Ross: failed diplomacy legitimizes Iran strike

[The Obama presidency has always represented the Zionist's back door into Iran.  These guys are just better liars than the Bushwackers were.  The behavioral specialists who devise the Obama lies know that we want to believe them.  There is absolutely no difference between Obama and Bush, except for the racial ones.  By abusing the faith of his black brothers and sisters, he has used them to buy time to escalate the wars of aggression and reinforce the shaky empire.]

Ross: failed diplomacy legitimizes Iran strike

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:53:52 GMT

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Dennis Ross

A senior US diplomat and leading Zionist says Washington’s overtures to Tehran will legitimize military options against Iran in case diplomacy fails.

Dennis Ross has long been an advocate of utilizing military force against Iran. In a new book he co-authored, Ross has again raised the possibility of the use of military force against Iran to halt its nuclear program should negotiations lead to naught.

At present, Ross is heading US’s diplomatic efforts to engage Iran on a series of issues wrote “Myths, Illusions & Peace — Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East” which was released on Thursday.

The other author of the book is David Makovsky, a former journalist and a devout Zionist, and a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The book contains a 30-page chapter that elaborates on the US options for dealing with Iran.

“Tougher policies — either militarily or meaningful containment — will be easier to sell internationally and domestically if we have diplomatically tried to resolve our differences with Iran in a serious and credible fashion,” they wrote.

“Such an approach may build pressures within Iran not to forgo the opportunity that has been presented, while also ensuring that the onus is put on Iran for creating a crisis and also for making conflict more likely,” they added.

Ross and Makovsky stressed that the US should pursue engagement without preconditions but with diplomatic pressures, such as European economic sanctions, to persuade Iran that “the costs of pursuing the nuclear option are real and will not go away, but that Iran has a door to walk through.”

The State is Not God!

more about "The State is Not God!", posted with vodpod

Taliban fighters reclaim Afghan province

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Starving Afghan Family Displaced by US Airstrike

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Ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children – a report

Defence for Children International

June 11, 2009 [RAMALLAH, 11 June 2009] – Today, DCI-Palestine is releasing a report which documents the widespread ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children at the hands of the Israeli army and police force – Palestinian Child Prisoners: The systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities. The release of the report comes just days after an article was published in The Independent newspaper reporting the testimonies of two Israeli soldiers which detail the deliberate abuse of Palestinian children. One soldier is reported as saying that in an incident that occurred in a Palestinian village in March, he saw a lot of soldiers ‘just knee (Palestinians) because it’s boring, because you stand there for 10 hours, you’re not doing anything, so they beat people up.’ The report published today contains the testimonies of 33 children, one as young as 10 years old, who bear witness to the abuse they received at the hands of soldiers from the moment of arrest through to an often violent interrogation. Most of these children were arrested from villages near the Wall and illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. There is evidence that many children are painfully shackled for hours on end, kicked, beaten and threatened, some with death, until they provide confessions, some written in Hebrew, a language they do not speak or understand.

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Disturbingly, the report finds that these illegally obtained confessions are routinely used as evidence in the military courts to convict around 700 Palestinian children every year. And the most common charge against these children is for throwing stones. Once sentenced, the children who gave these testimonies were mostly imprisoned inside Israel in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention where they receive few family visits, and little or no education.

The report concludes that this widespread and systematic abuse is occurring within a general culture of impunity where in 600 complaints made against Israeli Security Agency interrogators for alleged ill-treatment and torture, not a single criminal investigation was ever conducted.

The report also contains recent recommendations made by the UN Committee Against Torture which expressed ‘deep concern’ at reports of the abuse of Palestinian children when it reviewed Israel’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture in May 2009.

The report is now available on-line in PDF format: Palestinian Child Prisoners: The systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities.

S. Ossetia Part II, Special Forces Manhunts

Kadyrov Claims Umarov Gravely Wounded, Accuses U.S. of Subversion

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 112

June 11, 2009 06:43 PM Age: 14 hrs

Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, North Caucasus Weekly, Home Page, Military/Security, North Caucasus , Featured

By: The Jamestown Foundation

Islamic Separatist Leader Dokka Umarov (center)

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov claimed on June 10 that the leader of the armed Islamic separatist movement in the North Caucasus, Dokka Umarov, was wounded earlier this month during a special operation conducted along the Chechen-Ingush administrative border. “It can be said with a large share of probability that Dokka Umarov, the chief terrorist, was badly wounded,” Kavkazky Uzel quoted Kadyrov as saying. However, Kadyrov would not confirm earlier reports that Umarov had been killed, saying such reports need to be checked carefully (Kavkazky Uzel, June 10).

Russian media reported on June 8 that Umarov had been killed. Interfax quoted a “source in Russia’s power structures” as saying that an operation to eliminate Umarov had been successfully carried out in one of the republics of the North Caucasus. Itar-Tass reported that Umarov had been killed near the village of Muzhichi, located in Ingushetia’s Sunzha district near the Chechen-Ingush administrative border, and quoted an unidentified source as suggesting Umarov’s body was among several charred corpses found in a car that had been hit by some kind of artillery fire. The source said Umarov had been seriously wounded the previous week during a special operation near the village of Dattykh, during which his bodyguard was killed. Interfax, it should be noted quoted an unnamed Chechen law-enforcement official on June 8 as saying he had no information either confirming or denying that Umarov had been killed (Interfax, ITAR-TASS, June 8).

Adam Delimkhanov, the State Duma deputy and close Kadyrov associate who is wanted in the United Arab Emirates on charges of organizing the assassination of former Vostok battalion commander Sulim Yamadaev in Dubai, told Kadyrov on June 4 that Umarov may have been wounded during a special operation along the Chechen-Ingush administrative border (www.newsru.com, June 4). Ingushetia’s President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, for his part, claimed on June 9 that a “mercenary” from Azerbaijan who was Umarov’s bodyguard had been killed near the village of Nizhny Alkun in Ingushetia, but that it could not be confirmed that Umarov had also been killed (Kavkazky Uzel, June 9).

Some independent observers have not ruled that Umarov was killed. Aslambek Apaev, a North Caucasus expert with the Moscow Helsinki Group, said he still doubted the reports that the Chechen rebel leader had been killed, but added that if they were true, then the authorities were waiting to announce his death until the June 12 Russia Day holiday, which commemorates the day in 1990 that Russia’s parliament formally declared its sovereignty (Kavkazky Uzel, June 9).

The Kavkaz-Center website, which is the mouthpiece for the armed Islamist wing of the North Caucasus rebel movement, has denied reports that Umarov was killed or wounded. The website said in a June 9 posting that reports stating that the “emir” Dokka Umarov – “emir” is the title the Islamist rebels have given Umarov in his role as leader of the so-called Caucasus Emirate – “do not correspond to reality.” The website said the reports of Umarov’s wounding or death had been leaked to “weaken the effect” of the news of Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov’s June 5 assassination, adding that such leaks were typical of “informational active measures” employed by Russia’s special services. The website noted – as did some independent observers – that Russian authorities have prematurely declared Umarov dead several time before (www.kavkazcenter.com, June 9).

Ramzan Kadyrov, meanwhile, launched his latest attack on the United States, accusing it of fomenting conflict and tension in the North Caucasus. “I like to call things by their right names,” he said in an interview posted on the Chechen president’s website. “And it is precisely from the side of America that work is being carried out aimed at the disintegration of the sovereign Russian state. It is not terrorists, not Islamists. There is not even a whiff of Islam there [in America]. They invented this system. They are creating problems for Russia; they want to pull Russia down. That did not work through Chechnya, [so] now they want to do it through Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Dagestan, Ingushetia. They have such a system working – all sorts of social organizations created to spread rumors and gossip, to agitate people; they know that that in the Caucasus the only way to create problems for Russia is on a religious basis.”

Kadyrov added in the interview that “they” – meaning the United States – are using “powerful specialists,” claiming that certain “Arabs” active in the North Caucasus (he cited the names “Yasser” and “Makhdan”) have already been in the region for 14 years. “The speak Russian better than I do but do not utter a single word in Chechen,” Kadyrov said. “They have excellent training. They do not take part in fighting; they are special services workers, they are provided for, guarded and financed; they have been sent to Russia to conduct subversive activities.”

Such “agents,” Kadyrov added, are working to ensure that there is no order in Russia. “And the Chechen people understood that, and all the peoples of Russia need to understand that,” he said. “The countries of the CIS also must understand that striving for and orienting toward the West will lead to no good. They must live with and be friends with Russia. In any case, they will reach that same conclusion at the end of the day. Russia is a mighty and great power, and it will never be possible to pull it down” (www.chechnya.gov.ru, June 10).

Last September, Kadyrov accused the United States of fomenting unrest in the Caucasus and encouraging Georgia to attack South Ossetia.

Are the Afghan Taliban Using Tajikistan’s Islamist Militants to Pressure Dushanbe on NATO Supply Routes?

Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 16

June 11, 2009 04:49 PM Age: 15 hrs

Category: Terrorism Monitor, Global Terrorism Analysis, Home Page, Tajikistan , Military/Security, Terrorism, South Asia

By: Andrew McGregor

Rasht Valley, Tajikistan

As Pakistan’s military continues to consolidate its control over the Malakand region of the North-West Frontier Province and talks of continuing on into South Waziristan, there is some apprehension in neighboring states that foreign fighters based in northwest Pakistan may begin leaving their now-endangered bases for home. Various reports claim foreign militants are on the move towards the Central Asian states in the aftermath of the Pakistan Army’s offensive against Islamist extremists in the Swat Valley (Jang [Rawalpindi], June 3; Millat [Dushanbe], May 21; Ozodagon [Dushanbe], May 21). A new military operation in eastern Tajikistan suggests the Central Asian nation is responding to the return of such extremists under the command of veteran Tajik jihadi leader Mullo Abdullo Rakhimov, though the Dushanbe-based government says it is only conducting routine anti-narcotics operations.

During Tajikistan’s 1992-1997 civil war, Mullo Abdullo was an important Islamist commander, operating as part of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), an awkward coalition of liberal democrats and Islamists. If Abdullo has returned, it would mark his first known presence in Tajikistan since September 2000, when a government offensive in the Darband region destroyed most of his group, with over 40 fighters captured. Mullo Abdullo himself was reported captured in this encounter. He is supposed to have been sent on to Dushanbe, but was apparently amnestied and released, taking advantage of his unexpected freedom to leave for Afghanistan whereby according to some accounts, Ahmad Shah Masoud made him a commander in the Northern Alliance. Other reports say he joined the Taliban and was captured by government forces in Kandahar province in 2002, after which little was heard of him (Asia Plus, May 23; RFE/RL, May 21). Tajikistan authorities were unable to confirm reports of Abdullo’s detention in Afghanistan (Interfax, May 22).

The Legacy of Tajikistan’s Civil War

Government troops are currently at work in the Rasht Valley, in the western part of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO). The Garm district of the Rasht Valley has a long history as a center for Islamist militancy, dating back to its days as an important center for the anti-Soviet Bashmachi rebellion of the 1920’s. During the civil war the Garmis sided with the Islamists and suffered severe retribution for their efforts. The Rasht Valley was also the main operational base for Mullah Abdullo’s forces during the war.

The GBAO, located in the Pamir Mountains, occupies 45% of the territory of Tajikistan but has only 3% of the total population. GBAO was created by the Soviets in 1925 and joined the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic in 1929. During the civil war, the GBAO was a stronghold of Islamists affiliated with the UTO. Eastern Tajikistan is also the home of the Pamiri, an Isma’ili Shi’a people who were targeted for massacres after trying to separate from Tajikistan in 1991. The Pamiris were mostly supporters of the UTO.

Roughly 100,000 people were killed and over a million displaced in the 1992-1997 civil war, which pitted democratic reformers and Islamists against the Soviet elites of the northern Leninabad and central Kulyab regions who sought to continue their dominance of the Tajikistan government in the post-Soviet era. By 1993 the Garmi and Pamiri opposition forces were suffering from serious reverses on the battlefield and a violent campaign by government forces determined to drive Garmi and Pamiri civilians from Tajikistan. Both civilians and Islamist fighters took refuge across the border in Afghanistan, where the Islamist fighters received arms and assistance from ethnic Tajik Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance military forces. The fighters also received religious training in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A Russian intervention in the civil war brought Afghan nationals north to fight the Russians around Dushanbe in 1996. When a negotiated settlement brought an end to the war in 1997, Mullo Abdullo was one of a number of Islamist commanders who refused to lay down arms, using bases in Afghanistan to mount cross-border attacks on Tajikistani security forces in the Rasht Valley. There are claims that Abdullo participated in raids on Kyrgyzstan in the late 1990s as a field commander in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). [1]

Operation Kuknor

According to government sources, Operation Kuknor (Operation Poppy) began in the Rasht Valley on May 15 and is expected to continue until November, an unusually long period when compared to previous anti-narcotics operations. Spokesmen say the operation is designed to interdict narcotics trafficking and eliminate poppy cultivation, but this explanation has raised eyebrows in the isolated valley, which has never been part of any known smuggling routes. Its climate is also generally considered unfavorable for the cultivation of poppies. The Tajikistan Interior Ministry expanded on the reasons behind the operation:

“Due to favorable weather conditions large fields of opium poppy plants and other drugs of the opium group were observed in the Afghan (northeastern) province of Badakhshan… A wide-scale operation is being carried out in Tajikistan, including in the Rasht valley, as part of the Poppy 2009 operation in order to prevent drug smuggling cases from the neighboring country and to uncover cases of cultivation of drug plants. The Interior Ministry does not have information about armed people who allegedly entered Tajikistan’s territory (Asia Plus [Dushanbe], May 23).”

The operation includes units of the Interior Ministry, the Drug Control Agency, the State Committee on National Security and Customs units. The inclusion of members of the Interior Ministry’s Special Forces is considered unusual for an anti-narcotics operation (RFE/RL, May 21). Tajik Border Guards and Drug Control Agency officers were reported to have seized more than 80 kg of drugs in eastern Darvoz District (along the north-west border of the GBAO) in the opening days of the operation, but a Dushanbe daily reported rumors of fighting between government forces and militants in the same district, noting the government could not give “a clear explanation of the situation” in eastern Darvoz (Nigoh [Dushanbe], May 28; Tojikiston [Dushanbe], May 28).

The Return of Mullo Abdullo

Reports from Russia claimed that Abdullo crossed into eastern Tajikistan several weeks ago and has been canvassing elders in the Rasht Valley for support.  The original group of 100 fighters has allegedly grown to 300 (Kommersant, May 25).

A source in the Interior Ministry stated, “It is not known who is spreading such rumors, but we will get to the bottom of this. It is quiet and calm [in the Rasht Valley], no operations are being conducted there except for Kuknor-2009” (Interfax, May 22). At the same time it was denying cross-border incursions by militants, the Interior Ministry reported the discovery of a cache of weapons in a Dushanbe home, including a grenade launcher with 27 rounds, five assault rifles, two grenades and a large quantity of ammunition (Interfax, May 23, 2009).

Whether by design or coincidence, there have recently been a number of arrests of high-profile former associates of Mullo Abdullo on charges that appear to have been ignored for years. On May 17 the Tajik Interior Ministry announced the arrest of Muzzafar Nuriddinov and several other former Islamist UTO leaders. Nuriddinov was a well-known associate of Mullo Abdullo in the period 1994-1999 and the timing of his arrest led to increased speculation in Dushanbe over the real intent of the government’s operations in the GBAO (Asia Plus [Dushanbe], May 21). Among other “past crimes” dating back to the 1990s, Nuriddinov is wanted for murdering two policemen with a Kalashnikov rifle. Prior to his involvement with Mullo Abdullo, Nuriddinov was a member of a militant group under field commander Fathullo Tojiddinov, who later became a leader of the Interior Ministry’s rapid deployment unit before being charged with possession of six kilograms of raw opium in June 2007 (Asia Plus, March 18, 2008). Another former member of Abdullo’s command, Djumaboi Sanginov, was arrested on May 31 in Dushanbe for crimes allegedly committed as a member of the UTO in 1996 (Ferghan.ru, June 1).

Another Target for Operation Kuknor?

Other reports claim the operation in the Rasht Valley is directed at arresting former opposition warlord Mirzokhuja Ahmadov for his involvement in unspecified “past crimes.” An attempt last year to arrest Ahmadov resulted in the shooting death of Colonel Oleg Zakharchenko, chief of Tajikistan’s OMON police unit, by one of Ahmadov’s followers. Ahmadov was serving as head of the anti-organized crime unit in the Rasht Valley at the time, a post he received as part of integration efforts following the civil war. During the war, Ahmadov was a well-known UTO field commander.  Ahmadov claims Zakharchenko’s death was the result of his men thinking their headquarters was under attack by gunmen. He further claims to have received a verbal pardon from Tajikistan president Emomali Rahmon (Eurasianet.org, February 5, 2008; RFE/RL April 14, May 20).
Conclusion

The Taliban recently warned Tajikistan against providing a new supply route for U.S. and NATO military supplies on their way to Afghanistan (Daydzhest Press, May 28). Nevertheless, Tajikistan agreed to a deal to allow non-military supplies to pass through Tajikistan as part of a vast new northern supply route meant to provide an alternative to the turbulent Khyber Pass of northwest Pakistan (BBC, April 21). If Mullo Abdullo has passed from Pakistan through Afghanistan into eastern Tajikistan, it may be part of an effort by the Taliban to convince Dushanbe to rethink its cooperation with the Coalition.

Speaking at a meeting with EU ministers working on greater cooperation with Central Asian states, Tajikistan’s Foreign Minister, Hamrokhon Zarifi, confirmed the nation’s readiness to support international anti-terrorism operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. “Threats by Taliban insurgents do not frighten us and Tajikistan signed an agreement on giving a corridor for the land transit of U.S. non-military goods to Afghanistan” (ITAR-TASS, May 29). Nevertheless, with a recent and sudden outbreak of suicide bombings and other violence in neighboring Uzbekistan raising fears of a return of Islamist fighters to that region, Dushanbe may be making efforts to preempt the penetration of Islamist fighters from Pakistan in force. An anti-narcotics operation would provide useful cover for extensive ground sweeps and the systematic collection of intelligence necessary to prevent Islamist militants from establishing new bases inside Tajikistan’s Rasht Valley.

Notes:

1. Muzaffar Olimov and Saodat Olimova, “Region early warning report: Political Islam in Tajikistan,” Forum on Early Warning and Early Response (FEWER), July 31, 2001.

The brother of leader of Jondolla was hanged in Zahedan

Reza Hossein Borr – 6/12/2009

London, 8-6-09–Abdol Hamid Rigi, the brother of Abdol Malik Rigi, the leader of People’s Resistance Movement of Iran, Jondolla, was hanged in Zahedan on Saturday, 6 June 09 after he was extradited from Pakistan to Iran, The semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

The Pakistani government was warned by many human rights organization that Abdol Hamid, would be executed if he was returned to Iran but in spite of all the warnings, the Pakistani government extradited him with few other Baluch. Reza Qaladarzahi, who was also extradited by Pakistan to Iran, was hanged with Rigi.

The Islamic Republic of Iran announced that the two men have been condemned to death because they had waged an armed struggle against the government. The two men were arrested by Pakistani government when Musharaf was the president. They were extradited to Iran by Musharaf’s direct instruction after the Pakistan People’s Party was elected.

It seems that their execution was in response to the present unrest that erupted after the supporters of the governments staged a huge demonstration in Zahedan, the capital of Baluchistan, and chanted very offensive slogans against the Sunnis which constitute the absolute majority of Moslems. The demonstrators chanted, “Death to Sunni, death to Sag Sunni (Dog Sunni).” The Sunni people of Baluchistan reacted strongly and condemned these offensive slogans. Unrest still continues in some parts of Baluchistan.

The Islamic Republic began arresting indiscriminately more than five hundred Baluch and killed more than 25 people since then. The Isna News agency reported that 85 Baluch have been arrested today.

IRNA News agency also reported that security forces have killed four Baluch in the area between Zahedan and Bam in an armed clash between the security forces and the armed men of Jondollah. The Jondollah rejected this claim and said that there was no any clash in which its members were involved. It also claimed that the four men who were killed were innocent Baluch men who used to live in the area.

Political Parties Destroying Pakistan

Bhutto’s Colleague: Political Parties Destroying Pakistan

The Pakistani system is highly biased in favor of the rich. Thugs and those with political power are in evil conspiracy with the administration of police, judiciary and the tax collectors. Money and power is the currency to get all legal and illegal work done in government offices. It takes decades to get cases decided in the courts. Corruption plays a big part in decisions. Outright lies are spoken in recording evidence in the court. No one is ever punished for perjury in Pakistan. The gulf between the rich and the poor has widened enormously. Ninety-eight per cent of the population is in a state of despair and frustration and has lost hope. The wealthy 2 per cent, armed with foreign passports and visas with huge wealth stashed abroad are ready to leave the country any time.

By Dr. Mubashir Hasan | Published: June 9, 2009

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

KARACHI, Pakistan—The main political parties and their leaderships are undermining the existence of Pakistan.

Over the years, they have failed to understand that the state of Pakistan is unraveling. The administrative structure of the state is no longer capable of ensuring the performance of the basic duties of the state, mainly the protection of life, property and dignity of the people, dispensation of justice to all citizens as equals, semblance of equitability in the distribution of wealth and assuring a sense of belonging to the Balochs, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Punjabis that the Government at Islamabad is their Government.

The system of administration is highly biased in favor of the rich and influential. Ghundas and thugs and those with political power are in evil conspiracy with the administration of police, judiciary and the tax collectors. Money and power is the currency to get all legal and illegal work done in government offices. It takes decades to get cases decided in the courts. Corruption plays a big part in decisions. Outright lies are spoken in recording evidence in the court. No one is ever punished for perjury in Pakistan.

The gulf between the rich and the poor has widened enormously. Ninety-eight per cent of the population is in a state of despair and frustration and has lost hope. The wealthy 2 per cent, armed with foreign passports and visas with huge wealth stashed abroad, are ready to leave the country any time.

The old grievances among the provinces of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP have reached all time high. Cooperation at the federal level has disappeared; complaints and prejudices have taken the place of patriotic fervor.

What had begun in the early years of Pakistan as grievances and complaints between East and West Pakistan, between the Bengalis and Punjabis, has now been replaced by tensions between Punjabis, Sindhis and Mohajirs and between independence-seeking Balochs and Pashtuns. The absence of cooperation between the provinces has snowballed, making Pakistan a fragile state.

President Obama was wrong in terming the Government of Pakistan as fragile.

How can a government be called fragile when the two main parties in the parliament work in almost total consensus. President Obama should have stated that it was not the government but the state of Pakistan that is fragile.

The US of A, supposed to be the greatest ally of Pakistan, instead of strengthening the state seems to have adopted a policy of further weakening it. The Pakistan army which has been the bulwark protecting the structure of the state, is being weakened by taking upon the task of fighting which amounts to chasing the proverbial wild goose.

It is time that people of Pakistan, the Government and the political parties and leaders realize that utmost attention should be paid to strengthen Pakistan internally. Without being strong internally there could be no achievements in pursuing the best possible of foreign policy and no military successes can bring lasting peace and tranquility.

Pakistan needs a change in its structure of governance. Full provincial autonomy has to be achieved by the provinces. The rights of autonomous people of FATA must be respected. In the new structure of governance, there has to be introduced people’s oversight over the performance of police. The system of jury should be introduced for criminal justice. Widest delegation of executive powers is required from top to bottom. What can be decided at the level of Tehsil/Tauloka and Town must not be in the domain of a district. Similarly, what can be decided at district and provincial levels, should not be in provincial and federal domains.

The introduction of a new structure of governance will guarantee solidarity, prosperity and integrity of Pakistan.

Dr. Hasan, a Pakistani nationalist, was the cofounder of the Pakistan People’s Party with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1967. Click here to read his biography. He can be reached at Mh1@lhr.comsats.net.pk

© 2007-2009. All rights reserved. AhmedQuraishi.com & PakNationalists

Leadership– Irresistable Forces or Immovable Objects?

Leadership

Islamabad diary

Friday, June 12, 2009
Ayaz Amir

Leadership is not part-timism. It is a single-minded vocation that brooks no rivals and indeed can co-exist with no distractions. You can’t be into business deals and kickbacks and the other pursuits that define leadership in a country such as Pakistan and yet lay claim to honest leadership. It just doesn’t happen that way.

The thought of property acquisition, plots and flats here and there, nest-eggs in London and New York, hobnobbing with property tycoons and other shady characters, are no part of leadership.

M A Jinnah, M K Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru were titans who lived politics and were consumed by politics. They were very much men of the world but in a sense other-worldly too in that what they cared about the most were idealistic things, things of the mind and the spirit. (He ne’er is called to immortality, wrote Keats, who fails to follow where airy voices lead.) Ordinary men could not have written what Gandhi and Nehru did. An ordinary man could not have delivered the speech that Jinnah did in the Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947.

Here was a man who had led the fight for a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent on the basis of Muslim separatism. Yet at the very moment of his triumph he was exhorting his countrymen to leave the past behind and transcend the foundations of Partition.

Pakistanis try to impose a supernatural consistency on Jinnah’s political life. They are wrong. He was first a Congressite nationalist, then a Muslim separatist but when the goal for which he had struggled was on the very point of consummation he tried to sketch out another template for the future of the country he was founding.

Did Mustafa Kamal, Father of the Turks, leave behind any material possessions? His life was devoted first to his military career, in which he excelled, winning renown in the battle of Gallipoli where he was the senior Turkish commander; and then to the cause of Turkish independence. He was fond of drinking, and drank at times to excess, justifying it on the grounds that it was good for his chronic constipation (doctors of digestive disorders may kindly take note).

There’s no point in beating about the bush. He was also fond of women. (At times he was also fond of other things but let’s not get into that). Asked once as to what was the quality he admired most in women, his wry answer was, “Availability” — a sentiment sure to outrage feminists and other stalwarts of the various women’s movements. But all these proclivities were subordinate to the one overriding passion which dominated his waking hours, and perhaps even his dreams: Turkey’s rebirth and redemption after the chaos and humiliation of Ottoman decline and fall.

Lenin, Stalin, Mao: all of them driven souls, single-minded individuals, their lives dominated by one passion alone, revolution. All three were voracious readers; autodidacts all their lives. Lenin as Soviet leader often read dictionaries for relaxation. Stalin wrote poems (some surprisingly good) and read books on history and biography all the time. Mao as Chinese leader practically lived in his library. He had an oversized bed strewn with books and it was on the same bed that he consorted with the regular stream of female comrades arranged by his helpful bodyguards to help lighten his loneliness.

Philip Short’s excellent biography of Mao has this to say about the bed and its occasional occupants: “The tradition of Saturday night dances in Yan’an (during the Long March) had survived the move to Zhongnanhai (in Beijing after the communists had come to power). From the dance floor, Mao and his young partners would gravitate to his study… beside the pile of books stacked on his vast bed. The girls came from dance troupes organised by the cultural division of the PLA (Peoples Liberation Army), chosen both for their looks and their political reliability.”

One of the things sadly missing in the Pakistan army: it has no cultural division.

When the German army was close to Moscow in October 1941 there was panic in the city and plans were made for its evacuation. A train had been prepared specially for Stalin. Here from Montefiore’s excellent life of Stalin: “Stalin hesitated for two long days. No one knows his exact movements but he no longer appeared in his office. At the height of the legendary struggle for Moscow the Supremo actually dossed down in his greatcoat on a mattress in the subterranean halls of the Metro, not unlike an omnipotent tramp.”

And where did the Supremo sleep? In a small space sealed off from running trains by plywood. A space also was created for his use as an office: “Passing trains caused pages to fly so they were pinned to desks. After working all day in his subterranean offices, Stalin would finally stagger over to his sleeping compartment in the early hours…It is hard to imagine any of the other warlords living in such a way but Stalin was accustomed to dossing down like the young revolutionary he once was.”

And then Stalin decided that Moscow would not be abandoned. When the Politburo seemed to be in two minds he asked his housekeeper, also rumoured to be his mistress, “Valentina Vasilevna, are you preparing to leave Moscow?” “Comrade Stalin,” she answered, “Mother is our Mother, our home. It should be defended.” And that was that.

Not only was Moscow not abandoned, Stalin, to the astonishment of his colleagues, also decided that the traditional Revolution Day parade on November 7 would be held. “I’ll see to it personally. If there’s an air raid during the parade and there are dead and wounded, they must be quickly removed and the parade allowed to go on. A newsreel should be made and distributed throughout the country. I’ll make a speech…”

The parade and speech can be seen on YouTube. The speech is just six and half minutes long, delivered in a very calm manner with no poetic or rhetorical flourishes whatever. But it says everything there is to say and leaves a deep impression.

We all know the last part of Churchill’s speech… we shall fight on the beaches and so on…but we shall never surrender. But the entire speech is a masterpiece, an account of the lost battle of France — almost a dispassionate account in which he also brings himself to say that the Germans are a brave race — and when it reaches its climax one can feel the hair rising on one’s back.

Churchill was the son of a lord but he had no private income and when not holding political office lived all his life from the money he derived from his books and newspaper writings. He lived the life of a highborn aristocrat but this was sustained by his pen.

When Clement Attlee stepped down as British prime minister he had to take to newspaper writing to support himself. Harold Wilson had no private income. Lord Wavell as viceroy of India had no house of his own in England and had to buy one when he returned from India.

The current scandal over MP expenses in Westminster tells an altogether different story but this is now and that was then.

Ordinary times call for ordinary leaders, leaders who are competent managers rather than inspirational figures in the Churchill or Stalin mould. But in Pakistan we are living through extraordinary times, with wars within and menacing pressures outside, a situation calling for leadership of a high calibre, to inspire the nation and summon it to action.

Criticism is easy and it is also easy to give way to despair but we should not lose heart. Other nations have been through worse times and while the weak have perished those with some strength in them have emerged successful from their trials. We have our weaknesses and failures but also our strengths and successes. The ordeal we are going through was perhaps necessary. We will be a better people once we pass this test.

Tailpiece: Consider Stalin’s decision not to evacuate Moscow and then consider the PML-N’s decision to have the by-elections in Rawalpindi and Lahore postponed because of the law and order situation. Is this the way to fight terrorism? No worse message could have been sent about the party’s stewardship of Punjab. Even if the threat of terrorism was a hundred times worse, the elections should have gone ahead. Even now it is not too late to make amends. A fresh application must be made to the Election Commission and the elections should be held as scheduled. Or else we might as well make our peace with Maulana Fazlullah and Baitullah Mahsud.

Email: winlust@yahoo.com

Taliban Counter-Offensive Targets Religious and Military Leadership of Opposition Forces

Officials, say 2 blasts hit Pakistan cities

1 hour ago

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say two blasts went off within minutes of each other in two Pakistani cities, killing at least two people and wounding dozens more.

Police official Sohail Sukhera said a blast occurred inside offices of the Jamia Naeemia seminary in the eastern city of Lahore soon after traditional Muslim Friday prayers, and that at least two people were killed and six wounded.

In Noshehra, a city in the volatile northwestern region about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital of Islamabad, a bomb exploded at a mosque near an army base soon after Friday prayers, wounding 32 people, said police chief Abdullah Khan.

He said some of the victims may have died on the way to hospital.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen opened fire Friday at the home of the army commander heading the military offensive against Taliban militants in Pakistan’s northwest, sparking a gunbattle just hours after a suicide attack at a police checkpoint, officials said.

The military, meanwhile, sent jet fighters Friday to bomb suspected militant strongholds in the Bajur tribal region — extending its military operations against the Taliban in the northwest. Casualty figures were not immediately known.

The overnight attacks in Peshawar city were the latest of several targeting security forces and blamed on militants retaliating for the military’s assault on Taliban militants in the nearby Swat Valley region. More than 60 people have died in the wave of attacks since May 27.

The assault on the Peshawar home of Lt. Gen. Masood Aslam triggered a gunbattle that killed two suspected militants, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the provincial information minister.

Hours earlier, a coordinated suicide attack on a police checkpoint in the city killed one officer and wounded a dozen other people. The assailants lobbed a grenade at the checkpoint late Thursday night and when police rushed to respond, a suicide bomber ran forward and blew himself up, said police Superintendent Nisar Marwad.

“We are faced with a Baghdad-like situation, and now we must think to divide the city of Peshawar in different zones like Baghdad to secure the city,” Hussain told The Associated Press, referring to parts of the Iraqi capital that are heavily fortified to guard against insurgent attacks.

The Peshawar attacks came after Pakistani troops and militants engaged in multiple battles as fighting in the northwest spread and intensified.

Local government official Mohammed Jamil said military jets began bombarding militant positions Friday in Charming, a town in the Bajur region east of Swat on the border with Afghanistan. The army fought a monthslong operation against the Taliban there earlier this year. The military claimed victory, but said pockets of militants remained.

Jamil said he had no information on casualties.

In the Hangu region bordering North Waziristan, suspected militants detonated a roadside bomb Friday as the district police chief drove past, killing the chief and four other police officers, said Farid Khan, a police official.

There was no sign that the military was launching a new major offensive North and South Waziristan, tribal belt districts south of Swat where the Taliban and al-Qaida have entrenched themselves in recent years.

Officials in Washington say privately they would like to see that operation extended to include the North and South Waziristan areas, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants allegedly have bases to foment violence against American troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has not announced plans for a new offensive in the tribal belt, and may first want to finish the Swat operation and deal with the huge humanitarian crisis it spawned. More than 2 million people have been uprooted from their homes by the fighting, and about 200,000 are living rough in refugee camps.

But fighting has spilled out of Swat in the past week, as militants stepped up attacks on security forces and the army has replied with artillery, gunships and assault forces in some areas.

The army said Thursday that about 400 militants using guns and rockets attacked two forts at Siplatoi and Jandola in South Waziristan, the base of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. More than 20 militants and three troops were killed in the ensuring battles, it said.

Also in the northwest, the military said it had secured two villages in Upper Dir where militants had holed up after five days of clashes with a citizens’ militia. It said 34 militants were killed, and one civilian died in a militant rocket attack.

Taliban in two other villages were still besieged by the militia, which sprang up to deliver payback for a recent deadly mosque bombing, the military said.

Clashes also continued in several areas in Swat, killing 10 militants, the army said. The military says it has killed more than 1,300 militants during the offensive and reclaimed most of the region.

Associated Press writers Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Munir Ahmad in Islamabad and Habib Khan in Bajur contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Anti-Taliban Cleric Killed in Suicide Bombing

Bomb kills senior Pakistan cleric

A leading anti-Taliban cleric has been killed in a suspected suicide bomb attack at his Islamic religious school in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The explosion struck the Jaamia Naeemia madrassa around the time of Friday prayers, killing Sarfraz Naeemi, who often spoken out against extremists.

The other blast hit a mosque close to a military depot in the north-western garrison town of Nowshera.

At least three people were reported and several others injured in Nowshera.

The town is close to Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

Swat supporter

In Lahore, a spokesman for the Jaamia Naeemia madrassa confirmed that the school’s senior cleric, Sarfraz Naeemi was killed by the blast. There were other reports of injuries.

A religious scholar opposed to the Taliban, he was known for his outspoken views against suicide bombings and militancy.

He was one of the few scholars who had openly supported the ongoing military operation in Swat.

Mr Naeemi had labelled the activities of the Taliban “un-Islamic”.

In the other attack, which happened almost simultaneously at a mosque in Nowshera, at least three people were killed and several others injured.

The attack in Nowshera took place in a military high security zone, close to a supply depot.

US Commando War Given Green Light

U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Given More Leeway

By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: June 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — The new American commander in Afghanistan has been given carte blanche to handpick a dream team of subordinates, including many Special Operations veterans, as he moves to carry out an ambitious new strategy that envisions stepped-up attacks on Taliban fighters and narcotics networks.

The extraordinary leeway granted the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, underscores a view within the administration that the war in Afghanistan has for too long been given low priority and needs to be the focus of a sustained, high-level effort.

General McChrystal is assembling a corps of 400 officers and soldiers who will rotate between the United States and Afghanistan for a minimum of three years. That kind of commitment to one theater of combat is unknown in the military today outside Special Operations, but reflects an approach being imported by General McChrystal, who spent five years in charge of secret commando teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With his promotion approved by the Senate late on

Wednesday, General McChrystal and senior members of his command team were scheduled to fly from Washington within hours of the vote, stopping in two European capitals to confer with allies before landing in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

General McChrystal’s confirmation came only after the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, went to the floor to make an impassioned plea for Republicans to allow the action to proceed, fearing that political infighting would delay approval of the appointment. He told of a phone call on Wednesday from Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mr. Reid said that Admiral Mullen had told him that there was a sense of urgency that General McChrystal be able to go to Afghanistan that very night. He said that according to Admiral Mullen, “McChrystal is literally waiting by an airplane” to go to Afghanistan as the new commander.

Almost a dozen senior military officers provided details about General McChrystal’s plans in interviews after his nomination. The officers insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the effort, and insisted that their comments not be used until the Senate vote, so as not to preempt lawmakers.

For the first time, the American commander in Afghanistan will have a three-star deputy. Picked for the job of running day-to-day combat operations was Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who has commanded troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Generals McChrystal and Rodriguez have been colleagues and friends for more than 30 years, beginning when both were Ranger company commanders as young captains.

General McChrystal also has picked the senior intelligence adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, to join him in Kabul as director of intelligence there. In Washington, Brig. Gen. Scott Miller, a longtime Special Operations officer now assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff but who had served previously under General McChrystal, is now organizing a new Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell.

Admiral Mullen said that he personally told General McChrystal that “he could have his pick from the Joint Staff. His job, the mission he’s going to command, is that important. Afghanistan is the main effort right now.”

Just how this new team will grapple with the increasingly violent Taliban militancy in Afghanistan is unclear, although General McChrystal has said he will focus on classic counterinsurgency techniques, in particular protecting the population.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked General McChrystal to report back within 60 days of taking command with an assessment of the mission and plans for carrying out President Obama’s new strategy.

“Success will be difficult to define but will come in reduction in I.E.D.’s, reduction in poppy, more interdiction of Taliban crossing the border, some anticorruption arrests/exiles, and greater civilian effort possible as a result of a reduction in the threat,” said Maj. Gen. Peter Gilchrist, a retired British officer and a former deputy commander of allied forces in Afghanistan who praised General McChrystal’s appointment.

At the Pentagon, under General McChrystal’s direction, a large area of the Defense Department’s underground, round-the-clock emergency operations facility — called the National Military Command Center — has already been shifted to the Afghan war effort.

The makeover in the American military command is not the only major set of personnel changes in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration has surrounded the new United States ambassador to Kabul, Karl W. Eikenberry, a recently retired three-star Army general, with three former ambassadors to bolster diplomatic efforts in the country.

Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., a former ambassador to Egypt and the Philippines, has been tapped as General Eikenberry’s deputy. Earl Anthony Wayne, a former ambassador to Argentina, is heading up economic development initiatives in the embassy. Joseph A. Mussomeli, the former ambassador to Cambodia, will be an assistant ambassador in Kabul.

As director of intelligence on the Joint Staff, General Flynn holds a position, called the J-2, that has often been a springboard to a senior executive position across the alphabet soup of American intelligence agencies. But General Flynn, who was General McChrystal’s intelligence boss at the Joint Special Operations Command, has chosen to return to the combat zone.

In a sign of the importance being given to explaining the new strategy to Afghans, across the region and the world, General McChrystal will also be taking the first flag officer to serve as chief of public affairs and communications for the military in Afghanistan.

Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, who has served as director of communications and spokesman in Iraq during the troop increase under Gen. David H. Petraeus, had been scheduled to retire this summer. But officials said he received a personal request from Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to serve in the same capacity for General McChrystal.

David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting from New York, and Richard A. Oppel Jr. from Austin, Tex.

King Kong terrorists– the “al Qaida”=super-terrorist theory

King Kong terrorists

—Farish A Noor

The introduction of more and more anti-terror laws, norms and conventions across Southeast Asia has led to the expansion of a state security apparatus that now presents itself to the public in the form of new legislation that allows for even more phone-tapping, checks on the internet, routine interrogations, detentions without trial etc

The political economy of the ‘war on terror’ operates on both the discursive and material levels. At both levels what we have witnessed over the past decade or so is the attempt to inflate the notion of the Muslim as a potential threat to society.

In much of what has been written about the subject of ‘Islamic terror’, we encounter the same and often-repeated themes and tropes: Muslim terrorists are presented as being cunning, nefarious, two-faced, capable and willing to resort to whatever means necessary and to use whatever means at hand to achieve their stated political objectives.

It is this image of the all-pervasive and all-powerful Muslim terrorist that in turn feeds the discourse of the ‘war on terror’ and which provides securocrats and technocrats with both the practical and moral justification for the perpetuation of certain stereotypes about Islam and the Muslim identity.

This inflation of the powers and capabilities of Muslims in turn explains and justifies the inflation of expenditure that goes into sustaining the material economy of the discourse on the ‘war on terror’ as well. For as the perceived threat of ‘Islamic terror’ multiplies and is magnified, so are the methods used to contain the perceived threat as well.

It is therefore hardly surprising to note that accompanying the dissemination and sedimentation of the discourse of the ‘war on terror’ across Asia and Europe we have also seen the creation of an even bigger and potentially more destructive anti-terror security industry and state security apparatus.

In the Philippines, for instance, the discourse on the ‘war on terror’ has provided justification for joint military exercises between the armed forces of the Philippines and the United States, which under normal circumstances would have gone against the spirit of the post-Marcos 1986 Constitution of the country that specifically forbids any Philippine president from allowing or inviting foreign armed forces to operate in the country.

In the case of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia the same discourse has sustained and helped to create even more security institutions and anti-terrorism agencies, funded by local government sources as well as by foreign donors.

In Thailand, whose decades-long insurgency in the South was re-cast as a ‘terror threat’ by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and subsequent leaders of the country, the ‘war on terror’ has even served as a justification for greater and grander arms-purchasing projects, including the proposal to buy jet fighters from Sweden, which would presumably be used to somehow contain the threat of Muslim terrorism in the South.

Here lies the double-edged nature of the ‘war on terror’ discourse and the manner in which it can and has been used to create a new Muslim subjectivity altogether.

Muslim terrorists (and Muslims in general) are cast as individuals with extraordinary powers and abilities to communicate, organise and orchestrate acts of wanton violence and excess. Muslims are also endowed with almost super-human powers and abilities, and this is reflected in the way in which state security agencies see the need to acquire stronger and greater weapons of mass destruction to deal with the security threat posed by Muslims. (The Thai government’s proposal to purchase jet fighters from Sweden is a case in point, as if Muslim insurgents in the South are immune to ordinary bullets and can only be killed by rockets launched from jet fighters.)

What, then, is the final image of the Muslim that we arrive to? It would seem as if in the context of the ‘war on terror’ discourse Muslims have been endowed with a superhuman subjectivity that presents them with an extraordinary degree of agency, intelligence, endurance, the capacity to mobilise themselves and of course the super-human capability to withstand attack by conventional weaponry (which necessitates the purchase and use of greater weapons of destruction).

Muslims have, in short, been re-invented as a super-human threat that can no longer be contained and defeated by conventional means alone.

It is this super-human character that is imposed on the narrative device of the ‘Muslim terrorist’ that justifies the creation, expansion and perpetuation of the military-industrial complex in so many of the countries in Asia today. Having inflated the image and power of Muslims to that of super-human beings who perhaps can even be said to be the next stage of human evolution, the very same discourse of the ‘war on terror’ aims to contain this potential threat of Muslim terrorism with the threat of even greater state violence.

This marks one of the other features of the discourse of the ‘war on terror’ and how it has expanded not only the scope, depth and magnitude of Muslim subjectivity beyond the level of the mundane and ordinary, but also the scope and magnitude of state violence and power to a level hitherto unreached.

The introduction of more and more anti-terror laws, norms and conventions across Southeast Asia has led to the expansion (both virtual and real) of a state security apparatus even bigger than the one that existed during the Cold War, and which now presents itself to the public in the form of new legislation that allows for even more phone-tapping, checks on the internet, routine interrogations, detentions without trial etc.

All of this, of course has been justified on the grounds of public safety and the desire to contain the potential of excess and violence that has been embodied in the symbolic figure of the super-human Muslim terrorist. Not even at the height of the Cold War has Asia witnessed such a neat and effective combination of discursive and material-economic interests working hand-in-glove with each other.

And not even during the Cold War was the subjectivity of the oppositional Other constructed in such magnified proportions. Even Communists could be killed by bullets, but it would appear that Muslim ‘terrorists’ can only be slain by rockets and cannons. Muslims have consequently been elevated to the status of giants and monsters, almost on par with King Kong or Godzilla.

Dr Farish A Noor is a Senior Fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and one of the founders of the http://www.othermalaysia.org research site

Hundreds of Taliban Fight to Open New Front in S. Waziristan

22 killed as Taliban attack FC fort in South Waziristan

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: The army killed 22 Taliban in fierce clashes in South Waziristan, the ISPR said on Thursday. According to reports from Waziristan, the fighting broke out when around 400 Taliban attacked the Siplatoi checkpost and the Jandola Fort late on Wednesday, and continued for several hours. Three soldiers died and five were injured in the fight, the military said in a daily update in Rawalpindi. The injured were rushed to the Jandola FC Fort. Talking to Daily Times, hospital sources confirmed 11 Taliban deaths. They said seven Taliban were injured.

NRO may put Zardari in trouble By Ansar Abbasi

NRO may put Zardari in trouble

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: “The knocking down of the highly contentious National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) by the apex court could possibly jeopardise the position of Asif Ali Zardari as the President of Pakistan besides reviving all the corruption and criminal cases disposed of so far by the judiciary on the basis of this legislation,” former Attorney General Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum said.

Talking to The News here on Thursday, Malik Qayyum endorsed the recent observation made by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in which the top judge of the country had said that nobody could be granted relief under the NRO till the petitions challenging its legality were adjudicated.

“No one could be given relief under the NRO during the pendency of the petitions challenging it,” Malik Qayyum said, adding that former Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar though passed an interim order to provide benefit to some under the NRO but he did not decide the petitions.

It means, he explained, the issue of the NRO is still alive and all those who have benefited from it would revert to the pre-NRO position in case the apex court knocks down the legislation.

Under the principle of lis pendens, (a Latin term for suit pending) he said, the relief given to any party is always connected to the final outcome of the case pending before any court of law. The cases disposed of by the force of the NRO, Qayyum said, are not past and closed transactions as the apex court has yet to decide the matter pending before it.

Though there are so many beneficiaries of this highly controversial legislation that was introduced by General Musharraf as part of a deal between him and the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, the most prominent one among them in the present situation is President Asif Ali Zardari.

According to Malik Qayyum, in case the NRO is declared null and void by the Supreme Court, it could possibly jeopardise the position of Zardari as the president of Pakistan. He said in case of any previous conviction not only his very qualification to become the president of Pakistan could be questioned but even otherwise the constitutional immunity that he enjoys while being the head of the state does not protect him from all sort of cases.

Qayyum explained that the constitutional immunity protects the president only during his term in office and secondly, such an immunity is only restricted to the criminal cases and does not apply on all types of cases.

“Al Qaida,” the Monstrous Terror Machine, Is Out of Bullets

[The Islamic Menace has worn out its welcome, its fighters too weak to carry-on the charade, yet we are destroying Pakistan on the pretense of fighting the "Base."]

Al Qaeda says it lacks arms, food to fight in Afghanistan

Calls for support from Turks
ISTANBUL: The leader of al- Qaeda in Afghanistan says militants are short of food, weapons and other supplies needed to fight foreign forces there, a website linked to the group said.

Al-Qaeda has been severely weakened in Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled their Taliban hosts in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. A gap may also have opened up between al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, many of whom blame Osama bin Laden’s group for causing the US-led invasion, analysts say.

“In Afghanistan, we have a severe supply deficit. The main reason for the weakness in operations is insufficient supplies. Many Mujahideen sit and wait and cannot fight for lack of supplies,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid said on a website used by top al-Qaeda leaders and other militants to post statements.

Al-Qaeda’s presence and influence is thought to be concentrated along the mountainous eastern border with Pakistan. “If a Mujahid does not have the money to get weapons, food, drink and the materials for Jihad, he cannot fight,” Yazid said. “Fear Allah and be ambitious in waging Jihad through (donating) goods.”

Yazid called on Turks to provide money and supplies for al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, appealing to their common Muslim identity, and called for Turks to pray for the militants. “The first recommendation is that you behave well towards your Muslim brothers. We see Muslims in Turkey as our brothers,” al-Yazid said in a statement entitled Advice to the Turkish people.

Al-Qaeda has carried out attacks in Turkey, notably in 2003 when the militants killed more than 60 people in a series of bombings in Istanbul. “We give you the good news of victories in Afghanistan against America and its collaborators. They have tasted great pain in recent months. “Many of them have died — thanks to Allah. Vehicles have been destroyed and many planes shot down,” the statement on the website said.

The West’s Wanted War in Balochistan Heats Up

Four killed, 45 injured in Balochistan blasts

By Muhammad Ejaz Khan

QUETTA: One person was killed and 35 injured on Thursday when a bomb hidden in a toilet exploded in a Quetta-bound train. The Baloch Republican Army (BRA) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bomb hit the Bolan Express near Dozan area in the Bolan district, about 45 kilometres (25 miles) away from the provincial capital, said a Pakistan Railways official while talking to The News at the site of the explosion. The train was heading from Karachi to Quetta when it was hit by the powerful bomb at around 01:25pm. The railway official said the blast occurred in bogie No 3.

The deceased was identified as Nabi Bakhsh, who belonged to Larkana. Rescue teams reached the site and shifted the injured to the Civil Hospital Quetta. Eight of them were discharged after being provided first aid.

Condition of an injured is stated to be precarious, hospital sources said. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) telephoned media offices to claim responsibility for the blast.

Besides, Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raisani condemned the attack and directed the concerned authorities to provide the best medical facilities to the injured. He also directed the authorities to submit a report about the incident within 24 hours. Division Superintendent Pakistan Railways Maqbool Ahmed Magsi said that an inquiry had been ordered and action would be taken against those involved in the train blast. He added that the railway authorities were making efforts to ensure safe journey in trains.

Some of the injured shifted to Quetta were identified as Sawal, Gul Muhammad, Hwar Bibi, Rafiq, Munsha, Kala Khan, Shahzad, Noor Ahmed, Shakil, Barkat, Hakimullah, Mehmood Ahmed, Din Ahmed, Hussain ud Din, Shazia, Nauman, Fida, Fayyaz, Amanullah, Ali Khan and Habibur Rehman.

AFP adds: A remote-controlled bomb planted on a parked motorbike in Khuzdar district went off near a military vehicle, killing three people, including a paramilitary soldier, local police officer Juma Khan said. At least 10 others, mostly civilians, were wounded in the blast, he said.

The Official Lies That Feed the War on Truth

Bin Laden still in Pakistan: CIA

WASHINGTON: The CIA believes Osama bin Laden is still in Pakistan, and the spy agency is hoping to close in on him as that country’s military cracks down on the northwestern tribal area where he is thought to be hiding.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told reporters after a speech in Congress on Thursday that finding bin Laden remains one of the CIA’s top priorities. “I guess one of our hopes is that as Pakistani military moves in, combined with our operations, we may have a better chance to get at him,” Panetta said.

The CIA has increased the number of officers and recruited agents, or locals who provide information, in Pakistan, Panetta said. “We have a number of people who are on the ground in Pakistan who are helping us provide targets and who are helping us provide the information that we really need to go after al-Qaida,” he said.

In Islamabad, a spokesman for President Asif Ai Zardari rejected Panetta’s claim and challenged the CIA to hand over any evidence it has to back it up. “There is no truth in this CIA statement. These are all rumors,” presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told the news agency. “Such statements keep coming, but if they know he is in Pakistan, then they should also know his exact location, and if they do, then why don’t they share it with Pakistan?” Babar said, referring to bin Laden.

Panetta, meanwhile, said the Pakistani offensive in the Swat Valley is making very good progress compared to Pakistan’s past efforts to crack down on extremists. The Pakistan military says it has killed more than 1,300 militants during the offensive and reclaimed most of the region.

CIA Wants Joint Missions to Hunt For Man They Know Is Dead

Pakistani offensive to help nab Osama: CIA

US Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta. —Reuters/File

World

Obama gets euphoric CIA welcome

WASHINGTON: CIA Director Leon Panetta said on Thursday that Pakistan’s military offensive against the militants would help the United States catch Osama bin Laden who was still hiding in that country.

Mr Panetta told reporters after a speech on Capitol Hill that finding Bin Laden remained one of CIA’s top priorities.

The combination of increased CIA activity and the Pakistani military offensive will give the United States a better chance of nabbing him, he added.

Mr Panetta also indicated the possibility of conducting joint operations with Pakistani forces to catch Bin Laden and other senior Al Qaeda leaders.

In his speech, the CIA chief said his agency had increased the number of officers and agents in Pakistan and they were providing valuable information about the Al Qaeda network, particularly in Fata.

The agents, he said, had provided useful information about possible terrorist targets in Fata.

Asked whether he was sure that Bin Laden was in Pakistan, Mr Panetta said: ‘The last information we had, that’s still the case.’

US intelligence officials say that although the Al Qaeda reclusive leader has eluded a US manhunt since the September 11, 2001, he was not only alive but maintained some links with his top lieutenants as well.

‘Finding Bin Laden is one of our major priorities,’ Mr Panetta said. ‘One of our hopes is that the Pakistanis move in militarily, combined with our operations, we may be able to have a better chance’ to find the Al Qaeda leader, he said.

Mr Panetta said Al Qaeda ‘remains the most serious security threat’ to the United States and its leaders and continued to plot against America.

Besides Pakistan, he said, his agency was also focussing on countries where Al Qaeda might find safe haven, like Somalia and Yemen.

In a related development, US Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates said a new ‘intermediate’ command set for Afghanistan would allow the commander to concentrate on day-to-day tactical events across the country.

US officials see the new command arrangement to be a Nato International Security Assistance Force function. Army Lt-Gen David Rodriguez — now the secretary’s senior military assistant — would be the commander. If approved for the post, Mr Rodriguez would serve under the command of Army Lt-Gen Stanley McChrystal, whom the Senate confirmed on Wednesday to receive his fourth star and take command of ISAF and US forces in Afghanistan. He is expected to take command June 13.

Pentagon Quietly Sending 1,000 Special Operators to Afghanistan in Strategy Revamp

Pentagon Quietly Sending 1,000 Special Operators to Afghanistan

in Strategy Revamp

The Pentagon is sending 1,000 more special operations forces and support staff into Afghanistan and is revamping the way its covert warriors fight the Taliban, military sources tell FOXNews.com.

By Rowan Scarborough

FOXNews.com

The Pentagon is sending 1,000 more special operations forces and support staff into Afghanistan to bolster a larger conventional troop buildup, and is revamping the way Army Green Berets and other commandos work to rid villages of the Taliban.

While much of the public focus has been on 24,000 additional American troops moving into the country this year, U.S. Special Operations Command is quietly increasing its covert warriors in what could be a pivotal role in finally defeating insurgents, military sources tell FOXNews.com.

The movement comes as Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a special operator who led successful manhunts in Iraq for

Al Qaeda terrorists, is about to take command in Afghanistan.

McChrystal, who underwent a Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing Tuesday, is expected to put more emphasis on using commandos in counterinsurgency operations and on finding or killing key Taliban leaders.

Underscoring that theme, McChrystal has asked two veteran special operators on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, which he directs, to accompany him to Afghanistan once he wins Senate approval for a fourth star. The two are Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, who headed intelligence for the chief terrorist hunting unit in Iraq; and Brig Gen. Austin Miller, a Joint Staff director for special operations.

Military sources say Brig. Gen. Ed Reeder, who commands special operations in Afghanistan, went in-country earlier this year to revamp the way Green Beret “A” Teams, Delta Force and other special operators conduct counter-insurgency.

Green Berets, the same group that led the 2001 ouster of the Taliban from power, now primarily work out of fire support bases, often independently of conventional forces. They fight to control the Taliban-infested border with Pakistan, and train the Afghan army.

Critics within special operations have said the A Teams need to work more closely with conventional forces and with NATO counterparts. “This would give us a needed one-two punch,” said a former operator who served in Afghanistan.

Reeder heads the new Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command. It is a mix of the more open Green Berets and Marine commandos, and the super-secret Delta Force and Navy SEALs who conduct manhunts.

The covert side works in task forces that are only identified by a secret three-digit number. They are aided by Army Rangers and a Joint Interagency Task Force made up of the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other intelligence units.

McChrystal is a former commander of Joint Special Operations Command, the home of Delta Force. He led the hunt in Iraq that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of Al Qaeda’s leading terrorists in the Middle East, in 2006.

Those who worked with him talk of a tenacious warrior who worked to link his direct-action fighters with the intelligence operatives who provided crucial information on terrorist locations. McChrystal allowed Delta operatives at the troop level (akin to a conventional platoon) to call in Predator spy drones during a mission.

“We need a Predator on that house,” is the way the former operative in Iraq described Delta’s freer rein.

The increase in special operations forces is an attempt to rebalance commando presence there, after the demands of the Iraq War stripped some of its manpower in Afghanistan. The influx will bring the total special operations forces in Afghanistan to about 5,000, a spokesman at special operations command confirmed to FOXNews.com.

Usama bin Laden is believed to be hiding across the border in Pakistan, where U.S. ground troops are forbidden. But intelligence sources say if bin Laden is located, American commandos may be dispatched to kill or capture him.

Rowan Scarborough is author of “Rumsfeld’s War: The Untold Story of America’s Anti-Terrorist Commander,” and “Sabotage: America’s Enemies Within the CIA.”

Hezbollah ‘to support Hariri premiership’

Saad Hariri, son of Lebanon’s slain prime minister Rafiq Hariri

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah will reportedly support the nomination of Future Movement bloc leader Saad Hariri as prime minister.

In a report published in its Thursday edition, the Beirut-based As Safir quoted Hezbollah circles as saying that the group “does not object to Hariri becoming prime minister.”

The officials also declared, according to the report, that Hezbollah had informed all those concerned that Lebanon’s incumbent parliament speaker Nabih Berri is the ‘natural’ candidate to head the parliament.

As Safir in addition hinted at the likelihood of a meeting between Hariri and Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah in the ‘immediate future’.

Another Lebanese newspaper, Al-Akhbar , meanwhile, divulged that preparations are underway for the ‘urgent’ meeting between Hariri and Nasrallah.

The Al-Liwaa daily reported that a Hariri-Berri meeting is likely to take place prior to the Hariri-Nasrallah meeting.

Hariri is now the man most likely to become the new prime minister of Lebanon after his pro-Western March 14 coalition won Sunday’s elections.

The Future Movement bloc of the 39-year-old son of slain former prime minister Rafiq Hariri gained 68 seats to the Hezbollah bloc’s 57. The other three seats in the 128-member parliament went to independents.

French anti-Zionist party slogans concern Jews

[Americans think that anti-Zionist means Neo-Nazi.]

French anti-Zionist party slogans concern Jews

PARIS (JTA) — French Jews are shocked and outraged by an
anti-Zionist party’s campaign slogans for upcoming European Union
Parliament elections.

Campaign graphics showing a crossed-out Israeli flag over a map of
France “constitute an insult and a threat to oust Jews from their
country,” said the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, in a May 28 statement.

In its statement, the bureau said that it had been flooded with calls
from concerned Jews who see the current anti-Zionist party campaign as
“propaganda that reminds them of the darkest days of the 20th century” leading up to the Holocaust.

The group also asked the interior minister to block the anti-Zionist
party from participating in the June 7 European elections.

The anti-Zionist party, run by the French comedian known as
Dieudonné, is campaigning across the Paris region, and notably in immigrant suburbs with large  Muslim populations, according to the party’s Web site. The Web site also outlines the group’s official program, which calls on the party and the parliament to: “Stop Zionist interference in the Nation’s public affairs; denounce politicians who apologize for Zionism; eradicate all forms of
Zionism in the Nation; prevent enterprises and institutions from
contributing to  the war efforts of a foreign nation, which does not respect International Law. Free our state, our government, our institutions from the possession and pressure of Zionist organizations.”

Some French politicians have unsuccessfully attempted to bar the
anti-Zionist party from participating in the E.U. elections.

French Rail Company Halts Israel Deal

[Resistance is NOT futile!  The force that puts an end to the Zionist nightmare will be an economic force, the denial of profit.]

French Rail Company Halts Israel Deal

VICTORY!!
In the first smashing and convincing victory of the global BDS movement in the field of corporate responsibility and ethical

compliance, Veolia is reportedly abandoning the Jerusalem Light Rail project, an illegal project that aims at connecting Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian territory to the city of Jerusalem.
As the Haaretz article below admits, the BDS campaign’s success in costing Veolia some $7 billion worth of contracts is the key

behind this decision by the troubled company to pull out of the project.
It is worth mentioning that Le Monde has recently published an expose, revealing to French readers and, crucially, to Veolia’s stock

holders the fact that the company is losing a lot of money because of its complicity in a project that constitutes a major violation of international law, if not a war crime.
This great victory came as a result of years of hard, principled, meticulous and persistent work by French solidarity groups,

particularly AFPS; by the growing French BDS movement which was

instrumental in making Veolia lose a huge contract in Bordeaux; by Dutch activists who achieved the first success in convincing a Dutch bank to divest from Veolia and applied pressure on other banks to follow suit; by Swedish peace and justice groups, mainly connected to the Church of Sweden, particularly Diakonia, and Swedish Palestine solidarity groups who cost Veolia the heaviest, $4.5 billion contract in running the Stockholm metro; by British solidarity groups and

activists, particularly affiliated with PSC, who contributed

tremendously to excluding Veolia from a lucrative contract in the West Midlands; and of course by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, BNC, which partnered with all the above in the now famous Derail Veolia and Alstom campaign to pressure the company to abandon this illegal project.
The Derail Veolia and Alstom campaign, which involves activists and groups in many countries all working to pressure the two French giants to quit the JLR project, was officially launched at the Bilbao

Initiative conference in the Basque city last November.
Now is the time to pressure Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Gulf states, among others, to kick Alstom out due to its complicity in this

illegal project. Solidarity with Palestine means almost nothing if it cannot be translated into BDS action that can truly cost the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime dearly.
This is the time to DERAIL ALSTOM!

Omar

French company to withdraw from Jerusalem rail project

08 / 06 / 2009

Bethlehem – Ma’an –Under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners, a French company is poised t owithdraw from the controversial Jerusalem Light Rail project that links the city center to illegal West Bank settlements.

The company Veolia, which was supposed to operate the transport system
after its construction, is now abandoning the project and also seeking
to sell its 5% stake in Citypass lightrail consortium, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The growing movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel hailed the move as a victory.

“This great victory came as a result of years of hard, principled,
meticulous and persistent work by French solidarity groups,” wrote
Omar Barghouti of the BDS National Committee on the BDS movement
website, also noting the contributions of groups across Europe.

Campaigners in Europe targeted Veolia and another company, Alstom, over their involvement in the project, ultimately causing Veolia to lose 7 billion US dollars in contracts in Bordeaux, Stockholm, and West Midlands, England. Dutch activists also convinced a Dutch bank to divest from Veolia.

The loss of the contract to operate the Stokholm metro, under pressure
from peace groups and organizations linked to the Church of Sweden, cost the company 4.5 billion dollars.

According to Haaretz, Veolia may try to sell its stake in the Citypass
consortium to Israel’s Egged or Dan bus companies, a deal which
could face scrutiny from the country’s antitrust authorities.

The newspaper also reports that Citypass, the Municipality of Jerusalem, and various Israeli ministries have been locked in a
dispute over who is to blame for months of delays in the light rail
project.

Of the eight proposed lines in the Light Rail system, only one is
actually under construction. The line connects downtown West Jerusalem
with the settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev, which is built on Palestinian
land in East Jerusalem.