Bizarre Video of Benazir Bhutto’s Head of Security at Her Last Rally Before Assassination.

Bizarre Video of Benazir Bhutto’s Head of Security at Her Last Rally Before Assassination.

The man in charge of her security, Khalid Shahenshah, kept looking over his left shoulder, then ducking-down (as if getting out of the line of fire), he then makes the hand across the throat motion (universal kill sign) and then motions towards her with his eyes.  Not Suspicious at all!

Benazir’s security guard killed

Karachi (PTI): Senior Pakistan People’s Party functionary, who was also part of slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto’s security detail, was killed by unidentified gunmen in this southern port city on Tuesday.

Khalid Shahenshah, who was part of Ms Bhutto’s security detail, was seriously injured in the attack by the gunmen. He was rushed to Ziauddin Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Moscow would support any US endeavour to take away Islamabad’s atomic weapons

Russia considers Pakistan its principal nuclear threat: Expert

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Apr 11 (PTI) Describing Pakistan as the “principal” nuclear threat to Russia, an eminent foreign policy and security expert has claimed that Moscow would support any US endeavour to take away Islamabad’s atomic weapons in case of any destabilisation in the Islamic nation[Is this a confession, ala TTP  foreign-sponsored campaign of destabilization?]

“Russian authorities for many years have been indicating that Pakistan was a much more serious problem, both for nuclear proliferation and for nuclear terrorism, than Iran,” Alexei Arbatov, Chairman of the Non-Proliferation Programme of Carnegie Moscow Centre, said at a recent seminar here.

“Russia has been living already for more than a decade within reach of Pakistani nuclear missiles and without any means to defend against them. So Russia considered and considers Pakistan to be the principal threat from the point of view of nuclear proliferation,” he said.

Arbatov was a member of the Russian Parliament from 1994 to 2003 and Deputy Chairman of the Defence Committee. Author of several books, he is also a member of the Advisory Council to the Foreign Minister and heads a panel on strategic planning for the Scientific Board of the Security Council of Russian Federation. PTI

Piracy in the Red Sea: Saudi points towards Israel

Piracy in the Red Sea: Saudi points towards Israel

By Habib Trabelsi – Middle East Online First Published November 25, 2008

Not only do columnists and analysts openly accuse Israel of sponsoring acts of piracy that multiply off Somali waters, but they also do not hide their fears of an internationalization of security in the Red Sea, where Israel plays a decisive role.
“What is happening in the Horn of Africa is not a simple case of piracy. These acts of piracy raise various questions about the capabilities and equipment of simple outlaws who are seeking ransoms,” wrote Tuesday (November 25) Nawaf Al-Meshal Sabhan in the Saudi daily Al-Iqtissadia.

“These acts triggered statements on the internationalization of the Red Sea, in which the enemy state of Israel would be a crucial element,” he adds.

“Who has got an interest in such an internationalization?” Asks the analyst, echoing “another disturbing development represented by the decision of a shipping company (AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator) to divert its huge merchant fleet from Suez Canal and take the route via the Cape of Good Hope.”

“Who has got an interest in putting pressure on Egypt, by diverting cargo ships of Suez Canal and by making Egypt lose daily income of over $15 million?” the analysts asks again.

“Who is behind acts of piracy?” Was the headline of the daily Al-Riyadh’s editorialist Dr. Hashem Abdou Hashem.

“These repeated acts of piracy are premeditated. They are sponsored by a State or organization, in any case by a party seeking to create tension, concern and instability in the Red Sea in order to achieve strategic interests,” he wrote.

According to him, “this party seeks to convince the international community to monitor the sea on the pretext of ensuring the safety of navigation, ensuring energy supplies and preventing supplies of arms to troublemakers in the region,” referring particularly to the Islamist militia “Shebab” who control much of Somalia.

Red Sea: “the lung of Arabia”

More explicitly, Jalal Aref wrote Monday in al-Youm that Arab countries bordering the Red Sea “are now faced with four dangers: The internationalization of security in the Red Sea with the pretext of fighting piracy, Israel’s covetousness of seeking to play a key role in the Red Sea, the theft of Arab oil through piracy, without counting the blow to navigation in the Suez Canal.”

The daily Al-Iqtissadiya asked in its editorial Monday “how hackers may have means of air defense, missiles guided by satellites, computers and advanced navigation equipment.”

“This means that some countries close an eye on these acts of piracy for strategic, political and economic reasons,” added the newspaper, pointing out that “the Red Sea is the only waterway in the world where residents are Arab dominant … and it must remain so.”

Amin Sa’ati, a Saudi expert, demonstrated in a long article published the same newspaper that “the security of Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea are inseparable (…) since 30% of global crude, including the one of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, pass through the Red Sea, the bulk of our desalinated water resources comes from the Red Sea, and our imports and exports pass largely through the Red Sea. “

“The Red Sea is our lung (…). The kingdom must convene a meeting of countries bordering the sea to develop a mechanism for strategic cooperation. But it seems that foreign forces do not want stability in the region. Israel remains the main obstacle to such cooperation,” added the expert.

Besides Saudi Arabia, eight other countries bordering the Red Sea are: Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia and Israel.

Yemen: mobilize Arabs

Last October, Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh called on Arab countries bordering the Red Sea to “assume their responsibility” to remove any pretext for an internationalization of security in the sea.

His appeal came shortly after a decision by NATO to strengthen its military presence in the Indian Ocean against piracy off Somalia, in coordination with the European Union (EU).

Saleh went to Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia for that matter. His foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Korbi, had claimed that Riyadh was “conducive to cooperation among Arab countries bordering the Red Sea to ensure the security of the sea.”

Speaking on November 20 in Cairo at a meeting of Arab officials bordering the Red Sea, Korbi said that the multinational naval presence in the southern part of the Red Sea was “a danger to Arab national security.”

Since the diversion of Saudi supertanker, the “Star Sirius” on November 15 by pirates off Somali waters, the Saudi press has been publishing echoes of several Arab journalists and analysts, including Egyptians, who warn against “Israel’s aims for playing a key role in the Red Sea” and against “a US-European control of this strategic sea.”

Israel in Islamists’ line of fire

Israel is also condemned by Islamists on Internet sites which are full of inflammatory articles, including one written by the former Secretary General of Kuwaiti Salafist Movement, Sheikh Hamed Al Ali.

“The aims of the Zionist enemy in the Red Sea have never ceased,” wrote the Islamist cleric on his website, illustrating his long article with a quote by a former commander of the Israeli navy regarding “a diabolical plan” which aims to “transform the Red Sea into a Jewish lake.”

Sheikh al-Ali also lists examples of “the Zionist military engagement in Ethiopia,” particularly “sophisticated aircraft-radars and 60 military Zionists experts.”

That is why Sheikh al-Ali called the mujahideen in Somalia “to eliminate pirates whose irresponsible acts will be exploited by western hackers to the benefit of the diabolical Zionist plan and to abort the Islamic project in Somalia.”

The Shebab, who called piracy an offence to Islam, threatened to attack the pirates if they will not release the “Star Sirius.”
www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=28928

Operation in Islamabad slums; 513 taken into custod

Operation in Islamabad slums; 513 taken into custody

Updated at: 1949 PST,  Sunday, April 12, 2009
Operation in Islamabad slums; 513 taken into custody ISLAMABAD: Police has launched a crack down against criminals and suspected terrorists in the slums of Islamabad.

According to Geo News correspondent 513 persons have so far been taken into custody while further action is underway in Sector G-12 of Islamabad.

The crack down was started after a formal approval from police high ups.

“OSAMAGATE”

I THOUGHT THAT THIS MIGHT BE A GOOD TIME TO REVISIT AN OLD FAVORITE BY MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY.  WHEN I TRIED TO ACCESS IT, MY COMPUTER CRASHED, EVERY TIME.  I FINALLY HAD TO GET THERE VIA THE “HIDDEN ACCESS” SITE I KEEP RECOMMENDING TO YOU. SOMEBODY DOESN’T WANT US TO READ THIS.  (DON’T FORGET AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE’S HAND IN THE BALKANS, NOW THAT HE IS POINT MAN FOR THE DISMEMBERMENT OF PAKISTAN.)

“Now the Taliban will pay a price” vowed President George W. Bush, as American and British fighter planes unleashed missile attacks against major cities in Afghanistan. The US Administration claims that Osama bin Laden is behind the tragic events of the 11th of September. A major war supposedly “against international terrorism” has been launched, yet the evidence amply confirms that agencies of the US government have since the Cold War harbored the “Islamic Militant Network” as part of Washington’s foreign policy agenda. In a bitter irony, the US Air Force is targeting the training camps established in the 1980s by the CIA.

The main justification for waging this war has been totally fabricated. The American people have been deliberately and consciously misled by their government into supporting a major military adventure which affects our collective future.

“OSAMAGATE”

by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montréal
Posted at globalresearch.ca 9 October 2001

Confronted with mounting evidence, the US Administration can no longer deny its links to Osama. While the CIA admits that Osama bin Laden was an “intelligence asset” during the Cold War, the relationship is said to “go way back”. Most news reports consider that these Osama-CIA links belong to the “bygone era” of the Soviet-Afghan war. They are invariably viewed as “irrelevant” to an understanding of present events. Lost in the barrage of recent history, the role of the CIA in supporting and developing international terrorist organisations during the Cold war and its aftermath is casually ignored or downplayed by the Western media.

Yes, We did support Him, but “He Went Against Us”

A blatant example of media distortion is the so-called “blowback” thesis: “intelligence assets” are said to “have gone against their sponsors”; “what we’ve created blows back in our face.”1 In a twisted logic, the US government and the CIA are portrayed as the ill-fated victims:

The sophisticated methods taught to the Mujahideen, and the thousands of tons of arms supplied to them by the US – and Britain – are now tormenting the West in the phenomenon known as `blowback’, whereby a policy strategy rebounds on its own devisers. 2

The US media, nonetheless, concedes that “the Taliban’s coming to power [in 1995] is partly the outcome of the U.S. support of the Mujahideen, the radical Islamic group, in the 1980s in the war against the Soviet Union”.3 But it also readily dismisses its own factual statements and concludes in chorus, that the CIA had been tricked by a deceitful Osama. It’s like “a son going against his father”.

The “blowback” thesis is a fabrication. The evidence amply confirms that the CIA never severed its ties to the “Islamic Militant Network”. Since the end of the Cold War, these covert intelligence links have not only been maintained, they have in become increasingly sophisticated.

New undercover initiatives financed by the Golden Crescent drug trade were set in motion in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. Pakistan’s military and intelligence apparatus (controlled by the CIA) essentially “served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia.” 4

Replicating the Iran Contragate Pattern

Remember Ollie North and the Nicaraguan Contras under the Reagan Administration when weapons financed by the drug trade were channeled to “freedom fighters” in Washington’s covert war against the Sandinista government. The same pattern was used in the Balkans to arm and equip the Mujahideen fighting in the ranks of the Bosnian Muslim army against the Armed Forces of the Yugoslav Federation.

Throughout the 1990s, the Pakistan Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was used by the CIA as a go-between — to channel weapons and Mujahideen mercenaries to the Bosnian Muslim Army in the civil war in Yugoslavia. According to a report of the London based International Media Corporation:

“Reliable sources report that the United States is now [1994] actively participating in the arming and training of the Muslim forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina in direct contravention of the United Nations accords. US agencies have been providing weapons made in … China (PRC), North Korea (DPRK) and Iran. The sources indicated that … Iran, with the knowledge and agreement of the US Government, supplied the Bosnian forces with a large number of multiple rocket launchers and a large quantity of ammunition. These included 107mm and 122mm rockets from the PRC, and VBR-230 multiple rocket launchers … made in Iran. … It was [also] reported that 400 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran) arrived in Bosnia with a large supply of arms and ammunition. It was alleged that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had full knowledge of the operation and that the CIA believed that some of the 400 had been detached for future terrorist operations in Western Europe.

During September and October [1994], there has been a stream of “Afghan” Mujahedin … covertly landed in Ploce, Croatia (South-West of Mostar) from where they have traveled with false papers … before deploying with the Bosnian Muslim forces in the Kupres, Zenica and Banja Luka areas. These forces have recently [late 1994] experienced a significant degree of military success. They have, according to sources in Sarajevo, been aided by the UNPROFOR Bangladesh battalion, which took over from a French battalion early in September [1994].

The Mujahedin landing at Ploce are reported to have been accompanied by US Special Forces equipped with high-tech communications equipment, … The sources said that the mission of the US troops was to establish a command, control, communications and intelligence network to coordinate and support Bosnian Muslim offensives — in concert with Mujahideen and Bosnian Croat forces — in Kupres, Zenica and Banja Luka. Some offensives have recently been conducted from within the UN-established safe-havens in the Zenica and Banja Luka regions.

(…)

The US Administration has not restricted its involvement to the clandestine contravention of the UN arms embargo on the region … It [also] committed three high-ranking delegations over the past two years [prior to 1994] in failed attempts to bring the Yugoslav Government into line with US policy. Yugoslavia is the only state in the region to have failed to acquiesce to US pressure.5

“From the Horse’s Mouth”

Ironically, the US Administration’s undercover military-intelligence operations in Bosnia have been fully documented by the Republican Party. A lengthy Congressional report by the Republican Party Committee (RPC) published in 1997, largely confirms the International Media Corporation report quoted above. The RPC Congressional report accuses the Clinton administration of having “helped turn Bosnia into a militant Islamic base” leading to the recruitment through the so-called “Militant Islamic Network,” of thousands of Mujahideen from the Muslim world:

Perhaps most threatening to the SFOR mission – and more importantly, to the safety of the American personnel serving in Bosnia – is the unwillingness of the Clinton Administration to come clean with the Congress and with the American people about its complicity in the delivery of weapons from Iran to the Muslim government in Sarajevo. That policy, personally approved by Bill Clinton in April 1994 at the urging of CIA Director-designate (and then-NSC chief) Anthony Lake and the U.S. ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith, has, according to the Los Angeles Times (citing classified intelligence community sources), “played a central role in the dramatic increase in Iranian influence in Bosnia.

(…)

Along with the weapons, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and VEVAK intelligence operatives entered Bosnia in large numbers, along with thousands of mujahedin (“holy warriors”) from across the Muslim world. Also engaged in the effort were several other Muslim countries (including Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkey) and a number of radical Muslim organizations. For example, the role of one Sudan-based “humanitarian organization,” called the Third World Relief Agency, has been well documented. The Clinton Administration’s “hands-on” involvement with the Islamic network’s arms pipeline included inspections of missiles from Iran by U.S. government officials… the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA), a Sudan-based, phoney humanitarian organization … has been a major link in the arms pipeline to Bosnia. … TWRA is believed to be connected with such fixtures of the Islamic terror network as Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the convicted mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing) and Osama Bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi émigré believed to bankroll numerous militant groups. [Washington Post, 9/22/96] 6

Complicity of the Clinton Administration

In other words, the Republican Party Committee report confirms unequivocally the complicity of the Clinton Administration with several Islamic fundamentalist organisations including Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

The Republicans wanted at the time to undermine the Clinton Administration. However, at a time when the entire country had its eyes riveted on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Republicans no doubt chose not to trigger an untimely “Iran-Bosniagate” affair, which might have unduly diverted public attention away from the Lewinsky scandal. The Republicans wanted to impeach Bill Clinton “for having lied to the American People” regarding his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the more substantive “foreign policy lies” regarding drug running and covert operations in the Balkans, Democrats and Republicans agreed in unison, no doubt pressured by the Pentagon and the CIA not to “spill the beans”.

From Bosnia to Kosovo

The “Bosnian pattern” described in the 1997 Congressional RPC report was replicated in Kosovo. With the complicity of NATO and the US State Department. Mujahideen mercenaries from the Middle East and Central Asia were recruited to fight in the ranks of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1998-99, largely supporting NATO’s war effort.

Confirmed by British military sources, the task of arming and training of the KLA had been entrusted in 1998 to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Services MI6, together with “former and serving members of 22 SAS [Britain's 22nd Special Air Services Regiment], as well as three British and American private security companies”.7

The US DIA approached MI6 to arrange a training programme for the KLA, said a senior British military source. `MI6 then sub-contracted the operation to two British security companies, who in turn approached a number of former members of the (22 SAS) regiment. Lists were then drawn up of weapons and equipment needed by the KLA.’ While these covert operations were continuing, serving members of 22 SAS Regiment, mostly from the unit’s D Squadron, were first deployed in Kosovo before the beginning of the bombing campaign in March. 8

While British SAS Special Forces in bases in Northern Albania were training the KLA, military instructors from Turkey and Afghanistan financed by the “Islamic jihad” were collaborating in training the KLA in guerilla and diversion tactics.9:

Bin Laden had visited Albania himself. He was one of several fundamentalist groups that had sent units to fight in Kosovo, … Bin Laden is believed to have established an operation in Albania in 1994 … Albanian sources say Sali Berisha, who was then president, had links with some groups that later proved to be extreme fundamentalists. 10

Congressional Testimonies on KLA-Osama links

According to Frank Ciluffo of the Globalized Organised Crime Program, in a testimony presented to the House of Representatives Judicial Committee:

What was largely hidden from public view was the fact that the KLA raise part of their funds from the sale of narcotics. Albania and Kosovo lie at the heart of the “Balkan Route” that links the “Golden Crescent” of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the drug markets of Europe. This route is worth an estimated $400 billion a year and handles 80 percent of heroin destined for Europe. 11

According to Ralf Mutschke of Interpol’s Criminal Intelligence division also in a testimony to the House Judicial Committee:

The U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization, indicating that it was financing its operations with money from the international heroin trade and loans from Islamic countries and individuals, among them allegedly Usama bin Laden” . Another link to bin Laden is the fact that the brother of a leader in an Egyptian Jihad organization and also a military commander of Usama bin Laden, was leading an elite KLA unit during the Kosovo conflict. 12

Madeleine Albright Covets the KLA

These KLA links to international terrorism and organised crime documented by the US Congress were totally ignored by the Clinton Administration. In fact, in the months preceding the bombing of Yugoslavia, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was busy building a “political legitimacy” for the KLA. The paramilitary army had –from one day to the next– been elevated to the status of a bona fide “democratic” force in Kosovo. In turn, Madeleine Albright has forced the pace of international diplomacy: the KLA had been spearheaded into playing a central role in the failed “peace negotiations” at Rambouiillet in early 1999.

The Senate and the House tacitly endorse State Terrorism

While the various Congressional reports confirmed that the US government had been working hand in glove with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, this did not prevent the Clinton and later the Bush Administration from arming and equipping the KLA. The Congressional documents also confirm that members of the Senate and the House knew the relationship of the Administration to international terrorism. To quote the statement of Rep. John Kasich of the House Armed Services Committee: “We connected ourselves [in 1998-99] with the KLA, which was the staging point for bin Laden…” 13

In the wake of the tragic events of September 11, Republicans and Democrats in unison have given their full support to the President to “wage war on Osama”.

In 1999, Senator Jo Lieberman had stated authoritatively that “Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights and American values.” In the hours following the October 7 missile attacks on Afghanistan, the same Jo Lieberman called for punitive air strikes against Iraq: “We’re in a war against terrorism… We can’t stop with bin Laden and the Taliban.” Yet Senator Jo Lieberman, as member of the Armed Services Committee of the Senate had access to all the Congressional documents pertaining to “KLA-Osama” links. In making this statement, he was fully aware that that agencies of the US government as well as NATO were supporting international terrorism.

The War in Macedonia

In the wake of the 1999 war in Yugoslavia, the terrorist activities of the KLA were extended into Southern Serbia and Macedonia. Meanwhile, the KLA –renamed the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC)– was elevated to United Nations status, implying the granting of “legitimate” sources of funding through United Nations as well as through bilateral channels, including direct US military aid.

And barely two months after the official inauguration of the KPC under UN auspices (September 1999), KPC-KLA commanders – using UN resources and equipment – were already preparing the assaults into Macedonia, as a logical follow-up to their terrorist activities in Kosovo. According to the Skopje daily Dnevnik, the KPC had established a “sixth operation zone” in Southern Serbia and Macedonia:

Sources, who insist on anonymity, claim that the headquarters of the Kosovo protection brigades [i.e. linked to the UN sponsored KPC] have [March 2000] already been formed in Tetovo, Gostivar and Skopje. They are being prepared in Debar and Struga [on the border with Albania] as well, and their members have defined codes. 14

According to the BBC, “Western special forces were still training the guerrillas” meaning that they were assisting the KLA in opening up “a sixth operation zone” in Southern Serbia and Macedonia. 15

“The Islamic Militant Network” and NATO join hands in Macedonia

Among the foreign mercenaries now fighting in Macedonia (October 2001) in the ranks of self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA), are Mujahideen from the Middle East and the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Also within the KLA’s proxy force in Macedonia are senior US military advisers from a private mercenary outfit on contract to the Pentagon as well as “soldiers of fortune” from Britain, Holland and Germany. Some of these Western mercenaries had previously fought with the KLA and the Bosnian Muslim Army. 16

Extensively documented by the Macedonian press and statements of the Macedonian authorities, the US government and the “Islamic Militant Network” are working hand in glove in supporting and financing the self-proclaimed National Liberation Army (NLA), involved in the terrorist attacks in Macedonia. The NLA is a proxy of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In turn the KLA and the UN sponsored Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) are identical institutions with the same commanders and military personnel. KPC Commanders on UN salaries are fighting in the NLA together with the Mujahideen.

In a bitter twist, while supported and financed by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, the KLA-NLA is also supported by NATO and the United Nations mission to Kosovo (UNMIK). In fact, the “Islamic Militant Network” –also using Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) as the CIA’s go-between– still constitutes an integral part of Washington’s covert military-intelligence operations in Macedonia and Southern Serbia.

The KLA-NLA terrorists are funded from US military aid, the United Nations peace-keeping budget as well as by several Islamic organisations including Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Drug money is also being used to finance the terrorists with the complicity of the US government. The recruitment of Mujahideen to fight in the ranks of the NLA in Macedonia is implemented through various Islamic groups.

US military advisers mingle with Mujahideen within the same paramilitary force, Western mercenaries from NATO countries fight alongside Mujahideen recruited in the Middle East and Central Asia. And the US media calls this a “blowback” where so-called “intelligence assets” have gone against their sponsors!

But this did not happen during the Cold war! It is happening right now in Macedonia. And it is confirmed by numerous press reports, eyewitness accounts, photographic evidence as well as official statements by the Macedonian Prime Minister, who has accused the Western military alliance of supporting the terrorists. Moreover, the official Macedonian New Agency (MIA) has pointed to the complicity between Washington’s envoy Ambassador James Pardew and the NLA terrorists. 17 In other words, the so-called “intelligence assets” are still serving the interests of their US sponsors.

Pardew’s background is revealing in this regard. He started his Balkans career in 1993 as a senior intelligence officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff responsible for channeling US aid to the Bosnian Muslim Army. Coronel Pardew had been put in charge of arranging the “air-drops” of supplies to Bosnian forces. At the time, these “air drops” were tagged as “civilian aid”. It later transpired –confirmed by the RPC Congressional report– that the US had violated the arms embargo. And James Pardew played an important role as part of the team of intelligence officials working closely with the Chairman of the National Security Council Anthony Lake.

Pardew was later involved in the Dayton negotiations (1995) on behalf of the US Defence Department. In 1999, prior to the bombing of Yugoslavia, he was appointed “Special Representative for Military Stabilisation and Kosovo Implementation” by President Clinton. One of his tasks was to channel support to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which at the time was also being supported by Osama bin Laden. Pardew was in this regard instrumental in replicating the “Bosnian pattern” in Kosovo and subsequently in Macedonia…

Justification for Waging War

The Bush Administration has stated that it has proof that Osama bin Laden is behind the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. In the words of British Prime Minister Tony Blair: “I have seen absolutely powerful and incontrovertible evidence of his [Osama] link to the events of the 11th of September.” 18 What Tony Blair fails to mention is that agencies of the US government including the CIA continue to “harbor” Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.

A major war supposedly “against international terrorism” has been launched by a government which is harboring international terrorism as part of its foreign policy agenda. In other words, the main justification for waging war has been totally fabricated. The American people have been deliberately and consciously misled by their government into supporting a major military adventure which affects our collective future.

This decision to mislead the American people was taken barely a few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. Without supporting evidence, Osama had already been tagged as the “prime suspect.” Two days later on Thursday the 13th of September –while the FBI investigations had barely commenced– President Bush pledged to “lead the world to victory”. The Administration confirmed its intention to embark on “a sustained military campaign rather than a single dramatic action” directed against Osama bin Laden. 19 In addition to Afghanistan, a number of countries in the Middle East were mentioned as possible targets including Iraq, Iran, Libya and the Sudan. And several prominent US political figures and media pundits have demanded that the air strikes be extended to other countries “which harbour international terrorism.” According to intelligence sources, Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda has operations in some 50 to 60 countries providing ample pretext to intervene in several “rogue states” in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Moreover, the entire US Legislature –with only one honest and courageous dissenting voice in the House of Representatives– has tacitly endorsed the Administration’s decision to go war. Members of the House and the Senate have access through the various committees to official confidential reports and intelligence documents which prove beyond doubt that agencies of the US government have ties to international terrorism. They cannot say “we did not know”. In fact, most of this evidence is in the public domain.

Under the historical resolution of the US Congress adopted by both the House and the Senate on the 14th of September:

The president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Whereas there is no evidence that agencies of the US government “aided the terrorist attacks” on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, there is ample and detailed evidence that agencies of the US government as well as NATO, have since the end of the Cold War continued to “harbor such organizations”.

Patriotism cannot be based on a falsehood, particularly when it constitutes a pretext for waging war and killing innocent civilians.

Ironically, the text of the Congressional resolution also constitutes a “blowback” against the US sponsors of international terrorism. The resolution does not exclude the conduct of an “Osamagate” inquiry, as well as appropriate actions against agencies and/or individuals of the US government, who may have collaborated with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. And the evidence indelibly points directly to the Bush Administration.


Notes

  1. United Press International (UPI), 15 September 2001.
  2. The Guardian, London, 15 September 2001.
  3. UPI, op cit,
  4. For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, Who is Osama bin Laden, Centre for Research on Globalisation, 12 September 2001, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html.
  5. International Media Corporation Defense and Strategy Policy, US Commits Forces, Weapons to Bosnia, London, 31 October 1994.
  6. Congressional Press Release, Republican Party Committee (RPC), US Congress, Clinton-Approved Iranian Arms Transfers Help Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base, 16 January 1997, available on the website of the Centre of Research on Globalisation (CRG) at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html. The original document is on the website of the US Senate Republican Party Committee (Senator Larry Craig), at http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1997/iran.htm)
  7. The Scotsman, Glasgow, 29 August 1999.
  8. Ibid.
  9. Truth in Media, Kosovo in Crisis, Phoenix, Arizona, 2 April 1999
  10. Sunday Times, London, 29 November 1998.
  11. US Congress, Testimony of Frank J. Cilluffo , Deputy Director, Global Organized Crime, Program director to the House Judiciary Committee, 13 December 2000.
  12. US Congress, Testimony of Ralf Mutschke of Interpol’s Criminal Intelligence Division, to the House Judicial Committee, 13 December 2000.
  13. US Congress, Transcripts of the House Armed Services Committee, 5 October 1999,
  14. Macedonian Information Centre Newsletter, Skopje, 21 March 2000, published by BBC Summary of World Broadcast, 24 March 2000.
  15. BBC, 29 January 2001, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1142000/1142478.stm)
  16. Scotland on Sunday, Glasgow, 15 June 2001 at http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/text_only.cfm?id=SS01025960, see also UPI, 9 July 2001. For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, Washington behind Terrorist Assaults in Macedonia, Centre for Research on Globalisation, August 2001, at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO108B.html.)
  17. Macedonian Information Agency (MIA), 26 September 2001, available at the Centre for Research on Globalisation at http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MNA110A.html
  18. Quoted in The Daily Telegraph, London, 1 October 2001.
  19. Statement by official following the speech by President George Bush on 14 September 2001 quoted in the International Herald Tribune, Paris, 14 September 2001.

The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO110A.html  [DON'T USE THIS LINK TO AVOID CRASH]

Horrors of KLA prison camps revealed

Michael Montgomery
BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents

The man spoke plainly as he explained the horrors he lived through in a Kosovo Liberation Army prison camp 10 years ago. He told me about how he watched people beaten with steel pipes, cut with knives, left for days without food, and shot and killed.

Factory used as prison by KLA

Civilians were detained by the KLA and kept in prisons where some were killed

“What can you feel when you see those things?” he said. “It’s something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not even to animals.”

As the man talked, his mother paced nervously in the nearby kitchen. She was panicked and tears were streaming down her face.

“They’ll kill him, they’ll kill him,” she moaned, clutching one of her grandchildren.

But her son persisted. We spent hours in the family’s sitting room as our source detailed allegations of possible war crimes by KLA officers in a military camp in the Albanian border town of Kukes.

It was a crucial interview for a delicate story I have been investigating for years.

Mystery of the missing

Soon after the war ended in Kosovo, I started looking into the thousands of civilians who disappeared during and after the conflict. Many Albanian victims were dumped in wells or transported to mass graves as far away as Belgrade.

LISTEN TO THE FULL REPORT
Kukes map

But others – mainly Serbs – simply vanished without a trace. There were no demands for ransom, no news of any kind.

I had met sources who spoke vaguely about secret camps in Albania where Kosovo Serbs, Albanians and Roma were interrogated, tortured and in most cases killed.

I met another source who agreed to share important details about KLA prison camps. This man cut a very different profile.

He had returned from a successful career abroad to join the KLA in its fight for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.

The man was still proud of the goals he fought for, but he had become haunted by the treatment of civilians he had seen at a KLA prison camp. More than that, he said he felt angry and betrayed by KLA commanders who tolerated and even ordered the abuses.

“It didn’t seem strange at the time,” he told me as he described seeing desperate civilians locked in a filthy agricultural shed.

Now, looking back, I know that some of the things that were done to innocent civilians were wrong
Former KLA Fighter

He said the civilians were Serbs and Roma seized by KLA soldiers and were being hidden away from Nato troops. The source believes the captives were sent across the border to Albania and killed.

“Now, looking back, I know that some of the things that were done to innocent civilians were wrong. But the people who did these things act as if nothing happened, and continue to hurt their own people, Albanians.”

This man was one of eight former KLA fighters who revealed some of their darkest secrets from the war.

A soldier’s story

Yet another source spoke of driving trucks packed with shackled prisoners – mainly Serbian civilians from Kosovo – to secret locations in Albania where they were eventually killed.

He recalled hearing two of the captives begging to be shot rather than tortured and “cut into pieces”.

“I was sick. I was just waiting for it to end,” the source told me. “It was hard. I thought we were fighting a war [of liberation] but this was something completely different.”

mountains

A long silence over the atrocities has held strong throughout Kosovo

It has taken these men 10 years to speak to an outsider about the dark side of the war. They were breaking a code of silence that has held strong in Kosovo.

Very few Kosovo Albanians have publicly revealed crimes committed by their own side. And for good reason. Witnesses who have agreed to provide testimony for prosecutions of KLA commanders have faced intimidation and death threats.

Some have been killed, according to United Nations officials in Kosovo.

There is another reason. All the men we spoke with insisted they were Kosovan patriots and would take up arms again to defend the country’s independence.

But that is precisely the point: independence – of a sort – arrived for Kosovo last year. Their wartime goal has been attained.

As one of the former KLA fighters told me: “Now is the time to be honest to ourselves and build a real state.”


Crossing Continents: Kosovo was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, 9 April 2009 at 1100 BST and repeated on Monday, 13 April at 2030 BST.

You can also listen to Crossing Continents on the BBC iPlayer or subscribe to the podcast .

BBC NEWS | The Kosovan disappeared

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted civilians in Kosovo who were then mistreated and in some cases killed, a BBC investigation has found.Kosovo Serbs, ethnic Albanians and gypsies were among an estimated 2,000 who went missing, both during and after the war in Kosovo, which ended in 1999.In this clip, Nick Thorpe visits the former UN headquarters where war crimes cases are stored, and Pristina hospital which holds the remains of hundreds of still unidentified people.

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HRW: BBC revelation on Kosovo Albanian crimes “extremely disturbing but hardly surprising”

HRW: BBC revelation on Kosovo Albanian crimes “extremely disturbing but hardly surprising”

12. April 2009. | 10:17

Source: Kosovo Compromise

Senior researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW) Fred Abrahams has said that a BBC documentary on secret camps managed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) and the murders of hundreds of Kosovo Serbs, Roma and Albanians, is extremely disturbing, but hardly surprising.

Senior researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW) Fred Abrahams has said that a BBC documentary on secret camps managed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) and the murders of hundreds of Kosovo Serbs, Roma and Albanians, is extremely disturbing, but hardly surprising.

In August 1999, two months following the end of the war and the arrival of the international peacekeeping force KFOR in Kosovo, HRW released a report about attacks on Serbs and Roma, Abrahams said. HRW knew already at that time that revenge attacks were taking place in plain sight of the international forces, he said, speaking for the Serbian-language service of Voice of America (VOA).

In May 2008, HRW sent a letter to the governments of Kosovo and Albania and to then United States (US) President George Bush seeking the opening of investigations into the fates of the Serbs who had gone missing in Kosovo, and also an improvement of the situation concerning human rights of minorities in the environments where they live, Abrahams said.

No reply was received.

The two governments rejected these accusations, he said, but BBC investigative reporters are now starting to collect evidence about it all.

Hundreds of persons went missing or were executed , Abrahams said.

According to the figures of the United Nations (UN) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the number of missing ethnic Albanians is around 1,500 and of Serbs around 400. These Serbs went missing after June 1999.

It is especially important to underscore that the mentioned abductions and disappearances took place in the presence of the UN and NATO, Abrahams pointed out. These organizations must provide the answer how this could have happened and say whether they had carried out actual investigations, he said.

Specifically, the UN administration in Kosovo UNMIK should be asked whether they seriously took into consideration the allegations about these kidnappings and murders and whether they had launched an investigation, and, if not, why they failed to do so, Abrahams told VOA.

It is important to stress that the BBC documentary shows that Serbs were not the only victims, he said.

The UCK carried out kidnappings, tortured and murdered also members of their own nation, ethnic Albanians.

This is therefore not an ethnic issue. Many of the victims were Serbs, that is undeniable, but there were also ethnic Albanians among them, Abrahams said.

Testimony about KLA/CIA Tortures

thaci-klaMadeleine Albright (left) shakes hands with KLA terrorist Hashim Thaci (right)

Serbia’s Top Spy Was CIA

Testimony about KLA tortures

12. April 2009. | 10:02 10:30

Source: EMportal, BBC, BIRN

Two media organisations conducted an investigation and concluded that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted civilians in Kosovo a decade ago, mistreated — and in some cases — killed them.

Two media organisations conducted an investigation and concluded that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted civilians in Kosovo a decade ago, mistreated — and in some cases — killed them.

The BBC and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network published their conclusions on Thursday. They quoted sources who said Kosovo Serbs, ethnic Albanians and Romas were among the estimated 2,000 people who went missing during and after the 1999 war.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci rejected the allegations. He acknowledging that some individuals “abused the KLA uniforms” after the war but stressed that the KLA had distanced itself from such acts.

An anonymous Albanian from Kosmet, former prisoner of KLA, has testified for the BBC radio that members of that para-military formation had tortured Kosmet civilians of various ethnic backgrounds, including the Serbs.

The witness, who had been imprisoned in the Kukes camp in northern Albania, has said that knives, pistols and automatic rifles were used for torture.

The British radio has conducted an investigation that has shown how during and after the war of 1999 KLA was kidnapping the civilians in the Province, torturing them and killed many of them.

The sources have told that radio that among 2,000 missing persons there are Serbs, Albanians and Roma from Kosmet, reads the web site of the London radio.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted civilians in Kosovo who were then mistreated and in some cases killed, a BBC investigation has found.

Kosovo Serbs, ethnic Albanians and gypsies were among an estimated 2,000 who went missing, both during and after the war in Kosovo, which ended in 1999.

In this clip, Nick Thorpe visits the former UN headquarters where war crimes cases are stored, and Pristina hospital which holds the remains of hundreds of still unidentified people.

Vekaric: investigation on “yellow house” in northern Albania

Serbian War Crime Prosecution Spokesperson Bruno Vekaric has stated that the investigation is under way relating to the allegations of a surgery room existing in a “yellow house” in northern Albania, where organs were extracted from the kidnapped Kosmet Serbs, and it is yet to be established what was going on there.

We have evidence of a surgery room being set in that house, Vekaric told the Russia Today TV, and specified that in the UNMIK report that the Serbian bodies have obtained it is stated that the UN Mission investigators had found several penicillin bottles there.

The Russia Today TV has reminded that the UNMIK investigators and Serbian Prosecution are accusing KLA members for the kidnappings of Serbs and trade with their body organs in the black market.

Former Chief Hague Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has written in her book that the Tribunal had got the information about Kosmet Albanians transferring between n100 and 300 people from Kosmet to northern Albania, after the arrival of NATO to the Province in 1999.

However, the Russian TV also reports that there is evidence of these crimes being done even in Tirana or maybe FYRMacedonia.
EULEX confirms KLA torture camp probe

EULEX officersThe European Union rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, says it has launched a probe into KLA torture camps in northern Albania following an investigative report published by BIRN.

EULEX said it was gathering information related to “a detention camp” and would launch a formal investigation if enough evidence is uncovered.

BIRN’s online publication, Balkan Insight, published an investigation story on Thursday, revealing the existence of several KLA camps in northern Albania. It revealed that during and after the Kosovo conflict of 1998-99, Albanian and non-Albanian civilians were kept, tortured and eventually killed.

“EULEX can confirm that it is gathering information on various allegations related to the so-called ‘Yellow House’ and a detention camp,” reads an official statement from the mission’s press department, issued immediately after the report was published. The “Yellow House” is were Serbs where allegedly stripped of their organs during the conflict as part of an organ trafficking operation.

“If there is enough information, about any of these cases, we will launch an official investigation. We are not at that stage at the moment,” the statement reads.

EULEX has an exclusive mandate on investigating war crimes and organised crime in Kosovo. The mission, which became fully operational on April 6, consists of some 1900 international staff, including police and customs officers, judges and prosecutors.

The Fruits of Appeasement

The Fruits of Appeasement

By Zahid Hussain

The gruesome scene of a young girl being flogged in public illustrates the brutal rule the Taliban have enforced in the Swat valley, raising serious questions about the government’s policy of appeasement of militants trying to push the country back to the Dark Ages.

The two-minute video showing a black-turbaned man holding down the girl’s feet, another her head while a third man hits her with a leather strap, has shaken the nation and exposed the brutal face of the illiterate mullahs holding sway in a large part of northwestern Pakistan.

The incident, which took place in Kabal district in January and surfaced only recently, is a stark reminder of where Pakistan is heading if the growing threat of Islamic extremism is not checked. The government and the military have surrendered the valley to the militants, who are responsible for the killing of hundreds of people. The so-called peace deal has legitimised the Taliban brutalities, and emboldened the radicals – who now aim to spread their influence to other parts of the country.

The 17-year-old girl was punished for stepping out of her house with her father-in-law, an act the Taliban described as un-Islamic. “For God’s sake stop it,” the girl pleaded in Pashtu as the bearded man beat her. Her shrieks failed to move the men who watched the wretched spectacle quietly. She was dragged to her house after the punishment.

Muslim Khan, spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), Swat, confirmed the incident, insisting that the girl had illicit relations with her father-in-law who, according to him, was also punished. “The punishment was in accordance with Islamic Shariah,” the militant leader declared, adding that under Shariah she should have been stoned to death.

This was not the first such incident of violence against women perpetrated by the Taliban. Human rights activists say that flogging is part of a pattern of violence against women by the Taliban in Swat and other areas of the northwest that they control. “There have been many incidents where women have been killed by the Taliban on allegations of being wayward,” says Asma Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Over the past year, scores of women have fallen victim to the Taliban’s brutal rule. A woman councillor, Bakhat Zeba, was shot dead outside her house earlier this year in Mingora after she criticised the Taliban’s decision to stop girls from going to school. There have also been cases of rape and women being punished for refusing the marriage proposals of members of the Taliban. The government has failed to take action against the people involved in these crimes. In fact, several militants involved in heinous crimes have been released by the provincial administration after the controversial peace deal.

After the withdrawal of the army to the barracks, the region is now effectively controlled by Islamic radicals who continue to run checkposts. Government officials take orders from Taliban leaders. The fighting may have stopped after the peace agreement, but militant violence continues unabated.

The Taliban are openly defying the agreement and have refused to surrender their weapons. On April 1, armed Taliban blew up the house of Amir Muqam, a former federal minister and opposition member in the National Assembly. But the provincial government has completely capitulated, leaving the population at the mercy of marauders. “It is the peace of the graveyard,” says Jahangir.

Provincial Information Minister Iftikhar Hussein virtually defended the Taliban when he declared that the flogging video was released to sabotage the peace deal. “It was an old video of an incident which took place before the peace agreement,” he said. Even the Taliban could not have presented a better defence for their atrocities.

The role of the ANP – which leads the NWFP provincial government – has been pathetic to say the least. The so-called liberals appear to have been terrorised into surrender. By handing over Swat to the militants, they have opened the way for the Talibanisation of the entire province.

Condemnation [of the flogging] wasn’t unanimous. Some mainstream politicians and religious leaders defended the beating, saying the punishment was in line with Islamic law. “How can we term it un-Islamic?” asked Mufti Munibur Rehman, a leading Muslim scholar, in a televised debate. “This is the punishment that is written in the Holy Quran.” Munawar Hussain, the newly elected chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami declared the incident as “not a big deal,” exposing his party’s views on women and their support for militancy.

After NWFP, the militants are now moving to the Punjab. The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the assault on the police academy in Lahore raised fears that militant violence, which was mainly restricted to northwestern Pakistan, is now spreading to Pakistan’s heartland.

Seven cadets, a civilian and four attackers died in Monday’s raid, in which assailants – armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests – stormed the academy. More than 90 people were injured. Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the TTP, claimed responsibility for the bloody assault and warned of more such attacks until Islamabad stopped supporting the US.

Mehsud, for whom the US has posted a five-million-dollar reward, calling from an undisclosed location, told journalists: “This was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas.” There will be more such attacks, he warned, adding, “Our next attack will be much more devastating.” For Mehsud to personally claim responsibility for a terrorist action is rare.

The Taliban chief also signalled that he may be seeking to widen the scope of his fight beyond Pakistan. “Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world,’’ he said. The US has recently stepped up missile strikes on Mehsud’s stronghold in South Waziristan. A US official said the militant commander was their main target.

The Punjab had, until recently, been spared much of the violence, although some of Pakistan’s most potent Islamic militant groups originated in the region and still draw recruits from its poor, rural villages.

Pakistan has endured scores of suicide bombings in recent years, but the two major terrorist attacks last month indicate a changing pattern, with militants engaging in daring gun battles in the country’s main urban centres. Intelligence sources say that south Punjab has become the main recruiting centre for militant groups which continue to operate freely, despite being outlawed.

These militants, trained in the past by Pakistani intelligence agencies to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir, have been involved in fighting in the tribal regions, but they have now turned their focus to the Punjab. Intelligence reports have warned that many militants, including some Uzbeks, had entered the Punjab recently from tribal areas to target security installations.

It is quite evident that the attacks are becoming more organised and coordinated, indicating that more than one group is involved. Analysts say that the security services have yet to adapt to the new threat, and even politicians admit that the forces of law and order are not fully equipped to counter the growing threat.

Now What?

Taliban urge S Waziristan tribesmen to boycott govt

Sunday, April 12, 2009
By Our correspondent
WANA: To protest the government’s failure to stop frequent US drone attacks in Wana area of South Waziristan, the Taliban militants on Saturday urged the tribesmen to boycott the government and join an armed force for defending their homes and villages.

An unknown militant group, “Mujahideen-e-Waziristan,” issued the pamphlet, saying several appeals were made to the government to stop the US drones from flying over the tribal region and killing innocent people, including women and children. But, the militants complained, the government failed to take note of their sufferings and kept silent over continuous drone attacks. “The government has disappointed us and now we have no other option but to launch a war against it,” the group said.

It said keeping in view the sufferings of the people in face of the fighting, they decided to raise their own force in self-defence comprising Ahmadzai Wazir people inhabiting Wana area.

The Ahmadzai Wazir tribal militants led by Maulvi Nazeer have been critical of government’s alleged failure to stop the US drones from targeting the tribal areas, particularly in the North and South Waziristan tribal regions.

The Taliban circulated pamphlet in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, in which they warned the Ahmadzai Wazir tribesmen of severe punishments if they were found helping the government.

“If people in Wana were found helping the government after this threat, they would be responsible for the consequences,” the pamphlet warned.

Who Controls the Predators?

Paramilitary Pretense, Who Controls the Predators?

By: Peter Chamberlin

In a world where all the Western media and most of the foreign press has proven that it cannot be trusted to tell the truth we cannot possibly know who our soldiers are fighting in Pakistan or why.  Every news source gives another version of the “official truth” as determined by the powers that be.  We know that we are witnessing at least one strategic “great game” unfolding in the region, more likely, there are multiple psychological warfare operations playing-out in Pakistan’s western region.

When both American and Pakistani governments regularly lie about the Taliban that they fight and others that they want to fight, then it makes as much sense to find reports by someone who has interviewed the accused militants theselves.  The following quotes [in yellow] are from Pakistani Taliban TTP leader Maulvi Nazir, taken from an interview with him on the Islamic site As-Sahab.

Should we ever believe the word of a “terrorist/freedom fighter,” for that matter, should we ever believe words crafted by psy-operators?  Whatever the truth about this man’s words, the As-Sahab interview is a rare opportunity to peer into the mind of a TTP leader.

At 34, Mulla Nazeer Ahmad is representative of the new Taliban, just like his teammates Nek Mohammad, Baitullah Mehsud, Maulana Fazlullah and the Dadullah brothers.

abc_nazir_090318_mn

This is the new Taliban, most of them bearing the honorary title of “Mullah, Maulvi or Maulana,” because they are graduates of the radical Saudi/US Sunni madrassas where, from an early age, they were brainwashed, by studying radicalized texts, such as the disinformative “jihadi textbooks” which were produced for the CIA by the University of Nebraska’s Afghanistan Department.  Tutored in the guerilla sciences in the CIA/ISI training camps which were built for “jihad” against the Soviet occupation forces, too young to participate themselves, these “extremist” radicalized boys were ticking time bombs, awaiting the next jihad.

Here in the tribal areas, The Mujahideen are content with war. When there is no war, they start depressing. We are not afraid of war. War has raised the spirits of the Mujahideen.

This second-generation militant army was set into play as part of the long-range plans of the first extremist American president and vice president, Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., by the same two out-of-control spy agencies who had trained and armed their brothers and fathers in the eighties. The continuity of their plan determined US foreign policy for the next thirty years.  In 1996 a second extremist American president set these mujahedeen veterans and trainees loose upon the people of the former Yugoslavia.  Again, in 2001, a third extremist American administration called forth the militant militia, this time to play act the part of a mythic Islamic army of superpower stature.  From the remnants of the final battle of the Cold War arose “al Qaida,” the threatening slayer of superpowers.

This interview with Pakistani Taliban leader Nazir/”Nazeer” offers a unique glimpse into this “enemy” conjured-up by the CIA and the Pakistani secret service ISI, to represent all of the Islamic world in this apocalyptic Republican production of a “clash of civilizations.”  In contradiction to every story on the unfolding war against Pakistan that is carried by the subservient American, Pakistani, Indian and British presses, Nazir tries to set the record straight on who he is and who his men are fighting, before the Obama escalation gets underway and every unofficial news story gets swept away by the Western news filters.

Maulvi Nazir should know the truth about recent CIA/ISI collaboration in the war on terror, since he has lately been the focus of a psychological warfare operation known as the “Taliban split.”  For the past year he has been a special target of the most expensive manhunt in history, with Predator drones sweeping the land in “open season” hunts on Pakistani Taliban leaders. Dozens of remote controlled hunter/killers have prowled the skies over S. Waziristan trying to get a Hellfire missile shot at this slippery leader (they wounded him once).

In the interview, Nazir dispels the manufactured myth that he has been working with the Pakistani Army to separate the “moderate Taliban” from the unreconcilable “al Qaida” types.  He claims that the dispute within the Pakistani Taliban between himself and Baitullah Mehsud was brought about by the ISI to split the movement.  He denies that the Taliban have attacked anyone other than military forces, or that they were part of the group that attacked Mumbai, alluding to another militant group at work in the area.

We do not know the Mujahideen who sacrificed their lives in India, but we lament our loss that why we could not go forth ourselves to lay down our lives there. The sacrifice they offered was a very great one. It lofted the spirits of the Mujahideen. We pray for them and consider them to be sincere with Allah.
As for India, it should know that immense numbers of the Mujahideen lie await for them here in the tribal areas and inside Pakistan. If it proceeds to attack, then let it be aware that Allah willing, we are fully able to answer back and too ready to give away our lives.

He rejects the separate peace deal signed between the TNSM militant group led by Maulana Fazlullah as a deception to divide the organization.  He rejects the militant groups waging war against India in Kashmir as tools of ISI.

This is an affair running under the ISI and it is ludicrous to hope that the Shariah or Islam shall come this way. Thus the Jihad through which the ISI has put people into deception can bear no fruit. Our advice to those of our brothers is that they should support us here and join forces with us. We offer sacrifices to establish the Shariah and the law of Allah. The Kashmiri Jihad does not help us forward in achieving our objectives. There is a law of kufr in India and a law given by the British in Pakistan. One of these two brands of kufr shall prevail in Kashmir. It isn’t Islam that would reign…and so our sacrifices will go in vain.

It is our sincere advice to those of our Mujahid brothers that they should renounce servitude to the ISI.

Nazir refutes local conspiracy theories that claim his group works for, or is funded by India, Russia or Israel (but he fails to mention Iran).

These tribes have done Jihad against the British and the Soviets before this, and we simply are Mujahideen. This propaganda against us is absolutely false. We have rose for Jihad and give sacrifices to establish the rule of Shariah. The assertions that we have come from India and that MOSAD finances us are a stratagem of the ISI. We haven’t received money from anyone and have been Mujahideen from old times. These tribes have been sacrificing since the British era and are laying down their lives to this day. We fight with them in Afghanistan too and are enemies of the occupation forces there. Such propaganda is utterly false and groundless. Anyone who is in doubt should come here and observe us and have a look at the state of affairs…and then come to a decision about who gives us money…is it India or someone else? Pakistan has put the people in deception that India or perhaps Russia finances us. Come on! We have warred Russia before this! And we are enemies to India and MOSAD.

He says that the terror attacks against other Muslims at local markets and mosques are the work of the government or someone hired by the government.

Actually, it is the ISI that executes operations at mosques, not the Mujahideen. They are enemies to us and so they scare people about us being thugs and things like that. We are Mujahideen and we never carry out martyrdom operations in the vicinity of Muslims. It is the Army upon which we execute such operations. The Army is our target because it has aided the Americans. We do carry out martyrdom operations throughout Pakistan but we renounce and condemn those of them in mosques and marketplaces. It is our enemy that does it.

Nazir claims that all the “spies” who were executed lately for planting tracking devices for Predator drone attacks worked for the ISI.  Nazir also contends that the whole public uproar over the Predator attacks is a stage-managed production, since the ISI already controls the targeting of the drones by planting these SIM-card transmitters.

Pakistan has misled the common population that America carries out these attacks and we cannot do anything to stop them. All the spies that we have caught turned out to be employees of Pakistan. The location-tracking SIMs that they use had been provided by Pakistan. We have also released their video clips. The spyware and intelligence is fully associated with the Army. A couple of days ago, an American CIA officer confessed that Pakistan’s airbases are being used for these attacks and that Pakistan itself is involved in them. They have even threatened us themselves that it is we who are striking you and that either you should renounce Jihad or we would attack. The assertion that America is behind this and we are helpless is only meant to deceive the public. All these attacks that have happened and are still happening are the work of Pakistan.

The entire drama generated in the international media over these ongoing drone attacks has been intended to raise Americans’ temperatures and to agitate the Pakistani people into embracing a war against the American and Pakistani-created “Taliban.”  It is extremely difficult to understand why individuals within the Pakistani government and military would participate in this plot to dismember Pakistan.  The pay-off must have been irresistible.  It should be obvious by now that a large segment of Pakistan’s leaders work for the American government.

The purpose of the “Taliban split” psyop was to convince the people of Pakistan and the United States that there was a growing division between our governments, especially between our spy agencies.  We were supposed to believe that the Taliban were exclusively a Pakistani creation, forgetting that the entire operation was CIA from start to finish, in order to create a straw man foil to America’s role of hero, as it led a Western crusade to end this international “terrorist” operation.  Pakistan was to be our patsy in a genocidal operation, intended to sacrifice India and Pakistan to save the gods of Wall Street.

The entire Taliban/”al Qaida” operation from start to finish was a massive genocidal plot to sacrifice nation after nation (beginning with the Soviet Union), in order to preserve American capitalism.  The “jihadi” ideology was created to salvage “free market” ideology from the eventual consequences of its own unrestrained freedom to pursue profit.  Now that capitalism’s great moment of testing has arrived, the jihadi operation is being exploited to the fullest, in order that the military crisis might override the financial crisis and eventually provide the means to end both crises by presidential emergency powers and the mere stroke of a pen.

Forged in the fires of jihad, which burned in the sick and deranged mind of Ayatollah Khoemeni, in the latter nineteen-seventies, the British and American Zionists of MI6 and the CIA hatched this devastating plot to conquer the world.  In the mass panic and confusion that is sure to accompany this Christian/Jewish war on “radical Islam” the Western world could easily take possession of the Middle Eastern oil region and simultaneously eliminate the major source of resistance to the Zionist plans (if it can kick its public aversion to nuking civilian populations).

By bringing forth the first “colored revolution” in Iran, the spy-lords played upon the fears running rampent in the  minds of the Saudi royals, manipulating them by magnifying their fearful visions of an imminent fundamentalist revolution erupting amidst their own population, especially among the Shia minority. They convinced the Wahabbi leaders to finance and to organize an operation to transplant an outpost of militants, radicalized by their own corrupt religion, into the fringes of the Soviet empire, exporting their problem to the unsuspecting Pakistanis, whom them called “brothers.”

Through a succession of ploys and military campaigns, the ISI managed to keep this growing jihadi army busy fighting Pakistan’s enemies, or at least it managed to keep them divided through inter-tribal warfare and manufactured political splits.  The “Taliban split” was one of these manufactured divisions.  We were led to believe by Western media reports that this was a natural division that arose from differences of opinion within the ranks about proper tactics.

Pakistani and Indian sources played the conspiracy angle in the psyop, revealing that there was a foreign hand at work, causing the division.  The best conspiracy is one that functions by successfully ridiculing or maligning the unconcealable truth about itself.  There really was a foreign hand at work in the Frontier Region; in fact, several of them.

A second, non-Pashtun “Taliban” group had entered Pakistan, led by Guantanamo graduate Abdullah Mehsud.  This false “Taliban,” composed of several thousand mercenaries and thugs, was recruited from Uzbek and Afghan Northern Alliance fighters. Steadfast Iranian support for the Northern Alliance forces against the Taliban reveal Iran’s favorites in this struggle and may explain Pakistani Taliban financing, as well as indicate that Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan secret police (NDS) might be working for Iran.  He organized Abdullah’s present for Pakistan (to “poison the soil where terrorism grows”), with overwhelming CIA funds and expertise.  This may help explain the billions of missing dollars and missing weapons that have been reported.  Saleh has been a key player in the decades old psyop since he informed the CIA two days before the 911 attacks that charismatic Northern Alliance leader Massoud was assassinated.
Once in Pakistan, this false “Neo-Taliban” began to stage terror attacks and sow discord, bringing down the wrath of the Pakistani Army on the FATA supporters of the war against the American occupation forces.  This scuttled peace treaties between the Army and Taliban and instigated new conflict.  During this period mysterious anonymous attacks began against Taliban leaders, local Shiites and other civilian targets.

Maulvi Nazir and his tribesmen were encouraged to blame the local Uzbeks for the mischief of the invading Uzbek “neo-Taliban,” in an attempt to re-ignite the long-simmering Mehsud/Waziri feud.  They formed Lashkars of hundreds of local fighters and declared a mini-war against the “al Qaida” Uzbeks.  The Pakistani Army embraced the Lashkar idea and spread it among the tribes, claiming Nazir as a collaborator.  To enhance the idea that he was leading the “split,” local reporters such as “CIA mouthpiece” Syed Saleem Shahzid gave voice to the story, encouraging belief in the intra-Taliban war.

We are being targeted in drone attacks. I was targeted in a drone attack myself. How come we are Pakistan’s serving militia?! We are the soldiers of Islam and we are Mujahideen, not some Pakistani horde. In fact, we are hostile to Pakistan and we are an Islamic army. Pakistan attacked me and attacks the rest of our brother Mujahideen by their drone aircrafts. How can we be Pakistan’s men?

the Pakistani Army, as they have accepted servitude to the Americans. Pakistan is foremost among the forty, forty-five of America’s allies. About 75-80% of the captives at Cuba have been handed over by Pakistan. The others of America’s friends have not served it so well. About two to three hundred containers of American supplies cross from over Pakistani land daily. This is the extent to which Pakistan serves America. 70% of the assistance America receives is provided by Pakistan. They have martyred our Mujahid brothers; those of them who were leading us and were our elders. Whenever we raise our head, Pakistan pursues us. Thus we are compelled to war Pakistan. It is not because India or Russia has bribed us…not at all…rather, we have been compelled to do so. Pakistan does not leave us alone. Neither do they spare any base camp, nor do they spare any Mujahid. Rather they kill us even in our homes. So you should forsake Pakistan’s friendship and join the Mujahideen.

The Pakistani Army reacted to the ongoing terror and bent to the American will, beginning a series of operations against the heavily armed militants in Swat and Bajaur.  Into this brewing cauldron of division, the CIA began a highly-publicized concentrated series of Predator attacks upon the Pakistani Taliban which targeted Mullah Nazir but spared Mehsud.  The discrimination in targeting encouraged rumors that Mehsud worked for the CIA and Nazir worked for ISI.  This twisted operation was leading to its inevitable conclusion of total upheaval in Pakistan, when Pres. Obama came on the scene and began to “tweek” the program by targeting Baitullah Mehsud.  This too had its inevitable conclusion, in Maulvi Nazir’s own words:

All praise is to Allah, the Mujahideen have now joined forces; Gul Bahadur, Baitullah and we have all become one,”

The “Taliban split” between the S. Waziristan warlords has been miraculously healed by America’s airborne avengers, just as a new political rift was being opened between the Pakistani Taliban and their allies the TNSM of Sufi Mohamed and Maulana Fazlullah in Swat.  This completes the division process of separating the “reconcilable” Taliban represented by the Swat deal from the unreconcilables of Waziristan, opening the way for waging total war against the targeted Pushtun tribes.  [It is unknown at this time what changes, if any, will flow from Sufi calling-off the agreement today.]

The Pakistani Government is not sincere in their gesture with the people of Malakand. It is not true in its promise of giving them the Shariah system. This is no more than a warfare tactic of theirs. There is a war of Kalashnikovs and bullets and there is a war of politics.

With these individuals remaining in power, it is ridiculous to think that Shariah would ever be as it should be. These are cronies of America. Pakistan has the British law implemented in it, and its educational system is that devised by Lord Macaulay. With this at hand, we cannot accept the supposed Shariah. The Supreme Court remains imposed upon our heads and then they say: “We donate the Shariah to Waziristan while they work under us”…sorry, we can’t accept this.

It is true that there are no “moderate Taliban;” there are only Taliban. The Wahabbi madrassas produced only one kind of brain-washed student, the kind that believed the shortest path to heaven was through violent jihad.  This is exactly what the deranged CIA planners hoped for, when they planted the foundations of the jihadi university in Pakistan thirty years ago.  Pakistan is under attack from multiple directions today because of that partnership with the CIA.   For its own sake, the Pakistani Army must expunge itself of all the CIA collaborators from within its own ranks and within the government and establishment.  Only then will it be safe to proceed with eliminating the CIA mercenaries from its western and northern regions.

The truth about the claims that Nazir makes can only be confirmed by new revelations from inside sources, or by time itself.  His controversial claims about covert collusion between the secret services of Pakistan and the US seem to make sense, considering their dark shared history.   If looked at from a “great game” perspective, where everything is played-off against everything else, in a series of gambits to gain strategic advantage, it makes perfect sense.  Rumors of a secret FBI network embedded in FATA would explain the successful guided missile attacks upon key militants, but it seems more logical that Pakistani informants would blend more readily among the tribal militants than would American agents.  While it seems highly improbable that Army agents would bomb mosques and kill Shias, as Maulvi Nazir contends, his disavowal of guilt for these terrorist acts could point to another anonymous group staging false flag attacks, to be blamed on the local Taliban.  Likewise, insisting that there was no connection between his group and events in India and Kashmir does point the finger at ISI-connected groups, but it also, once again, raises the probability of a separate anonymous terror organization.  This other group is the one that must be exposed, if there is to be anything resembling peace in Pakistan’s future.

But the bearded mullah also raises the thorny issue of the Taliban’s true intentions.  Is there any possibility of a negotiated peace with the militant group?

our Jihad is against kufr, and to get back our lands that kufr has occupied, and our Jihad is meant to make supreme the Word of Allah and to establish the system of Shariah. Our Jihad isn’t limited to Pakistan or Afghanistan. We do not even accept these parting boundaries that “this shall be Pakistan” and “that shall be Afghanistan”…this is nothing but an inanity devised by the Jews and we reject it. All Muslims are our brothers, may they be in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Palestine or anywhere in the world. It is impossible to create division between Muslims, and the present partitions are utterly rejected. Our Jihad is a global Jihad, and we aim to liberate Muslims throughout the world and obliterate tumult, oppression and mischief, and establish the system of Shariah all over the world. We want the Law of Allah on the Land of Allah.

In this militant’s words (the same with them all), their goal is a global “caliphate,” just as the neocons claim.  But does this mean that overwhelming military force is the only answer to jihadi ambition?  In the most advanced cases, the answer obviously has to be “yes,” but in a majority of these contests, overwhelming military force is not the correct answer.  Since this type of religious-oriented militancy, feeds on violence, growing stronger with each self-defensive reaction, then the correct answer is to attack the illogical ideology that has misled the devout Muslim populations with superior moral force, true Islam.  In the case of a militant faith that enforces adherence to its warped religious tenets, such as “al Qaida” cites when  using violence to enforce their version of “Sharia Law,” the faithful naturally turn away from the mob in righteous indignation and sheer survivalism, whenever they see their own families and their beloved Prophet’s words brutalized.

Pakistan will likely choose to follow the path set by its secret rulers from afar, but it might also just decide to blaze an independent trail in its effort to deal with the Wahabbi militant threat.  If it chooses to accept the path of military escalation, then the entire region will be set ablaze, with all that that implies in a nuclear weapons zone.  But if its leaders can convince America to help them bottle-up the threat, while they fix the economic problems that feed the revolution and eliminate the foreign influence in the battle zone, then support for extremism would start to fade away just as it was doing in FATA and formerly did in Anbar Province in Iraq.  If, after restoring some sort of law and order to the region that Musharref destabilized in order to satisfy Bush and Cheney, Pakistan then seeks to revive this “moderate Taliban” search, that would be the time to re-introduce targeted assassinations in FATA, not before then.

peter.chamberlin@yahoo.com

Living Proof That There Be Monsters

With a Reunion Planned, Bush Eases Back Into the Public Eye

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Former President George W. Bush waves to the crowd before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch during the Texas Rangers game on opening day.

WASHINGTON — Condoleezza Rice will be there. So will Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett and Michael Gerson. And George W. Bush himself.  The old gang is getting back together next week in Dallas for a reunion of sorts, the Bush team’s first since leaving the White House. On tap is a dinner with the former president and a daylong discussion of the future George W. Bush Policy Institute.

Barely 80 days after turning the Oval Office over to President Obama, a tanned and rested Mr. Bush is emerging from seclusion to begin his postpresidency. He has started giving speeches, joined an off-road bicycle club, thrown out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opener and scheduled a trip to China to speak at an economic forum.

More important, Mr. Bush is trying to map out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Relatively young, at 62, and in good health, he plans to build a library, write a memoir and make some money, but he is also eager to use his time to promote the policies he cared about most while in the White House — and to help define his legacy.

More than most other former presidents, Mr. Bush faces a daunting challenge on that front. After the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis, he left office with some of the lowest poll numbers on record and may find it difficult rewriting the narrative of his tenure. But other former presidents — Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, for example — have managed to burnish their reputations after leaving office.

Not coming to next week’s session is former Vice President Dick Cheney, who in the final days of the administration argued with Mr. Bush about his refusal to pardon Mr. Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was convicted of perjury for his role in the leak of Valerie Wilson’s employment with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Cheney later went on television to air his grievances with Mr. Bush, while also accusing Mr. Obama of endangering the country.

That is an approach Mr. Bush has rejected. “He thinks President Obama deserves his silence,” said Mr. Bartlett, who was White House counselor. “He’s not going to be out there opining, second-guessing or flyspecking Obama’s decisions.”

Besides, he added, Mr. Bush is moving on. “He’s kind of getting a new cadence to his life,” Mr. Bartlett said. “He can hang out with a neighbor, go out for an evening and go down to Crawford if he wants.”

After about a month at their ranch near Crawford, Tex., Mr. Bush and his wife, Laura, moved into their new 8,500-square-foot house in Dallas. He stopped by a nearby elementary school and talked to a class at Southern Methodist University, where his library will be built. He paid a surprise visit to a hardware store whose owner had offered him a job in a tongue-in-cheek newspaper advertisement. And he has been using e-mail for the first time in eight years.

So far, he has delivered a paid speech in Calgary, Alberta, and has others scheduled soon in Michigan and China, though his office will not disclose his fees. (The Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents Mr. Bush, says on its Web site that he shares “candid insights on his eight years in the White House, his experiences with other world leaders, the nature of public leadership and decision making, and a wide variety of domestic and international issues.”)

As for his legacy, Mr. Bush plans to tackle the most controversial moments of his presidency head on, both in his memoirs and in his library, aides said. At the library, instead of a chronological format, he plans to present his presidency through 20 consequential decisions, most notably his decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. And instead of a full biography, his book will focus on a dozen key moments in his life, from quitting drinking to picking Mr. Cheney as his vice president.

The idea, aides said, is to put the reader or visitor in Mr. Bush’s shoes.

“People may conclude that they would have made a different decision, or maybe they’ll conclude they would have made the same decision,” said Mark Langdale, a longtime friend and president of the George W. Bush Foundation. “We’re trying to take the tradition of presidential libraries and come up with a new twist on how they can be relevant.”

The foundation has chosen an architect and is raising the first of $300 million it needs to build the library and museum on 25 acres provided by S.M.U. The groundbreaking is scheduled for November 2010, with hopes of opening in early 2013. Mr. Langdale declined to disclose how much has been raised, saying fund-raising is “going well” but has been constrained by the economy.

Mr. Bush does not plan to wait to open his policy institute, which is set to begin sponsoring activities and host its first fellows this fall. The meeting next week was called to brainstorm on ideas for the institute. About 20 people close to the former president will dine with Mr. and Mrs. Bush at their home on Monday night and then spend Tuesday discussing the institute.

“It’s an opportunity to further the issues that he cared about, expanding opportunity across the world,” said Ms. Hughes, one of Mr. Bush’s closest advisers since his days as governor of Texas. “He’s mentioned to me the idea of bringing staff from new democracies to the institute, people maybe from Africa who’ve worked on the AIDS initiative there. I think it will be a very vibrant and exciting place.”

In addition to Ms. Hughes and Mr. Bartlett, those expected to attend include Ms. Rice, the former secretary of state; Mr. Gerson, the former chief speechwriter; Dr. Mark R. Dybul, the former director of Mr. Bush’s international AIDS program; and Yuval Levin, a former domestic policy aide.

Mr. Bush started working on his memoir two days after leaving the White House, aides said, and gets up every morning around 5 or 5:30 to write for a few hours before heading to temporary offices in Dallas. He has written about 45,000 words so far with the help of Christopher Michel, 27, a former White House speechwriter, aides said; the book, tentatively titled “Decision Points,” is set for publication by Crown next year.

While unpopular in other parts of the country, Mr. Bush has been welcomed home warmly by Texas. He received a standing ovation at the Rangers game this week, and, in posts online, people he encounters on the Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association trails have gushed about meeting him.

And he is beginning to get out of Texas, as well. After the gathering with aides next week, he will fly to Boao, China, where he will address the Boao Forum for Asia, a Chinese version of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.

“He’s doing great,” Mr. Langdale said. “He’s very happy.”

Truce call as 100,000 rally in London Tamil protest

Truce call as 100,000 rally in London Tamil protest

Posted: 12 April 2009 0219 hrs

LONDON : Some 100,000 demonstrators marched through central London Saturday to demand a truce in Sri Lanka, as similar protests were held in Scandinavia and Paris against Colombo’s offensive on Tamil rebels.

Waving flags and placards and chanting for a truce, they streamed through the city’s main Trafalgar Square en route for Hyde Park, led by a large banner reading “Britain act now! Immediate and permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka.”

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police told AFP that an estimated 100,000 people were on the march, while three arrests had been made for public order offences.

The Tamil community in Britain numbers about 250,000 to 300,000 and had staged several large protests in London in recent weeks.

Up to 3,000 Tamils marched in central Paris, organisers said, while police put the number at around 1,700. Four Tamils at the site have been on a hunger strike for five days to press for a truce in Sri Lanka.

“No genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka,” “Sri Lanka is a terrorist state,” and “President (Nicolas) Sarkozy help us,” the protestors said.

About 400 demonstrators gathered outside the Norwegian parliament in Oslo, a day after a similar number protests there, with some of the demonstrators having camped out overnight.

In Copenhagen, about 50 demonstrators gathered near the foreign ministry building for a fourth straight day.

“We’re calling for an immediate ceasefire, to send food and medicine into the conflicted area and to condemn the so-called ‘welfare camps,’ where people are dying and women are getting raped,” spokesman Godfrey Manoharan told AFP in Oslo.

Sri Lanka’s government says it is in the final stages of defeating the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who launched a campaign in 1972 to create a separate Tamil homeland on the Indian Ocean island.

Suren Surendiran, of the British Tamils Forum, which organised the London march, described the situation in Sri Lanka as a “genocide.”

“This is about doing something today. The people here have lost direct family members. They are here for a reason. They are worried about their next of kin.

“This is not about a stop-the-war march or anything like that, this is about our own people and our direct family.”

He said that Britain, the former colonial power in Sri Lanka and one of the five United Nations Security Council permanent members, had a “moral obligation” to intervene.

“Our first demand is that we want the government to get a resolution at the UN to implement a ceasefire so that the war can stop,” said Surendiran.

“The second demand is to send in humanitarian aid and medical supplies. And the third demand is for independent journalists and international NGOs to be allowed into the area to see directly what is happening.

The UN fears that thousands of civilians will be killed or wounded as the Sri Lankan military keeps up its bid to crush the Tigers. Colombo has resisted calls for a fresh truce, saying it would only help the Tigers.

Abirami Pararajasingam, 21, a neuroscience student on the London rally, said her parents did not know whether close relatives were still alive.

“People in the West do not realise how bad the situation is,” she said.

“The situation has got so bad that everybody has realised we need to pull together to make a difference and show the world we are serious.”