The Truth About the Flu Shot

California Leading the Assault, Cutting the Bottom Rungs from the Escape Ladder

Massive austerity measures approved by California Legislature

By Dan Conway
27 July 2009

The California Assembly approved a series of 31 separate bills Friday to close the state’s $26 billion budget shortfall through drastic cuts in social programs and education. The vote comes after a bipartisan agreement between state Democrats and governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to resolve the budget crisis on the backs of the working class.

It is widely expected that despite the latest agreement, the state’s fiscal woes will deepen. California’s official unemployment rate is expected to rise during the remainder of 2009 and currently stands at 11.6 percent, the sixth largest in the nation.

Steve Levy, economist at the Center for the Continuing Study of California Economy, stated, “Next year’s budget will start with a very large shortfall even if there’s a good recovery.” He also cautioned that the state will face continued hardship once federal stimulus funds run out.

Democratic state senate president Darrell Steinberg, for his part, said after last Thursday’s vote, “I have no illusions that we may be back [to address the deficit].”

Approximately 60 percent of the budget reductions are being made to core state services, while the remainder will be delivered by raiding local government funds and through accounting maneuvers, including the deferral of state employee paychecks by one day in order to delay deficits until fiscal year 2010-2011.

The largest portion of the budget reductions includes $8.1 billion in cuts to public education. Of this sum, $6.1 billion will be taken from K-12 education and community colleges, and $2 billion will be taken from higher education. California elementary and high school students will now rank last in the country in per pupil spending

In response to the higher education cuts, the California Faculty Association representing 22,000 faculty members at the California State University system, voted by a 54 percent majority to mandate that faculty members take two unpaid furlough days each month, while the California State University Employees Union approved a similar furlough agreement earlier in the week. Additionally, the system has reduced enrollment by 40,000 students. It has also raised student fees by 20 percent and reduced course offerings. Students and parents are essentially being asked to pay a great deal more for a great deal less.

About $1.3 billion in cuts have been made to the state’s Medi-Cal program, which provides health care to low-income families. Half a million will be cut from the state’s welfare program, and $124 million from an insurance program for children.

Another $1.3 billion was taken from state workers through a mandatory three unpaid furlough days a month, which amounts to a net 15 percent pay cut per worker. There is also a distinct possibility that state workers will be asked to take an additional fourth and fifth unpaid furlough day each month, resulting in a total loss of pay of 25 percent.

In addition to the closure of state offices in accordance with the furlough days, it is widely expected that state infrastructure will be severely affected. Potholes and even traffic lights may go un-repaired. Most recently, a hazardous chemical spill in San Luis Obispo was not cleaned for a full ten hours due to the unavailability of Department of Transportation workers.

Local infrastructure will also be devastated by $2 billion in forced borrowing from local governments to the state. These funds will not be repaid until 2012, if at all. As a result, needed repairs to bridges and roads will be postponed until funding is procured.

The state will also take $1.7 billion from local redevelopment agencies, devastating urban communities in particular.

A further $1.7 billion in new revenue will also be achieved by requiring taxpayers who make quarterly-estimated tax payments to make larger payments in the first two quarters, and $600 million will also be received from increased income tax withholdings from paychecks.

The sale of a portion of the State Compensation Insurance Fund will yield $1 billion. This is effectively the beginning of the privatization of workers compensation insurance.

Two provisions-one on offshore drilling and another on requisition of local funds-failed to pass the Assembly. The governor has indicated that he will respond to the resulting budget gap by using his veto power to enforce further cuts in social spending.

As far as the state’s issuance of registered warrants (IOU’s) is concerned, state controller John Chiang has reported that the state will continue to issue the warrants in lieu of actual cash payments. Most large banks, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, stopped accepting the IOUs on July 10, despite each already being the recipients of tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

The issuance of the IOU’s was a result of the fact that the state could not sell short term loans, or what it calls Revenue Anticipation Notes, to outside investors. The situation was exacerbated by the Obama administration, which flatly refused to underwrite the notes.

The state’s bond ratings were reduced to near junk status by Fitch and Moody’s rating services, placing further pressure on the state to reach a solution to the budget crisis in the interests of Wall Street investors. Despite the fact that the desired solution was achieved, the ratings agencies have not yet upgraded the state’s credit rating.

The budget crisis reveals in stark terms the class character of American society, and in particular the role of the Democratic Party and the media. At a state level, the Democratic Party has fully supported the principle that the budget crisis must be solved on the backs of the working class.

Recent columns in the Los Angeles Times by Steve Lopez have sought to blame the current crisis in California education on a handful of so-called bad teachers, as if the $20 billion funding cut during the past year alone is of negligible importance. In a recent column, Lopez gave support to a reactionary organization called “Parent Revolution,” a group that aims to issue threats to form charter schools when public schools in their district don’t perform to their expectations. His article finished with a call to “Storm the gates and take no prisoners.”

The Obama administration has pushed charter schools and other right-wing proposals on education, while standing by as California has implemented its crippling cuts in public education.

As a result of these cuts, more than 40,000 teachers and staff will not be returning to their jobs this September, meaning that the remaining teachers will face excessively large class sizes and in many cases will be forced to teach subjects that they are unqualified to teach.

The budget crisis continues to reveal the desire of the American ruling elite to transform class relations within states across the country, dismantling whatever remains of the social safety net along with vital resources and infrastructure.

The Socialist Equality Party will be holding a meeting on Saturday, August 1 in South Pasadena, California to address the crisis and build a conscious movement in the working class in opposition to it. We urge all workers, student youth and intellectuals to attend this important event. Click here for more information.

This author also recommends:

Oppose budget cuts in California! Defend jobs and education! Unite workers behind a socialist program!
[13 July 2009]

Copyright © 1998-2009 World Socialist Web Site – All rights reserved

---

http://www.wsws.org/tools/index.php?page=print&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsws.org%2Farticles%2F2009%2Fjul2009%2Fcali-j27.shtml

Teachable moments require willing learners

by Robert Jensen

Honoring President Obama’s request that the controversy involving a black Harvard University professor and a white Cambridge police officer become “a teachable moment,” here’s my contribution to an old lesson that we white people tend to be slow to learn.

In lectures about the United States’ system of white supremacy and the privileges that white people have in that system, I have sometimes told a story about being stopped by police in Austin, TX.

I was driving home in a dilapidated old Volkswagen Beetle on a busy street, late at night after a long day at work. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, feeling rather cranky and looking rather raggedy. Eager to get home, I saw the yellow light and gunned it. Next I saw the flashing red lights of a police car.

I turned off onto a dark side street and dug in my wallet for my license. Just as the officer got to my car, I was opening the glove compartment to get the vehicle registration when out popped a small knife I keep for emergencies. I looked at the knife, looked at the white officer, and wondered what he would say.

“Sir, would you mind if I held that knife while we talked?” he asked politely. I handed him the knife and my documents, and he walked back to his car. When he returned he handed me those documents, along with a ticket, and my knife, without comment. “Please drive safely,” he said. And safely I drove home.

When I told that story to illustrate white privilege, I asked people of color in the room what they imagined might have happened to them in such a situation. The black and Latino men, especially, laughed. “Do you mean before or after I’m on the ground with a gun at my head?” one of them said.

My point was not that every cop is out to harass or brutalize every person of color, but that people of color could never be sure a routine traffic stop would play out routinely. I could be reasonably sure that, barring unusual circumstances, such a stop would be uneventful. Even when the knife popped out, I didn’t feel at risk.

I was feeling proud of myself for making this point to the mainly white audience, when I saw a hand go up. I called on the young black man, assuming he would endorse my analysis.

“You really don’t get it, do you?” he said. “You think your privilege started when the cop came up to the car and saw you were white. Has it ever occurred to you that when you turned onto a dark side street you were taking your privilege for granted?”

My first response was to explain: I had been on a busy street and turned to avoid blocking traffic. I was trying to be considerate of other drivers, I said.

“I know why you did it. My point is that I would never turn onto an unlit street with a cop behind me,” the young man said. “I would have pulled over and blocked traffic. I’m not going to take myself out of public view with a cop.”

My next response was to feel appropriately foolish for my unwarranted self-righteousness, and then to be grateful to the man for using that teachable moment.

He wasn’t suggesting that I be ashamed of myself, only that I recognize the burden he carries in the world that I don’t. The story was one more example of the privilege that comes with being a member of the dominant group in an unjust hierarchical system. It’s the same lesson men should learn about the sexual violence women face. Heterosexuals should learn it about the condemnation that lesbians and gays endure. The wealthy should learn it about the insecurity that poor and working people cope with. U.S. citizens should learn it about the fear of arbitrary authority that haunts immigrants no matter what their status.

I still tell that story when I lecture, now emphasizing that the man’s comments had reminded me no one with privilege ever fully “gets it.” It doesn’t mean we whites — or men, or heterosexuals, or the well off, or citizens — are consigned to perpetual stupidity, but rather that we should never think we have it all figured out.

In this allegedly “post-racial” era, these teachable moments are an important reminder that white supremacy is woven deeply into the fabric of this country. A system as perverse and pervasive as white racism — in all its forms, conscious and unconscious, brutal and subtle, personal and institutional — will not end simply because we appoint black professors or elect a black president.

In this moment, we white folks should ask ourselves, after so many teachable moments, why we still have so much to learn.

US bails out India from Balochistan wrangle

Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has not provided any evidence to the United States of India’s

involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan, and Washington attaches no credibility to Islamabad’s charges in this regard, a top US official has indicated.

The US view on Pakistan’s allegation came during a briefing by the Obama administration’s Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke, who, while acknowledging that Pakistan brought up the subject during his recent visit to the country, told Washington’s foreign press corps, “I would be misleading if I said it didn’t come up, but the narrow answer to your question (has Pakistan given you any credible evidence of India’s involvement?) is no.”

Holbrooke’s terse response to the Balochistan wrangle –  the latest between India and Pakistan — broadly squares with the assertion in New Delhi that while Pakistan has raised the issue of India’s alleged involvement in the region, it has offered no evidence, even as it falsely propagates in the Pakistani media that it has give a dossier to New Delhi in this regard. The Pakistani press is full of dark conspiracies of Indian intelligence involvement in the province, an inference to which New Delhi credulously allowed Islamabad to incorporate in a joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh.
The US has now, in effect, bailed out New Delhi. Holbrooke has previously rubbished Pakistan’s charges about alleged Indian provocations from its consulates in Afghanistan, saying he had no reason to believe Islamabad’s charges, and Pakistan would do well to examine its own internal problems. Other officials too have said Pakistan is merely trying to externalize a serious internal crisis while evading responsibility to crack down on home-grown terrorism.

In fact, Holbrooke’s briefing following his latest visit to the region was notable for its dire tone with regard to Pakistan, a country which he characterized as “facing a staggering number of front-page story problems at one time.” Describing Washington’s efforts to stamp out terrorists in Pakistan frontier province, Holbrooke said it “hard to imagine a more dangerous area on the face of the earth today than an area which contains al-Qaida, Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, two and a half million refugees. It’s just extraordinary how difficult it is.”

The US envoy also trashed speculation about a rift with India that led to the reported cancellation of his visit to New Delhi with an extraordinary revelation. “You know, if there’s a rift between me and India, it would be the first rift between me and India since I was seven years old. You know, India was the first country in the world I was ever aware of. I have a very special feeling for it,” Holbrooke said.

Such expression of personal affection for countries is seldom expressed by US officials and is certain to rankle Pakistan, which is already sour about a perceived American tilt towards India over the last decade. Holbrooke went on to clarify that the only reason he scrubbed the New Delhi leg of his visit was because three of the four Indian interlocutors he engaged with were all going to be out of town. He would be going back in mid August, “within the limits of Indian independence (day).”

IMF Offers to Deepen Third World Debt

The Cheap High is Never as Good the Second Time!

IMF offers new loans to low-income countries

31. July 2009. | 07:12

Source: EMportal, Washington File

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a package of measures aimed at providing loans of up to $17 billion over five years to low-income countries that have been hit hardest by the global economic crisis.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a package of measures aimed at providing loans of up to $17 billion over five years to low-income countries that have been hit hardest by the global economic crisis.

“This is an unprecedented scaling up of IMF support for the poorest countries, in sub-Saharan Africa and all over the world,” IMF Managing-Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said July 29 in Washington. The Group of 20 (G20) nations asked the IMF to respond to the global financial crisis, he added, and this is part of that effort.

The resources — which include funds generated by the planned sale of IMF gold — are expected to increase IMF lending up to $17 billion through 2014, including up to $8 billion over the next two years, the fund said.

The IMF said there would be no interest payments through the end of 2011 for loans to low-income members and lower interest rates on a permanent basis after that. “A new set of lending instruments will underpin this increased support,” the fund said.

While the current economic crisis began in the advanced Western economies, its most visible impact has been on emerging-market countries, the fund said. A third wave of the crisis has threatened the economic achievements of the last decade for many low-income countries.

As part of its response, the IMF more than doubled its financial assistance to low-income countries. New lending to low-income countries through mid-July reached $2.9 billion compared with $1.5 billion for all of 2008. Supporting this effort further, the IMF will double average loan-access limits for the poorest nations.

“All this represents a historic effort by the fund to help the world’s poor,” Strauss-Kahn said. And there will be greater emphasis in IMF-supported programs on poverty reduction and growth objectives, which will include targets to safeguard social and other priority spending, he added.

“We are responding with a historic set of actions in terms of support for the world’s poor. The new resources and new means of delivering them should help prevent millions of people from falling into poverty,” Strauss-Kahn said.

The G20, composed of advanced and emerging economies, met in London in early April, and will meet again in Pittsburgh on September 24–25.

Swati doctor interviewed in Banaras, Karachi

more about "Swati doctor interviewed in Banaras, …", posted with vodpod

Pak Navy gets F-22P frigate from China

KARACHI: The first F-22P Frigate was handed over to the Pakistan Navy in a ceremony at Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on Thursday.

According to an ISPR (Navy) press release, the ceremony was followed by commissioning of the ship, in which Pakistani flag was hoisted on the ship.

Officials from the navies of both countries attended the event. Naval Chief Noman Bashir told the audience that with the passage of time ties between Pakistan and China had grown deeper.

Bashir said Pakistan was proud of its close association with China, adding that this unique relationship had no parallel elsewhere in the world.

The vessel is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and sensors and also carries a Z9EC helicopter. Earlier, while welcoming the guests at the event, Chief Naval Overseer Commodore Mahmoodur Rehman said the successful culmination of the project was the result of efforts and competence of the officials involved. app

Do strange clouds associated with recent Chinese earthquakes offer photo evidence of HAARP attacks?

Peculiar phenomenon appears in sky after earthquake (2)

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China’s Ao’an Country in Yunnan Province at 7:19 pm, July 9, at a depth of about 10 kilometers. Half an hour after the quake, peculiar phenomenon appeared in the sky above Yao’an.(www.Yunnan.cn photo)

Evidence of HAARP?

Previous Chinese Quake, 12th May was preceded by these strange glowing clouds and odd formations

China dips its toe in the Black Sea

By M K Bhadrakumar

Like the star gazers who last week watched the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, diplomatic observers had a field day watching the penumbra of big power politics involving the United States, Russia and China, which constitutes one of the crucial phenomena of 21st-century world politics.

It all began with United States Vice President Joseph Biden choosing a tour of Ukraine and Georgia on July 20-23 to rebuke the Kremlin publicly for its “19th-century notions of spheres of influence”. Biden’s tour of Russia’s troubled “near abroad” took place within a fortnight of US President Barack Obama’s landmark visit to Moscow to “reset” the US’s relations with Russia.

Clearly, Biden’s jaunt was choreographed as a forceful demonstration of the Barack Obama administration’s resolve to keep up the US’s strategic engagement of Eurasia – a rolling up of sleeves and gearing up for action after the exchange of customary pleasantries by Obama with his Kremlin counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. Plainly put, Biden’s stark message was that the Obama administration intends to robustly challenge Russia’s claim as the predominant power in the post-Soviet space.

Biden ruled out any “trade-offs” with the Kremlin or any form of “recognition” of Russia’s spheres of influence. He committed the Obama administration to supporting Ukraine’s status as an “integral part of Europe” and Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Furthermore, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Biden spoke of Russia’s own dim future in stark, existential terms.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promptly responded in an interview with the Moscow-based Vesti news channel. He said, “I hope the administration of President Obama will proceed from the agreements reached in Moscow. We believe the attempts by some people from within the administration to pull all of us back into the past, the way that Vice President Joe Biden, a well-known politician, did it, are not normative.”

Return to Reaganism
Lavrov added, “Biden’s interview with the Wall Street Journal seemed to have been copied from the speeches by leading officials of the George W Bush administration.” However, it is difficult to be dismissive of Biden as an unauthentic voice. It was Biden who spoke of “resetting” the US’s relations with Russia. He did raise expectations in Moscow. And Obama’s visit to Moscow early in July has been widely interpreted as the formal commencement of the “reset” process.

Now it transpires that the “reset” might take the US’s policy towards Russia back to the 1980s and towards president Ronald Reagan’s triumphalist thesis that Russia could not be a match for the US, given its deeply flawed economic structure and demography and, therefore, the grater the pressure on the Russian economy, the more conciliatory Moscow would be towards US pressure.

As Stratfor, a US think-tank with links to the security establishment, summed up, the great game will be to “squeeze the Russians and let nature take its course”.

There is already some evidence of this coordinated Western approach toward Russia in the European Union’s “Eastern Partnership” project, unveiled in Prague in May, the geographical scope of which consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine, and which aims at drawing these post-Soviet states of “strategic importance” towards Brussels through a matrix of economic assistance, liberalized trade and investment and visa regimes that stop short of accession to the EU but effectively encourages them to loosen their ties with Russia. Indeed, the EU thrust has already begun eroding Russia’s close ties with Belarus and Armenia.

An immediate challenge lies ahead for Moscow as the parliamentary election results in Moldova have swept Europe’s last ruling communist party from power by pro-EU opposition parties. The US and the EU have kept up the pressure tactic of April’s abortive “Twitter revolution” in Moldova to force a regime change that puts an end to the leadership of President Vladimir Voronin, who has pro-Moscow leanings. The EU has made generous promises of economic integration to Moldova and Moscow made a counter-offer in June of a US$500 million loan.

However, in a stunning development, China entered the fray this month and signed an agreement to loan $1 billion to Moldova at a highly favorable 3% interest rate over 15 years with a five-year grace period on interest payments. The money will be channeled through Covec, China’s construction leviathan, as project exports in fields such as energy modernization, water systems, treatment plants, agriculture and high-tech industries.

Curiously, China has offered that it is prepared to “guarantee financing for all projects considered necessary and justified by the Moldovan side” over and above the $1 billion loan. In effect, Beijing has signaled its willingness to underwrite the entire Moldovan economy which has an estimated gross domestic product of $8 billion and a paltry budget of $1.5 billion.

The Chinese move is undoubtedly a geopolitical positioning. In an interesting tongue-in-cheek commentary recently, the People’s Daily noted that “under the [Barack] Obama administration, the meaning and use of ‘cyber diplomacy’ has changed significantly … US authorities … stirred up trouble for Iran through websites such as Twitter … [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] said that this is the essence of smart power, adding that this change requires the US to broaden its concept of diplomacy”.

Moldova is a country where China has historically been an observer rather than a player. This is Beijing’s first leap across Central Asia to the frayed western edges of Eurasia. Why is Moldova becoming so terribly important? Beijing will have calculated the immense geopolitical significance of Moldova’s integration by the West. It would then be a matter of time before Moldova was inducted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), before the Black Sea became a “NATO lake” and the alliance positioned itself in a virtually unassailable position to march into the Caucasus and right into Central Asia on China’s borders.

What we may never quite know is the extent of coordination between Moscow and Beijing. Both capitals have stressed lately of increased Sino-Russian coordination in foreign policy. The joint statement issued after the visit by the Chinese President Hu Jintao to Russia in June specifically expressed Beijing’s support for Moscow over the situation in the Caucasus. Clearly, a high degree of coordination is becoming visible across the entire post-Soviet space.

Islamists on the Silk Road
Thus, it is conceivable that Moscow would have sensitized Beijing about its intention to set up a second military base in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, which is located in close proximity to China’s Xinjiang, and is a principal transit route for Central Asian Islamist fighters based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There are definite signs of a revival of Islamist activities in Central Asia and the North Caucasus. China is carefully watching its fallout on Xinjiang. Though Western commentators take pains to characterize the renewed Islamist thrust into Central Asia as an outcome of the Pakistani military operations along the Pakistan-Afghan border areas which used to be sanctuaries for militant groups, the jury is still out. Chinese experts have pointed out that with the easing of cross-strait tensions in China’s equations with Taiwan, the scope for US meddling in China’s affairs has drastically reduced and this, in turn, has shifted US attention to China’s western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.

There is much strategic ambiguity as to what is precipitating the fresh upswing of Islamist activities in the broad swathe of land that constitutes the “soft underbelly” of Russia and China. Within 48 hours of the outbreak of violence in Xinjiang earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi telephoned his Russian counterpart and Moscow issued a statement strongly supportive of Beijing.

On July 10, a similar statement by the secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) followed, endorsing the steps taken by Beijing “within the framework of law” to bring “calm and restore normal life” in Xinjiang following clashes between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese. The SCO statement reiterated the resolve to “further deepen practical cooperation in the filed of fighting against terrorism, separatism, extremism and transnational organized crime for the sake of [safeguarding] regional security and stability”.

Again, China has underscored that the regional security of Central Asia and South Asia is closely intertwined. Commenting on the SCO statement, the People’s Daily said it “demonstrated that the SCO member states understood well that the situation in Xinjiang bears closely on that of the entire surrounding region … Some Central Asian countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan also fell victim to these evil forces … The evil forces have also crossed the border to spread violence and terrorism by setting up training camps. Links have been discovered between these forces and the recent riot in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang. The fight against these evil forces will greatly benefit all Central and South Asian countries as evidence has shown that the ‘three evil forces’ are detrimental not only to Xinjiang but also to the whole region.”

Significantly, in another commentary, the People’s Daily launched a blistering attack on US policies in fanning unrest in Xinjiang. “To the Chinese people, it is nothing new that the US tacitly or openly fans the winds of resentment against China … the US indiscriminately embraces all those forces hostile to China … Perhaps, it is a customary practice for the US to adopt the double-standard when weighing its interests against others. Or, perhaps, it has some ulterior motive behind to ensure its supreme position will not be challenged or altered by splitting to weaken others … Since the end of the 1980s, the US has never moderated its intention to stoke so-called ‘China issues’ … This time, in their efforts to fan feuding between Han and Uighur Chinese by harboring and propping up separatist forces, the US is jumping out again to be the third party that would, for the secret hope, benefit from the tussle.”

There is no need, therefore, to second-guess that China supported the Russian initiative to call a quadrilateral regional security summit meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, which was attended by the presidents of Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Russian move poses a geopolitical challenge to the US, which has been monopolizing conflict-resolution in Afghanistan; keeping Russia out of the Hindu Kush; attempting to splinter the SCO-driven Sino-Russian convergence over regional security in Central Asia; stepping up diplomatic and political efforts to erode Russia’s ties with Central Asian states; and expanding its influence and presence in Pakistan and steadily brining that country into the fold of NATO’s partnership program.

The tempo of the regional security summit in Dushanbe was set by Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon when he told his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at a meeting on Wednesday that he expected to work closely with Pakistan to prevent the rise of instability in Central Asia. “We do share similar and close positions on these issues and our countries should have taken coordinated actions aimed against this antagonistic phenomenon,” Rakhmon said.

Conceivably, China will also use its influence on Pakistan to nudge it in the direction of regional cooperation rather than passively subserve the US’s regional policies. Zardari’s initial remarks at Dushanbe, though, have been non-committal. He blandly responded to Rakhmon, “We will stand together against the challenges of this century.”

Moscow tabled as an agenda item for the Dushanbe summit a proposal for regional cooperation that involves selling electricity from Tajikistan’s Sangtudinskaya hydroelectric power plant (in which Russia has invested $500 million and holds a controlling 75% equity) to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ironically, the idea was originally an American brainwave aimed at bolstering the US’s “Great Central Asia” strategy that hoped to draw the region out of the Russian and Chinese orbit of influence.

Russia draws a Maginot Line
Equally, it is all but certain that while China is not a member of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Beijing will draw satisfaction that Moscow is building up the alliance’s presence in Central Asia as a counterweight to NATO. After the unrest in Xinjiang, Beijing has a direct interest in the Russian idea of creating an anti-terrorist center in Kyrgyzstan and advancing the CSTO’s rapid-reaction force (Collective Operational Reaction Forces) in Central Asia.

No doubt, the outcome of the CSTO summit meeting in the resort town of Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan this weekend will be keenly watched in Beijing. On the eve of this summit, an aide to the Russian president revealed in Moscow on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached in principle about the opening of a Russian base in Osh under the CSTO banner. A Kremlin source also told the Russian newspaper Gazeta that the summit meeting would discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Viewed against this backdrop, the joint Russian-Chinese military exercises, dubbed “Peace Mission 2009″, held on July 22-26, cannot be regarded as a mere repetition of two such exercises held in 2005 and 2007. True, all three exercises have been held under the framework of the SCO, but this year’s has been in actuality a bilateral Russian-Chinese effort with other member states represented as “observers”.

Major General Qian Lihua of the Chinese Ministry of Defense claimed that the drills were of “profound significance” when the forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism are “rampant nowadays”. He said that apart from strengthening regional security and stability, the exercises also symbolized the “high-level strategic and mutual trust” between China and Russia and became a “powerful move” for the two countries to strengthen “pragmatic cooperation” in the field of defense.

Taking stock of the military-to-military cooperation between China and Russia, Qian said:

First, high-level exchanges have become frequent. It has become a routine for the two nations to arrange an exchange between defense ministers or chiefs of general staff at least once a year. Frequent exchanges between defense departments and high-level military visits have effectively driven the smooth development of bilateral military relations between China and Russia.

Second, strategic consultation has become a routine mechanism. Since 1997, the militaries of China and Russia established a mechanism to hold annual consultations between the two sides’ leadership at the level of deputy chief of the general staff. So far, 12 rounds of strategic consultation have been held, which has promoted mutual trust and friendly cooperation.

Third, exchanges between professional groups and teams have become pragmatic. The militaries of China and Russia have conducted pragmatic exchanges and cooperation in many forces and corps including communications, engineering and mapping.

Qian anticipated that with the Peace Mission 2009, the “strategic mutual trust and the pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries will enter a new stage”.

China’s concern is palpable in the face of the rise in militant Islamist activities in Central Asia. “The terrorists are quietly trying to take cover in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan … They’ve lived in Afghanistan for a long time,” as Tajik Interior Minister Abdurakhim Kakhkharov put it recently. The Rasht Valley in the Pamir Mountains where the terrorists are gathering is only “trekking distance” from the Afghan (and Chinese) border.

There are reports of famous Tajik Islamist commander Mullo Abdullo having returned from Afghanistan and Pakistan with his followers after nearly a decade and that he is trying to recruit militants in the Rasht Valley. From various accounts, militant elements from Russia’s North Caucasus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang are linking up.

To quote the Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, “The Afghanistan situation is affecting not only Kyrgyzstan but Central Asia as a whole. People have come here to carry out acts of terror.” Bakiyev added ominously, “There are still forces out there that we do not know about, who are here and who are ready to indulge in illegal activities. They have one aim: to destabilize Central Asia.” Yet, NATO has pleaded helplessness in stopping the movement of the Taliban in the direction of the Tajik border.

Thus, the million-dollar question is whether the current unrest is a mere distant echo or is tantamount to a replay of the US efforts to fund and equip mujahideen fighters and to promote militant Islam as a geopolitical tool in Soviet Central Asia in the 1980s. That is why Biden’s remarks harking back to Reaganism will be taken very seriously in Moscow and Beijing – that the Russian economy is a wreck, Russia’s geography is ridden with a range of weaknesses that are withering, and the US should not underestimate its hand. China’s bold move in Moldova shows that it may have begun regarding the post-Soviet space as its own “near abroad”.

End of Chimerica?
The point is, there is a hefty economic angle to the maneuverings. The US’s Eurasia energy envoy Richard Morningstar bluntly admitted at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing two weeks ago that China’s success in gaining access to Caspian and Central Asia energy reserves threatened the US’s geopolitical interests.

Interestingly, the renewed spurt of unrest in Central Asia (including Xinjiang) - which Russian intelligence has been anticipating since end-2008 – is taking place along the route of the 7,000-kilometer gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and leading to Xinjiang that is expected to be commissioned by year-end. No doubt, the pipeline signifies a historic turning point in the geopolitics of the entire region.

Well-known economic historian Niall Ferguson has compared “Chinmerica” – the thesis that China and America have effectively fused to become a single economy - to “a marriage on the rocks”.

Ferguson anticipates, in the context of the Group of Two “strategic dialogue” between the US and China that took place in Washington this week, that a point will be reached when instead of continuing with the “unhappy marriage”, China may decide to “got it alone … to buy them global power in their own right”.

Factors influencing this are US saving rates soaring upwards and US imports from China significantly reducing; the Chinese feeling they have had enough of US government bonds, with the specter of the price of US Treasury bonds falling or the purchasing power of the dollar falling (or both) – either way China stands to lose.

Ferguson sees that China may have already begun doing this and its campaign to buy foreign assets (such as in Moldova), its tentative movement toward a consumer society, its growing embrace of the special drawing rights idea of a basket of currencies to replace the dollar – all these are signs of an impending “Chinmerica divorce”. But what does it entail for world politics? Ferguson says:

Imagine a new Cold War but one in which the two superpowers are economically the same size, which was never true in the old Cold War because the USSR was always a lot poorer than the USA.

Or, if you prefer an older analogy, imagine a rerun of the Anglo-German antagonism of the early 1900s, with America in the role of Britain and China in the role of imperial Germany. This is a better analogy because it captures the fact that a high level of economic integration does not necessarily prevent the growth of strategic rivalry and ultimately conflict.

We are a long way from outright warfare, of course. These things build quite slowly. But the geopolitical tectonic plates are moving, and moving fast. The end of Chimerica is causing India and the United States to become more closely aligned. It’s creating an opportunity for Moscow to forge closer links to Beijing.

Surely, a major difference will be that while this month’s solar eclipse is not expected to be surpassed until June 2132, there are no such certainties in the shifty world of big-power politics, especially the tricky triangular relationship involving the US, Russia and China. But one thing is certain. Like in the case of the solar eclipse that was gazed at from all conceivable corners of the Earth, the shift in the geopolitical tectonic plates and the resultant realignment of the co-relation of forces across Eurasia will be watched with keen interest by countries as diverse as India and Brazil, Iran and North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, Syria and Sudan.

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.

Young Boys Rescued from Pakistani Taliban Brainwashing Program

more about "Young Boys Rescued from Pakistani Tal…", posted with vodpod

Israeli warplanes enter north Lebanese airspace: report

Israeli warplanes enter north Lebanese airspace: report

www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-29 05:38:51

Print

BEIRUT, July 28 (Xinhua) — Six Israeli warplanes made their way right up to the north of Lebanon on Tuesday, in a serious violation of Lebanon’s airspace, the official National News Agency(NNA) reported.

The Lebanese warplanes conducted circular flights over Hasbayya, West Bekaa, Iklim Tefah and Marjeioun, according to the report.

It is rare for Israeli warplanes to enter northern Lebanese airspace, although Lebanon repeatedly accuses Israeli warplanes of violating its airspace on a daily basis.

The Lebanese army announced its readiness on that front, saying it has placed its troops on alert to face up any Israeli action, local media said. UN peacekeepers also were in a state of alert.

The flight of Israeli warplanes coincided with the movement of four Israeli tanks towards a recently built Israeli observation post in Kfarshouba hills with a 100-meter distance to Hassan gate.

Also during the day, representatives from the Lebanese army, the Israeli army, and the UN Interim Forces in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) held a meeting in the Lebanese town of Naqoura to discuss the breaches of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

UN resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day devastating war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, prohibits weapons smuggling to Hezbollah and forbids the group from engaging in military activities in south Lebanon.

Israeli officials have recently expressed apprehension over events in southern Lebanon which Israel claims suggest that Hezbollah is seeking to provoke another round of conflict.

On Monday, Israeli officials said they believe Hezbollah will try to escalate the tension on the border by organizing civilian demonstrations and protests in the Har Dov region along Israel’s border with Lebanon, as it did about a week ago, as part of an effort to launch a popular uprising against Israel.

The 2006 ceasefire installs a 13,300-member UN peacekeeping force along Lebanon’s border with Israel to assist the Lebanese army and prevent any hostile actions between Hezbollah and Israel.

Jewish fundamentalists storm al-Aqsa Mosque

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:40:39 GMT

Font size :

Israeli soldiers in the al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard. More than 200 Jewish extremists have reportedly entered al-Aqsa Mosque, positioning themselves inside the holy site, allegedly to perform religious rituals. According to a statement released by the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, the incursion was “significant”. The foundation has called on Muslims, Arabs and all Palestinians to take action in support of the mosque. The attack comes amidst Tisha B’Av, also known as “The Ninth of Av” — a Jewish fasting day in commemoration of the destruction of the two Temples. The occasion falls on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, which usually coincides with late July or mid-August. The First Temple was built by King Solomon and was considered the most sacred site in ancient Judaism. It was destroyed when the Babylonians pillaged Jerusalem (al-Quds) in 586 BCE. According to Jewish accounts, the construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE on the site of the First Temple but was destroyed during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The destruction of the two Temples allegedly took place on the same day — the ninth of Av — but about 656 years apart. The storming of al-Aqsa Mosque — a holy site in the eyes of many Muslims — has drawn anti-Israeli condemnation. Former Palestinian minister for al-Quds affairs, Hatem Abdel Qader, has warned that the Israeli government is “playing with fire” by allowing far-right Jewish groups to put the mosque in harm’s way. Abdel Qader resigned from his post last month after he censured the acting Palestinian Authority for neglecting al-Quds. He says the Salam Fayyad government refuses to uphold its commitments to the city, which is undergoing a difficult period. According to Abdel Qader, the Palestinian Finance Ministry “contributes nothing to the effort to keep the residents on their land.”

[Al-Aqsa Mosque

{next door to Dome of the Rock}

After completion of the Dome of the Rock, construction began at the site of the original timber mosque built in the time of 'Umar. A vast congregational mosque rose up, accommodating more than five thousand worshippers. Originally commissioned by 'Abdul Malik ibn Marwan, it was apparently completed by his son Al-Walid in 705AD.

Al-Aqsa Mosque from the west

The building became known as Masjid al-Aqsa, Al-Aqsa Mosque, although in reality the whole area of the Noble Sanctuary is considered Al-Aqsa Mosque, the entire precincts inviolable according to Islamic law. Every Friday prayer, the Al-Aqsa Mosque building overflows, with thousands of worshippers who must make their prayers outside in the courtyards of the vast open expanse of the Noble Sanctuary.

Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Dome of the Rock While the Dome of the Rock was constructed as a mosque to commemorate the Prophet's Night Journey, the building known as Al-Aqsa Mosque became a centre of worship and learning, attracting great teachers from all over the world.]

Israeli tanks, bulldozers roll into Gaza

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:24:36 GMT

Font size :

The Israeli army has launched another cross border attack on the Gaza Strip, opening fire on villagers’ homes south of the impoverished sliver.

Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled hundreds of meters deep into the strip on Wednesday and flattened cultivated fields in Al Qararra town in southern Gaza.

According to witnesses several Palestinian homes were damaged in the attack but there were no reports of casualties. Four tanks and two bulldozers conducted the attack.

Palestinian sources say the invading Israeli troops were forced to retreat after they faced resistance from Palestinian fighters.

Iranian MP: MKO might move to Pakistan

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:16:21 GMT

Font size :

MKO members inside the Camp Ashraf

An Iranian lawmaker says following the Iraqi crackdown on the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), its remaining members could be moved to Pakistan.

Iraqi security forces took control of the MKO’s training base at Camp Ashraf, about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad on Tuesday, detaining dozens of terrorists.

Seyyed Hossein Naqavi, a member of Iran’s Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy told Mehr news agency that the move by the Iraqi government would open a new chapter in Tehran-Baghdad ties.

He noted that the MKO has been in talks with Abdolmalek Rigi, the head of the Jundullah terrorist gang operating in southeastern Iran around the Pakistani border, saying that the talks seemed to be aimed at paving the way for the deployment of MKO members in Pakistan.

“Considering the fact that the EU has lifted the MKO from its terror list, there is also a chance for the terrorist group to be stationed in a European country,” he added.

Nevertheless, Naqavi stressed that the deployment of the MKO to an EU country is highly unlikely, because the group needs to be located on Iran’s doorsteps to carry out its plots against the country.

The Iranian lawmaker added that the Pakistani government does not have full control over all parts of its territory and this could let the MKO to resume its activity in Pakistan.

The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its top leadership and members fled the country in the 1980s after carrying out a murderous campaign of assassinations and bombings inside the country.

The group is especially notorious in Iran because they allied with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq.

Pak at its craziest, says India has links with Taliban

ANI

Islamabad, July 30: Pakistan has reportedly handed over evidence of India’s involvement in providing aid to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud to the United States and NATO.

Sources said during the US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke’s recent visit to Islamabad, top military and political leaders gave certain documented and video tape evidence to him.

They said evidence of New Delhi’s involvement in aiding Mehsud were also provided to US commander of

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, Lt. General Stanley McChrystal.

Sources said that Pakistan had provided enough evidence to prove ‘India’s covert links with Baitullah Mehsud and provision of aid to him through Indian consulate in Afghanistan.’

Pakistan’s political and military leadership also urged Holbrooke to discuss the issue with India saying Mehsud did not have the resources to counter the military’s extensive offensive against him, Onlinenews.com reports.

Pak refuses to hand over Dawood: Krishna

2009-07-30 12:30:00 Last Updated: 2009-07-30 13:43:34

New Delhi: India has been asking Pakistan to hand over 42 fugitives including Dawood Ibrahim but Islamabad has refused to cooperate, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told the Rajya Sabha today. Replying to questions, he said a list of 42 fugitives both Indian and Pakistani nationals, including ones involved in the 1993 Mumbai series bomb blasts and the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, has been given to Islamabad.

Krishna said that whatever evidence and dossier is given, Pakistan’s refrain is that it is not enough and cannot be proven in the court of law.

PM on perilous path for Pak’s advantage: BJP

He said Pakistan has denied presence of dreaded criminals like Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Chota Shakeel and Lakhbir

Singh who are among the Indian nationals in the list.

“For Pakistani nationals, Pakistan has pointed to lack of extradition treaty and lack of evidence,” he said. “We have made 11 futile attempts with Pakistan to conclude an extradition treaty,” he said.

Dossier admits Pak nationals’ role in terror attack: PM

Pakistan has not responded “positively to our proposals to conclude an extradition treaty,” he said.

“We have been impressing upon Pakistan that it is in the interest of both countries that we enter into a treaty of extradition,” Krishna said. “The Government is endeavouring to persuade Pakistan to develop a cooperative relationship with India.”

10,000 Chinese Rioters ‘Go Missing’ Overnight

more about “untitled“, posted with vodpod

Nearly 10,000 Uighurs involved in deadly riots in China went missing in one night, exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer has said.

Rebiya Kadeer in Tokyo

Members of the Muslim ethnic group attacked Han Chinese in the Xinjiang region’s capital of Urumqi on July 5.

The rioting erupted after police tried to break up a protest against fatal assaults on Uighur workers at a factory in south China.

Han Chinese in Urumqi launched revenge attacks later that week.

“The nearly 10,000 (Uighur) people who were at the protest, they disappeared from Urumqi in one night,” Ms Kadeer told a news conference in Tokyo, Japan.

During the riots

“If they are dead, where are their bodies? If they are detained, where are they?”

She called on the international community to send an independent investigative team to Urumqi to uncover details of what had taken place.

The official death toll from the riots stands at 197, most of whom were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China’s 1.3 billion population.

Almost all the others were Uighurs, a Muslim people native to Xinjiang and culturally tied to Central Asia and Turkey.

More than 1,000 people were detained in the immediate aftermath of the riots, and over 200 more in recent days, state media said. None has been publicly charged.

China has accused Ms Kadeer, who lives in exile in Washington, of triggering the riots and of spreading misinformation.

It pointed out that pictures she said were taken in Urumqi actually came from an unrelated incident in another part of the country.

Ms Kadeer, who rejects the Chinese accusations, said she thought the death toll was much higher after learning that there was random gunfire one night when electricity in the city was shut down.

Beijing does not want to lose its grip on Xinjiang.

The vast territory borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China’s largest natural gas-producing region.

Gen. Beg (retired) Heaps Praise On Taliban Fighters

[If the American administration were to take the following as the opinion of Pakistan's generals today, then it would find justification for all of its worst plans for AF/PAK.  After singing the praises of what Pakistan has wrought in Afghanistan, America could resign itself to the position that Pakistan is the state sponsor of the Taliban, making it a legitimate military strategy for turning Pakistan into the next Iraq.]

“The Divine Intervention in the form of Global Islamic Resistance, grew from the soil of Pakistan and Afghanistan”

“Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam“

By General Retd Mirza Aslam Beg

During the last 30 years, external aggression, counter-aggression and induced conflicts, have kept our region in a state of turmoil, creating global impact which are no less than the impact created by World War II. For example, Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Eight Years War of Liberation, leading to Soviet withdrawal and its break-up; the Eight Years Iran-Iraq war; the Ten years Afghan civil war; the 1991 Gulf War; Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001; Invasion of Iraq in 2003, Israeli war on Lebanon in 2005, and 2008 war on Gaza, and the on-going brutal war in Afghanistan, are the cataclysmic events, which have changed the course of history.
In these 30 years of conflict more than 70,00,000 thousand Muslims have been killed, thus defining a clear line between “the oppressors and the oppressed,” inviting ‘Divine Intervention’ on behalf of the oppressed. There are two recent examples of Divine Intervention: Hitler, drunk with power, and obsessed with the notion of Lebensraum, struck, and disturbed world peace. The oppressed, formed ‘a coalition’, to defeat the evil. Within a period of 15 years, the Germans and their allies were defeated and decimated. Similarly, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Americans struck the Muslim World, to establish their global primacy and pre-eminence. The Divine Intervention in the form of Global Islamic Resistance, grew from the soil of Pakistan and Afghanistan and within a period of 15 years, it has curbed the ambitions of the oppressors.  [The expression "global Islamic resistance" is widely accepted as another name for "al Qaida," another is "world Islamic Front."]
The Islamic Resistance grew from the Pak-Afghan soil, along the Durand Line. The Pashtuns provided the hardcore of resistance and “Jehadis from 70 countries of the world joined them, whose only objective was and, is freedom” – freedom of Afghanistan, freedom of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Kashmir. They do not believe in establishing Islamic rule over other countries. They were not involved in 9/11 act of terror either, nor in any terror act elsewhere. Al-Qaeda having a different identity, targets the ‘oppressors’ outside the zone of conflict. As a result of this conflict the ‘Pashtun power’ has emerged and extends from Pakistan to the Hindukush mountains. The former US Security Advisor, David Kilkullen, terms it as “the greatest threat to American interests in the region,” and wants it to be eliminated. Similarly the Shia Power has emerged from Iran to Iraq to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and the US plans to pitch it against the ‘Pakhtun power’, and also against the Sunni Muslim States of the Gulf region, whom, the Americans have already sold US$120b worth of military hardware, to fight the Shia power/Iran.
The unipolar world order now is Tri-polar, because the Global Islamic Resistance has been able to curb the US ambitions of “global primacy and pre-eminence”, while Russia and China form the third force. Thus, it is the Global Islamic Resistance which is determining the contours of the emerging world order.

There are terrorists, no doubt, like Al-Qaeda and many other splinter groups, growing out of the freedom movements. Such terrorists, we also have in Pakistan, who call themselves Taliban, just to raise their status, whereas they are not Taliban. They are our angry tribals from Waziristan, Swat, Dir and Bajaur, joined by criminal gangs of the poverty-stricken border regions of Pakistan, against whom, Pakistan military is now engaged to establish the writ of the government, In fact, the occupation forces in Afghanistan by design have been able to ‘reverse the war on Pakistan’.
The ‘geo-political balance’ of the region has been altered with the induction of India and EU into Afghanistan, which USA now considers part of South Asia and under the hegemony of India. [With India firmly in its grasp, the US doesn't really need Pakistan anymore, now does it?] India, in collusion with the occupation forces in Afghanistan, has been able to establish a vast spy network operating against all the neighbours, particularly Pakistan, Iran and China. Thus the cause of all the trouble in the region, and “the Mother of All Evil” is the occupation of Afghanistan, by the foreign forces.
The occupation forces are facing tough resistance, which is stronger, more organised and better armed than the resistance the Soviets had to face, during the 80′s. The resistance now calls itself the ‘Shadow Army’ [Here the general is deliberately trying to throw sand into our eyes, by confusing the Taliban with the alleged "al Qaida" group by that same name described here.] organised into several divisions, and each division consists of a number of Lashkars. The ‘Shadow Army’ comprises, the old mujahideen who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan; the Afghan Taliban, mostly born under the shadow of war; veterans from Iraq; old and new volunteers from several countries of the world and the 005 Brigade of Al-Qaeda. It’s a formidable force, undertaking large size operations, inflicting over 250 casualties on the occupation forces, in a period of two months. The next few months are crucial. The military adventure is thus failing and saner voices are getting louder and clearer, telling Obama and their allies to change their strategy in Afghanistan:
“The troops are tired and the American people are pretty tired of war in Afghanistan,” said Gates. “Situation in Afghanistan has got progressively worse, and the Taliban has got much better, much more violent and much more organised….The Afghan people are much more uncertain now, about their future, ” said Admiral Mullen. “Is Afghanistan destined to follow Vietnam, as another graveyard for US Empire,” questioned Martin and R Hertzberg. “Obama’s Petraeus – McChrystal policies, in Afghanistan, are a fundamental strategic error…” maintained Chomsky. “We are loosing in Afghanistan. US-NATO led coalition faces defeat, and our young men are dying out there,” said Paddy Ashdown. The one thing we cannot do is, to go on as we are, led by events. History is littered with the graves of the soldiers who died obeying the call,” stated Hamilton. “Obama cannot manage an inherently doomed premise. Colonialism is dead. Occupiers will never enjoy peace in Afghanistan,” claimed Ted Rall.
Obama, therefore suggests: “All of us want an effective exit strategy from Afghanistan” – the crucible of terror, the graveyard of invaders.
The economic melt-down, and the shame of defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaves only one hopeless course open to US, as William Pfaff rightly suggests: “The US has become war-addicted. War has become part of the national identity, as well as the national economy, which turns out more weapons and more military high technology than the rest of the world combined. The growing opinion in Europe is that Afghanistan is the US’s new Vietnam. The truth is that it is worse than Vietnam. In Vietnam, the US had a clearly identified enemy, supported by a responsible Communist state in North Vietnam with its government in Hanoi. [In Afghanistan, the US has a clearly defined enemy, supported by a "friendly" government with its head in Islamabad.] The US had a theory about what it was doing suppressing the insurrection in the South, and bombing North Vietnam until the government stopped the war. All of this was, in principle, possible. However, the US acted on a nonsensical theory about the world ‘going Communist’ if the US didn’t win, just as today the US has an even more nonsensical theory about radical Islam conquering Muslim Asia and all of Europe and then attacking the US, if Washington fails. In that respect it’s a war of ideas which the US has no theory about how to ‘win’.”
America is on the wrong side of history, which is imperceptibly changing towards a global order based on the quintessential values of respect for diversity and renunciation of war. On the contrary, China is one country, which is peacefully engaging itself with all the nations, honouring their sovereignty and building paradigm of peaceful co-existence. India and EU unfortunately have opted to be on the other side of the divide. The Americans together with their allies, therefore, need to develop a pragmatic AfPak Strategy, and to establish “a more ordered world at a time of great instability. The world powers have to provide space at the top tables for nations, that do not share our culture, our history, our world view and even our values.” – Ashdown.  [At least the general sounded like a peace-loving "democrat" {he believes in democracy} at the end.]
The writer is former COAS
E-mail: friendsfoundation@live.co.uk

Pak did not provide evidence on India’s role in Balochistan: Holbrooke

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke on Thursday said that Pakistani leaders brought up the issue of India’s alleged involvement in Balochistan, but did not give any credible evidence to support their claim. “I would be misleading, if I said it didn’t come up,” Holbrooke told State Department Press Corps when asked to comment on the meetings he had with Pakistani leaders during his last week’s visit to that country. Asked if Pakistan has provided him with any “credible evidence of India’s involvement in Balochistan”, he said: “The narrow answer to your question is no.” However, he did not elaborate any further. He also reiterated that Kashmir is outside his ability to discuss. Responding to questions, Holbrooke said there is no difference with India on the issue of Pakistan and Afghanistan. “You know, India was the first country in the world I was ever aware of. I have a very special feeling for it. And if there’s a rift, you have to ask the Indians. I didn’t see any rift,” the US envoy said.

Pakistan’s Sado-Masochistic Ritual In FATA

[The Pakistani people are stuck between leaders who support these bands of merciless killers and other leaders who are determined to eliminate the militants altogether.  How is it that one group never wins-out over the other?  In the previous "wars" against the militants, did the battles reach an unacceptable threshhold of violence beyond which the Generals refused to pass, or  was there a fear of imminent defeat which moved the Army to strike the faulty peace deals?  Or were each of the battles stopped because of prior arrangements with the militants (Mehsud) that ended the fighting before they "became too serious," much like the alleged practice of sado-masochists, who supposedly prearrange a "safety word" that the masochist can shout to the sadist, to prevent someone from getting seriously damaged?  Have Mehsud and the ISI been staging a sado-masochistic ritual in FATA for the sake of leering American eyes?]

Another dud deal?

Reports and comment in the foreign media are increasingly talking of the possibility of a deal being explored – or even done — between the army and Baitullah Mehsud. The BBC, the Daily Telegraph, the Washington Post and the New York Times have in the last week carried reports alluding to the failure to capture Baitullah Mehsud, and it is not possible to dismiss these reports out-of-hand as mere idle gossip. The Telegraph is going so far as to claim that the delay in launching the all-out operation against Mehsud is to allow a deal to be made. The report says that the government wants him to promise that he will not attack government personnel and assets in the future – a promise that would rank alongside a solemn undertaking by all crocodiles never to eat another wildebeest. Military claims to have ‘corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan’ by blocking the four principal points of entry are unverifiable, and we have no idea if, or to what extent, Mehsud and his allies are being ‘softened up’ by the air force and artillery as is claimed by military spokespersons. What is clear is that a month after the go-ahead for an operation in the Waziristans there is very little sign of movement, and every single one of the men on the government’s ‘most wanted’ list remains at large despite considerable prices on their heads.

We would have thought that by now, with Sufi Mohammad once again behind bars after having been detained in Peshawar, that the self-evident madness of doing deals with extremists would have become a powerful influence over governmental decision-making. Every deal made with them in the past has collapsed, including those with Mehsud, as their true motives become evident once the deal is implemented. These men want nothing more or less than the whole of Pakistan to be under the cloak of darkness that they spread around them. They will unashamedly bomb and butcher and terrorise their way to power if they possibly can and have the ability to bring fear into the lives of people far from their primary area of operation. They are willing to brainwash children into becoming suicide bombers. They will intimidate local police forces, close down markets for women and barber shops for men, decide what style of clothing is appropriate for men and women alike and consign women to a place beyond the pale. The operation to defeat Mehsud in the Waziristans is called Rah-e-Nijat or Path to Deliverance. The military accepts that it is going to be a tougher fight than the one they have yet to finish in Swat, and ‘deliverance’ may be a long time coming. It is perhaps worth remembering that all the previous operations against the Taliban in Pakistan have ended in a peace deal which they have negotiated from a position of strength, and they still have powerful supporters in the establishment and the military. Either we beat Mehsud or he beats us. There is no middle ground – and no deal, either.

“Responsibility to Protect” is Warmed-Over Imperialism

Submitted by Glen Ford

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.

“R2P” is the latest American device to justify military aggression and regime-change in the developing world. “The doctrine is a warmed-over version of so-called ‘humanitarian’ military intervention – another excuse for big powers to make war on weaker nations.” The doctrine is “reminiscent of the term ‘protectorate’ – a legalism for a country that is run as a virtual colony of one of the big powers.”

“Responsibility to Protect” is Warmed-Over Imperialism

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“R2P allows Washington to act unilaterally whenever it decides that military intervention is in the best interest of humanity.”

The United Nations last week began what will become a protracted debate over the doctrine “Responsibility to Protect,” or R2P. The doctrine is a warmed-over version of so-called “humanitarian” military intervention – another excuse for big powers to make war on weaker nations. Its primary champion in the Obama administration is UN ambassador Susan Rice, who would use the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine to justify U.S. military action in Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. One important opponent of R2P is Rev. Miguel D’Escoto, of Nicaragua, president of the UN General Assembly.

“Responsibility to Protect” is reminiscent of the term “protectorate” – a legalism for a country that is run as a virtual colony of one of the big powers. That’s how the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, took the colony of South West Africa away from the defeated Germans, after World War One, and gave it to white-ruled South Africa, under whom it would remain until emerging as the independent Republic of Namibia, in 1990.

A “protectorate” is what the British and French established in much of the Middle East on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, also after World War One, so they could “protect” the oil and ports and other resources of the region from the people who lived there. Palestine was a British protectorate, but that didn’t protect the Arab majority from the Zionists, who stole the land in 1948.

Haiti is now a de facto “protectorate” of the United Nations, which fronts for the United States, France and Canada. In fact, the new version of protectorates – philosophically buttressed by the doctrine “Responsibility to Protect” – was refined specifically to deny Haitians sovereignty over their own country after the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 2004.

“Africa has turned decisively against the notion of ‘Responsibility to Protect.’”

UN General Assembly president D’Escoto rejects the doctrine of protectorates, under the guise of R2P. His country, Nicaragua, was viewed, like all of Central America, as a protectorate of the United States. The U.S. once considered Nicaragua as a dumping ground for freed Black American slaves, and in the 1980s funded Contra terrorists and mined Nicaraguan harbors in defiance of the World Court, which was unable to provide protection from the Americans.

Africa has turned decisively against the notion of “Responsibility to Protect,” as it has witnessed the lopsided protectionist “justice” of an International Criminal Court that indicts only Africans, but does nothing to protect Africa from U.S. and European neocolonialism.

Among those participating in the UN debate on R2P, is Noam Chomksy, who describes the doctrine as “humanitarian imperialism.” That certainly is what it would amount to in the hands of the United States. Susan Rice’s version of R2P allows Washington to act unilaterally whenever it decides that military intervention is in the best interest of humanity. In practice, that’s no different than the Bush doctrine, or all the other previous American doctrines that have justified regime change at Washington’s political whim.

What the planet really needs protection from, is the United States, which remains, as Dr. Martin Luther King said more than 40 years ago, “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Troops to Help Battle (Administer Vaccine?) Inflated Flu Threat

Military Poised to Help FEMA Battle Swine Flu Outbreak

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to set vaccination priorities for certain groups Wednesday during a meeting in Atlanta as the Pentagon prepares to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency tackle a potential outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall.

FOXNews.com

The Pentagon is preparing to make troops available if necessary to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency tackle a potential outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, FOX News has confirmed.

This comes as a government panel recommends certain groups be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, including pregnant women, health care workers and children six months and older.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel also said those first vaccinated should include parents and other caregivers of infants; non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions, and young adults ages 19 to 24. The panel, whose recommendations typically are adopted by federal health officials, voted to set vaccination priorities for those groups Wednesday during a meeting in Atlanta.

Obama administration officials told Congress that H1N1 vaccinations won’t be available for several months.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is preparing to sign an order authorizing the military to set up five regional teams to deal with the potential outbreak of H1N1 influenza if FEMA requests help.

A senior U.S. defense official told FOX News that the plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the FEMA. No final decision has been reached on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it likely would include personnel from all branches of the military.

It is not known how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.

In the event of a major outbreak, civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts, the official said. The military, as it would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.

As a first step, military leaders have asked Gates to authorize planning for the potential assistance.

Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said.

FOX News’ Jennifer Griffin, Brian Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hizb ut-Tahrir: CIA Creation?

[This writer is Senior Editor for John Birch Society site.  Research reveals that the following article pushes the exact opposite of the truth, pure Hegelian Dialectic, that this group is CIA.]

Hizb ut-Tahrir: KGB-FSB Connection?

Written by William F. Jasper

As reported in yesterday’s posting, the Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir al Islami (The Islamic Liberation Party, hereafter designated by the abbreviation HT), held a recruiting conference in Chicago on Sunday July 19. The title and theme of the conference was “The Fall of Capitalism, the Rise of Islam.”

Apart from the fact that HT has adopted much of the Marxist-Leninist lexicon and dialectically synthesized an Islamo-Leninist ideology and rhetoric, there is good reason to assume that, at least in the Central Asia “republics” of the former Soviet Union, HT has been co-opted by the security services (successors of the renamed KGB) or was created outright as a “false flag” operation to provide controlled opposition.

Unlike the Baltic States and other European states that were clamoring for independence from the Soviet Union, the rulers of the Central Asian states (Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) of the USSR were reluctant to shed their Soviet skin, and even since “independence” have stayed closely tied to the Kremlin. Like all totalitarian regimes — Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria — they remain, essentially, black boxes, largely impervious to outside investigation. Their geographic isolation greatly enhances the efficiency of their security services in controlling what information (or disinformation) gets out, which outsiders get in, and what they will be allowed to see and hear.

Uzbekistan seems to be the main area where terrorist activities are attributed to HT and other groups connected to it, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). As mentioned in yesterday’s posting, scholar/lobbyist Zeyno Baran has been one of the principal conveyor belts of the charges that the Tashkent bombings of 1999, the Tashkent and Bukhara bombings of 2004, and the Andijan Massacre of 2005 were the work of Islamic terrorists (HT and IMU) and provide ample reason to support the regime of Stalinist stalwart Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan.

Bush administration officials, such as Elizabeth Jones, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, made similar arguments, as for instance, in her testimony before Congress.

Another analyst, David Storobin similarly concluded that the Karimov regime was under heavy assault from terrorists, which was a major crisis blocking political reform in that country. He wrote:

Because of the terror network that has been established by the Taliban, Saudis, Egyptian and Palestinian fundamentalists, as well as others in Uzbekistan, the government cannot move towards democratic liberalization. Rather than building up its political institutions and economic system, Uzbekistan is stuck trying to fight terrorist organizations, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — and any other Islamist terrorist organization that chooses to set up bases in the country.

Perhaps the most influential lobbyist for the Central Asian regimes, though, is Professor S. Frederick Starr of the Central Asia Caucasus Institute (CACI) at Johns Hopkins University. For his slavish support of dictator Islam Karimov, Dr. Starr has earned the title of “Professor of Repression.” He can be counted on faithfully to toe the party line, sing the praises of Karimov and his fellow dictators in the region, and defend the most brutal practices as necessary measures against the threat of “Islamic extremism.”

However, many independent scholars and analysts refused to overlook the evidence  and suspicious circumstances pointing to the likelihood that these “terrorist attacks” were actually “provocations” by the SNB, the Uzbek KGB.

Nozima Kamalova, for example, a Central Asia specialist at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, noted in a 2007 study for the Center, “The War on Terror and Its Implications for Human Rights in Uzbekistan”:

With what appears to be a staged bombing, the Uzbek government may have wished to demonstrate to its American allies that terrorism exists in Uzbekistan and that there is a need for additional funding and support under the guise of a campaign against terrorism.

Likewise, Central Eurasia scholar Sarah Kendzior (Washington University in St. Louis) challenges Baran and others who accept at face value the propaganda spoon-fed to them by the professional SNB propagandists in Tashkent. Her study, “Inventing Akromiya: The Role of Uzbek Propagandists in the Andijon Massacre,” provides sobering reflection on the alarming degree to which Western governments, academics, and journalists have been willing to turn blind eyes toward evidence that they are being manipulated by the Uzbek regime.

In addition to these scholarly works, there is the testimony of former SNB agent Major Ikrom Yakubov, who says President Karimov personally ordered “false flag” provocations such as the Andijon Massacre (Uzbekistan’s Tiananmen Square), the Tashkent/Bukhara bombings, and the murder of UN coordinator Richard Conroy, a British citizen. Yakubov, who defected to Britain last September, adds to considerable evidence compiled by journalists, human rights activists, and exiles, as well as the charges of former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray.

Murray, who is now rector of the University of Dundee and is campaigning this year for election to Parliament, was forced to step down from his diplomatic post for exposing Karimov’s widespread practices of torture and murder — and even more for exposing the complicity of the United States and Britain in those crimes.

In his book, Murder in Samarkand, Murray writes about his own personal inspection of the Tashkent bombing sites shortly after the explosions. “I reported that back to London — that I suspected these were ‘false flag’ bombing operations carried out by the Uzbek government in order to justify their clampdown and demonize the opposition,” says Murray. “What [Yakubov] is saying appears to back up the physical evidence which I personally witnessed on the ground. I think his information does appear to stand up.”

Yakubov, who was involved in SNB provocations, says that many of the men cited as terrorists by the Uzbek government are actually “false flag” creations of the SNB. Radio Free Europe reports:

In a related charge, Yakubov says the regime itself has propped up many alleged extremist groups and their leaders, including Tahir Yuldash, the purported IMU leader, and Akram Yuldash, the alleged spiritual leader of Akramia, the group Uzbek authorities blamed for sparking the unrest in Andijon.

“Akram Yuldash, Tahir Yuldash — these are specially created men by SNB,” Yakubov says. “IMU also [was] created by SNB, according to the order of Karimov. Tahir Yuldash has a very close contact with Karimov, and Tahir Yuldash [carries out] the orders of Karimov.”

Yakubov adds that he has seen classified papers addressed to Karimov stating that Yuldash himself killed Juma Namangani, his predecessor as IMU leader, in order to take sole leadership of the organization.

It should come as no surprise that the SNB would carry out a series of bombing provocations. It served several important purposes, not the least of which was to bolster appeals for Western aid. Of course, it also provided Karimov with a “national security” cover to justify tighter police-state crackdowns on his own people. In all of this the Uzbek SNB was merely putting into practice what it had learned from its big brother, the Russian KGB/FSB. In fact, the “terrorist” bombings in Tashkent and Bukhara were carbon copies of the FSB’s false flag “terrorist” bombing campaign in Russia that was blamed on Chechen Islamists. The main purposes of that series of provocations were: 1) to justify, and win public support for, a new Russian invasion and occupation of Chechnya, and; 2) to cast Vladimir Putin (former head of the FSB), then virtually unknown, as a strong, decisive leader, and to propel him into the presidency.

It is sad testimony to the frightening degree of control exercised over our own media that so few Americans are even aware of the huge body of evidence — much of it even from establishment media sources — substantiating the charges that the Russian FSB, not the Chechens, were behind the September 1999 apartment bombings in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk that killed nearly 300 people and injured hundreds more. The government-controlled Russian media fanned the flames of hysteria. Outrage and calls for revenge against Chechnya soon followed. Putin, responding to “the people’s will,” launched a new wave of savage destruction upon the hapless people of Chechnya.

Here are a few of the many sources concerning the FSB hand behind the “Chechen Terror” bombings in Russia:

Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror by Alexander Litvinenko, the FSB colonel who defected to the West in 2001 and began exposing the totalitarian and criminalist nature of the new KGB/FSB-dominated Putin regime. This included revelations concerning the false flag “Chechen terror” bombings. He paid for this “treason” with his life;  he was publicly (and very dramatically) executed by polonium poisoning in London in 2006. The evidence points to the FSB and then-President Putin as the executioners.

The Assassination of Russia is a video documentary produced by former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was once part of the Yeltsin power structure and now is in exile in Britain. This video presents excellent testimony and compelling evidence supporting the charges that the 1999 “Chechen Terror” bombings in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, and the attempted bombing in Ryazan were the work of Russia’s FSB:

“THE FIFTH BOMB: DID PUTIN’S SECRET POLICE BOMB MOSCOW IN A DEADLY BLACK OPERATION?” by John Sweeney reporter for The Observer (UK), November 24, 2000. Focusing on the failed Ryazan bombing, this article is especially important for presenting the close-up photographs taken by the Russian bomb squad of the detonator of the bomb that was deactivated before it could explode in the Ryazan apartment building. The photographs show, say experts, a detonator that is distinctively FSB in signature.

Fears of Bombing Turn to Doubts for Some in Russia by Maura Reynolds, Russian correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2000. This was one of the earliest investigative pieces by American reporters to question the generally accepted story put out by the Putin regime blaming the Chechens.

“Russia ‘planned Chechen war before bombings’ : Former Prime Minister reveals invasion of republic was prepared months in advance of terrorist attacks” by Patrick Cockburn, Moscow correspondent of the British newspaper, The Independent, January 29, 2000. Among the important bombshells dropped by Cockburn in this article:

1) Jan Blomgren, Moscow correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dogbladet, had reported on June 6, 1999 that according to his sources in the Kremlin one option being considered by the Russian government was “terror bombings in Moscow which could be blamed on the Chechens.” This was four months before the first bomb went off.

2) Sergei Stepashin, the former Interior Minister and Prime Minister, had openly stated in recent interviews with Russian media that he had been involved in top-level government plans for the invasion of Chechnya in March of 1999. This contradicted the official Russian line that the Russian invasion was purely a response to the terror bombings of September.

3) That top Russian officials Alexander Voloshin and Anton Surikov held a secret meeting in France in July 1999 with Shamil Basayev, a Chechen warlord who was the public face of “Islamic terrorism” in Russia. The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate Basayev’s “Chechen” invasion of neighboring Dagestan, to provide Putin with another reason for attacking Chechnya. Basayev had long been suspected of working for Russia’s KGB/FSB and/or Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU.

“The Shadow of Ryazan:_Is Putin’s government legitimate?” by David Satter, National Review, April 30, 2002. This provides a good overview of the evidence available up to that time of the Russian government’s planning and execution of the terrorist bombings.

“The Smashing of Chechnya” by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed of Media Monitors Network provides a detailed report on the Russian war against Chechnya and an extensive bibliography of links to many stories dealing with the terror bombings in Russia as provocations by the FSB.

The Humanitarian Crisis in Pakistan

[Which is the greater crime against humanity, creating a humanitarian crisis within your own country by forcing millions of innocents out of their homes, in order to reap billions of dollars in aid, or extorting another country to do this to its own citizens for promised aid or under threats of force?]

The Humanitarian Crisis in Pakistan

Eric P. Schwartz

Assistant Secretary

Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration

Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Washington, DC

July 29, 2009

---

Last week, I visited Pakistan with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to assess the humanitarian crisis and the response of the Pakistani government and international community. I am grateful for this opportunity to share with you my perspectives on the humanitarian situation and to consider what more we and others can do to ameliorate the suffering of those displaced from their homes, as well as to create conditions for their return and the sustainable recovery of their communities.

Let me first acknowledge those on the ground who have responded so generously and effectively to this huge humanitarian challenge. Most of the more than two million internally displaced persons found refuge in homes of thousands of Pakistani families. Humanitarian workers from Pakistan and around the world are working tirelessly under difficult, and often dangerous, conditions to save lives. They have our admiration and our gratitude.

On the other side are extremists who bomb mosques and markets, destroy schools, murder teachers because they allow girls in classrooms, and kill aid workers. When extremists bombed the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar in June, UNICEF Pakistan Chief of Education, Peseveranda So; UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) employee Aleksandar Vorkapic; and three members of a UN Population Fund implementation team were among the 18 people killed; many other UN humanitarian workers were wounded, at least one seriously. This month at the Kacha Gari camp for displaced persons, gunmen killed a Pakistani employee of UNHCR, Mr. Zill-e-Usman, and Mr. Allauddin, a guard employed by the Office of the Commissioner for Afghan Refugees, an agency of the Pakistani government. Another UNHCR staff member and another guard were wounded. Mr. Usman had worked for UNCHR for 25 years. He left behind a wife and four children. He was one of three UNHCR employees killed in Pakistan this year.

Allow me now to offer background on the humanitarian crisis, describe and assess the current situation – including the U.S. and international response – and present my view of the near term challenges.

Background

In response to the widespread abuses and lawlessness of the Pakistani Taliban, the government launched a military campaign in late April to break the Taliban’s hold on Buner, and soon thereafter, Swat in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Within a few weeks, the fighting caused about one and a half million people to flee. They joined more than half a million others who had fled fighting in the summer and fall of 2008 between the military and Pakistani Taliban in Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Lower Dir. By mid-June, more than two million displaced persons, or approximately 300,000 families, were living within an arc of 100 miles north and east of Peshawar.

In June, the displacement reached a plateau of more than two million people. About 15 percent were living in official camps; 85 percent were living in host communities: with families, in rental housing, or public buildings. Displaced persons have used nearly 4,000 schools as shelters.

People in both camps and host communities endured and continue to experience crowded conditions, lack of privacy, and often, poor sanitation and shortages of safe drinking water. Supplies of essential medicines and numbers of medical personnel, particularly female medical personnel, are insufficient. The main health problems are gastro-intestinal disorders, respiratory infections, and skin diseases. Camp management, which includes the NWFP government, UNHCR, and the Pakistani Red Crescent Society among others, keeps the camps in good order. While camps tend to be better served than host communities, there have been no major outbreaks of disease or instances of widespread hunger among the many displaced persons living within or outside the camps.

Humanitarian Response Structure

The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) of the NWFP government is responsible for overall coordination of relief activities. At the federal level, a Special Support Group (SSG), under the leadership of Lt. General Nadeem Ahmed, assists the NWFP government and coordinates operationally with international organizations and NGOs.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) ensures coordination and information-sharing among the various service providers through the mechanism of the UN cluster system. This system organizes UN agencies, NGOs, and government agencies into thematic groups (camp coordination and management; emergency shelter and non-food items; water, sanitation and hygiene; food security; health; protection; education; logistics; agriculture; and early recovery) to address needs in particular sectors more coherently and effectively. A representative from the appropriate government department and from a UN agency co-chair each cluster. The World Food Program (WFP), which leads the logistics cluster for the UN, manages most of the 36 humanitarian hubs to deliver supplies. UN agencies are operating from Peshawar with a reduced presence in the aftermath of the bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel on June 9

Afghan Refugees

The current humanitarian crisis in the NWFP is not the only challenge of displacement in the region. Some 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees live in Pakistan, in addition to up to 500,000 unregistered Afghans. Most of them have lived in Pakistan for more than 20 years; many were born there. Like the displaced Pakistanis in the NWFP, they are principally ethnic Pashtuns, although they live in separate camps or communities throughout NWFP and in eastern Baluchistan.

UNHCR protects and assists Afghan refugees in Pakistan in cooperation with the Pakistani government and with NGOs funded directly by donors, including the United States. One effect of the fighting has been the temporary suspension of UNHCR’s program of voluntary repatriation from Peshawar because of the security risks. While more than 275,000 Afghans were repatriated from Pakistan in 2008, the number so far this year has been only 44,000. UNHCR’s Afghanistan repatriation and reintegration program is still able to receive those willing to return, but we remain concerned that recent events in Pakistan have disrupted returns at a key point in Afghanistan’s own reconstruction. We look forward to seeing the resumption of the repatriation program in NWFP when security permits.

New Phase

Pakistan’s internal displacement crisis has now entered a new phase in two respects. First, as the military retakes territory from militants, people are returning to their home districts in large numbers. As is typical in cases of large and ongoing population movements, estimates have a margin of uncertainty. The government reports that, in all, well over 700,000 displaced persons have returned home to the FATA Agencies and NWFP. Also according to the government, some 100,000 people have returned to Bajaur Agency in the FATA; limited areas within the region remain unsafe and are still producing displacement. More than 300,000 people – about two thirds of the district’s population – have returned to Buner.

Earlier this month, the government announced the completion of its offensive in Swat. On July 13, Pakistani authorities launched an operation to provide transport, security and, with the assistance of humanitarian organizations, essential supplies to returnees. The operation began with camp populations and then expanded to assist displaced people in host communities. Two camps in Mardan district have closed as their inhabitants returned home. At least 300,000 people have returned to the more secure, less damaged areas of Lower Swat. The vast majority of returnees have traveled in private vehicles rather than in government-provided transport. The government has stated that it plans to complete its operation of assisted returns by the third week in August.

U.S. government personnel have conducted assessments in Buner District and report light to moderate damage, although police stations and some schools have suffered severe damage. Electricity and telecommunications are largely restored, but the water supply infrastructure requires repair.

Early reports indicate that damage to infrastructure in Swat is more severe than in Buner, although varied by location. USAID teams that entered Swat on July 16 observed little damage south of Mingora, but heavier destruction in the city itself, home to more than 200,000 people, particularly to buildings targeted or occupied by the Taliban. Areas north of Mingora are inaccessible and insecure.

Uncertainty about security, basic services, and prospects for restoring their incomes are deterring some people from returning home. Humanitarian agencies report that some individual family members are making trips to gather information for a decision on whether to bring their families back. This is typical in such situations – we call them “go and see visits.” Another factor slowing returns is that many families are waiting to receive their $300 debit card from the government. As of July 25, the Pakistani government had distributed about 220,000 debit cards to eligible families. The Pakistani government is allocating $100 million to fund this program. The military has committed to staying in the Malakand Division, which includes Swat, Buner, and Lower Dir, for 12 months to provide security.

On July 11, the Provincial Relief Commissioner, on behalf of the Chief Secretary of the NWFP, and a representative of UNHCR, on behalf of the humanitarian community, signed an official statement that sets out a policy framework for returns. The core of the return policy framework is that the return of displaced persons should be voluntary, informed, dignified, safe and sustainable, which we strongly endorse. During my visit, government officials told me they are committed to act in accordance with these principles. I discussed with officials reports that some displaced persons may have felt undue pressure to return (for example, as a result of the reduction or elimination of services in some camps), and this issue will remain an important part of our bilateral dialogue. However, it is encouraging that the Pakistani authorities have made clear their willingness to take seriously and investigate concerns about the repatriation process and other issues affecting displaced persons.

A second development is the increase in displacement from South Waziristan and neighboring areas of the FATA. Sporadic fighting on the ground and air attacks in South Waziristan, Kurram, Orakzai, and Bannu have displaced about 60,000 people, and this number will increase with the expected main offensive against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group headed by Baitullah Mehsud. Although international humanitarian organizations are prepositioning supplies in Bhakkar in nearby Punjab, they have no direct access to Tank and D.I. Khan, the areas receiving most of the displaced people. Pakistani authorities are responsible for registering them and providing assistance. The authorities do not intend to establish camps, and we believe that the displaced have no interest in going to camps. They are staying with host families, in second homes, in rented accommodations, or in schools.

Assessment

Nearly three months into this humanitarian crisis, one can draw some conclusions about the response and the situation more broadly. First, the initial conditions presented huge challenges: a large and rapidly developing displacement in an area of heavy fighting between the Pakistani military and well-armed groups, as well as several deadly terrorist attacks beyond the area of military of operations. Many of the affected areas, while rural, were densely populated. The outflow of people represented one of the heaviest displacements in recent history.

Second, Pakistani authorities, assisted by humanitarian organizations, responded rapidly and effectively to the emerging crisis. The NWFP government established an Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and declared that it would devote its entire development budget for 2009 for humanitarian relief. The federal government established the Special Support Group (SSG) and appointed Lt. General Nadeem Ahmad, who managed the relief effort for the 2005 earthquake, to head the operations of the Group and oversee on-the-ground coordination between the government and international humanitarian organizations.

At the request of the Pakistani government, the UN issued an emergency appeal for $542 million some three weeks after the Swat offensive began. International agencies such as UNHCR, the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Pakistani and international NGOs, set up camps, activated the humanitarian cluster system, helped the Pakistani government register displaced people, and distributed food and emergency supplies. It was helpful that several of these organizations already had a presence and emergency response capability in the area because of their participation in the relief effort for the Bajaur displacement in 2008, the earthquake in 2005, and their continuing support for Afghan refugees.

Third, in spite of massive displacement in one of the poorer areas of Pakistan, the humanitarian response has been effective in preventing dire outcomes, while providing shelter, protection, and critical medical attention to hundreds of thousands of people. There has been neither widespread hunger nor outbreak of epidemic disease. This is due in great part to the hospitality and generosity of the many ordinary Pakistani citizens who took in not only relatives but often complete strangers and shared what they had. But it is also due to a rapid response by humanitarian organizations – both international and Pakistani.

Fourth, despite its success, the humanitarian response lacks sufficient funding. As of July 27, the UN Appeal of $542 million was only 38 percent funded, at $203 million. Donors have also contributed $104 million to the government of Pakistan and to organizations outside of the UN Appeal. To date, the U.S. government has provided more than half of the total humanitarian assistance to Pakistan. Although we can take satisfaction in our support for the Pakistani people, other governments need to do more.

Fifth, the Taliban’s atrocities have turned many Pakistani citizens against them. A public opinion poll[1] conducted in May revealed that 81 percent of those surveyed considered the Taliban a critical threat to the vital interests of Pakistan, compared with 34 percent in September 2007. Asked whom they supported in the Swat conflict, 70 percent preferred the government compared to five percent for the Taliban. Where fighting raged in the NWFP, nearly every day we read in the Pakistani press of villagers and tribal militias turning against Taliban militants. In May, the government convened an All-Parties Conference that resulted in a declaration supporting military action against insurgents and extremists and condemning violent extremism and challenges to the state’s authority in any part of Pakistan

Further, following press reports in May that charities with links to extremist groups, such as Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), were engaged in some IDP camps in NWFP, we raised this issue with the Government of Pakistan, which agreed to address it. We understand that in general terms, the GOP, through its security presence, is monitoring this kind of activity in camps and other IDP settings, and that due to government pressure specifically, FIF was made to restrict its activities with IDPs in the camps. The Pakistani government’s response to the crisis, including its close work with humanitarian organizations, has been an important factor in its ability to maintain public support for a strong response to the Taliban insurgency.

Humanitarian Assistance from the United States

In this crisis, the Administration, its agencies, and Congress have acted in concert to generate the resources and deliver them effectively to the people of Pakistan. The substantial U.S. response demonstrates our solidarity with the Pakistani people and support for the Pakistani government in these trying times. Early on, USAID deployed a DART team to assess conditions and recommend where to direct emergency assistance. By the time that the UN had issued its Appeal in May, Secretary Clinton had developed and announced a $110 million U.S. assistance package, nearly all of which was disbursed within a few weeks. The Secretary, Ambassador Holbrooke, and our embassies around the world urged other
governments to meet the humanitarian challenge with additional resources. USAID, USDA, DOD, and my Bureau at the State Department have all mobilized to deliver vital assistance to our partners on the ground on a timely basis – shelter, protection, food, medical supplies and services, electric generators, and transport and logistics support.

Following Ambassador Holbrooke’s visit to Pakistan in early June, the President requested an additional $200 million in emergency assistance, and Congress passed a Supplemental appropriation shortly thereafter. Those funds are now beginning to flow. I thank you for appropriating these additional funds. Congressional support has been critical to our assistance efforts. We applaud the Senate’s passage by unanimous consent of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act (S.962), which authorizes $1.5 billion per year in non-military assistance for five years. Final passage of this legislation will be a powerful demonstration of our long-term commitment to helping the Pakistani people and reinforce our desire for a long-term partnership based on common interests.

Since May, the U.S. has pledged more than $320 million in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan to meet the needs of conflict-affected people. Last week in Islamabad, Ambassador Holbrooke outlined how we will spend $165 million of funds available (most from the FY 2009 Supplemental appropriation) to meet ongoing needs of displaced persons in camps and host communities, and also to address needs as people return to build their homes and communities.

The bureau I head, Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), has committed nearly $60 million for humanitarian relief efforts this fiscal year, $25 million of which has already been provided to humanitarian organizations and $35 million of which Ambassador Holbrooke announced last week in Pakistan. We are currently in the process of providing these new funds to our principal partners in Pakistan – UNHCR and the ICRC. Within the UN system for this emergency, UNHCR has lead responsibility for protection, camp coordination and management, emergency shelter, and provision of non-food items (which include blankets, cooking sets, mosquito nets and jerry cans) to people in camps and host communities

Protecting vulnerable populations is a global priority for PRM. In Pakistan, UNHCR’s protection function includes assisting the government to register displaced people and helping people with special needs, particularly the elderly, women, and children. UNHCR has set up child protection committees in camps to protect children from violence and abuse, and has reunited separated children with their parents.

Since the Bajaur crisis in August 2008, ICRC has provided assistance in insecure areas where most other providers, including UN agencies, have been unable to operate. ICRC was the first humanitarian organization to enter Swat in areas where fighting was still underway. In cooperation with its national partner, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), ICRC provides medical assistance, food, and other emergency assistance to people in camps, host communities and, where possible, people trapped by fighting. They also administer several camps, trace missing family members, and reunite families. The Department of State is proud to support UNHCR and ICRC on behalf of the American people.

Looking Ahead

Let me close by identifying the main challenges for the humanitarian effort over the next few months.

First, the humanitarian response is underfunded; other donor governments must do more to help. While about 700,000 people have returned home, there are still approximately 1.5 million displaced people. And we should not forget that Pakistan is still generously hosting 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees. Even with substantial returns of displaced persons, current operations require additional resources, and donors should support early recovery in areas of return. The long-term reconstruction needs are greater and will require coordinated and sustained engagement from international donors.

Second, the new and principal challenge is to create conditions to support voluntary and durable returns. These conditions include re-establishing security, utilities, and civil administration, providing food, and restoring livelihoods. The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that many returnees will need food assistance for six to 12 months to compensate for lost crops and income. While many people will continue to rely on food and other consumable relief supplies, resources will have to shift progressively to support interventions that restore normal daily life. In this respect, UNHCR is assisting Pakistani authorities by funding transportation for voluntary returns and supplying non-food items for returnees. It plans to provide protection and advocacy through an information and referral service for returnees.

The ICRC is helping 217,000 people in 31,000 households restore their livelihoods by distributing seeds and tools for the next planting season. USAID is providing assistance for debris removal, medical and agricultural programs, repair of infrastructure, and cash-for-work programs. These efforts at early recovery are absolutely essential, and you will hear more on this from my colleague Jon Brause.

Third, relief organizations must be prepared to meet the needs of those displaced persons who may not be able to return home promptly – especially as the monsoon season is beginning. Humanitarian organizations estimate that perhaps 30 to 50 percent of those displaced will not be able to return home before the onset of winter, and will need continuing assistance.

Fourth, the government and the humanitarian community must prepare for displacement from South Waziristan and possibly neighboring areas. This displacement may reach 150,000 people or more once full-scale military operations get underway. The relief effort will require a different supply chain from that established for NWFP. Humanitarian organizations have begun to pre-position supplies in Punjab, but the military has not authorized the set-up of delivery points closer to the areas of displacement. We will work with the Pakistani authorities and international assistance providers to promote ease of assistance to these populations.

Finally, the longer term task of rebuilding infrastructure must begin now. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank are preparing an assessment of damages that should be available at the beginning of September. Pakistan will need substantial support from donors to rebuild. Timely reconstruction is critical to ensuring our humanitarian, development, and security objectives.

It is clear that the people and government of Pakistan and their partners around the world have accomplished much. But much remains to be done. The Administration is committed to sustaining and strengthening our efforts to support recovery and development in Pakistan.

I welcome your questions.

---

[1]Ramsay, et al, Pakistani Public Opinion on the Swat Conflict, Afghanistan and the US, July 1, 2009, http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

Hillary Clinton threatens to cut spy links with UK over ‘torture’

By Dan Newling

Hillary Clinton has threatened to end intelligence sharing with Britain if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed.

Letters from the U.S. Secretary of State and the CIA to the Government warn they will cease co-operation with British counterparts if two judges release details about Mr Mohamed’s alleged torture.

Human rights campaigners yesterday claimed the threat – which could put British lives at risk – was merely a ‘ smokescreen’, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted it was serious.

Hillary Clinton has threatened to end intelligence sharing with Britain if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to Binyam Mohamed

As if to reiterate the matter last night Mrs Clinton, speaking in Washington, said intelligence sharing was ‘critically important’ to Britain and the U.S.

The details of the threat were revealed yesterday during a long-running – and increasingly bitter – court battle between the Foreign Secretary and former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mr Mohamed.

At the centre of the affair are seven paragraphs of a court judgment which Mr Mohamed claims prove that British agents colluded in the torture he endured after being arrested in 2002.

He has repeatedly claimed that British agents were complicit in his torture after he was arrested in Pakistan.

Lawyers for Mr Miliband told Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones that the threat by America had been assessed as having a ‘high-risk threshold’.

Yesterday, Lord Justice Thomas pointed out that the paragraphs in themselves did not pose any threat to national security.

He said: ‘So the U.S. has taken the position that this is so serious that it is prepared to reassess its relationship with the UK and put lives at risk?’

Mr Miliband’s legal team said both Mrs Clinton and the CIA had written to him to insist the information remain secret.

‘Wriggle room’: Lawyers for David Miliband argued the US’s threat to restrict intelligence co-operation was ‘high risk’

By publicly acknowledging the threat to U.S./UK intelligence sharing arrangements, Mrs Clinton has ‘ridden to the rescue’ of Mr Miliband, human rights activists said.

They claimed that by ‘hiding behind’ the U.S. threat, Mr Miliband was able to continue concealing the ‘ugly truth’ about British involvement in torture abroad.

Mr Mohamed has claimed British intelligence agents knew about – and were complicit in – his torture in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Morocco.

The contentious seven paragraphs are a summary of 42 CIA documents, which are said to confirm his claims.

While in detention, Mr Mohamed says he was hung up by straps, beaten and had his genitals mutilated with a scalpel to make him confess to a ‘dirty bomb’ plot.

Karen Steyn, appearing for the Foreign Secretary, said Mrs Clinton and the CIA had written official letters warning that under the new Obama administration, the U.S. would review its intelligence sharing agreement with the UK if the court releases the information.

Mrs Steyn went on to say that disclosure of the seven paragraphs ‘could reasonably be expected to cause considerable damage to the national security of the UK’.

The only reason Mr Miliband opposes the disclosure of the seven paragraphs, she told the court, was to protect the national security and international relations of the UK.

However, Guy Vassall-Adams, representing the various media groups who are backing Mr Mohamed’s battle to publish the information, argued that the Foreign Office’s stance did not pass the ‘common sense test’.

He said it was highly unrealistic to suggest that the publication of seven paragraphs would cause the U.S. authorities to be so ‘upset and shocked’ that they might refuse to share vital intelligence with the UK in the future.

Mr Vassall-Adams said such a situation was ‘unthinkable’ in the light of the historical alliance between the two nations.

In previous hearings the judges have expressed frustration at not being allowed to release the information.

Both judges yesterday seemed unwilling to rely on Mrs Steyn’s representations of Mr Miliband’s opinion.

Lord Justice Thomas insisted a transcript of the hearing be sent to Mr Miliband so that there was ‘no wriggle room’.

Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed came to the UK as a 16-year-old asylum seeker and lived here for seven years. Shortly after September 11, 2001, he was picked up by the American secret service in Pakistan.

Accused of being a terrorist, he was held for six and a half years in U.S. custody.

Mr Miliband has repeatedly insisted Britain ‘abhors’ torture and never orders or condones it. Speaking after talks with Mrs Clinton yesterday, he said not disclosing allies’ intelligence was a ‘fundamental principle’.

Mrs Clinton added: ‘The issue of intelligence sharing is one which is critically important to our two countries and we both have a stake in ensuring that it continues to the fullest extent possible.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203048/UK-security-threatened-details-Binyam-Mohamed-torture.html#ixzz0MjXyIvKq

Another “Islamist” Bombing Case Made By Anonymous Notes and Discredited Witnesses

[SEE: JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBS: WESTERN MEDIA STORY COLLAPSES?]

Manchester United targeted by Jakarta hotel bombers

Anne Barrowclough

(AFP/Getty)

Noordin Mohammed Top

The Manchester United football team was the target of a bomb attack on the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta two weeks ago, according to a message posted on the internet purporting to be from Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist suspect Noordin Mohammed Top.

The message, in which Malaysian-born Noordin claims responsibility for the twin hotel bombings that killed seven people, confirms that the Ritz was targeted by a suicide bomber because it was about to host “the Crusaders” Manchester United who were due to play an exhibition match in Jakarta.

It says the attack was a warning to Indonesians “against the arrival of the soccer club Manchester United” at the hotel.

“These players are Christians, so Muslims should not honour and respect these enemies of Allah,” said the message, posted on the website blogspot.com

The posting, written in Indonesian and Arabic, claims that the attacks on the Ritz and Marriott hotels were specifically aimed at American interests and US allies.

Dedicated to two dead heroes of Noordin’s group, an offshoot of the radical Islamist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah, it says the attacks targeted “the head figures of business and intelligence within the US economy”.

It also refers to the “American chamber of commerce” as a target, apparently confirming that a breakfast meeting of Western businessmen at the Marriott, hosted by US lobbyist James Castle, was specifically targeted. The meeting suffered heavy fatalities on July 17, with three Australians and a New Zealander killed in the explosions.

“They have major interests in sucking Indonesia’s treasure and financing the US army to fight against Muslims and Islam,” the message said.

Manchester United, which was due to arrive in Jakarta the day after the attacks, abandoned its planned game against an Indonesian all-star side in their wake.The posting described the team as “salibis”, or Christian crusaders, who were unworthy of the support of Muslims.

The posting has not been independently verified but is described as “plausible” by Sidney Jones, the Jakarta-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank. Indonesian police are examining the posting, which carried Noordin’s name and identified his group as “Al Qae’da in Indonesia.”

The group claims to have carried out extensive research before carrying out the bombings, and promises to release video footage of the suicide bombers’ statements.

Ms Jones said the posting was made plausibe by the mention of Noordin’s accomplice Azahari bin Husin, an explosives expert killed by Indonesian police in 2005 and Jabir, a student of Azahari’s who is believed to have helped recurit the 2005 Bali bombers.

“The argument that he uses the citations from the Koran, the way that he says that these martyrdom operations were conducted in the name of Azahari, the former partner of his who was killed in 2005, and Jabir, another very close associate of his who was also killed, in 2006; that makes sense as a statement of Noordin’s interests and views,” she said.

Earlier this week, an Indonesian woman learned that her husband, Abdul Halim, who she had thought was an ordinary man – albeit one who travelled a lot for his work – was the terrorist Noordin, who is also wanted in connection with an earlier bombing of the Marriott in 2003, and sucide attacks in Jakarta and Bali in 2004 and 2005.

Arina Rahma had learnt from media reports that her husband, a public affairs worker who used to help her cook and bathe her children, was the most wanted Islamist terrorist in South East Asia

CIA Director Wm. Casey’s Anti-Soviet Terrorists Continue to Serve US Interests

FEATURE-Tensions stir Islamist underground in Central Asia

* Concerns over new violence in volatile C. Asian valley

* Islamist activity may be spill-over from Afghanistan

* Radical group seeks Islamic state

By Maria Golovnina

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, July 29 (Reuters) – Sipping tea in a dim, smoke-filled teahouse in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, Rakhmatillo Ibragimov says the goal of his life is to restore Islamic rule in former Soviet Central Asia.

“They call us terrorists. That’s because they are afraid of us,” he says with a bashful smile that contrasts with the sharpness of his words. “The more they oppress us the stronger we become. We don’t want bloodshed. We want justice.”

A member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an outlawed Islamist group, he says ideas such as his are beginning to catch on in his native city of Osh in the Ferghana valley — a cauldron of ethnic and tribal tension in the heart of Central Asia.

Its dusty skyline pierced by the occasional minaret, Osh has long been synonymous with a post-Soviet rise of radical Islamism in a largely agrarian, cotton-growing region shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

But intense fighting in Afghanistan and rioting involving Muslim Uighurs in China to the east have put a new spin on old threats in an impoverished region lying at the centre of a geopolitical tug of war between Russia and the United States.

With its treacherous mountainous terrain and complicated patchwork of clan alliances, Kyrgyzstan is of particular worry, and memories are still fresh of violent clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz near Osh in 1990 that killed hundreds of people.

Once again the region is buzzing with talk of unrest.

In the border town of Karasu, a scattering of white-washed huts divided between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan by a small canal, residents said that growing frustration with poverty and unemployment have fuelled interest in radical forms of Islam.

“There are a lot of rumours and everyone is worried. They say some sort of war is coming,” said Yusuf who sells pottery at a local bazaar, a maze of meandering lanes teeming with people, horses and police officers.

“You see many more women in headscarves these days, many more men going to Friday prayers. This town used to be much more secular,” he added, as another vendor, clad in long robes, knelt down nearby to perform prayers behind a curtain.

Local governments have accused groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir of of stoking unrest and vowed to crack down on their operations.

Underlining global worries with stability in Central Asia, leaders of Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan are to meet in Tajikistan this week. Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev was due in Kyrgyzstan to attend a Moscow-backed security summit.

Europe also cannot be indifferent. Instability is of concern to potential gas trading partners there who seek to ease their dependence on Russian gas by forging closer ties with key regional producers such as Uzbekistan or Turkmeinstan.

TALIBAN OR HOMEGROWN?

Security experts say some Taliban fighters of Central Asia origin, stirred by increased fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, may be seeping back into the region seeking safe haven among its high mountain passes and remote valleys.

A string of gun battles between security forces and gangs of armed attackers, which have killed about 20 militants across the region in past months, has reinforced these worries.

“My gut feeling is that this is happening,” said Paul Quinn-Judge, head of the International Crisis Group in Central Asia. “If you look at those (attacks), it does seem to indicate that there is an activation of Jihadist guerilla movements. I would be however more inclined to connect this to the movement of the Taliban in the direction of the Tajik border.”

Diplomats said the unrest could be a distant echo of U.S. efforts to fund Mujahideen fighters and promote Islam in Central Asia during the Soviet invasion of Aghanistan in the 1980s — a policy that could now be beginning to backfire in this region.

“This is a perfect place for all sorts of (militants) to hide, rest or regroup,” said one Western diplomat in the region. “It does not matter whether it’s homegrown or if they are coming from Afghanistan. Either way it’s a very worrying trend.”

Ibragimov, who asked Reuters to use his pseudonym for fear of persecution, said Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of Liberation, employed only peaceful methods to achieve its primary goal of establishing a worldwide caliphate — a theocratic Muslim state.

Keeping his voice down, he said membership was on the rise but refused to say how many people Hizb ut-Tahrir had in Central Asia or what their short-term plan was. That, he said, was a secret.

He denied any link to the Taliban but said some people were inspired by their cause. “We respect the Taliban because they are Muslim, they are our brothers but we don’t support their methods,” he said.

KARASU

In the divided town of Karasu, guards on the Uzbek side looked visibly stirred as a Reuters crew approached the border from the Kyrgyz side. Some shook fists and their muffled shouts could be heard from across the river.

Security here has been tight since May when Uzbekistan blamed Islamist rebels for attacks in the nearby Uzbek town of Khanabad, saying the militants had come from Kyrgyzstan.

A military helicopter rumbled overhead and the main check point was closed for any cross-border trade – a security measure Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan say is necessary to fight terrorism but which has caused deep frustration among local traders.

“No one knows what will happen next. It’s people like us who are suffering,” said Ilkhom who works at a local market.

Speaking in the white-stoned interior of as-Sarakhsi mosque in Karasu, Imam Rashod Kamalov said the authorities used the Islamist threat as an excuse to crack down on political dissent.

His father, Muhammadrafik Kamalov, served as imam at the mosque in the Kyrgyz section of Karasu for 20 years before he was shot dead by security forces in a special operation in 2006.

An ethnic Uzbek, he was accused of aiding anti-government rebels — a charge his supporters deny. The authorities still view this mosque with suspicion and sometimes carry out raids.

“No one knows whom they will get next time. It just shows how paranoid, how afraid the authorities are,” said Rashod, rows of Arabic language theology books lined in shelves behind him.

Rashod said the crackdown had only radicalised the people and made them more inclined to follow groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan which is headed by Tahir Yuldashev, a rebel leader bent on toppling Uzbek President Islam Karimov.

“When my father was killed, a lot of people offered help,” he said. “If I were like Yuldashev, I could have gathered a band of my own, a terrorist group, and marched against the government.

“But I decided not to do it. My faith doesn’t allow me.” (For a FACTBOX on recent attacks, click on [nLT472379] (Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Pakistan urged to step up Central Asia security ties

More needed to be done to maintain stability in the region, Tajik president told president Zardari.—Photo by APP

DUSHANBE: Tajikistan’s leader urged visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday to work more closely together to prevent the rise of instability in Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region north of Afghanistan.

Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were both in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on the eve of a regional security summit also due to be attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Regional powers are concerned that intense fighting in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s attacks on Taliban strongholds may disturb a fragile peace in nearby Central Asia.

Addressing Zardari, Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon said more needed to be done to maintain stability in the region.

‘The two sides have also emphasised principal positions on fighting against terrorism and extremism,’ Rakhmon told reporters after talks with Zardari.

‘We do share similar and close positions on these issues and our countries should have taken coordinated actions aimed against this antagonistic phenomenon,’ he added, without elaborating.

Speaking alongside Rakhmon at the presidential palace in Dushanbe, Zardari avoided specifics.

‘We will stand together against the challenges of this century,’ he said. ‘… we are looking forward to strengthen our cooperation’.

Fears about stability have been reinforced in recent months as troops in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan engaged in a string of shootouts across the region with gangs identified by the authorities as rebels.

As Zardari and Rakhmon spoke, a Tajik source told Reuters state forces had shot dead a suspected rebel accused by the authorities of spearheading an armed insurgency on the country’s border with Afghanistan.

Karzai was due to meet Rakhmon later in the day. The trend in Central Asia is of particular worry to the United States which uses the region as a key transit point for supplies headed for its troops fighting in Afghanistan.—Reuters

Iraqi Forces Pounding Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK) Supporters

Islamic militancy in Bangladesh shows new signs of life

Despite crackdowns, terrorist groups are showing a persistence and resilience that worries authorities.

By David Montero

They are the usual signs of a ticking militancy time bomb: wanted regional terrorists absconding in a sprawling metropolis. Dozens of hidden arms caches seized by police. Underground cells that change names, regroup, and plan attacks.

It sounds like wartorn Afghanistan or Pakistan. Possibly even Indonesia or the Philippines. But these developments are unfolding off the well-scrutinized jihadi path – in Bangladesh.

Militancy in Bangladesh is not of a scale or tone with Pakistan or Afghanistan. But it has shown a frightening persistence in recent years: in 2006, police and paramilitary forces systematically targeted and took down the top terrorist organization, Jamat’ul Mujahideen Bangladesh, or JMB. Seven of JMB’s leaders were hung in 2007. It was hoped that would end the problem, but local media reported recently that the group has merely changed its name to Islam-O-Muslim. Disturbing links to militant groups in Pakistan and India, meanwhile, continue to emerge.

Animesh Roul, executive director of the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict in New Delhi, India, fretted recently about Bangladesh’s reemerging militancy in the Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor:

“After a relatively long period of calm, Islamist militancy in Bangladesh is showing new signs of life, even in the face of continuous crackdowns on terrorist infrastructure and activity by counterterrorism forces in the country….

One estimate suggested there were about 12,000 cadres actively operating in the country, mostly madrassa (Islamic seminary) teachers, students and clerics of mosques…. In April of this year, Bangladesh intelligence agencies declared that the Islamist terrorist groups are reorganizing with the aim of making a deadly comeback.

Bangladesh’s teeming cities and rugged countryside have proven an unlikely safe haven for some of the jihadi world’s most hardened operatives. Recently, Bangladeshi police in Dhaka arrested an Afghan war veteran with ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistani terrorist organization held responsible for the Mumbai attacks last November, as The Daily Star, an English-language newspaper in Bangladesh, reports:

Indian national Mufti Obaidullah, who is one of the most wanted by the Indian law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has been placed on a seven-day remand for interrogation….

“He was arrested from the capital, and was taking preparations for a jihad by organising Bangladeshi mujahids with directives from Ameer Reza, a leader of Kashmir based Laskar-e-Taiyeba, who is an Indian national now staying in Pakistan,” the [Dhaka Metropolitan Police] commissioner said.

What is alarming is not just that Mr. Obaidullah was caught in Bangladesh – but whom he was talking to before his arrest, according to The Times of India:

Mufti Obaidullah, a terrorist posing as a teacher since 1995, sent SMS messages … to his Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) boss and spoke to him daily using six different cellphones, Bangladesh authorities say.

He knew “quite well”, the chief of the Indian branch of the LeT, Ameer Reza, chief of Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF).

The Christian Science Monitor reported in June that Bangladesh was becoming a hideout for South Asia’s terrorists: Bangladeshi police in June uncovered a plot that used Bangladesh to funnel thousands of weapons to an Indian separatist group. The police also arrested an operative working for notorious South Asian terrorist Daud Ibrahim, who is alleged to have ties to Al Qaeeda. The operative disclosed that 150 of Mr. Ibrahim’s operatives are stationed in Bangladesh.