Áhugavert af Guerilla News Network

Afghanistan: 'One Huge US Jail'

Outside Kabul, Afghanistan is bleaker, its provinces more inaccessible and lawless, than it was under the Taliban. If anyone leaves town, they do so in convoys. Afghanistan is a place where it is easy for people to disappear and perilous for anyone to investigate their fate. Even a seasoned aid agency such as Médécins Sans Frontières was forced to quit after five staff members were murdered last June. Only the 17,000-strong US forces, with their all-terrain Humvees and Apache attack helicopters, have the run of the land, and they have used the haze of fear and uncertainty that has engulfed the country to advance a draconian phase in the war against terror. Afghanistan has become the new Guantánamo Bay.

Senate Nod to Arctic Oil Drilling Stiffens Opposition

The United States uses about 20.8 million barrels of oil a day. If the refuge were opened to drilling, its oil would take about a decade to come online, Senate Democrats said, adding that conservation efforts and tighter fuel standards could make a greater impact much sooner.

‘’Drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won’t make a dent in gas prices at the pump or break our dependence on Middle East oil,’’ said Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has estimated that Americans’ energy demand could increase by about 30 percent over the next 20 years. Democrats said that if Americans somehow managed to hold their oil consumption at today’s levels, the refuge might hold a total of six months’ worth of the fuel.