tagged w/ Richard Holbrooke
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Richard Holbrooke's career in foreign service spanned fifty years. The accompanying slide show attempts to do some justice to the impact of his negotiations in the world on behalf of the United States.
His last words were: 'You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan'.Richard Holbrooke's career in foreign service spanned fifty years. The... more
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Richard Holbrooke, a brilliant and feisty U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, died Monday, the State Department said. He was 69.Richard Holbrooke, a brilliant and feisty U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon... more
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Richard Holbrooke, 69, died this evening as a result of cardiac complications despite a twenty-hour emergency surgery on Friday to repair a torn aorta. He underwent a second surgery on Sunday.
He has been often referred to as the 'Bulldozer' for his indefatigable and no-nonsense approach to conflict resolution. His major accomplishment was as chief architect of the Dayton Accords, the November 1995 agreement that brought peace to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ambassador Holbrooke's current assignment was the very difficult Afpak, i.e. Afghanistan/Pakistan war and resolution, a task that he tackled relentlessly. His death will most certainly leave a gaping hole in the diplomatic channel to one of the most volatile areas of the world. Holbrooke had served the United States in one way or another for the last fifty years.
This evening, as his death makes headlines, I heard Andrea Mitchell talk about Richard Holbrooke in a very candid manner; she admitted having been a friend, as well as a journalist reporting on his movements. She called him energetic, purposeful and the owner of a very large ego. She also said he could be downright exasperating. If I were to read between the lines, I guess she was saying if he were negotiating with you, you'd most likely surrender.Richard Holbrooke, 69, died this evening as a result of cardiac complications despite... more
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Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Rep. for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died, a senior administration official confirms.
Holbrooke dies days after heart surgery
From Jill Dougherty and Elise Labott, CNN
December 13, 2010 7:47 p.m. EST
U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke is "a towering figure in American foreign policy," President Barack Obama says.
Washington (CNN) -- U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke has died, a senior administration official told CNN Monday evening.
Holbrooke had undergone surgery in the past three days to repair a tear in his aorta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday.
"He had a very serious medical emergency on Friday," Clinton said at a news conference in Quebec, Canada, with foreign ministers from Canada and Mexico. "He has received excellent care including many hours of surgery in the last three days. He is stable but still in very critical condition."
Earlier, a State Department official said Holbrooke was "absolutely fighting in an unbelievable way." Holbrooke remains unconscious after an additional procedure to aid circulation following the initial surgery on his aorta, the main artery of the body, the State Department said.
At a holiday reception for U.S. diplomats later Monday, President Barack Obama praised Holbrooke as "simply one of the giants of American foreign policy" who has served the nation "with distinction for nearly 50 years," including his work in negotiating the 1995 Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war in the former Yugoslavia.
"As anyone who has ever worked with him knows -- or had the clear disadvantage of negotiating across the table from him -- Richard is relentless," Obama said. "He never stops. He never quits. Because he's always believed that if we stay focused, if we act on our mutual interests, that progress is possible. Wars can end. Peace can be forged."
Holbrooke in critical condition
The president said he and his family were praying for Holbrooke's recovery, "and I know that everyone here joins me when I say that America is more secure -- and the world is a safer place -- because of" his work.
"And he is a tough son of a gun, so we are confident that, as hard as this is, that he is going to be putting up a tremendous fight," Obama said.
Holbrooke, the special U.S. representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, is getting "fantastic care" at George Washington University Hospital, the State Department official said.
It is the same hospital where Ronald Reagan was taken after being shot in 1981. Holbrooke was taken there Friday after feeling ill at the State Department.
Clinton expressed appreciation for what she called an outpouring of concern and support from "presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers" who have called the State Department since news of Holbrooke's illness broke.
His surgeon continues to meet with the family to gives frequent updates, and Holbrooke "is receiving great support from a broad and growing community of family and friends," the State Department official said.
"It's remarkable how many messages of support (his wife, Kati Marton) and the family keep receiving from all corners: foreign ministers and ambassadors from around the world, President (Bill) Clinton, senators and congressmen, colleagues from this Af/Pak job, from Vietnam, from the Balkans, from the U.N., from the private sector," the official said.
Clinton and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen have visited the hospital numerous times, according to the State Department source, who said: "They've each come three times, informally chatting with family members, friends and staffers, and really helping to buoy the assembled."
The State Department also said Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called Holbrooke's wife Sunday morning.
Zardari told CNN's Reza Sayah that Holbrooke is a "fighter." He said he told Holbrooke's wife to be "brave."
"I'm sure he will fight for his life, and he will come out of it," Zardari said.
Asked to reflect on Holbrooke's impact on the Pakistani region, Zardari called him an "extremely hard-working man" who can "get things done which would otherwise take weeks to get through."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/13/holbrooke.illness/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Rep. for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died, a senior... more
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CNN...
Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Rep. for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died, a senior administration official confirms.
ABC News...
Richard Holbrooke Has Died
December 13, 2010 7:29 PM
ABC News has learned that Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died.
On Friday, Holbrooke was rushed to the hospital with a torn aorta. He went through more than 20 hours of surgery. Earlier this evening, speaking at the US State Department, President Obama sang Holbrooke's praises and called him "a tough son of a gun."
Holbrooke, 69, was a former ambassador to the United Nations and served as chief negotiator at the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia.CNN...
Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Rep. for Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died,... more
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US forces have detained a senior police officer in Afghanistan for alleged corruption and links to insurgents. A statement by the US military said Atahullah Wahaab, deputy police chief in Kapisa province, facilitated the storage, distribution and installation of improvised explosive devices on roads in his region.US forces have detained a senior police officer in Afghanistan for alleged corruption... more
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Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where US and British soldiers are have just launched one of the biggest operations of the year. However, most of the area's population, estimated at up to 100,000, remain.Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where... more
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Pakistanis are united in anger after a US court convicted Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a US-educated neuroscientist previously accused of al-Qaida links, on charges of assault and attempted murder.Pakistanis are united in anger after a US court convicted Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a... more
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Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told an American envoy last week the U.S. regional campaign against militancy and the violence it has provoked have almost crippled Pakistan’s economy.Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told an American envoy last week the U.S.... more
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Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army on who makes war in America.Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful... more
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The world's "great powers" orchestrated the Bosnian war for their own geopolitical ends, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, awaiting trial for war crimes, told AFP on Wednesday.
"The world can see from what was done in Bosnia the pattern of how some countries used and abused a small nation for their own ends, such as to enforce their own military alliances and to achieve imperial goals," said Karadzic in a written reply to questions submitted to him in detention in The Hague.
"The breakup of Yugoslavia and the war in Bosnia was envisaged by the great powers well before I came into political life," he added.
"They then set those events in motion through the use of their intelligence services and military."
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Karadzic said he hoped his trial, which a judge has said should start in September, would expose the "truth" of what happened in Bosnia at the time of the breakup of Yugoslavia.
His innocence would be proven if prosecution witnesses told the truth, he added.
"The world deserves to know the truth and what was done by the international community on its behalf," he said.
Karadzic did not name the countries he claimed were behind the Bosnia war. But he has applied through the tribunal for documents from several nations including France, Germany and the United States, which he says would help prove his innocence.
"I express my sympathy to the victims of the war in Bosnia -- Serbs, Croats and Muslims -- for their suffering," he wrote to AFP. "I hope that my trial will show who is truly responsible for that.
"Some of those people will find out that those responsible were that part of their own leadership who rejected all of the opportunities that existed to avoid the war, and some of their foreign friends who used them for their own purposes."
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In his answers, he repeated his claim that he had made an agreement in July 1995 with US diplomat Richard Holbrooke that granted him indemnity from prosecution in exchange for his withdrawal from public life.
"I am terribly disappointed that the tribunal has refused to even hold a hearing so that I may prove the existence of that agreement and its binding effect on the tribunal."
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"The truth is out there," he said.The world's "great powers" orchestrated the Bosnian war for their own... more
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The United States warned its allies Sunday that fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan could prove tougher than in Iraq and appealed, along with Britain, for more troops and equipment.
US ambassador Richard Holbrooke insisted that a new approach was required to turn the strife-torn country around, involving all of Afghanistan's neighbours and in particular Pakistan.
"It is like no other problem we have confronted, and in my view it's going to be much tougher than Iraq," he said at an international security conference in Germany. "It is going to be a long, difficult struggle."The United States warned its allies Sunday that fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan... more
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When U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, then-President Bush said the goal in Afghanistan was "to build a flourishing democracy as an alternative to a hateful ideology."
Seven years, billions of dollars and hundreds of U.S. casualties later, the goals are more pragmatic and modest.
The Obama administration's new special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, offered an understatement at the ceremony naming him to the post, telling the audience, "Nobody can say the war in Afghanistan has gone well."
Violence in Afghanistan is up. The Taliban continues to make a comeback and President Hamid Karzai is struggling to control the country, which with a rampant drug trade, threatens to turn into a narco-state.
President Obama has called Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan the "central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism."When U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, then-President Bush... more
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"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell
SUCH AS...
If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged." - Noam Chomsky
OR...
"It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people" - Gore Vidal
For the first time in 14 years, weapons manufacturers are donating more to Democrats than to Republicans. The Dems have received 52 percent of the defense industry's political donations in this election cycle--up from a low of 32 per cent in 1996. That money is about shaping foreign policy, and so far, it appears to be well spent. Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill * PLAYERS NOT CHEER LEADERS
Everything in war is barbaric... But the worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being. - Ellen Key
Let alone the fact that most of the voting will be done on Diebold & friends machines, exposing American democracy as the sinister & cynical farce it has become under the proto-fascism Bush/Cheney junta.
LYNCHING BY LAPTOP 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCR6IdTQTeE
ELECTION INTEGRITY ?
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/election-integrity
80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
When will the American people actually vote to give to the world more than bombs and missiles, sweatshops, dubious science, frankenfood, poverty and misery?; - Cynthia McKinney
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
GOING UP !
Top 1% share of total income
Income gap between rich and poor
Foreign debt as a percent of GDP
Age at which one can receive Social Security
Hunger
Consumer credit debt
Housing foreclosures
Severe poverty rate
GOING DOWN !
Real income
Real manufacturing wages
Percent of single women and mothers in the workforce
The bottom 40%'s share of national wealth
Older families with pensions.
Workers covered by defined benefit pensions.
The savings rate
US manufacturing jobs
ALL THE WHILE...
Protest restricted/ignored
Dissenter labeled terrorist/traitor
False-flags
Elections suspect
Leaders benefit from wars/disasters
Use of propaganda/lies & partisan mass-media
Claims that War is needed for everchanging false reasons
Secret/extrajudicial/torture camps
Curtailed/suspended civil rights/liberties
Wiretap/intercept/surveillance net
Stealthily expands int'nl influence/power
Judiciary/Opposition ineffective/ignored
Legislation to defy Constitution
Education or catastrophe said H.G. Wells. Mindfuck Inc. has created a nation of over 50% of functional analphabetes where lies and credulity marries to generate opinion.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson
Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/90161/
Millions of Americans are embarrassingly ill-informed and they do not care that they are.
Ignorance is the downfall of all cultures and we are about to hit bottom.
" We need to lay siege to empire with everything we've got. You know? Deprive it of oxygen, shame it, mock it, tell our own stories. This corporatist revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they're selling ... their ideas, their wars, their notion of inevitability." - Arundhati Roy
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do... more
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