The solar wind is 379 km.sec and the proton count is at 2.8. There are 4 sunspot clustes and 1429 is so
large it is visible with the naked eye. It does pose a threat for M-Class flares, and it will be pointed right
at Earth in a couple of days.
Another planet, almost as bright and more beautifully colored can be found rising in the east. Mars is
putting on a show of its own opposite Venus and Jupiter. The Red Planet is at its closest to Earth for all of
2012 on March 5th. It appears at sunset and soars overhead at midnight--an easy target for the naked eye
and backyard telescopes alike.
Some questioned whether aliens were about to land, with one woman tweeting: “UFO invasion?! Ball of
fire flew past my window!” Others called the Police. The most likely explanation, though, was an
unusually bright shooting star, or meteor. Thousands of people spotted the chunk – or possibly chunks of roughly baseball-sized space rock burning up while coming through the earth’s atmosphere at an
altitude of 60 or 70 miles or so at about 10pm.
As witnesses took to the internet to report their sightings, Tom Constantine, a self-employed
businessmen, asked twitter users: “Did anyone see a shooting star/ball of fire over Knutsford?” David
Konstantinou, of Glasgow, tweeted: “Seen a huge meteorite heading south. Huge white tail. Flashed green
and red. Amazing sight. Made the hairs on my neck stand up.”
With worried people calling the Police, a Greater Manchester Police officer jokingly tweeted: “Sounds
like we are being invaded by martians. Several sightings of a bright orange light over Salford!” Police in
south-west Scotland, meanwhile, issued the message: “The large ball of fire in the sky is actually a low
level meteor shower.”
The Met Office received dozens of calls within an hour of the light first appearing, and tweeted: "Hi All,
for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite."
A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said the force had been "inundated" with calls about a bright object in
the sky across the west of Scotland.
A Durham Police spokeswoman said a number of calls came in around 9.45pm from concerned members
of public who had seen a "bright light or a fire in the sky" and believed it may have been incidents
involving an aircraft.
She said: "It has been confirmed with air traffic control that there are no incidents of aircraft in difficult
and nothing registered on radar.
"The sightings are believed to be either an asteroid burning out or similar which has been restricted to the
upper atmosphere only."
Grampian Police said reports of people seeing a "flare or a bright object with a tail" were received from
across the region.
And Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said numerous calls were made about a "large ball of fire in
the sky".
The Kielder Observatory also reported the sighting of a "huge fireball" travelling from north to south over
Northumberland at 9.41pm.
The Observatory posted on Twitter: "Of 30 years observing the sky #fireball best thing I have ever seen
period."
Asteroid is headed for earth
To avert a possible catastrophe – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid
2012 DA14 with either paint or big guns. The stickler is that time has long run out to build a spaceship to
carry out the operation.
NASA's data shows the 60-meter asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, will whistle by
Earth in 11 months. Its trajectory will bring it within a hair’s breadth of our planet, raising fears of a
possible collision.
The asteroid, known as DA14, will pass by our planet in February 2013 at a distance of under 27,000 km
(16,700 miles). This is closer than the geosynchronous orbit of some satellites.
There is a possibility the asteroid will collide with Earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the
potential threat and work out how to avert possible disaster, NASA expert Dr. David Dunham told
students at Russia’s University of Electronics and Mathematics.
“The Earth’s gravitational field will alter the asteroid’s path significantly. Further scrupulous
calculation is required to estimate the threat of collision,” said Dr. Dunham, as transcribed by Russia’s
Izvestia. “The asteroid may break into dozens of small pieces, or several large lumps may split from it
and burn up in the atmosphere. The type of the asteroid and its mineral structure can be determined by
spectral analysis. This will help predict its behavior in the atmosphere and what should be done to
prevent the potential threat,” said Dr. Dunham.
In the event of a collision, scientists have calculated that the energy released would equate to the
destructive power of a thermo-nuclear bomb.
In response to the threat, scientists have come up with some ingenious methods to avert a potential
disaster.
Fireworks and watercolors
With the asteroid zooming that low, it will be too late to do anything with it besides trying to predict its
final destination and the consequences of impact.
A spaceship is needed, experts agree. It could shoot the rock down or just crash into it, either breaking the
asteroid into debris or throwing it off course.
“We could paint it,” says NASA expert David Dunham.
Paint would affect the asteroid’s ability to reflect sunlight, changing its temperature and altering its spin.
The asteroid would stalk off its current course, but this could also make the boulder even more dangerous
when it comes back in 2056, Aleksandr Devaytkin, the head of the observatory in Russia’s Pulkovo,
told Izvestia.
Spaceship impossible?
Whatever the mission, building a spaceship to deal with 2012 DA14 will take two years – at least.
The asteroid has proven a bitter discovery. It has been circling in orbit for three years already, crossing
Earth’s path several times, says space analyst Sergey Naroenkov from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
It seems that spotting danger from outer space is still the area where mere chance reigns, while asteroid
defense systems exist only in drafts.
The question I have is this. This was discovered by a Spanish amateur stargazer three years ago, and yet
the asteroid has a name dated 2012. Why the late nomenclature? Why were not anoucements or
preparations made? We had a global awareness for a comet that got no closer than 200 thousand miles,
and it did not alert us to having a short-deployment force ready to defend Earth from a possible collision
of something this size? We can spend $6 trillion annually on a global basis to kill each other, but we
cannot marshal a ready force to get some kind of defense?
Still, prospects of meeting 2012 DA14 are not all doom and gloom.
“The asteroid may split into pieces entering the atmosphere. In this case, most part of it will never reach
the planet’s surface,” remarks Dunham.
But if the entire asteroid is to crash into the planet, the impact will be as hard as in the Tunguska blast,
which in 1908 knocked down trees over a total area of 2,150 sq km (830 sq miles) in Siberia. This is
almost the size of Luxembourg. In today’s case, the destination of the asteroid is yet to be determined.
Do you think we are safe?
WASHINGTON – There is increasing concern that the Department of Homeland Security will fail to
meet a coming congressional mandate to have 100-percent monitoring of all cargo inbound into the
United States, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
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The Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said that the DHS is nowhere
close to complying with a requirement that, by July, all U.S.-bound cargo must be routinely scanned for
nuclear and radiological materials and other components to make weapons of mass destruction.
According to Judicial Watch, DHS has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on questionable systems that
couldn’t do the scanning.
In one case, DHS spent $200 million on 1,400 radiation portal monitors but had to stop using them since
they didn’t do the job.
Ten years ago, the 9/11 Commission made a recommendation for 100-percent compliance by July 2012.
The requirement was incorporated into the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.
Within the DHS, Customs and Border Protection implements container security.
“Uncertainty persists over how DHS and CBP will fulfill the mandate for 100-percent scanning given that
the feasibility remains unproven in light of the challenges CBP has faced implementing a pilot program
for 100 percent scanning,” GAO said.
In attempting to determine whether 100-percent scanning was feasible, GAO had asked DHS to undertake
such a study, but to date that hasn’t happened.
CBP informed GAO that it has not conducted such an assessment or identified alternatives and is “no
longer pursuing efforts to implement 100 percent scanning,” a development that could place the nation’s
security at serious risk. Out of nine foreign and domestic ports that were supposed to be involved in the
100-percent compliance study, any DHS testing was limited to just one port.
DHS has informed GAO that it will not be able to meet the 9/11 Act’s July 2012 deadline for
implementing the 100-percent scanning requirement and wants to extend the requirement to include
foreign ports for compliance until July 2014
Is it Time to Leave Afganistan?
The U.S. Army's Afghan Koran burning, and the violent Islamic reaction that followed, has finally given
media prominence to one simple question: why are we still there?
The U.S. government has given all kinds of reasons we can't leave now, and to be honest, they sound
remarkably similar to all the reasons the U.S. said it couldn't leave Vietnam for years. Just exchange the
word "Islamic" and "Communist" in the U.S. official announcements from both wars and you'll see what I
mean.
Any of these standard reasons for soldiering on pale against the reasons for leaving now:
We killed Bin Laden. It's the number one reason we went to that part of the world and now it's done. For
good measure, we've eliminated most of his high-level sidekicks as well.
The large U.S. army presence is no longer needed in Afghanistan. After killing Bin Laden, whatever
else we need to do militarily can be done with drones and special forces.
Afghanistan has been a historical quagmire for foreign armies. From the time of Alexander the Great
to the present, any outsiders attempting to bring the Afghans to heel have all failed. Read about the British
invasion in the 19th century and the Russian invasion in the 20th century -- you'll see what I mean.
Al-Qaeda is no longer centered in Afganistan. The horse has gotten out of the barn -- the U.S. blew its
opportunity to nail Bin Laden & Company after 9/11, and Al-Qaeda is now a worldwide franchise. Why
are we trying to lock the barn now?
The U.S. Army has worn out its welcome. The goodwill we got from kicking out the Taliban in 2002 is
now gone. The Army's Koran burning is just the latest example of years of cultural insensitivity toward
the Afghans we are supposed to be protecting. The U.S. soldiers who accidentally burned the Korans
would never have accidentally burned a bible. With friends like us, who needs enemies?
Trying to nation-build in Afghanistan will never work. This country has always been a loose
collection of ethnic tribes who mostly distrust each other. It's been this way for thousands of years and
won't change now.
We are backing the most hated man in Afghanistan. To almost every Afghan citizen, Karzai
represents corruption, cronyism and ineptitude. No wonder the Afghan Army is so demoralized -- who
wants to die for this guy? No one except the American government would miss him if he were toppled
tomorrow.
Our Afghan allies are literally killing us. It's not just the Taliban in stolen Army uniforms. U.S.
soldiers' clumsiness with regard to Islamic law have incited observant Afghans to avenge the insults, even
if it means murdering the Americans with whom they are supposedly allies. Dozens of U.S. troops have
died this way, and the problem is only getting worse.
The money spent on the Afghan war is needed at home. We're in a deep recession and we have a
monster deficit. Those billions of dollars we're continuing to spend on this military quagmire would
really, really come in handy right about now.
And what happens to our international reputation if we leave right away? A loss of respect? It will be
nothing compared to the loss of respect if we continue to stay. The downward slide has already begun.
It's time to cut our losses. It's time to leave.
All of these avoid the main point. I asked the question this week of some friends, “Do you think we will
ever defeat the drug cartels in Mexico?” The answer you well know, is no.
Why? Because drugs sent money from the users to the dealers to the cartels to the growers and all the
way down to the field worker local schools hospitals and municipal projects. It is an entire economy.
And don’t forget the politicians on both sides of the border. As long as the users intend to get high, and
none of us see an end to that kind of behavior, then the cartels will exist.
Is the solution legalization? No. Istanbul tried that. Their gross national product fell by 25% in a few
years. Now, it is the death penalty for dealing drugs. Guess what? GDP went back up. People didn’t
quit using them. There is no hope of that. Users couldn’t care less what the national state is. They will
use drugs if it was fertilized with human blood. Oh yeah, I guess it is. So there you go.
The press has tried to make you believe that this war in Afghanistan is about terror. Or it’s about radical
Islam. Or it’s about oil. Nonsense. All of it. There is no oil in Afghanistan. There are all kinds of
religions in Afghanistan. A war on terror is as useless as a war on anger or jealousy or envy. You kill
terrorists and levy sanctions against them, and you are supposed to garner love and compassion as a
result? Get a brain.
There is no Al Queda in Afghanistan. There is only the Taliban. The Taliban is a nationally endorsed
drug cartel. They produce 90% of the world’s heroin. It is the sole source of real capital in Afghanistan.
It has been grown and refined there for more than 1 thousand years. The war in Afghanistan is about drug
money. US troops control the ground where US troops are. The Taliban controls Afghanistan the same
now as it has since before the Russians invaded many decades ago. Why did they invade? Heroin. Why
did we invade? Heroin. There is more heroin produced in Afghanistan now than ever.
We tried to tell ourselves that educating the people would free them. It did. It helped. But the Taliban,
like the Chinese in North Viet Nam, marched through the towns and killed the people who could read and
put the rest back to work in the fields. They are cowards who will never obey the rules of war, because
they are not warriors. They are criminals and have operated with one motivation for many millennia.
They seek to make the world their addicts.
Wars have been fought for hundreds and hundreds of years to try to stop this from happening.
The Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, divided into the First Opium War from 1839
to 1842 and the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, were the climax of disputes over trade and
diplomatic relations between China under the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire. After the
inauguration of the Canton System in 1756, which restricted trade to one port and did not allow foreign
entrance to China, the British East India Company faced a trade imbalance in favour of China and
invested heavily in opium production to redress the balance. British and United States merchants brought
opium from the British East India Company's factories inPatna and Benares,[1] in the Bengal
Presidency of British India, to the coast of China, where they sold it to Chinese smugglers who distributed
the drug in defiance of Chinese laws. Aware both of the drain of silver and the growing numbers of
addicts, the Daoguang Emperor demanded action. Officials at the court who advocated legalization of the
trade in order to tax it were defeated by those who advocated suppression.
In 1838, the Emperor sent Lin Zexu to Guangzhou where he quickly arrested Chinese opium dealers and
summarily demanded that foreign firms turn over their stocks. When they refused, Lin stopped trade
altogether and placed the foreign residents under virtual siege, eventually forcing the merchants to
surrender their opium to be destroyed. In response, the British government sent expeditionary forces from
India which ravaged the Chinese coast and dictated the terms of settlement. The Treaty of Nanking not
only opened the way for further opium trade, but ceded territory including Hong Kong, unilaterally fixed
Chinese tariffs at a low rate, grantedextraterritorial rights to foreigners in China which were not offered to
Chinese abroad, a most favored nationclause, as well as diplomatic representation. When the court still
refused to accept foreign ambassadors and obstructed the trade clauses of the treaties, disputes over the
treatment of British merchants in Chinese ports and on the seas led to the Second Opium War and
the Treaty of Tientsin.[2]
These treaties, soon followed by similar arrangements with the United States and France, later became
known as the Unequal Treaties and the Opium Wars as the start of China's "Century of humiliation."
Following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which Britain annexed Bengal to its empire, the British East
India Company pursued a monopoly on production and export of Indian opium. Monopoly began in
earnest in 1773, as the British Governor-General of Bengal abolished the opium syndicate at Patna. For
the next fifty years opium trade would be the key to the East India Company's hold on the subcontinent.
Considering that importation of opium into China had been virtually banned by Chinese law, the East
India Company established an elaborate trading scheme partially relying on legal markets, and partially
leveraging illicit ones. British merchants carrying no opium would buy tea in Canton on credit, and would
balance their debts by selling opium at auction in Calcutta. From there, the opium would reach the
Chinese coast hidden aboard British ships then smuggled into China by native merchants. In 1797 the
company further tightened its grip on the opium trade by enforcing direct trade between opium farmers
and the British, and ending the role of Bengali purchasing agents.
British exports of opium to China grew from an estimated 15 tons in 1730 to 75 tons in 1773. The product
was shipped in over two thousand chests, each containing 140 pounds (64 kg) of opium.[14]
Meanwhile, negotiations with the Qianlong Emperor to ease the trading ban carried on, coming to a head
in 1793 under Earl George Macartney. Such discussions were unsuccessful.[15]
In 1799, the Qing Empire reinstated their ban on opium imports. The Empire issued the following decree
in 1810:
Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited
by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the Forbidden City. Indeed, he flouts the law!
However, recently the purchasers, eaters, and consumers of opium have become numerous. Deceitful
merchants buy and sell it to gain profit. The customs house at the Ch'ung-wen Gate was originally set up
to supervise the collection of imports (it had no responsibility with regard to opium smuggling). If we
confine our search for opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We
should also order the general commandant of the police and police- censors at the five gates to prohibit
opium and to search for it at all gates. If they capture any violators, they should immediately punish them
and should destroy the opium at once. As to Kwangtung and Fukien, the provinces from which opium
comes, we order their viceroys, governors, and superintendents of the maritime customs to conduct a
thorough search for opium, and cut off its supply. They should in no ways consider this order a dead letter
and allow opium to be smuggled out![16]
The decree had little effect. The Qing government, seated in Beijing in the north of China, was unable to
halt opium smuggling in the southern provinces. A porous Chinese border and rampant local demand only
encouraged the all-too eager East India Company, which had its monopoly on opium trade recognised by
the British government, which itself wanted silver. By the 1820s China was importing 900 tons of
Bengali opium annually.[17]
First War 1839-1842
In 1834 to accommodate the revocation of the East India Company's monopoly, the British sent
Lord William John Napier toMacau. He tried to circumvent the restrictive Canton Trade laws which
forbade direct contact with Chinese officials by attempting to send a letter directly to the Viceroy of
Canton. The Viceroy refused to accept it, and closed trade starting on 2 September of that year. Lord
Napier had to return to Macau (where he died a few days later) and, unable to force the matter, the British
agreed to resume trade under the old restrictions.
Within the Chinese mandarinate there was an ongoing debate over legalising the opium trade itself.
However, this idea was repeatedly rejected and instead, in 1838 the government sentenced native drug
traffickers to death. Around this time, the British were selling roughly 1,400 tons per year to China.
British military superiority drew on newly applied technology. British warships wreaked havoc on coastal
towns; the steam ship Nemesis was able to move against the winds and tides and support a gun platform
with very heavy guns. In addition, the British troops were the first to be armed with
modern muskets and cannons which fired more rapidly and with greater accuracy than the Qing firearms
and artillery, though Chinese cannons had been in use since previous dynasties. After the British
tookCanton, they sailed up the Yangtze and took the tax barges, a devastating blow to the Empire as it
slashed the revenue of the imperial court in Beijing to just a fraction of what it had been.
In 1842, the Qing authorities sued for peace, which concluded with the Treaty of Nanking negotiated in
August of that year and ratified in 1843. In the treaty, China was forced to pay an indemnity to Britain,
open four ports to Britain, and cede Hong Kong to Queen Victoria. In the supplementary Treaty of the
Bogue, the Qing empire also recognised Britain as an equal to China and gave British subjects
extraterritorial privileges in treaty ports. In 1844, the United States and France concluded similar treaties
with China, the Treaty of Wanghia and Treaty of Whampoa respectively.
Second War 1856-1860
The Chinese authorities were reluctant to keep to the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. They had tried
to keep out as many foreign merchants as possible and had victimized Chinese merchants who traded with
the British at the treaty ports. To protect those Chinese merchants who were friendly to them at Hong
Kong, the British granted their ships British registration in the hope that the Chinese authorities would not
interfere with vessels which carried the British flag.
In October 1856, the Chinese authorities in Canton seized a vessel called the "Arrow" which had been
engaged in piracy. The "Arrow" had formerly been registered as a British ship and was even still flying
the British flag. The British consul in Canton demanded the immediate release of the crew and an apology
for the insult to the British flag. The crew were released, but an apology was not given. In reprisal, the
British governor in Hong Kong ordered warships to bombard Canton.
The second war over the pumping of Opium into China had started.
Negotiations between China, Britain, France, the USA and Russia led to the Tientsin Treaties of June 26–
29, 1858, which theoretically brought peace. China agreed to open more treaty ports, to legalize opium
importation, to establish a maritime customs service with foreign inspection and to allow foreign
legations at Peking and missionaries in the interior. But as history has shown us time and time again,
drug lords at the highest levels will never agree to limit their trade. They again used their money and
power to bribe and corrupt the local government.
China soon abrogated the Anglo-French treaties and refused to allow foreign diplomats into Peking. On
June 25, 1859 British Admiral Sir James Hope bombarded the forts guarding the mouth of the Hai River,
below Tientsin. However, landing parties were repulsed and the British squadron was severely damaged
by a surprisingly efficient Chinese garrison. Commodore Josiah Tattnall commanding the US Asiatic
Squadron declared "blood is thicker than water" and helped the British save face by assisting them in their
withdrawal.
Anglo-French forces gathered at Hong Kong in May 1860. A joint amphibious expedition moved north to
the Gulf of Po Hai. It consisted of 11,000 British under General Sir James Hope Grant and 7,000 French
under Lieutenant General Cousin-Montauban. Unopposed landings were made at Pei-Tang (August 1,
1860). The Taku forts were taken by assault with the assistance of the naval forces (August 21). The
expedition then advanced up-river from Tientsin. As it approached Peking, the Chinese asked for talks
and an armistice. An allied delegation under Sir Harry Smith Parkes was sent to parley, but they were
seized and imprisoned (September 18). It was later learned that half of them died under torture. The
expedition pressed ahead, defeating some 30,000 Chinese in two engagements before reaching the walls
of Peking on September 26. Preparations for an assault commenced and the Old Summer Palace (Yuan
Ming Yuan) was occupied and looted.
Now, we might as well have been talking about Russia and America, except that Afghanistan is not
forcing their trade on anyone right now. I can tell you may have never heard this story before. I know I
am not the only one who has put these pieces together, but I can tell you that this is well known by our
military. If we wanted to end the heroin traffic, we could. We used various nefarious agents in past wars
to do this, as we have paid millions to many paramilitary forces to do the same thing in lots of countries
like Columbia, Mexico, Ecuador and others to destroy the cocaine fields.
It works. But it also destroys the economy if we don’t replace it with something else. Now, you are
going to hear something you have never heard before.
Ahmed Wali Karzai (Pashto: ‫ک رزی ول ي احمد‬, Aḥmad Walī Karzay, 1961 – 12 July 2011) was a
prominent politician inAfghanistan and the younger paternal half-brother[2] of Afghan President Hamid
Karzai and son of Abdul Ahad Karzai. As an elder of the Popalzai Pashtun tribe, he was elected to
the Kandahar Provincial Council in 2005 and served as its chairman.[3][4] Karzai formerly lived in
the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, where he worked in a restaurant owned by his family.[5] He returned
to Afghanistan following the removal of the Taliban government in late 2001. He was shot and killed by
one of his bodyguards on July 12, 2011.[6]
A June 2009 U.S. embassy cable alleged that much of the actual business of running the Afghan city
of Kandahar "takes place out of public sight, where Ahmed Wali Karzai operates, parallel to formal
government structures, through a network of political clans that use state institutions to protect and enable
licit and illicit enterprises."[13] In addition, James Risen of the New York Times and others[14] stated that
Ahmed Wali Karzai may have been involved in the Afghan opium and heroin trade. This was denied by
Karzai, who called the charges political propaganda and stated he was a "victim of vicious politics."[15]
In meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, including a 2006 session with former US Ambassador
to Afghanistan, Ronald E. Neumann, the CIA's station chief and their British counterparts, American
officials talked about the rumors in hopes that the president might move his brother out of the country,
said several people who took part in or were briefed on the talks. "We thought the concern expressed to
Karzai might be enough to get him out of there," one official said. President Karzai has resisted, however,
demanding clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing, several officials said. "We don't have the kind of hard,
direct evidence that you could take to get a criminal indictment," a White House official said.[15] Ahmed
Wali Karzai dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks by longtime rival groups in his
country.
Before the 2009 Afghan presidential election, Wali Karzai and Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, former
governor of the Helmand Province and a member of the Upper Houseof the Afghan parliament, were
accused of vote rigging.[16] After the election, reports mentioned that all those running in the election were
involved in electoral fraud.
[edit]CIA connections
In October 2009 the New York Times reported that Ahmed Wali Karzai received payments from
the CIA for "a variety of services", including the recruitment of theKandahar Strike Force, an Afghan
paramilitary force run by the CIA in the Kandahar region. It also stated that he was paid for allowing the
CIA and U.S. special forces to rent the former residence of Taliban supreme leader Mullah
Omar.[17] However, Karzai has denied taking any payment from the CIA.[18] U.S. Senator John Kerry and
former Afghan Ambassador to the United States, Said Tayeb Jawad, defended Karzai in recent years,
Kerry saying "We should not condemn Ahmed Wali Karzai or damage our critical relations with his
brother, President Karzai, on the basis of newspaper articles or rumors."[19][20] and Jawad saying, "There is
presence of the intelligence, there's presence of many institutions of the United States
and NATO countries in Afghanistan, why don't they come up with a clear evidence of any corruption
involving the president or his family?[21][22]
WASHINGTON — When Afghan security forces found an enormous cache of heroin hidden beneath
concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar in 2004, the local Afghan commander quickly
impounded the truck and notified his boss.
Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage »
Related
Governor of Afghan Opium Capital Pushes for Crop Replacement (October 4, 2008)
The New York Times
Heroin caches were found near Kandahar and Kabul.
The New York Times
Hajji Aman Kheri
Before long, the commander, Habibullah Jan, received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the
brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs, Mr. Jan later told
American investigators, according to notes from the debriefing obtained by The New York Times. He
said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the
truck.
Two years later, American and Afghan counternarcotics forces stopped another truck, this time near
Kabul, finding more than 110 pounds of heroin. Soon after the seizure, United States investigators told
other American officials that they had discovered links between the drug shipment and a bodyguard
believed to be an intermediary for Ahmed Wali Karzai, according to a participant in the briefing.
The assertions about the involvement of the president’s brother in the incidents were never investigated,
according to American and Afghan officials, even though allegations that he has benefited from narcotics
trafficking have circulated widely in Afghanistan.
Both President Karzai and Ahmed Wali Karzai, now the chief of the Kandahar Provincial Council, the
governing body for the region that includes Afghanistan’s second largest city, dismiss the allegations as
politically motivated attacks by longtime foes.
“I am not a drug dealer, I never was and I never will be,” the president’s brother said in a recent phone
interview. “I am a victim of vicious politics.”
But the assertions about him have deeply worried top American officials in Kabul and in Washington.
The United States officials fear that perceptions that the Afghan president might be protecting his brother
are damaging his credibility and undermining efforts by the United States to buttress his government,
which has been under siege from rivals and a Taliban insurgency fueled by drug money, several senior
Bush administration officials said. Their concerns have intensified as American troops have been
deployed to the country in growing numbers.
“What appears to be a fairly common Afghan public perception of corruption inside their government is a
tremendously corrosive element working against establishing long-term confidence in that government —
a very serious matter,” said Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, who was commander of coalition military forces in
Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and is now retired. “That could be problematic strategically for the United
States.”
The White House says it believes that Ahmed Wali Karzai is involved in drug trafficking, and American
officials have repeatedly warned President Karzai that his brother is a political liability, two senior Bush
administration officials said in interviews last week.
Numerous reports link Ahmed Wali Karzai to the drug trade, according to current and former officials
from the White House, the State Department and the United States Embassy in Afghanistan, who would
speak only on the condition of anonymity. In meetings with President Karzai, including a 2006 session
with the United States ambassador, the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief and their British
counterparts, American officials have talked about the allegations in hopes that the president might move
his brother out of the country, said several people who took part in or were briefed on the talks.
“We thought the concern expressed to Karzai might be enough to get him out of there,” one official said.
But President Karzai has resisted, demanding clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing, several officials said.
“We don’t have the kind of hard, direct evidence that you could take to get a criminal indictment,” a
White House official said. “That allows Karzai to say, ‘where’s your proof?’ ”
Neither the Drug Enforcement Administration, which conducts counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan,
nor the fledgling Afghan anti-drug agency has pursued investigations into the accusations against the
president’s brother.
Several American investigators said senior officials at the D.E.A. and the office of the Director of
National Intelligence complained to them that the White House favored a hands-off approach toward
Ahmed Wali Karzai because of the political delicacy of the matter. But White House officials dispute
that, instead citing limited D.E.A. resources in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan and the absence of
political will in the Afghan government to go after major drug suspects as the reasons for the lack of an
inquiry.
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Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, has condemned a raid on heroin labs carried out by US and
Russian agents as a violation of his country’s sovereignty.
The US and Russia had hailed their first joint counter-narcotics operation in Afghanistan as a milestone
towards closer collaboration to staunch the flow of heroin from the country.
More
ON THIS STORY
 Opinion Only talk can save Afghanistan
 Indian company wins Afghan iron ore deal
 US general relieved of duties over Karzai remarks
 Ankara tries to bolster fight against Taliban
 Kabul suicide bomber kills US soldiers
IN AFGHANISTAN
 Taliban claims Afghan bomb attack


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US urges Afghan allies to stand firm
US officers killed over Koran burning
Pakistan seeks a place at Qatar Taliban talks
But the raid, which was carried out with the participation of Afghan security forces, has opened a fresh
rift in Mr Karzai’s troubled alliance with Washington.
Mr Karzai said he had not been informed in advance of the operation, which took place on Thursday in
the eastern Nangahar Province, which borders Pakistan.
“While Afghanistan remains committed to its joint efforts with [the] international community against
narcotics, it also makes it clear that no organisation or institution shall have the right to carry out such a
military operation without prior authorisation and consent of the government of Afghanistan,” Mr
Karzai’s office said on Saturday.
Mr Karzai has frequently criticised the conduct of Nato forces in Afghanistan, particularly when they
have caused civilian casualties. Sensitivities over Russian involvement run high in the country, which was
invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979.
A US official said Afghanistan’s Counter-Narcotics Police had conducted the operation with support from
agents from the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Nato troops and personnel from Russia’s Federal Counter
Narcotics Force.
Russian officials have said that four Russians, including two security officers and two intelligence
officers, were involved in the first engagement by the Russian military in Afghanistan since Soviet forces
withdrew after a disastrous 10-year war.
Viktor Ivanov, the head of the Russian federal drugs control agency, told reporters in Moscow on Friday
that the raid was a breakthrough that marked the first concrete example of co-operation between Russia
and the US to combat transnational drug-trafficking networks.
The Kremlin has repeatedly criticised Nato for failing to control heroin production in Afghanistan, which
is fuelling a surge in drug addiction in Russia and claiming thousands of lives each year.
Production of opium – the raw material used to make heroin – has increased substantially in Afghanistan
since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Afghanistan produces some 90 per cent of the world’s opium.
Mr Karzai’s relations with the US have been increasingly strained since he emerged as the winner of
elections last year marred by widespread fraud. In the past few weeks, Mr Karzai has become embroiled
in a public dispute with his allies over his plans to disband private security companies. Washington fears
Mr Karzai’s scheme could put US-funded development projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars at
risk.
Mr Karzai agreed this week to extend a deadline to enforce the ban. It is unclear whether he will bow to
US pressure to grant exemptions for companies protecting American private sector contractors carrying
out aid work on behalf of the Washington.
Development experts have frequently criticised US-funded programmes in Afghanistan, saying huge
amounts of money have often been spent on protecting expatriate consultants working on schemes that
have delivered scant benefits to Afghans.
Why do you think that the highest levels of two governments have stopped the investigations? Why do
you think that it is paramilitary and clandestine operations, outside the purview of the presidents that are
conducting these operations?
I can tell you what my theory is. What happens when judges keep letting the bad guys go? What happens
when the District Attorney won’t prosecute the men who are the head of the criminal activities? The guys
on the ground, the cops, the soldiers, the former soldiers, who see the devastation of these drugs on
families, children, and the liberty of the people do something about it. When they do, they are killed,
criticized and targeted for annihilation.
Our own US military is used to protect the Opium crops. Geraldo Rivera
VIDEO INTERVIEW
Make no mistake when you look at the US military make its moves in coming months. Make no mistake
about the confidence the Administration has about getting reelected. Cash coming in from drugs will
make its way to PAC’s that will run the ads that will influence the vote. And if that doesn’t work, the
company that counts the votes from American precincts has been bought by a foreign company owned by
numerous VC groups. Those groups are led by Wall Street leaders that will seek to protect their interests.
By the way, as we said a few weeks back on X-Squared Radio, there is no audit trail with these electronic
tallies. The voting process cannot be traced, once the results are transferred over the net to these secure
election processing companies.
One can only wonder why, after all the elections and attempts to fix elections have all the preparations
been made for this time. What is so special about the national movements around the world that is
different now than time before? There is no threat of war. There is only a vague, fabricated threat of one
Iranian nuclear weapon. Is that enough for war against a country of 55 million people that supplies the
world with oil? Is there more at stake here than meets the eye? Do we have the whole story?
Are you sure what is going to happen? Do you know the real reason why the folks down at wars R us are
trying to sell the taxpayers on the idea that we must all tighten our belts and pull together to defeat the
enemy? What enemy?
Well that is just it. The enemy may not have arrived yet. One thing is for sure. When it comes to
weaponry, if you build it they will come. No weapon has ever been developed that has not been used as
at least a demonstration of power. Well, that is until now.
Three giant alien spaceships are again heading for Earth!
Scientists predict the new ships will arrive in November of 2012.
UFO encounters continue to increase – as documented on WWN. And today scientists at SETI (Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), an independent non-commercial organization, made a major
announcement:
“Three giant spaceships are heading toward Earth. The largest one of them is 200 miles wide. Two others
are slightly smaller. At present, the objects are just moving past Jupiter. Judging by their speed, they
should be on Earth by the fall of 2012,” said John Malley, the lead extraterrestrial expert at SETI.
Three similar giant ships landed in China and the Indonesia Sea in November, 2011. They were identified
as alien spaceships from Planet Gootan. Three more giant Gootan ships are headed her for November,
2012.
Read two of WWN’s many stories about the three Gootan ships landing in 2011:
THE STORY ABOUT THE LANDING OF THE THREE SHIPS IN NOVEMBER 2011
THE GOOTANS ARE HERE
The new Gootan spaceships have been detected by HAARP search system. The system, based in Alaska,
was designed to study the phenomenon of northern lights. According to SETI researchers, the objects are
extraterrestrial spaceships. They will be visible in optical telescopes as soon as they reach Mars’s orbit –
sometime in November of 2012. The US government has been reportedly informed about the event.
SETI researchers have spent fifty years monitoring space. Dr. Malley said that they have conclusively
proven that “we are just newcomers in this huge and unexplored world. Many believe that there are many
other civilizations in space besides our own civilization.”
Wikileaks recently released many classified documents that prove that NASA and high-level U.S. official
are aware of the three spaceships and are making plans to battle the spaceships. They have been
concealing information from the U.S. public for decades. Wikileaks also confirms that the UFO sightings
over the last three months prove that the alien invasions (long predicted by SETI) has begun. The three
spaceships will mark the official beginning of the alien invasion.
Malley said that a Chinese official, Mao Kan, had obtained over than 1,000 secret NASA photographs
depicting not only human footprints, but even a human carcass on the surface of the Moon.
Some of the bones in the carcass were missing, the official said. The human corpse must have been
dropped on the Moon from an alien spaceship, whereas the extraterrestrials kept some tissue samples for
research.
Dr. Ken Johnston, former Manager of the Data and Photo Control Department at NASA’s Lunar
Receiving Laboratory, said that US astronauts had found and photographed ancient ruins of artificial
origin on the Moon. US astronauts had seen large unknown mechanisms on the Moon.
Both Johnston and Mao Kan agree that three more Gootan spaceships are heading for Earth.
Beginning in August of 2012 the U.N. will begin preparing citizens of the world for the second attack of
the three Gootan spaceships and a subsequent alien attack, which they predict will be “a large-scale
assault.”
FAKE ALIEN THREAT
But, is it fake? Do they know something they are not sharing? Are the alarmists correct that the threat
would first show up as a near pass of an asteroid, then a close threat of collision? Would they be able to
marshall and unite a $6 trillion global defense budget, plus whatever else they could rob from less vital
programs, to build a defense of the planet against an invader.
Would they even be invaders? Our anthropologists and historians say that superior intelligence develops
not in the prey, but in the predator. It must be able to outsmart its victims at little or no loss. Going back
across the galaxy for reinforcements is not an option. You are the advance force that must win or be
remitted to the cold blackness of space.
And yet, we are intelligent and have never put a weapon on board a spacecraft. Or have we?
Russians Report their Findings
MOSCOW – Russian scientists predict alien encounters on earth by January 8th, 2012.
Russian scientists released a report yesterday that said they expect humans to encounter aliens on earth by
the beginning of 2012.
“The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms … Alien life exists on other planets AND it
exists on our planes,” said Andrei Yanstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Applied
Astronomy Institute, according to the Interfax news agency.
“We have developed a technology that will allow humans to identify the aliens among us,” said Yanstein.
He would not elaborate on the technology that allows to do this, but he did say that the Russians were
“way out ahead of the Americans on this one.”
Yanstein said that aliens have different color skin, “which may be transparent at times.” He explained that
aliens have been increasing in numbers over the last 15 months.
“This correlates to the ongoing alien invasion,” said Professor John Malley of the UN Panel on
Extraterrestrials. “Aliens have been invading our planet since February of 2009, with an increased number
in October of 2010 and now… the full invasion is under way. Humans must prepare.”
The UN said that it will be coordinating plans for dealing with extraterrestrials – and at this point they can
not guarantee that they will be friendly. “It all depends on how humans react to them. If we are kind and
welcoming, we can co-exist. If are afraid and start attacking – there will be an all out alien war. And we
will lose,” said Malley.
Yanstein went on to says that 10% of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth and
most of them have life forms similar to humans.
If water can be found there, then so can life, he said, adding that aliens would most likely resemble
humans with two arms, two legs and a head.
Richard Coolidge, an astrobiologist at the US space agency’s Marshall space flight center in Alabama,
agreed with the findings of the Russian report. “Aliens are here, and they are making themselves known,”
said Coolidge.
Asked how the Russians came up with the January 8th date, Yanstein replied, “we spent several years
analyzing the data and that is the farthest point possible for the aliens to reveal themselves without being
noticed by the naked human eye.”
Writing in the Journal of Cosmology, Hoover claimed that the lack of nitrogen in the samples, which is
essential for life on Earth, indicated they are “the remains of extraterrestrial life forms that grew on the
parent bodies of the meteorites when liquid water was present, long before the meteorites entered the
Earth’s atmosphere.”
Get ready for your… close encounter!
Richard Coolidge, an astrobiologist at the US space agency’s Marshall space flight center in Alabama,
agreed with the findings of the Russian report. “Aliens are here, and they are making themselves known,”
said Coolidge.
Asked how the Russians came up with the January 8th date, Yanstein replied, “we spent several years
analyzing the data and that is the farthest point possible for the aliens to reveal themselves without being
noticed by the naked human eye.”
Writing in the Journal of Cosmology, Hoover claimed that the lack of nitrogen in the samples, which is
essential for life on Earth, indicated they are “the remains of extraterrestrial life forms that grew on the
parent bodies of the meteorites when liquid water was present, long before the meteorites entered the
Earth’s atmosphere.”
Get ready for your… close encounter!
American Advanced Education: The Best in the World?
The US Department of Education has an annual budget of more than $1 billion. It does not educate a
single person. The State of North Carolina ranks in the top of its class in Secondary Education.
However, K through 12 it ranks 37th. Kentucky ranks better than North Carolina. Why? What is the
system that makes education function? Most people say that this stats at home, and I would agree.
But it matters where home is, I suppose. I want you to listen to my colleague Dr. Michio Kaku speaking
on a panel of collegiate performance.
AMERCA’S SECRET WEAPON
I am an honor graduate in nuclear chemistry. I was alone as an American in my graduating class. I was
the only American on the honor role in the entire college of Chemistry. The rest were Chinese, Japanese,
and Indian. Oh, and by the way, the Chinese students had to record and translate all lectures into Chinese
each night to keep up. They still did it and got high grades. When I was working in the lab until late at
night and on weekends to excel, there were no Americans in that lab. Only Chinese.
I want you to take a good look at what we are doing here. College enrolment is all about the money. A
foreign student here on the H1-B Visa has to pay three to four times the tuition I had to pay as an in-state
resident. Classes were not geared for us. They were geared for outside students who came in under
government orders to learn or go back to the mines or the farms from which they came. My best math
and science instructors were not American. They were Indian.