4 May 2011 — The Burbank Digest

U.S. FINANCE CAPITAL PARTNERS
SAUDI BIN LADEN GROUP
http://www.answers.com/topic/saudi-binladin-group-1
On the web: http://www.sbg.com.sa
Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden, founder
Bakr bin Laden, chairman
Saudi Binladin group offices, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The Saudi Binladin (or Binladen) Group (SBG) is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family, headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
* 1 Overview* 2 Current activities* 3 Web site * 4 References* 5 External links
1. a b “One Nation, Indivisible”. Time. September 24, 2001. www.time.com/time/covers/1101010924/wosama.html. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
2. “Abraj Al Bait: a city within a city”. Qatar Construction Sites Newspaper.
www.qc-sites.com/read.aspx?id=162&sid=2. Retrieved 2008-04-09. [dead link]
3. frontline: hunting bin laden: who is bin laden?: about the bin laden family | PBS
4. Saudi to build 26-billion-dollar new city
5. Osama Family’s Suspicious Site
6. whois.domaintools.com/sbg.com.sa

External links
* Saudi Binladin Group website
* Saudi Binladin Group website in United Arab Emirates (.ae) – full version
Archived versions of http://www.saudi-binladin-group.com at the Internet Archive
* Bin Laden Group at Sourcewatch

BINLADIN CONTRACTING GROUP
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Egypt Jordan Sudan Yemen Malaysia
www.sbgpbad.ae/default.asp?action=article&ID=53
Public Buildings and Airport Division Binladin Building (Opp.Warba Centre), Mez.Floor, Abu Bakr Al Siddique Road, P.O. Box 1555, Dubai,United Arab Emirates.

Dept. of Connections: The Contractors
by Jane Mayer, May 5, 2003
www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/05/05/030505ta_talk_mayer
…Bin Laden s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco. Bechtel is also the global construction and engineering company to which the U.S. government recently awarded the first major multimillion-dollar contract to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraq. In a closed competitive bidding process, the United States Agency for International Development chose Bechtel to rebuild the major elements of Iraq s infrastructure, including its roads, railroads, airports, hospitals, and schools, and its water and electrical systems.

More ‘Homeland’ Connections
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechtel#Saudi_Arabia
…Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in the Financial District of San Francisco,[2] Bechtel had 44,000 employees as of 2009 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $31.4 billion in revenue.

May 5, 2003, The New Yorker ran an article revealing the bin Laden family had passively invested several million dollars in The Fremont Group, a private equity fund owned by the Bechtel family. In 2005, Bechtel was awarded a no-bid contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to install temporary housing for the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief effort. The lack of competitive bidding for the contracts was criticized, as was the high cost of the contracts and the failure to support local, minority-owned businesses

U.S. Department of Energy
Effective October 1, 2007, the US Department of Energy awarded Bechtel partnership LLNS LLC the contract to operate Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Bechtel has a presence, through various partnerships, of the bulk of the US nuclear weapons facilities, including Los Alamos National Laboratory (design), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (design), Savannah River Site (nuclear materials), Hanford Site (nuclear materials), Pantex Plant (assembly/disassembly), Y-12 National Security Complex (nuclear materials), and the Nevada Test Site (subcritical testing).[22]

Bechtel and the CIA
Bechtel’s close relationship with the CIA helped the overthrow of several foreign governments perceived as unfriendly to American goals…Bechtel intelligence gathering helped the CIA overthrow the Syrian government in 1949 and replace it with a military dictatorship. The CIA, with the help of Bechtel, replaced Iran’s Mossadeq in 1953, Indonesia’s Sukarno in 1965 with pro-Western depots Reza Shah Pahlavi and Suharto respectively.

John McCone and Stephen Bechtel Sr. built ships in a business partnership during WWII. They were later investigated for war profiteering. John McCone chaired the Atomic Energy Commission in the fifties, awarding Bechtel contracts for nuclear plants and supplying them with classified nuclear technology… high-level AEC officials left to work for Bechtel:

*John McCone later became director of the CIA.
*John Simpson, Bechtel financial advisor, close personal ties with Alan Dulles, CIA director, and his brother, John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State in the early fifties.
*Steve Bechtel Sr.served as the CIA liaison with the Business Council..
* Richard Helms, CIA director under Nixon, became a Bechtel consultant thereafter.
*William Casey, a Bechtel consultant, served [as] Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission, head of the Export-Import bank, and Director of the CIA

Executives
* Riley P. Bechtel is the CEO of Bechtel. With a net worth of $3.2 billion, he is the 50th richest person in the U.S. and the 127th richest in the world. In February 2003, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Export Council, which advises the president on international trade issues. He served for one year.
* David O’Reilly serves on the Bechtel Group, Inc. board of directors and is the former chairman & CEO of Chevron.
* George P. Shultz is the former U.S. Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, former president of Bechtel, and a former Bechtel director. He is a former member of the board of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
* The late Caspar Weinberger, United States Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan. Prior to this, Weinberger was the Vice President, Director, and General Counsel of the Bechtel Group of companies.
* Gen. John J. Sheehan, USMC (ret.) former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic and former Special Advisor to Asia for the U.S. Defense Department and former General Manager of the Petroleum and Chemical Business Unit for Europe/Africa/Middle East/South West Asia, a Bechtel partner. also member of the Defense Policy Board.
* Ross J. Connelly,the former CEO of Bechtel Energy Resources Corporation,served on the Overseas Private Investment Corporation under George W. Bush.
* W. Kenneth Davis, former Bechtel senior vice-president and former U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary.

Iridium phones suddenly in high demand for rescue efforts
September 17, 200 www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24519
By Joseph Farah
…The bin Laden family also helped rebuild a U.S. Air Force base in Saudi Arabia after the Khobar Towers were destroyed in 1996. Osama bin Laden is the chief suspect in that bombing. Iridium Satellite LLC, a privately held company, is the successor to the bankrupt, delisted Iridium LLC. Iridium Satellite won a two-year contract in December to continue Defense Department service and launched commercial service in April. The company has distributed about 20,000 units so far, according to officials of the company.

Bin Laden Group: a far-flung empire. seeks PR help
www.guardian.co.uk/business/2001/nov/22/marketingandpr.afghanistan
Julia Day * MediaGuardian, 22 November 2001
…The Saudi Arabian Bin Laden Group is one of the biggest construction companies in the world, with clients in America that include General Electric…also non-construction interests, such as the distribution of American soft drinks in the Middle East. Bin Laden Group is looking for PR consultants in the Middle East, US and UK. In the US, the group employs the Hullin Metz founder, Tim Metz, on a media relations brief.It is also believed to have approached the Manhattan-based PR firm, Attention America…The brothers who run the construction and property business in the US fled the country in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks…

The Saudi Arabian Bin Laden Group is one of the biggest construction companies in the world, with clients in America that include General Electric.It also has non-construction interests, such as the distribution of American soft drinks in the Middle East.

deep dark secret…
SYSTEM PLANNING CORP: “…a little giant of defense technology. Mr. James Woolsey, Jr.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept 9, 2010
www.sysplan.com/news/2010/nr_9-9-2010.html#
More Information:System Planning Corporation, James M. Kudla Phone: 703-351-823 Cell: 571-217-3633 E-mail: jkudla@sysplan.com James Kudla: V-Card

New Cargo Security Business Alliance Announced
Powers International, LLC and Arlington, Va. based System Planning Corporation today announced the formation of the Cargo Intelligence and Security Association (CISA), a strategic alliance of firms dedicated to international supply chain and container security.

The Association’s mission is to provide a platform where leaders in the intermodal shipping industry can share ideas and discover synergies to compliment the rapidly expanding intelligent supply chain market. Its outreach will include educational forums on container security and supply chain security for purpose of information sharing between the private sector and government agencies.

CISA hopes to serve as a pivotal link between the private sector and government to share developments in securing and making the supply chain move visible and efficient while diminishing costs within the supply chain and the costs to government in ensuring an effective and efficient homeland security role of keeping our ports and borders safe.Ed Harrison of Powers International, LLC, the association’s first president, said, There are many innovative solutions to securing the nation’s supply chain; some are already being used effectively in the US and other countries. Our goal is to foster sharing this information and innovative developments with the market and government leaders.

The association’s first officers are:
President Ed Harrison, Powers International, LLC
President Elect: Rich Meyers, GlobalTrak/System Planning Corp.
VP Curt Powell, Raytheon Homeland Security
Secretary Garry Whyte, Cakeboxx
Treasurer Joe Harden, ConSearch
A full listing of member companies can be found on CISA’s web site at http://www.cargointelligence.org.

SYSTEM PLANNING CORP: includes fully developed, totally programmable remote flight control platform, the “Flight Termination System” [FTS] , manufactured by Systems Planning Corporation of Rosslyn, Virginia. A system overview: www.sysplan.com/Radar/FTS

The transmitter hardware: www.sysplan.com/Radar/CTS
Related software: www.sysplan.com/Radar/MkVSW
The CEO of Systems Planning’s international division, Dov Zakheim, is long-time DoD… While Bush was Governor of Texas, Zakheim became one of his closest advisers, counseling him on defense technology and strategic aspects of Middle Eastern affairs. After the 2000 “election,” Rummy rewarded Zakheim with low-profile but strategically important position — Comptroller of the Defense Department.
Zakheim co-authored the Heritage Foundation’s “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,”… for renewed global conquest… a full year prior to 9-11. On page 63, authors note timely implementation would require “some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor.”

RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf www.newamericancentury.org/

SYSTEM PLANNING CORPORATION www.sysplan.com/capabilities/index.html#capabilities

Our Capabilities
At SPC, we pride ourselves in providing nationally recognized engineering, analysis, and planning support to the public and private sectors. Our small size fosters strong working relationships with clients, while our broad scope of services ensures no requirement is beyond our reach. Former Under Secretary of Defense and Comptroller Dr. Dov Zakheim calls SPC a small company with a large wingspan.
Our clients demands have always been diverse, and as a result SPC boasts tremendous accomplishments across many disciplines. We have improved radar measurement technologies for U.S. stealth bombers; created the first patented cargo tracking device GlobalTrakÆ for the intermodal trade industry; assessed emergency preparedness plans across the nation; hosted State Department events for ambassadors and world leaders; and provided staffing support and technical expertise for DARPA programs and system/technology offices.

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NB: good facts but dem.neoliberals try to portray US – SBG bipartisan finance capital connections as ‘republican’

Crony Capitalism Goes Global
by Tim Shorrock April 1, 2002
www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020401&s=shorrock
www.earthnews.net/articles/cronycapitalismgoesglobal.htm

Group Therapy: Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel and Baghdad
5/12/03 www.counterpunch.org/floyd05122003.html
By Chris Floyd

…the New Yorker reports this public largess will also fill the coffers of a key Bechtel partner in Saudi Arabia … the Bin Laden Group.

Bechtel, which has served Saudi royalty for more than 60 years, bristles with heavyweight kleptoplute connections. During the 1980s, current Bush warlord Don Rumsfeld acted as a paid shill for a Bechtel pipeline project in the Middle East, operating with the blessing of the Reagan-Bush administration’s secretary of state, George Schultz —Bechtel’s former president (and now “senior counsel” to the company). Rummy conducted a passionate two-year courtship of a certain Saddam Hussein, plying him with trinkets, blandishments and sweetmeats to win his lordly favor for a Bechtel-built line from Iraq to Jordan, according to national security archives obtained by the Institute for Policy Studies.

Rumsfeld’s strenuous attempt to lay pipe with Saddam happened to coincide with the latter’s most extensive use of poison gas in the Iran-Iraq war —gassing carried out with the exemplary assistance of U.S. military intelligence and technology provided by the Reagan-Bush administration and its “special envoy” to Baghdad: Don Rumsfeld. Meanwhile, another Reagan-Bush crony, Attorney General Ed Meese, tried to bribe the Israeli government with $700 million in secret funds to put the kibosh on their opposition to the Bechtel deal, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. This skullduggery earned Meese an investigation by a special prosecutor, but as the case lacked the key element of any serious government crime —oral sex with an intern —the probe was soon dropped.

In the end, Saddam —who first went on the CIA payroll back in the early 1960s, Reuters reports —balked at Bechtel’s billion-dollar price tag and rejected the project. Now of course, in a fitting bit of historical symmetry, the son of the CIA’s most famous director, George Bush, has handed Iraq to Bechtel on a silver platter.

As noted in these pages, in the 1980s George W. Bush received a helping hand for his floundering oil businesses from the Saudi group’s front man, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who secretly cast bin Laden bread upon American waters to win influence with well-connected kleptoplutes —like, say, the wayward son of the former CIA director and then-current Vice President. Today, Mahfouz is under house arrest in Saudi Arabia for allegedly financing the holy-war hijinks of the bin Ladens’ own wayward son, Osama…to be accurate, he’s accused of financing those holy-war hijinks after the Reagan-Bush CIA finally stopped financing them. But despite his confinement, Mahfouz (who is also Osama’s brother-in-law) is still a player in the kleptoplute nexus: for example, he’s currently a business partner of former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean —the very man whom George W. Bush has appointed to chair the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks allegedly ordered by, yes, that ex-CIA employee and former executive of the Bin Laden Group: Osama bin Laden.

The Bin Laden Group was also heavily invested in the Carlyle Group, the “private equity” firm (and major arms merchant) that, like Bechtel, specializes in the sell-off of public services and other government-insider deals. Carlyle’s best-known bagman, George Bush I, used to make ritual pilgrimages to bin Laden family headquarters in Saudi Arabia to procure their potent baksheesh. When Carlyle’s post-Sept. 11 orgy of war-profiteering began drawing unwanted attention, however, the bin Ladens cashed in their Carlyle chips and, officially, ended the partnership.

ENRON LINKED TO SAUDI BIN LADEN GROUP! Includes links to supporting documentation.
Roger Miller, Bush & Bin Laden – George W. Bush Ties to Billionaire bin Laden Brood, AmericanFreePress, October 7, 2001.

Victor Thorn, The Bush-Bin Laden Family Connection, SierraTimes.com, October 16, 2002
Susan Severeid, Bin Laden conglomerate can’t shake Osama’s shadow, AP, October 6, 2001.

OSAMA’S MONEY SUPPLY
healthandenergy.com/osamas_money_supply.htm
OBL allegedly funneled through the Capital Trust Bank based in New York and London, owned by Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, whose lawyer is Vernon Jordan.

A Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence showed that five of Saudi Arabia’s top business executives ordered the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom’s largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks.
The money was deposited into the accounts of Islamic charities, including Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief, that serve as fronts for Bin Laden, according to the report.

Intelligence sources said the businessmen, who are worth more than $5 billion, were paying Bin Laden “protection money” to stave off attacks on their businesses in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said… NCB’s founder and former chairman, is Khalid bin Mahfouz. The money transfers were discovered after the royal family ordered an audit of his successor, Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, [who] also heads the Capitol Trust Bank in New York and London.

Amoudi’s Washington lawyer, Vernon Jordan, could not be reached for comment. Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to comment on the report.

GEOSTRATEGIC CONTEXT:
1997 A Geostrategy For Eurasia
by Zbigniew Brzezinski
Foreign Affairs,76:5, September/October 1997 Council on Foreign Relations Inc.
www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/9709brzezinski.html

“To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom. Their courage teaches us a great lesson—that there are things in this world worth defending. To the Afghan people, I say on behalf of all Americans that we admire your heroism, your devotion to freedom, and your relentless struggle against your oppressors.”
Ronald Reagan 1983

“In Afghanistan, the freedom fighters are the key to peace. We support the Mujahidin. There can be no settlement unless all Soviet troops are removed and the Afghan people are allowed genuine self-determination.”.
Ronald Reagan 1988

“We have brought hope to the Afghan people; now we must see that their country does not fall prey to our common enemies,” he said. “There will be difficult days ahead. But we will adapt, we will persist, and I have no doubt that together with our Afghan and international partners, we will succeed in Afghanistan…America has not succeeded by stepping outside the currents of international cooperation…We have succeeded by steering those currents in the direction of liberty and justice so nations thrive by meeting their responsibilities, and face consequences when they don’t.”
President Obama, West Point, 2010

“EURASIA”
The Grand Chessboard
“Geopolitics has moved from the regional to the global dimension, with preponderance over the entire Eurasian continent serving as the central basis for global primacy. The United States, a non-Eurasian power, now enjoys international primacy, with its power directly deployed on three peripheries of the Eurasian continent … But it is on the globe’s most important playing field – Eurasia – that a potential rival to America might at some point arise”
Brzezinski, Zbigniew, 1997 (Obama advisor), The Grand Chessboard

3 D’S OF SOFT POWER
21 January 2010 Afghanistan and Pakistan Regional Stabilization Strategy
www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2010/January/20100203144410eaifas0.0800854.html?CP.rss=true
U.S. Department of State Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Message from the Secretary of State Strategy to counter extremism, Support development
I have made it a top priority to elevate the role of diplomacy and development alongside defense in our national security strategy. Nowhere is this more urgent than in our efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan…

6-6-10 Pakistan refugees a ‘major, major crisis’: Holbrooke
CFR Holbrooke’s Speech on Travel to Pakistan, June 2009
Pakistan is absolutely critical to our most vital national security interests… success in Afghanistan requires success and stability in Pakistan. The two issues are integrally related… the shorthand Af-Pak is not a popular phrase in Pakistan or Afghanistan for obvious reasons. And we prefer not to use it in public. But the reason for it was to stress the interrelatedness of the two, something which had been neglected in the last eight years. And in that sense, the trilateral summit hosted by President Obama and Secretary Clinton on May 6th and 7th was a very big step forward…

“The goal is to never have a U.S. footprint on any of these efforts”

U.S. Forces Step Up Pakistan Presence
7-20-10 Wall Street Journal By JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTON—U.S. Special Operations Forces have begun venturing out with Pakistani forces on aid projects, deepening the American role in the effort to defeat Islamist militants in Pakistani territory that has been off limits to U.S. ground troops. The expansion of U.S. cooperation is significant given Pakistan’s deep aversion to allowing foreign military forces on its territory. The Special Operations teams join the aid missions only when commanders determine there is relatively little security risk, a senior U.S. military official said, in an effort to avoid direct engagement that would call attention to U.S. participation.Pakistani troops earlier this month in South Waziristan, where the country has tried to quell militant groups…the official emphasized the joint missions aren’t supposed to be combat operations, and Americans often participate in civilian garb…”This whole exercise could be counterproductive if people see U.S. boots on the ground” a Pakistani official said…

In Pakistan, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad will retain final approval for all projects, according to Defense officials. But…have Pakistani military forces hand out the goods bought with the funding or pay any local workers hired. (all emphases added by digest) “The goal is to never have a U.S. footprint on any of these efforts,” said a congressional staffer.

Are Pakistan’s devastating floods the chance for Washington to turn crisis into opportunity?
Pakistan flood relief: Could it undercut Taliban influence?
August 3, 2010 Washington, Christian Science Monitor

8-2-10 Flood disaster creates opportunity for U.S.-Pakistan relations
thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/02/flood_disaster_creates_opportunity_for_us_pakistan_relations?obref=obinsite
The devastating flood in Pakistan has create an opportunity for the U.S. government to show its commitment to the country and improve America’s tattered image…in a country that harbors strong aversions to U.S. influence and remains deeply skeptical of American intentions, progress is likely to be slow.
“These kinds of crises are opportunities for the U.S. to get it right more than before and make a dent in Pakistani attitudes toward the U.S, but there’s an underlying structural issue that isn’t going to be overcome rapidly, if at all,” said Daniel Markey, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.The last major improvement in attitudes toward the U.S. in Pakistan was during and immediately after U.S. efforts to respond to the 2005 earthquake near Kashmir, Markey said.

But extremist groups will surely try to use the flood to improve their currently low standing among the public by providing their own assistance efforts, as they did during the earthquake. “In each of these instances, you can lose ground as well,” Markey said. The large infrastructure, water and energy projects that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled during her visit to Pakistan last month are aimed specifically at getting maximum bang for the buck in terms of changing Pakistani attitudes toward the U.S. — targeting the middle- and upper-class workers and industrialists who stand to benefit most from economic growth. “Our goal is, and the secretary’s goal of her trip, was to convince Pakistan that U.S. commitment to the region is not short-run, is not limited to our current military engagement,” said Vali Nasr, a top advisor to Special Representative Richard Holbrooke… A significant portion of the Pakistani news media is avowedly anti-American, complicating U.S. and Pakistani government efforts to get the word out.

Back at home, the Obama administration’s outreach to Pakistan is getting favorable review in some unlikely quarters, such as the Republican caucus in the Senate. Things generally are the best they have been with Pakistan in a long time. And this is one area where President Obama doesn’t get enough credit,” GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CNN’s State of the Union. “His team, in my view, have brought the Pakistanis into the fight better than anybody in recent memory. They are cooperating with us more. They are allowing us to use these drone attacks … General Kayani has been a good partner in taking the fight to the frontier regions.”

Chances of military rule in Pak: US report
8-3-10 “Security and Environment in Pakistan” (CRS)
(excerpts—Congress does not permit CRS to make its publications directly available to the public)
US Congressional report ]CRS] for US lawmakers: “Environmental stresses, combined with other socio-economic and political stresses on Pakistan, have the potential to further weaken an already weak Pakistani state…Such a scenario would make it more difficult to achieve the US goal of neutralising anti-Western terrorists in Pakistan … could contribute to Pakistan’s decline as a fully functioning state, creating new, or expanding existing, largely ungoverned areas…The creation, or expansion, of ungoverned areas, or areas of limited control by the government of Pakistan, is not in US strategic interests given the history of such areas used by the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups as a base for operations against US interests in the region,” … Alan Kronstadt & others including CRS Report RL33498, Pakistan-U.S. Relations, CRS Report RL34763, Islamist Militancy in the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Region and U.S. Policy.

8-6-10 U.S. envoy to Pakistan: We’re beating the extremists on flood relief
thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/06/us_envoy_to_pakistan_we_re_beating_the_extremists_on_flood_relief?obref=obnetwork

OBAMA-BIDEN GET U.S. WORLD WAR FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION BACK ON BRZEZINSKI TRACK
(excerpt from) Joe Biden’s speech at the Democratic convention Aug 27 2008
…As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated that it has been any time it has in recent history. The Bush foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out. And for the last seven years, the administration has failed to face the biggest the biggest forces shaping this century. The emergence of Russia, China and India’s great powers, the spread of lethal weapons, the shortage of secure supplies of energy, food and water. The challenge of climate change and the resurgence of fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the real central front in the war on terror…

Zbigniew Brzezinski bragged that u.s. ‘cold war’ strategy helped ‘break’ Soviet Union by forcing military expenditures
en.rian.ru/analysis/20080829/116385526.html

CIA’s Afghan Kill Teams Expand U.S. War in Pakistan
By Spencer Ackerman
www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/cias-afghan-kill-teams-expand-u-s-war-in-pakistan/
The teams are practically brigade-sized: a “paramilitary army” of 3000 Afghans, said to be “elite, well-trained” and capable of quietly crossing over in the Pakistani extremist safe havens where U.S. troops aren’t allowed to operate. The CIA directs and funds the teams.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26424.htm

Let there be no doubt that the U.S. is at war in Pakistan. It’s not just the drone strikes. According to insider journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, the CIA manages a large and lethal band of Afghan fighters to infiltrate into Pakistan and attack al-Qaeda’s bases.Woodward’s not-yet-available Obama’s Wars, excerpted today in the Washington Post and the New York Times, unveils a CIA initiative called the Counterterrorist Pursuit Teams, a posse of anti-Taliban and al-Qaeda locals who don’t respect the porous Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The teams are practically brigade-sized: a “paramilitary army” of 3000 Afghans, said to be “elite, well-trained” and capable of quietly crossing over in the Pakistani extremist safe havens where U.S. troops aren’t allowed to operate. The CIA directs and funds the teams…

…The drones — flown by both the CIA and the U.S. military — are one answer…Another is to launch the occasional commando raids across the Afghan border or rely on Special Forces, operating under the guise of training the Pakistani military, to engage in dangerous extracurricular activity…another is to outsource “snatch and grab” operations to private security firms like Blackwater. But Counterterrorist Pursuit Teams follow a decades-old CIA pattern. When it’s politically or militarily unfeasible to launch direct U.S. operations, train, equip and fund local proxy forces to do it for you. Welcome back to the anti-Soviet Afghanistan Mujahideen of the 1980s, or the Northern Alliance in 2001.. that same history also shows the U.S. can’t control those proxy forces…the mujahideen after the Soviet withdrawal (and end of CIA cash)…paved the way for the rise of the Taliban. One CIA-sponsored fighter was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, now a key U.S. adversary in Afghanistan. And during the 2001 push to Kabul, a Northern Alliance military commander, Abdul Rashid Dostum, killed hundreds and maybe even thousands of Taliban prisoners. He was on the CIA’s payroll at the time. Then there are the risks that the Counterterrorist Pursuit Teams pose within Afghanistan. CIA has to recruit those fighters from somewhere. While the agency wouldn’t answer questions about how where its proxy fighters come from, the CIA also pays for a Kandahar-based militia loyal to local powerbroker Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s brother… After all, it’s not like the U.S. has many options for Pakistan, where hatred for the U.S. runs high, official ties to extremists are deep and political restrictions on the presence of American combat troops (mostly) prove durable.

8/15/10 Creating Failed States: Pakistan in U.S. War for “Eurasia” www.burbankdigest.com/node/307
8/29 “Pak Opportunity”: “Build Back Better”; Why Pakistan is Most Critical to US Agenda www.burbankdigest.com/node/308

Facing Defeat in Afghanistan, U.S. ‘Lies’ About Pakistan’s ISI
Editorial, June 15, 2010The Frontier Post, Pakistan
worldmeets.us/thefrontierpost000049.shtml#axzz114NczmYm
Is the United States so desperate about impending defeat in Afghanistan that it is setting up Pakistan as a scapegoat? Recent charges that Pakistan Intelligence has been aiding Taliban militants appear to have triggered this angry retort from the editorial board of Pakistan’s Quetta and Peshawar-based Frontier Post.

Western news networks, arguably at the behest of certain sections of their bureaucracies and intelligence apparatus, have mounted a calculated, well-orchestrated media offensive to vilify and demonize the Pakistani military, the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] and our incumbent political leadership. It will be unpardonable if Islamabad doesn’t finally break its reticence and speak out proactively…This offensive is obviously vile, sinister, in intent. The recent report from the London-based Amnesty International on human rights in FATA alone leaves one stunned over its contents and its intents… the world-renowned human rights watchdog based its report on completely outdated information to give credit to the notion that Pakistan’s government and military has abandoned the region to live under the thumbs of brutal, oppressive militants. [Editor’s Note: The title of the Amnesty report is Millions suffer in ‘human rights free zone’ in Northwest Pakistan]…

Another Terrorist Attack in Pakistan by U.S and India
Sunday, 21 September 2008
www.daily.pk/politics/politicalnews/7423-another-terrorist-attack-in-pakistan-by-us-and-india.html?tmpl=component&print=1&page=

…The cowardly terrorist act of attack on innocent people is one of the series we are witnessing these days from Tribal areas to Islamabad. The timing of this attack is when President Zardari announced major steps in fight against terrorists. The elements involved in these terrorists acts inside Pakistan are being trained and financed by CIA and India’s RAW in Afghanistan headed by former Guantanamo Bay detainess Baitullah Mahsud who is presently working closely with Indian backed Northern Aliiance in Afghanistan.

Despite repeated informations provided to US and NATO force about exact location of Baitullah Mahsud and his gang by Pakistani agenicies, no action has been taken against him by US. This reflects the true intentions of USA in name of war on terror. The sole purpose of American lead war on terror seems to take control of “FATA’ region along with Afghanistan and Baluchistan for future energy route from Central Asia and also to contain China. For this purpose, once again religious extremists are being used as in previous Afghan war against Soviet Union with active support of Indian RAW to destablise Pakistan…

Political Destabilization in South and Central Asia: The Role of the CIA-ISI Terror Network By Andrew G. Marshall
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAR20080917&articleId=10242

Recent terror attacks in New Delhi on September 13, 2008, raise the questions of who was responsible and for what reason these attacks occurred. Terror attacks in India are not a new phenomenon, however, in their recent past, they can be largely attributed to the actions, finances, training and resources of one organization: The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These new bombings bare the same relationship with the ISI as has occurred in the past, and so it must be asked: what is the purpose of the ISI both in Central Asia as well as South Asia? The ISI appears to play the role of a force for the destabilization of Central Asia, India and the Middle East. It acts as a Central Asian base of operations for the CIA and British Intelligence to carry out Anglo-American imperial aims…Ultimately, the benefactors of the Indian Embassy bombing in Kabul and other bombings, such as the recent New Delhi bombing in India, is not Pakistan, but the Anglo-Americans… The ISI has long been referred to as Pakistan’s “secret government” or “shadow state.” It’s long-standing ties and reliance upon American and British intelligence have not let up, therefore actions taken by the ISI should be viewed in the context of being a Central Asian outpost of Anglo-American covert intelligence operations…

Conclusion
The goal in Pakistan is not to maintain stability, just as this is not the goal throughout the region of the Middle East and Central Asia. Recent events in Pakistan, such as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, which has been linked to the ISI, should be viewed in the context as an active Anglo-American strategy of breaking up Pakistan, which will spread chaos through the region.[54] Pakistan’s position as a strategic focal point cannot be underestimated. It borders India, Afghanistan, China and Iran. Destabilizing and ultimately breaking Pakistan up into several countries or regions will naturally spread chaos and destabilization into neighboring countries…true of Iraq on the other side of Iran, as the Anglo-Americans have undertaken, primarily through Iraq, a strategy of balkanizing the entire Middle East in a new imperial project.[55] …

PAKISTAN’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE UNDER U.S. CONTROL
11/20/07
In a stunning disclosure…the U.S. intelligence journal Stratfor reported that the “United States delivered a very clear ultimatum to Musharraf in the wake of 9/11: Unless Pakistan allowed US forces to take control of Pakistani nuclear facilities, the United States would be left with no choice but to destroy those facilities, possibly with India’s help.” ..
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/The_United_States/Pak_nukes_already_under_US_control_Report/rssarticleshow/2556824.cms

The ISI has long been referred to as Pakistan’s “secret government” or “shadow state.” It’s long-standing ties and reliance upon American and British intelligence have not let up, therefore actions taken by the ISI should be viewed in the context of being a Central Asian outpost of Anglo-American covert intelligence operations…The goal in Pakistan is not to maintain stability, just as this is not the goal throughout the region of the Middle East and Central Asia. Recent events in Pakistan, such as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, which has been linked to the ISI, should be viewed in the context as an active Anglo-American strategy of breaking up Pakistan… Pakistan’s position as a strategic focal point cannot be underestimated. It borders India, Afghanistan, China and Iran. Destabilizing and ultimately breaking Pakistan up into several countries or regions will naturally spread chaos and destabilization into neighboring countries. This is also true of Iraq on the other side of Iran, primarily through Iraq, a strategy of balkanizing the entire Middle East in a new imperial project.[55] …

U.S. ‘hard’ & ‘soft’ imperialist power marriage
Dick Cheney’s deputy assistant for national security affairs in Georgia shortly before the war began…
…Karl Rove and “Progressive” financier George Soros…met in the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Yalta a few weeks before the Republic of Georgia and its U.S. -backed president, Mikheil Saakashvili, launched a night time blitzkrieg attack against South Ossetia and its Russian peacekeepers…Rove was winging off to Yalta to speak at a conference sponsored by the YES Foundation of Ukrainian billionaire steel tycoon Victor Pinchuk, considered one of the wealthiest… Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs who amassed their fortunes after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Past participants in annual Yalta conferences have included Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, who came to the aid of Saakashvili with military and political support after Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia; International Monetary Fund President Dominique Strauss-Kahn; and… Georgia’s Saakashvili… Pinchuk is the only Ukrainian member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Crisis Group. The latter includes… Soros; Ken Adelman; Zbigniew Brzezinski, a top foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama; and imprisoned former Yukos boss and Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky… latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/08/georgia-war.html

REVEALING CONTRADICTIONS & PROPAGANDA ADJUSTMENTS
– US portrays its long-time collaborator ISI as scapegoats to put more pressure on its desperately needed Pakistan proxy. 5/3 Udall on PBS emphasized that Af-Pak are inseparable, if P falls so does A.

-USA ‘total surveillance’ finds & targets assassinations 10k mi. away but didn’t ‘find’ their best man residing for years they now claim in ‘high military security’ area
– ‘kill order” necessary to silence him so he couldn’t reveal the partnership
-Panetta acknowledged in 5/3 ABC interview ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques include ‘waterboarding’ but wouldn’t say if ‘detainees’ tortured for OBL info was so tortured
-”world’s #1 terrorist leader” had no security forces that detected u.s. helicopter crash-arrival on lawn?!
-‘obama & co watched entire op from beg to end’ – retracted- after need to admit initial stories weren’t true
-lies about u.s. “aid’: to pak – for U.S. purpoandses, as bludgeon against its Pakistan proxies who use it against their country/people
– U.S. now claims it captured ‘computers’ (to ‘prove’ whatever u.s. wants) .. after reports that OBL house had no outside internet or phone connections

Most U.S. aid to Pakistan still in America’s hands | The Cable “1 Mar 2011 … Only $179.5 million out of $1.51 billion in U.S. civilian aid to Pakistan was actually given …to U.S. contractors and not making it Pakistan. …” thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/01/most_us_aid_to_pakistan_still_in_america_s_hands

Bin Laden’s demise: Long pursuit, burst of gunfire
ADAM GOLDMAN, CHRIS BRUMMITT, AP
hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-05-02-Bin%20Laden/id-8640bf2ffd8741a8a0e7e710b9459686

…After the gunfire, U.S. forces swept bin Laden’s fortified compound in Pakistan and left with a trove of hard drives, DVDs and other documents…

in the White House Situation Room, Brennan said the president and his aides “were able to monitor in a real-time basis the progress of the operation” from beginning to end…Brennan strongly suggested a live video feed was available — SEALs customarily have video cameras attached to their helmets — and the White House released a photo showing the commander in chief, Vice President Joe Biden and top aides staring intently at something outside the picture. The White House did not say what they were looking at…
U.S. officials said the information that ultimately led to bin Laden’s capture originally came from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe.

The terrorists “almost certainly will attempt to avenge” bin Laden’s death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo that congratulated the agency for its role in the operation. “Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida is not.” Within a few hours, the Department of Homeland Security warned that bin Laden’s death was likely to provide motivation for attacks from “homegrown violent extremists” seeking revenge.” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said, “While there are no specific, bin Laden-related threats at this time, every logical and prudent step is being taken to mitigate any developing threats.”…

Osama bin Laden raid yields trove of computer data
www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54151.html
The assault force of Navy SEALs snatched a trove of computer drives and disks during their weekend raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, yielding what a U.S. official called “the mother lode of intelligence.”The special operations forces grabbed personal computers, thumb drives and electronic equipment during the lightning raid that killed bin Laden, officials told POLITICO. “They cleaned it out,” one official said. “Can you imagine what’s on Osama bin Laden’s hard drive?”

According to ABC, inside the compound, the raiding team discovered “computers” — plural… That’s ironic. One of the most important security measures the two brothers who hid bin Laden in the compound took was to take it off the grid. A senior intelligence official told reporters that it had “no telephone or internet service,” an anomaly for the area. That attracted the attention of the satellite imagery sleuths of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the communications interceptions specialists of the National Security Agency and the spy-runners of the CIA …Spencer Ackerman, danger room, www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/video-inside-bin-ladens-drone-proof-compound/all/1

White House admitted last night its initial account of the way Osama bin Laden died at the hands of US forces had been riddled with errors.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8491113/Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-White-House-backtracks-on-how-bin-Laden-died.html

Claims that the al-Qaeda leader had died while firing an automatic weapon at commandos were withdrawn, with President Barack Obama’s spokesman admitting “he was unarmed”. A dramatic description of bin Laden using his wife as a “human shield” and forcing her to sacrifice her life also proved to be false. The woman was still alive and was taken into custody with several of the terrorist’s children. In an embarrassing climb-down, Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, admitted that the previous version of events — which came mostly from the chief US counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan — had been put out “with great haste”. The about-turn left the US open to accusations of a cover-up and led to calls for video footage of the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and images of bin Laden’s body to be released to end conspiracy theories.

However, the White House suggested pictures of bin Laden’s body were too “gruesome” to be made public because they could prove “inflammatory”.

Relations between the US and Pakistan, already strained by the fact that Pakistan was not told in advance about the raid, were put under renewed pressure by contradictory statements from Islamabad. It came as:
* The CIA director, Leon Panetta, said they had been only “60 to 80 per cent sure” that bin Laden was living at the compound.

* Mr Panetta also disclosed that the US was concerned that the Pakistani authorities would alert bin Laden if they told them about the operation.

* Material from the hard drive of bin Laden’s computer, described as “the mother lode of intelligence”, was being analysed.

“Finally, shortly before 2 a.m. in Pakistan, the commandos burst into an upstairs room. Inside, an armed bin Laden took cover behind one of his wives, Brennan said. With a burst of gunfire, one of the longest and costliest manhunts in modern history was over.” www.washingtonpost.com/…

Osama bin Laden was not armed and did not use one of his four wives as a human shield in his dying moments, contrary to earlier reports, as White House officials began to “clarify” early accounts of Monday’s commando raids by US special forces.
5/3/11 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8489658/Osama-bin-Laden-was-not-armed-and-did-not-use-wife-as-human-shield.html
By Peter Foster

…In the original account of the firefight, John Brennan, a US counter-terrorism official briefing the media, said “There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Osama from the incoming fire”.

However US officials have now conceded that Bin Laden was not armed during the assault, did not fire back and that his wife was only injured in the assault, most likely in the crossfire, according to unnamed officials quoted by the US website Politico. “A different guy’s wife was killed”, said the website, quoting an unnamed official who had briefed US television media, with the official adding that Bin Laden’s wife was “injured not killed”, having been shot in the calf. “Two women were shot here. It sounds like their fates were mixed up,” said the US official…

The discrepancy between earlier accounts and the new version of events was put down to “confusion” by the White House, who said that the “fact pattern” on the assault was only now becoming clear as more of the participants were interviewed. The contradictions came despite the fact that other reports suggesting that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state and other senior officials had watched the assault on a live feed provided by a camera mounted on the commando’s helmets.

The identity of the dead woman has not been made public. However, officials quoted by the Reuters news agency added that she had been in a different part of the compound from bin Laden when he was killed. Twenty-three children and nine women were in the compound at the time of the assault and were turned over to Pakistani authorities, added the US official who requested anonymity to discuss an intelligence matter.

Osama bin Laden’s Useful Death
By Paul Craig Roberts, www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28016.htm
In a propaganda piece reeking of US Triumphalism, two alleged journalists, Adam Goldman and Chris Brummitt, of the Associated Press or, rather, of the White House Ministry of Truth, write, or copy off a White House or CIA press release that “Osama bin Laden, the terror mastermind killed by Navy SEALs in an intense firefight, was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago (emphasis added) from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe, officials disclosed Monday.”

How many Americans will notice that the first paragraph of the “report” justifies CIA prisons and torture? Without secret prisons and torture “the terror mastermind” would still be running free, despite having died from renal failure in 2001.

How many Americans will have the wits to wonder why the “terror mastermind”—who defeated not merely the CIA and the FBI, but all 16 US intelligence agencies along with Israel’s Mossad and the intelligence services of NATO, who defeated NORAD, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US Air Force, and Air Traffic Control, who caused security procedures to fail four times in US airports in one hour on the same day, who caused the state-of-the-art Pentagon air defenses to fail, and who managed to fly three airliners into three buildings with pilots who did not know how to fly—has not pulled off any other attack in almost ten years? Do Americans really believe that a government’s security system that can so totally fail when confronted with a few Saudi Arabians with box cutters can renew itself to perfection overnight?… Americans are too busy celebrating to think, a capability that seems to have been taken out of their education…so enthralled over the death of bin Laden that they do not wonder why information gleamed years ago would take so long to locate a person who was allegedly living in a million-dollar building equipped with all the latest communication equipment next to the Pakistani Military Academy. Allegedly, the “most wanted criminal” was not moving from hide-out to hide-out in desolate mountains, but ensconced in luxury quarters in broad daylight. Nevertheless, despite his obvious location, it took the CIA years to find him after claiming to have gained information of his whereabouts out of captives in secret prisons…

In an immediate follow-up to the announcement that the Navy SEALs and CIA mercenaries acted in an exemplary fashion following the rules of engagement while a cowardly bin Laden hid behind a woman shield when the gunfire erupted, we have from the pressitutes that “U.S. officials conceded the risk of renewed attack. The terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge bin Laden’s death, CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote in a memo. . . . Within a few hours, the Department of Homeland Security warned that bin Laden’s death was likely to provide motivation for attacks from ‘homegrown violent extremists’.” John Brennan, White House counter-terrorism adviser, told reporters that “it was inconceivable that the terrorist fugitive didn’t have support in Pakistan where his hideout had been custom built six years ago in a city with a heavy military presence.” So the claimed murder of bin Laden by the US in a sovereign foreign country with which the US is not at war, a crime under international law, has set up three more self-serving possibilities: Terrorists will avenge bin Laden’s death, says the CIA, setting up another false flag attack…Homeland Security can extend the domestic police state, abuse of travelers, and arrests of war protestors. And Pakistan is under the gun of invasion and takeover (for India, of course) for shielding bin Laden…

As the alleged body has been dumped into the ocean, nothing remains but the word of the US government, which lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and al Qaeda connections, about yellowcake, about Iranian nukes, and, according to thousands of experts, about 9/11. Suddenly the government is telling us the truth about bin Laden’s death?

======

more evidence of US lies
Benazir Bhutto named Osama bin Laden’s killer before her death … “15 Jan 2008 … Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide attack at the end of 2007 stated in November that the Osama bin Laden, the head of the …” english.pravda.ru/world/asia/15-01-2008/103426-benazir_bhutto_osama-0/

Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive? “9 Oct 2009 … by David Ray Griffin www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15601 | • www.amazon.co.uk/Osama-Bin-Laden-Dead-Alive/dp/184437081 ISBN 9781566567831 • paperback • $15.00 www.interlinkbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=2129

Bin Laden: Dead and Loving It by Jeff Huber — Antiwar.com “16 Feb 2010 … Either that or he’s dead. Again. We’ve been hearing from intelligence sources and the media that bin Laden is dead for a long time. …” original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/02/15/bin-laden-dead-and-loving-it/

Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government … “11 Jul 2002 … Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December …” whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php

Bin Laden dead or alive? “ RAWA News “10 Jan 2010 … BBC NEWS: Osama Bin Laden died eight years ago during the battle for Tora Bora in Afghanistan, either from a US bomb or from a serious …” www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/01/10/is-osama-bin-laden-dead-or-aliveo.html

FOXNews.com – Report: Bin Laden Already Dead – U.S. & World “26 Dec 2001 … Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who ..” www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html

Is Bin Laden Dead? – TIME “23 Sep 2006 … Attending Saudi national day ceremonies in D.C, the CIA director weighs in on the hot question of the weekend.”
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1538569,00.html

GORDON DUFF: CIA HINTS, BIN LADEN DEAD SINCE “EARLY 2000?s … “29 Jun 2010 … America has known for certain, no doubt, that Osama bin Laden has been dead yet over 300 Americas have lost their lives looking for him …”www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/29/gordon-duff-cia-hints-bin-laden-dead-since-early-2000s/

Osama bin Laden Dead, U.S. Officials Say – NYTimes.com “1 May 2011 … Osama bin Laden has been killed, a United States official said Sunday night. President Obama is expected to make an announcement on Sunday …” www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html