When international law designed to stop war crimes is used by war criminals

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post

A historic ruling handed down by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal found former-US President George W. Bush and his associates guilty of war crimes including torture. Using standards provided by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and based on the precedent set by the Nuremberg trials, the tribunal succeeded in observing existing international standards in reaching its verdict before forwarding the results to the ICC and the United Nations...

A Silicon Valley tech executive is scheduled to appear in court on charges he put fake bar codes on Lego sets to buy the toys at steeply discounted prices.

Santa Clara County prosecutors Monday charged Thomas Langenbach of San Carlos with four counts of burglary in connection with the alleged thefts at multiple Target stores. He is set to be arraigned on Tuesday.

It is Israel that murders Palestinians with religiously/racially-inspired fury, and whose citizens cheer as white phosphorous is dropped on civilian areas. It is Israel that shoots young Palestinian boys in Gaza who are merely trying to collect pieces of busted up concrete (the remains of some school, church, mosque or hospital deliberately destroyed by an Israeli missile) in the interest of gathering material so that some kind of rebuilding can take place. It is Israel that maintains a blockade of Gaza so that food, medicine and other necessary materials cannot enter.

Capitulation, or the Apex of manipulation? NetDania’s 1 hour silver chart indicates 105,231 silver contracts were dumped on the market this morning between 9am and 10am EST, as silver was smashed a dollar from $28 to $27.

To put this number in perspective, 105,231 contracts is north of 500,000,000 ounces of silver, nearly 2/3rds of entire world annual silver production trading in a single hour!

This is either capitulation/panic selling in the face of the EUR/USD gapping down on Euro contagion fears, or more likely, the most blatant manipulative raid to date…even more than the infamous February 29th Leap Day Massacre!

The Russian military have successfully launched a top secret advanced intercontinental ballistic missile. It is designed to counter the American antimissile shield currently being deployed in several regions.

The new weapon is an advanced version of the Topol-M and Yars missiles, already deployed by the Russian Strategic Missile Forces. The experiment was boosted off from the Plesetsk launch site in north-western Russia’s Arkhangelsk region on Wednesday. It delivered its test block to the Kura target range in Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East.

A military strike against Iranian facilities is not out of the question, even though Tehran has reached agreement on a probe with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, says Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The official was referring to a deal announced on Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Barak called it an Iranian ploy to fend off international pressure.

The minister told Army Radio that "a nuclear Iran is intolerable and no options should be taken off the table," referring to the use of force.

He said the only way Israel could see Iran develop its civilian nuclear industry is if it shuts down all of its uranium enrichment sites and uses imported fuel.

The NATO summit held in Chicago, Illinois has been hailed as a success by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and President Barack Obama. But has America’s police state erased its 1968 “police riot” or did administration media shills merely apply white out?

The lack of incidence was a testament to, among many things, the continued abdication by the American left of their traditional anti-war stance, having since 2008, been demonstrably inoculated by the Obama presidency. Those who did make it to the protest, an estimated 3,000 souls marching last Friday, were reported to berepresenting over 100 groups of international origin or part of the Occupy movement at large.

The relative peace enjoyed by the City of Chicago during the protests was also likely due to the last minute decision to move the G8 conference to Camp David. Had the G8 simultaneously occupied Chicago beside its military arm – NATO – the affair may have been more, well – lively.

Seminal book on the NWO plan to destroy our planet. None Dare Call It Conspiracy.......

The story you are about to read is true. The names have not been changed to protect the guilty!

When you look at the crime of Fukushima, a crime that will destroy life on earth as we now know it, it becomes clear that when you examine means (HAARP technology, Stuxnet being present on Japanese servers October 2010), motive (world growing ever more antagonistic against Israel, falling Israeli population demographics, Japanese warming relations with Iran, sharing nuke technology with Iran, refusing to go along with NWO, continued competitive advantages over corporations like GM), opportunity (Israeli company running security at Fukushima) and intent (Israel repeated threats of a "Sampson Option", it becomes obvious that Israel is suspect number one in any investigation as to the deliberate origins of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear nightmare now threatening the planet.

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

In the wake of the anti-NATO protests surrounding the Chicago NATO summit on Saturday and Sunday, it has now emerged that there were several troubling incidents of vicious police actions targeting journalists.

Unfortunately, police brutality in the United States has become so commonplace that it is almost to be expected, and when officers stand up to this savagery they are targeted and can even face being fired.

There were numerous incidents reported after the chaos had died down, including some journalists who were arrested and injured by police simply for doing their job and covering the protest.

Photographers found themselves targeted even more frequently than other journalists, likely because they were there recording the hard, indisputable evidence of this brutality...

Edith Cavell was a British nurse in World War I who wrote in the April 15th issue of the Nursing Mirror of her plan to bring the Great War to a speedy conclusion.

During World War I, the citizens on the home front were extolled to donate to help the widows and orphans of war weary Belgium. The British loaded food and other supplies onto railroad cars in Belgium and sent them across no man’s land into German occupied territory to feed the soldiers who were killing British husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. Britain lost 750,000 during the war. Several times that many died after the war from wounds they received during the conflict. All of them were killed by enemy soldiers who had been fed by the Allied leaders and their favorite charity, Belgian War Relief.

The head of British Intelligence for North America was Sir William Wiseman, a partner in the Rothschild associated Kuhn Loeb Investment bank. He ordered the execution of Edith Cavell.

Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post

During a military parade rehearsal this week, more than 90 people were killed after a bomber wearing an army uniform self-exploded amidst a group of soldiers at al-Sabin Square. The terrorist group al-Qaeda claimed the bombing, saying that one of their members carried out the attack.

Along with the estimated 90 killed, defense ministry officials said 222 people were injured in the attack. The al-Qaeda plant was present moments before Defense Minister Nasser Ahmed and the army’s chief-of-staff were scheduled to greet the troops. The majority of the dead were stationed from the Central Security Organization.

Yemen has been the stage for al-Qaeda’s attacks against the president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who recently took office. Hadi has declared war against al-Qaeda, saying it is a “religious duty’ of the state to do so.

Pakistani Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the US authorities in tracing slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, on Wednesday, has been sentenced to 33 years in prison.

He has also been reportedly fined $3500.

As per report, Dr Afridi was charged with treason for running CIA-sponsored fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad, to gather information about al Qaeda founder under the British-era tribal laws.

His programme was aimed at obtaining DNA samples from any of bin Laden's family members residing in the compound.

Facebook Inc and banks including Morgan Stanley were sued by the social networking leader's shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid Facebook's weakened growth forecasts ahead of its $16 billion initial public offering.

The defendants, who also include Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, were accused of concealing from investors during the IPO marketing process "a severe and pronounced reduction" in revenue growth forecasts, resulting from increased use of its app or website through mobile devices. Facebook went public last week.

Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post

Do you eat real, organic food? If you do, you must be a jerk, according to a new ridiculous 'scientific' study that most likely has financial ties to factory farm corporations and junkfood makers across the planet.

Instead of discussing the wide variety of health benefits of eating real food — the kind made without harmful pesticides that actually make you stupid, the researchers use participants to show how ‘eating organic can make you a jerk’.

Now spanning the mainstream media headlines, the ‘scientists’ use the fact that those who eat organic are ‘stingier with their volunteering’ time as one of the reasons as to why it could ‘make you a jerk’. ...

Electricity bills could rise by up to £200 a year for each home under plans to guarantee high prices for firms building nuclear power stations and wind farms.

Details emerged yesterday as the Government unveiled a revolution in the way the nation produces its electricity.

Consumers will have to pay more to ensure companies make a profit on their multi-billion-pound investment.

Even The Onion couldn’t make this s*** up.

In a NYT piece, traders at JPMorgan stated ‘after contracting Lyme disease in 2010, she (CIO Head Ina Drew) was frequently out of the office for a critical period, when her unit was making riskier bets, and her absences allowed long-simmering internal divisions and clashing egos to come to the fore‘.

So let’s get this straight. The New York Times would like its readers to believe that JP Morgan only lost $2 $3 $5 $7 $31.5 billion in tail risk derivative hedges in early 2012 because CIO head Ina Drew was out of the office in 2010 with Lyme disease!?! Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with the financial weapon of mass destruction itself, the unregulated credit default swap?

We have now seen it all.

On the first day of Egypt’s first post-Hosni Mubarak presidential election, violations of electoral laws and fair practices are occurring sporadically across the country. Some campaigns are violating the legally mandated period of campaigning silence, but thus far, no evidence of vote rigging and vote buying has been documented.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand says it will withdraw its small contingent of troops from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned.

Prime Minister John Key told reporters Tuesday that the 145 New Zealand troops stationed in Bamiyan province will come home in late 2013 rather than 2014.

Obama has always had a problem with rural white Democrats, one that Hillary Clinton exposed in 2008.

But it has only gotten worse.

Last night, Obama lost a 67 out of 120 counties in Kentucky last night to "Uncommitted." Ultimately, "uncommitted" took 42 percent of the vote.

Let's put that in perspective.

Keelan Balderson, Contributor
Activist Post

The message from the Anglo-American-Israeli pact has never been more clear, as today Iranian officials have been forced to meet with world powers in Baghdad, Iraq; the city devastated by the US led occupation, which was sold to the public on the back of lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite there being no evidence that Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons, nor that they are anywhere near capable of doing so, the symbolic location of the talks should remind the world that when there is an agenda, facts can be massaged in to place to support it.

I first came to national attention back in 2008 and 2009 when the housing and credit markets imploded.

Three years later I am now catching heat from many who assume that my predictions actually fell short. They argue that I was able to anticipate the crash but that I severely underestimated the resiliency of the American economy.

When the government’s delaying tactic, which involves continuous borrowing and money printing is no longer tenable, the dollar could collapse, interest rates and consumer prices could soar and the U.S. economy could implode. That’s the real crash that I was warning about, and the one we all need to be worried about now.

At least this closer-than-expected call was to a living, breathing person.

Hours after President Barack Obama lost 40 percent of the vote in Kentucky to "Uncommitted," Democratic challenger and human being John Wolfe gave him another contest in Arkansas, in what has become a recurring theme the past two weeks in Appalachia.

The Associated Press called Arkansas for Obama around 11:20 p.m. ET on Tuesday, nearly three hours after the polls closed there.

What is the longest-running socialist experiment? What has its success been?
If someone asked you to defend the idea that socialism has failed, what would you offer as your example?

Where did modern socialism begin?

In America.

That's right: in the land of the free and the home of the braves. On Indian reservations.

They were invented to control adult warriors. They had as a goal to keep the native population in poverty and impotent.

Did the system work? You bet it did.

Has the experiment been a failure? On the contrary, it has been a success.

In 1972 a wonderful little book was published. It arrived with little fanfare yet somehow it has managed to survive for 25 years. Most people have never read it. These are the same people who today are asking questions about what went wrong with America. These are the same people who today find that their plans for the future, no matter how hard they have worked to make those plans a reality, have vanished into thin air. These are the same people who are working 3 jobs to keep what one job secured for them 20 years ago.......These people are you and I, the working middle class, the "We the People."

The book is titled None Dare Call It Conspiracy, and was authored by Gary Allen with Larry Abraham. It was considered very controversial 23 years ago. In retrospect it appears to have been a blueprint for the future of America. That America is perhaps where we are all living today.

Webster Tarpley on Alex Jones Show Sunday May 20, 2012
Bilderberg Meeting in Virginia to Reveal Whether Financier Elite Backs Obama or Romney; Romney-Netanyahu Axis Gives GOP Upper Hand to Carry out Sinister "White Horse Prophecy"; Support Alexis Tsipras and Syriza Bloc in Greek Elections

Corporations interfere with the democratic process and have subverted and perverted the constitution of the United States for America. Any elected official who accepts money from a corporation, to do the bidding of the corporation, against the will of the majority of citizens is guilty of treason against the United States for America and it's citizens.

RON PAUL'S THE REAL DEAL — JON STEWART

Another term for preventive war is aggressive war – starting wars because someday somebody might do something to us. That is not part of the American tradition.

Ron Paul's Electability

Ron Paul - Suddenly Seems Electable - Family Friendly Version

Mitt Romney was not a capitalist during his reign at Bain. He was a predatory corporate raider. His firm didn't seek to create value. Instead, like a scavenger, Romney looked for businesses he could pick apart. Indeed, he represented the worst possible kind of predator, operating within the law but well outside the bounds of what most real capitalists consider ethical.

Dozens of the church's largest archdioceses, universities and other affiliated groups sued the Obama administration around the country this week, in one of the largest religious lawsuits in US history.

They argue that the US government is violating the religious freedom of bosses whose faith forbids them from using or approving of birth control.

Firms who do not comply with the law face large fines.

On Saturday I promised an update into the complex world of Louisiana intra-party politics. You will remember that the national press proclaimed an upset win by Ron Paul in the first round of caucuses. But the GOP has worked to take that away.

Here is how events are unfolding.

Andrew Puhanic, Contributor
Activist Post

With the 2012 Bilderberg Group meeting fast approaching, the globalist-backed corporate media continues to ignore reporting on the leading events of the next Bilderberg Group meeting.

The corporate whore mainstream media (yes that’s exactly who they are and I don’t apologise for using such harsh language) has purposefully not made any mention of the upcoming Bilderberg Group meeting and has in fact deliberately begun a systematic attack on the alternative media and Bilderberg truthers for their efforts to report on the Bilderberg Group meeting and its agenda...

An investigation has been launched into claims that a private detective firm paid thousands of pounds to serving police officers to provide information about their pursuit of a convicted Nigerian fraudster.

MPs were told yesterday that in a case of "apparent corruption right at the heart of New Scotland Yard" the detective agency Risc Management Ltd was employed by James Ibori to hand £20,000 to two detective constables at the Met and a former detective inspector for information about his case. Ibori was sentenced to 13 years in prison last month after pleading guilty to laundering millions of pounds in Britain.

Inflation slowed to 3 per cent last month due to the timing of Easter and a drop in transport prices, but is likely to stay above its 2 per cent target, fuelling controversy over the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy.

TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2012

KingCast and Mortgage Movies Video: Drouin Case -- Wells Fargo, Sand Canyon and Option One Lose Motion to Dismiss in NH Federal Court.

This case supports everything I've been arguing to the U.S. DOJ about my status as a journalist exempt from payment of FOIA fees as noted in yesterday's journal entry:
http://mortgagemovies.blogspot.com/2012/05/kingcastmortgage-movies-to-...

China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury’s first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents viewed by Reuters.

The relationship means the People’s Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.

A senior US lawmaker with 30 years experience in Congress came out hard against CISPA this week, attacking the legislation’s creators for drafting a bill that erodes Internet privacy for Americans.

Meanwhile, the White House Cyber Security Czar has been forced to step down after bashing out at the over-hyping of cyber security threats who most recently bashed those who use the term “cyberwar,” saying there was no such thing and it was “a terrible concept.”

The Senator is also warning the Democrats version of the bill, named the Cyber Security Act, has the same defects as CISPA, which passed the house last month.

We've got three weeks until June 12th. Our grassroots campaign is all over the place, the 6th District GOP leadership and membership is trending for constitutional conservatives, Bob Goodlatte is concerned and he continues to assume a political fetal position. If the GOP congressional nominee had been decided at the 6th District GOP convention on May 5th, I'd have won that vote two to one. It's actually kind of scary! At least for Bob.

It appears that justice may be served in Toronto after all – even 2 years later. An investigation of the G20 in Toronto is expected to produce charges against a “handful” of senior police commanders.

An excerpt from the article posted on CBC/Radio-Canada on May 17th reads;

“A handful of senior Toronto police commanders are expected to be charged in coming weeks for a variety of misconduct offences over their leadership at the G20 summit in June 2010, CBC News has learned.

The charges are in addition to 28 front-line officers slated to have disciplinary hearings for a range of misconduct offences, including unlawful arrests and use of excessive or unnecessary force against prisoners.

Here is a list of Bilderberg Participants 2012 floating around on the web. I was unable to trace back the source to this list, so I have no idea if it is accurate.

What stands out from this particular list is a plethora of Obama administration officials and American business kingpins. Also a formidable delegation from Spain, Italy and- significantly: Turkey (as a non-EU member Turkey is doing stunningly well. Is Bilderberg trying to sweet talk the Turks into joining?).

Another curious lapse seems to be the absence of David Rockefeller’s name on the list- a lapse you wouldn’t expect in a fake list.

Mobile Eyewear recorder usage and time set tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jqLVlIlFME&feature=endscreen&NR=1

A victory for Ron Paul in Minnesota. The Texas congressman managed to sweep up 12 of the 13 delegates at the Republican Party Convention. Many have doubted Paul would come close to getting the GOP nomination, but only he and Mitt Romney are left standing. So can Ron Paul keep up his momentum? Austin Petersen, director of production for Freedom Works, joins us with more on Paul’s latest victory.

On May 12, 2012, after being elected as an alternate delegate in Mohave County Arizona, I attended the GOP Convention in Phoenix Arizona.

The GOP laid out no clear rules as to how the day would. The so-called GOP leadership was blatantly focused around their preselected candidate Mitt Romney and not on making the process fair and understandable to newcomers.

There was an asterisk endorsing Romney supporters on the actual ballot which threw off the entire voting. I spent 24 hours awake on this trip due to their gross incompetence. It was craziness.

The security was hostile. They welcomed us by forcing us to remove hundreds of Ron Paul signs.

A Chinese company is planning to buy US cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings. The acquisition will create the largest movie theater chain in the world...

Wall Street Banks scammed the public when they shared secret earnings estimates and valuations of Facebook with insiders much worse than they publicly reported.

Note: Senator Stewart was the co-founder of Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Is terrorism inside the United States really from outside, or is it a stage managed production, designed to cause Americans to believe they have no choice but to surrender the Republic and accept the totalitarian rule of a new emperor, or a new Fuhrer?

Indeed, given that acts of terror undermine the very public support needed by the so-called "terrorists" to bring about change, it may be argued that there are in fact no genuine acts of terror; that they are all manufactured events to be blamed on the groups wishing to challenge the status quo.

"Today, NATO leaders are meeting in Chicago to discuss the future of Afghanistan. The talks are being billed as discussions of plans to end the war. The war in Afghanistan is not ending. These talks are simply about financing the next phase of the war."

When he entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in May 2011, Newt Gingrich was the prosperous head of a small empire commonly known as Newt Inc, which included both for-profit consultancies and nonprofit foundations.

Altogether, these entwined ventures pulled in more than $110 million over the past decade. Now the vestiges of this empire are mired in debt, as is Gingrich's campaign fund.

A list of ways to stay connected to the outside world, which could become a life and death issue, in the event access to the internet is shut down.

Greece's struggling banking industry has been secretly injected with around €100 billion in emergency liquidity from the country’s central bank which was approved by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, according to the FT.

This follow reports of a ‘run’ developing on Greek banks last week, which were emphatically denied by the Greek PM’s office.

The chief of the UN nuclear agency says he has reached a deal with Iran over probing suspected work on nuclear weapons, and adds that the agreement will be "signed quite soon."

Yukiya Amano says some details still need to be worked out. But he told reporters Iranian officials say those will not stand in the way of signing the deal, AP reports.

And now comes some news about the Facebook (FB) IPO that buyers deserve to be outraged about.

Reuters' Alistair Barr is reporting that Facebook's lead underwriters, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS) all cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO roadshow.

This by itself is highly unusual (I've never seen it during 20 years in and around the tech IPO business).

But, just as important, news of the estimate cut was passed on only to a handful of big investor clients, not everyone else who was considering an investment in Facebook.

A New York City Police officer has been recorded on video tape threatening to shove his penis in a man’s mouth so hard it would come out his ear after he illegally parked on the street.

The officer followed up on that threat saying he would shove his gun up the suspect’s ass and just for good measures put the suspect’s shit in the suspect’s pretty face after he was all done.

"The time of the voters is taken up during each campaign with furious debates over all kinds of issues except the most important one, a sound money system. In the meanwhile, presidential candidates are syndicated by the moneyed interests."

Hearings on House resolution no. 314: authorizing the appointment of a committee to investigate as to whether there are not combinations of financial and other concerns who control money and credits, and operate in restraint of trade through that control, 1911

Deep in the Heart of Texas there is Room for a Fight. Let’s Have one.
Romney is no choice for a Texan, or anyone for that matter. He loves the Fed.
The Private Central Bank that Controls us is bleeding the life out of our country.
End the Fed before it Ends U.S.. There is 1 Week until Texas,
Remember? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9bpnony86w
Always Remember the Alamo in Texas.
Sounds like a great place for a Rally.
Please Campaign again for All of us.
We can win Texas and the Polls were
Showing it. We don’t get to see that.
Without Ron Paul Speaking out against the wars and the Fed,
we will go over the cliff even sooner.
The tireless irate minority rocks on....

A project to drill deep into the heart of a supervolcano in southern Italy has finally received the green light, despite claims that the drilling would put the population of Naples at risk of small earthquakes or an explosion.

Congressional hawks want war. Bipartisan support backs it. Moderates outnumber hotheads. At issue is for how long.

Saber rattling, fear mongering, and bogus accusations persisted for years. Now it’s showing up in legislation. More on that below.

Possibly a false flag will ignite another Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for “the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.”

A broker has given up his license yo protest a new campaign by government regulators telling him he could not answer customer questions about buying silver.

Twenty-two US states ask supreme court to revisit controversial ruling that lifts restrictions on corporate money in politics.

Nearly half of US states have thrown their weight behind a legal defence of local laws restricting corporate money in politics by asking the supreme court to revisit its widely-criticised ban on similar national legislation.

The states filed a brief with the supreme court on Monday in support of a century-old law in Montana – the Corrupt Practices Act – against companies pumping money into elections.

THank you Russian Today for broadcasting the truth

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4e3_1337599388
Natchez, Mississippi- A 23-year-old guard has been killed and five workers injured in a riot by hundreds of inmates at a private Mississippi prison. An inmate was also injured, and some two dozen employees were held hostage yesterday at the Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez. Local and state law enforcement agencies had to be called in to quell the violence at the prison, run by the private Corrections Corp. of America, and set up perimeter security to protect the public. One section of the prison apparently remained under prisoner control as of late last night.

Janet C. Phelan
Activist Post

Apocalyptic fever is running high. A friend in the Bible Belt, who recently became “born again,” called me excitedly to tell me she was leaving me her house. “In case I suddenly vanish,” she confided.

Of course. She would be raptured up and I, a hardcore “One God” believer, would be left behind. How sweet of her to make preparations for the damned.

But as the projected date for the rapture came and went and disappointed, my friend abandoned her newfound religion.

Not so fast for the 2012-ers, however. The end of the world is still scheduled for December 21, 2012 according to those who buy into the Mayan prophecies, Planet X, Niburu, exponential solar flares – did I miss anything? ...

At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reason. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being able to comfort my son or daughter.”

Corruption in Afghanistan extends beyond petty bribery and kickbacks, so much that too many Karzai power brokers gain much from war and will lose from peace. Corruption is everywhere, from the central government to development and security contracting. Speak out against corruption too strongly, however, and you may find yourself prohibited from entering the country.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently banned Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, from entering Kabul for alleging that Mr. Karzai and his supporters rule through exclusionary tactics and make money to stay in power.