In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files. [After the commentary, times are hard, and pass slowly, when you're doing "Time In Babylon". Emmylou Harris... Courtesy of the respective artists and KPIG Radio Freedom California, Earth] » You don't tweak the giant's nose (unless you're leading him to a quick trip to his death down the beanstalk) - In the wake of a Tet Offensive-like action against the US embassy in Kabul and ISAF/NATO headquarters among other diversionary attacks Secretary of Defense Panetta has announced that the US will go after the al-Haqqani 'network' which comprises a large number of Pashtun people in Afghanistan and Pakistan... As a matter of fact they control much of the territory North of Punjab province. The Pakistani army and the CIA have been assaulting this allegedly al-Qaeda affiliated group of fighters for a few years now in a not-so-covert war because of their alleged affiliation with Osama bin-Laden. As far as can be told the tribal group's only connection with Osama and al-Qaeda (except for the fact that any reason is a good enough reason to side with anyone attacking invaders) seems to be one of their tribal leaders married one of Osama bin-Laden's daughters a number of years ago. As yours truly said in 2001 after the initial invasion of Afghanistan... "We seem to be walking into a regional ambush". Expect dead and wounded US soldiers being evacuated from Pakistan that you most likely will not hear about in the newspapers or see in the AfPak theatre casualty counts. Special reports and details on the al-Haqqani network below the fold in the "OTHER News". Meanwhile some soldiers in Afghanistan are having a hard time explaining to their spouses and relatives what they are doing there:

Explaining Afghanistan: US Marines find it hard CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA - Associated Press Wed, Sep 14, 2011 PATROL BASE FULOD, Afghanistan (AP) — "Baby, I walked on a path today. Everything was clear. Nothing happened." That's what U.S. Marine Cpl. Ernest Tubbs, a combat engineer who looks for hidden bombs on patrol, often tells his wife when he has the chance to telephone her in the United States. Many a time, he has lied. Tubbs won't tell her about the close calls, the near misses, anything about his dangerous job that might rattle the woman he married last year after meeting her on a Florida beach. "She would kill me" if she knew, he said. His father, Tubbs said, is proud of his military career but shuns the stress of full awareness, once telling his son: "'What happens, I don't want to know.'" Unlike wars of decades past, most American troops in Afghanistan are able to stay in touch with their families with the help of Internet and telephone centers on larger bases, and even those in smaller outposts get a call out sometimes. But technology, and old-fashioned letter-writing, do not always close the distance. For units in combat zones, where men die and lose legs in fights with the Taliban, it is easier to talk about just about anything else. Young men share an intensity of experience on a deployment, and the bond that blossoms is theirs alone. There is the rush of a firefight, the zero-to-60 crisis of a bomb strike on a patrol, the grind of humping gear in dust and heat, the numbing wait for a flight or a ride or orders. None of this can be easily explained to relatives back home, and maybe they don't even want to know. The result, documented over generations of war and evident in the reunion of veterans anywhere, is a clan whose members, in some ways, know each other better than any relative could. So it goes for the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, entrusted with driving insurgents out of the southern Afghan area of Sangin, scene of some of the toughest fighting since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001. Sixteen men in the battalion have died, and about 160 have been injured. The unit ends its seven-month deployment in October. Tubbs, of Parsonsburg, Maryland, says he's interested in the future, not telling war stories. He wants to get out of the military and become a game warden. And last month, his wife, Hannah, gave birth. He will see the baby, Gabriel, for the first time. Marines are instructed to avoid giving sensitive military information to families back home, which discourages some discussion of experiences in Afghanistan. 1st Lt. Mark Batey, the platoon leader at Patrol Base Fulod in Sangin, said Marines are better off dodging more personal talk about deployment. "It does something for yourself. Things that may cause some fear to the Marines, like the fear of losing your legs, or the fear of getting shot, or basically just not going home, or not going home the way that you left home: That's something that if you were to bring it up with people back there, they really wouldn't be able to comfort you," said Batey, of Denton, Texas. "If you're not here to see it go down, I really can't explain it well enough," he said. The potential for misunderstandings is high. With a smile, Batey recalled how he once told his girlfriend on the telephone that it was getting "really hot" in his location. She thought he was referring to fighting. He was talking about the temperature... [Continue Reading]

» The Yemeni Army claims to have killed another dozen or so alleged miltia fighters even as explosions rock the capital Sanaa. Meanwhile Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province which was "liberated" by the government recently, has come under renewed seige by the rebels. More details at the Telegraph UK. » The emergency aid for this year's large number of U.S. flood/earthquake/hurricane disaster victims is being withheld by the Republican house majority in lieu of matching budget cuts, so the Democrats intend to add it as a rider on the upcoming federal budget Continuing Resolution. The funds needed are looking like $3.7 billion dollars in the house and $7.5 billion in the senate version. Meanwhile, the President's job bill is hung up in Senate committees and nothing is expected to happen for at least a year and the Republican will have their version of the Job Bill on the floor of the House today. » British Prime Minister Cameron and French president Sarkozy will be in Tripoli today on a diplomatic mission to their crony's newly minted terrorist and criminal infested government. In OTHER News The AfPak 'channel at Foreign Policy magazine with details on the the US government's reaction to the ten fighter pin-down of the US embassy the other day by the "Haqqani Network", followed by a very complete evolutionary analysis of Pakistan's militant groups. Full text courtesy of STRATFOR.

U.S. issues warning on Haqqani Network Thursday, September 15, 2011 AfPak Channel Daily Brief U.S. secretary of defense Leon Panetta told reporters Wednesday that safe havens allegedly enjoyed by the Haqqani Network in Pakistan are "unacceptable" and said that Pakistan should know that the United States will, "do everything we can" to protect against attacks by the group in Afghanistan (Reuters, AFP, AP, Reuters). American officials blame the Haqqani Network for the day-long siege of Kabul this week that killed at least 25 people, as McClatchy reports that the attackers were Pakistani, according to Afghan officials (McClatchy, NYT, CNN, LAT, Globe and Mail, Times). The officials said that the attackers were found with grenades -- as well as mango juice -- from Pakistan, after they were killed by Afghan and international forces. A Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman warned that Panetta's comments could hurt counterterrorism cooperation between the countries, while the U.S. ambassador to Kabul Ryan Crocker has been criticized for terming the deadly attacks "not a very big deal" in comments to reporters (Reuters, Guardian, BBC, Post). And the Telegraph reports on the Twitter battle between the International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) and Taliban's Twitter accounts as the fighting was still going on in Kabul (Tel). [In Full, with links]

From STRATFOR: The Evolution of a Pakistani Militant Network Sep 15 2011 By Sean Noonan and Scott Stewart For many years now, STRATFOR has been carefully following the evolution of “Lashkar-e-Taiba” (LeT), the name of a Pakistan-based jihadist group that was formed in 1990 and existed until about 2001, when it was officially abolished. In subsequent years, however, several major attacks were attributed to LeT, including the November 2008 coordinated assault in Mumbai, India. Two years before that attack we wrote that the group, or at least its remnant networks, were nebulous but still dangerous. This nebulous nature was highlighted in November 2008 when the “Deccan Mujahideen,” a previously unknown group, claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks. While the most famous leaders of the LeT networks, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, are under house arrest and in jail awaiting trial, respectively, LeT still poses a significant threat. It’s a threat that comes not so much from LeT as a single jihadist force but LeT as a concept, a banner under which various groups and individuals can gather, coordinate and successfully conduct attacks. Such is the ongoing evolution of the jihadist movement. And as this movement becomes more diffuse, it is important to look at brand-name jihadist groups like LeT, al Qaeda, the Haqqani network and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan as loosely affiliated networks more than monolithic entities. With a debate under way between and within these groups over who to target and with major disruptions of their operations by various military and security forces, the need for these groups to work together in order to carry out sensational attacks has become clear. The result is a new, ad hoc template for jihadist operations that is (Watch Video: "Dispatch: Jihadist Groups After bin Laden's Death") -not easily defined and even harder for government leaders to explain to their constituents and reporters to explain to their readers. Thus, brand names like Lashkar-e-Taiba (which means Army of the Pure) will continue to be used in public discourse while the planning and execution of high-profile attacks grows ever more complex. While the threat posed by these networks to the West and to India may not be strategic, the possibility of disparate though well-trained militants working together and even with organized-crime elements does suggest a continuing tactical threat that is worth examining in more detail. (The Evolution of a Pakistani Militant Network is republished at Razed By Wolves in full with permission of STRATFOR.) Click to continue "examining in more detail". This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can. Remember... Capitalism is holding a loaded gun... ...And the target is ANYONE who gets in the way of their profits. -30-
Creative Commons Copyright Courtesy of Cabale News Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR Radio. Listen to KVMR Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves Postings Auntie Imperial and Razer Raygun Have Done Lately Are [Here] The Consolidated Items Listing in RSS format [Here] Travus T. Hipp Fan Page @ Facebook (unaffiliated) In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.

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