidnapping of a teacher from Switzerland on Friday, March 16.

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Government Evil & Corporate Welfare: Republican controled Congress gives Oil Industry $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies

How would you like to own a business that’s making money hand over fist, and get paid by the government on top of that?  The Oil Industry is!

People are literally going hungry in the United States, and Republican controlled congress keeps cutting welfare for the poor, yet the Oil Industry gets 4 billion of your tax dollars every year!!!

“…the United States government provide a heavy public subsidy to petroleum companies, with major tax breaks at virtually every stage of oil exploration and extraction, including for the costs of oil field leases and drilling equipment.“-WikiPedia

Now realize the Oil Industry has been reporting record profits for the past few years.  Recently Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, said his company is spending billions to extract new sources of oil.  But wait, if the U.S. taxpayer paid subsidy is supposed to cover those costs, then who’s money is really going where?

On top of the $4 billion taxpayer subsidy, here are a few more tax breaks for the Oil Industry, and its investors:

Enhanced oil recovery credit. Covers the costs to “enhance” a well’s oil or natural gas production.

Non conventional source fuel credit. Tax credit for production of “qualified” fuels such as oil shale, tight formation gas, and certain synthetic fuels produced from coal.

Lease Operating Expense. Covers the day to day costs involved with the operation of a well, and re-entry, or re-work, of an existing producing well.

Intangible Drilling Costs. Labor, drilling rig time, drilling fluids etc.

Intangible Completion Costs. Labor, completion materials, completion rig time, fluids etc.

Depletion Allowance. Investors in a producing well are allowed to shelter some of the gross income derived from the sale of that oil/gas.  Generally 15% of the well’s annual production can be sheltered from income tax.

So don’t feel sorry for the A-holes!

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Whistleblower & Wikileaks founder Julian Assange running for Australian Senate, hosts Russian TV show

Despite being under house arrest in United Kingdom, Assange is getting a new TV show, and running for political office in Australia.

Assange is scheduled to host The World of Tomorrow for RT (Russia Today): “Assange to record TV series for RT while under house arrest – I am sure it will be an amazing show!” -Margarita Simonyan, RT editor in chief

Assange is also running for a seat in Australia’s Upper House.  Wikileaks is also sponsoring a candidate to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Leon Panette restates that the U.S. will back up an Israeli attack on Iran

“Obviously Israel is an independent country, and they’ll make whatever decisions they make on their own based on what they think is in their national interests….If they should make that decision, then obviously the United States would take action.”-Leon Panette, U.S. Secretary of Defense

International, U.S.

World War 3: Details of Panjwaii shooting investigation made public; 2 villages, 2 squads of U.S. troops, 2 helicopters, women raped. U.S. veteran believes claims

“What’s coming now is increasing evidence that everything the U.S. Army has said is a lie!”-Gordon Duff, Veterans Today, USMC Vietnam veteran

The investigation made by a Afghan Parliament group, gave details of what they found regarding the “lone” U.S. shooting genocide in Panjwaii.

The investigators say there were between 15 and 20 U.S. troops, operating in two teams (squads), being backed up by two helicopters.  Two, not one, villages were attacked.  They also discovered that several women were raped!

Some of the witnesses interviewed were Afghan National Security Forces.

The attacks actually took place in two villages more than 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) apart. All the killings took place in less than 30 minutes, which makes it impossible for one person to hit two villages!  Investigators say three sizes of bullets were used.  In one house eleven bodies had been piled up and burned. Women had been raped.

A U.S. Vietnam War veteran, and current veterans activist, Gordon Duff, stated that it is impossible for a single soldier to walk off a U.S. base in Afghanistan: “When you’re in a forward position [Forward Operating Base FOB, Combat OutPost COP]….to leave a base requires a vehicle…a vehicle could not have left the compound at night without more than one person in it…to open the [compound] gate would have required the mission to be allowed…a watch officer, he would have had to have given permission, so they had permission…”

Duff went on to explain that the fact that the bodies were piled and burned is also proof that more than one person did the killing: “The fires would have been caused by pouring gasoline from what we call a cherry can [not everyone calls it that, my 13 years in service no one in the units I was in called it that, although I did hear it from other units] which weighs about 50 pounds.  Nobody walked with one or more cans…they’re attached to the back of our vehicles…” 

 

 

International, U.S.

United Police Kingdom: Man arrested for questioning Afghanistan War on facebook

“What about the innocent families who have been brutally killed? The women who have been raped, the children who have been sliced up? Your enemies were the Taliban not innocent families.”-facebook posting

The above comment got a 19 year old man arrested by Yorkshire police, and facing charges of “racially aggravated public order offence”.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Government Lies: U.S. allows farm Corporations to contiue business with Iran, oil contractors as well. Proof the U.S. sanctions against Iran are bogus, and possibly illegal under current U.S. law created by Republicans!

“If they need something really quick and reliable, the U.S. is there to do it.”-unnamed U.S. wheat trader

It’s been revealed that despite U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, U.S. agricultural giants Cargill and Bunge will sell about 220,000 tons of U.S. wheat to Iran, by April.

Not only that, but Iran is paying more than the going Market rate for wheat, as much as $30 per metric ton more!

So what happened to the U.S. economic sanctions against Iran?  Turns out money does talk, and U.S. officials are willing to turn a blind eye to big Iranian money being spent on U.S. industries: “They seem to be taking hundreds of thousands of tonnes a week. If that’s the case and we repeat 2008, if they buy seven million tonnes of wheat, this is going to be a huge deal for the [U.S.] market.“-another unnamed U.S. wheat trader

This could also be proof that there is no economic recovery taking place inside the United States, forcing officials to go back on threats against Iran.

It’s not just the agriculture industry, even U.S. medical industries and oil contractors, and even Mars candy bar corporation, are allowed to continue business with Iran.  Guess why?  A U.S. law created by Republicans, under the influence of Corporate America, in 2000, allows dozens of U.S. industries to be exempt from any future sanctions against Iran!!!

According to a December 2010 New York Times article, the U.S. government, under Republican President George Bush Jr, enacted a law in the year 2000 that allowed U.S. companies to not only do business with “terrorist” “rogue” states such as Iran and North Korea,  but to be exempt from future sanctions!

Even Democrats complained about the Republican created law: “It’s not a bad thing to grant exceptions if it represents a conscious policy decision to give countries an incentive. But when you create loopholes like this that you can drive a Mack truck through, you are giving countries something for nothing, and they just laugh in their teeth. I think there have been abuses.”-Stuart Eizenstat, former Bill Clinton administration

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. Navy doubles minesweepers in Persian Gulf

“We are moving four more minesweepers to the theater, making eight….We are moving Airborne Mine Countermeasure helicopters, that’ll take us to eight in theater.”-Admiral Jonathan Greenert, USN

The four Avenger class minesweeping ships, along with MH-53E Sea Dragon minesweeping helicopters, are being shipped from San Diego, California.  It will be a few weeks before they arrive in U.S. puppet state of Bahrain.

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Taliban claim another rocket attack on Bagram, U.S. officials plead with Taliban to continue negotiations, Obama asks Karzai if he’s sure he wants U.S. troops out!

March 16, 2012, Zabiullah Mujahid, “official” spokesman for the “Taliban” says they have launched yet another rocket attack against Bagram airfield.

He says two rockets were launched, causing casualties among U.S. led troops.  The attack comes a day after Taliban ended negotiations with the United States.

An Associated Press report says the Obama Administration is hopeful they can resume negotiations with the Taliban.

The same report said Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai said U.S. President Barack Obama actually called to confirm that he said he wanted U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by 2013: “He asked, ‘Did you announce this?’ I said, ‘Yes, I announced it.”‘-Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan

The AP article indicated that U.S. officials were not expecting such a backlash: “There was confusion among U.S. military officials and diplomats about just what Karzai was asking, and how far apart he is from current U.S. policy.”-Associated Press