Dr. Aafia Siddiqui Case: My Honor Is Not For Sale, Not For a Lie By GORDON DUFF

VETERANS Today Editors, Jeff Gates, Raja Mujtaba and I were in the AF-Pak region over the last couple of weeks. Jeff and I are Vietnam veterans, Raja a decorated combat veteran, tank commander, from the India/Pakistan war. We met dozens of Pakistani military, including nearly all of their highest ranking retired officers, from Admiral Sirohey, Chairman of their Joint Chiefs of Staff to General Alsam Beg, Head of the Army to Lt. General Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI. In our party were our other Veterans Today contributors, BG Asif Haroon Raja and BG Raza Ali, of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame.

Today, I received an email from Admiral Sirohey. His office is lined with memorabilia from a long career of service, service as an ally and friend of the United States. Sirohey and the rest were America’s most stalwart allies during the Cold War. These were the real allies that helped us bring about the downfall of the Soviet Union. I was honored to be among them. Today Admiral Sirohey is scheduled to attend a rally protesting the illegal kidnapping, brutalizing and conviction of Dr. Affia Siddiqui. America’s best friends in Asia, the finest soldiers in the world are horrified at what we have done.

Can it be that bad?

The Bush administration, when it saw its “War on Terror” wasn’t getting enough suspects, hired drug cartel members and criminal elements to kidnap innocent civilians to fill our secret prisons. Yes, we actually did this. In this case, we kidnapped a mother with 3 children, tortured her for years, murdered a small child and then charged her with attempting to murder her captors after years in a secret prison on Bagram Air Force Base.

Every soldier on that base, everyone who has served there has to live with the dishonor of this act until something is done. Remember when America, after World War II painted the people of Germany with the stain of guilt for not knowing about the death camps? Tell me what is different here? We didn’t know that druglords and gangsters were stealing people off the street to fill our prisons with “terror suspects” so Bush/Ashcroft and Cheney could crow about their successes?

If you didn’t know before, this is what all the secret “torture memos” were all about, not real terrorists, but innocent people we “bought” as though we were slave runners of old.

A few years after we bought our phony terror suspects, tortured, raped and brutalized them, most were released. They had committed no crime other than to be standing on the wrong dark street corner when the druglords working for Bush were out hunting “meat” for America’s gulags.

Dr. Aafia had to be convicted, had to be jailed and silenced. The crimes against her and her children were so heinous, only a kangaroo court in America, a country whose news is orchestrated by the Islam hating MSM/Corporate media and powerful Israeli/AIPAC lobby would have the audiacity to bring her to trial.

Do we need to review the case? Remember the OJ case? He was released because of a glove not fitting. Dr. Aafia was shot by the “translator” during her “debriefing.”

She has a Doctorate from an American university. She comes from a country where everyone speaks English. “If the translator doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”

Do we now call a person with a cattle prod a “translator?”

When the My Lai massacre happened, I was with a Marine unit less than 50 miles away. All of us who were there then, not so many are around any more, carry the stain of that dishonor and have for decades. I can talk of honor or service but all people see is babies and their mothers, shot to death, lining the bottom of a ditch.

It is a matter of honor.

There are no “secret prisons” and nobody is tortured without someone knowing about it. We are all responsible, I don’t care if you are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere around the world, active duty, reserve, National Guard, retiree or veteran. We are nearly 30 million strong. Many of us don’t have much, memories, wounds, a small pension and our honor.
Our silence strips our honor away.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was not a terrorist. The newspapers lied, we all know why. Either she is guilty or we all are. Better to destroy her than to arrest those guilty of real crimes, arrest people some of us voted into high office.
“We were just taking orders.”

Where have we heard that before, Nuremberg? It isn’t just this one life. We already killed over a million people in our ill fated invasion of Iraq.
Fog of War. We know better, everyone with eyes to see knows better, know it now. Then why are we still acting like criminals? No more lies. We are at war, a war with real enemies. We have so little, our short lives, our families and what we believe in.

Did a tiny crippled woman, illegally imprisoned for years try to murder a room of FBI, Special Forces and Blackwater/CIA operatives?

I can tell you this: If I get my butt kicked by a 100 pound woman in a wheel chair, you won’t see me in front of a jury in New York City crying for my mama.

The only possible answer is that everyone involved in the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a liar. Nothing else is possible. I know why they lied, they were ordered to “for the good of the service.” Was there something in the oath involving “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America unless told to lie for the good of the service?”

What are we protecting?

Once the public learns that we are buying phony terror suspects from the worlds largest drug dealers, people we are protecting, people flooding our streets with narcotics, there might be problems. Best not let the public know why we never found those weapons of mass destruction, that yellow cake uranium, those mobile bio-weapons labs or why our continual search for Osama bin Laden keeps failing.

The deal of the century, destroying an innocent life and earning the hate of a valued ally, all to stand behind the lies and rhetoric of America’s “dark age.” We would be lucky if it were only every citizen of Pakistan that was enraged at us for this travesty. It is worse, far worse.

Who are the real terrorists? In Pakistan, Admiral Sirohey, friend to half a dozen American Presidents is heading to a peaceful protest. What can we, Americans, claim? If kidnapping, torture, rape and covering it up by letting the victim rot in prison isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is.

We should be thankful for that seat on the UN Security Council. We may need it for more than covering up for Israel. The next nation facing sanctions for international crimes may be us. All that stands between us and being cut off from the world is our veto. All that is keeping an entire administration from War Crimes trials is the Bush administrations withdrawal from the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
Why is President Obama allowing the outrages of the Bush administration to continue?

SOURCE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/03/03/gordon-duff-freeing-dr-aafia-a-matter-of-honor/#respond

New Iran – New Intentions

Ishaal Zehra

The attack which killed the national Deputy Commander of the ground forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (RG), General Noor Ali Shooshtari and the provincial commander for Sistan-Baluchistan, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh along with some senior officers and 42 others in a homicide bombing inflicted Iran's worst military casualties in years.

Quick after the mishap, an Iranian military official went as far as to raise the prospect of a possible military offensive into Pakistan against the group blamed for the attack. "There is even unanimity that these operations (could) take place in Pakistan territory," the ISNA news agency quoted MP Payman Forouzesh as saying. While the headquarters of Iran's armed forces blamed the bombing on "terrorists" backed by "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain," Fars News Agency said Sunday.

Islamabad strongly denied the allegations and said the attack was an attempt to "spoil ties" with Iran. "There are forces which are out to spoil our relations with Iran. But our ties are strong enough to counter these machinations," said the Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit while dismissing the allegations.

The point to ponder is that, how come Pakistan would be wishing to create unrest in some neighbour while its own house is burning. Pakistan has been the victim of worst type of terror since many years. The war which initially started in Afghanistan was purposely shifted to Balochistan province of ours as a part of the Great Game. Amid the GWOT the active involvement of many countries intelligence agencies in Balochistan was observed. These agencies, while playing with the internal conflicts of the center and the Baloch people, are subversively involved in provision of funds and arms to different armed groups. This has been proved many a times that the outlawed armed groups of Balochistan, BLA and BRA are funded and trained by Indian RAW. Even the websites of BLA and greater Balochistan are updated from India. The role of Indian consulate offices in Afghanistan is suspected since their origin.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the problem, it is difficult for India to openly support the Baluch insurgency because it may harm her relations with Iran (never bother about Pakistan). If the Indians will come out openly in support of the BLA, anti-Indian elements in Pakistan will quickly bracket New Delhi with the alleged Great Game of the US against Iran.

Indian relation with Iran have generally been viewed by observers as a tightrope walking to balance out her interests in Iran as well with the US. India, knowingly, that sidestepping the international community’s efforts to thwart Iran’s so-called drive for nuclear weapons would only devalue her credibility in the eyes of global power, New Delhi is fast trying to convey an unambiguous message that a nuclear armed Iran is as unacceptable to India as it is to the US, the U.K. or France. Hence, India (a good time’s friend) seems to be all set to dump Tehran to seek new alliances and please her new friends.

Iran is a regional power and an aspiring nuclear state which poses a threat to Israeli expansionism in Middle East. There is no denying the fact that Iran’s nuclear programme has been a persistent worry for both, US and Israel. And the choice between new allies and old friend is getting tough on India. To understand India’s dilemma, it requires a critical view of her relation with both Israel and Iran. There has been a steady strengthening of the India’s relationship with Israel ever since India established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. Ever since then, the flourishing Indo- Israel relationship has gained much potential to make a significant impact on the global politics, by altering the balance of power not only in South Asia but the Middle East as well. Today, India has become the biggest market for Israeli arms with their strategic, defence and intelligence cooperation growing at a rapid pace. Where as, on the other hand, the vast oil and gas reserves of Iran serve magnetic affiliation to the quenching India’s long term thirst for energy. And yet another attraction in Iran’s case is that she offers India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, side-lining Pakistan.

Given the scenario, India is more likely to tilt towards Israel in future. As regardless of her important ties with Arab countries and Iran, her lure for intelligence consultations with Israel seems a durable one. Until now, India has veered between cooperation and altercation in case of Iran yet in the time to come we may expect India to go along with Israel and US in destroying Iran, one of the country in Bush’s war against his self-selected axis of evil. A nuclear Iran suspected of supporting Palestinians and organizations sympathetic to them, faces a great threat of attack on its nuclear installations. And India would support such an operation clandestinely, while opposing in front of the world, not to annoy Iran because of economic reasons. Amusingly, India’s interest in the proposed IPI gas line project diminished sharply from the time the US-India nuclear deal began to take shape. Probably, the US wants to undermine India-Iran economic relations to such an extent that New Delhi becomes a stakeholder in its plan against Iran.

The geopolitical implications of the collaborations between India, US and Israel are grave and manifold. Despite the denials, India is playing a secret role in US strategy against Iran for past many years. India regardless of having close ties with Iran stabbed her in the back by joining EU-3 on Iran’s nuclear issue. It is no more a secret that EU-3 is no longer acting independently, but as a surrogate of the US. How piteous that a democracy ended up as a deputy of a surrogate. History has witnessed how India once used the friendly ties with Tehran as a ladder to achieve US and European community’s support to secure permanent seat in Security Council. Thanks to her mean and wanton nature which made her vote twice against the same Iran in the IAEA governing board, thus endorsing the US agenda for confrontation with Iran. Nevertheless, the Indian vote against Iran has extensively lowered her global structure and credibility. Despite her close economic and political relations, if India could stab a friendly country like Iran in the back, then she could not be considered trustworthy by other developing countries.

The thriving indo-Israeli relations are posing a direct threat to Iran. Their trade has grown exceptionally over the years, especially after the launch of Israeli spy satellite from the Indian Space center, the tie got even stronger. The launch of TecSAR has considerably enhanced Israel’s intelligence-gathering capability. The satellite is clearly affecting the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as its ability to produce image in adverse weather and even at night allowed Israel to obtain more information about the Iranian nuclear programme. Though India officially argues that she has commercially utilized her advanced technological capacity but the act brought to light India’s full cooperation to dissuade, isolate and if necessary sanction and contain Iran. Nevertheless, Iran should realize that a friend of your enemy can never be your friend and India has already established herself as Israel’s friend and Iran’s foe at many instances.

It is time that India’s credibility as a friendly democracy should be weighed by other developing countries of the world. The Indo-Israel nexus, under the US patronage, is posing a threat to the Muslim world. All their ambitions revolve around targeting particularly Muslim states that are energy rich and either nuclear or threshold nuclear states. It is high time that the Islamic countries take a unified and concrete step to cater this ghastly menace, or else it might become too late.