Wednesday, August 18, 2010
More Videos on the Growing Pakistan Flood Crisis
The Pakistan floods hit Afghan refugees:
Aerial shot of the effects of the Pakistan floods:
What can you do?
Help the Pakistan flood victims buy clicking HERE.
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Aerial shot of the effects of the Pakistan floods:
What can you do?
Help the Pakistan flood victims buy clicking HERE.
The Pakistani Floods Have Affected Over 12 Million People!
Or 20% of the country by some estimates! Yet help has been slow in coming:
"The global aid response to the Pakistan floods has so far been much less generous than to other recent natural disasters - despite the soaring numbers of people affected and the prospect of more economic ruin in a country key to the fight against Islamist extremists.
Reasons include the relatively low death toll of 1,500, the slow onset of the flooding compared with more immediate and dramatic earthquakes or tsunamis, and a global "donor fatigue" - or at least a Pakistan fatigue.
Triggered by monsoon rains, the floods have torn through the country from its mountainous northwest, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and an estimated 1.7 million acres of farmland. In southern Pakistan, the River Indus is now more than 15 miles wide at some points - 25 times wider than during normal monsoon seasons.
The floods have disrupted the lives of 14 million people - 8 percent of the population. Many are living in muddy camps or overcrowded government buildings, while thousands more are sleeping in the open next to their cows, goats and whatever possessions they managed to drag with them.
Officials said Friday that fever and diarrhea are spreading among victims. The U.N. said limited access to safe water and crowded and unsanitary conditions in makeshift camps meant an increased risk of diseases like diarrhea, malaria, dengue fever."
I really hope it's not related to the growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the US!
[videos via ITN News | article via Toronto Star/CBS News]
Labels: Pakistan
Sunday, December 13, 2009
60 Minutes interview with President Obama
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Speaking on the situation on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Click HERE for more.
Labels: 60 Minutes, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Pakistan, Politics
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
CBS Video: Taliban Massacres Women and Children in Marketplace Attack
At least 100 civilians are feared dead. Read more via Voice of America HERE.
WTF??!? Sh-t is looney tunes out in the Middle East right now....
Labels: Pakistan, taliban, War on Terror
Friday, October 23, 2009
AP Video: Thousands in Pakistan Flee As Taliban Fight Intensifies
Related:
Eric Mrgolis Op-Ed: Flames from the Afghan war ignite Pakistan.
Now we have a mess in Iraq, Afghnistan and Pakistan! Thanks, GWB!
Labels: Pakistan, taliban, War on Terror, WTF
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The Taliban Situation in Pakistan is Getting Serious!
From the video, Olivier Guillard on the possibility of the Taliban totally taking over Pakistan: "The scenario is probably totally bleak and I'm not sure the civilian government has really realised that."
Not to be completely simplistic about it but, THIS.IS.NOT.GOOD!!!!
Related:
The Pakistani Army, Backed by Air Power, Tries to Stem Taliban Advance. [NY Times]
Has Pakistan collapsed into civil war? [Creative Loafing]
Labels: Pakistan, taliban, War on Terror, WTF
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Gen. David Petraeus leaves Iraq after 20 months
When Petraeus said in the video above that he might never use the word victory for Iraq on 9/11 this year did he mean never ever or just until he left the country 5 days later?
Related:
"Pakistan's army spokesman has made clear that its forces have been ordered to open fire if US troops launch another raid across the Afghan border." [BBC News]
Afghanistan: Pakistan fury at US cross-border attacks. [The Independent of London]
Labels: Afghanistan, GOP incompetence, Iraq war, Pakistan, War on Terror
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Castro Resigns!
While I guess not surprising, this is MAJOR!
Semi-related:
Musharraf loses election in Pakistan. This is pretty major too!
Labels: Cuba, Fidel Castro, Pakistan
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Benazir Bhutto assassinated!
Bhutto at a rally minutes before being assassinated.
Earlier today. Details via the NY Times here.
I wonder how the Bush administration will deal with this (not really a) curve ball (I mean who couldn't have seen this coming after what happened when she first returned to Pakistan)? It's possible that their so-called 'Ally in the War on Terror,' Pakistan's President Musharraf may have had a hand in this yet they still have an Iraq & Iran-focused foreign policy for the region when Pakistan is the country that actually has nuclear weapons and is in real danger of falling into the control of terrorist-sympathizing, Islamic radical-fundamentalists.
BTW: should I read anything into the timing of this murder/attack coming right after reports began to surface that $5 billion of the $10 billion in US military aid sent to Pakistan to help secure the border with Afghanistan and rout out the ('final') remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban has gone unaccounted for?
Labels: Benazir Bhutto, GOP incompetence, Pakistan, War on Terror
Friday, November 23, 2007
War on Terror Ally Update: Saudi Arabia
From an ABC News article by Lara Setrakian:
"Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice is defending a sentence of 200 lashes for the victim of a gang rape, punished because she was in the car of a male who wasn't a relative when the two were attacked.
[T]he General Court of Qatif increased the punishment to 200 lashes and six months in jail after she took her case to the press. Authorities deemed it an "attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media," according to Saudi Arabia's English-language newspaper Arab News."
Click here for full article.
Related:
- The U.S. offers mild criticism in the Saudi rape case. [Reuters via ABC News]
- "Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered allies by the United States in its fight against terrorism, were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year to serve as suicide bombers or to facilitate other attacks, according to senior American military officials. [emphasis added]" [NY Times]
- An AP report says private Saudi citizens are funding the Iraqi insurgents. [CS Monitor]
Before:
Pakistan: the US's other 'War on terror ally.'
Labels: Iraq war, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, War on Terror
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
War on Terror update
The Iraq war is gonna cost us $2.4 trillion!!! You got your 8-stacks share of that cost ready to go?! WTF??!!
And this is what we get for our money: Iraqi official gunned down in Baghdad.
And, in case you skipped it yesterday, let us not forget our war on terror "ally" Pakistan!
Pakistan update:
- Bhutto under house arrest again. [AP via Google]
- Musharraf Sets No End to Emergency Rule. [AP via Breitbart.com]
Labels: Iraq war, Pakistan, War on Terror
Monday, November 12, 2007
Pakistan: WTF??!!!
From an AP report by Matthew Pennington titled, "Musharraf imposes emergency measures":
"Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution and deployed troops in the capital Saturday, declaring that rising Islamic extremism had forced him to take emergency measures. He also replaced the nation's chief justice and blacked out the independent media that refused to support him.
Authorities began rounding up opposition politicians, cut phone lines in the capital and took all but the state television station off air despite calls from Washington and other Western allies not to take authoritarian measures.
The U.S. called for Musharraf to restore democracy. However, the Pentagon said the emergency declaration does not affect U.S. military support for Pakistan and its efforts in the war on terrorism. [emphasis added]"
Click here for full story.
More:
- How Musharraf's Move Could Backfire. [Time]
- Pakistan Rounds Up Musharraf’s Political Foes. [NYT]
- Ousted Chief Justice in Pakistan Urges Defiance. [NYT]
- Chaos around Benazir Bhutto's house arrest and subsequent release. [ABC News | CBS News]
- And while the US is bogged down spreading democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and ratcheting up the rhetoric about needing to invade Iran to quell the nuclear threat there, Pakistan's weaknesses, nuclear arms pose threat. [amNY.com]
- Pakistan political instability raises nuclear risk. [Reuters via WaPo]
Labels: Benazir Bhutto, GOP incompetence, Pakistan, War on Terror
Sunday, October 21, 2007
War on Terror/Freedom in Iraq & the Middle East update
Peace in Pakistan!
Remember how Bush used to say that a 'free Iraq' (that is, one liberated from the Saddam Hussein regime and democratically electing governments) would lead to a spread of freedom and democracy throughout the Middle East? So four years later, how's that strategy going?
Peace in the Middle East:
In Iraq: "Iraqi officials expressed outrage early Sunday at what they say are civilian deaths in the wake of a massive military operation in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.
The U.S. military said its ground forces are "unaware" of civilian deaths in the early morning raid that it said left 49 "criminals" dead." [from "U.S. forces battle militants in Sadr City" - CNN]
Iraq/Turkey-related: 12 Turkish Soldiers Killed in Kurdish Rebel Attack. [NYT]
And in Pakistan: "Two bombs exploded Thursday just seconds apart and feet from a truck carrying the returning opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, narrowly missing her but killing scores of people and bloodying her triumphal homecoming after eight years in exile.
According to reports on local news stations late Friday morning, 134 people had been killed and about 400 wounded." [NYT]
Homeland Security:
TSA report: most fake bombs missed by screeners. [USA Today]
J.F.K. Workers Moved Drugs, Authorities Say. Not that I believe it, but could dirty bombs be next? [NYT]
So much for peace in the Middle East! And while he should be worried about more "mundane" holes in basic security like the above, Bush continues on with his lunatic "war on terror" and his demented belief in visions of World War III starting if Iran goes nuclear. C'mon, is he friggin' serious?! [NYT]
Labels: Benazir Bhutto, George Bush, GOP incompetence, Homeland Security, Iran, Iraq war, Pakistan, War on Terror
Monday, October 01, 2007
Good News in the 'War on Terror'?
Lest anyone think I only look for bad news out the Middle East. From an AP article titled "US Military Death Toll Down in Iraq":
"Sixty-three U.S. military deaths were reported in September, the lowest monthly toll since July 2006, according to U.S. forces and a preliminary count by The Associated Press."
Click here for more.
But don't get gassed by this seeming good news from Iraq. That doesn't mean peace & democracy is spreading throughout the region or that the US isn't getting more desperate in their efforts to shut down the Taliban resurgence.
Labels: Afghanistan, Iraq war, Pakistan, War on Terror
