digest: THE NYT EXPLAINS: UNPROVOKED U.S. MILITARY ATTACKS ON SOVEREIGN NATIONS NO LONGER CONSTITUTE WAR ACCORDING TO 'EXPANSIVE DEFINITION OF SELF-DEFENSE" ---- WHEN IT'S U.S.-ISRAEL AGAINST "SUSPECTED TERRORISTS". WE SHOULD SUPPORT SUCH NOT-WARS-NOW WITH PAVLOVIAN REACTIONS WHENEVER U.S. SAYS 'AL QAEDA' - 'NATIONAL SECURITY'. AND APPROVE NOT--WAR AGAINST WHATEVER COUNTRIES U.S. DECLARES "UNGOVERNED SPACES". GOOD PATRIOTS WILL 'GET' THE VAST 'LEGAL' DISTINCTION UNDERLYING THESE NO-MORE-WARS BETWEEN CIA OPS, U.S. MILITARY OPS. 'SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDO OPS

[note:Even the army apparently is not quite up to speed on emerging - definitions, announcing U.S. military helicopters carried the now-non-US military special forces "self-defense" attack on Syria]

US special forces launch rare attack inside Syria - U.S. Army
U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression."A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces ... "We are taking matters into our own hands," the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.
The attack came just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he called an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters entering Iraq The U.S. military in Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Sunday's raid
http://beltwayblips.com/story/us_special_forces_launch_rare_attack_insid...

U.S. Officials Confirm Commando Raid on Syria
...The timing was startling, not least because American officials had praised Syria in recent months for its efforts to halt traffic across the border.
But in justifying the attack, American officials said the Bush administration was determined to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense provided a rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries’ consent.... like a similar American commando raid into Pakistan seven weeks ago, the operation on Sunday appeared to reflect an intensifying effort by the White House to find a way during the administration’s waning months to attack militants even beyond the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States is now at war. Administration officials declined to say whether the emerging application of self-defense could lead to strikes against camps inside Iran [interesting example considering this is designed to justify any and all violations of international law defining war] that have been used to train Shiite “Special Groups” that have fought with the American military and Iraqi security forces.

Spokesmen for the Defense Department and C.I.A. declined to comment on the incident. Sunday, an American military official denied American military helicopters played a part in the raid.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has attacked suspected terrorists in the ungoverned spaces [SIC] of countries like Yemen and Somalia. But administration officials said Monday that the strikes in Pakistan and Syria were carried out on the basis of a legal argument that has been refined in recent months to justify [no relevant facts necessary] strikes by troops and by rockets at militants in countries with whom the United States is not at war.

The justification is different from the concept of preemption the administration articulated immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, and which was used as the rationale for the invasion of Iraq. While preemption was used to justify attacks against governments and their armies, the self-defense argument would justify attacks on insurgents operating on foreign soil that threaten American forces or its allies and interests. [translation: invaders, occupiers, pro-U.S. countries, proxies and puppets] and Administration officials pointed Monday to a passage in President Bush’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month as the clearest articulation of this position to date. “As sovereign states, we have an obligation to govern responsibly, and solve problems before they spill across borders...We have an obligation to prevent our territory from being used as a sanctuary for terrorism and proliferation and human trafficking and organized crime.”

In seeking to carry out cross-border missions inside Pakistan and now in Syria, the United States government is expected to make the case that these operations will help protect the lives of American troops. It is not clear how far-reaching the White House might be in seeking to apply the rationale, but several senior American officials expressed hope that it would be embraced by the next president as well. [still no comment from Obama]

The American military has on occasion mounted attacks on Syrian soil [notice attacks are described as 'on Syrian soil' to avoid hint of U.S. war on the sovereign nation Syria] support its military operations in Iraq, but they mostly have been cross-border missile strikes and there was a rare case of ground forces briefly crossing the frontier in hot pursuit of insurgents.

In London on Monday, Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, accused the United States of “terrorist aggression” in the raid, in which Syria said eight civilians were killed. A senior American official all the people killed in the assault were militants, and that women and children living with the militants had been left unharmed [except 4 dead children and ?]

In seeking support in international law for its actions, the Bush administration is joining a list of [other pro-u.s. state terrorist] nations that have cited Article 51 of the United Nations charter, which enshrines the right of individual or collective self-defense to all member states. Over the years, a growing body of legal argument has made the case that this right of self-defense allows a nation to take military action on the territory of another sovereign nation that is unable or unwilling to take measures on its own to halt the threat. This argument was emphasized when the Israeli military mounted a hostage-rescue mission at Entebbe airport in Uganda, and similar arguments have been made to defend actions by the Colombian military against FARC guerrillas seeking haven in neighboring Venezuela, and Turkish troops pursuing Kurdish militants in their sanctuaries in northern Iraq. Israel also made this argument when its warplanes last September attacked what Israel said was a nuclear reactor in Syria that was nearing operational capability. ....

[since they've stayed silent on U.S. war move, are we supposed to believe both candidates knew nothing of the attack plan?!]
Policy of isolating Syria stays: US official
22 October, 2008, at 11:06 PM Doha Time
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=2...
CAIRO: The US will not review its policy of isolating Syria because Damascus has not moved far enough to allay US fears over its role in the Middle East, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch said in an interview yesterday. Syria’s move to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon is “a start” but is not enough to convince Washington to change its policy, Welch told the pan-Arab London-based Asharq Al Awsat newspaper.
In mid-October Syria initiated diplomatic ties with Lebanon for the first time since independence 60 years ago.
Following the 2005 car-bomb assassination of Lebanon’s former premier Rafik al-Hariri, Damascus was forced under US-led international pressure to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending nearly three decades of control of Lebanon. “The US has diplomatic ties with Syria but unfortunately these channels have become very tight recently. Our concern regarding the Syrian attitude is increasing,” Welch said.
Welch told Asharq Al Awsat that Washington is expecting progress on another four issues that are of great concern.
The first is giving shelter to militant Palestinian factions in Damascus.
Second is Syria’s strategic relations with Iran “which have a negative influence on the Middle east”, Welch said.
Third is meddling in Lebanese internal affairs and fourth is the infiltration of militants to Iraq through Syrian borders.
Welch also pointed out that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met her counterpart Walid Muallem on the fringes of the September UN meeting in New York to give him a “face to face message” about the US concerns.
Concerning the possibility of the US sponsoring the Turkish-mediated indirect Syrian-Israeli peace talks, Welch said the US would not have any preconditions to doing this other than that Syria demonstrates it is serious about achieving peace. “If the Syrian government is serious it has all means to show this in a direct way to the US and not through the media,” Welch told Asharq Al Awsat. The indirect talks started in Turkey in May. The fourth and last round was held in July. A fifth round was postponed as a result of the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. - DPA

["AWKWARD" PROXY PUPPETS FOR U.S. STATE TERRORIST WARS]
Syria and Iran Condemn U.S. in Blast on Iraq Border
...The United States confirmed that a Special Operations mission took place in the area on Sunday, but a senior military official gave no more details for now.
The United States is trying to negotiate a strategic agreement with Iraq that would allow American troops to remain in the country and carry out military operations. The pact faces strenuous opposition from neighboring countries, especially Syria and Iran, because of concerns that the United States might use Iraqi territory to carry out attacks on them.

The Iraqi government found itself in an awkward position, at once needing to remain on friendly terms with Syria — which is a neighbor and now home to more than a million Iraqi refugees — but also wanting to bolster the United States, which has said that the border area is used by people believed to be fomenting antigovernment unrest in Iraq. In a statement, Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government’s spokesman, tried to give something to each country. In support of the United States’ position he said, “This area was a staging ground for activities by terrorist organizations hostile to Iraq.” In the most recent action, militants killed 13 Interior Ministry employees in a border village, he said, adding, “At the time, Iraq requested that the Syrian authorities hand over the personnel from this group which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist activities.”

At the same time, Mr. Dabbagh emphasized that Iraq wanted good relations with Syria. But he said that “the presence in Syria of groups that are hostile to Iraq and who contribute to terrorist activity against Iraqis hinders the progress of our relationship.” ..... the police in Anbar Province in Iraq said an explosion on the border of Iraq and Syria had killed nine construction workers and wounded 19 others. ... Also late Sunday, an Iraqi lawmaker announced that the country’s oil and gas draft law had been sent to Parliament. It had been stalled in Iraq’s cabinet since February 2007 because of disputes over control of Iraq’s oil fields, and it has gone through several revisions....Also Sunday, the chief of the Wasit provincial council announced that he had refused to sign a memorandum of understanding with United States forces that was intended to formalize Wasit’s transfer to the control of Iraq’s own security forces. Wasit, a province that borders Iran, was due this week to become the 13th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over to full Iraqi control. The council chief, Muhammad Hassan Jasem, said he had rejected the memorandum because its first article gave the United States permission to continue military operations in Wasit....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/world/middleeast/28syria.html?8au&emc=...

[CRITICAL ANGLES OMITTED BY U.S. MEDIA]

US forces kill eight in helicopter raid on Syria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/27/syria-helicopter-attack
American helicopters flying from Iraq landed inside Syria yesterday and dropped special forces who killed eight people, the Damascus government said last night, as Washington admitted it had targeted "foreign fighters. In Washington an unnamed military official told the Associated Press the raid had targeted elements of a "foreign fighter logistics network"...

The incident threatened to unleash a new wave of anti-American feeling in Syria and across the Middle East at a time when President Bashar al-Assad, already being courted by Europe, is looking forward to improved relations with Washington after the November 4 presidential election. News of the attack led bulletins across the Arab world last night - suggesting it will have wide resonance....

Late last year the then US commander, General David Petraeus, praised Syria's cooperation in reducing violence in Iraq. But Syria has since refused to restart intelligence sharing with the US until Washington recognises its assistance by returning an ambassador to Damascus.

The attack comes as Syria takes another step in from the cold today when its foreign minister, Walid al-Mualim, visits London to hear praise for its newly conciliatory policies in Lebanon - and to be urged to distance itself from Iran. In recent months Syria has established diplomatic relations with Lebanon and held several rounds of indirect talks with Israel, with Turkey acting as broker. In July, President Assad was invited to an EU summit in Paris.

Bigger role for US CIA drones in Pakistan
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24559930-2703,00.html
28 Oct 2008 Twenty people were killed last night in a missile strike by CIA Predator drone aircraft inside Pakistan amid reports that Washington is intensifying its aerial bombardment of the country after being forced to back away from plans to send in ground forces. The attack - the 18th in the past few weeks - targeted what was described as a "militant compound" close to Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan tribal agency... The latest strike and others carried out by the CIA were described last night by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as "disastrous".

[Afghan resistance welcome-warning for U.S./Obama "foreign fighter logistics network" 'surge']
Bomber in Police Uniform Kills 2 US soldiers in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/world/asia/28afghan.html
28 Oct 2008 A suicide attacker in a police uniform blew himself up inside a police station in the northern province of Baghlan on Monday, killing two American soldiers and wounding another, Afghan officials said. An 8-year-old boy was also killed in the blast, and five Afghan policemen were wounded.

Gunfire brings down US helicopter in Afghanistan
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD942VDK00
27 Oct 2008 'Insurgents' exchanged fire with U.S. troops aboard a Black Hawk helicopter in central Afghanistan on Monday before the aircraft was hit and forced to land. Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S. military spokesman, said there were no U.S. casualties as a result of the crash in a province neighboring Kabul.

Financial Times Endorses Barack Obama

U.S. SAYS OPEC NOT PLAYING FAIR: ADVANTAGE OVER RIVALS /ENEMIES ESPECIALLY RUSSIA, ARAB STATES, IRAN & VENEZUELA
OPEC's Woes
Trying to jack up oil prices is unacceptable.... The decline is proving devastating to oil producers that until recently were swimming in petrodollars. Iran, which has aggressively used oil revenue to pay for expensive social programs, wants prices above $90. Venezuela, which is also using the money to finance allied governments in neighboring countries, is said to be desperate for prices to go back above $100.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/opinion/27mon3.html?th&emc=th

[TOUCHING CONCERN...].
Editorial
As China Goes, So Goes ...
As the world tips into recession, China’s economic decisions could affect how other countries fare in the downturn. Over the last 30 years, China has hitched its economy to the industrial world, exporting cheap goods to the United States and other developed nations, building up an enormous trade surplus that will hit about $400 billion this year. As those industrial economies sputter, China is now in a position to pick up some of the slack: selling more of its own goods at home and buying more from the rest of the world. To get China’s consumers to spend, the government will need to spend more at home... trying to capture a bigger share of shrinking markets in the United States, Europe and Japan — just as they tip into recession — won’t provide China much of an economic lift. What it will do is contribute to the slowdown in the rest of the world by hogging demand. China would get much more bang for the buck if it focused on stimulating its own domestic markets for goods and services....
Given the desperate mess Washington has made of its own financial system, few countries are eager to take American advice these days. After years of Congressional China-bashing, Beijing may be especially resistant.
A boost to consumer spending would undoubtedly help China weather the economic storm. But by raising Chinese imports and reducing its dependence on exports, it would also help the rest of the world....

The Washington Post reports the current crisis has severely undermined Washington's credibility as a proponent of global capitalism:
from The End Of American Capitalism?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR200810...
....In much of the developing world, financial systems still remain far more governed by the state, despite pressure from the United States for those countries to shift power to the private sector and create freer financial markets. They may stay that way for some time. China had been resisting calls from Washington and Wall Street to introduce a broad range of exotic investments, including many of the once-red-hot derivatives now being blamed for magnifying the crisis in the West. In recent weeks, Beijing has made that position more clear, saying it would not permit an expansion of complex financial instruments."If you look around the world, China is doing pretty good right now, and the U.S. isn't," said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

LIBERAL CAPITALISM'S DEADLY DECEPTION: IMPERIALISM IS NOT THE OPERATING SYSTEM OF 'GLOBALIZED' POLITICAL-ECONOMIC CAPITALISM, JUST DISPOSABLE BAD POLICIES & BUDGET LINE ITEMS LIKE MILITARY COSTS, FAT THAT CAN BE CUT TO 'BAILOUT' AND RESTORE CAPITALISM
Putting the Pentagon on the Auction Block
Tom Engelhardt & Nick Turse
Wars, bases, and money. The three are inextricably tied together. In the 1980s, for example, American support for jihadis like Osama bin Laden waging war on (Soviet) infidels who invaded and constructed bases in Afghanistan, a Muslim land, led to rage by many of the same jihadis at the bases (U.S.) infidels built in the Muslim holy land of Saudi Arabia in the 1990s. That, in turn, led to jihadis like bin Laden decl aring war on those infidels, which, after September 11, 2001, led the Bush administration to launch, and then prosecute, a Global War on Terror, often from newly built bases in Muslim lands. Over the last seven years, the results of that war have been particularly disastrous for Iraqis and Afghans. Sizable numbers of Americans, however, are now beginning to suffer as well. After all, their hard-earned taxpayer dollars have been poured into wars without end, leaving the country deeply in debt and in a state of economic turmoil...
When Americans want to get serious about a long-term bailout strategy that brings genuine financial and national security, they'll look to real cost-cutting options like stopping America's string of costly wars and getting rid of the Pentagon's vast network of overseas bases. Until then, they are simply helping Ronald Reagan's freedom fighter, Osama bin Laden, be a better Reagan than Reagan ever was. http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48286