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Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

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    Behind the U.S. targeted killing program




    Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list called the “disposition matrix.”

    The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations.

    U.S. officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the “disposition” of suspects beyond the reach of American drones.


    Although the matrix is a work in progress, the effort to create it reflects a reality setting in among the nation’s counterterrorism ranks: The United States’ conventional wars are winding down, but the government expects to continue adding names to kill or capture lists for years.


    Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaeda continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight.


    “We can’t possibly kill everyone who wants to harm us,” a senior administration official said. “It’s a necessary part of what we do. . . . We’re not going to wind up in 10 years in a world of everybody holding hands and saying, ‘We love America.’ ”


    That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism. Targeting lists that were regarded as finite emergency measures after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now fixtures of the national security apparatus. The rosters expand and contract with the pace of drone strikes but never go to zero.


    Meanwhile, a significant milestone looms: The number of militants and civilians killed in the drone campaign over the past 10 years will soon exceed 3,000 by certain estimates, surpassing the number of people al-Qaeda killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.


    The Obama administration has touted its successes against the terrorist network, including the death of Osama bin Laden, as signature achievements that argue for President Obama’s reelection. The administration has taken tentative steps toward greater transparency, formally acknowledging for the first time the United States’ use of armed drones.


    Less visible is the extent to which Obama has institutionalized the highly classified practice of targeted killing, transforming ad-hoc elements into a counterterrorism infrastructure capable of sustaining a seemingly permanent war. Spokesmen for the White House, the National Counterterrorism Center, the CIA and other agencies declined to comment on the matrix or other counterterrorism programs.


    Privately, officials acknowledge that the development of the matrix is part of a series of moves, in Washington and overseas, to embed counterterrorism tools into U.S. policy for the long haul.


    White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan is seeking to codify the administration’s approach to generating capture/kill lists, part of a broader effort to guide future administrations through the counterterrorism processes that Obama has embraced.

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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    The process behind targeted killing

    The Obama administration has been developing blueprints for a “disposition matrix,” a database that officials describe as a next-generation capture/kill list. Here is an overview of how targets are collected, reviewed and presented for presidential approval.





    wpermanentwar242 1 - Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program
    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    Tracking America's drone war


    Since 2002, armed drones have become an increasingly important element of U.S. national security policy.

    This project – which will be updated regularly – documents drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.


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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    U.S. drone camp in the heart of Djibouti


    Expansion is underway at the United States’ first counter- terrorism base, fenced within a one-runway airport shared by military and civilian aircraft in the heart of Djibouti. Scheduled to be complete in the next two years at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion, the Pentagon hopes the upgrades will strengthen the U.S. fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.




    wpermanentWar26 1 - Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program
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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    Drone theater expands beyond Pakistan



    For most of the past decade, U.S. counterterrorism policy has been concentrated on Pakistan, where the George W. Bush administration ended its tenure with an increase in drone strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Under President Obama, the attacks have expanded in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.




    wpermanentwar25 1 - Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program



    Sources: New America Foundation; Longwarjournal.org; staff reports. Julie Tate and Bill Webster/The Washington Post. Published on October 24, 2012, 1:32 p.m.
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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    The foundations of the kuffaar are strengthening day by day. Their plots will never cease.

    What are we, the ummah of Nabi (sallalahu alaihi wasalam) doing about it?

    Are we out wishing everyone a 'Merry Christmas'?

    We need to remove our blinkers, my brothers and sisters - we need to re-group, and strengthen from within.

    For a divided community is a defeated community......


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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    الحمد لله a thread we can agree on... Good when we tie all things together with what's going on in the Middle East and other parts of the 'Islamic' region!
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    Text without context is pretext
    If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him 44845203 1 - Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

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    Tarek_'s Avatar Limited Member
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    what's the source?
    do you really think that America killed Ben Laden the way they declared ?
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    As long as our ummah remains silent, the US is clearly waging a crusade against islam. if not by military confrontation then by proxy armies like what is happening in somalia.

    They are planning to use drones in libya and mali also, the whole maghreb region. And are planning to send troops to 35 african countries to counter ''al-quaida'' and other groups.

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/pentagon...n-nations.html

    Drone warfare is expanding. We sit comfortably in our houses. Atleast do something on imaan and use your speech to make this all known.

    May Allah make their plans fail. Ameen
    Last edited by Jedi_Mindset; 12-25-2012 at 11:46 AM.
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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    http://www.youtube.com/user/robinb4life?feature=mhee
    I will not calm down until I will put one cheek of a tyrant on the ground and the other under my feet, and for the poor and weak, I will put my cheek on the ground.
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    format_quote Originally Posted by Tarek_ View Post
    what's the source?
    The source is listed in the OP and subsequent posts.
    Shukran
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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    Zaria is being monitored for creating a thread critical of America and inciting others to a holy war against america
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    format_quote Originally Posted by Cabdullahi View Post
    Zaria is being monitored for creating a thread critical of America and inciting others to a holy war against america
    LOL! My family often says that they fear for a day when the FBI/ a similiar entity bangs down our doors to take me away........

    But Zaria is quite harmless at the moment.....

    Edit: the above info is available on the 'Washington Post'
    Last edited by ~Zaria~; 12-25-2012 at 01:05 PM.
    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program



    i don't believe there is an "Ummah", just a bunch of folks claiming to be Muslims. we rant about kuffar governments, but the so called Muslim governments are no better and sometimes they're just lackeys of the kuffar.

    there isn't an America as envisioned by most folks. by the end of the 19th Century, it has become the Corporate Entity formally known as the United States. they want to eliminate everyone that they feel is unnecessary. enemies of this Corporate conglomerate end up killing each other because they can't see through flags and uniforms.

    some people have to fight to defend themselves, but what about everyone one else? Corporations survive by making money. we support them in various ways. in return, they poison us, control us and squash the spirituality out of all of us.

    how about waking up. not "david icke" wake up, just remove the cobwebs from your eyes. turn of your TVs, stop playing video games and turn off the radio. look at your lifestyle, do you wear "cool clothes"? (Sisters are lucky here, not a lot of "name brand" hijabs) are meals a hobby instead of something you do to survive? are you brothers big sports fans? do you drink soft drinks and other useless beverages? WHY?

    we don't need to think of a boycott. start drinking water, filter it if you need to. if nobody buys the crap sold instead, corporations lose money. first of all, water is healthy. you wants an alternative, tea or coffee. don't even buy juice, eat fruit instead. another way for corporations to lose money. EAT HEALTHY! nuts, grains, vegetables and good oils. EAT ORGANIC and local. why? corporations make big money producing poisoned food and the petro chemicals used to grow them. conserve, recycle and reuse.

    the MAIN reason corporations exist is to sell you stuff that you don't really need. you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if we realize that we don't NEED this crap, and thus stop buying it, corporate profits go down the toilet. they lose power.

    we have been brainwashed by so much propaganda that we have become unwitting slaves and servants of corporations. "thinking" has become passe. how much money will Pepsi make if ZERO of their product sells? how much money will Monsanto make if people REFUSE to buy food make from chemicals?

    think about it. i remember looking at one of my ex-wife's head scarfs. yes, it was pretty. BUT, it was calvin klien. THINK about that. let it sink in.

    if you "get it", start to change. if you don't, think some more.

    the only way corporations can murder, rape and dominate the planet at will, is because we WANT them to.

    hello, are you out of your mind?

    do you remember losing it?

    i bet you don't.

    you see, you HAVE been brainwashed.

    solution?

    it's elementary, my dear Watson. START THINKING!

    Robin Williams put out a cd with a great title once, "Reality, What a Concept"

    ma salaama
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    Had the non-believer known of all the Mercy which is in the Hands of Allah, he would not lose hope of entering Paradise, and had the believer known of all the punishment which is present with Allah, he would not consider himself safe from the Hell-Fire
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    format_quote Originally Posted by YusufNoor View Post
    i don't believe there is an "Ummah", just a bunch of folks claiming to be Muslims. we rant about kuffar governments, but the so called Muslim governments are no better and sometimes they're just lackeys of the kuffar.
    The word Ummahcomes from the Arabic amma which means "to go, betake, repair, go to see," Imama "to lead the way, lead by one's example (esp. in prayer)," umuma "to be or become a mother, to nationalize, etc." Also derived from this root is Umm which means "mother, source, origin, basis, foundation, original, original version (of a book), the gist, essence of…" Thus the word Ummah means "nation, people, generation, community."
    The Qur'an uses this word in a number of ways, but it is primarily used to describe groups of people from past and future. In the case of the past, Allah says in the Qur'an:
    To every ummah (was sent) a Messenger: when their Messenger comes (before them), the matter will be judged between them with justice, and they will not be wronged. (10:47)
    Mankind was but one ummah, but differed (later). Had it not been for a Word that went forth before from thy Lord, their differences would have been settled between them. (10:19)
    Mankind was one single ummah. And Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book after the clear Signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except through selfish contumacy. Allah by His Grace guided the Believers to the Truth, concerning what wherein they differed. For Allah guides whom He will to a path that is straight. (2:213)
    We can see from these ayats (verses, clear proofs) that Allah, The Most High, makes commentaries in the Qur'an about past ummahs stating that Messengers were sent to all of them, yet they still chose to split into sects through nothing more than "selfish contumacy."
    There are other places in the Qur'an where Allah speaks specifically about this Ummah (meaning the ummah of Muhammad, upon whom be peace). Allah has given this Ummah a special, honored position to be inheritors of the earth, and with that position comes responsibility.
    Thus have We made of you an Ummah justly balanced. That you might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves; and We appointed the Qibla to which you were used, only to test those who followed the Messenger from those who would turn on their heels (from the Faith). Indeed it was (a change) momentous, except to those guided by Allah. And never would Allah make your faith of no effect, for Allah is to all people most surely full of Kindness, Most Merciful. (2:143)
    This ayat discusses the change in qibla (direction of prayer) from Jerusalem to the sacred mosque in Makkah. This change was a test of faith for the Ummah among the many tests they were given. The true faithful among them would stay united throughout the tests. Also, the message given to this Ummah puts us in a position to be witnesses over the issues that caused divisions among past ummahs.
    If Allah so willed, He could make you all one Ummah: but He leaves straying whom He pleases, and He guides whom He pleases: but you shall certainly be called to account for all your actions. (16:93)
    So, in this ayat, Allah tells us that there will be people who will inevitably stray and choose not to unite. Clearly, however, those who choose not to unite are going against the command of Allah, glorified and exalted.
    And verily this Ummah of yours is One Ummah and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other). (23:52)


    Partial Source


    format_quote Originally Posted by YusufNoor View Post
    how about waking up. not "david icke" wake up, just remove the cobwebs from your eyes. turn of your TVs, stop playing video games and turn off the radio. look at your lifestyle, do you wear "cool clothes"? (Sisters are lucky here, not a lot of "name brand" hijabs) are meals a hobby instead of something you do to survive? are you brothers big sports fans? do you drink soft drinks and other useless beverages? WHY?
    How much do you act on your own advice?

    Assalamu Alaikum
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    format_quote Originally Posted by SaneFellow View Post




    Partial Source




    How much do you act on your own advice?

    Assalamu Alaikum


    as much as humanly possible.

    and i know the def of ummah, my point still stands

    ma salaama
    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    US Army steadily infiltrating Africa




    AFRICOM233x250 1 - Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Army brigade will begin sending small teams into as many as 35 African nations early next year, part of an intensifying Pentagon effort to suppodely “train countries to battle extremists” and give the U.S. a ready and trained force to dispatch to Africa if crises requiring the U.S. military emerge.

    The teams will reportedly be limited to training and equipping efforts, and will not be permitted to conduct military operations without specific, additional approvals from the secretary of defense.

    The sharper focus on Africa by the U.S. comes against a backdrop of widespread instability across North Africa, and as the African Union and other nations discuss military intervention in northern Mali.

    American officials believe that the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed the ambassador and three other Americans, may have been carried out by those who had ties to ‘al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb’.

    This first-of-its-kind brigade assignment — involving teams from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division — will target countries such as Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger, where Islamic resistance groups have been active. It also will assist nations like Kenya and Uganda that have been battling al-Shabab on the front lines in Somalia.

    Gen. Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander in Africa, noted that the brigade has a small drone capability that could be useful in Africa. But he also acknowledged that he would need special permission to tap it for that kind of mission.

    “If they want them for (military) operations, the brigade is our first sourcing solution because they’re prepared,” said Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of U.S. Army Forces Command. “But that has to go back to the secretary of defense to get an execute order.”

    Already the U.S. military has plans for nearly 100 different exercises, training programs and other activities across the widely diverse continent. But the new program faces significant cultural and language challenges, as well as nagging questions about how many of the lower-level enlisted members of the brigade, based in Fort Riley, Kan., will participate, since the teams would largely be made up of more senior enlisted troops and officers. A full brigade numbers about 3,500, but the teams could range from just a few people to a company of about 200. In rare cases for certain exercises, it could be a battalion, which would number about 800.

    To bridge the cultural gaps with the African militaries, the Army is reaching out across the services, the embassies and a network of professional organizations to find troops and experts that are from some of the African countries. The experts can be used during training, and the troops can both advise or travel with the teams as they begin the program.

    “In a very short time frame we can only teach basic phrases,” said Col. Matthew McKenna, commander of the 162nd Infantry Brigade that will begin training the Fort Riley soldiers in March for their African deployment. “We focus on culture and the cultural impact — how it impacts the African countries’ military and their operations.”

    Thomas Dempsey, a professor with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said the biggest challenge will be the level of cultural, language and historical diversity across the far-flung continent.

    “How do you train for that in a way that would be applicable wherever they go?” said Dempsey, a retired Army colonel. He said he’s not sure using a combat brigade is the right answer, but added, “I’m not sure what the answer is. The security challenges differ so dramatically that, to be honest, I really don’t think it’s feasible to have a continental training package.”

    The Pentagon’s effort in Africa, including the creation of U.S. Africa Command in 2007, has been carefully calibrated, largely due to broad misgivings across the continent that it could spawn American bases or create the perception of an undue U.S. military influence there. As a result, the command has been based in Stuttgart, Germany, rather than on the African continent.

    At the same time, many African nations are eager for U.S. training or support, as they work to build their militaries, battle pirates along the coast and shut down drug trafficking, kidnapping and other insurgent activities.

    McKenna acknowledged the challenge, but said the military has to tap its conventional fighting forces for this task because there aren’t enough special operations forces to meet the global training needs. He said there will be as many as a dozen different training segments between February and September, each designed to provide tailored instruction for the particular teams.

    The mission for the 2nd Brigade — known as the “Dagger Brigade” — will begin in the spring and will pave the way for Army brigades to be assigned next to U.S. Pacific Command and then to U.S. European Command over the next year. The brigade is receiving its regular combat training first, and then will move on to the more specific instruction needed for the deployments, such as language skills, cultural information and other data about the African nations.

    Dagger Brigade commander Col. Jeff Broadwater said the language and culture training will be different than what most soldiers have had in recent years, since they have focused on Pashtun and Farsi, languages used mostly in Afghanistan and Iran. He said he expects the soldiers to learn French, Swahili, Arabic or other languages, as well as the local cultures.

    “What’s really exciting is we get to focus on a different part of the world and maintain our core combat skills,” Broadwater said, adding that the soldiers know what to expect. “You see those threats (in Africa) in the news all the time.”

    The brigade will be carved up into different teams designed to meet the specific needs of each African nation. As the year goes on, the teams will travel from Fort Riley to those nations — all while trying to avoid any appearance of a large U.S. military footprint.

    “The challenge we have is to always understand the system in their country,” said Rodriguez, who has been nominated to be the next head of Africa Command. “We’re not there to show them our system, we’re there to make their system work. Here is what their army looks like, and here is what we need to prepare them to do.”

    Rodriguez said the nearly 100 assignments so far requested by Ham will be carried out with “a very small footprint to get the high payoff.”



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    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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  21. #17
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    May the shrapnel from a drone or something similar strike obama's throat and cause him to die clutching his throat squealing like a pig,
    The reign of this long line of pharaoh's seems to be nearing it's end and they're kicking and screaming in desperation.

    May Allah guide us and keep us on the straight path, and destroy those animals who work to keep us from the path of truth and exaltion.
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    Thanks for the information. It must be terrible for those living in countries having those armed things flying overhead - waiting to kill.
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    Re: Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program

    Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent

    Glenn Greenwald

    guardian.co.uk
    , Friday 17 May 2013 12.54 BST


    sheehan1 1 - Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program


    Assistant Defense Secretary Michael Sheehan, right, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee's May 16, 2013,
    hearing on the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.
    Photo: AP/Carolyn Kaster



    Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or two

    Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously unveiled to the Washington Post their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years after the 9/11 attack:
    Among senior Obama administration officials, there is a broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade. Given the way al-Qaida continues to metastasize, some officials said no clear end is in sight. . . . That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism."

    On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on whether the statutory basis for this "war" - the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) - should be revised (meaning: expanded). This is how Wired's Spencer Ackerman (soon to be the Guardian US's national security editor) described the most significant exchange:
    "Asked at a Senate hearing today how long the war on terrorism will last, Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, answered, 'At least 10 to 20 years.' . . . A spokeswoman, Army Col. Anne Edgecomb, clarified that Sheehan meant the conflict is likely to last 10 to 20 more years from today - atop the 12 years that the conflict has already lasted.

    Welcome to America's Thirty Years War."

    That the Obama administration is now repeatedly declaring that the "war on terror" will last at least another decade (or two) is vastly more significant than all three of this week's big media controversies (Benghazi, IRS, and AP/DOJ) combined.

    The military historian Andrew Bacevich has spent years warning that US policy planners have adopted an explicit doctrine of "endless war". Obama officials, despite repeatedly boasting that they have delivered permanently crippling blows to al-Qaida, are now, as clearly as the English language permits, openly declaring this to be so.


    It is hard to resist the conclusion that this war has no purpose other than its own eternal perpetuation. This war is not a means to any end but rather is the end in itself. Not only is it the end itself, but it is also its own fuel: it is precisely this endless war - justified in the name of stopping the threat of terrorism - that is the single greatest cause of that threat.


    In January, former Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson delivered a highly-touted speech suggesting that the war on terror will eventually end; he advocated that outcome, arguing:
    'War' must be regarded as a finite, extraordinary and unnatural state of affairs. We must not accept the current conflict, and all that it entails, as the 'new normal.'"
    In response, I wrote that the "war on terror" cannot and will not end on its own for two reasons:

    (1) it is designed by its very terms to be permanent, incapable of ending, since the war itself ironically ensures that there will never come a time when people stop wanting to bring violence back to the US (the operational definition of "terrorism"), and

    (2) the nation's most powerful political and economic factions reap a bonanza of benefits from its continuation.

    Whatever else is true, it is now beyond doubt that ending this war is the last thing on the mind of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner and those who work at the highest levels of his administration. Is there any way they can make that clearer beyond declaring that it will continue for "at least" another 10-20 years?

    The genius of America's endless war machine is that, learning from the unplesantness of the Vietnam war protests, it has rendered the costs of war largely invisible. That is accomplished by heaping all of the fighting burden on a tiny and mostly economically marginalized faction of the population, by using sterile, mechanized instruments to deliver the violence, and by suppressing any real discussion in establishment media circles of America's innocent victims and the worldwide anti-American rage that generates.

    Though rarely visible, the costs are nonetheless gargantuan.

    Just in financial terms, as Americans are told they must sacrifice Social Security and Medicare benefits and place their children in a crumbling educational system, the Pentagon remains the world's largest employer and continues to militarily outspend the rest of the world by a significant margin.
    The mythology of the Reagan presidency is that he induced the collapse of the Soviet Union by luring it into unsustainable military spending and wars: should there come a point when we think about applying that lesson to ourselves?


    Then there are the threats to Americans' security. Having their government spend decades proudly touting itself as "A Nation at War" and bringing horrific violence to the world is certain to prompt more and more people to want to attack Americans, as the US government itself claims took place just recently in Boston (and as clearly took place multiple other times over the last several years).


    And then there's the most intangible yet most significant cost: each year of endless war that passes further normalizes the endless rights erosions justified in its name. The second term of the Bush administration and first five years of the Obama presidency have been devoted to codifying and institutionalizing the vast and unchecked powers that are typically vested in leaders in the name of war.

    Those powers of secrecy, indefinite detention, mass surveillance, and due-process-free assassination are not going anywhere. They are now permanent fixtures not only in the US political system but, worse, in American political culture.


    Each year that passes, millions of young Americans come of age having spent their entire lives, literally, with these powers and this climate fixed in place: to them, there is nothing radical or aberrational about any of it. The post-9/11 era is all they have been trained to know. That is how a state of permanent war not only devastates its foreign targets but also degrades the population of the nation that prosecutes it.


    This war will end only once Americans realize the vast and multi-faceted costs they are bearing so that the nation's political elites can be empowered and its oligarchs can further prosper. But Washington clearly has no fear that such realizations are imminent. They are moving in the other direction: aggressively planning how to further entrench and expand this war.


    One might think that if there is to be a debate over the 12-year-old AUMF, it would be about repealing it. Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who heroically cast the only vote against it when it was originally enacted by presciently warning of how abused it would be, has been advocating its repeal for some time now in favor of using reasonable security measures to defend against such threats and standard law enforcement measures to punish them (which have proven far more effective than military solutions). But just as happened in 2001, neither she nor her warnings are deemed sufficiently Serious even to consider, let alone embrace.

    Instead, the Washington AUMF "debate" recognizes only two positions:

    (1) Congress should codify expanded powers for the administration to fight a wider war beyond what the 2001 AUMF provides (that's the argument recently made by the supreme war-cheerleaders-from-a-safe-distance at the Washington Post editorial page and their favorite war-justifying think tank theorists, and the one being made by many Senators from both parties), or

    (2) the administration does not need any expanded authority because it is already free to wage a global war with very few limits under the warped "interpretation" of the AUMF which both the Bush and Obama DOJs have successfully persuaded courts to accept (that's the Obama administration's position). In other words, the shared premise is that the US government must continue to wage unlimited, permanent war, and the only debate is whether that should happen under a new law or the old one.

    Just to convey a sense for how degraded is this Washington "debate":

    Obama officials at yesterday's Senate hearing repeatedly insisted that this "war" is already one without geographical limits and without any real conceptual constraints.

    The AUMF's war power, they said, "stretches from Boston to the [tribal areas of Pakistan]" and can be used "anywhere around the world, including inside Syria, where the rebel Nusra Front recently allied itself with al-Qaida's Iraq affiliate, or even what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called 'boots on the ground in Congo'". The acting general counsel of the Pentagon said it even "authorized war against al-Qaida's associated forces in Mali, Libya and Syria". Newly elected independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said after listening to how the Obama administration interprets its war powers under the AUMF:
    This is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I've been to since I've been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution today."
    Former Bush DOJ official Jack Goldsmith, who testified at the hearing, summarized what was said after it was over:

    Obama officials argued that "they had domestic authority to use force in Mali, Syria, Libya, and Congo, against Islamist terrorist threats there"; that "they were actively considering emerging threats and stated that it was possible they would need to return to Congress for new authorities against those threats but did not at present need new authorities"; that "the conflict authorized by the AUMF was not nearly over"; and that "several members of the Committee were surprised by the breadth of DOD's interpretation of the AUMF."

    Conveying the dark irony of America's war machine, seemingly lifted right out of the Cold War era film Dr. Strangelove, Goldsmith added:
    Amazingly, there is a very large question even in the Armed Services Committee about who the United States is at war against and where, and how those determinations are made."

    Nobody really even knows with whom the US is at war, or where. Everyone just knows that it is vital that it continue in unlimited form indefinitely.

    In response to that, the only real movement in Congress is to think about how to enact a new law to expand the authorization even further. But it's a worthless and illusory debate, affecting nothing other than the pretexts and symbols used to justify what will, in all cases, be a permanent and limitless war. The Washington AUMF debate is about nothing other than whether more fig leafs are needed to make it all pretty and legal.

    The Obama administration already claims the power to wage endless and boundless war, in virtually total secrecy, and without a single meaningful check or constraint. No institution with any power disputes this. To the contrary, the only ones which exert real influence - Congress, the courts, the establishment media, the plutocratic class - clearly favor its continuation and only think about how further to enable it. That will continue unless and until Americans begin to realize just what a mammoth price they're paying for this ongoing splurge of war spending and endless aggression.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...n-terror-obama






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    Behind the U.S. Targeted Killing Program




    يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِى عَلَى دِينِكَ

    Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, Thabbit Qalbi Ala Deenik
    "Oh Turner of Hearts, keep my heart firm on Your Deen."



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