Monday, May 26, 2008

As Pakistani people push back Pentagon moves torture general to back bench

Axis of Logic, May25, 2008

By Deirdre Griswold

The Bush administration and the Pentagon are leaning heavily on Pakistan to “pacify” regions along its border with Afghanistan and to allow even more aggressive U.S. military operations there.

It is all done in the name of the fraudulent “war on terror”—a cover story to excuse the imperialist atrocities that are being committed daily against the people of the region in order to extend the geostrategic dominance of U.S. big business over this resource-rich area.

However, the people of Pakistan are resisting being dragged further into the role of U.S. surrogates in Washington’s war to control Afghanistan. As much as the U.S. pushes, they continue to push back.

A recent example of this came when the Pentagon had to quietly withdraw the appointment of Maj. Gen. Jay Hood to be its top military envoy to Pakistan. Hood was previously commander of the notorious U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo. Some 60 Pakistanis have been through that hellhole and returned to tell of the tortures and insults they received there. For Hood to become the Pentagon’s top dog in Pakistan was more than just a symbolic threat. So when word of his pending appointment got out, a firestorm of protest swept Pakistan, causing the Pentagon to switch gears.

Continued . . .

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