Activities within Pakistan led to differences with Baitullah Meshsud: Qari Zain

MIRANSHAH: Qari Zainuddin Mehsud has said that the agreement with the government is still intact.

In an exclusive interview with Geo News, Qari Zainuddin said: “Islam does not allow carrying out activities within Pakistan and this is the main cause that led to the difference with Baitullah Mehsud.”

He said scholars like Maulana Hasan Jan declared suicide attacks as un-Islamic. The declaration led to the killing of Maulan Hasan, he added.

“Islam cannot spread with the use of force but with invitation,” Qari Zain observed.

He said one should think as to why the people who train suicide attackers not sacrifice their loved ones for the purpose. Baitullah Mehsud is ‘zalim’ (cruel) and responsible for all the destruction, he added.

Qari Zain said security forces actions will be only against Baituallah Mehsud and not the common people have nothing to do with it.

“We are Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan and we have nothing to do with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he clarified.

Tribesmen on their own

By Syed Irfan Ashraf

Over 2,500 villagers are up in arms against 200 dreaded Taliban militants in the inaccessible mountain terrain of Dhog Dara, 25 kilometres northwest of Dir in Upper Dir.

Local tribesmen have encircled the Taliban militants for the last fortnight or so, and are locked in fierce fighting to which there appears to be no end in sight — unless the state steps in to overpower or flush out the militants.
The confrontation started on June 5 when a suicide bomber struck a mosque in Hayagai Sharqi in Upper Dir killing over 40 tribesmen. After attending the burial rites, more than 700 enraged locals from Hayagai Sharqi and the nearby villages marched on the thickly forested Dhog Dara valley — where there is a cluster of 25 villages — to settle scores with the Taliban. Initially 13 Taliban were killed, including two commanders, and the homes of their supporters demolished. Hemmed in, the Taliban found themselves restricted to the strategic hilltop in Ghazigai village at the western edge of Dhog Dara. Since then, they have been corralled by a swelling lashkar, composed of people from most of the villages of Dhog Dara.

However, the drop scene is yet to take place. The tribesmen fear that the fortified bunkers equipped with arms, ammunition and food will give the militants the edge allowing them to drag on the battle and test the nerve of the tribesmen.

Strategically, Dhog Dara links Taliban hideouts, through its snowy mountains, with Swat in the southeast, Chitral in the north and far beyond into Afghanistan in the northwest. The militants cannot ignore such an important location.
The local people say that the Afghan Taliban arrived in the valley three years ago and were later joined by their comrades from Mardan and Swat. They lived mostly in isolation; however, soon they were offering hefty amounts as rent for shabby mud houses and offering support to locals against their rivals. The absence of the government’s writ gave the Taliban a free hand in entrenching themselves. In 2007, the Taliban began to make their agenda clear by launching an FM radio station in Dhog Dara to preach jihad to the local community. They won the support of five villages. But, according to Abul Kalam, a resident in the area, people became aware of the real face of the militants when a journalist-cum-NGO worker, Akhtar Kohistani, escaped from the militants, who had abducted him for ransom, in January 2009 and sought the tribesmen’s help.

The people of Shringal village cut off the main supply route to adjoining Dhog Dara and asked the villagers to evict the Taliban. This led to a confrontation amongst the villagers with the Taliban playing on their differences.

Fortunately, a temporary solution came in the form of a lashkar from adjoining villages that outnumbered the Taliban. According to Kalam, ‘Many Taliban left for Afghanistan. Some stayed back and destroyed the mosque in a suicide attack to tame the villagers into submission.’ The confrontation had simmered for months while the civil administration in Dir and the political leadership in Peshawar and Islamabad looked the other way. Although the district coordination officer of Upper Dir claims that contacts were made with the local tribesmen for handling the Taliban problem, the tribesmen say that official help in the form of arms was too little and too late in coming.

Three days after the mosque blast, helicopter gunships targeted Taliban hideouts in Ghazigai village. The lashkar members, entrenched in the surrounding mountains, kept on calling their Islamabad-based MNA to request the military not to shell the surrounding villages and target only the Taliban bunkers. But apparently, their call was not heeded and over 500 families were forced to leave. As a tribal elder pointed out, before shifting his family to safety, ‘The more people get displaced, the more the militants will be strengthened.’

This saga is indicative of the fact that an indifferent official response only bolsters rogue elements. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, it took militants almost seven years to establish their network in Pakistan’s northwest. Almost every militant commander launched his own FM radio station in order to carve out his terror fiefdom. However, such developments went unnoticed by the powers that be.

It is not a good idea to be convinced by ISPR images of destroyed tunnels and militants’ bunkers in the Peuchar valley and other areas. It took almost a decade for the militants to build their infrastructure under the very nose of the state, and it will take the state a similar number of years to eradicate this. This can be attributed both to the massive intelligence failure on the part of the state as well as the superior managerial skills of the Taliban leadership, who supervised their terror industry from unfriendly locations in faraway Waziristan and Afghanistan.

In fact, it was much before Mullah Fazlullah made his mark that the ragtag militants organised their terror network in early 2003 in Swat. They hired a piece of land from a respectable family in the remote but strategic Gutpeuchar valley bordering Lower Dir. At that time, it was not too difficult to run training camps in the remoteness of the mountains as many such camps had enjoyed state patronage in the past. However, by 2003 the militants stepped up hostilities, launching rocket attacks against the office of an intelligence agency in Balogram, Swat.

In one such attack two officials were killed. Strangely enough, intelligence agencies threatened journalists not to publish the news. ‘I was harassed when I dared published it. The intelligence tried to turn my colleagues against me for working against the interests of Swat,’ said a journalist, who later left the area, and even his profession temporarily.

The tribesmen of Dhog Dara are not alone in their worries. Almost everyone in the settled districts is passing through the same agony. It is the duty of the government to take the rogue elements to task. However, a flawed security apparatus and a listless political leadership cannot support the public whose anger could have formed the basis for a major rebellion against the Taliban in Malakand division and the province.

syedirfanashraf@gmail.com

Air strike on Afghanistan — an eyewitness account

By Shapoor Saber, Fetrat Zerak and Abaceen Nasimi | The Institute for War & Peace Reporting

KABUL, Afghanistan — Sayed Karim, 72, is now all alone.The elderly, white-bearded man bowed his turbaned head as he told of the 13 members of his family who were killed in a May 4 air strike by U.S. forces in Farah province, on Afghanistan’s western border.

“I am no longer young,” he sighed. “I cannot build a new life.”

U.S.-led Coalition forces provided air support to Afghan national police and army in the battle with insurgents in Ganjabad and Granai, two areas of Bala Baluk, one of the most unstable districts in the remote and volatile province.

The effect of that air strike has triggered one of the most contentious disputes among American military commanders, the Afghan government and villagers on the ground.

Farah Gov. Ruhul Amin said that that 30 Taliban were killed in the attack, some of them clearly foreign fighters from Pakistan and Chechnya. Amin estimates that more than 100 civilians, including women and children, were also killed, and many others wounded.

A commission appointed by the government in Kabul to investigate the attack determined that 140 civilians died in the attack. The U.S. military rejects both of these figures.

According to U.S. commanders, “A review of the physical evidence is inconclusive in determining the exact number of civilian and insurgent casualties. In all, the investigation team estimates that 60-65 (Taliban) extremists were killed in these engagements, while at least 20-30 civilians may have been killed during the fighting.”

Here’s what one villager who survived the attack says happened that day.

The fighting first broke out during the day when 300 Taliban converged on the area to collect taxes from local residents on the proceeds of the recent poppy harvest. Afghan army and police forces failed in their effort to drive off the insurgents. That’s when they called for help from the Coalition Quick Reaction Force.

“It was eight in the evening when the fighting between the government and the Taliban stopped,” said Abdul Mohammad, 35, a resident of Granai, one of the villages where the fighting occurred. “We thought it was over. But an hour later we heard the drone of the airplanes. I became very nervous and told everyone in my family to get out of the house. There were Taliban around, but when they heard the noise of the planes, they escaped,” he said.

In Farah province, Mohammad said, there is a tradition of seeking sanctuary with local leaders in times of danger. This is what the villagers did, he said, as many sought shelter in the compounds belonging to tribal elders.

“All the families, the women and children, did this,” he said. “We thought we would be safe there.”

Instead, the compounds became a main target for an air strike by B-1 bombers that began around midnight.

“My wife and two children were martyred,” Mohammad said. “I was outside, so I was just thrown back by the shock wave and injured slightly. Others were killed by the blast, and by the terrible, terrible smoke.” Mohammad also says he suffered burns he believes may have been cause by bombs that contained white phosphorous, a controversial chemical.

“At first I had just a small wound on my shoulder, but it has been spreading steadily. I went to Herat for treatment, and you can see, my wound is getting bigger by the day. The doctors say it is caused by some sort of chemical irritant,” he said.

Abdul Jabar Shayeq, the head of the department of public health for Farah province, was reluctant to speculate about the issue. But he acknowledged that some of the injuries he witnessed raised questions.

“The wounded people transferred to the central hospital of Farah have terrible signs of burns on their bodies, which clearly indicates that a serious chemical substance was used,” he said. “But we cannot definitely say whether or not it was white phosphorous. … We cannot say anything about it, though, because this issue has political dimensions.” Col. Gregory Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, was emphatic that U.S. forces did not use white phosphorous during the attack, and blamed the Taliban for spreading the rumor.

“White phosphorous was not used by either side – but the Taliban tried to throw that out there to stir up more public outcry,” he said.

Regardless of the final death toll or the nature of the weapons used, Farah now joins a long list of incidents that have soured relations between the Afghan government and Washington, as well as between civilians and Coalition forces.

U.S. officials acknowledge such incidents make it almost impossible for the government in Kabul and coalition forces to defeat the insurgents.

Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, accompanied President Hamid Karzai to Farah to express condolences to the survivors.

“I assure the people of Afghanistan that the United States will work tirelessly with your government, army, and police to find ways to reduce the price paid by civilians, and avoid tragedies like what occurred in Bala Baluk,” he said, according to the U.S. State Department Web site.

Meanwhile, both sides of the conflict are using the Farah incident in their efforts to win the hearts and minds of average Afghans.

The U.S. military accused the Taliban of “deliberately placing civilians in harm’s way and callously and cynically manipulating civilian lives for their political purposes.” The Taliban blame the Americans for the civilians’ deaths.

“The invaders send their forces wherever they want … the Taliban never use civilians as shields,” said Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban.

“(The Taliban) are not enemies of the people,” he said. “They are there to defend the people, to defend their rights and their honor, and to defend Islam. The foreigners bomb people. When they are hurt they take it out on the innocent population.” For his part, Karzai sought to burnish his image in the run-up to the August elections, dispensing cash and promises to survivors whose family members were killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, the villagers feel trapped in the middle.

“What can we do?” said Abdul Manaan, shaking his head. “We cannot stand up to either the government or the Taliban. Both sides have guns, and both sides use us as shields. What have we done that we should be the ones getting killed?”

ABOUT THE WRITERS

Shapoor Saber, Fetrat Zerak and Abaceen Nasimi are reporters in Afghanistan who write for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Readers may write to the authors at the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 48 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, U.K.; Web site: http://www.iwpr.net. For information about IWPR’s funding, please go to http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?top-supporters.html.

This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.

© 2009, The Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Pentagon wavers on releasing report on Afghan attack

By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials are debating whether to ignore an earlier promise and squelch the release of an investigation into a U.S. airstrike last month, out of fear that its findings would further enrage the Afghan public, Pentagon officials told McClatchy Monday.

The military promised to release the report shortly after the May 4 air attack, which killed dozens of Afghans, and the Pentagon reiterated that last week. U.S. officials also said they’d release a video that military officials said shows Taliban fighters attacking Afghan and U.S. forces and then running into a building. Shortly afterward, a U.S. aircraft dropped a bomb that destroyed the building.

However, a senior defense official told McClatchy Monday: “The decision (about what to release) is now in limbo.”

Pentagon leaders are divided about whether releasing the report would reflect a renewed push for openness and transparency about civilian casualties or whether it would only fan Afghan outrage and become a Taliban recruiting tool just as Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Two U.S. military officials told McClatchy that the video shows that no one checked to see whether any women or children were in the building before it was bombed. The report acknowledges that mistakes were made and that U.S. forces didn’t always follow proper procedures, but it does little to reassure Afghans that the U.S. has done enough to avoid repeating those mistakes.

During his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, McChrystal promised to review U.S tactics and what more could be done to minimize civilian casualties.

The chief investigator has briefed Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the report, and other top defense officials, including Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are reviewing an unclassified version of it for possible release.

The airstrike, in western Farah province, has drawn the ire of local and national leaders angered that U.S. forces may have killed as many as 140 civilians in pursuit of a band of Taliban fighters. Shortly after the attack, U.S. military officials told McClatchy that they thought the death toll had been roughly 50, some of them militants.

The U.S. use of airstrikes in Afghanistan, and the resulting civilian casualties and property damage, have strained relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and become an issue in Afghanistan’s August elections.

“The airstrikes are not acceptable,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said during his May visit to the U.S. “This is something that we’ve raised in the Afghan government very clearly, that terrorism is not in the Afghan villages, not in Afghan homes. And you cannot defeat terrorists by airstrikes.”

Lacking sufficient forces to patrol the vast Afghan countryside, the U.S. has relied heavily on airstrikes. The seven-hour incident on May 4 began when Afghan police were ambushed while they were patrolling a road. Some officers were killed, prompting the police to call in the Afghan army. The army then came under attack, too, and the provincial governor called in U.S. forces.

The U.S. forces eventually called in air support, military officials said, and after the airstrike began, the Taliban moved into two remote villages separated by poppy fields that were a source of heavy enemy fire, and the fight continued into the night.

The U.S. dropped 13 bombs on some buildings, military officials in Afghanistan have said.

The report found that an Air Force B-1 bomber had to circle overhead before dropping a 2,000-pound bomb on a site where suspected Taliban fighters had fled. While it was circling, civilians could’ve entered the building or Taliban could’ve left, but the military had no one in a position to observe that.

“There’s no way to determine whether or not that had anything to do with the fact that civilian casualties did occur in this incident, but they did note that as one of the problems associated with how this all took place,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said last week.

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India denies visa to US religious freedom watchdogs

[SEE: Dalit Voice, any issue.] India denies visa to US religious freedom watchdogs IST, Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN

WASHINGTON: The Manmohan Singh government has scuppered a proposed visit to India this week by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

(USCIRF), a US Congress-mandated organization that monitors religious rights worldwide and gives independent policy recommendations to the US President and his administration. A USCIRF team that was to leave for New Delhi on June 12 was not given visas in time, according to an associate at the commission, who said it was done with the obvious intent of blocking the trip. “They knew we had tickets for June 12 and the visas are yet to be given, so the inference is obvious…they don’t want us to visit,” the associate told TOI. The Indian Embassy in Washington, the issuing authority for the visa, referred all questions to New Delhi, while acknowledging that the USCIRF team had applied for visas and the applications had been forwarded to New Delhi as is the standard practice for all such visits. Sources in the government, without acknowledging that the visas were deliberately withheld, said it was not a proper time for such a visit. “We really don’t care about what they report,” an official who spoke on background said. “But a high profile visit seen as having government sanctions would have raised hackles in India.” The USCIRF has in its reports criticized violence against religious minorities in India. The official said the visa denial was not linked to the criticism of the proposed visit by the Hindu pontiff, Shankaracharya Jayendra Sarawati, who earlier this week described the USCIRF as an “intrusive mechanism of a foreign government which is interfering with the internal affairs of India,” and said the team must not be allowed to enter the country. The Obama administration too did not press for the visit, given that US Undersecretary of State William Burns was in New Delhi around the time of the proposed USCIRF visit, preparing ground for the visit to India by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sometime in July. Most “commissioners” and staff of the USCIRF are appointees of the previous Bush administration. Although the United States acknowledges India’s rich religious and ethnic diversity and plurality, the USCIRF has in its annual reports criticized specific episodes involving violence against religious minority, like the ones in Gujarat and in Orissa. “We understand India’s sensitivities about being criticized for religious discrimination given its democratic and secular credentials,” a commission associate said Wednesday. “But we are concerned that some of the judicial processes with regards to the incidents in Gujarat and Orissa are not functioning properly and we only wanted to get them going.” Indian hardliners, especially those on the extreme right, chafe at the idea that any US body would want to scrutinize the country’s religious freedom, given its secular credentials, when it dares not interfere in fundamentalist countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where minority rights are non-existent. Senior RSS functionaries had specifically inquired repeatedly about the proposed USCIRF visit. Describing the proposed USCIRF visit to India as “incomprehensible,” the US branch of the Vishwa Hindu Parishat said as the “largest functioning democracy in the world with an independent judiciary, a statutorily constituted Human rights Commission, an independent press and other supporting organizations would appear to be quite capable of taking care of the religious freedoms and human rights of its citizens.” “India not only offers freedom of religion under its constitution, but does not discriminate based on religion. Similar freedoms are not available in its neighboring countries,” the VHP said on a statement. But the Indian Left and the “secular” brigade in the US, including organizations representing minorities, argue that allowing such foreign bodies to visit India and examine its record and performance enhances the country’s reputation as an open, democratic nation that has nothing to hide or fear. // <![CDATA[// <![CDATA[ var zz=0;var sldsh=0; var bellyaddiv = ' '; var stindex=100; var stp=150; var taglen=0; var tmp; var tagcheck = new Array("div","span","br","font","a"); var storycontent = document.getElementById("storydiv").innerHTML; var firstpara = storycontent.substring(0,storycontent.toLowerCase().indexOf(" ")).toLowerCase(); function findptt(cnt){ zz++; if(zz == 10)return; var xxx=-1,yyy=-1; var ccnt = cnt; for(ii=0; ii < tagcheck.length; ii++){ xxx = ccnt.indexOf("<"+tagcheck[ii]); if(xxx != -1 && xxx < 150){ stp = stp; var tmp1 = ccnt.substring(ccnt.indexOf("”); if(yyy != -1){ taglen += yyy; stp = stp + yyy; yyy+=1; } break; taglen = taglen + tagcheck[ii].length + 3; } } if(xxx == -1 || xxx >= 150){ return; }else{ var tmp2 = ccnt.substring(0,xxx); tmp2 += ccnt.substring((yyy+xxx),ccnt.length); findptt(tmp2); } }findptt(firstpara); if(firstpara.length <= taglen + 150){ stp = firstpara.length; } var tmpminus=0; var tmpcon = storycontent.substring(0,stp); if(tmpcon.lastIndexOf("<") “)){ }else{ tmpminus = tmpcon.length – tmpcon.lastIndexOf(“ // <![CDATA[// <![CDATA[ var RN = new String (Math.random()); var RNS = RN.substring (2,11); b2 = ' '; if (doweshowbellyad==1) bellyad.innerHTML = b2; // ]]>

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DALIT VOICE (June 16th – 30th, 2009)

Vol. 28 June 16th – 30th, 2009 No. 12 Editorial CASTE WAR IN PUNJAB : When Sikhs hate Dalits because of caste, why not reject them & establish Ravidas religion? Reports Caste decides everything in India India as world’s only last remaining racist state When toilet papers proved wrong : Union Ministers selected only on caste basis Tamil papans plotted destruction of LTTE & Prabhakaran Upper caste monopoly of English Mystery of India’s “freedom at midnight”: Aug. 15, 1947 held inauspicious Articles Sikhs always used to fight Muslims then & Dalits today Dalits must not seek temple entry because we are not Hindu HOPE IN BARACK OBAMA : 62-year-old III-World War against Islam will end only with Palestinian peace Zionism : monster of Islamophobia Brahmins & their poverty Dalit movement is anti-woman ? Which BAMCEF should DV support ?

© 2004 – 2009 Dalit Voice

When Sikhs hate Dalits because of caste- Dalit Voice

[The Vienna murders.]

When Sikhs hate Dalits because of caste, why not reject them & establish Ravidas religion?

The curse of Brahminism is even if you quit Hinduism and convert to any egalitarian religion to seek liberation you cannot get rid of casteism which is the other name for racism. The powerful Jat (shudra) castes of Punjab embraced Sikhism to fight Brahmins but within no time they are back in the Brahminical stomach.

Sikhism itself was founded by Guru Nanak to fight Brahmins and their Brahminism but all the castes that went over to the revolutionary Sikhism carried their caste stink with them.

Brahminism is the world’s deadliest octopus and this whole country of 1,200 millions is struggling to escape its tentacles but failed.

The May 25, 2009 spontaneous Punjab violence is the direct result of the long simmering caste hatred between the Dalit Sikhs and the Jat Sikhs that resulted in the targeted assassination (May 24) of Sant Ramanand at Vienna (Austria) of Dera Sachkhand, Ballan, near Jalandhar. The whole lot of Guru Ravidas followers (Dalits) violently protested all over Punjab and parts of Haryana and taught a lesson to the Jats.

Brahmins have hearty laughter: But the Brahmins had a hearty laughter and quietly enjoyed how they managed to split Dalit Sikhs and Dalits from Jat Sikhs and made them fight each other. The principle of Brahminism is divide and rule. Sikhism, a military religion, was born to fight Brahminism and free all the oppressed people including Dalits from Brahminical tyranny and racism. Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the Sikh gurus and the most revolutionary of the lot, declared Brahminism as the Enemy No.1 of the people. Sikhism quickly grew and came to dominate the whole of Punjab.

“Blue Star” & Indira Gandhi murder: But the Brahmins would never forget or forgive their enemy. During the partition (1947), the Brahmins deceived the Sikhs by using M.K. Gandhi who made them remain with Hindus. Sikhism itself was dubbed a reform movement within Hinduism — like Budhism and Jainism. The enemy was waiting for an opportunity to once for all break the backbone of the Sikh martial race. That opportunity came when Indira Gandhi sent the army itself into Golden Temple and killed the revolutionary leader, Sant Bhindranwale (1984), and thousands of Sikhs on their holiest day and that too inside their holiest shrine, Golden Temple. In DV, we called it “Hindu war against Sikhs” (DV Edit June 16 1984).

The Dalit Sikhs did not forget the crime committed by Indira Gandhi. A devout Dalit Sikh (not a Jat Sikh) took the revenge and killed the then Prime Minister (DV Edit Nov.16, 1984: “A Dalit kills Indira taking Sikhs closer to Khalistan”).

Sikhs corrupted & co-opted: All this is now part of history. But the Khatri and the Jat Sikhs in particular have forgotten their great ancestors like Sardar Kapur Singh, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, both Jat Sikhs, and all the crimes committed by the Brahminical people against the Jat Sikhs and allowed themselves to be corrupted and co-opted by the Brahminical force.

What a tragedy that Punjab’s sole Jat Sikh party of Akali Dal is in the pocket of the Brahmana Jati Party. In almost every gurudwara in Punjab, the Brahminical people have established a unit of their Rashtriya Sikh Sangat (RSS) to re-write the Guru Granth, the holy book of the Sikhs, and include Hindu gods and goddesses. This is being vigorously done. The Jat Sikh religious leaders or their party never objected to this Brahminical blackmail.

No hope in Jat Sikhs: We have very exhaustively written on the “Fall & slow death of Sikhism” by holding a long Debate on the subject (references to DV Debate is given at the end of this Editorial). We say with deep sorrow that we have hardly any hope of the Sikh military religion of Guru Gobind Singh then and Sant Bhindranwale recently, reviving itself. The Khatri Sikhs like Manmohan Singh etc. have no Sikhism in them except their turban and beard. Many have given up their religious symbols also. The Jat Sikhs were the only people keeping the Sikh flame burning. But the deep Brahminical infiltration, with the Akali Dal itself becoming an ally of the Brahmana Jati Party, we have no hope in the Jats. The Jat Sikhs only job today is to obey the Brahminical order to attack the Dalit Sikhs.

Targeted assassination: Since the Jat Sikhs themselves are not interested in Sikhism what hope is there for Dalit Sikhs and other Dalits?

The Vienna explosion was clear and loud. Both the Dalit saints had gone there to preach Guru Ravidas message to only Dalit Sikhs and other Dalits. It was not a Sikh gurudwara but a Ravidas Temple of the Dalits.

Killing Dalits is Hindu dharma: What business the Jat Sikhs or other upper caste Sikhs had to go there when they were not invited or the prayer meeting was not to their liking? That means the upper caste Sikh assassins went there determined to kill the Dalit saints. This proves the intensity of caste hatred even in a far off foreign land.

Hinduism (Brahminism) is the other name for caste hatred. Dalits are its worst victims — from centuries. The whole lot of Indian Dalits, who form over 20% of its 1,200 million population, are daily suffering the Hindu hatred and violence which is fully justified by Hinduism as their dahrma (religious duty).

The Babbar Khalsa International (Hindu May 27, 2009) says the:

“Indian agencies are behind the Vienna attack and they are trying to split the Ravidasiya community from the Sikh Panth”.

When the Brahminical rulers of India and the upper caste Sikh rulers of Punjab say they hate Dalits, why beg them?

Dalits refuse to quit Hinduism: That is why Babasaheb, the Father of India and the country’s most audacious warrior against Brahminism, revolted and kicked it out asking his Untouchable followers to quit Hinduism.

But they did not. Even when Hinduism grinds them to dust and they all know who is the culprit. We call it: Slaves enjoying their slavery.

The Punjabi and Haryana Ravidas Dalit followers are also caught in the same dilemma. When Guru Ravidas, Dr. Ambedkar and all the Dalit saints were victims of Brahminism and daily the Dalits are persecuted by the Hindus they are still sticking on to this stinking house.

This is because the Brahminical leaders have given a powerful injection of their religion, the poison of which the Dalits are not able to get rid of.

Jats made monkeys, Dalits bribed: On one side they have made monkeys of Jat Sikhs and continue to instigate them against Dalits. On the other they are riding the back of every Dalit saint, infiltrated their deras, tempted them with all sorts of bribery.

Though Guru Ravidas was hated by the Brahminical people, who only finally killed the saint and also his famous disciple, Mira Bai (DV Feb.1, 2009 p.9), the vaidiks did not give up the hope of retaining Dalits within Hinduism. M.K. Gandhi’s fasting stunts against separate electorate finally reduced the fate of Dalits who are once for all made Hinduism’s most obedient slaves enjoying their slavery. Heard of it anywhere else?

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Father of India, and the country’s greatest fighter against Brahminism after the Budha, asked Dalits to quit Hinduism and embrace Budhism. Barring a fraction, Dalits by and large remained within Hinduism as its slaves.

Power of Brahminical media: The Brahminical people wield such enormous influence on all their victims only because of the power of their manuwadi monopoly media but Dalits and other persecuted minorities denied human rights have none except the Dalit Voice.

So, when Brahminism is reigning supreme, unchallenged, making a bloody fool of every section that challenges them, how to win the war launched by Babasaheb against Brahminism?

India as world’s only last remaining racist state- Dalit Voice

India as world’s only last remaining racist state

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bangalore: As this is written the Brahminical people have raised a furious protest over the “Australian racism against Indian students” — suppressing the historical fact that India is the founding father of racism. Apartheid died in South Africa decades back but the centuries-old Brahminical racism is reigning supreme in India.

No amount of cosmetic social reform can hide its horrible face that shot to international fame in the latest shoot-out in an Indian Untouchables temple (Ravidas Mandir) at Vienna (Austria) on May 23, 2009. Assassination of their saint by the upper caste Sikhs is the latest proof of the canker of casteism which is worse than racism.

Sikhism is itself a great religion born out of revolt against Brahminism (Hinduism) but even after conversion, the upper castes within Sikhism continue to be casteists (racists).

It means Hinduism will not accept any social reform. Even after conversion all upper caste Sikhs, Christians, Muslims maintain their racial identity. Is this not racism?

The Vienna temple belonged to the Dalits. A couple of upper caste Sikhs entered it fully armed, the police said, with the determination to kill the Dalit saint.

Even when a Hindu goes out and settles abroad he continues to be a racist.

Way back in 2001, the Dalits failed at the UN Durban conference to get casteism equated with racism. Last month in Delhi India’s Brahminical govt. once again rebuffed fresh efforts from Scandinavian countries to equate casteism with racism.

The Vienna planned assassination is the latest proof of casteism as racism. The upper caste Sikhs hate Dalit Sikhs claiming equality. The contagion of casteism, the foundation on which Hinduism stands, has spread to Christianity and Sikhism. Even Islam.

Not only that. Wherever the Hindu goes he carries his racism.

The US Mainstream Media: Selective Omission and Planned Misinformation

by Solomon Comissiong

There is method to the maddening homogeneity and shallowness of the U.S. corporate media. “Keeping the public as dumbed down as possible keeps their corporate clients happy and their political partners in power.” Media corporations advertise that they sell “news,” but what they’re really marketing is a daily defense of imperial rule. That’s why, for example, “they won’t tell you how so-called ‘free trade’ policies create sweatshops, plunder, mass migration, and civil unrest.”

The US Mainstream Media: Selective Omission and Planned Misinformation

by Solomon Comissiong

“The American mainstream media system continues to be the perfect tool for those who control the empire.”

The idea that the American mainstream media system is a reputable source for comprehensive news and information should be the punch line for any series of good jokes. However, the mainstream media is actually taken seriously within United States borders. And because it is taken seriously, it does immeasurable harm by sustaining a vastly misinformed and isolated American populous. This misinformation begins in public schools and colleges from sea to shining sea.

Far and extremely few between will one find a classroom in the U.S. that actually portrays America, her founders, and her policies as the “bad guys.” Instead of that being the point of reference in which we begin our history and social studies courses, we find the complete opposite: premeditated lies, kicked off bright and early in the morning with the cultish reciting of the “pledge of allegiance.” The pledge, ending with the words “with liberty and justice for all,” should be laughable to anyone that has studied history outside the mainstream channels. With liberty and justice for all? Those words have been disingenuous and insincere since the Pledge of Allegiance’s inception in 1892. I don’t think living under the terror of Jim Crow, lynching, and the US convict lease system embodies “justice for all” for its citizens of color. The sad but honest truth is that most Americans have absolutely no idea of the vast carnage – the crimes against humanity – their country has committed since its tainted “inception.” And for that reason, the American mainstream media system continues to be the perfect tool for those who control the empire.When a majority of the populace has no accurate historical reference whatsoever, and is isolated from the rest of the world, you can feed them whatever pack of lies you wish.

An analytical, diverse, and well working media system informs, engages, and educates its viewers/listeners/readers. The American media system performs none of these beneficial functions. Whether it’s the white supremacist Fox “News” or the so-called liberal CNN (whatever the word ‘liberal’ means to them), the limited range by which they cover current events is pretty much the same. They basically all carry the same narrowly focused news, with different voices and overhead. They all (MSNBC, FOX “News,” CNN, et al) purposely leave out huge chucks of contextual information when they actually do report on events that occur outside of the US. For instance, I recently viewed a “news” story on the so-called liberal MSNBC which was headlined, “War Planes strike Taliban in Pakistan.” I was intrigued to see if the report would have any mention of the masses of civilians that have been destroyed by these US air-strikes. Needless to say, I was not pleasantly surprised. There was no mention of the civilians who were disproportionately affected by the aggressive US policy.

“Since taking office the Obama administration has carried out the same hawkish military approach as did the mentally challenged George W. Bush and his band of war mongers.”

If you believe the “news” out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, U.S. armaments are deployed with precision accuracy, destroying only “enemies.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Since taking office the Obama administration has carried out the same hawkish military approach as did the mentally challenged George W. Bush and his band of war mongers. As Obama fans continue to ride the hollow wave of “change you can believe in,” civilians are perishing by the score in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Why does much of that part of the world hate the US? For an easy answer, start with US foreign policy. If the American mainstream media were actually concerned about professionalism and raising the consciousness of their audiences, the public would be presented with all sides of the story. Given that MSNBC’s parent company is General Electric, the weapons contractor, we shouldn’t be surprised by their pro-military reporting.

US mainstream media abhor historical context and shun expositions of root causes. They won’t tell you how so-called “free trade” policies create sweatshops, plunder, mass migration, and civil unrest. A recent example would be the mass killings of civilians ordered by Peru’s pro-western president, Alan Garcia, when indigenous Peruvians protested the selling off of enormous chunks of the Amazon rainforest. If no change is made, the indigenous Peruvians will see North American gas and oil companies, like ConocoPhillips, destroy vast tracts of their land to serve greedy capitalist interests. You won’t see a full and fair presentation of this story on any mainstream outlets. And you can be that whatever coverage of the Peruvian crisis is allowed will be from the capitalists’ perspective. As a result, Americans are at least partially shielded from the suffering caused by their own country’s long legacy of imperialism.

“The corporate media keep us in the dark because they have to.”

The American mainstream media system is a very powerful and dangerous appendage of a system that does not give a damn about the advancement of the rest of humanity. Its true function is to project the worldview and culture of the imperial system, of which it is an integral component. Popular apathy and disengagement, and an abysmal general ignorance, are the inevitable and natural result. The criminal minded mainstream media have no interest in putting domestic and world events in their proper context. Keeping the public as dumbed down as possible keeps their corporate clients happy and their political partners in power. After all, if most Americans truly knew that their country’s government was at the root of most of the nation’s international disputes, they actually might try to rise up and do something about it. Whether it be murderous coup d’états, illegally funded clandestine wars, assassination attempts, unequal and oppressive “free” trade agreements, or inhumane sanctions – the US government has participated in all of the above.

These are the dirty little secrets that, if exposed to the majority, could provoke real change in the way America does “business” with other countries. The corporate media keep us in the dark because they have to. These private communications corporations dictate to Americans what they need to think, when they need to think it, and who they need to hate. They fulfill the role assigned them by the larger corporate structures.

After all, if Americans knew the real truth, they might recognize that the nexus of their – and the world’s – problems is located in their own government’s policies.

Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News). He may be reached at: sunderland77@hotmail.com.

On The Pretense of Peace

By Brenda Heard

Friends of Lebanon

On Sunday 14 June 2009, hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a statement announcing his expectations of the international community, Israeli F-16 jets dropped several bombs along the southern Gaza border. The Israeli military said it was targeting underground tunnels. Four Palestinians were wounded. (More on the exchange of hostilities here and here.)

As the Palestinians were being treated in hospital, Netanyahu proclaimed, “Peace has always been our people’s most ardent desire. In fact the speech was interwoven with Hallmark-Greeting-Card-messages of tranquil harmony.  “If we join hands and work together for peace. . . .”

Cut the violins. In essence, Netanyahu stated that he expected the international community to support his desire to turn his holy land into his Disneyland so as to regain the tourist trade needed to bolster an ailing Israeli economy. We could make this whole Palestinian problem go away, he said, if we simply ignore those we forced out and bend those remaining into  complete submission. Lest anyone get the wrong idea, though, we’ll let them keep a flag and a song. Just to prove how civilised we are.

At one point Netanyahu refers* to “Hamas in the south” and “Hizbullah in the north.”  In the south? In the north? South and north of what? Hamas is in Palestine. Hizbullah is in Lebanon. But not in the Zionist eyes of Netanyahu: to him, Hamas is in the south of Israel; Hizbullah is in the north of Israel. Yet still Western media provides such headlines as “Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu endorses creation of Palestinian state” Look again, New York Daily News, south of what??

Netanyahu stated ever-so graciously, “I turn to all Arab leaders tonight and I say: “Let us meet. Let us speak of peace and let us make peace.” I am ready to meet with you at any time… I turn to you, our Palestinian neighbors, led by the Palestinian Authority, and I say: Let’s begin negotiations immediately without preconditions…” [emphasis added].

And then: “a fundamental prerequisite for ending the conflict is a public, binding and unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. To vest this declaration with practical meaning, there must also be a clear understanding that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside Israel’s borders. For it is clear that any demand  for resettling Palestinian refugees within Israel undermines Israel’s continued existence as the state of the Jewish people.”
Rather a significant precondition.

He further states that “within this [Jewish] homeland lives a large Palestinian community.” Again a statement that indicates he views the entire territory as Israel, with the Palestinians being intruders. The fate of the Palestinians, he states, depends “firmly on those principles essential for Israel. I have already stressed the first principle – recognition. Palestinians must clearly and unambiguously recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is: demilitarization. The territory under Palestinian control must be demilitarized with ironclad security provisions for Israel.”
Two more rather significant preconditions.

Just getting warmed up, he adds a few more stipulations “to achieve peace”: “we must ensure that Palestinians will not be able (1) to import missiles into their territory, (2) to field an army, (3) to close their airspace to us, or (4) to make pacts with the likes of Hizbullah and Iran.” [numbering added] With unabashed insistence on these preconditions, he explains  that “It is impossible to expect us to agree in advance to the principle of a Palestinian state without assurances that this state will be demilitarized. On a matter so critical to the existence of Israel, we must first have our security needs addressed.”

And just in case there is any question on what he means by submission to Israeli terms means, Netanyahu reiterates:

“Therefore, today we ask our friends in the international community, led by the United States, for what is critical to the security of Israel: Clear commitments that in a future peace agreement, the territory controlled by the Palestinians will be demilitarized: namely, without an army, without control of its airspace, and with effective security measures to prevent weapons smuggling into the territory – real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today. And obviously, the Palestinians will not be able to forge military pacts. Without this, sooner or later, these territories will become another Hamastan. And that we cannot accept.”

“Hamastan”? Is that meant to be clever?

The shopping list continues—not only will the Palestinian Authority “have to establish the rule of law in Gaza and overcome Hamas,” but it should be remembered that “Israel needs defensible borders, and Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel with continued religious freedom for all faiths. The territorial question will be discussed as part of the final peace agreement. In the meantime, we have no intention of building new settlements or of expropriating additional land for existing settlements.” [emphasis added]

The next day, 15 June, Israeli Rightists responded to Netanyahu’s speech: “We’ll build dozens more outposts”  Israeli media Ynet reports that “Right wing activists announced on Monday that they plan to build dozens of new outposts throughout the West Bank, in response to recent statements made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama. ‘This is the appropriate Zionist response to Netanyahu’s speech and Obama’s speech. The goal is to build new outposts and expand the existing ones,’ the rightists’ statement said.”

But then how much of the history of Israeli aggression has been dismissed as “unintentional”?

Friends of Lebanon

Full text of Netanyahu’s statement, as documented by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Very Rich

Bloggers beware as judge says authors do NOT have right to anonymity on the web

NASA: The great 2012 End of The World hoax exposed

In Iran,

“the real power is a handful of clerics and their associates who call the shots behind the curtain and have gotten very rich in the process…

“The 1979 revolution expropriated the assets of foreign investors and the nation’s wealthiest families…

“The mullahs seized … banks, hotels, car and chemical companies, makers of drugs and consumer goods.

“Charities now serve as slush funds for the mullahs and their supporters…

“The man most adept at manipulating this hidden power structure is one of Iran’s best-known characters – Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani…”

- Millionaire Mullahs – Forbes.com / Author of “Millionaire Mullahs” Shot Dead

Rafsanjani (and Mousavi) versus Ahmadinejad.

“As Iran’s prime minister during 1981-89, Mousavi was an unvarnished hardliner…

“The Rafsanjani family clan owns vast financial empires in Iran, including foreign trade, vast landholdings and the largest network of private universities in Iran.

“Known as Azad there are 300 branches spread over the country, they are not only money-spinners but could also press into Mousavi’s election campaign an active cadre of student activists numbering some 3 million.

“The Azad campuses and auditoria provided the rallying point for Mousavi’s campaign in the provinces… – Iran elections: Rafsanjani’s Gambit Backfires

Ahmadinejad works for Mossad? “Mehdi Khazali, the son of the conservative Ayatollah Khazali, has written on his personal website that he recently learned that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots. Khazali notes that Ahmadinejad changed his family name from Saburjian…” – Ahmadinejad’s ‘Jewish Family’.

On 30 June 2008, it was revealed that “The Bush administration has launched a ‘significant escalation” of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to … undermine the Islamic republic’s government, journalist Seymour Hersh… Hersh told CNN … that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.” Iran election roundup

Mousavi represents the ultra-rich. One Third of the Iranian People

Agent Provocateurs in Iran

Mastermind of 9/11 attacks claims torture ‘only makes me tell lies to keep my interrogators happy’

Alleged al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims he told lies under torture to keep his interrogators happy

Accused al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims interrogators tortured lies out of him, government transcripts reveal.

The terror suspect, who proudly took credit for more than two dozen other terror plots, said the torture only forced him to lie to keep his interrogators happy.

‘I make up stories,’ Mohammed said at one point in his 2007 hearing at Guantanamo Bay.

In broken English, he described an interrogation in which he was asked the location of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

‘Where is he? I don’t know,’ Mohammed said. ‘Then he torture me. Then I said, “Yes, he is in this area or this is al-Qaeda which I don’t know him.” I said “no”, they torture me.’

Yet at the same military tribunal hearing, Mohammed ticked off a list of 29 terror plots in which he said he participated.

The transcripts were released as part of a lawsuit in which the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking documents and details of the government’s terror detainee programs.

Previous accounts of the military tribunal hearings have already been made public.

But the Obama administration has since reviewed the still-secret sections and determined that more could be released.

More…

• Miliband tells Clinton of UK anger over secret U.S. deal to transfer Guantanamo inmates to Bermuda behind Britain’s back

ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner called on the American President to disclose even more details.

He said: The new materials ‘provide further evidence of brutal torture and abuse in the CIA’s interrogation program and demonstrate beyond doubt that this information has been suppressed solely to avoid embarrassment and growing demands for accountability.’

But CIA spokesman George Little took issue with Wizner’s characterisation of the interrogation practices.

One detainee Abu Zubaydah claimed he was subjected to waterboarding, which stimulates drowning. File photo

‘The CIA plainly has a very different take on its past interrogation practices, what they were and what they weren’t, and on the need to protect properly classified national security information,’ he said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the new materials were released voluntarily by the government, which is keeping other portions secret to protect intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

Most of the new material centres on the detainees’ claims of abuse during interrogations while being held overseas in CIA custody.

One detainee, Abu Zubaydah, told the tribunal that after months ‘of suffering and torture, physically and mentally, they did not care about my injuries.’

Abu Zubaydah was the first detainee subjected to Bush administration-approved harsh interrogation techniques.

He claimed this included a simulated form of drowning known as waterboarding, being slammed onto walls and enduring  prolonged periods of nudity.

Abu Zubaydah claimed in the hearing that he ‘nearly died four times.’

‘After a few months went by, during which I almost lost my mind and my life, they made sure I didn’t die,’ Abu Zubaydah said in his statement to the tribunal.

He claimed that after many months of such treatment, authorities concluded he was not the No. 3 person in al Qaeda as they had long believed.

Amnesty UK director Kate Allen said torture was abhorrent and could never be condoned.

‘It is banned under international law and with good reason. It is always wrong and always will be – no matter what the circumstances.

‘The UK should never use information obtained from torture. Doing so, is a tacit acceptance of torture and gives the green light for the infliction of yet more pain and terror on people.’

Baloch female militants bomb Quetta shop

QUETTA: Two shops were destroyed and a shop owner injured when the women’s wing of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) bombed a shop on the Mezan Chowk here on Tuesday. The blast occurred at around 1pm in a juice shop in one of the most crowded business centres of the provincial capital, destroying two neighbouring shops and injuring one of the shops’ owner. “The blast occurred shortly after a woman wearing a veil left the shop. She must’ve left explosives in the shop,” the owner of the juice shop told Daily Times. The women’s wing of the BRA, a hitherto unknown armed group struggling for a separate Baloch homeland, claimed responsibility for the blast. “We accept responsibility for the bomb blast,” said Gohar, spokeswoman of the women’s wing of the BRA in telephone calls to several newspaper offices. She claimed to have personally put the explosives in the shop. “More such attacks would be carried in the future,” she warned.

TTP threatens more attacks on prominent clerics

Aaj Kal Report

LAHORE: The Ministry of Interior has advised the home departments of all four provinces to tighten security after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threatened more suicide attacks on prominent religious leaders.

“Now it is your turn—we have sent a jacketwala (a man with a suicide vest) to mend clerics like you. We will also send jacketwalas to other clerics too,” sources told Aaj Kal quoting a threatening letter addressed to a cleric.

According to sources, TTP is written in bold letters at the end of the letter. In light of the letter, law enforcement agencies have been advised to tighten security for leading religious leaders.

Ahmedzai Wazirs scramble to keep their areas safe

* Taliban digging tunnels in mountains, mining routes likely to be used by army

By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: Ahmedzai Wazir tribes are making last-ditch efforts in a bid to keep a military offensive against Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan off their areas, amid shelling in the region, as the Taliban dig tunnels in mountains for protection against bombing, said elders and locals on Tuesday.

“We have been shuttling between the Taliban and the government for three days to reach some sort of an understanding to keep the Taliban from joining Baitullah,” the elders told Daily Times over the telephone from Wana, after talks with the political administration.

The Wazir elders claimed top Taliban leaders had accepted their request to ”remain disengaged with Baitullah” in case the military moved against him, but only if the government met certain demands.

”We cannot say what these demands are,” the elders replied when asked for details. ”What we can tell you is that the military is unwilling to accept the Taliban demands.”

The Wazir elders met top Taliban leaders at an undiclsoed location on Tuesday, to discuss ways to keep Wazir areas safe.

Meanwhile, Taliban loyal to Baitullah are preparing for the military offensive by digging tunnels in mountains and mining routes the army could use.

Meanwhile, the security forces continued pounding Taliban positions from Jandola Manzai, Sarwakai and Chaghmalai forts.

Forces continue shelling Mehsud’s hideouts

WANA: The security forces continued overnight the bombardment on the hideouts of Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan Agency. Also, the US surveillance planes continued their flights over various areas here.

After the announcement of Operation Rahi-e-Nijat, the people are leaving the area in great number.

According to sources, the security forces continued shelling the hideouts of Baitullah Mehsud in SWA areas including Kotkai, Spainkai, Raghzai and Srarogha.

The sources said there are at least 50 hideouts of Mehsud in these areas.

The witnesses told that US drones were seen in Makeen, Ladha and adjoining areas since morning.

From Rah-e-Rast to Rah-e-Nijat : Army ready to enter South Waziristan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army has formally recieved marching orders against Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and preparations for the first phase of a miltary operation in South Waziristan have already been completed, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Athar Abbas said on Tuesday.

”The government has taken a principled decision to launch a military operation against Baitullah and his network,” Abbas said. Abbas told a press conference – which he addressed alongside Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira – that 13 terrorists were killed and another three were apprehended in Malakand and Dir during the last 24 hours. Abbas also said Baitullah claimed the support of a 10,000-strong militia.  [Nowhere near the 200,000 fighters claimed by more sensationalist news sources.]

Abbas said Peochar valley, a stronghold for the Taliban, had been secured completely and a link up from Chaprial to Peochar had been completed.

He said the civil administration and police had become fully functional in Shangla. Kaira said the government would provide the army all the resources it needed to successfully complete the operation against the Taliban. The minister did not rule out the possibility of weapons flowing into the Tribal Areas from Afghanistan.

Abbas said there were unconfirmed reports that Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldashev was injured in a Pakistan Air Force strike on Sunday in the Makeen area of South Waziristan. He gave no further details.

Cleric’s Slaying Signifies a Shift Taliban Widens Its Targets in Pakistan

A charity worker hands out bread at the famous Data Shrine in Lahore, where authorities fear the Taliban may launch suicide bombings. (By Pamela Constable — The Washington Post)

Cleric’s Slaying Signifies a Shift

Taliban Widens Its Targets in Pakistan

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

LAHORE, Pakistan, June 16 — The modest office where Sarfraz Naeemi kept his library and received visitors seeking spiritual guidance is now a charred hole. The floor is strewn with burned pages, glass shards and ball bearings from a young suicide bomber’s lethal vest.

Even though this cultured provincial capital is fast becoming used to bombings, the assassination of Naeemi, a scholarly cleric who promoted religious harmony and

spoke out against Taliban extremism, has resonated far beyond the blackened walls and shattered windows of the quiet seminary he headed here.

Naeemi’s death Friday has provoked a universal outpouring of grief and condemnation across Pakistan’s political and social spectrum. It has marked a turning point in the consolidation of public opinion against the Taliban, a violent Islamist movement that was once fostered by the state and nurtured in similar seminaries.

But the killing of Naeemi, 61, who used the religious title mufti, has also broadened the Taliban insurgents’ war against the “infidel” state to include fellow Sunni clerics who defy them. It has raised fears that sectarian violence will erupt in a tolerant, lively metropolis that draws millions of pilgrims to its historic religious shrines.

“Since the death of Mufti Sahib, everyone is frightened of suicide bombings,” said Mohammed Shakil, who sells trinkets in the maze of alleys around a 13th-century Shiite shrine. “We are a peaceful community where all faiths respect each other.

Nothing like this has ever happened before. Now people are afraid even to come and worship.”

Last week, the Taliban issued a public letter against Shiites in a Lahore newspaper, declaring them non-Muslim and ordering them to leave Pakistan, convert or face violent consequences. This week, police have barricaded Lahore’s Shiite shrines amid rumors that they will be infiltrated by female suicide bombers. Police now search all worshipers, hustle them through narrow openings and urge them to leave after a few moments.

The famous Data Shrine, where a Sufi saint is buried, has also been barricaded and put under heavy guard. Normally teeming with beggars, pilgrims, addicts, mystics and pickpockets, the vast stone shrine is now almost empty. Police are also camped outside public buildings, and armed commandos await flights at the Lahore airport amid families throwing rose petals at those coming home.

Naeemi’s assassination is the latest in a string of audacious, strategically aimed attacks in the Punjab province’s capital since March. The attacks included an assault on a police academy, the bombing of an intelligence agency building and a shooting rampage targeting a cricket team from Sri Lanka.

The slaying also came as the army was moving aggressively to confront Taliban forces on their rugged home turf in northwestern Pakistan. By killing Naeemi and asserting responsibility for his death, analysts said, Taliban leaders sought to prove that they could easily retaliate at a distance and had no qualms about eliminating anyone who opposed them.

Naeemi was an obvious target. He came from the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam, a moderate sect that has long competed for influence with the harder-line Deobandi sect that spawned the original Taliban in Afghanistan. Naeemi was a leading Barelvi voice against the Taliban, and he had issued a decree against suicide bombings in 2005.

Some observers expressed concern that the growing divisions between the two Sunni sects — and the strengthening alliance between the Taliban and certain Deobandi groups from Punjab — could lead to violent clashes, bringing more chaos to a nation on the brink of religious war and economic collapse.

“The state must protect the unarmed clergy against the armed clergy, but without empowering the Barelvis as a counterforce against the Taliban,” Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper here, warned in Sunday’s lead editorial. The proposal to “fight mullahs with mullahs,” he said, will only encourage the world to view Pakistan as a “rogue state which also kills its own people.”

After an outburst of emotional protests by Naeemi’s followers over the weekend, officials at his seminary called for calm and restraint. On Monday, hundreds of students in tunics and skullcaps were back in class, rocking and murmuring as they memorized the Koran in open-air pavilions.

In one corner, next to the fresh tomb covered with roses, Naeemi’s son Raghib, 37, received a steady stream of mourners, from men in business suits to women in black veils. In an interview, he described his father as a humble, generous soul who loved to ride his motorbike and watch wrestling on television.

“My father was a religious man, but he believed in the writ of the state, he believed in the army, he believed in a stable Pakistan,” the younger Naeemi said. “The Taliban only want to bring anarchy and disturbance. My father was against that, and he gave his life for his beliefs. Now it is my duty to carry on his mission.”

A moment later, however, he veered into a diatribe against the American, Israeli and Indian intelligence services, accusing them of supporting the Taliban in order to destabilize Pakistan and seize control of its nuclear arsenal. It was an argument his father, who was once jailed for opposing Pakistani cooperation with the U.S. military, made as often as he condemned the Taliban.

In other interviews this week, a cross section of the city’s residents expressed remarkably similar opinions, as if reading from a script that portrayed the United States as conspiring against Pakistani Muslims, despite the huge quantities of U.S. economic aid being sent here and the thousands of U.S. troops fighting the Taliban in next-door Afghanistan.

“The problem is that for years, the Pakistani state has promoted Islamic religious orthodoxy and the idea that the West is out to destroy us. This mind-set has been inculcated in an entire generation,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst. “Taliban thinking, more than physical presence, is the greater danger to Pakistan.”

Between breaks in their memorization, a cluster of students at the Naeemia seminary spoke of their wish to become clerics and spread Islam. Asked how they felt about other boys being trained to commit suicide bombings, they shook their heads in disapproval, saying it was un-Islamic. But then several spoke up, saying they also hoped to die for Islam.

“We have no fear of martyrdom. It is an honor,” said one slender boy of 18.

“Both the Taliban and the Americans want to destroy our country,” he added firmly. “Whether we live or die defending our faith, we will be blessed.”

India Wants To Fight In Afghanistan Until The Last American

India Wants To Fight In Afghanistan Until The Last

American

After months of arrogant behavior, the United States is conceding to some of Pakistan’s demands, like unconditional aid and a check on Indian terrorist activities against Pakistan using Afghan soil. But does Washington know that India wants a war in Afghanistan until the last American soldier?

By ZAID HAMID

Monday, 15 June 2009.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—It sounds strange but the fact is that the United States is now under pressure from Pakistani armed forces, it is pretty clear now. The US dependence upon Pakistan for war in Afghanistan and the passage of NATO supplies through Khyber and Chaman means that US has to remain sensitive to the demands of Pakistani armed forces. We are not saying Pakistani government here, as the government does not exist. Every decision the PPP government takes is either under US dictation or under pressure from Pakistan army. It has no direction, mind or vision of its own.

As far as India is concerned, Pakistan army has its own serious sensitivities despite US desire to change the strategic direction of Pakistan’s security establishment. US desire that instead of India, Pakistan should consider Afghan Taliban as the greater enemy and allocate resources to their elimination. But the Indians presence in Afghanistan, their support to TTP terrorism and Baluchistan separatist forces and their persecution of Kashmiri Muslims in IHK continue to convince Pakistani nation and GHQ that India remains the greater threat than Afghan Taliban. This is highly frustrating for US and this week we saw some really irritated statements from Washington and even western media asking India to behave. This is interesting to observe. Indians are highly offended when US or western media advice them on Kashmir.

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US wants India to trim mission in Jalalabad, act on Kashmir

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NEW DELHI, June 11: Senior US diplomat William Burns gave Indian officials a wish-list on Thursday that aims to revive India-Pakistan peace talks, assures New Delhi of its vital role in Washington’s strategy in the region, and retrieves the hope for Kashmiri people to shape their own destiny. Local reports quoted unnamed sources as saying that the visiting US Under-Secretary of State also asked his interlocutors to trim India’s consulate in Jalalabad, which Pakistan sees as a distraction in the military campaign against Muslim extremists on the Afghan border…..

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/us-wants-india-to-trim-mission-in-jalalabad%2C-act-on-kashmir-269

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India urged to look beyond LoC formula
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LONDON, June 13: India needs to consider a Kashmir solution based on ‘something more than the LoC’ if it is sincere in wanting to establish lasting peace in the subcontinent, said Mark Tully, the BBC fame journalist while speaking at a talk-show organized by the Commonwealth Journalists Association here on Friday. Accompanied by Soli Sorabjee, the former attorney general of India who was the other speaker at the talk show, he presented an analysis of recent Indian poll…….

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/india-urged-to-look-beyond-loc-formula-469

Last week, we had given following assessment of the Indian thought process.

“Indians are extremely upset with developments in Pakistan and in their neighboring territories with Pakistan – Kashmir and Punjab. Following major developments are seriously irritating the Indians.

1. Pakistani High Court released JuD chief Hafiz Saeed on account of no proof against him on charges of terrorism. Indians wanted him for Mumbai terror attacks.

1. Kashmir civil disobedience and unrest if once again flaring up.

1. Sikhs in the Indian State of East Punjab have rallied once again to demand a separate homeland and freedom from India.

1. The Indian assets of TTP operating in Swat and FATA are being badly burnt by Pakistan army’s operation in the region, undoing years of Indian efforts to sponsor insurgency in Pakistani regions.

The unrest in Kashmir is gaining momentum and Indians fear is that any external support by militants or Pakistan can turn this unrest into an inferno. With massive Indian support to TTP terrorists, the idea must be bubbling in Pakistani mind to get even in Kashmir and Indian Punjab.

Despite best US efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan and to initiate a “peace process” between the two especially over Kashmir, this is not happening in any time in near future. Even a pro-Indian Zardari government cannot do much about it against public and military sentiments which see Indians as prime enemies. For now, both countries would remain engaged in diplomatic and proxy wars where Indians definitely have an upper hand as Pakistan is forced to fight a high intensity war within its own borders, courtesy massive Indians covert support to TTP terrorists”

In fact, Indian frustration on the LoC is growing as Kashmir protests continue to gain momentum.

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Indian troops violate LoC, kidnap man

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MUZAFFARABAD, June 11: Indian forces violated the Line of Control four days ago and abducted a Neelum valley resident, an official said on Thursday. Manzoor Ahmed was collecting firewood from the jungle along the Line of Control when he was picked up and taken across by Indian troops, deputy commissioner of Neelum district Attaullah Atta told Dawn…..

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/indian-troops-violate-loc%2C-kidnap-man-269

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Asiya held amid fresh Kashmir protests
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SRINAGAR, June 10: Police have detained a leading female Kashmiri leader for participating in protests in occupied Kashmir over the rape and murder of two Muslim women, officials said.

Asiya Andrabi, who heads Daughters of Faith, was pulled in during a raid late on Tuesday in Srinagar, a police official said….

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/asiya-held-amid-fresh-kashmir-protests-169

Understandably, Pakistan would continue to treat India as the most serious threat, despite best US and Indian efforts. Indians too want to present a soft face to Pakistan, trying to take full advantage of the pliant PPP government and Mr. Zardari, who feels “that there is an Indian in every Pakistani”. But here, both Indians and US are facing serious obstacles as Pakistani forces continue to treat India with the contempt it deserves.

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No change in India-specific defense spending likely
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ISLAMABAD, June 7: Where counter-insurgency operations require a lot of finances, the army says it cannot afford to have India-specific defence budget curtailed.

“If you are suggesting that we should take something out of here and put it in another box that would not be a wise strategy. War on terror does require resources, but it should not be at the cost of something else,” military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told DawnNews…

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/no-change-in-indiaspecific-defence-spending-likely-869

While, Indians are disappointed, they will not give up, but without compromising on their defined stance that Kashmir remains non-negotiable and Pakistan should do more to check militancy into Kashmir. This harsh stand is basically destroying all US hopes and attempts to initiate any kind of peace talks between two countries. Pakistan is welcoming US pressure on India.

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Singh sees ‘vital interest’ in peace with Pakistan
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By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, June 9: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament on Tuesday that it was in his country’s vital interest to retry to build peace with Pakistan and said New Delhi was prepared to walk more than half way if Islamabad would accept its share of the responsibility in the partnership.

Dr Singh’s unequivocal support for a resumption of stalled talks with Pakistan came in his reply to the customary vote of thanks to the address by President Pratibha Patil…

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/singh-sees-vital-interest-in-peace-with-pakistan-069

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US presses India to resume dialogue
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By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 10: A senior US official on Wednesday pressed India to resume talks with Pakistan but was told that Islamabad should do more first to prosecute the Mumbai terror suspects that New Delhi says are sheltered across the border. According to local reports, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and US Under-Secretary of State William Burns met here, and the Indian side is believed to have pointed out that Pakistan had not done enough to curb terror directed against India or to bring to justice the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks….

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/us-presses-india-to-resume-dialogue-169

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Renewed US push for Pakistan-India talks welcomed

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ISLAMABAD, June 11: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit India and Pakistan next month and the Foreign Office here sees the renewed American interest in resumption of Pakistan-India dialogue as a positive sign. “We find it encouraging if a country that is friend to both Pakistan and India is helping in the process,” Foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said at the weekly media briefing…..

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/renewed-us-push-for-pakistanindia-talks-welcomed-269

Another signal that Americans are now becoming more sensitive to a hard line being taken by Pakistani armed forces is the fact that their aid conditions are being softened up now without any strings being attached to nuke program or pleasing India. This is irritating for both hawks in Washington in Delhi but shows the growing confidence in Pakistani armed forces to dictate their own terms to US.

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US House drops A.Q. Khan, India from aid bill
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WASHINGTON, June 13: The US House of Representatives has dropped an explicit demand for access to Dr A.Q. Khan and another for preventing terrorist attacks against India as conditions in a legislation that triples US aid to Pakistan. In Washington’s diplomatic circles, the gesture is seen as a major concession from a house that has placed other severe conditions in the aid to Pakistan act approved on Thursday…..

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/us-house-drops-a.q.-khan%2C-india-from-aid-bill-469

But, there is other bad news in the making for Pakistan as the Hawks have not given up as yet, nor would they ever. It is a constant struggle for Pakistan to protect its interests whenever they get into an “alliance” with US. More trouble on the way as new bill is being formulated.

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US amendment seeks reforms in Pakistan to curb extremism
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WASHINGTON, June 10: The objectives of US policy towards Pakistan are to empower and enable Pakistan to develop into a prosperous and democratic state that is at peace with itself and with its neighbours, says an amendment moved in Congress. The amendment, which is likely to be adopted, also requires Pakistan to actively confront, and deny safe haven to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other extremists….
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/us-amendment-seeks-reforms-in-pakistan-to-curb-extremism-169

Indians want to fight to the last Americans when it comes to defeating Pakistan. While US would also like to see a very contained and docile Pakistan, the fact that US still does not have enough control over Pakistani nukes and NATO supplies pass through Pakistan make them very vulnerable and cautious towards Pakistan’s security demands through the armed forces. Pakistani armed forces are the only wild card for the US and India who remain fiercely patriotic and loyal to the country, making it impossible for the US or the Indians to have it their way despite installing a corrupt and compromised government.

Sensing a Pattern: US Wants Syria to Emulate Pakistan and Defeat “al Qaida” for It

[Once again, Syria is being held responsible for hundreds of Saudi terrorists infiltrating Iraq.  Seventy-five percent of all suicide bombers in Iraq come from Saudi Arabia, allegedly via Syria.]

US troops ask Syria to thwart al-Qa’ida offensive

Iraqi authorities say militants will launch attacks in order to claim credit for American military withdrawal

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Iraq says Syria has been more co-operative recently but that insurgents continue to cross the border.

The Iraqi government expects al-Qa’ida and Baathist insurgent groups to launch a wave of attacks so they can take credit for compelling the US military to leave Iraqi cities by 30 June, according to a senior Iraqi minister.

An American military team was dispatched from Baghdad to Damascus at the weekend to demand that Syria help choke off a guerrilla offensive by imposing greater control over its border with Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari revealed in an interview with The Independent.

“I think the American rapprochement with the Syrians will be judged more by their co-operation, not in Lebanon, but in Iraq,” said Mr Zebari. “This is a good moment for them to come clean.” Although Syria has been more co-operative with Iraq than in the past, guerrilla fighters are still crossing over the border, he added.

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The top US military commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, confirmed this week that the

American military withdrawal from Iraqi cities would take place as agreed under the Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) negotiated last year. Some 133,000 US troops will remain in Iraq but the knowledge that they too will be withdrawn by the end of 2011 makes Iraq a more tempting target for neighbouring states seeking to expand their influence within the country.

“The purpose of the US military team going to Damascus is to urge Syria to do more to prevent foreign fighters from coming here,” said Mr Zebari. “According to our intelligence analysis al-Qa’ida, the Baathists and all armed groups will escalate the violence just to prove that they have won a victory.

“They want to say it was the sons of the resistance, not Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or the Iraqi government’s agreement with the Americans, that forced them out of the cities.”

Most of the foreign fighters coming through Syria into Iraq serve as suicide bombers. Al-Qa’ida in Iraq is clearly much weaker than it was at the height of its power in 2006 when it overplayed its hand by declaring its own Islamic State of Iraq and sought to become the ruling power in all Sunni Arab areas. This sparked a US-financed tribal backlash against al-Qa’ida. Sunni insurgents saw their community losing a savage sectarian war, provoked by al-Qa’ida, to the Shia and switched sides, allying themselves with the Americans.

“Al-Qa’ida has in fact been defeated,” Mr Zebari said. “They have to gather all their forces to make one or two attacks but that is all.”

The Iraqi Foreign Minister said he was not greatly surprised by the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom he knows well. But the outcome of the Iranian election, if confirmed, means that Iraq will continue to face relentless pressure from the east to become a permanent part of the Iranian sphere of influence.

Iraq is the victim not only of present wars but the legacy of past ones. Mr Zebari, despite having to spend several days in a London hospital because of a sudden bout of ill-health, has been trying to defuse a crisis with Kuwait. This began to erupt when Iraq tried to free itself from UN Security Council sanctions. The most onerous of these sanctions have to do with Kuwait, which still gets 5 per cent of Iraq’s oil revenues in compensation for the damage caused by Saddam Hussein’s invasion in 1990.

Other points at issue include the fate of missing Kuwaitis, the return of looted Kuwaiti property, defining the border between the two countries and the joint ownership of the Rumaila oilfield that straddles the frontier.

Iraq has persuaded almost all the world that these sanctions should be dropped, though Mr Zebari insists that Kuwait’s claims would not be affected. He did say, however, that Kuwait should reduce the proportion of Iraqi oil revenue it receives. “It is too much,” he declared. “When Iraqi oil was selling at $140 a barrel it was a huge amount of money.”

Iraqi efforts to escape UN Security Council tutelage led the Kuwaitis to launch a diplomatic counter-offensive, sending envoys to all key capitals. Iraqi MPs reacted by abusing Kuwait, some even suggesting that Kuwait should pay for the devastation caused by the American army which invaded Iraq from Kuwaiti territory in 2003. Mr Zebari said he could understand that Kuwait was worried that future less friendly Iraqi governments may revoke present agreements because Iraq as a country has not taken its final shape.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister: An Essex graduate

Hoshyar Zebari, a 56-year-old from Aqrah in northern Iraq, has been the country’s skilful and tireless Foreign Minister since 2003. The former Kurdish militant studied sociology at Essex University. An able propagandist and diplomat Mr Zebari became a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party during its guerrilla war against Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and in the 1990s when the Kurds controlled their own territory.

As Iraq’s Foreign Minister after the fall of Saddam Hussein he was confronted with neighbouring countries that were not on friendly terms with the new regime or wished it to survive. Some denounced the Iraqi government as a US puppet, others as an Iranian stooge. A tough, energetic but amiable negotiator, he has become expert at asserting Iraq’s independence in the face of many threats and defusing conflicts with hostile neighbours. He says that he has not had “a single day’s holiday” since he took the job six years ago.

A Civil War: Obama’s Gift to Pakistan

A civil war is brewing in Pakistan. Thanks to President Barack Obama, who is shifting the American war from Iraq to “the real enemies” operating from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Cash-strapped Pakistan could not defy Obama persuasion and decided to wage a war against its own people, the Pashtuns inhabiting the Northern Province and the tribal areas of Waziristan.

Decades ago, Pakistan waged a similar war against its own people, the Bengalis in East Pakistan. In 1971, the Pakistani military charged to wipe out Mukti Bahini, a Bengali resistance force, paved the way for the nation’s dismemberment. In 2009, the military is charged to eliminate the Taliban, a Pashtun resistance force. History is repeating itself in Pakistan—as it frequently does for nations that do not learn from past mistakes.

With a willful caricature of the Pashtuns, who are successfully resisting the occupation of Afghanistan, Obama advisers are forcing Pakistan, a subservient ally, to help win the war in Afghanistan. This help is suicidal for Pakistan. The civil war will unleash intractable sectarian, ethnic, and secessionist forces. As the warfare intensifies in coming months, Pakistan will face economic meltdown. If the civil war spins out of control, Pakistan’s nuclear assets would pose a security threat to the world, in which case Pakistan might forcibly be denuclearized.

Pashtun Caricature

A failing war in Afghanistan has persuaded American policymakers to generate a make-believe caricature of the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan. For all practical purposes, the Pashtuns are now subsumed under the title of the Taliban. The caricature is simple and compelling: It highlights the Taliban as the paramount enemy without ever mentioning the Pashtun resistance to the eight-year old occupation of Afghanistan.  The Taliban fighters are presented as religious brutes addicted to oppression and violence, who wish to impose a barbaric version of Islam under which there is no concept of individual freedom, particularly for Muslim women.

To further distort the Pashtun resistance in Afghanistan, the Taliban are co-equated with the Al-Qaeda, an undefined terrorist group allegedly scheming to detonate weapons of mass destruction, particularly against the United States. Burqas, floggings, and beheadings are accentuated to paint a repulsive caricature of the Taliban. In this caricature, no mention is made that the American bombings of villages, extra-judicial killings, torture, and secret prisons have failed to subdue the Pashtuns in one of the poorest countries of the world.

Pashtun Code

Credit goes to President Obama for rightfully diagnosing the fact that the Pashtuns of Afghanistan cannot be separated from the Pashtuns of Pakistan across the Durand Line— a more than 1600 miles long border that ineffectively separates Afghanistan from Pakistan. Nearly 41 million Pashtuns live on both sides of the border; around 13 million in Afghanistan and twice as many (28 millions) in Pakistan.

Concentrated in geographically contiguous regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Pashtuns live in big cities, small towns, and remote villages. Kabul, Kandahar, Peshawar, Swat, and Quetta are their big cities. Going back thousands of years, the Pashtuns are united through culture, dialects, and traditions. Most have embraced the Sunni sect of Islam. Like other cultural groups, however, the Pashtuns have fused Islamic laws with their pre-Islamic honor code, known as the Pashtunwali.

Pashtunwali is the unwritten Pashtun Code that regulates social behavior and interactions with foreigners. This Code belongs to the Pashtuns, not just to the Taliban. Hospitable and gracious, the Pashtuns go out of their way to respect and protect guests and strangers. Invaders, however, are killed without mercy. Nang (honor) is the founding principle of the Pashtun Code. Khushal Khan Khattak (1613-1689), a Pashtun warrior and a poet, summed up the nang principle in decisive words: “Death is better than life when life cannot be lived with honor.” Badal (revenge) is the integral part of honor.

Badal requires that insult be avenged with insult, death with death, and no price is too high to seek revenge. Until the revenge is taken, the Pashtuns are restless, anxious, and uncomfortable with themselves. Forgiveness is available if the injury were unintentional. No forgiveness is rendered to invaders and occupiers. No enemy is too strong to deserve any exception to the Pashtun Code. Brits, Sikhs, Moguls, Russians, and Americans, whoever violates the Pashtun Code faces an unremitting resistance until badal has been consummated. Mighty armies have perished in the land of Pashtuns.

Revenge and Civil War

Since 2001, Pakistan has been resisting the pressure to join the American war against the Pashtuns. A war against the Pashtuns of Afghanistan is also a war against the Pashtuns of Pakistan, and vice versa. No concept of the nation-state or territorial integrity could separate the Pashtuns across the border—certainly not when the Pashtun lands have been invaded and occupied.

No vilification of the Taliban could similarly separate them from their Pashtun tribes, even if the Taliban subscribe to a strong religious ideology. For the Pashtuns, the Taliban behavior is deeply rooted in nang and badal of the Pashtun Code. The divide and rule policy practiced in Iraq, which pit Sunnis against Shias and Kurds against Arabs, cannot work against the Pashtuns. Discounting the Pashtun Code, Americans continue to ignore this writing on the wall.

Betting on changing the lessons of history, the Obama White House has coerced Pakistan to close the doors of negotiation and begin to kill the so-called Taliban. Pakistani leadership knows that the Pashtun tribes cannot abandon their sons and brothers whether the invading armies label them Taliban, miscreants, or terrorists. The suicide attacks in Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi reflect nang and badla of the Pashtun Code.

The foremost Pashtun loyalties are to their own people and to their own Code. The Pashtun Code, long before the advent of Islam, has been their way. In order to receive billions of dollars from the United States, the Pakistani leadership has succumbed to the caricature of the Taliban and plunged the nation into a civil war with the Pashtuns, the nation’s second largest ethnic group.

Professor Ali Khan, an editor of MWC News, is a professor of law at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. He may be contacted at ali.khan@washburn.edu

http://mwcnews.net/ali-khan

The “Bomb Iran” contingent’s newfound concern for The Iranian People

Glenn Greenwald

(updated below – Update II)

I’m going to leave the debate about whether Iran’s election was “stolen” and the domestic implications within Iran to people who actually know what they’re talking about (which is a very small subset of the class purporting to possess such knowledge).  But there is one point I want to make about the vocal and dramatic expressions of solidarity with Iranians issuing from some quarters in the U.S.

Much of the same faction now claiming such concern for the welfare of The Iranian People are the same people who have long been advocating a military attack on Iran and the dropping of large numbers of bombs on their country — actions which would result in the slaughter of many of those very same Iranian People.  During the presidential campaign, John McCain infamously sang about Bomb, Bomb, Bomb-ing Iran.  The Wall St. Journal published a war screed from Commentary‘s Norman Podhoretz entitled “The Case for Bombing Iran,” and following that, Podhoretz said in an interview that he “hopes and prays” that the U.S. “bombs the Iranians.”  John Bolton and Joe Lieberman advocated the same bombing campaign, while Bill Kristol — with typical prescience — hopefully suggested that Bush might bomb Iran if Obama were elected.  Rudy Giuliani actually said he would be open to a first-strike nuclear attack on Iran in order to stop their nuclear program.

Imagine how many of the people protesting this week would be dead if any of these bombing advocates had their way — just as those who paraded around (and still parade around) under the banner of Liberating the Iraqi People caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of them, at least.  Hopefully, one of the principal benefits of the turmoil in Iran is that it humanizes whoever the latest Enemy is.  Advocating a so-called “attack on Iran” or “bombing Iran” in fact means slaughtering huge numbers of the very same people who are on the streets of Tehran inspiring so many — obliterating their homes and workplaces, destroying their communities, shattering the infrastructure of their society and their lives.  The same is true every time we start mulling the prospect of attacking and bombing another country as though it’s some abstract decision in a video game.

After The Wall St. Journal published the Podhoretz war dance demanding that Iran be bombed, and after Podhoretz casually called for England to “bomb the Iranians into smithereens” if their sailors weren’t immediately returned, I wrote:

In this week’s Newsweek, Michael Hirsh has a worthwhile article reporting on his observations during his visit to Iran. While listing the internally repressive measures taken by the Iranian government, Hirsh describes Tehran as “bustling,” as “traffic crowds the streets and boulevards,” filled with the “chic” Iranian women and the “meterosexual” Iranian males who seek greater economic security and prosperity. That is what Norm Podhoretz and his friends hungrily want to annihilate.

Matt Yglesias, in a recent post about the administration’s “debate” over whether to bomb Iran, wisely included a random photograph of an Iranian street with civilians walking on it. These are the people Norm Podhoretz and his comrades want to slaughter:

Our ability to render invisible the people we kill when cheering on our wars is one of the primary mechanisms which make it so easy to embrace that option.

Perhaps the scenes unfolding in Iran, our Enemy Du Jour, will make those dehumanization efforts — the linchpin of our militarism and state of perpetual war — more difficult in the future.

* * * * *

See also:  this post from earlier today on the government’s rapidly expanding secrecy claims.

UPDATE:  Daniel Larsion makes some very astute and necessary points about those demanding greater American involvement in Iran’s political matters.

UPDATE II:  Even leaving aside Rudy Giuliani’s contemplated first-strike nuclear attack and Norm Podhoretz’s desire to “bomb the Iranians to smithereens” — plans that would obviously kill an unspeakably large number of Iranians — it’s delusional to claim that these desired bombing attacks would be “targeted” and thus wouldn’t result in substantial civilian deaths.

Even the limited version of the standard neocon bombing plan envisions at least 1,500 targets.  Many of their attack plans were far more elaborate than that.  Many bombing-Iran advocates — such as Newt Gingrich and John Bolton — have “regime change” as the ultimate goal.  When is the last time we dropped thousands — or even hundreds — of bombs on a country without killing large numbers of people?  Virutally no experts believe we could meaningfully impede Iran’s nuclear capabilities without massive bombing campaigns, and even the CIA recognized as absurd the claim that you could drop bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities without causing widespread, uncontrollable devastation:

The U.S. capability to make a mess of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is formidable,’ says veteran Mideast analyst Geoffrey Kemp. ‘The question is, what then?’ NEWSWEEK has learned that the CIA and DIA have war-gamed the likely consequences of a U.S. pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. No one liked the outcome. As an Air Force source tells it, ‘The war games were unsuccessful at preventing the conflict from escalating.”

The notion that we would have harmed Iran’s nuclear capabilities with our bombing attacks without killing substantial numbers of Iranian civilians is a fantasy comparable to the claim that we could remove Saddam Hussein in a quick and easy war, with few civilian casualties, and in the face of a grateful population.  Except where there is a single target, that isn’t what happens when you bomb countries.  Large numbers of civilians die, and the advocates of these campaigns — today masquerading as crusaders for the welfare of the Iranian People — were well aware of that result and (at best) were indifferent to it.

Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Empire

by Laurence Vance on June 14, 2009

Twenty-two years ago, June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan made a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate at the Berlin Wall in which he implored Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Within a year, the wall that symbolized repression and tyranny did in fact come crashing down. But with the demise of the Soviet Union, there is something else that should likewise have been toppled: the U.S. empire of troops and bases that encircles the globe.

Mr. Obama, Tear down this empire.

The kingdom of Alexander the Great reached to the borders of India. The Roman Empire controlled Western Europe and the Hellenized states that bordered the Mediterranean. The Mongol Empire stretched from Southeast Asia to Europe. The Byzantine Empire lasted over a thousand years. The Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf in the east to Hungary in the northwest; and from Egypt in the south to the Caucasus in the north. At the height of its dominion, the British Empire included almost a quarter of the world’s population.

Nothing, however, compares to the U.S. global empire. It is an empire that would make Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Genghis Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, Emperor Justinian, and King George V proud. What makes U.S. hegemony unique is that it consists, not of control over great landmasses or population centers, but of a global presence unlike that of any other country in history.

Sure, Donald Rumsfeld maintained: “We don’t seek empires. We’re not imperialistic. We never have been.” Right. Just like Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Just like the war in Iraq was supposed to be a cakewalk. Just like Bush told us, “we don’t torture.” Some neocons are a bit more honest, like CFR Senior Fellow Max Boot, who rejects the term “imperialism,” but insists that the United States “should definitely embrace the practice.”

Those who believe that it is in the national interest of the United States to intervene in conflicts around the globe, attempt to control foreign governments, and spread our political and economic systems to other countries by force argue that we are not an empire because we haven’t annexed any country’s soil in over a hundred years. But America’s unprecedented global presence of troops, bases, and ships clearly says otherwise.

The extent of the U.S. global empire is almost incalculable. The Department of Defense’s “Base Structure Report” states that the Department’s physical assets consist of “more than 545,700 facilities (buildings, structures and linear structures) located on more than 5,400 sites, on approximately 40 million acres.” There are 268 sites in Germany alone. The 316,238 buildings occupied by the DOD comprise over 2.2 billion square feet with a value of over $455 billion. The DOD manages almost 30 million acres of land worldwide. There are over 700 U.S. military bases on foreign soil in 63 countries. The United States has official commitments to provide security to over 35 countries.

In addition to the 1.1 million U.S. military personnel stationed in the United States and its territories, there are almost 300,000 U.S. troops in foreign countries—not even counting the over 200,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. With its geographic command centers (NORTHCOM, CENTCOM, etc.) that cover the globe, the United States apparently views the whole earth as its territory. According to the DOD’s quarterly report titled “Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country,” there are U.S. troops stationed in 146 countries and 12 territories in every corner of the globe. This means that U.S. troops occupy about 75 percent of the world’s countries.

Although President Obama has talked about removing thousands of U.S. troops from Iraq, it should come as no surprise that the United States will have its forces in Iraq for many years to come. There are 82,460 U.S. soldiers in Europe to face a non-existent Soviet Union. There are still 33,286 troops in Japan—almost seventy years after World War II. But even where the United States did not fight a war, there are large numbers of U.S. troops to be found. There are 1,220 U.S. soldiers stationed in Spain and 9,426 soldiers stationed in the United Kingdom. What are 41 U.S. soldiers doing soaking up the sun in the Bahamas? What strategic interest is there in the United States having soldiers in places like Australia and New Zealand? The United States has troops in places most Americans couldn’t even locate on a map—like Tunisia and Cameroon. And in addition to military personnel, the Department of Defense employs 700,000 civilians worldwide, including thousands of foreign nationals.

The DOD’s personnel, bases, weapons, and equipment come with a heavy price.

According to economist and historian Robert Higgs, real U.S. defense spending is around $1 trillion. This accounts for over half of the world’s military-related spending. The United States is also the world’s chief arms dealer, as the residents of Gaza recently discovered.

But instead of all of this being an example of imperialism, empire, and foreign policy on steroids, we are told by neoconservative intellectuals that the United States is merely exercising “benevolent hegemony,” that America “has been the greatest force for good in the world during the past century,” and that the invasion of Iraq was “the greatest act of benevolence one country has ever done for another.”

With troops in about 100 countries and territories, the U.S. empire was firmly in place soon after World War II. But the “Good War” was not the beginning. Between the two world wars, U.S. troops were sent to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Panama, Honduras, Yugoslavia, Guatemala, Turkey, and China. But World War I was not the beginning either. Before the “Great War,” U.S. troops were sent to Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, China, and Mexico. And although we might begin the U.S. empire with the seizure from Spain of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam during the Spanish-American War of 1898, we can actually go back a few years earlier to U.S. intervention in Hawaii before we deposed the monarch and annexed the territory.

U.S. foreign policy can only be described as aggressive, reckless, belligerent, and meddling. Its fruits are the destabilization and overthrow of governments, the destruction of industry and infrastructure, the backing of military coups, death squads, and drug traffickers, imperialism under the guise of humanitarianism, support for corrupt and tyrannical governments, brutal sanctions and embargoes, and failed attempts to police the world. U.S. foreign policy results in nothing but discord, strife, hatred, and terrorism toward the United States. U.S. foreign policy is also very arrogant. What would Americans think if some country—any country—stated its intention to construct a naval base in Key West, Florida? They would be outraged. So why the double standard? Does might make right? What gives the United States the right to encircle the world with bases?

Mr. Obama, Tear down this empire.

It is not enough for the president just to close down the Guantánamo prison in Cuba. The Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, which the United States has occupied for over 100 years, should be closed as well. The problem with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission is that military base realignment and closure recommendations are all in the United States. All Status of Forces Agreements should be rescinded, all foreign bases closed, and all troops brought home. Yes, it’s a radical proposal, but only because America has long ago rejected the Founding Fathers foreign policy of nonintervention.

Now, we know that one man shouldn’t have so much power over so much. But the Congress that hasn’t issued a declaration of war since World War II—while funding several major wars and scores of other military interventions since then—isn’t going to do anything to significantly change U.S. foreign policy. And historically, it has been the executive branch that drives U.S. foreign policy anyway.

And to ensure that no future president again expands the U.S. empire, we need, not a renewal of the War Powers Act, but something with some real teeth, like Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler’s (1881–1940) proposed peace amendment. This amendment would prohibit the removal of the Army from within the continental limits of the United States, the Navy from steaming more than 500 miles from the coast, and the Air Force from flying more than 750 miles from American soil. This “would be absolute guarantee to the women of America that their loved ones never would be sent overseas to be needlessly shot down in European or Asiatic or African wars that are no concern of our people.”

Butler reasoned that because of “our geographical position, it is all but impossible for any foreign power to muster, transport and land sufficient troops on our shores for a successful invasion.” In this he was merely echoing Thomas Jefferson, who recognized that geography was one of the great advantages of the United States: “At such a distance from Europe and with such an ocean between us, we hope to meddle little in its quarrels or combinations. Its peace and its commerce are what we shall court.”

But even without the advantage of geography, a policy of nonintervention is sufficient, as Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) has pointed out: “Countries like Switzerland and Sweden who promote neutrality and non-intervention have benefited for the most part by remaining secure and free of war over the centuries.”

A policy of nonintervention doesn’t mean that the United States should refuse to issue visas, trade, extradite criminals, allow travel abroad, or allow immigration. As Jefferson said in his first inaugural address: “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.”

Mr. Obama, if you welcome change and openness, there is one sign the United States can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. President Obama, if you seek peace, if you seek relief from bloated military budgets for the United States and the rest of the world, close down the overseas military bases. Mr. Obama, bring the troops home. Mr. Obama, tear down this empire!