From Süddeutsche Zeitung:

The Republicans are prepared to do everything they can to damage Obama. They want one thing: To see the president fail. That’s why they are pushing a fundamentalist opposition against any health care reform, despite the fact that the conservatives realize how urgently this is required. If one follows the weird debate about this reform, it becomes clear just what the US faces in the event of investigations and even trials of CIA agents.

The Republicans will attempt to recreate an atmosphere of collective hysteria similar to that which followed the 2001 attacks. Back then the fear of another terrorist attack prevented all sensible thoughts. Concerns about the rule of law were pushed to the side. The Republicans will accuse Obama of putting the country’s security in jeopardy.

Nevertheless, there can be no alternative to shedding light on the events in the CIA jails. What happened there was simply wrong and not in tune with the American principles of the rule of law and with the country’s deeply rooted awareness of human dignity. The logical consequence of this investigation would be that those who allowed, justified or even ordered abuse and torture would be brought to justice. It was George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who are to blame for the fact that America lost its decency and its reputation.

From The Financial Times Deutschland:

…it seems neither necessary nor effective to take too much heed of the sensitivities of the Republican camp. Important decisions in the fight against the economic crisis have already been made. And the Republicans’ aggressive and populist campaign against Obama’s healthcare reform has broken any bipartisan consensus.

The president should now concentrate on reconciling his disappointed supporters. Obama’s new direction would be more credible if he also made responsible those in the previous administration who ordered the questionable interrogation methods. And if he were to make the investigation into allegation of torture a top priority, rather than hiding behind his attorney general.

From Die Tageszeitung:

The pressure on Obama is now growing. It is disillusioning to see that he only called on an independent investigator after the CIA’s gruesome deeds … became public. In the name of the United States, people were tortured and even threatened with the murder and rape of their relatives. ‘Unbelievable’ is the likely first reaction. Particularly when one hears how Dick Cheney coolly defends these excesses right up until today.

Upon calmer reflection, however, it is less surprising that something like this could happen in the privatized politics of the Bush administration. Set free from democratic controls and driven by a greed for profits, a system could establish itself in which the humanitarian principles played no role at all.

Whether Obama likes it or not as US president he carries the responsibility for his country not just today and tomorrow but also during its recent past. And that is why he must expose the CIA crimes rigorously. And he has to hold those responsible accountable even if they belong to his own political class. If Obama is serious about a new beginning then he must do everything to make sure that Cheney, who was after all the brains behind the horror, is brought to justice.

At least twenty-three candidates are running, including three women, and there is an indication that voter turnout will be high:

The rush to register to vote seen in mid-July, when the electoral rolls were briefly reopened, confirms the passion surrounding this presidential election.  “Before, one had to pay people to register.  This time, people are rising up spontaneously,” remarked Dieudonné Minlama Mintogo, of l’Observatoire de la démocratie, an association that promotes civil society.  “Since the death of Bongo, it reflects a moment of reawakening.” [my translation]

But will this election really put an end to the “Bongo system” under which the wealthy elite dominate the political system by maintained tight fisted control over the nation’s resources (oil, lumber, and manganese) with the blessing of France, their former colonizer?

A number of factors bode poorly for the reawakening of civil society.  Gabonese voters see a number of familiar faces among the prominent candidates.  Ali Bongo, who succeeded his father as leader of the ruling party, appears to have a sizeable advantage over the other candidates.  His campaign posters blanket the country, he has his own television station (as does his adversary André Mba Obame), and he’s the only candidate able to make campaign stops via helicopter in a nation with limited transportation infrastructure.  Other frontrunners from the old regime include former prime ministers Casimir Oyé Mba and Jean Eyéghe Ndong, and former ministers Zacharie Myboto, Paul Mba Abessole, and André Mba Obame, who was Minster of the Interior until July.

Ironically, Ali Bongo seeks to legitimate himself by taking a stand against the corruption and nepotism that have greased his rise to power.  He has based his platform on three promises: peace and shared development, the end to favoritism and the establishment of a meritocracy, and punishment for corruption.  Given that Ali Bongo has gained his wealth and power from this very system, it’s doubtful that his campaign slogans are anything more than lip service.

In opposition to the old regime candidates, longtime opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou advocates an “alternative to a failing and antidemocratic neocolonial system founded on the corruption of predators,” but also advocates the abolishment of the Senate.

In addition to the recycled political figures, Gabon also suffers from a weak electoral system easily susceptible to fraud and manipulation.  The Gabonese have seen past elections orchestrated by the elite to bypass public sentiment, (Omar Bongo was “elected” many times), and bureaucratic concerns such as double registration of voters, with many citizens registered in both the city and their home villages, make any outcome questionable.

Venezuela has revoked the licenses of dozens of radio stations as part of a wider crackdown which could jail people deemed guilty of “media crimes” for up to four years.At least 13 stations went off the air over the weekend and another 21 were expected to follow soon in an effort by President Hugo Chávez to extend his socialist revolution.

The move followed last week’s introduction of a draft law to jail journalists and broadcasters who “harm the interests of the state”, “cause panic” or “disturb social peace”.

In Turkmenistan, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is fighting his own battle against the national media: the battle to stay awake.  Turkmen television is so boring that the President has had to reprimand the director of the state television broadcaster Altyn Asyr.  Turkmenistan.ru reports:

Turkmen president admits national TV uninteresting

By the order of the Turkmen president, Maksat Altaev, Director of the Altyn Asyr: Turkmenistan TV Channel of the General Directory of the Turkmen Television was reprimanded for the unsatisfactory execution of official duties, weakening of control over the proper level of TV programs on the channel and their low quality”.

During the Cabinet of Ministers meeting, August 14, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov again criticized the National TV noting the low quality of programs, “which do not meet the modern level and present-day objectives”. “Largely, the TV programs suffer from the lack of creativity, and watching them is uninteresting”, he said.

This is not the first time President Berdimuhamedov has taken action against the head of Altyn Asyr.  A previous director of the station, Guvanch Soyunov, held the position for only a year before being fired on similar grounds, citing “loosening control over the work of the national TV channels and low quality of broadcasts.”

Perhaps Chavez would do well to study Berdimuhamedov’s dilemma to understand the pitfalls of state-run media.

It was the unanimous call of the nation to try President Musharraf for suspending the Constitution, he said, adding that the trial of the former military ruler is a must to ensure supremacy of the law.

He said that it was a golden opportunity to block the path of military interventions and if the government does not move against the dictator, it would be a great disappointment for the nation.

Perhaps prosecuting the former dictator for overreaching his authority would be a good wake up call for President Zardari.  So far in this term, he’s placed Nawaz Sharif under house arrest, abrogated the gubernatorial term of his brother Shabaz Sharif, and reneged on his promise to reinstate Supreme Court Justice Chaudry.  While forced to backtrack on each of these points by intense popular pressure during the Long March, Zardari’s record does not bode well for Pakistan’s progress towards democracy or for his own political future.

In addition to his conflict the opposition parties, there is obvious fragmentation in his own Pakistan Peoples Party.  Aitzaz Ahsan, who was often discussed as a possible successor to Benazir Bhutto, was suspended from the PPP’s Central Executive Committee for his role in the Long March.  As an important leader in the lawyers movement fighting for democracy and rule of law, his alienation from the party indicates the PPP’s failure to embrace democratic principles under Zardari’s leadership.

Blackwater employees assigned to the Predator bases receive training at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to learn how to load Hellfire missiles and laser-guided smart bombs on the drones, according to current and former employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of upsetting the company.

…

Blackwater is not involved in selecting targets or actual strikes. The targets are selected by the C.I.A., and employees at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va., pull the trigger remotely. Only a handful of the agency’s employees actually work at the Predator bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the current and former employees said.

They said that Blackwater’s direct role in these operations had sometimes led to disputes with the C.I.A. Sometimes when a Predator misses a target, agency employees accuse Blackwater of poor bomb assembly, they said. In one instance last year recounted by the employees, a 500-pound bomb dropped off a Predator before it hit the target, leading to a frantic search for the unexploded bomb in the remote Afghan-Pakistani border region. It was eventually found about 100 yards from the original target.

The article also reveals that the US has started running drone attacks out of Jalalabad out of concern that the Pakistani government might forbid their continued use of the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan to conduct attacks within the country.  Given their stellar performance in Iraq, it’s not surprising that the CIA has hired them to conduct such a senstive mission.

Since my previous posting on the drone attacks, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been killed by a drone attack, and another attack this morning targeted the stronghold of Jalaluddin Haqqani.

In recent months, the air force has shifted from using Google Earth to sophisticated images from spy planes and other surveillance aircraft, and has increased its use of laser-guided bombs.

“The biggest handicap we had in Bajaur was that we didn’t have good imagery,” Air Chief Marshal Qamar said. “We didn’t have good target descriptions. We did not know the area. We were forced to use Google Earth.  “I didn’t want to face a similar situation in Swat,” he said.

It appears that the deaths of innocent civilians and destruction of property ultimately trumped the negative perception of the US.

The President of Turkmenistan has opened a new cancer hospital in the Central Asian country by performing the clinic’s first operation himself.

Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a trained dentist, reportedly removed a benign tumour from behind a patient’s ear.

A man of diverse talents, President Berdymukhamedov has also authored a book on medicinal plants that Turkmen officials have recommended as a handbook for health workers.   Hopefully, Berdymukhamedov’s health policy will be more succesful than his predecessor,  who fired all health workers and replaced them with army conscripts and closed every hospital outside the capital.  Who knows, maybe they’ll even turn Karakum Lake into a spa retreat?

Blurred Boundaries

One of the most contentious issues surrounding the US-Pakistan alliance against the Taliban has been the US strikes against targets in Pakistan.  The Pakistani government has consistently played both sides, publicly condemning the attacks to assure its citizens while unnofficially condoning them.  This came to a head in February when it was discovered that the US was using Pakistan’s own airbases to hit Pakistani targets, and the Times of London acquired a Google Earth aerial photograph from 2006 clearly depicting Predator drones parked on the runway at Pakistan’s Shamsi air base.

Shamsi Airfield in Balochistan, updated to exclude the Predator drones:

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A few days earlier, Senator Diane Feinstein had let slip that drone strikes against Pakistani targets were in fact launched from air bases in Pakistan with the permission of the Pakistani government.  Following a drone strike on February 14th, the Washington Post reports:

While the Pakistani government publicly denounces CIA-launched Predator strikes, which are highly unpopular among the Pakistani public, it has privately agreed to them. Senior Pakistani officials have said that the government’s intelligence service provides targeting information to the CIA and has requested direct participation in U.S. targeting and launch decisions.

While many of the strikes are launched from U.S. installations inside Afghanistan, Pakistani news media on Saturday highlighted a comment Thursday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the Predators, “as I understand it . . . are flown out of a Pakistani base.”

According to the New York Times, the strike occurred near the town of Makeen in South Waziristan, killing more than 30 people. The strike occurred in the regional stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who the Pakistani government have accused of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister and wife of the current president Asif Ali Zardari.

What other Pakistani bases does the US use?

While we have documentary proof that drones were stationed Shamsi airbase, no other direct evidence has surfaced implicating other Pakistani bases.  Fortunately, there is other information available to indicate where else US drones may be stationed.  The London times article also reports:

Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s chief military spokesman… admitted on Tuesday that US forces were using Shamsi, but only for logistics.

He also said that the Americans were using another air base in the city of Jacobabad for logistics and military operations. Pakistan gave the US permission to use Shamsi, Jacobabad and two other bases — Pasni and Dalbadin [sic] — for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

After 2001 the US retained sole use of Shamsi and Dalbandin air bases. Pakistan began sharing the Pasni base with the US after tensions with India began to head up. The Jacobabad airport is directly adjacent to the city of Jacobabad, and is used for both military and civilian purposes.  (For more information, see globalsecurity.org)  Of the other bases known to be used by the US, it seems most likely that Dalbandin would be the first choice to station Predator drones because the US retains sole use.  Pasni, if it’s still being shared with the Pakistani military, would be a less desireable choice but not entirely unlikely given the complicity of the Pakistani government.  Jacobabad would be a highly improbably choice because it’s also used for civilian purposes.

Pasni Air Base in Balochistan:
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Dalbandin in Balochistan:
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Jacobabad Airport in Sindh:
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• When the Long March in Pakistan forced President Zardari to backtrack on his nefarious attempts to secure his own power, keen observers got real time updates from @longmarch09.  A hybrid organizational tool/news aggregator, @longmarch09 is now 5,422 tweats deep still going strong.

• As the Iranian election crisis unfolded, @persiankiwi drummed up support for the pro-Mousavi camp and documented abuses against the opposition.  Although there hasn’t been a post since June 24th, @perisankiwi stands tall with 39,168 followers.  To judge by the ominous final posts, the account holders may be in prison or at least without internet access.