PRETTY WOMEN, THE CIA AND SOMALIAN PIRATES

By: Peter Chamberlin

[SEE:Exclusive: Somali Pirates Call on American Benefactor]

Michele Lynn Ballarin notes that she is trying to market a solution for failed states through Black Star. If she can demonstrate that it works in Somalia, which has not had a functioning unitary government in 19 years, she would have an excellent product to sell.

Once again, the CIA is repeating the same gambit it first used to fuel the original war on terror against the Soviets in Afghanistan, that of using an attractive wealthy socialite to front for the agency, in promoting the government’s secret agenda for world domination.  Ballarin owns a Blackwater clones, called Select Armor and Black Star, which she is using to further the agency’s mercenary solution for failed states, using ruthless unaccountable private soldiers to do the work that is too dirty for regular government troops.

She is playing the same role formerly perfected by Joanne Herring, the Houston socialite turned mujahideen fund-raiser “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame.  Persuasive CIA tool Herring was the motivational force behind Congressman Wilson’s crusade to create the global Islamist insurrection.  The secret agency knows that it is always best to hide their sinister plans behind a pretty face.  As the trusted sweetheart and champion of the Somalian pirates (the latest CIA ploy, using the concept of limited warfare sown by “Islamic extremists”), Ballarin is doing her part to sow death and destruction, moving the game of terror by contract to the next level, that of privatized contractors.

Ballerin discussed her company’s participation as a CIA intermediary in the militarization of Somalia, even revealing her company’s use of three military bases.  In the email dated Friday, 16 June, the chief executive of Select Armor:

“Ballarin claimed she has been given ‘carte blanche’ to use three bases in Somalia ‘and the air access to reach them’.

She then suggests that the CIA have been kept informed of the plans. Ballarin states: ‘My contact whom we discussed from the agency side requested an in-person meeting with me. I arrived in New York at 2340 last night and was driven to Virginia – arriving at 0200 today.’

The recipient of Ballerin’s email, Chris Farina of the Florida-based military company ATS Worldwide, “boasts it ‘can execute operations in support of host national indigenous forces’. ATS claims it uses former US and British special operations personnel.’”

Like all aspects of the war on terror, things are not as they seem; in fact, reality is usually the opposite of that reported in the media.  In the case of the Somalian pirates, who have hijacked Ukrainian arms shipments, Saudi oil tankers, and possibly even suspicious Iranian cargoes, their actions justify every military solution carried-out by the forces of the United States or its allies.  Even American ally against Pakistan, India, is getting a chance to use its own navy to push its weight around.

The help of the Indian Navy will be greatly appreciated in the forging of the New World Order alliance that has Pakistan, Iran, even Russia in its sights.

Exclusive: Somali Pirates Call on American Benefactor

“Is she CIA or a cutaway since she does have former intelligence and military officials on the board of one of her other companies, Black Star, and is known to have excellent contacts among the intelligence community?”

Exclusive: Somali Pirates Call on American Benefactor

By Colin Clark Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 4:23 pm
Posted in International, Naval, Policy

The pirates who captured the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star have broken off negotiations with the ship’s owners, apparently insisting they want to talk with a wealthy Virginia woman with close ties to the US military and intelligence communities.

Michele Lynn Ballarin, a figure only Washington could offer the world, runs a small Virginia-based company, SelectArmor, that designs and makes body armor and provides executive protection to wealthy individuals. She has a long history of involvement in Somalia, including allegations by a respected publication — Africa Confidential — that she was helping plan military operations there in 2006.

Military.com spoke with Ballarin for more than an hour Nov. 24 and she told us she has been in regular touch with the pirates by satellite phone — the last contact was Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time — and had just returned from Somalia Nov. 18.

Ballarin said she is not only negotiating with the pirates holding that Saudi tanker, she is also in touch with the MV Faina, the Ukrainian ship loaded with grenade launchers, ammunition and 33 Russian-made T-72 tanks.

“I’m in communication with both ships on a regular basis,” she said.

The Faina’s captain helped the pirates drop a sign over the ship’s side with one word on it: Amira. Ballarin is known to the Somalis as Amira. The crew of the Sirius draped a similar sign over the side of their ship. But Ballarin’s goal is even bigger than helping end the takeover of the two ships. She wants to negotiate an end to piracy off the Somali coast.

“My goal is to unwind all 17 ships and all 450 people they’ve been holding,” she said.

Ballarin said the involvement of the Somali Islamist group, Al Shabab, had helped turn the tide in her favor by putting the fear of death into the young pirates. She claimed the Islamist group had captured, tortured and killed a young male relative of one of the pirates in the last few days. This came after Al Shabab announced it opposed the taking of ships owned by Muslims and promised to behead those who did.

Al Shabab “made it dead clear that any ransom that is collected they will take it; they will take away their money and kill them,” Ballarin said.

That has concentrated the minds of the pirates, according to Ballarin.

“The most urgent requests I’ve had is they don’t want to be offloaded in Somalia because they would be killed,” she said, adding that negotiations are under way to find a country willing to take the pirates.

She says the pirates understand the gravy train they have ridden for the last few years from their ill-gotten gains is coming to an end.

“They have snatched too many ships. They have too many navies watching them and now Al Shabab enters the picture,” she explained. “So they know they’re not going to be able to maintain this activity.”

Piracy is not a traditional activity for most of the young Somalis who have taken it up. She believes providing a consistent income would help break the cycle even though they have earned about $150 million from piracy.

To help encourage Somalis to patrol their own waters and discourage locals from turning piracy Ballarin has a plan to recruit 500 men and women to serve as a Somali coast guard operating out of Berbera, the country’s major port. To fund it, she’s talking with international aid agencies and encouraging members of the various governments running Somalia to tax the country’s vibrant currency exchanges and some of its companies.

All this might lead a reasonable person to wonder just why Ballarin is doing this and what she has to gain. Is she CIA or a cutaway since she does have former intelligence and military officials on the board of one of her other companies, Black Star, and is known to have excellent contacts among the intelligence community?

First, Ballarin notes that she is trying to market a solution for failed states through Black Star. If she can demonstrate that it works in Somalia, which has not had a functioning unitary government in 19 years, she would have an excellent product to sell. She claims that she has spent all her own money on this five-year effort.

And she has invested a great deal of her self in it.

“If I had to pick a cause, I would have to say this is one that deserves all the attention it can get,” Ballarin said. “Sometimes we are propelled down a path to do something for the right reasons and we just continue.”

100 Groups In A War Against India

Written by http://www.daily.pk

Thursday, 27 November 2008 14:40

Mumbai’s night of terror underscores a phenomenon concealed by the Indian government and intelligence agencies and deliberately ignored by a biased Anglo-American media for a long time: The rise of a virulent form of Hindu terrorism that begets violence from other minorities. Here is a list of almost one hundred groups that are fighting the Indian government. All of them thrive in India. The context for what has happened in Mumbai is stunning only for those unaware how a cocktail mix of wrong policies, official patronage to extremism, and separatist movements have come together to destabilize India. The night of Nov. 26, 2008, will go down in history as the day when India’s homegrown terrorism reared its head after years of silent mushroom growth. This terrorism in Mumbai is not surprising, unlike the reactions in most of the western media.  India’s terrorist underground has been flourishing for many years.  While the U.S. media was busy last year likening Pakistan to Iraq in a politically motivated campaign aligned with U.S. military objectives, experts were ranking India only second to Iraq in the number of people who died as a result of terrorist attacks between 2004 and 2007, according to one survey by an American think tank. The Indian government has been artfully concealing a worrying development for at least sixteen years under an organized hype centered on economic growth and military power projection with a focus on China and Pakistan. Indian terrorism is a confusing mix. Journalists and observers outside the region often miss the simmering tensions beneath the surface that occasionally burst into the open, surprising many and raising questions like how could there be so much violence in what is supposed to be a secular democracy and a rising economy where such things should not happen. In India, there is a cocktail mix of wrong policies, official patronage to extremism, and separatist movements, all coming together to destabilize India.  At least 600 Christians, churches, nuns and priests were targeted by Hindu mobs in eastern India in August this year. Almost the entire Muslim population of Kashmir is up in arms against the excesses, arrests, murders and rapes by the Indian army.  For years there has been a media trial of Indian Muslims for real and imaginary involvement in violence.  News such as the arrest this month of two serving Indian army officers involved in crimes that were attributed to Indian Muslims has served to increase disgruntlement among minorities.  In 2002, close to 2,500 Indian Muslim men, women and children were burned alive in the first religious genocide of 21st century. In 1984, Sikhs were hauled off buses in New Delhi and beaten or burned to death following the assassination of Indian prime minister Indra Gandhi at the hands of Sikh bodyguards. And finally, between 12 to 14 separatist insurgencies currently rage across India’s north and northeast. All of this makes for a dangerous combination that simmers quietly under the surface. The Indian media’s self-imposed ban on discussing these problems helps keep the lid on them.  But when the pressure becomes unbearable, things occasionally burst into the open in the shape of terrorist acts.  This only surprises those who do no know how India has been gradually relapsing into religious extremism in the period between 1990 and 2008.  This history is important in order to understand why the Indian claims of Pakistani complicity in the attacks have often sought to simplify a complex situation. Hindu militant groups have mushroomed in the past few years. This month, the arrest of two serving Indian army officers has confirmed speculation that Hindu terrorist groups have infiltrated Indian military and political establishments. 1992 was the definite year that saw Hindu fundamentalism express itself politically. Hundreds of religious terrorists descended on a north Indian city with tools in hand. They climbed on top of a majestic, 500-year-old mosque built by the same Muslim rulers who built the famous Taj Mahal.  Imbibed with religious hatred, the Hindu mobs razed the building to the ground.  Indian government authorities did nothing to stop it. This Indian betrayal of a carefully crafted secular image would prove fatal later. In 1999, a Hindu mob surrounded the car of Graham Staines, an Australian priest, and his underage boy and girl and burned them alive. Australia maintained an unusual quiet till this day about this major act of terrorism. The bias is easily detectable when compared to Australia’s reaction and statements to ‘Muslim terrorism’, especially in Indonesia and later in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this sense, countries like United States, Britain and Australia are partially responsible for letting the growth of India terrorism – with its mix of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian and ethnic insurgencies – go unnoticed for so many years. These western countries have done this in order not to disturb the Anglo-Saxon project of grooming India as a bulwark against China and Russia and other regional powers. Following is a list of various indigenous separatist, militant and terrorist organizations operating in India against the Indian federal government.  This list has been compiled using information available in the public domain, news reports and specialized publications. During any given incident in India, a combination of some or all of these organizations is a suspect, including in the Mumbai blasts and in any other militant activity.  Blaming Kashmiris or Pakistanis for Indian internal problems would be a factual misrepresentation that must be countered with full force by Pakistan. It should also be noted that the Indian establishment is cracking down on Tamil separatists due to violence in Sri Lanka as Tamils are regrouping in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nado.  Tamils have to their credit the last significant political assassination in India, the blowing up of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. They continue to be the most ruthless terror outfit in India.  Mumbai blasts carry the fingerprints of many terror groups operating inside India, each with a long list of grievances against the Indian government and enough motivation to carry out such terrorist acts. A church being ransacked on the outskirts of New Delhi, 2008. Not all groups in this list are necessarily terrorist organizations.  But all of them are active against the Indian government. Hindu Terror Groups 1.      Shiv Sena – Army of Shiva 2.      Bajrang Dal 3.      Durga Vahini-Women militants 4.      BJP 5.      A ragtag, government-armed Hindu militant groups have been raised in Kashmir and northern India during this decade Indian Occupied Kashmir 6. Hizbul Mujahideen 7. Harkat-ul-Ansar or Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami 8. Lashkar-e-Toiba 9.  Jaish-e-MohammadMujahideen E-Tanzeem 10.  Jammu & KashmirLiberation Front 11.  Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen 12.  Al Badr 13.  Dukhtaran-e-Millat 14.  Al Barq 15.   Al Jehad 16.   Jamait-ul-Mujahideen 17.  Jammu & Kashir National Liberation Army 18.  People’s League 19.  Muslim JanbazForce 20.  Kashmir Jehad Force 21.   Al JehadForce (combines Muslim Janbaz Force and Kashmir 22.  Jehad Force 23.  Al Umar Mujahideen 24.  Mahaz-e-Azadi 25. Islami Jamaat-e-Tulba 26. Jammu & Kashmir StudentsLiebration Front 27. Ikhwan-ul-Mujahideen 28. Islamic Students League 29. Tehrik-e-Hurriat-e-Kashmir 30. Mutahida Jehad Council 31. Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqar Jafaria 32. Jamait-ul-Mujahideen 33. Al Mustafa Liberation Fighters 34. Tehrik-e-Jehad-e-Islami 35. Therik-ul-Mujahideen 36. Muslim Mujahideen 37. Al MujahidForce 38. Tehrik-e-Jehad 39. Islami Inquilabi Mahaz ASSAM 40. Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) 41. Dima Halom Daogah (DHD) 42. Karbi National Volunteers (KNV) 43. Rabha National Security Force (RNSF) 44. Koch-RajbongshiLiberation Organisation (KRLO) 45. Adivasi Cobra Force(ACF) 46. Karbi People’s Front(KPF) 47. Tiwa National Revolutionary Force (TNRF) 48. Bircha Commando Force(BCF) 49. Bengali Tiger Force (BTF) 50. Adivasi Security Force(ASF) 51. All Assam Adivasi Suraksha Samiti (AAASS) 52. Gorkha Tiger Force(GTF) 53. Barak Valley YouthLiberation Front (BVYLF) 54. Muslim United LiberationTigers of Assam (MULTA) 55. Muslim United LiberationFront of Assam (MULFA) 56. Muslim Security Council of Assam (MSCA) 57. United Liberation Militia ofAssam (ULMA) 58. Islamic Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA) 59. Muslim Volunteer Force (MVF) 60. Muslim Liberation Army (MLA) 61. Muslim Security Force (MSF) 62. Islamic SevakSangh (ISS) 63. Islamic United ReformationProtest of India (IURPI) 64. United Muslim LiberationFront of Assam (UMLFA) 65. Revolutionary MuslimCommandos (RMC) 66. Muslim Tiger Force (MTF) 67. People’s UnitedLiberation Front (PULF) 68. Adam Sena(AS) 69. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen 70. Harkat-ul-Jehad NAGALAND 71. National Socialist Councilof Nagaland (Isak-Muivah)– NSCN(IM) 72. National Socialist Councilof Nagaland (Khaplang)– NSCN (K) 73. Naga NationalCouncil (Adino) – NNC (Adino) 74.      Tripura Liberation OrganisationFront (TLOF) 75. United Bengali LiberationFront (UBLF) 76. Tripura TribalVolunteer Force (TTVF) 77. Tripura Armed TribalCommando Force (TATCF) 78. Tripura TribalDemocratic Force (TTDF) 79. Tripura Tribal YouthForce (TTYF) 80. Tripura LiberationForce (TLF) 81. Tripura Defence Force (TDF) 82. All TripuraVolunteer Force (ATVF) 83. Tribal Commando Force (TCF) 84. Tripura Tribal YouthForce (TTYF) 85. All TripuraBharat Suraksha Force(ATBSF) 86. Tripura Tribal ActionCommittee Force (TTACF) 87. Socialist Democratic Frontof Tripura (SDFT) 88. All TripuraNational Force (ATNF) 89. Tripura Tribal Sengkrak Force (TTSF) 90. Tiger Commando Force (TCF) 91. Tripura Mukti Police (TMP) Meghalaya 92. Hynniewtrep NationalLiberation Council (HNLC) 93. Achik NationalVolunteer Council (ANVC) 94. People’s LiberationFront of Meghalaya (PLF-M) 95. Left-wing Extremists 96. People’s Guerrilla Army Here are quick references that can help understand the India story: Hindu Al-Qaeda: Asia’s New ‘Terror Central’ : Here is the hottest Indian story, neatly tucked under the well constructed –and expensive- veneer of ‘Incredible India’ advertisements on international television news channels: The fast rise of Indian religious terrorist organizations that have penetrated India’s military and politics.  The movement is so strong, resourceful and organized that it warrants the label India’s Hindu al-Qaeda. India is quietly emerging as a new ‘terror central’. Since the start of this century, almost nine years ago, India has seen the targeted murder of over 700 Christians, 2500 Muslims, and the unaccounted hundreds of ‘untouchables’. That’s not all. India is now grooming its own ‘Hindu al Qaeda,’ terrorist militias tasked with guarding India’s dreams of becoming the next superpower. Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka beware. India is already grooming rebels to stir trouble in China’s Tibet and Xingjian. The problem with this thinking is that expensive showoff space shuttles to Moon –when almost no one else in the world is doing it for now- won’t reduce poverty among the world’s largest single concentration of poor people on earth.  In India. The Face Of India Hidden From The World:  There is a distinct lobby in United States and Britain that played a criminal role in fostering Indian terrorism. It did this by covering up Hindu terrorism against Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and low-caste Indians. Have you seen any of the above pictures published by any American or British newspaper or news service? See [left] the charred bodies of Indian Muslims burned alive by Hindu mobs in 2002, in the 21st century’s first genocide. Why Hindu Extremists Invaded Taj Mahal? A group of 10 Hindutva activists-cum-militants belonging to Shiv Sena, a core fundamentalist political outfit, sneaked into the Taj Mahal at Agra on July 24 and performed prayers (puja) within the precincts on Thursday. They were taken into custody and later released without any hurdles.  This is a routine matter for Indian governments when Hindus perform illegal activities. Had Muslims enter the temples and remove the idols and clean up the structure to be able to offer prayers to God, the matter would be different. Hindu outfits, who consider themselves above law and have every right to do anything they please with Muslims and their mosques, have been on a rampage for political reasons with concocted stories against Islam. Kashmir Shakes India: Something stunning is happening in Indian controlled Kashmir. World media is not giving it projection, Indians are hiding it and Pakistani media is too busy focusing on political turmoil within. The fact is that the Indian federation has been shaken to the core over the developments in Indian held Kashmir in the last few weeks.

Pakistani Government provides 80% of the Fuel American War Machine uses to Attack Pakistan

Pakistani Government provides 80% of the Fuel American War Machine uses to Attack Pakistan

Written by http://www.daily.pk

Wednesday, 26 November 2008 16:55

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain called the Pakistani Government to account for facilitating American attacks on Pakistan by supplying it essential fuel in a strongly worded letter to the Pakistani Ambassador to the UK. According to expert data [Energy Tribune], almost 80% of the fuel used by the American war machine in Afghanistan is currently being supplied by Pakistani refineries. The US is using almost 575,000 gallons of fuel every day. Were this supply from the Pakistani refineries halted by the government, the only alternative source would be a precarious supply route through rugged Central Asia thus effectively crippling the US military and preventing their killing and bombing. The US campaign could run out of fuel within a few weeks given the difficulty of establishing a new supply route, the limited storage facilities in Afghanistan and the impracticality of flying in fuel. The current Pakistani government, far from being upset about the American attacks, is in collusion with the US in its undeclared war on Pakistan. In a letter to Pakistan’s Ambassador in London, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain wrote: “This civilian government, that regularly contrasts its democratic credentials with Musharraf’s military dictatorship is imitating the old regime, flagrantly working against the interests of its own people by aiding a belligerent aggressor that is responsible for a conflict that has displaced 700,000 innocent civilians and has made thousands shaheed.” “Not only this, but the government is being deceitful in its depiction of a weak Pakistan, unable to check the American attacks.” “Will we now see the government act on the information that we have provided or else step aside to allow Hizb ut-Tahrir to establish a new sincere leadership to guide the country at this crucial time?” Below is the letter delivered to Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UK Mr Wajid Shamsul Hasan High Commission of Pakistan 34-36 Lowndes Square London, SW1X 9JN 26th November 2008 Re: Why is the Pakistani Government providing 80% of the fuel the American War Machine uses to Attack Pakistan? Dear Mr Ambassador, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, I am writing to you once again regarding the current crisis facing Pakistan in the border regions. The US has regularly been sending Predator drones into Pakistani airspace, attacking targets on Pakistani soil in the FATA and NWFP, leading to the deaths of many innocent people and the displacement of thousands. It is an utter violation of the sovereignty of the country. When we visited you two weeks ago we presented clear actions that the Pakistani government could take to stop these attacks. Instead, the government has made vague and weak protests at a diplomatic level and not taken substantive measures to stop these murderous attacks. At the same time it has tried to give the people an impression that Pakistan is not capable of standing up to the United States. Bearing all of this in mind, we ask a simple question: are you personally aware that the Pakistani Government’s current policy is to supply essential fuel to the American war machine? Do you know it is fuel from Pakistani refineries that is facilitating the death and destruction from the United States terrorist attacks in Pakistan? According to expert data almost 80% of fuel used by the American war machine in Afghanistan is currently being supplied from Pakistani refineries. The US is using almost 575,000 gallons of fuel every day. Without the 80% being provided by the Pakistani government there remains only one other precarious logistical supply route through rugged Central Asia. Shutting down the flow of oil from Pakistani refineries would cripple the US military and curb the killing and destruction. The difficulty in establishing a new supply, the lack of storage facilities in Afghanistan and the impracticality of flying in fuel would mean the US campaign could be operating on fumes within two weeks. This civilian government, that regularly contrasts its democratic credentials with Musharraf’s military is imitating the old regime, flagrantly working against the interests of its own people by aiding a belligerent aggressor that is responsible for a conflict that has displaced 700,000 innocent civilians and has made thousands shaheed. Not only this, but the government is being deceitful in its depiction of a weak Pakistan, unable to check the American attacks. Will we now see the government act on the information that we have provided or else step aside to allow Hizb ut-Tahrir to establish a new sincere leadership to guide the country at this crucial time? Wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, Dr Abdul Wahid Executive Committee Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain

The Royal Family Refuses to Let Bush Pick Thier Pockets One Last Time

Riyadh rejects idea of Gulf bailing out West

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

MUSCAT: Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf on Tuesday ruled out an “exceptional” bailout by oil-rich Gulf states of Western countries caught up in the turmoil of the global financial crisis. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, grouping Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are being urged by the West to contribute “exceptional” sums to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as the two institutions come to the rescue of ailing world economies.

But Assaf, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a GCC meeting in Muscat, said the Gulf states should not be the only ones turning out their pockets.

“If there is a need for an increase in financing these institutions, then Saudi Arabia, and I expect the same of the other GCC members, will contribute as much as the member countries [of these institutions], not more,” he said. Saudi Arabia, the minister added, “has for many years been playing an important role … and has in the past contributed exceptional funds to the IMF and the World Bank.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had said in early November that he believed Gulf states would announce extra money for an IMF bailout fund at the G20 summit in Washington. However, a six-point plan was announced at the November 15 summit which did not include a bailout by Gulf states.

Kuwaiti newspaper As-Siyassah reported last week that the United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to $300 billion to help it curb the global financial meltdown.

Quoting “highly informed” sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi Arabia for $120 billion, the UAE for $70 billion, Qatar for $60 billion and was seeking $40 billion from Kuwait. The report has not been confirmed. - AFP

The International Backers of the Mumbai Attacks

By Les Blough, Editor. Axis of Logic Nov 26, 2008, 18:18

November 26, 2008, Axis of Logic - Reuters states that at least 80 people have been killed and that, “An organisation calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed it was behind attacks”. CNN television is already stating as fact that the Mumbai attacks were funded and supported by foreign sources, implicating Pakistan where President-elect Obama promised to take the so-called “war on terrorism” when he assumes office in January. The attacks which are on-going at this moment set the stage for redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq to Pakistan as Obama promised. George W. Bush has been quick to condemn the attacks and CNN is giving round-the-clock coverage, reminiscent of corporate media coverage of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Linking Pakistan, Al-Queda, Muslims and Terrorism

CNN, Reuters and other corporate media immediately called these attacks with bombs, automatic weapons and hand grenades “terrorist attacks” emanating from Pakistan with roots in “Al Queda” and “Islamist Terrorists“. CNN TV also states that these attacks target “western business people and well-heeled western tourists”, staying at Mumbai’s luxury hotels. The Deccan Herald states that the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility via a convenient e-mail message received by the Deccan Herald (DC). DC states,

“The term itself (Deccan Mujahideen) is not very specific, and according to CNN may just be a generic term for radicals in the region. ‘Deccan’ is an area of India and ‘Mujahideen’ is the plural form of a term referring to a Muslim participating in a jihad.”

Associated Press described the attackers,

“Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital Wednesday night, killing at least 78 people and taking Westerners hostage, police said. A group of suspected Muslim militants claimed responsibility.”

Reuters describes them, “The previously unknown or little known group sent an email to news organisations claiming responsibility.” This is a familiar attribution to “terrorist attacks” which, because the organisation is “unknown”, noone can prove otherwise. CNN TV states emphatically, “This is definitely an international attack using domestic terrorists”. We have no doubt that the latter statement is true but the question is, “Who are those international backers of these attacks?”

International backing and support

Modern criminal investigation still rests on the Aristotile’s 3 equally important causal factors: Means, Method and Motivation.

Factor analysis – Means, Method and Motivation: Powerful western media organisations reinforce their opinions with repetition, linking assaults like these with former “Islamist attacks” and another “terrorist attack”. Their logic and factor analysis use (1) the weapons used, (2) the similarity of past attacks by “Al Queda” and (3) motivation. But of course they never consider the possibility, based on this same factor analysis, that the architects may be the CIA and/or Mossad.

Means: That the most powerful military machine in the world has the means to arm groups like the one who is carrying out the Mumbai attacks requires no apology or defense.

Method: History is replete with examples of U.S./Israeli use of a surrogate to attack their enemies. William John Fox pointed this out in his exemplary analysis, Deliver Us From Chaos: Ten Political Commandments. In 1953 they used domestic terrorism to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddeq, former Prime Minister of Iran. They used the Afghan Mujahideen to attack Russia in the same year of their resistance. The CIA and the U.S. ambassador secretly engineered the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003 and “the U.S. encouraged the Israeli-trained Georgian army to invade the disputed enclave of South Ossetia five years later”.

Motivation: The only difference between the factors used by the capitalist media and ours is motivation. Regarding motivation, CNN states “they (Deccan Mujahideen) want to create as much damage and attention to themselves as possible”. CIA/Mossad are masters at destruction, but the last thing they want is bringing attention to themselves. Motivation for the U.S. to take it’s war to Pakistan fits perfectly with these attacks. As a matter of fact, Barack Obama and Joe Biden already declared their intention to take the war to Pakistan and stated with certainty that Obama’s “mettle would be tested” by a major international “incident” in the near future. If the perpetrators want to draw attention to themselves, their method (i.e. killing civilians), simply does not make sense unless one buys the Bush regime’s religion-based simplism that they are simply “evil”. Militant’s fighting for causes such as independence or national sovereignty want least of all, international negative attention or popular hatred. The only thing missing from the corporate media explanation is George W. Bush’s idiotic claim that “the terrorists are jealous of our freedoms”. Using this the corporate media’s methodology, it is entirely reasonable and just as easy to implicate the CIA and Mossad.

Terrorism

We must also remember where the very term, “terrorism” was born in 1947 and who carried it out? – Israel. The term has been internationalised and popularised since then by the corporate media, rarely if ever pointing to its origins. Today, “terrorism” has become a household term, associated solely with Muslims throughout the world and it was developed into a basis for a war without end. The military assault on Mumbai is another a mini-9/11 in the sense that it provides a platform for juicing and expanding the “anti-terror” war under a new Obama administration which will no doubt be backed by other western governments.

Criminal Investigation

CNN tells us that the FBI has offered to help investigate the crime. The question is whether their interest is real investigation or damage control. If the FBI uses this time worn formula it could very easily end up evidence pointing to their own government. Were the FBI to “discover” CIA or Mossad involvement can any sane person expect they would reveal their findings to the public? Using “means, method and motivation” analysis, our “criminal investigation” leads to the CIA and Mossad as perpetrators of this event.

- Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic

© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com

BRITS SAY ISRAEL STAGED 1976 HIJACKING

BRITS SAY ISRAEL STAGED 1976 HIJACKING

Famed Israeli Raid on Entebbe Airport Culminated Shin Bet-Staged Hijacking Plot

By Mark Glenn

Documents recently made public by the British government reveal that Israel played a direct role in the notorious hijacking of an Air France plane to Idi Amin�s Entebbe in 1976 and cooperated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in staging the event remembered today as �the Entebbe Incident.�

In documents recently released and now sitting in the National Archives in London, D.H. Colvin�a British diplomat working in Paris�wrote that, according to sources he knew, �the hijacking was the work of the PFLP, with help from the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Bet.�

�The operation was designed to torpedo the PLO�s standing in France� and to prevent a �growing rapprochement between the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and the Americans,� he said. �My contact said the PFLP had attracted all sorts of wild elements, some of whom had been planted by the Israelis. .. . Their [the Israelis�] nightmare is that after the November elections, one will witness the imposition in the Middle East of a Pax Americana, which will be to the advantage of the PLO, who will gain international respectability and perhaps the right to establish a state on evacuated territories and to the disadvantage of Israel, who will be forced to evacuate occupied territory.�

The hijacking, or the �Entebbe Incident� as it is popularly known, gripped the attention of the world for nearly a week at that time. Hijackers seized an Air France plane bound for Paris via Athens shortly after it took off. The plane was diverted first to Benghazi, Libya, where it was refueled before going on to Entebbe, Uganda. In Entebbe, the hijackers released most of the hostages but kept 98 people, most of them Israeli citizens, and threatened to kill them unless Israel met their demands of releasing some 50
Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and in other places around the world.

In a dramatic rescue that has been the subject of several books and at least 4 films, Israeli commandos flew to the airport where shortly thereafter a 36-minute battle was fought with the hijackers and Ugandan soldiers.

In the end, six of the hijackers, 45 Ugandan soldiers, three hostages, and Col. Jonathan Netanyahu (commanding officer of the Israeli commandos and elder brother of Benjamin Netanyahu) were killed.

POISON OPINION

In the recently released document, the British diplomat went further in his analysis of the event, saying that Israel wanted to poison French opinion with regard to the Palestinian cause, for which the French had traditionally held a certain amount of sympathy. According to his analysis of the situation, Israel wished to make the threat�implicit but nevertheless clear�that terrorism is something that can happen in Europe just as easily as it happens in the Middle East.

The PFLP said to be responsible for this incident was founded by a Lebanese-educated Palestinian Christian named Dr. George Habash. Unlike the larger, centrist and more nationalistic Fatah movement of the PLO, the PFLP is a far left, Marxist-Leninist movement designated by several governments including that of the United States as a terrorist organization. Since the late 1960s it has been credited with dozens of high-profile events, including hijackings and bombings.

Along with the United States and Britain, Israel has a long and well-established history of assisting individuals and groups said to be responsible for acts of terrorism since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.

Individuals such as the famed Abu Nidal and groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in the Occupied Territories and now, Fateh-al-Islam operating in Northern Lebanon all have at some point been creatures of Mossad, CIA and MI5 intrigue.

IRAQI KILLING FIELDS : the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet

* IRAQI KILLING FIELDS : the largest humanitarian crisis on the planet – ©opyright U$A™

* Partial list of 399 Iraqi academics murdered under US occupation (updated 22 Nov 2008) –

[See this List as PDF file]

* Partial list of 303 Iraqi and 30 non-Iraqi media professionals who died under US occupation (updated 25 Nov 2008) – Background articles

[See this List as PDF File]

* 2,000 Iraqi physicians have been murdered under US occupation (11 April 2006)

* Hundreds of legal workers have left the country. At least 210 lawyers and judges killed since the US-led invasion in 2003, in addition to dozens injured in attacks against them. (30 April 2007)

* Based on studies done by local NGOs, at least 15,000 Iraqis have disappeared in the past four years of US occupation (18 April 2007)

* Iraq’s child mortality rate has increased by a staggering 150 percent since 1990. Some 122,000 Iraqi children died in 2005 before reaching their fifth birthday. More than half of these deaths were among newborn babies in the first month of life (08 May 2007)

* only 50 percent of primary school-age children are attending class, down from 80 percent in 2005. Approximately 1,500 children are known to be held in detention facilities. (Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, 25 April 2008)

* Up to 75 percent of Iraq’s doctors, pharmacists and nurses have left their jobs since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. More than half of those have emigrated (Medact 16 Jan 2008)

* There are five million Iraqi orphans as reported by official government statistics, urging the government, parliament, and NGOs to be in constant contact with Iraq’s parentless children. (18 Dec 2007)

* Narmeen Othman, Iraq’s acting minister for women’s affairs, put the number of Iraqi widows as high as 2 million in a country of 27 million people. (31 Jan 2008)

* 50,000 Iraqi refugees forced into prostitution (24 June 2007)

* Years of war, current insecurity take toll on environment (07 June 2007) – Insecurity and lack of funds prevent cleansing of polluted sites (19 April 2007)

* 8.000.000 Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in absolute poverty.

* 4.000.000 people are lacking food and in dire need of different types of humanitarian assistance.

* Only 60% of the 4.000.000 people who depend on food assistance have access to rations from the public distribution system, down from 96% in 2004.

* The number of Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies has risen from 50% to 70% since 2003.

* 80% of people in Iraq do not have safe access to effective sanitation.

* Child malnutrition rates have risen from 19% before the US-led invasion in 2003 to 28% currently.

(Oxfam report 29 July 2007)

* The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute. The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity. (AFSC 21 Sep 2007)

* More than 3.000.000 Iraqi refugees and 2.778.305 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq. In Jordan: 700.000-750.000 – In Syria: 1.500.000-2.000.000 – In Egypt: 150.000 – In Iran: 100.000 persons – In Lebanon: 40.000 – In the Gulf States: 200.000 – In Turkey: 10.000 - In the rest of the world: no estimates available. (IRCO 01 July 2007)

* Look at Iraq today: democracy and human rights American style (06 June 2007)

* Iraqi Red Crescent Organization: Report On IDP’s In Iraq – Update 31 May 2007 [PDF] 26 pages – June 2007

* Statistics on Refugees (Updated September 2007)

* Comments on the Lancet Survey and other mortality studies (Updated 02 June 2008)

* The effects of the American use of prohibited weapons on the health condition in Fallujah (10 Dec 2007)

* Christians in Iraq face liquidation (Sept – Oct 2008)

EXPERT TERRORISM IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

[ARE WE SEEING THE RESULTS OF ISRAEL AND INDIA'S "SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP" IN THE TERROR ATTACKS SWEEPING INDIA INTO A NEW AMERICAN-BACKED WAR ON PAKISTAN?] “The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

“This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

“Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

“It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans. ____David Ben Gurion, Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967

Mossad And India Spy Agency Team Up,

Target Pakistan

By Tariq Saeedi

Globe-Intel

5-19-2

“It is essential that we…strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.” — David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister.

Janes information group, the world’s foremost source on intelligence information, reported in July 2001 that “The Indian spy agency RAW and the Israeli spy agency Mossad have created four new agencies to infiltrate Pakistan to target important religious and military personalities, journalists, judges, lawyers and bureaucrats. In addition, bombs would be exploded in trains, railway stations, bridges, bus stations, cinemas, hotels and mosques of rival Islamic sects to incite sectarianism.”

Pakistani intelligence agencies also said that RAW had constituted a plan to lure Pakistani men between 20 and 30 years of age to visit India so that they could be entrapped “in cases of fake currency and subversion and then be coerced to spy for India.”

This was the high point of cementing an unholy alliance which began much earlier and which continues to tighten its noose around the neck of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

It appears that RAW and Mossad — either singly or jointly, either covertly or overtly — have been making efforts to penetrate sensitive circles of top echelon in Pakistan.

It cannot be said with certainty but there are some reasons to assume that Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, wittingly or unwittingly, played in the hands of RAW-Mossad masterminds. She appointed Rehman Malik as chief of the Federal Investigation Agency which then launched a secret war against the Islamists; amounting to a direct attack on the ISI.

War against religious extremists could have been a laudable goal but it seemed to target only those elements which could have brought a semblance of moderation to the religious swatch cutting across Pakistan society.

Thus, leaving the field wide open for extremists.

It seems that the Pakistani military was equally dismayed by reports of FIA contacts with the Israeli secret service, the MOSSAD, to investigate Islamist terrorists.

One of the first acts of President Leghari after dismissing Benazir Bhutto on November 5, 1996 was to imprison the Ghulam Asghar, head of FIA, suspended on non-specified corruption charges. Rehman Malik, Addl. Director General FIA, was also arrested.

Whether these actions were triggered as a consequence of plotting by RAW-Mossad planners or whether it was an entirely internal matter, it is difficult to say.

Bhutto s visit to India last year at a time when Pakistan was going through one of the worst crises in its history, and her statements there which aimed to undermine the whole foundation of Pakistan, generate more than a flicker of doubt in analytic minds.

The basic question arises: Who is Benazir Bhutto?

Leaving BB to her own fate, let’s return to RAW-Mossad connection.

What is clear right now is that Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad are collaborating extensively to curb the freedom movement of Kashmir and destabilize Pakistan.

The Indian newspaper The Pioneer wrote on March 3, 2001: Fencing of the Indo-Pak border is not enough. To check Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism, top security experts of Israel have suggested that hi-tech gadgets ranging from an electronic barrier system of radars to thermal imaging devices should be immediately installed on India’s sensitive international border in J[ammu] & K[ashmir] and Punjab sectors.

The team of experts, including officials of the Mossad, the Israeli Army and the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), also found shocking loopholes in the security arrangements relating to the much-talked about Samjhauta Express. They advised that instead of Lahore, the train should terminate on the Attari border. Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs said the Israeli experts surveyed the 198 km international border in Jammu and Punjab and reviewed the route of the Samjhauta Express with top officials of the Border Security Force.

Subsequently, former DG of the Border Security Force, E.N. Ram Mohan was appointed as the consultant on border management. Mr. Ram Mohan has recommended that besides radars, aerostate balloons and FLIR equipment be used.

India is keen to purchase surveillance aircraft (UAVs) from Israel to gain intelligence teeth. The UAVs could also help the state police in keeping an eye in naxalite-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh.

For several years, Mossad and Israel’s internal intelligence agency, Shinbhet, have utilised unmanned air vehicles to patrol the hypersensitive Gaza border.

Qutbuddin Aziz, former minister in Pakistan embassy in London, wrote an excellent article, titled ‘Dangerous Nexus between Israel & India.’ It was published by a prominent Pakistani newspaper on April 1, 2001.

Aziz writes: “Top secret details of Indian Home Minister LK Advani’s visit to Israel in June 2000, show that the deals he has struck with the Israelis would make India and Israel partners in threatening the Muslim world with diabolic conspiracies to fragment and cripple it as a political force in the world. The details of his meetings with Israel’s rulers, particularly the heads of the Israeli Home Ministry and its intelligence agencies, Mossad and Sabak, reveal that the arrangements he has made for joint Indo-Israel espionage operations in key areas of the Muslim world would make the Indian embassies in these Muslim countries the eyes and ears of the worldwide cloak-and-dagger Israeli spy network.

“Under the euphemism of ‘counter-terrorism,’ India is allowing Israel to establish a huge spy establishment in India which will, inter alia, unearth and monitor ‘Islamic fundamentalist’ individuals and groups for elimination by extra judicial process or by cold-blooded murder and kidnapping.

“The most important meeting Indian Home Minister Advani had during his three-day Israeli tour on June 13-16 was with the top brass of Israel’s intelligence agencies in Tel Aviv. Heading the Israeli team was the powerful chief of Israeli police, Yehuda Wilk, with the heads of the Israeli intelligence agencies, Mossad and Sabak, and military officials dealing with Israel’s punitive and espionage operations against Arabs in Israel, Palestine and neighbouring states such as Lebanon and Syria. Senior officials from the Israeli Foreign Office and the defence and home ministries attended this meeting. Israeli experts in bomb detection were also present.

“Mr. Advani’s large team included India’s highest-level spymasters such as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Mr. Shayamal Dutta, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Mr. R. K. Raghvan, the head of the Indian Border Security Force, Mr. E. M. Ram Mohan, Indian Home Ministry’s powerful Secretary K. Pande who oversees the work of the infamous Indian spy agency, RAW, and liaises with the Indian Foreign Office in respect of undercover RAW agents working in Indian embassies abroad, and a senior officer of India’s military intelligence agency (equivalent of Pakistan’s ISI).

“In this top-level meeting in Tel Aviv on June 14, Advani reportedly thanked the Israeli government for its immense help to India in security matters and spoke of the dangers India and Israel face from their common enemies, i.e., Muslim neighbours.

“Advani, it is reported, highly praised the help provided by Mossad and army commando personnel to the Indian army in the war on ‘Muslim militants’ in Kashmir and against ‘Muslim terrorists’ such as the ‘Memon brothers’ of Mumbai in Dubai. Advani said he had, throughout his political career, advocated India’s recognition and friendship with Israel and that his party had played a key role in forcing Congress government to have full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992.

“He lauded the Indo-Israeli cooperation in the military, economic and other fields. Advani recalled that India had voted in favour of a US-sponsored motion in the UN for rescinding a UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism. Mr. Advani explained at length India’s security problems in which the danger from Pakistan and Indian Muslims getting Arab money loomed large. Advani gave a long list of the special services in spying and the anti-insurgency devices and spy equipment India urgently needs from Israel to combat ‘Muslim terrorism.’

“In the June 14 Tel Aviv meeting, the Israeli Police Chief, Yehuda Wilk, profusely praised India for its friendship with Israel and pledged help to the Indian government in combating ‘Muslim terrorism’ that poses new threats to Israel and India. The heads of India’s intelligence agencies then briefed the Israeli side in the meeting on the ground situation in India in respect of ‘Muslim terrorists,’ especially in Jammu and Kashmir, and the new dangers coming up for India and Israel because of the Pakistani bomb and the fear that Pakistan may give its nuclear weapons to the anti-Israel Arabs.

“The Indian side showed a keen interest in learning from Israeli security experts how they had run the slice of Lebanon which Israel ruled for 18 years and gave up recently. Some information about the Israeli torture and investigation methods was gathered by the Indian side from the Israelis with regard to dealing with Arab dissidents within Israel and in the Palestinian Authority region.

“The Indians gave the Israelis a long shopping list of spying, torture and surveillance equipment such as electronic fencing of sensitive sites, laser systems, short-range rockets, eagle-eyed long distance snipers, observation blimps, giant shields, night vision device, unmanned aircraft of the MALAT wing of the Israeli Aircraft Industries Limited, special protective dress and gear for security personnel, cross border snopping devices and gadgets, training and deployment of spies and the special gear for them, use of computers and Internet for espionage and disinformation, code-breaking, tailing of enemy agents and their elimination, nuclear espionage, purloining state secrets of hostile countries and pooling them for the good of India and Israel and their mutual friends.

“The Israelis were interested in having access to the secret reports of Indian undercover RAW diplomats from certain Muslim countries of special interest to Israel (especially Pakistan, Libya and Iran). India is apparently willing to grant access to Israeli agents to the Indian Home Ministry’s Central Intelligence Processing Unit (CIPU) in New Delhi. This was recently set up under Advani’s direction with Israeli and US help. A handpicked RAW officer, trusted by Advani, heads this unit. Israel wants full access to its information data. The Indian government has already allowed access to it by American intelligence agencies now working with the Indian government on so-called anti-terrorist assignments.

Federation of American Scientists website comments on RAW in these words: “RAW has engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighboring countries. RAW has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure, rank, pay and perks of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.”

Tarek Fatah, a Turkish scholar settled in Canada, wrote: “Britain’s authoritative and respected defense publication, Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor, reports that Israel and India have formed a military relationship and that Israeli intelligence is active in Occupied Kashmir.

“It says: Israeli intelligence agencies have been intensifying their relations with India’s security apparatus and are now understood to be heavily involved in helping New Delhi combat Islamic militants in the disputed province of Kashmir…

Ed Blanche writes in Janes’ Security on 14 August 2001: “Israeli intelligence agencies have been intensifying their relations with India’s security apparatus and are now understood to be heavily involved in helping New Delhi combat Islamic militants in the disputed province of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state which lies at the core of the conflict with neighbouring Pakistan.

“Israel has several teams now in Kashmir training Indian counter-insurgency forces to fight the dozen separatist guerrilla groups operating in the Indian-controlled sector of the disputed state.

“The exact extent of the involvement in Kashmir by Israel s intelligence agencies is far from clear, but it fits into Israel’s increasing focus on events in Central Asia, and as far afield as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim state, to counteract Islamic fundamentalism, which it perceives as a major threat.

“Shimon Peres, currently Israel’s foreign minister, said during a visit to New Delhi in January 2001 (shortly before he took his current post in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coalition government) that Israel was prepared to co-operate with India to fight terrorism. Weeks earlier, an Israeli counterterrorism team, including military intelligence specialists and senior police commanders, paid a visit to Indian-administered Kashmir and other regions of the country that are grappling with anti-government militants to assess India’s security needs.

If there is still any doubt as to the real intentions of Israel, then please see this statement issued by David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister. His words, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967, leave nothing to imagination:

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

“This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

“Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

“It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans. ____

We are grateful to Tariq Saeedi for permission to reprint excerpts from his special report that appeared first in The Balochistan Post, http://www.balochistanpost.com .

A Blast From the Past. It’s Going to be Another HOT Summer

American Democracy 2006: Lebanon

more about “American Democracy 2006: Lebanon“, posted with vodpod

Connection between secret services, the mafia groups and terrorists in the Western Balkans

Connection between secret services, the mafia

groups and terrorists in the Western Balkans

26. November 2008. | 07:55

Source: EMportal, AP, BBC, Der Spiegel, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor, Kosovo Compromise, Express

Author: Nikos Arvanites

Secret services are combating terrorism, but their parts which are in the mafia or within the terrorist core for high profits or “higher goals”work for terrorist groups. Inside terrorism is becoming a soft connection between the mafia and political and ethnic extremist organizations.

The detention of three Germans in connection with a recent bomb attack on a European Union office in Pristina, Kosovo, has highlighted tensions over a plan to replace a nine-year UN presence with an EU mission and raised once more many question over the “New Kosovo”.

Last Saturday, a judge ordered the three suspects held for one month while prosecutors gather evidence for terrorism charges. The three are accused of carrying out a Nov. 14 dynamite attack that shattered glass windows at the EU office, but harmed no one.

The Pristina EXPRESS daily has published that  tje three German citizens, suspected of placing a bomb in front of the seat of the International Civilian Office, are actually members of German secret service BND.

The paper reported that BND has admitted that some members of its have been arrested, but rejected the allegations that it was they who mounted the bomb attack.

Quoting its sources, the daily states that the arrested persons have ordinary and not diplomatic passports and that they have been in Kosovo for several months now.

Citing court documents, the Associated Press reported that the Kosovo prosecutors believe the Germans “intended to disrupt the bloc’s efforts to deploy its new police mission.”

Prosecutor Feti Tunuzliu alleged that the three suspects wanted to “hamper and hinder” the mission, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Tunuzliu wrote that one of the suspects threw 300 grams (0.6 pounds) of dynamite at the EU offices from a building across the street Nov. 14 as the two others kept watch.

But the BBC reported that the three detained men insist they were themselves investigating the blast site.

German and Kosovo media report that the men are German intelligence agents but officials in Berlin refuse to comment.

Lawyers for the detainees say the prosecution is seeking terrorism charges that carry a maximum 20-year sentence.

The German weekly Der Spiegel said the men worked for the German intelligence agency BND, and that they told investigators they had been examining the scene of the explosion, but had not been involved in it.

The Christian Science Monitor reported, and later brokered a deal with Serbia over the deployment of a replacement EU mission. But now some in Kosovo reject the deal as an affront to the nation’s fledgling sovereignty.

A Reuters report noted that the Nov. 14 attack came four days after Kosovo leaders rejected the UN deal.

The AP reported that Kosovo can’t accept Serbia’s terms for the EU mission’s deployment.

The Bundestag should be officially informed on Thursday about the arrests of three alleged agents of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) in Kosovo, Radio Deutsche Welle said on Monday, stressing that German public security experts believe Albanian extremists are in fact behind the relevant bomb attack in Pristina.

All the circumstances involving this incident should be presented at a session of the German parliament’s intelligence oversight committee by BND Chief Ernst Uhrlau.

Politicians in Berlin also doubt that any German intelligence service members in Kosovo actually took part in the bomb attack on November 14 which resulted in material damages alone, Deutsche Welle said.

“Such things are beyond my imagination. It seems that these are arbitrary accusations, but they must be looked into, even as such,” Bundestag’s Supervisory Committee President, Social Democratic Party MP Thomas Oppermann said.

“It all smacks strongly of a plot that could be connected with the Kosovo government and its interests, and perhaps also with other (foreign) intelligence services or the local judiciary,” Committee member, Green Party MP Hans-Christian Stroebele said.

Secret services are combating terrorism, but their parts which are in the mafia or in the terrorist core for high profits or “higher goals”work for terrorist groups.

Inside terrorism is becoming a soft connection between the mafia and political and ethnic extremist organizations. The core activity of the influence of the mafia and terrorists is concentrated in the Albanian political movement, which skillfully uses the mafia as its allies and partners aiming at the independent Kosovo and great-Albanian politics in the western Balkans.

In the western Balkans there is a connection between the secret services, national and international, and criminal cartels, which are, indirectly or directly, influenced by terrorist groups.

The mafia has a major influence in the western Balkans and represents a “branch of economy” with a substantial profit. Included in the mafia affairs is the majority of “soldiers” and those considered to be “manpower”. Secret services are waging a global war against organized crime, but at the same time they are part of the system. The mafia gives support to financing or ethnic terrorism in the other logistics.

Secret services are combating terrorism, but their parts which are in the mafia or within the terrorist core for high profits or “higher goals”work for terrorist groups. Inside terrorism is becoming a soft connection between the mafia and political and ethnic extremist organizations.

In Kosovo and Metohija there is the strongest connection between the mafia and separatist movement on the one hand, and terrorist groups on the other.

The secret service of Kosovo, which is in the process of establishment, largely builds on the former police structures of Albanians that were educated till 1991 and after 1991 in Albania.

The Albanian movement has a big influence on the network of secret services in Kosovo and Metohija (over 20), which are, in various ways, present in the country with their interests and goals.

The core activity of the influence of the mafia and terrorists is concentrated in the Albanian political movement, which skillfully uses the mafia as its allies and partners aimed at the independent Kosovo and great-Albanian politics in the western Balkans.

The strategy for combating terrorism is to focus on organized crime and the reform of secret services whose information is of importance to the mafia that uses it excessively because of the connection.

NSA’s reported eavesdropping on Tony Blair causes major rift in U.S.-British intelligence relations

NSA’s reported eavesdropping on Tony Blair causes major rift in U.S.-British intelligence relations By Wayne Madsen

(WMR) — Revelations by ABC News that the National Security Agency (NSA) kept an intercept file on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, including information on his “private life,” has sent shock waves through the British and American intelligence communities.

ABC News reported that files on Blair’s communications were maintained in a NSA database code-named “Anchory” and was accessible from the NSA regional signals intelligence site at Fort Gordon, Georgia, known as “NSA Georgia.” The facility focuses on intercepting communications in Europe and the Middle East.

The NSA and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have worked closely together and share signals intercepts, as well as mutual signals intelligence tasking via the Echelon system. There is an unofficial agreement that the United States and Britain will not eavesdrop on one another. The only exception is when GCHQ tasks NSA with listening in on British citizens inside the United Kingdom, for example, members of the Royal family, and vice versa, when NSA tasks GCHQ to eavesdrop on Americans inside the United States in order to skirt U.S. wiretapping laws.

British intelligence sources have told WMR that the real concerns in Britain are that if Blair’s phone calls were monitored by NSA it means there has been a breach within the secure Brent 2 telephone used by British officials to protect their communications from eavesdroppers. The phone, which uses highly sophisticated encryption capabilities, is not likely to have had its codes broken by NSA, according to British intelligence sources. The fear in British intelligence circles is that British intelligence officials conspired with NSA to listen in on Blair’s communications.

The Brent 2 secure telephone unit is manufactured by Selex Communications, a part of the Italian industrial group Finmeccanica. The encryption used by Brent 2 was designed by the Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG), the information assurance component of the GCHQ in Cheltenham, England. CESG is now a focus of British counter-intelligence agents. Selex is also getting a close look by British counter-intelligence.

There is another fear. The Brent 2 phone continues to be used by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other senior British officials. The NSA eavesdropping on Britain may have also captured and may still be intercepting the sensitive communications, including those up to TOP SECRET UK EYES ONLY, of Brown, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Defense Secretary John Hutton, and other officials who rely on Brent 2, including Queen Elizabeth II. Brent 2 is also used to encrypt e-mail, faxes, and video links.

The revelations about U.S. eavesdropping on Blair may provide a clue to Blair’s avid support for the United States attack on and occupation of Iraq. If Blair’s private life yielded embarrassing information from the phone intercepts, it may explain why Blair jumped so quickly to support George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy.

UPDATE 1X. There is the possibility that any intercepts of Tony Blair’s private communications have also fallen into the hands of parties not part of the UK-USA signals intelligence alliance of the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. WMR reported the following on September 18, 2005 concerning the compromise of the Anchory database to Israeli intelligence: CIA sources have confirmed that the neo-con penetration of NSA’s raw telecommunications intercept data by John Bolton was part of a multi-pronged attempt by Israeli intelligence to access the “Fort Knox” of America’s cryptologic secrets: the massive repository database of global intercepts of phone calls, email, faxes, and telexes now known as “ANCHORY” but will soon be expanded into a super database code named “OCEANARIUM.” As a result of former NSA Director Michael Hayden’s outsourcing contracts named “Groundbreaker” and “Trailblazer,” companies with ties to Israeli intelligence are gaining increased access to NSA’s operations and its massive archives of secrets.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2008 WayneMadenReport.com

India: Hindu supremacist terror network had ties to military

By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones
27 November 2008

The police investigation into the synchronised September 29 bombing attacks in Malegaon, a city in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, and Madosa, in the neighbouring state of Gujarat, has rattled India’s political establishment.

The police have thus far arrested 11 people, while indicating that others, potentially many others, may yet be implicated in what they have termed an “extensive” Hindu-extremist terror network.

The arrested include a lieutenant colonel attached to the Indian Army’s Military Intelligence Corps and a retired army major. Two of the suspects, a Hindu sadhu (holy man) and a sadhvi (holy woman), have long-standing and extensive contacts with prominent politicians and businessmen. All of the alleged principals in the bombing plot have ties to one or more of India’s major “Hindu-nationalist” organisations: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the official opposition in India’s parliament, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council), and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS.

The police have said that they are investigating whether those arrested, or their as-yet-unidentified associates, are responsible for other terrorist atrocities, including the 2007 Samjhuata train bombing, which killed 68 people, most of them Pakistanis, travelling to Pakistan from India.

The Malegaon bombing killed 5 Muslims and injured more than 80 others, while the Madosa bombing resulted in one death.

Although the September 29 bombings clearly targeted Muslims—they were set off near mosques—the police and press immediately blamed them on Islamicist terrorists, and a number of Muslims were subsequently caught up in a police dragnet.

But less than two weeks later, the Maharashtra state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said it had uncovered evidence that the bombing attacks were carried out by Hindu extremists and made the first in a series of arrests. Initially, the ATS named the sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who was long active in the BJP’s student movement, as the mastermind of the plot.

Later, the ATS arrested Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Purohit. He is now said to have led the terrorist cell that carried out the Malegaon bombing. He is alleged to have given military training to the other suspects and, even more importantly, to have provided them with the military-grade explosive RDX.

Purohit and retired army Major Samir Kulkarniand, who also helped train the alleged bombers, are reputed to be the co-founders of Abhinav Bharat (AB, Young India Society)—a fanatical Hindu-supremacist organisation established in 2006 ostensibly to defend Hindus and fight against their “oppression.”

RDX was used in the Malegaon bombings and several other recent terrorist atrocities in India. Since RDX is very difficult to obtain, its use has been cited by Indian authorities, until now, as proof that those perpetrating the bombings must be from Islamicist organisations with ties to Pakistani or Bangladeshi military-intelligence agencies.

Purohit’s arrest has shaken India’s military high command. It has rushed to dismiss him as a single rogue officer. But there have been repeated media reports suggesting several other current army officers have been implicated in the terrorist plot.

Monday’s Indian Express reported that Purohit has implicated a serving Indian Army colonel, and a television broadcast, later that same day, claimed five army officers are being investigated for their links with the Abhinav Bharat.

The November 12 arrest of a self-styled Hindu sadhu named Dayanand Pandey has also caused considerable disquiet in the Indian establishment.

In pleading yesterday for a Mumbai court to authorise the continued detention and interrogation of Pandey, a government lawyer said that police have recovered evidence from Pandey’s laptop showing he had several meetings with Sadhvi Thakur and Lt. Col. Purohit shortly before the September 29 bombings. Special Prosecutor Rohini Salian claimed that in a video clip on Pandey’s computer, he, “Sadhvi, Purohit and other persons, whose name cannot be disclosed, are seen talking about RDX, chemicals, hand grenades and training.”

The head of a shrine in Kashmir, Pandey was, according to news reports, frequently visited by high-profile politicians and businessmen.

The exposure of a Hindu-supremacist terrorist network has thrown the BJP and its allies in the Sangh Parivar, a “family” of organisations historically led by the RSS, into crisis.

Initially, the BJP tried to distance itself from the sadhvi Thakur, but very quickly this gave way to a campaign aimed at discrediting and derailing the police investigation.

The BJP has long hailed the ATS, denouncing as traitors anyone who questioned, let alone criticised, its actions, including its frequent use of mass arrests. India’s official opposition has also repeatedly attacked India’s Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for rescinding the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which among other things placed the burden of proof in terrorist cases on the accused.

But in recent weeks, the BJP has suddenly found much wrong with the ATS. The BJP has suggested that, under pressure from the government, it is targeting Hindu holy people and other Hindus, demanded that it immediately provide proof against the accused or let them go, and trumpeted claims by Purohit and his associates that the police have tortured them.

Bal Thackeray, the supremo of the Shiv Sena, a longtime ally of the BJP, has forthrightly accused the ATS of framing the Malegaon bombing accused. But he also said that if they did orchestrate the bombings, they should be defended because such murderous attacks on Muslims are justified.

Campaigning yesterday in Delhi, where state elections are soon to be held, the BJP chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, accused the Congress of maligning the military by imputing that it is involved in terrorist activities. “What Pakistan was not able to do in the last 20 years,” declared Modi, “the Manmohan Singh government has achieved in just 20 days. They have succeeded in branding our soldiers as terrorists.”

The exposure of a Hindu-supremacist terror network is extremely damaging for the BJP not just because some of the accused have long-standing ties to the BJP and/or its sister Hindu-supremacist organisations.

The BJP has long made clear that it intends to place at the centre of its campaign in the next national election, which must be held in the first half of 2009, the spurious charge that the Congress is “soft” on terrorism. For years, the BJP has claimed that the UPA government will not “crack down” on terrorism because of “vote bank politics”—that is, its alleged fear of alienating Muslim voters.

Nor can it be ruled out that prominent cadres of one or more of the major Hindu supremacist organisations could themselves be implicated in the Hindu terrorist network. The VHP, RSS, and BJP all have a long and bloody record of inciting violence against India’s religious minorities.

The Indian Express claimed earlier this week that Lt. Col. Purohit told India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia was instrumental in founding the Abhinav Bharat.

The government has responded to the Hindu right’s vehement campaign in defence of the accused in the Maleagon bombing with a series of conciliatory gestures. After BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani charged that the sadhvi Thakur had been “physically and psychologically tortured” by police, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arranged for Advani to receive a briefing from National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan.

In a further attempt to get the BJP-RSS leader “on side,” police have reportedly revealed to them that Purohit’s group had plans to assassinate one or more senior RSS leaders.

This could well be true. The Hindu right is a toxic and highly unstable political movement. In recent years, the RSS and BJP, many of whose senior leaders, Advani included, are lifelong RSS activists, have been criticised, with increasing vehemence, by fellow Hindu supremacists, including the VHP leadership. The BJP, for example, has been chastised for not more aggressively pursuing key Hindutva causes, including the building of a Hindu temple at the site of the razed Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya and eliminating Kashmir’s special constitutional status, when it led a national coalition government from 1998 to 2004.

If the Malaegon bombers did plot to assassinate RSS leaders it would have been with a double purpose, with the aim of eliminating “traitors” to Hindutva and providing a pretext for inciting violence against Muslims, since such an attack would invariably have been blamed on “Muslim extremists.”

India’s corporate media and political and military-security establishments have expressed shock at the phenomenon of Hindu-supremacist terrorism.

But this is only because they have been willfully blind.

Willfully blind because it has served their ends to present the problem of terrorism in India as exclusively “foreign-born” and blind because they do not want to acknowledge the extent to which the “world’s largest democracy” has given rise to an aggressive Hindu communalism, in which fascist elements flourish, and their own complicity in this process.

Evidence of the existence of Hindu-supremacist terrorists significantly predates the events of September 29.

In April 2006, two leaders of the VHP’s youth movement, the Bajrang Dal, were killed when a bomb they were building exploded in Nanded, a city in southeastern Maharashtra. Four others injured in that explosion later told authorities that the dead had been responsible for a series of bomb blasts in 2003 and 2004.

In 2007, a further explosion in Nanded killed two people including a Shiv Sena activist.

The Times of India, in a report published November 8, said that at the time of the first Nanded explosion, police were provided evidence of the extensive involvement of retired military and Intelligence Bureau personnel in training Hindu extremists, but these ties were not aggressively investigated.

Even more importantly, there is the long record of Hindutvite-led and inspired mass violence against religious minorities—violence that has repeatedly demonstrated the Hindu supremacists’ willingness and ability to perpetrate murder and terror. To mention only the two most notorious examples: the 1992 razing of the Babri Majid mosque, which led to the worst communal rioting since the 1947 partition of India, and the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, which killed some 2,000 and left a further 100,000 homeless.

ONCE AGAIN, ANOTHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (INDIA) CAUGHT STAGING TERROR ATTACKS

[SEE: ANOTHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCY STAGING ANOTHER FALSE-FLAG TERRORIST ATTACK,

India: Hindu supremacist terror network had ties to military]

Is Purohit the man who knows too much?

27 Nov 2008, 0539 hrs IST, Pranati Mehra & S Balakrishnan, TNN

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s ATS chief Hemant Karkare met the national security advisor (NSA) M K Narayanan and the chief of Army intelligence in Delhi

on Tuesday along with two of his officers, sources told TOI on Wednesday.

Parambir Singh and Sukvinder Singh, both additonal commissioners working with Karkare, accompanied him to Delhi.

The meeting came a day after the ATS lost face in the MCOCA court of Mumbai when the special judge Y D Shinde refused to give ATS the custody of the Sadhvi and Lt-Col P S Purohit though it was the first court hearing after the police had invoked MCOCA.

The MCOCA hearing had been marked by allegations of torture in ATS custody by most of the accused. But the meeting in Delhi could have been on weightier issues. The ATS’s faux pas in the Nashik court last Saturday when it alleged Purohit’s role in the Samjhauta train blast of February 2007, has put the Indian government in a bind.

The meeting of home secretaries of India and Pakistan is taking place in Islamabad this week and the ATS’s allegation against Purohit may come handy to that country to debunk India’s claims that the Samjhauta blast was the handiwork of the ISI.

Sources also say the role of Purohit was discussed in further detail. The officer’s lawyer had argued in court that he had done some of the best operations in the country and the Indians should be proud of him. Purohit has worked in intelligence in J&K and would have been privy to some very sensistive information.

The Centre fears that if Purohit discloses to the court or to the media, after his release on bail, details of covert operations carried out by him for military intelligence then it would internationally face a major embarrassment. Purohit had taken part in several sensitive operations in J& K and Northeast.

What is also worrying the Centre is the disclosure made under narco-analysis by both Purohit and another accused Chaturvedi that non-Wahabi Muslims had taken part in the conspirary to plant bombs in Malegaon. If this is true then it reveals a nexus between fanatic Hindu elements and certain Muslim groups. The Centre is also concerned that so far the exact source of RDX believed to have been smuggled by Purohit has not been identified so far.

Experts doubt Al Qaeda link in Mumbai attacks

By Mark McDonald

The men came wearing black hoods, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades, taking hostages, attacking two hotels, a cinema, a café, a train station and other popular and undefended “soft targets.”

An e-mail message to Indian media outlets that claimed responsibility for the bloody attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday night said the militants were from the Deccan Mujahideen.

Global terrorism experts said Thursday they had never heard of the group. And based on its tactics, they said, it was probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda.

“It’s even unclear whether it’s a real group or not,” said Bruce Hoffman, a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the author of the book “Inside Terrorism.” “It could be a cover name for another group, or a name adopted just for this particular incident.”

Chrtistine Fair, senior political scientist and a South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was careful to say that the identity of the terrorists could not yet be known. But she insisted the style of the attacks and the targets in Mumbai suggested that the militants were likely to be Indian Muslims – and not linked to Al Qaeda or the violent South Asian terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

“There’s absolutely nothing Al Qaeda-like about it,” she said of the attack. “Did you see any suicide bombers? And there are no fingerprints of Lashkar. They don’t do hostage taking, and they don’t do grenades.”

Hoffman agreed that the assault was “not exactly Al Qaeda’s modus operandi, which is suicide attacks.”

But he said the timed attacks, which he called “tactical, sophisticated and coordinated,” perhaps pointed to a broader organization behind the perpetrators. Fair also noted that the fact the group had not proclaimed its ideology in a manifesto was “not at all unusual.”

“You don’t see these types of terrorist operations very often, if at all,” Hoffman said. “These aren’t just a bunch of radical guys coming together to cause mayhem.

“This takes a different skill set. It doesn’t take much skill to make a bomb. This is not just pressing a button as a suicide bomber and dying. You don’t learn this over the Internet.”

The word Deccan describes the middle and south of India, which is dominated by the Deccan Plateau. Mujahideen, of course, is the commonly used Arabic word for holy fighters. The very name – if it is a real group – suggests a domestic agenda.

“It’s maybe not so much a group as a cell that will take on a name for a specific operation,” said Fair. “In India you hear these unusual names.”

Fair did not agree that the attacks on Wednesday necessarily required deep planning and training.

“This wasn’t something that required a logistical mastermind,” she said. “These were not hardened targets. A huge train station with zero security. Two hotels with no security, both owned by Indians. Leopold’s Café. How hard is it, really? It’s not rocket science.”

Fair believes the attacks could be “yet another manifestation of domestic terrorism” that has its genesis in a longstanding institutional discrimination against Muslims.

“There are a lot of very, very angry Muslims in India,” she said, “The economic disparities are startling, and India has been very slow to publicly embrace its rising Muslim problem. You cannot put lipstick on this pig. This is a major domestic political challenge for India.”

The CIA puts the population of India at 1.15 billion, with Hindus making up about 80 percent of the total and Muslims 13.4 percent.

Fair said one incident – “a watershed event” – that continues to anger Muslims were the riots that swept nearby Gujarat State in 2002. The violence killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.

“The public political face of India says, ‘Our Muslims have not been radicalized.’ But the Indian intelligence apparatus knows that’s not true. India’s Muslim communities are being sucked into the global landscape of Islamist jihad.

“Indians will have a strong incentive to link this to Al Qaeda. ‘Al Qaeda’s in your toilet!’ But this is a domestic issue. This is not India’s 9/11.”

For Hoffman, who has studied terrorism for more than 30 years, the Mumbai attacks are “alarming on a number of levels.”

“It’s not often that things in terrorism alarm me. So much is a repeat of what we see almost every day, like suicide bombings. There’s no real innovation in terrorism, which is why 9/11 was so terrifying, because it was so innovative and heinously clever.

“But these attacks show how a handful of men, basically using weapons off the shelf, can paralyze a city and frustrate highly trained security forces. These attacks were calculated to spread alarm and anxiety – to put it quite frankly, to unhinge things – and that’s exactly what they’ve done.”

Karzai: Iran not supporting militants

Karzai: Iran not supporting militants
Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:40:45 GMT

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (L) and Hamid Karzai (R)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has hailed Iran’s support for the Afghan nation, dismissing claims that Iran is supporting militants.

“There has been no evidence to prove that Iran has been supporting Afghan militants,” he said in a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Kabul on Wednesday.

“Iran has so far provided Afghanistan with a high amount of aid,” the Afghan President said.

The US and UK have repeatedly accused Iran of supporting Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

Karzai also said that he was powerless to halt US air strikes across his country and he would stop American warplanes if he could.

The US-led attacks on Afghan villages have so far killed scores of Afghan civilians.

On Tuesday, President Karzai demanded the UN to set a “timetable” for ending the US-led military intervention in the war-torn country.

Afghan president wishes he could down U.S. planes

Afghan president wishes he could down U.S.

planes

KABUL, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday he would bring down U.S. planes bombing villages if he could, in a sign of growing tension between Afghanistan and its Western backers as the Taliban insurgency grows in strength.

As Western dissatisfaction with Karzai has grown over his failure to crack down on corruption and govern effectively, the Afghan president, facing elections next year, has hit back over the killing of dozens of civilians in foreign air strikes.

In recent weeks, Karzai has repeatedly blamed the West for the worsening security in Afghanistan, saying NATO failed to target Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan and calling for the war to be taken out of Afghan villages.

“We have no other choice, we have no power to stop the planes, if we could, if I could … we would stop them and bring them down,” Karzai told a news conference.

He said that if he had something like the rock attached to a piece of string, known as a chelak in Dari, used to bring down kites in Afghanistan, he would use it.

“If we had a chelak, we would throw it and stop the American aircraft. We have no radar to stop them in the sky, we have no planes,” he said. “I wish I could intercept the planes that are going to bomb Afghan villages, but that’s not in my hands.”

Afghanistan has suffered its worst violence this year since U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, with at least 4,000 people killed, around a third of them civilians.

Despite the presence of 65,000 foreign troops backing 130,000 Afghan security forces, Taliban insurgents have grown increasingly confident in their traditional heartland in the south and east and have also extended their influence close to the capital, Kabul. (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Giles Elgood)

WAVE OF TERROR SWEEPS OVER INDIAN FINANCIAL CENTER

more about “Google News“, posted with vodpod

Mumbai Attacks To Be Blamed On Pakistan?

Paul Joseph Watson

Coordinated attacks across Mumbai, India’s financial capital, which have killed up to a hundred people and injured hundreds more, are likely to be blamed on a terrorist organization linked to the Pakistani ISI, providing further justification for controversial U.S. bombings inside Pakistani territory and heightened rhetoric against Pakistan on behalf of President elect Barack Obama.

Terrorists armed with AK-47’s and grenades conduced a series of rampages on hotels, restaurants and public transport facilities today, killing around 80 and injuring over 250 people. Initial reports that terrorists had seized western hostages were later dismissed by Indian government officials.

With the corporate media desperate to pin the blame in order to score much needed propaganda points for the ailing war on terror, suspicion is likely to fall on Pakistan, a country that President elect Barack Obama openly threatened during his presidential campaign.

The bombings in Mumbai will also likely silence questions about controversial U.S. bombing raids inside Pakistani territory aimed at terrorists, strikes that have repeatedly killed innocent civilians.

It is commonly asserted that the Pakistani ISI helps fund and train terrorists.

Journalist Stephen Schwartz notes that several terrorist and criminal groups are “backed by senior officers in the Pakistani army, the country’s ISI intelligence establishment and other armed bodies of the state.” Author Daniel Byman states, “Pakistan is probably today’s most active sponsor of terrorism.”

Indeed, Indian police claimed that the Pakistani ISI directed the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai which killed 186 people, which was blamed on the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, an organization based in Pakistan. Look for the same organization or an affiliated group to be blamed for today’s attacks.

As Bloomberg reports today, “The government has previously blamed terrorist attacks on organizations linked to foreign powers, without offering evidence or making arrests. Local media often blame the attacks on groups backed by Pakistan or Bangladesh, without identifying the security officials who provided the information.”

With shrill corporate media outfits begging for a scapegoat to be used as war on terror propaganda, it won’t be long before an Al-Qaeda-Pakistan link is claimed. Indeed, early reports already state that the attacks are “thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda,” offering no evidence and in spite of the fact that an unknown group, Deccan Mujahideen, has clamed responsibility for the massacre. The Deccan Plateau is a large plateau in India, suggesting this is where the terrorist group was based.