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More blowback from the war on terror | Salon News In late 2006, the Bush administration backed a full-scale Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the Islamist authorities from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The fighting caused thousands of Somalis, including some who were suspected of terrorist links, to flee across the Kenya border. Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women and children from more than 18 countries — including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada — in operations near the Somali border, and held them for weeks without charge in Nairobi. In January and February 2007, the Kenyan government then unlawfully put dozens of these individuals — with no notice to families, lawyers or the detainees themselves — on flights to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military. Ethiopian forces also arrested an unknown number of people in Somalia. Those rendered were later transported to detention centers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and ...

Troop Pullout Leaves Government On Brink (from Sunday Herald) : "SOMALIA'S FRAGILE government appears to be on the brink of collapse. Islamist insurgents now controls large parts of southern and central Somalia - and are continuing to launch attacks inside the capital, Mogadishu. Ethiopia, which launched a US-backed military intervention in Somalia in December 2006 in an effort to drive out an Islamist authority in Mogadishu, is now pulling out its troops. Diplomats and analysts in neighbouring Nairobi believe the government will fall once Ethiopia completes its withdrawal, and secret plans have been made to evacuate government ministers to neighbouring Kenya. advertisement That may happen sooner rather than later. A shipment of Ethiopian weapons, including tanks, left Mogadishu port last month as part of the withdrawal. Bringing the equipment back to Ethiopia by land would have been impossible - analysts believe Ethiopian troops and their Somali government allies control just...

FT.com / World - US open to Taliban peace talks : "Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said last night that Washington could 'ultimately' contemplate the idea of negotiating with the Taliban to secure a political settlement in Afghanistan, if the Afghan government were to pursue such talks. In comments that add to the growing sense across Nato that the alliance will never achieve a comprehensive military victory in Afghanistan, Mr Gates said a political settlement with the Taliban was conceivable."

blackagendareport.com - AFRICOM: America's Military Foot in Africa's Doorway Thanks to half a century of pouring US arms stockpiles into Africa, the price of an assault rifle in Africa has for some time been cheaper than anyplace else on the planet. US military assistance programs, American arms, American general_william_ward_africomcorporations and America's insistence upon privatization of military functions are everywhere to be found in Africa. At the end of August, Africom's commander, General William E. “Kip” Ward was keynote speaker of the graduation exercises of Liberia's military training facility, which is jointly run by Lockheed-Martin subsidiary Pacific Engineering & Architecture, and DynCorp, which supplies mercenaries and torturers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Congo, Colombia, Darfur, and elsewhere. Africom then, seems to follow the traditional American practice of requiring that as much of America's military and non-military “aid” as possible ...

BBC NEWS | Americas | Palin abused power, probe finds : "Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is guilty of abuse of power, according to a probe by the state legislature. The Republican vice-presidential candidate was accused of sacking a senior state official, Walter Monegan, in connection with a family feud. But the McCain-Palin campaign team said that the report showed Mrs Palin acted within 'proper and lawful authority'. The report could have a significant effect on Republican hopes of winning next month's US presidential election. Mrs Palin has always denied any wrongdoing, and her supporters say the charges are motivated by her political opponents."

Afghanistan: The Surge That Failed - by Anand Gopal and Tom Engelhardt : "In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, spoke proudly of how, in July 1979, he had 'signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul' and so helped draw a Russian interventionary force into Afghanistan. 'On the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border,' Brzezinski added, 'I wrote to President Carter, saying, in essence: 'We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.'' And so they did – with the help of the CIA, Saudi money, the Pakistani intelligence services, and an influx of Arab jihadis, including Osama bin Laden. In fact, their Afghan War would prove far more disastrous for the Soviet Union than defeat in Vietnam had been for the United States. By the time the Soviets withdrew their last troops in February 1989,...

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 10/09/2008 | Financial crisis could put crimp in defense spending plans : "WASHINGTON — With the U.S. economy in crisis and military spending at its highest level since World War II, military officials and experts are worrying that America may have to start reining in defense spending. In the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. spent $694.2 billion on defense, up 52 percent from the 2000 defense budget in constant dollars. (That year, the department spent $292 billion.) The fiscal 2008 total includes $514.2 billion in the defense budget and another $180 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been financed through so-called 'supplemental' budgets. Eight years of borrowing to pay for the Iraq and Afghan wars, coupled with an aging baby boomer population, growing health care costs and a push to enlarge the Army, could force legislators to make tough decisions about which needs should take priority, and the next presiden...