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Monday, February 25, 2013

AFGHANISTAN KICKS U.S. TROOPS OUT : KARZAI NO LONGER AMERICA'S PUPPET?

IT'S BREAKING LIKE A BIG WAVE ON THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR; AFGHAN PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI AND TEAM HAVE ACCUSED U.S. SPECIAL FORCES TROOPS OF ACTS OF TORTURE AND MURDER AND IS BOOTING THEM OUT OF AT LEAST TWO PROVINCES THERE.

CNN, REUTERS, even Al Jazeera have splashed this everywhere, but there has been no real comment from our head brass over there, except to say they're investigating.
Karzai obviously doesn't give a hoot about those investigations, he just wants the special forces troops GONE from Wardak province, an area west of the Afghan capital where the alleged horrors took place!

CNN wrote:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/24/world/asia/afghanistan-us-special-forces/index.html?iref=obinsite
<<At a meeting of the council, led by President Hamid Karzai, "it became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people," Karzai's office said in a statement. It did not indicate who "named" the group a U.S. special force.
Nine people "disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force," according to the president's office. And in another incident, a student was taken from his home at night, and his "tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge."

"Such actions have caused local public resentment and hatred," Karzai's office said.

It added that the United States rejects any suggestion that its special forces carried out any such operation.
Afghan forces must protect people in the province "by effectively stopping and bringing to justice any groups that enter peoples' homes in the name of special force and who engage in annoying, harassing and murdering innocent people," the statement said.>>

Al Jazeera added:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/02/2013224145944907284.html
<<Sunday's announcement comes hours after two bombings targeting intelligence officials and police in Logar province, which was also mentioned as an area of concern during the weekly security meeting.
The ministry of defense has been assigned to insure that US special forces withdraw from Wardak within two weeks time.>>

Perhaps, as has been suggested here and there, Mr. Karzai wants to appear a pillar of leadership now knowing that America will be withdrawing a fair number of U.S. troops by 2014, and he hopes to settle the minds of the still powerful Taliban that he won't put up with any American 'guff' now?
THAT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE SINCE AMERICA PUT THE MAN IN OFFICE, EDUCATED HIM, OR SHALL WE SAY TRAINED HIM RIGHT HERE IN THE USA! KARZAI IS JUST ANOTHER PUPPET, BUT HE MAY BE SLIPPING HIS CHAIN!

Karzai is an ethnic Pashtun of the Popalzai tribe, and he's a real study!
His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, served in  Afghanistan's 1919 war of independence and later as the Deputy Speaker of the Senate. Karzai's family were strong supporters of Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan.
Karzai's uncle, Habibullah Karzai, served as representative of Afghanistan at the UN.
Karzai took a postgraduate course in political science at Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India.
Karzai has received numerous honorary degrees from the likes of Boston University, University of Nebraska Omaha, and even Georgetown University tossed him one. I have to wonder what sort of "degree" he got from the CIA's  "School of the Americas" down in Georgia, USA? We KNOW he attended there!
It's said that Karzai is well versed in several languages, including his native tongue, Pashto, as well as Dari (Persian) (great for his relations with IRAN?) , Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, English and French.
After obtaining his Master's degree in India, he moved to Pakistan to work as a "fundraiser" for the anti-communist, U.S.-backed and U.S.-funded mujahideen during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan.
What many are unaware of is that Karzai was a contractor for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the time! [Mills, Nick (31 August 2007). Karzai: the failing American intervention and the struggle for Afghanistan (Illustrated ed.). John Wiley and sons. p. 240. ISBN 0-470-13400-3.] NOT ONLY HAMID WAS PAID BY THE CIA, BUT ONE OF HIS BROTHERS HAD BEEN ON THAT PAYROLL SINCE 2001 AS WELL...UNTIL A CIA OPERATIVE TOOK HIM OUT IN 2011, THAT IS!
<<Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the president of Afghanistan, gets regular payments from the CIA and has for much of the past eight years, The New York Times reported Tuesday.>> [SEE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/karzais-brother-on-cia-pa_n_336279.html ]

[ON THE 'TAKE-DOWN', SEE ANY 'NEWS' THAT REPORTED IT, e.g., Julius Cavendish in The Independent, July 16,2011,  BUT AN INTERESTING PIECE APPEARS ON THIS SITE: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/07/bodyguard-who-killed-karzais-brother-was-trusted-cia-contact-before-being-recruited-by-taliban.html ] And if you think Jihad Watch is FOR jihad, think again! ROBERT SPENCER is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center! Arabs hate it!

Back to our story of Karzai's saga...
While Karzai hid, ummm, I mean 'remained' in Pakistan during the Soviet intervention, his siblings emigrated to the United States. He served as Deputy Foreign Minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. Karzai was, however, arrested by Mohammad Fahim (Karzai's current Vice President, believe it or not!) on charges of spying for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and once released, Karzai fled from Kabul. He went back to live in Pakistan among many Afghan refugees and 'worked to reinstate former Afghan King Zahir Shah'. On the morning of July 14, 1999, Karzai's father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was gunned down as he was coming home from a mosque in the city of Quetta. Reports suggest that the Taliban carried out the assassination.
Following this incident, Karzai decided to work closely with the United Front (Northern Alliance), which was led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. Then, in 2000 and 2001, he traveled to Europe and the United States to help "gather support for the anti-Taliban movement" (AND GET "EDUCATED" AT THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICA'S MAYBE?).
THE WORM TURNED, KARZAI AND THE U.S. WENT FULL-THROTTLE AGAINST THEIR OLD PALS, THE TALIBAN!

As Bush 2's plans (from 3 years prior!) to go after those NEW guys on the block, the suddenly infamous "al Qaeda" (aka, "AL-CIA-DA") and the newly bad old Taliban in September 2001, Karzai began urging NATO nations to "purge his country of Al-Qaeda". He told BBC "These Arabs, together with their foreign supporters and the Taliban, destroyed miles and miles of homes and orchards and vineyards [DON'T FORGET THE POPPY FIELDS!]... They have killed Afghans. They have trained their guns on Afghan lives ... We want them out." WHAT AN ABOUT-FACE!

Well, Russia and France had little luck at robbing those tough old buzzards in Afghanistan of its resources, but America decided to have a go, so in we went! I'm sure the CIA/DEA almost fainted and fell back in it when they saw those bazillion acres of poppy fields alone!
KA-CHING, KA-CHING! CASH CROPS!
Add access via pipeline to those Caspian Sea oil reserves while beating out France, and the "newly discovered by the U.S., over $1 TRILLION in rich veins of iron, gold, lithium, copper, colbat, and much more" [SEE: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6064724-1-trillion-in-resources-found-in-afghanistan for just one report of that!], and a handy-dandy way to keep a foothold for LAUNCH into the Middle East/Russia, don't you know many an American businessman with government contracts over there almost swallowed their tongues from glee!

When Bush2 launched "Operation Enduring Freedom" (WHO came up with those crazy names for invasions?) on the unsuspecting nation of Afghanistan, Karzai and his group were STILL in Quetta (Pakistan) where they began their 'covert operation' to go take back their homeland, by golly...with considerable help from the U.S. and NATO, or from as many member nations as Bush2 could bully into going over there. (The dissenting nations had already seen Russia and France get licked in Afghanistan so wondered why go through such a crazy plan, bankrupt THEIR economies, lose thousands of THEIR finest, and come out with not even a scrap of the PIE)

But back to that brave old Karzai...

Before entering Afghanistan, he warned his fighters:
"We might be captured the moment we enter Afghanistan and be killed. We have 60 percent chance of death and 40 percent chance to live and survive. Winning was no consideration. We could not even think of that. We got on two motorbikes. We drove into Afghanistan."
—Hamid Karzai, October 2001
Well, it wasn't those nasty Taliban nor newly created "al qaeda" that almost killed him a FEW DAYS AFTER HIS LITTLE SPEECH! In that same October, 2001, he and his little group of NEW "freedom fighters" survived an American Air Force missile attack by pilots in southern Afghanistan....OOPSIE, "friendly fire", almost got him! The group suffered injuries and all were transported to and treated in the United States; Karzai received injuries to his facial nerves. UH-OH! That kind of pain can lead to BAD BLOOD, no?
But, hang on! There's a kiss-and-make-up to this! (And there should be as FEW have survived a "friendly fire" scenario!)
In December 2001, political leaders gathered in Germany to agree on new leadership structures and under that 'Bonn Agreement', they, NOT THE AFGHAN PEOPLE, formed an 'Interim Administration' and named poor wounded Karzai as Chairman of a 29-member governing committee. He was sworn in as leader on the 22nd of December. The loya jirga, a forum unique among the Pashtun tribes, of June 13, 2002, appointed Karzai as Interim President of the new position, "President of the Afghan Transitional Administration". NOW THAT'S A KISS-UP, NO?
Oh, what a show Hamid put on for his adoring people and the world!
Karzai re-enacted the original coronation of Ahmad Shah Durrani at the shrine of Sher-i-Surkh outside Kandahar where leaders of various Afghan tribes, including a descendent of the religious leader (Sabir Shah) who originally selected Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747 became key players in this little event.Further evidence that Karzai views himself fulfilling a Durrani monarch's role arise from statements furnished by close allies within his government.
[SEE:Karzai in His Labyrinth, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/magazine/09Karzai-t.html?pagewanted=5&_r=2& ]

Actually, that went over like the proverbial lead balloon with much of the Afghan people, and after Karzai was installed into power, his actual authority outside the capital city of Kabul was said to be so limited that he was often derided as the "Mayor of Kabul". The situation is particularly delicate since Karzai and his administration have not been equipped either financially or politically to influence reforms outside of the region...except maybe by IRAN, but the MILLIONS (BILLIONS BY NOW?) that Iran has pumped into Karzai's coffers can hardly  be counted as going to helping the PEOPLE, can they?
In 2007, Karzai boldly stated, "The two Iranian and Afghan nations are close to each other due to their bonds and commonalities, they belong to the same house, and they will live alongside each other for good."
Hamid has been, to varying degrees of success, trying to "negotiate and form amicable alliances" (read that as 'suck-up to'?)  with those old local leaders all over the nation instead of aggressively fighting them and risking an uprising. This new move, kicking American troops out of 2 provinces, may help him sweeten the Taliban up, but don't count on it! The Afghan people have long seen Karzai for what he is...which is as we say in the South, "ANYBODY'S DOG THAT WILL HUNT"! He...ummmm.... "won" the 2004 elections amid outcries that the elections were rigged, but he "won".
Ditto for the 2009 "elections", when he was blamed by many for the failures that plagued the "reconstruction" of Afghanistan after the "toppling of the Taliban government in 2001" (WHAT TOPPLING? THEY STILL REIGN SUPREME!) , and was outed for the widespread corruption within his 'administration;, his frivolous, luxury lifestyle,  the resurgence of the (neo-)Taliban to and the explosion of the poppy trade, thanks to his blatant refusal to shut that down (KA-CHING!). His unpopularity and yet the absolute likelihood of his "victory" (read as "BUYING THE OFFICE WITH AMERICA'S HELP?)  formed an atmosphere of a kind of national demoralization, which discouraged many Afghans from voting. The election was tainted by lack of security, low voter turnout, PROVEN widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud, but, hey!, he "won" again! WHAT A MIRACLE? No, what a SHAM!

So, is Karzai "growing a set", is he REALLY, REALLY going to snap and snarl and run America off? He'd perhaps be seen as some sort of hero for that, and the majority of Afghan citizens would applaud it, but he'll likely come to the same bitter end as those before him who were ever once attached to the paps of America, who ever fed at the CIA table. When he stops being played, his days are numbered!
Besides that, he may just get a few well-placed rounds from inside Afghanistan. Many people have plotted to assassinate Karzai in the last decade, especially the Taliban's Quetta Shura and the Haqqani network, which allegedly receives support and guidance from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy network. Now that's one for you to go look up! WOW!

Let us wish 'bon chance' to Hamid on his latest apparent plan to kick America out...if he manages that, we may see one last "FRIENDLY FIRE" happen and the Afghan 'Prez' will go up in smoke. Many an Afghan citizen might applaud THAT, yes?

3 comments:

  1. Just FYI-Hindi and Urdu are the same tongue, except one uses Devanagari script and one uses Perso-Arabic script. There are a few minor differences in vocabulary but it's a distinction created more by politics than by linguistic reality. Great blog, please keep up the good work.

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    Replies
    1. I had to go find what you were referring to...<>
      I confess to little knowledge of the beautiful languages of that region. What tiny bit of Farsi I picked up while there eons ago has been erased from my mind. Your kind post has taught me to research everything down to the punctuation from now on, though, as that was a direct quote from a news source.
      So, thank you for the clarification.
      I have ended the Tea Room blog, but do updates now and then.
      My, shall we say, embittered reply to one who asked WHY must suffice.
      One cannot FORCE another to do anything, and most of my compatriots wish to remain blind to facts here.
      So let it be written, so let it be done.
      Blessings like rain...

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    2. Ummm, any relation to Jean Bertrand?
      I had to ask.

      Delete