John Kerry, dry-mouthed, showing his lack of depth of integrity, squirming, nervously playing with his pen, getting his long skinny lying ass handed to him by Rand Paul.

Jan 24, 2013 6:50pm ABC NEWS

A Day After Attacking Clinton, Rand Paul Grills Kerry

Yesterday Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that if he were president, he would have fired her over her handling of the Benghazi crisis.

Today, in a confirmation hearing in which nearly every senator, Democrat and Republican, heaped glowing praise upon their colleague  John Kerry (D., Mass.), who’s been nominated for secretary of state, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) posed contentious questions to Kerry about the U.S.’s role on the world stage. It quickly became apparent that the two senators not only had different political opinions, but different world views. Rand seems to see the world in absolutes; Kerry maintains intervention in world affairs be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Paul, who was publicly critical of President Obama’s authorizing U.S. action in Libya to help depose Mohamar Gadhafi, wanted to know Kerry’s take on a president’s authorizing military action without congressional approval. Kerry responded that, although he is a strong supporter of the War Powers Act, which requires the president to seek congressional authority to declare war, he also supports the right of a president to act in  an emergency.

“I supported Ronald Reagan when he sent troops into Grenada. I supported George H.W. Bush when he sent troops into Panama. I supported President Clinton when, against the will of the Congress, he did what was needed to be done in Kosovo and Bosnia, so forth. And in this particular instance, I think the president behaved in that tradition,” said Kerry.

Paul suggested Kerry is cherry-picking the Constitution. He pointedly asked Kerry to defend his anti-war stance in the 1970s against Richard Nixon’s decision to bomb Cambodia, on the one hand, and President Obama’s actions in Libya on the other. Kerry responded that the circumstances of the conflicts were different: Vietnam had been waging for years without Congressional approval, unlike the situation in Libya.

Paul was unmoved.

“Length of time, but similar circumstances: a bombing campaign unauthorized by Congress,” he said. “See, the Constitution really doesn’t give this kind of latitude to sometimes go to war and sometimes not go to war.”

Kerry said he respected that position in theory, but in practice always requiring Congressional approval for every military action was not practical.

“You can be absolutist and apply it to every circumstance. The problem is, it just doesn’t work in some instances,” said Kerry. “When 10,000 people are about to be wiped out by a brutal dictator and you need to make a quick judgment about engagement, you certainly can’t rely on a Congress that has proven itself  unwilling to move after weeks and months.”

The two men went on to spar over aid to Egypt, given Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s comments from 2010 that have recently been made public calling Israelis “blood suckers” and “descendants of apes and pigs.”

“Do you think it’s wise to send them F-16s and Abrams tanks?” asked Paul.

Kerry called the comments “reprehensible” but again pointed to the fact that Egypt remains a critical lynchpin for a peaceful Middle East. The senator also pointed to the ways Morsi’s administration has been helpful — supporting the peace agreement with Israel and working with the U.S. on security in the Sinai peninsula.

“This is always the complication in dealings in the international sector — not everything lends itself to a simple clarity, black/white, this/that every time,” said Kerry.

Paul also pressed Kerry on whether he would support cutting Pakistan’s aid if the country does not free Shakil Afridid, the Pakistani doctor serving 33 years in prison who was convicted of running a vaccine program in Abbottabad to help the U.S.  obtain DNA from Osama bin Laden’s relatives. Paul said Dr. Afridi’s detention could act as a deterrent for future informants and that Pakistan, as an ally, should be cooperating.

Kerry again said that the relationship with Pakistan is complex, and pointed out the other ways the country has helped the U.S. in its war against terror.

“I intend to raise the issue of Dr. Afridi with them. I can promise you that,” said Kerry. “But I am not going to recommend, nor do I think it is wise, for American policy to just cut our assistance. We need to build our relationship with the Pakistanis, not diminish it. ”

Hillary Clinton has called for increased US military and political intervention in north Africa, and warned of a long, difficult but necessary struggle against a “spreading jihadist threat” in the region. Perhaps to match the ongoing success in Afghanistan

Taliban kill 1,100 members of Afghan security forces in six months

Casualties have doubled and desertion rates spiked over past year as Nato steps back, figures reveal

Nick Hopkins 

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 January 2013 14.42 EST

The Taliban have killed 1,100 members of the Afghan security forces in the past six months as Nato troops have stepped back and left the local army and police to fight the insurgency, it has emerged.

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, admitted there had been a doubling of casualties among Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) over the past year, as well as spikes in desertion rates from the army.

The previously classified figures were given to the Ministry of Defence by commanders at Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) to help Hammond and Lieutenant General Richard Barrons prepare for questions from MPs.

Asked about Afghan casualties, Hammond said the evidence pointed to a sharp increase.

"We have to enter caveats about the quality of data and baseline data, but as the Afghans have taken over the leading role in security, clearly their casualties have gone up very significantly. Possibly they have doubled over the last year or so."

Barrons said the ANSF had suffered badly from attacks by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the past six months. Without the same medical and logistical support of western forces, the Afghans had been hit hard, he said.

"In the last six months, there has been an increase in IED attacks on the ANSF, and they are taking substantial casualties, roughly 1,100 fatalities. It is a significant issue, but the [Afghans'] ability to deal with it is getting better."

Later, the MoD confirmed the 1,100 referred to deaths across Afghanistan among forces that now have the prime responsibilty to take on the Taliban.

The general admitted the attrition rate for the 350,000-strong ANSF – the number of personnel deserting and not returning to their posts – was also higher than it should be.

The target was to keep the levels to 1.6% of the force deserting every month. But the monthly average was 2.6% – and last October it peaked at 3.1%.

The general said the key to stopping desertions was "good leadership, decent pay, decent food and the end of corruption".

Hammond told the defence select committee an Afghan food supplier had recently been jailed for supplying substandard rice to the Afghan National Army.

He denied the insurgency was making ground, and said two recent Taliban attacks in the capital Kabul had highlighted how desperate the insurgents had become.

One was against the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and the second was against the Afghan traffic police.

"All the evidence I see is that the Taliban is struggling to maintain the momentum of the insurgency and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest they have the reserves to press a button and significantly increase the tempo of the insurgency," said Hammond.

"The two incidents that occurred in Kabul were both attempts at spectacular attacks in an area that is pretty safe. The first on the NDS was a failure. The second was on a very soft target, unarmed Afghan traffic police.

"This doesn't look to me like an insurgency with a lot of reserve firepower."

Hammond predicted that when international troops end their combat role next year, Afghan forces would be able to "effectively hold the important parts of the country", such as cities, towns and key infrastructure.

"I would expect the situation to be messier than it is today, but I sense that there is a growing recognition on both sides of this fight that neither side can win outright. The government cannot defeat the Taliban and secure every inch of Afghan space.

"The Taliban sense, and we have some evidence of acknowledgement of this, that they cannot defeat the government in military terms. So I think both sides will want to make progress ultimately to some kind of political accommodation."

Hammond added: "Our own experience suggests that might not be a smooth process. It might go in fits and starts. But I would expect slow and messy progress.”

Worry not: Leon says there will be “No US Boots on the ground.”

With all due respect…

Thomas DiLorenzo on the real Abe Lincoln

The torture of the inaugural fist bumping day, celebration of collecticism, redistribution and war is almost over: “We will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to ‘manage crisis’ abroad, for no one has the greater stake than its most powerful nation…..We will support ‘democracy’ — from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East, because ‘our interests‘ and our conscience compel us to act ...”

From The Guardian:

Barack Obama used his second-term inaugural address to issue a powerful call to action, as he embraced an unashamedly liberal agenda and urged Americans to reclaim from conservatives the spirit of the founding fathers.

Speaking in front of Congress after renewing his presidential oath of office before a crowd of about half a million, the 44th US president pledged that he would battle against poverty and prejudice, deliver equality for gay people, tackle climate change and give young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.

Conscious that so many second terms end in failure and disappointment, he held out the prospect of bucking history. "America's possibilities are limitless … My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it so long as we seize it together," Obama said.

His speech was steeped in the language of the US constitution and in rhetorical references to Martin Luther King, underlining the symbolism of the inauguration taking place on the national holiday that celebrates the civil rights leader.

As a result it was more inspirational than the largely disappointing address in 2009. Then, faced with unrealistic hopes for his presidency and with the country caught up in he worst economic crisis since the 1930s, he had to dampen expectations.

This time round, he took the opposite approach, making a case for collectivism, the need for the federal government to help individuals out of poverty, offering opportunities for all rather than just a shrinking privileged few.

Attempting to debunk the rightwing interpretation of the constitution that has held sway in the US, Obama, in what became a near constant refrain throughout his speech, said the founding fathers did not intend the country to become enslaved by the constitution and that patriotism was not the preserve of the right.

"That is our generation's task – to make these words, these rights, these values – of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness.," Obama said.

It was down to the current generation to make the principles a reality, he declared. "For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing."

One of the most striking passages was in support of gay rights. Obama, early in his first term, was heavily criticised by gay organisations for failing to do enough. He partly redeemed himself through support for gays in the military and for equal marriage rights, but he went further on Tuesday, placing the battle for gay rights, summed up by the Stonewall protests in New York, alongside other key civil right fights.

"We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall," Obama said.

"Just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth."

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law," he said.

And he explicitly embraced gay marriage rights. ""If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said.

Obama made similar pleas for equal pay for women, for legislation to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and against other vestiges of prejudice.

Thanks to NATO, Libya has become – a Western sponsored sanctuary for Al-Qaeda. AQIM’s headway in northern Mali and now French involvement will see the conflict inevitably spill over into Algeria.

GLOBAL RESEARCH

Exactly as predicted, the ongoing French “intervention” in the North African nation of Mali has spilled into Algeria – the next most likely objective of Western geopolitical interests in the region since the successful destabilization of Libya in 2011.

In last week’s “France Displays Unhinged Hypocrisy as Bombs Fall on Mali” report, it was stated specifically that:

“As far back as August of 2011, Bruce Riedel out of the corporate-financier funded think-tank, the Brookings Institution, wrote “Algeria will be next to fall,” where he gleefully predicted success in Libya would embolden radical elements in Algeria, in particular AQIM. Between extremist violence and the prospect of French airstrikes, Riedel hoped to see the fall of the Algerian government. Ironically Riedel noted:

Algeria has expressed particular concern that the unrest in Libya could lead to the development of a major safe haven and sanctuary for al-Qaeda and other extremist jihadis.

And thanks to NATO, that is exactly what Libya has become – a Western sponsored sanctuary for Al-Qaeda. AQIM’s headway in northern Mali and now French involvement will see the conflict inevitably spill over into Algeria. It should be noted that Riedel is a co-author of “Which Path to Persia?” which openly conspires to arm yet another US State Department-listed terrorist organization (list as #28), the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to wreak havoc across Iran and help collapse the government there – illustrating a pattern of using clearly terroristic organizations, even those listed as so by the US State Department, to carry out US foreign policy.”

Now, it is reported that “Al Qaeda-linked” terrorists have seized American hostages in Algeria in what is being described by the Western press as “spill over” from France’s Mali operations.

The Washington Post, in their article, “Al-Qaida-linked militants seize BP complex in Algeria, take hostages in revenge for Mali,” claims:

“As Algerian army helicopters clattered overhead deep in the Sahara desert, Islamist militants hunkered down for the night in a natural gas complex they had assaulted Wednesday morning, killing two people and taking dozens of foreigners hostage in what could be the first spillover from France’s intervention in Mali.”

The Wall Street Journal, in its article, “Militants Grab U.S. Hostages in Algeria,” reports that:

“Militants with possible links to al Qaeda seized about 40 foreign hostages, including several Americans, at a natural-gas field in Algeria, posing a new level of threat to nations trying to blunt the growing influence of Islamist extremists in Africa.As security officials in the U.S. and Europe assessed options to reach the captives from distant bases, Algerian security forces failed in an attempt late Wednesday to storm the facility.”

The WSJ also added:

“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would take “necessary and proper steps” in the hostage situation, and didn’t rule out military action. He said the Algeria attack could represent a spillover from Mali.”

And it is military action, both covert and incrementally more overt, that will see the West’s extremist proxies and the West’s faux efforts to stem them, increasingly creep over the Mali-Algerian border, as the old imperial maps of Europe are redrawn right before our eyes.

….

Meanwhile, these very same terrorist forces continue to receive funding, arms, covert military support, and diplomatic recognition in Syria, by NATO, and specifically the US and France who are both claiming to fight the “Free Syrian Army’s” ideological and very literal allies in North Africa.

In reality, Al Qaeda is allowing the US and France to intervene and interfere in Algeria, after attempts in 2011 to trigger political subversion was soundly defeated by the Algerian government. Al Qaeda is essentially both a casus belli and mercenary force, deployed by the West against targeted nations. It is clear that French operations seek to trigger armed conflict in Algeria as well as a possible Western military intervention there as well, with the Mali conflict serving only as a pretense.

Iranian TV reporting says terror in Mali caused by Saudi, Qatar Salafist terror groups and France going in could destabilize Africa and this is by design.

The bloody making of a global jihadi movement

MICHAEL JANSEN IRISH TIMES

ANALYSIS : The Soviet war in Afghanistan was criticial in building the contemporary ‘Jihadi International’

The seizure of scores of hostages in the Algerian desert and the emergence of an expansionist “Islamic state” in neighbouring Mali are the latest developments in the global war being waged by militant Muslims, jihadis, against the secular West and its allies, culture and influence in the Ummah, the worldwide Muslim community.

Algeria and France, the former colonial power in the region, responded differently to these challenges. Determined to bring a quick end to the hostage crisis, the Algerian military slew both jihadis and captives.

France, by contrast, intervened in Mali eight months after jihadi rebels had proclaimed independence in the north and only when they threatened the capital Bamako in the south. This response is likely to spur jihadis everywhere to mount fresh operations in a global campaign.

In Islam, jihad is a just war carried out in self-defence, warfare against persecutors and conquerors, and “war in God’s cause”. The Koran provides the basis for legislation governing warfare in Surah (chapter) II, verse 190: “Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not commit aggression, God loves not the aggressors.”

If aggressors and persecutors desist, verse 193 says hostilities should cease. Jihad-motivated Muslims fought Christian Crusaders in Palestine during the 11th-13th centuries and colonial masters during the 19th and early 20th century freedom struggles.

Commanders of the later campaigns are inspirational figures for contemporary jihadis. Three in particular can be mentioned: Abdel Qader who fought the French in Algeria in the 1830s; the Mahdi who staged the 1881-99 revolt against Anglo-Egyptian rule in the Sudan; and slew British Gen Charles Gordon, and Omar Mukhtar who led the 1911-43 Libyan resistance campaign against the Italians.

Sadiq al-Mahdi, great grandson of the Mahdi, remains a major figure on the Sudanese scene while Awad Mukhtar, the grandson of Omar Mukhtar – who was celebrated in a film starring Anthony Quinn – threw in his lot with the 2011 revolt against Muammar Gadafy.

No borders 

Syrian cleric Izzedin al-Qassam (1882-1935) – for whom Hamas’s military wing was named – was another icon of resistance against the French in Syria and the British in Palestine. He, like most contemporary jihadis, believed that Islam inspires Muslims to resist oppression and foreign occupation and that there should be no borders dividing the Ummah.

The critical period for the contemporary jihadi movement was the Saudi-western backed campaign (1979-89) to oust the Soviet army from Afghanistan. Before the iconic figure of this war became Osama bin Laden and the launchpad of jihad became al-Qaeda, many veterans volunteered to defend Muslims in the Balkans or returned to their home countries and formed jihadi organisations.

One of the returnees was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, head of the faction that seized the hostages in Algeria. His post-Afghan war career is typical of self-styled jihadi emirs, or princes.

He joined the country’s Armed Islamic Group during its 1990s revolt against the secular government and in 1998 co-founded the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which recruited Algerians and Moroccans and launched attacks on security forces in the Sahel region. This group morphed into al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; in 2011 it expelled Belmokhtar, who set up his own faction, Those Who Sign in Blood, based in Mali.

This kind of evolution is common among jihadi organisations, particularly those that eventually set up as al-Qaeda franchises. For them the brand is important: al-Qaeda is considered by militants the most successful of the jihadi organisations because it struck a world-shaking blow against the West when its combatants attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on September 11th, 2001.

Since then jihadi groups have proliferated and evolved into a “Jihadi International,” a loosely connected global jihadi move ment similar to the “Communist International,” the Comintern which, after the communists took power in Russia, created dozens of communist parties the world over with the aim of taking over the world.

While the Jihadi International does not have a sponsor comparable to the Soviet Union, ultra-orthodox Salafi Saudi Arabia has become the movement’s ideological mentor and financier, and Saudi-trained clerics preaching in Saudi-built mosques serve as recruiting agents from Morocco in the West to Indonesia and the Philippines in the east.

Saudi Salafism was launched in the 18th century by preacher Mohamed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, whose puritanical teachings have been adopted and promulgated by the Saudi monarchy. The Salafi ideology did not, however, gain wider acceptance until the latter half of the 19th century, at a time the western challenge to Muslims was overpowering.

Exemplars 

Salafis believe the Muslim world fell to foreign occupation because of a loss of faith and the corruption of the Ummah and that to win independence modern-day Muslims must revert to seventh-century exemplars, the revered Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, and try to follow their religious, cultural and social precepts and practices.

While Salafis are not necessarily jihadis, many jihadis are Salafis or claim to be Salafis, although respected Salafi scholars argue that jihadi urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism against civilians is forbidden. Their rulings are ignored both by jihadi commanders and footsoldiers.

Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb (1906-66) was a 20th century thinker who also shaped fundamentalist thinking, inculcating a revulsion against secularism and the US, which he considered impious and materialistic. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood, became head of its “enlightenment” effort, and edited its weekly publication. He is regarded highly by al-Qaeda, its franchises and offshoots.

Today there are dozens of jihadi groups, including the Pakistani military intelligence-supported Laskhar-e-Taiba fighting in Indian-administered Kashmir; al-Shebab in Somalia and Kenya; the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Chechen, Ingush and Dagistani separatists in the North Caucasus; the Islamic State of Iraq; al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; Islamic Jihad in Gaza; Boko Haram in Nigeria; and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.

Michael Jansen reports for The Irish Times on the Middle East

“Forgiveness” and “redemption” are concepts that originally emerged in Western culture within a religious context — specifically, the context(s) of Judaism and Christianity. Within this framework, they are preeminently meaningful. Once they have been dislodged from this setting, though, they open themselves up to the worst sort of abuse.

Friday, 18 January 2013 11:37

Shamelessness, Not Forgiveness: Americans and "Fallen" Celebrities

Written by  Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.  THE NEW AMERICAN

On the front page of the January 18-20 weekend edition of USA Today, one of the headlines reads: “Can You Forgive?” The article uses Lance Armstrong’s recent“confession” of “doping” to Oprah Winfrey as the point from which to segue into a discussion of the broader topic of Americans’ readiness to extend mercy to those celebrities who have veered from the straight and narrow path.

Rick Hampson writes: “From Bill Clinton (again toast of the Democratic Party) to Charlie Sheen (again a sitcom star) to Michael Vick (again an NFL quarterback), the bar for public redemption seems to have gotten lower and lower.”

This one article provides much food for thought. 

Unfortunately, it is all junk food.

USA Today expresses our culture’s conventional wisdom on this matter of forgiving those public figures who have fallen from grace. And this is exactly what we should expect would pass for wisdom within a culture that elevates celebrity status above that of every other station.

“Forgiveness” and “redemption” are concepts that originally emerged in Western culture within a religious context — specifically, the context(s) of Judaism and Christianity. Within this framework, they are preeminently meaningful. Once they have been dislodged from this setting, though, they open themselves up to the worst sort of abuse. Hampson’s USA Today piece is a classic case in point.

I cannot forgive Armstrong. Neither can you. Nor can either of us forgive Clinton, Vick, Sheen, Don Imus, Richard Nixon, or any other celebrity who throws himself at the mercy of the court of public opinion.

It isn’t that either of us is necessarily merciless. Rather, we can no more forgive any of these famous penitents for their offenses for the same reason that neither of us would ever think to offer forgiveness to the other’s spouse for undermining his or her marriage.

In other words, neither you nor I can forgive the rich and famous for their transgressions because they didn’t transgress against us.

Real forgiveness is among the most painful things in the world for both the persons who ask and offer it. The person who seeks it is pained by the acute realization that he has wronged another. Yet he is also pained by the fear that his request will be rejected and he will be humiliated. The person who is asked to forgive is pained by the transgression. But he too is afraid, for in forgiving, he will render himself vulnerable to being harmed once more. Maybe he will even be thought weak, a sucker.

In the Christian tradition, forgiveness or mercy is a virtue, an excellence of character. Like any other virtue — whether moral, intellectual, or physical — it comes about only as the result of the blood, sweat, and tears of those who make the point of practicing it.

To suggest that we can collectively “forgive” a person who hasn’t lent us any personal offense and about whom we couldn't care less isn’t just to cheapen the concept of forgiveness; it is to cheapen it to the point of extinguishing it.  

In remarking that “the bar for public redemption seems to have gotten lower and lower,” it isn’t upon Americans’ ever-growing capacity for forgiveness that USA Today comments. It is, rather, their ever-growing capacity to tolerate shameful conduct to which it speaks. 

A country that is indifferent to the most shameful, most dishonorable, sorts of conduct is itself shameless. In conflating this most odious of vices with forgiveness, the noblest, the most divine of virtues, we convict ourselves of more than just an intellectual error.

We hurl ourselves into the depths of moral confusion.

The problem is that as long as we insist upon treating our vice as virtue, the less likely it is that we will recognize our shamelessness for what it is.

And the less likely it is that we will be able to practice forgiveness in our personal relationships — where it belongs.