Do you really need a professional 'stylist', who probably charges $200 to give you a buzz cut? What kind fruity ass sh*t is that?

Well its a known fact that stylists follow the Army and set up just outside the bases. In the old days it was prostitutes, drug dealers, alcohol venders and gambling rings.. Now its Stylists , mobile spas and Starbucks

h/t lambert

Pentagon: Next 18 months key to Afghan victory

By LARA JAKES – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steps taken over the next 18 months to defeat the Taliban and other extremists will ultimately decide whether the war in Afghanistan is being won, the Pentagon's top leaders said Tuesday.

In a bluntly-worded response to senators, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the war intensified in 2006 — in large part as a result of Pakistan's peace deals with militant groups that pushed the Taliban back over the Afghan border.

"As this problem became worse in terms of the violence caused by the Taliban coming across the border from Pakistan, I think that it's self-evident that we were under-resourced to deal with it," Gates told a Senate Appropriations panel.

He added, however, that the Pakistani army has since stepped up its battle against extremists in the Swat valley and elsewhere in the nation's northwest provinces. He called it "an extremely important development."

Gates is taking a closer look at the Afghan conflict this week. He heads to Europe later Tuesday to discuss the war with NATO allies and other nations with troops fighting in Afghanistan's volatile South.

He and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen told senators they're more optimistic now than in recent months about efforts to combat insurgents and extremists along the remote Afghan-Pakistan border.

But, Mullen said, "I think the next 12 to 18 months will really tell the tale."

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Two-year ordeal may soon be over after US military hands over Iraqi militia leader

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

The release of the first of five British hostages kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago may be imminent after the US military freed a senior Shia militia leader from prison.

The freeing of Laith al-Khazali, an important member of Asaib al-Haq, an Iranian-backed militia group, marks a crucial breakthrough in efforts to secure the return of Peter Moore, a computer expert, and four British security men seized with him.

The kidnappers have demanded the release of Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Asaib al-Haq, along with his brother Laith and other militants, in return for the five Britons who were captured while working in the Iraqi Finance Ministry in a highly organised raid on 29 May 2007 by men dressed as Iraqi policemen.

A senior Iraqi politician in Baghdad said that he expected Qais al-Khazali, the most important of the Iraqis whose release is demanded by the kidnappers, to be handed over by US military forces to the Iraqi government in the next five days. It would then free him, opening the way for further releases of the British hostages.

The difficulty in arranging for the Britons to be released is that the Iraqis held by the US were accused of masterminding a devastating attack on a US base in the city of Kerbala early in 2007 in which five American soldiers were killed. When the Khazali brothers were arrested in Basra in March 2007 the US said they had a document containing detailed military information about the Kerbala camp.

A further problem is that the Iraqi government, Britain and the US do not want to be seen to be releasing prisoners in exchange for hostages. But a solution appears to have been found by Asaib al-Haq promising the Iraqi government that it would renounce violence and join the political process. This enabled the Iraqi government to say that the group could not do so while it held hostages, but it also suggested to the US that Asaib al-Haq could not be expected to cease armed actions while its leaders were being held in prison.

The attack at Kerbala, which was more expertly planned than most such incidents in Iraq, was part of a tit-for-tat covert war in Iraq between the US and Iran, sometimes waged through their proxies. This conflict was particularly intense in the first half of 2007, when five Iranian diplomatic officials were seized in a US helicopter raid on Arbil, the Kurdish capital, and, on 23 March in the same year, when 15 British Marines and naval personnel were captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in disputed waters in the Gulf.

Qais al-Khazali was part of the movement of the Shia anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr following the US invasion in 2003. During the siege of the Sadrists by the US Marines in 2004 Qais was their chief spokesman. Both brothers later split from the Sadrists and Qais became the leader of an Iranian-supported special group called Asaib al-Haq (the Leagues of Righteousness). These groups were alleged to be armed, trained and paid by the Iranians in 2006-07 and were thought to specialise in attacking US forces.

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Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt | Washington D.C. | June 10

NYT - The new American commander in Afghanistan has been given carte blanche to handpick a dream team of subordinates, including many Special Operations veterans, as he moves to carry out an ambitious new strategy that envisions stepped-up attacks on Taliban fighters and narcotics networks.

The extraordinary leeway granted the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, underscores a view within the administration that the war in Afghanistan has for too long been given low priority and needs to be the focus of a sustained, high-level effort.

General McChrystal is assembling a corps of 400 officers and soldiers who will rotate between the United States and Afghanistan for a minimum of three years. That kind of commitment to one theater of combat is unknown in the military today outside Special Operations, but reflects an approach being imported by General McChrystal, who spent five years in charge of secret commando teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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[Comment: Whoa - lotsa manpower. Hope the fusion cells are as well staffed. ~ JPD]

“The absence of any US-Iran bilateral channel...may have the perverse effect of reinforcing Iranian interest in progressing in the nuclear realm so that the US will be forced to take it seriously and engage it directly." ~ Richard Haass

The Virginia Pilot, By Bill Sizemore, June 11

The latest in a series of war-crimes lawsuits against Blackwater and its affiliated companies alleges that they continue to operate illegally in Iraq a month after the expiration of their lucrative security contract with the U.S. State Department.

The new lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, says Blackwater is still providing armed protection services in Iraq under the name Greystone Ltd. for the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. government.

That work is illegal, the lawsuit says, because the Iraqi government has refused to grant Blackwater licenses to do business or carry weapons in the country.

The company denied that it is operating illegally.

[...]

But Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe in February, continues to work for IRI, the lawsuit alleges: "Xe-Blackwater, seeking to obscure its continued illegal operations in Iraq, directed its employees to enter into new contracts under the Greystone name rather than the Blackwater name."

According to its Web site, IRI "advances freedom and democracy worldwide by developing political parties, civic institutions, open elections, good governance and the rule of law." The organization was established in 1983. Although it bills itself as nonpartisan, prominent Republicans occupy many of its leadership positions.

Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, is chairman of the board.

IRI's Iraq operation is funded by the State Department.

UN seeks review of special forces in Afghanistan
13 Jun 2009 12:20:07 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Peter Graff

KABUL, June 13 (Reuters) - The United Nations has asked NATO defence ministers to review how special forces are deployed in Afghanistan in a bid to reduce civilian casualties that risk jeopardising Western efforts to stabilise the country.

"I welcome additional troops coming in. But every effort must be made to avoid a situation where more troops and more fighting leads to more civilian casualties and behaviour that offends the population," U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide told NATO defence ministers in Brussels by video link from Kabul.

With violence at its worst level since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, Washington is pouring thousands of extra troops into Afghanistan this year.

The reinforcements will more than double troop levels from 32,000 at the end of 2008 to 68,000 by the end of this year. Other Western troops battling the Taliban-led insurgency number about 30,000.

Eide's remarks, made late on Friday, were released by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan on Saturday.

"We cannot eliminate civilian casualties, but we cannot afford mistakes that lead to the loss of civilian lives, the alienation of the population and media headlines month after month that overshadow all the positive trends," he said.

"The political costs are simply disproportionate to the military gains."

Civilian casualties have long been a source of anger for Afghans, worsened last month by U.S. air strikes in western Afghanistan that the Afghan government says killed 140 villagers, including 93 children.

Washington has acknowledged that not all procedures were followed in that bombing. It says it believes 20-35 civilians were among 80-95 people killed, most of them Taliban fighters.

Those air strikes were called in by a unit of U.S. Marine special forces in support of Afghan and U.S. troops who had been ambushed.

U.S. special forces operate across Afghanistan outside of NATO's command structure but report to the same U.S. general that commands NATO troops. The new U.S. and NATO commander, General Stanley McChrystal, is a veteran special forces leader.

"There is an urgent need to review the operations of special forces, including how such operations can be Afghanised," Eide said. He did not elaborate on what he meant by "Afghanised".

"That review should consider all options, and I repeat, all options, and their possible implications. Furthermore we must all make sure that the training of military personnel is such that they are fully aware of Afghan sensitivities."

By Jack Dolan | McClatchy Newspapers

MOSUL, Iraq — The Iraqi Army colonel glowered at his newest captain. Looking small and lost in his oversized new uniform, the captain conceded that he was an untrained civilian who'd been sent to Iraq's most violent city by one of the political parties in Baghdad that's vying for control of the country's security forces.

The Iraqi division that will assume responsibility for security in a swath of Mosul when American combat forces withdraw later this month has been assigned 69 such political appointees recently, said Col. Abdul Aziz Salahuddin.

Then he made a pistol of his fingers and pointed it at his temple. "I'll kill myself if the Iraqi Army is starting down this path," Salahuddin said. "This man has no experience; he's no use."

While political leaders in Baghdad hail the scheduled June 30 withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq's major cities, many Iraqi soldiers in Mosul say they're not ready to defeat the insurgents by themselves.

Some complain that the Army is so politicized that it lacks the leadership necessary to fight a determined insurgency. Others say they don't have the weapons and ammunition they need to defend themselves from al Qaida in Iraq fighters who retreated north to Mosul after a nationwide security crackdown.

Last week, an Iraqi soldier guarding city workers in one of Mosul's most violent neighborhoods showed an American platoon his Kalashnikov rifle. "It doesn't work, and we don't have bullets for it," said 28-year-old Sgt. Salam Omran.

Nevertheless, U.S. forces have begun to withdraw from their combat outposts in Iraq's cities to more secure bases on the outskirts. Camp Marez outside Mosul will be welcome relief. It has soft beds, an air-conditioned gym and a well-stocked dining hall that offers made-to-order fruit smoothies.

For most Iraqis, tormented by the collapse of civil society after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and humiliated by six years of foreign occupation, June 30 will be an even greater reason to celebrate.

"The joy and happiness should spread in Iraqi ceremonies," Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki told hundreds of military and police commanders at a Thursday meeting. "The plan of withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraqi lands is started."

However, the security conference in Baghdad's Green Zone came a day after a car bomb killed 35 people near Nasiriyah, one of the safest cities in the country. Maliki blamed the attack on Sunni insurgents trying to reignite the sectarian bloodshed that engulfed Iraq from late 2005 until the end of 2007.

Maliki warned that violence could increase as American forces withdraw and insurgents test the Iraqi army, but he vowed that the relative stability gained during the last year and a half would hold.

Politicians in Mosul are more skeptical. "The issue depends upon the cooperation of the citizens with the security forces," said Osama al Najaifi, a Sunni parliament member from Mosul. "I cannot say that we are satisfied with their training or arming, but if these gaps can be filled and if the security forces can stay away from politics, I believe they may succeed."

Col. Salahuddin, however, isn't confident about what will happen after June 30. "I will cry; everything we worry about will come true," he said. "The Iraqis can't help the situation. The problems are already starting."

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A WAPO story by Peter Finn that slipped under the radar. The guy with my favorite name for a terrorist (alibi) - the guy whose torture induced warnings reportedly led to support for the Iraq invasion, (with a little help from Colin Powell) - committed suicide - "got suicided" last month in a Libyan jail.

Convenient.

Detainee Who Gave False Iraq Data Dies In Prison in Libya

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A former CIA high-value detainee, who provided bogus information that was cited by the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, has died in a Libyan prison, an apparent suicide, according to a Libyan newspaper.

A researcher for Human Rights Watch, who met Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli late last month, said a contact in Libya had confirmed the death.

Libi was captured fleeing Afghanistan in late 2001, and he vanished into the secret detention system run by the Bush administration. He became the unnamed source, according to Senate investigators, behind Bush administration claims in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had provided training in chemical and biological weapons to al-Qaeda operatives. The claim was most famously delivered by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in his address to the United Nations in February 2003.

Powell later called the speech a "blot" on his record, saying he was not given all available intelligence and analysis within the government. The Defense Intelligence Agency and some analysts at the CIA had questioned the veracity of Libi's testimony, which was obtained after the prisoner was transferred to Egyptian custody for questioning by the CIA, according to Senate investigators.

In their book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Michael Isikoff and David Corn said Libi made up the story about Iraqi training after he was beaten and subjected to a "mock burial" by his Egyptian interrogators, who put him in a cramped box for 17 hours. Libi recanted the story after being returned to CIA custody in 2004.

When President George W. Bush ordered the 2006 transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of high-value detainees previously held in CIA custody, Libi was pointedly missing. Human rights groups had long suspected that Libi was instead transferred to Libya, but the CIA had never confirmed where he was sent.

"I would speculate that he was missing because he was such an embarrassment to the Bush administration," said Tom Malinowski, the head of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch. "He was Exhibit A in the narrative that tortured confessions contributed to the massive intelligence failure that preceded the Iraq war."

The first independent confirmation of Libi's whereabouts came two weeks ago. Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said she and a colleague met him briefly in a courtyard at the Abu Salim prison on April 27. The two were there to examine the treatment of prisoners in Libya, including other detainees once held by the United States.

Libi angrily rejected speaking to the researchers, saying, "Where were you when I was being tortured in American prisons?" according to Morayef, who described the encounter in a phone interview.

A powerful three-part BBC drama, 'Occupation', tracing the lives of three British soldiers in Iraq, was inspired by an ancient Iraqi poem, says the writer Peter Bowker

I would like to boast that, in order to achieve true authenticity in making a drama about the Iraq war, I spent six months embedded with the Scots Guards in Basra, sheltering behind Ross Kemp. But I didn't. I made it up. That's my job. And I find the obsession with a writer's real-life experience of fictional situations to be a bizarre and contradictory one.

I did read a lot of books and blogs and I spoke to half a dozen soldiers – mainly with naïve questions about weaponry. I was relieved when I asked one soldier how you go about clearing a building and he replied, "You know when you play war as a kid? It's like that. You stick your head round a corner and hope it doesn't get shot off. Then you wave your mate on and he does the same for you at the next corner." What that soldier gave me was information but, more importantly, he gave me an insight into the bloody-minded black humour that seems to pervade the forces – a necessary protective shell of piss-taking and sarcasm.

These are characteristics which happily play to my strengths as a writer. For reasons that are complete mystery to me, I specialise in portraying emotionally inarticulate men trapped in profound circumstances that require an emotional response. Men that hope if they make enough jokes that the demand to speak about feelings will go away. "Getting deep", my Dad used to call it, with a tone that implied it was bad for your health (which in Manchester in the 1970s it very probably was).

So I started with three men in a tank, each armed with their own finely-honed techniques of emotional evasion. Playing it by the bat in Mike's case, playing with fire in Danny's case, and hoping for the best in the young Hibbsy's case. And when they step out of the tank, I give them a shared incident to deal with, an incident that comes to define them and to which they respond in three different ways: with love, greed and conscience. And if, at that time, they had read an ancient Iraqi poem, "Gilgamesh", they might have had pause for thought. "Gilgamesh, what you seek you will never find. For when the Gods created Man they let death be his lot, eternal life they withheld. Let your every day be full of joy, love the child that holds your hand, let your wife delight in your embrace, for these alone are the concerns of humanity."
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_{Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.}