mexicans call for ceasefire in war on drugs

 

A sea change has occurred in Mexican public opinion. The people have turned definitively against the use of the Mexican Army to combat against drug traffickers. The cry from every city square yesterday was for the Army to return to its barracks and go back to doing the job it was formed to do; protect Mexico from foreign invasion and provide human aid relief in case of natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Since President Felipe Calderón unleashed the Armed Forces, four years ago, to combat drug trafficking organizations, the violence between it and the competing narco organizations has led to a daily body count, widespread human rights abuses against civilians, and more than 40,000 deaths, so many of them of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and used by all sides in the armed conflict that still has no winners, that never will have any winner.

A fast moving series of events that began on March 28 have converged to usher Mexico into its very own “Arab spring.” And it began just outside “the City of Eternal Spring,” Cuernavaca, in the state of Morelos, about an hour south of Mexico City. Narco News has been covering these events for the past week (sadly, we are so far the only English-language media to do so at each step of the story, even as it has huge consequences for United States drug policy not only in Mexico but throughout the world and at home). On that date, in the town of Temixco, seven young men were assassinated. These were kids with jobs, who went to school, model kids, not criminals. And one of those kids, Juan Francisco Silvia, was the son of a nationally respected journalist and poet, Javier Sicilia, of Cuernavaca.

In a week, the soft spoken, increasingly beloved, intellectual has become the national vessel through which millions of voices now demand: End the war on drugs.

via The Field: And This Is What History Looks Like in Mexico.

Egypt army to ‘use force to clear protesters’

Army officers joined protest

Hundreds of soldiers and security troops backed by armoured vehicles stormed into the square at around 3am, firing shots into the air, brandishing tasers and batons, and beating people, witnesses said.

YouTube user Kikhote posted this video showing army officers breaking through lines of protesters to tear down tents, with automatic gunfireaudible in the background

Tens of thousands of protesters had come to the square on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations since Mubarak stepped down on February 11.

The protesters called for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which nows runs the country, to honour their demands, which include prosecuting a number of former high-ranking regime officials and Mubarak himself.

The protesters had been joined by perhaps as many as 20 military officers, who had been under orders not to participate. Demonstrators stayed in the square past the military curfew, which runs from 2am to 5am, saying they wanted to protect the officers who joined.

When security forces stormed the square, some of the protesting army officers managed to escape, while at least seven officers were arrested, witnesses said.

Loai Nagati, a student, told Al Jazeera that military police and central security forces took some protesters and beat them, but that nobody had been shot. Speaking while gunfire echoed in the background, he said that some of the army officers who joined the protests had been arrested by security forces.

Amr Bassiouny, who was standing at the square’s south entrance near the old campus of the American University in Cairo, told Al Jazeera that hundreds of soldiers backed by eight armoured vehicles entered the square from that direction at around 3am.

The soldiers formed a semi-circle around the south end of the square and advanced towards a tent in the middle where the protesting army officers had been kept. Soldiers could be seen tearing down the tent in an amateur video posted on YouTube.

For 10 or 15 minutes, the protesters and soldiers faced each other, said Sanaa Seif, who had been in the square since 11pm. Protesters chanted “Peaceful, peaceful,” and “The people and the army, hand in hand”, but the soldiers moved forward again, firing “non-stop” into the air, she said.

Guns fired, rocks thrown

Most of the protesters retreated after the army entered the square, witnesses said. Bassiouny ran to the west side of the square, which leads to Kasr el-Nil Bridge, and found more troops entering from that direction.

Protesters ringing the central ‘garden’ in Tahrir Square faced off with soldiers before the troops advanced

On the road leading east into the central business district around Talaat Harb Square, protesters tore down the roof of a bus stop and dragged it down the road to protect themselves from gunfire and rocks, said Drew Storey, a neighbourhood resident.

Protesters and army soldiers threw rocks at each other, and at least four injured protesters had to be carried away, he said. Soldiers fired their guns into metal shopfronts, sending sparks flying and bullets ricocheting, apparently to scare away the protesters, Storey said.

At one point, he said, security forces clad in riot gear chanted, cheered and shook each others’ hands after driving the protesters away.

Other central security and army forces had been stationed to the north of Tahrir Square next to the Egyptian Museum, which military police have turned into a makeshift detention centre.

via Egypt army to ‘use force to clear protesters’ – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

Shadow Wars Get Big Bucks in Last-Minute Defense Bill

Fighting (or pretending to fight) al-Qaeda on behalf of the U.S.? Congress is your private Santa.

The big winner is Pakistan. The $400 million Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund, which provides helicopters, night-vision equipment and training to the Pakistan’s Army and Frontier Corps, gets another re-up. There’s also $1.6 billion to reimburse Pakistan (and some other nations, but really Pakistan) for “cooperating in contingency operations in Afghanistan,” which must come as a surprise to U.S., Afghan and Pakistani troops.

This cash appears to be yet another U.S. down payment for the Pakistanis to invade North Waziristan, something they’re currently pledging to do the week after never.

Don’t forget Yemen, the New Pakistan. Yemen’s counterterrorism force in the Ministry of Interior alone will get $75 million “in equipment, supplies and training.” Last year, the entire U.S. aid package to Yemen’s military was $155 million; it goes to show what an offer to look the other way while U.S. cruise missiles fly can buy a regime.

U.S. Special Operations Command, the principle on-the-ground liaison to these nations’ counterterrorism forces, wins out as well. Not only does the command get the full $9.8 billion it asked for, but Congress raised the special forces’ line item from $40 million to $45 million “to provide support to foreign forces, groups, and individuals assisting in ongoing operations.” That’s going to come into play in Yemen, where new teams of CIA operatives and elite troops from the Joint Special Operations Command are expanding the U.S.’ reach against al-Qaeda’s local affiliate.

And all that’s just in the open budget. The so-called “black budget” — that is, the intelligence budget, which included $27 billion in military intelligence last year — undoubtedly has even more for the shadow wars.

As this collection of conflicts mutates far beyond what began in Afghanistan a decade ago, a different provision in the new budget is especially noteworthy: The Defense Science Board must “conduct a review and evaluation of DOD’s strategy to counter violent extremism.” With all the cash being thrown around in these clandestine battles, you’d hope that was a strategy that was already in place.

from wired.com

Pentagon’s Clandestine Killers Get New Chief

That’s Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Votel on the left.

Do not expect to see his face again any time soon. An elite — and controversial — team of worldwide terrorist hunters just wouldn’t be the same if its leader were in the spotlight.

The Pentagon announced Wednesday afternoon that Votel will be the next commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, taking over from Adm. William McRaven and earning his third star. It’s a job that Votel has a lot of familiarity with: he used to be the command’s deputy leader before taking his current job as chief of staff for the U.S. Special Operations Command.

President George W. Bush famously called JSOC, as it’s known, “awesome.” No surprises why: Its secretive operations include capturing and killing high-value terrorists and insurgents.

Under its most famous leader, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, it got its highest-profile kill in June 2006, when it iced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It also ran the notorious detention center near the Baghdad airport, Camp Nama, where there were repeated allegations of torture.

The sign on the entrance? “NO BLOOD, NO FOUL,” according to The New York Times.

JSOC has increasingly been the tip of the military’s spear. In Afghanistan, its commandos are the ones who kick in doors for the “night raids” on Afghan homes, especially in the South and East, that have angered Hamid Karzai but form a critical part of Gen. David Petraeus’ war plan.

Sometimes its operations go awry, as when an October 2010 rescue mission to free British aid worker Linda Norgrove from Taliban captivity ended up killing the hostage. The man U.S. Central Command tapped to investigate what went wrong? Joseph Votel.

Votel also has a lot of familiarity with the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions that consume a lot of JSOC’s time. Back in 2007, he was the deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force 82, which operated along the border. That means unlike many commanders of the high-powered raiding unit, Votel has experience being a “landowner” — that is, a soldier who has to deal with an angered population after the raid team has packed up and moved out.

He’ll have to deal as well with a very tired Special Operations community — a problem Votel’s current boss, Adm. Eric Olson, identified last week in a speech. But JSOC doesn’t get breathers: It’s likely to expand operations in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and other parts of the world where the military wants terrorists dead without any fingerprints.

And don’t expect Votel to give any press conferences about his work.

via Pentagon’s Clandestine Killers Get New Chief | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Mercenaries to Watch Commandos’ Backs in Afghanistan

On Wednesday, U.S. Special Operations Command announced that it was looking for Afghan security contractors to guard commando encampments, from the tiniest of outposts to the biggest of the superbases. And those private guards need to be ready to work ASAP. The command is planning on issuing contracts next Friday, April 15th.

Using guns for hire to patrol Afghan bases is nothing new. For years, the U.S. military has employed the contractors, to free up American troops for frontline fighting and nation-building.

This case is unusual, for several reasons. Not only has SOCOM issued these calls for contractors just as Afghan president Hamid Karzai is threatening to tax the private security forces out of existence. But, at least in one instance, the special operators want these guards to watch the backs of a small handful of American troops. And that involvement could undermine the special operators’ mission.

One of the two requests for proposals, issued Wednesday, ask for private guards at Village Security Platform Darvishan, a micro-outpost in the Khakrzez district of Kandahar province. Typically, these “VSPs” are where a 12-man “A-Team” of special operations forces train local townspeople to keep an eye on their community. These are tiny, temporary positions, meant for troops who are used to living off of the land. Often, they’re no bigger than a single house or two.

An American “statement of work” calls for private forces who can man “perimeter towers” and “entry control points,” while conducting “surveillance and counter-surveillance of the installation perimeter, avenues of approach, likely indirect-fire locations and vicinity from designated Perimeter Defensive Positions.”

More likely, it’ll just be a couple of guys watching the U.S. forces’ gear while they’re out training the locals. As a “fragmentary order” from U.S. Force-Afghanistan notes, “the intent of these contracted services is to ‘free’ joint forces to conduct military operations.”

But add too many guns for hire to one of the commandos’ nanoscale outposts, and it undermines the very point of their existence. A light footprint becomes heavy with private security logistics.

“Ideally, they would contract for local security guards, train them and employ them,” one Special Operations Forces officer tells Danger Room. “If they are going to contract with the larger PMCs [private military contractors], then that can become problematic. Those kind of contracts take on a life of their own.”

That’s why these contractual terms — used in every private security proposal request — are better suited for guards at bigger bases. For instance: the ones SOCOM wants at the sprawling American facility at the Bagram Air Field. There, guards armed with M-16s or AK-47s are authorized to “employ appropriate force to neutralize any threat from unauthorized individuals illegally attempting to enter the installation.”

Which sounds straightforward enough. In practice, however, the contractors’ behavior has made things more… complex, shall we say. Afghan civilians have been killed, thousands of rifles intended for the Afghan police have been stolen. And let’s not even get into the hookers, booze, and exposed nether-regions.

“Contractors must understand,” the request for proposal adds, “that the Afghan Security Guards SHALL NOT aim or point their weapons at U.S., Coalition, or Afghanistan National Security Forces.”

You’d hope that this was the kind of thing that went without saying. But let me add: it’d be especially unwise to point your gun at one of these special operators.

IMF warns oil growing scarce, more costly

 

 

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that nations should brace for dwindling oil supplies that could drive prices skyward as demand increases, especially in emerging economies .

 

“The persistent increase in oil prices over the past decade suggests that global oil markets have entered a period of increased scarcity,” the IMF said in a report on the global economy.

Thomas Helbling, lead author of the report, underscored at a news conference that the world’s oil supply was on a downslide.

 

“After stagnating in recent years, oil supply will not return to the growth trends of the 1980s and 1990s,” he said.

On the demand side, the drivers are emerging economies that are the most populous on the planet.

 

“Per capita oil consumption in the United States and other OECD economies has been broadly flat since the early 1980s, while it has risen rapidly in China,” the report said.

Even though China is now the world’s biggest energy consumer, its oil consumption is only half as large as that of the US, it noted.

 

“The increased scarcity arises from continued tension between rapid growth in oil demand in emerging-market economies and the downshift in oil supply trend growth,” the Washington-based institution said in its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook.

“If the tension intensifies, whether from stronger demand, traditional supply disruptions, or setbacks to capacity growth, market clearing could force price spikes, as in 2007-2008.”

 

In the six months to July 2008, crude oil prices more than doubled to record highs over $147 a barrel in New York and London.

The market crashed amid the global financial crisis but has since recovered on the back of powerful emerging-market economies such as China, India and Brazil — where oil consumption is growing fast.

via IMF warns oil growing scarce, more costly – Yahoo! News.