Pakistan Reported to Be Harassing U.S. Diplomats

In today’s New York Times in an article entitled Pakistan Reported to Be Harassing U.S. Diplomats we find our key "ally" in the "war" against the "Taliban" (whatever they might mean in this case) to be openly harrassing our diplomats !!!! Yeah, the White House really has this hammered down, eh?Here is an excerpt:

"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Parts of the Pakistani military and intelligence services are mounting what American officials here describe as a campaign to harass American diplomats, fraying relations at a critical moment when the Obama administration is demanding more help to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. "

     "The campaign includes the refusal to extend or approve visas for more than 100 American officials and the frequent searches of American diplomatic vehicles in major cities, said an American official briefed on the cases.

The problems affected military attachés, C.I.A. officers, development experts, junior level diplomats and others, a senior American diplomat said. As a result, some American aid programs to Pakistan, which President Obama has called a critical ally, are “grinding to a halt,” the diplomat said."

You know, when a plan falls apart concerning this debacle in western Asia these past eight years, it really falls apart!

In an editorial entitled Fired for Speaking Out we find out that a former chief prosecutor from Guantanamo Bay detention center who refused to use information against detainees that was gotten by torturing them has been fired from the Congressional Research Service at the instigation of the White House.  This is some "Yes we can" president that we have isn’t it?

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Morris Davis, a retired Air Force colonel who was chief military prosecutor at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, showed courage and respect for democratic principles when he resigned rather than follow orders to use evidence obtained through torture. We wish the Congressional Research Service would live up to Mr. Davis’s example.

The service fired Mr. Davis after he wrote about how detainees should be tried. On Nov. 11, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion article in which he argued against the Obama administration’s decision to try some detainees before military commissions and others in federal court. The same day, The Washington Post ran a letter to the editor about the ability of federal courts to try detainees. He wrote as a private citizen and did not mention his employer.

Later in the month, Mr. Davis was fired from his position as assistant director of the foreign affairs, defense and trade division, of the research service. He was told that his writing violated its policies, showed poor judgment and interfered with the service’s duty to remain objective and nonpartisan."

We live in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave?  Hardly.

And finally, our last story of the day from the Times entitled Pakistan Strikes Down Amnesty for Politicians we find that an increasingly irate Supreme Court in Pakistan is holding its politicians present and past to account for atrocities. This does not bode well for our plans, does it?  Our "allied leadership" may very well be in prison in a few months.

Here is an excerpt:

"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Supreme Court struck down a controversial amnesty on Wednesday that had dismissed corruption allegations against thousands of Pakistan’s politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, effectively restoring the cases against them.

As president, Mr. Zardari is granted immunity from prosecution under the Constitution. But the Supreme Court order is expected to reverberate across Pakistan’s rocky political landscape and to further weaken the standing of Mr. Zardari, whom the United States has tried to support as a partner in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Petitions challenging Mr. Zardari’s eligibility as a presidential candidate are expected to follow from the ruling, and about a dozen senior members of Mr. Zardari’s coterie of advisers will most likely face renewed corruption cases, some many years old. "

Do you think we could do this with the Bush Administration here in this country?

It is painfully obvious now that the mega-wealthy and super-wealthy who wish to join the ranks of the mega-wealthy have constructed these "wars" in western and central Asia to keep natural resources and pipelines, future and present, out of Russian and Chinese hands so that they can become the ultra-wealthy.  Is this worth working class American lives especially since the "trickle-down theory" of economics has proven to be a mirage?  The answer is "no".

So why are working class kids in uniform being killed and maimed for eight years now in order to keep America’s Ivy League educated leeches in money? Why does David Ignatius not even mention their deaths or the deaths that will come if we adopt his "great idea"?  Is it because they don’t matter?

Think about it.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)

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