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Americans Believed Involved In Pakistan Air Crash, Hijacking

Gordon Duff
Veteranstoday.com
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:48 CDT

Crash Of Airbus 320 Outside Islamabad Now Believed Hijacked, Heading For Nuke Facility

August 29, 2010 Islamabad, Pakistan - Informed sources in the Government of Pakistan have told Veterans Today that they are developing "hard evidence" indicating the Air Blue Airbus 320 that crashed July 28th outside Islamabad was a terrorist hijacking tied to rogue American security forces operating inside that country.

Sources indicate that the plane crash was an unsuccessful hijacking attempt intended to crash into the nuclear weapons facility at Kahuta, outside Islamabad. Such an attack may have been blamed on India and would likely have led to retaliation which could easily have escalated to a nuclear exchange between these two nations that have spent decades at each other's throats.

Suspicions were raised inside Pakistan's military and intelligence organizations when American military contractors employed by Blackwater/Xe showed up on the scene immediately after the crash, seizing the black box and "other materials." There is no confirmation that parachutes or electronic equipment had been removed when Blackwater/Xe security relinquished control of the crash scene to Pakistani investigators.

Royal Television in Islamabad, owned by the brother of the head of Pakistan's powerful JI (Jamate Islami), the Islamic political party, has reported that investigations are underway tying American based contractors to the planning of the attack.

Pakistan air strikes kill scores

Al Jazeera
Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:50 CDT

Military strikes targetting fighters kill between 40 to 45 people in northwest the country.

A Pakistani air strike targeting fighters believed to have been preparing for imminent suicide attacks has killed between 40 to 45 people in a northwestern the country.

"Security forces today carried out a successful operation against militants in the Tirah valley of Khyber Agency," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP news agency on Tuesday.

"Militant hideouts, a training centre, an illegal FM radio station and eight vehicles prepared for suicide attack were destroyed in air strikes," he added.

Sampath Perera
World Socialist Web Site
Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:07 CDT

More than a million additional people fled their homes in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh over the past few days as flood waters threatened further cities and towns. While authorities reported yesterday that waters were receding at least temporarily, large areas of the country are devastated and around 20 million people displaced.

Nineteen out of the 23 districts in Sindh are badly affected. "More than seven million people have been displaced in Sindh since August 3, one million only in the past two days," provincial relief commissioner Ghulam Ali Pasha told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Floodwaters inundated the town of Sujawal on Sunday, forcing its 100,000 residents to flee. Local authorities attempted to minimise the impact but water levels in the town centre were up to 1.5 metres and over 3 metres in surrounding villages. Disaster management official Hadi Baksh told the Daily Times that half a million flood victims were camped at Makli. Most lacked any shelter and were in desperate need of food and clean water.

Saeed Shah
McClatchy Newspapers
Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:33 CDT

U.S. forces lost 22 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly to roadside bombs, since Friday, marking a bloody step-up in the insurgency as a major U.S.-led offensive seeks to capture the spiritual homeland of the Taliban movement in Kandahar.

The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said it's gaining ground against the insurgents, but violence is rising across the country, including in areas that were considered relatively safe.

Five more U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday, while three Afghan workers for the British charity Oxfam were killed by a roadside bomb in Badakhshan, which had been one of the safer places in the country.

The coalition says that casualties are rising as they push against the strongholds of the Taliban in the south and the allied Haqqani network in the east. The majority of casualties - some 60 percent - this year and in 2009 came from improvised explosive devices planted on roads and paths.

Miriam Mannak
IPS News
Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:19 CDT

Cape Town, - Civil society organizations have reacted with outrage to claims that the international campaign against genetically modified (GM) crops is partly responsible for food shortages and food insecurity in Africa.

"Food insecurity in developing regions such as Africa is partially a result of the anti-GM campaign," David King, director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University in Britain, said during the 15th World Congress of Food Science and Technology held between Aug 22-26 in Cape Town, South Africa.

King added that, "many African countries have the idea that food that is not good enough for Europeans, is not good enough for Africans.

"In Europe, people might have a choice between conventional and genetically modified products. In Africa, this is not the case. Here, any food that is available is great."

South African organizations that oppose the genetic modification of food, such as the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE), have condemned King's statements.

Comment: For more information about African countries that oppose Genetically Modified crops read the following:

Gates Foundation Invests in Monsanto at the Expense of Small-scale African Farmers

Christopher Bodeen
The Associated Press
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:26 CDT

© Associated Press/Reza Shirmohammadi
Abdul Manan, a candidate for the September Parliament elections is brought to a hospital, after being shot, in Herat, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010

Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan's embattled southern and eastern regions, while officials found the bodies Sunday of five kidnapped campaign aides working for a female candidate in the western province of Herat.

Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday, and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July's high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month, including seven British troops.

Fighting is intensifying with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to bring the total number of international forces in Afghanistan to 140,000 - 100,000 of them American. Most of those new troops have been assigned to the southern insurgent strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces where major battles are fought almost daily as part of a gathering drive to push out the Taliban.

Asif Shahzad
Associated Press
Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:24 CDT

Islamabad - Muslim countries, organizations and individuals have pledged nearly $1 billion in cash and relief supplies to help Pakistan respond to the worst floods in the nation's history, the head of a group of Islamic states said.

The announcement came as floodwaters inundated a large town in Pakistan and authorities struggled to build new levees with clay and stone to prevent one of the area's biggest cities from suffering the same fate.

Foreign countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help Pakistan cope with the floods, which started a month ago after extremely heavy monsoon rains. But some officials had criticized the Muslim world for not contributing enough.

Hugh O'Shaughnessy
The Independent
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00 CDT

Bosses may face charges as unions reveal pit had been closed after deaths but reopened, despite failure to meet safety requirements

The Chilean mining accident was the result of a race for profits by mine owners - who may face criminal charges - at a boom time in the price of two metals, combined with a scandalous disregard for safety, according to trade unionists.

Despite a legal requirement, there were no alternative exits from the San Jose copper and gold mine, which has left 33 miners imprisoned 700 metres underground since 5 August. Union efforts to permanently close San Jose and the neighbouring San Antonio mine have failed, despite a spate of fatalities.

The Associated Press
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:00 CDT

A Venezuelan National Guard helicopter crashed during a counter-drug mission near the Colombian border, killing all 10 soldiers on board, President Hugo Chavez said Saturday.

Officials were investigating why the Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter crashed "within a few minutes" after taking off on Friday, Chavez said in a televised speech, reading off the names of the victims.

The helicopter was searching for a group of suspected drug traffickers in southwestern Apure state, National Guard Gen. Luis Alfredo Motta Dominguez told state television.

The accident occurred near the town of Buena Vista on the Meta River, which runs along the border with Colombia, Motta said.

Barinder Khatra
TopNews.co.uk
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:00 CDT

Kapiti Coast District Council had to reduce fluoride dosing in its town supply after it faced public pressure.

Previously in the month of June, extremely divided council made the decision that it would retain the usage of fluoride in the water supply for Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Raumati, however, on Thursday, it voted to lessen the usage of the chemical.

The vote by council placed a cut of 1 milligram per litre to 0.7mg/L and also to make public tap supplies of non-fluoridated water in Paekakariki an Otaki, available.

Lyndy McLntyre, fluoride opponent made a move to lessen 'mass medication' after questioning council staff for a report, which had been released yesterday that recommended to continue with fluoride for oral health however with a drop to be made in the level at 0.8mg/L.

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