The Bernard Lewis Project.

PART VI: GEOPOLITICALINTERESTS & PETROLEUM DIPLOMACY

Part V <<<>>> Index

(1) The Bernard Lewis Project.

Professor Bernard Lewis (photo below) is an octogenarian expert of the “Middle East” (itself an invented geopolitical term). Lewis is indeed a “master” scholar and expert on the Turks, Iranian and Arabs (see sample of his books in references). And herein lays the tragedy: Lewis wields his treasure trove of knowledge as an engine of destruction. Few have ever heard of  “The Bernard Lewis Project”.

Lewis

Professor Lewis first unveiled his project in the Bilderberg Meeting in Baden, Austria, on April 27-29, 1979[i] [ii] (see the only photo available of a Bilderberg Conference – 1954 photo). He formally proposed the fragmentation and balkanization of Iran along regional, ethnic and linguistic lines especially among the Arabs of Khuzestan (the Al-Ahwaz project), the Baluchis (the Pakhtunistan project), the Kurds (the Greater Kurdistan project) and the Azerbaijanis (the Greater Azerbaijan Project)[iii].

Bilderberg

Dreyfus and LeMarc (see References, p. 157) provide a very succinct summary of the plan’s methodology:

“According to Lewis, the British should encourage rebellions for national autonomy by the minorities such as the Lebanese Druze, Baluchis, Azerbaiajni Turks, Syrian Alawites, the Copts of Ethiopia, Sudanese mystical sects, Arabian tribes…the goal is the break-up of the Middle East into a mosaic of competing ministates and the weakening of the sovereignty of existing republics and kingdoms…spark a series of breakaway movements by Iran’s Kurds, Azeris, baluchis, and Arabs…these independence movements, in turn would represent dire threats to Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and other neighbouring states.”

The report is almost too incredible to believe: this is indeed the dark side of Professor Lewis’ distinguished academic career. For the students of geopolitical and Petroleum Diplomacy however, there is nothing new regarding the “chop-up Iran” agenda (item 10).

Robert Olson (see References, esp. p.108-158) has provided a surprisingly candid and sober assessment of the Greater Azerbaijan Project. He has provided a detailed assessment of how the intelligence and military agencies of Turkey, USA and Israel have set up bases and networks in Northern Iraq, Eastern Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan (esp. Nakhchivan) to broadcast anti-Iran hate propaganda into Iranian Azerbaijan. There is in fact a foreign-funded anti-Iran separatist radio station known as the Voice of Southern Azerbaijan (VOSA).

The relationship between VOSA and the Rashet Bet radio station (see photo below) of Israel was first reported by independent reporter Nick Grace. The report is available on the Clandestine Radio Intel Website (see Web references). Excerpts from his report are as follows:

“…According to monitor Nikolai Pashkevich in Russia, “when I tuned in my receiver to this channel I found an open carrier with ‘Reshet Bet… on the background and then VOSA signing on” (CDX 180). Rashet Bet is, of course, a news service of Israel Radio.  The German Telecommunications department has also pinpointed VOSA’s location to be somewhere around Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia (BCDX 351.)…VOSA is clearly supervised and arranged by Israel‘s intelligence agency: the Mossad…”.

RashetBet

Olson also reports of sophisticated telecommunications equipment mounted on specialized vehicles that regularly drive inside Iranian territory, beam propaganda (presumably on video and radio) and retire across the border once their programs are concluded.  Below left is a photograph of the latest military spy communications truck, the SmarTruck II – note state of the art communications panels inside the vehicle (below right photo):

Trucks Trucks-Panel

The main role of VOSA-Rashet Bet and the SmarTruck II vehicles are to target Iranian Azerbaijanis with false and provocative information, mainly as narrated by Mr. Chehreganli and Dr. Brenda Shaffer (see item 4).

Olson has also reported of a plan to station western (American) heavy military equipment (e.g. tanks, missiles) in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Moscow News report on September 26, 2005, has also reported of such assistance taking place (Web References).

CIA operative, Reuel Marc Gerecht’s book, “Know Thine Enemy” (see Edward Shirley in References) neatly encapsulates current geopolitical objectives in Iranian Azerbaijan and Iran as a whole. Note the following review by Jason Athanasiadis in the Asia Times (Apr 29, 2005):

Gerecht …mulls over … cultivating high-ranking Azeris to inciting separatist Kurds …
he sheds valuable light on how an intelligence professional might approach the dismemberment of a hostile country. “I continuously scripted possible covert action mischief in my mind. Iranian Azerbaijan was rich in possibilities. Accessible through Turkey and ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, eyed already by nationalists in Baku …Iran‘s richest agricultural province was an ideal covert action theatre.”
[Jason Athanasiadis, Stirring the Ethnic Pot, Asia Times On-line, Apr 29, 2005 –see Web references]

Political reporter, Michel Chossudovsky, has provided the following assessment:

“Washington has been involved in covert intelligence operations inside Iran. American and British intelligence and Special Forces (working with their Israeli counterparts) are involved in this operation… Targeting Iran … broadly serves the interests of the Anglo-American oil conglomerates, the Wall Street financial establishment and the military-industrial complex…The announcement to target Iran should come as no surprise. It is part of the battle for oil…In Baku, Azerbaijan Rumsfeld was busy discussing …the stated short term objective …to “neutralize Iran“. The longer term objective under the Pentagon’s ”Caspian Plan” is to exert military and economic control over the entire Caspian Sea basin, with a view to ensuring US authority over oil reserves and pipeline corridors.”

[Michel Chossudovsky, Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran, in Global Research Publications On-line, May 1, 2005, See Web References]

Rumsfeld’s goal to “neutralize Iran” is actually a description of Olson’s prediction of the intended “Right-sizing of Iran” (p.236) – destroying Iran as a sovereign state and erasing its Persian heritage.

In practice, this means that Western and democratic states have allied themselves with dangerously racist organizations (e.g. SANAM, Grey Wolves, etc.) in the endeavour to dismember a sovereign state. Very little thought seems to have been put into the consequences of such irresponsible actions. Grey Wolf ideologues falsely and naively believe that the present anti-Iranian geopolitical situation will allow them to finally realize their fantastic dream of their pan-Turanian super state, stretching from China to the Balkans, encompassing Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine and Persia in its wake.

Western patronage of Grey Wolf ideologues (e.g. Mr. Chehreganli) is ultimately futile and doomed to failure (recall Part V). These actions will cost western taxpayers billions of wasted Dollars, Pounds and Euros. Imagine if that same money were to go to the promotion of education, friendship societies, health care and even support for the victims of the recent Hurricane Katrina Disaster in New Orleans.

The fact however is brutally and cynically clear: geopolitical agendas and petroleum diplomats has always ranked the economic (petroleum) equation higher than the human one. The partitioning of Iran (Bernard Lewis Project) is seen as an economic necessity (see item 3 below).

But herein lies the irony: the Bernard Lewis plan is also directed against Turkey (see item 9 below) and Arab states such as Iraq. It is interesting that some media reports are now suggesting that the only vialble solution to the western Iraqi entanglement is to partition that state along ethnic/sectarian lines. This would mean that Iraq would be split into three separate Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish mini-states:

Iraq3Parts

The formation of a Greater Kurdistan for example, may potentially lead to the disintegration of not only Iran, but Turkey, Iraq and Syria[iv]. The formation of a Greater Azerbaijan would eliminate a significant portion of Iran’s industrial base, geography, and demography.[v] This would in turn encourage a pan-Kurdish separatist movement encompassing Iran, Turkey and Syria, leading to the break-up or diminution of those states. As noted by Engdahl (p.171), the Bernard Lewis Plan endeavours to:

“…promote the Balkanization of the entire Muslim Near East along Tribal and religious lines. Lewis argued that the West should encourage autonomous groups such as the Kurds…Ethiopian Copts… Azerbaijanis…the chaos would spread in…an “Arc of Crisis”… ”.

There are indications that the Iran-Iraq war may have been part of the larger Bernard Lewis plan. Iran was to be invaded with the specific purpose of carving it up into small mini-states.

Direct evidence of the British origins of the Iraqi invasion plan was reported in The New York Times newspaper early in the war (See article entitled “British in 1950, Helped Map Iraqi Invasion of Iran” by Halloran, R. in The New York Times, Thursday, Oct.16, 1980.). Interestingly, this report was ignored by the mainstream press and media. The points of this report are summarized as follows:

(1) A detailed invasion plan had been prepared for the Iraqi armed forces in 1950 by the British Military advisors for Iraq, a full 30 years before the invasion of Iran by Saddam Hussein.
(2) The main draft of the plan had been in preparation by the British since 1937. The main axes of advance detailed in the plan corresponded exactly to the Iraqi invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980.
(3) The main objective of this war plan “…called for Iraqi forces to occupy Khuzistan province and then negotiate an armistice with the Iranian government that would include the relinquishment of the province to Iraq…also liberate the Arab-speaking people living in Khuzistan“. Significantly, successive changes in the Iraqi government over the next thirty years did not alter the major objectives of the British plan; these were simply updated as time progressed.

The British plan for Iran’s invasion indicates that even before the Bernard Lewis Plan was unveiled in the Bilderberg Conference, detailed British plans for eliminating Iran as a state have bene in place long before 1979.

(2) Geopolitics & Petroleum Diplomacy.

(a) The Role of British Petroleum and Oil Companies

Although not generally known, Imperial Britain has had a keen interest in the Baku oilfields since the beginning of the twentieth century. This is dramatically illustrated from the May 23, 1914, London Petroleum Review, which reports the Ottoman oils fields of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Kuwait) as “a second Baku in the making” (note the report blow – the “Baku” caption is highlighted for reference – see also William Engdahl (p.40-41) in References):

ReportB

It was in the 1860s when Russian geologists discovered substantial petroleum deposits along the Western Caspian, mainly in the former Persian territory of Baku. The British certainly had eyes for those Baku deposits, but these were under Russian occupation at the time (recall the Golestan and Turkemenchai treaties cited before).

This is why they had such a keen interest in the “second Baku” of Mesopotamia. The First World War allowed Imperial Britain to move into Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf as to appropriate the region’s oil deposits for itself. The major weapon used by British intelligence to dissolve the Ottoman Empire was its ethnic diversity, expressed mainly by different languages (e.g. Kurdish, Arabic) and religions (Christian, Muslim, Alevi, etc.). Petroleum diplomacy has had a long tradition of mobilizing ethnic strife to achieve its geopolitical and economic objectives. This is based on the proven Roman dictum: Divide and Rule.

The collapse of the former Soviet Union finally allowed for the opening of the Caspian oil market bonanza to western interests. The legendary poise and patience of British Petroleum (BP) diplomacy has again paid off. The present chief executive officer of British Petroleum is Edmund John Philip Browne (Baron Browne of Madingley) (left Photo below). He was a party to the nearly three and a half years of negotiations with Heidar Aliev (the late President of the Republic of Azerbaijan) to develop Azerbaijani oil deposits. On September 20th, 1994, Aliev signed a production sharing contract with a whole host of western and Turkish oil companies in Baku’s Gulistan Palace (below right photo – Browne 2^nd from left in front row, Aliev – in front centre -stands next to him).

LordBrowne BrowneAliev

The presence of BP in this project is significant. Other members of note on September 20th, 1994, were John Imle (Unocal – recall its disastrous role in Afghanistan), Stanislav Pugach, (Russian Ministry of Fuel and Energy), Tom Hamilton (Pennzoil) and Sitki Sancar (Turkish Petroleum).

At present, the Anglo-American petroleum access to the oil and gas deposits of the Caspian basin is extracted via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. This pipeline meanders through Eastern Turkey, around Armenia, through Georgia and finally through to the Republic of Azerbaijan. The security concerns with the pipeline however are high, making the project economically costly. Georgia is unstable, and has struggled to maintain its Ossetian and Abkhazian minorities within its borders. Eastern Turkey, teeming with Kurds, is vulnerable to attacks by separatists there. This explains why the pipeline has virtually skirted around the Kurdish region – proof again of the project’s costly and inefficient basis.

The intense political manoeuvring between Turkey, Iran, Russia, the Anglo-American political and economic elites, and the EU in the Caspian region has been characterized by some as “The New Great Game” – perhaps this is true. The end result for Iran has been unsuccessful in that she has been barred from any economic participation in the pipeline (mainly as result of Anglo-US foreign policy)[vi].

Iran is a stable and politically unified state, which (unlike Turkey) minimizes the need to maintain large military forces in potentially hostile regions (e.g. eastern Turkey’s Kurdish region) in order to safeguard pipelines. It is far more economical to transport Caspian oil via Iran’s efficient transportation system which links the northern Caucasian regions to the Persian Gulf, where modern and efficient ports are fully operational. Allowing Iran to participate in the Caspian project however is geopolitically inconsistent with the Bernard Lewis plan, unveiled in the Bilderberg Conference of 1979 (item 1).

(b) Dismantling Geopolitical Obstacles: Dismembering Yugoslavia

William Engdahl (see References) has provided a detailed analysis of Petroleum geopolitics and its ambitions in the Caucasus. Engdahl also argues that the civil war and partitioning of Yugoslavia is part of the larger scheme to secure the Caspian pipeline into Europe

“…The Yugoslav model had to be dismantled…Yugoslavia also lay on a critical path to the potential oil riches of Central Asia …the National Endowment for Democracy…began…handing out generous doses of dollars in every corner of Yugoslavia, financing opposition groups…journalists…trade union opposition…and human rights NGOs…(p.240)…using groups such as the Soros Foundation…financial support was channeled into often extreme nationalist or former fascist organizations that would guarantee dismemberment of Yugoslavia (p.241)…”

[William, Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. London: Pluto Press, p.240-241, 2004]

Sean Gervasi’s little known article entitled “Germany, U.S. and the Yugoslav Crisis” (see References) reported that Yugoslavia was

“…the target of a covert policy waged by the west and its allies, primarily Germany, the United States, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia…to divide Yugoslavia into its ethnic components…a process of national fragmentation and fratricidal war…Germany…demanded that the Bush administration adopt the German policy of working for the “dissociation”, that is, the dismantling, of Yugoslavia.”

[Sean Gervasi, Germany, U.S., and the Yugoslav Crisis: The civil war as lethal shadow play, Covert Action Quarterly, Volume 43, p.41,43]

Why? Because, a strong, large and united state in the Balkans (Yugoslavia) was viewed as a potential obstacle to the coming oil pipelines of the Caspian Sea, just as Iran is today.

One the fringe fascist organizations that were promoted and supported by the west was the vehemently far-right and anti-Serbian “Croatian Rights Party” In Yugoslavia (see photo below by Gervasi – see References).

Croat Nazi

The parallels with today’s Iran are striking. The west is currently supporting “extreme nationalist” and “fascist organizations” such as the Grey Wolves and Mr. Chehreganli’s SANAM organization

Engdahl cites two additional reasons for western sponsorship of Yugoslavia’s partitioning:

[a] she was a highly successful multiethnic state which had blended elements of both socialism and capitalism into its economy. The present mini-state successors of Yugoslavia are shadows of their former economic selves. Poverty and economic instability are the legacies of the Yugoslav tragedy (see child-beggar in Prishtiwie, Kosovo – photo by Gervasi – see References].

Bosnia

Mr. Chehreganli has promised Iranian Azerbaijanis that if they separate from their ancestral nation, they will be rewarded with a booming western style economy, which he proudly dubs as “The Kuwait of the Caspian”. The reality is far different. The photo of the dejected Bosnian child aptly summarizes what awaits the peoples of the region should Mr. Chehreganli succeed in igniting a fratricidal war in Iran and the Caucasus.

[b] the need to have “…a commanding and clearly permanent military presence in the strategic Balkans within reach of the Caspian Sea” [Engdahl, 2004, p.244]

The Caspian Sea?

The objectives of the Azerbaijan project (e.g. SANAM, UAM) of the Bernard Lewis Plan are designed to promote western (mainly Anglo-American) geopolitical and Petroleum interests. Mr. Chereganli’s SANAM movement openly acknowledges the role of western and Turkish support (in the name of “Human Rights”) for their cause:

“…Since 2002 the foreign representations of SANAM has been opening. At present, 24 representations -Bureau of the United States of America, Europe, Turkey and also the Azerbaijani Republic have been functioning…is known by the European Union, European Parliament, …UNO …”

[See SANAM website – click on “About SANAM” link in English – refer to Web References]

Two specific objectives will be achieved by the “re-unification” of “north” and “south” Azerbaijan:

[a] A potentially powerful Iranian state is removed from the international arena. The logic is that with Iran dismembered, the profit margin would increase as there would no longer be any need to economically and politically accommodate a large and potentially powerful state. Many western geopolitical interests are determined to gain access to the Iranian portion of the Caspian by either dismantling or reducing the present state of Iran.

Such a multi-ethnically unified state (like former Yugoslavia in the Balkans) would set limitations on foreign business operations on its sovereign territory. The destruction of a large and powerful state leads to smaller states which are more easily bought under the political and economic control of the aforementioned geopolitical interests.

[b] The Petroleum consortiums will have much easier geographical access to the Caspian region, making the process of Petroleum transportation far less costly than the present Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. With Iranian Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Khuzestan detached from western Iran, the “Iranian oil market”, especially in Khuzestan will be opened to multinational interests.

The key question to be asked is this: is the state of Iran a geopolitical obstacle to Petroleum Diplomacy? As noted by Engdahl:

“The overall emphasis is on removing obstacles – whether political, economic, legal and logistical – to the increased procurement of foreign oil…”

[William, Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. London: Pluto Press, p.264, 2004].

Olson’s study of Turkish-Iranian relations notes how Iran is itself an obstacle to geopolitical lobbies and Petroleum diplomacy:

“Iran was still an obstacle to the new combinazione (Pax Israel-Pax Americana), and its government and/or state would have to be changed, removed or dimished”

[Olson, Robert, Turkey-Iran Relations, 1979-2004: Revolution, Ideology, War, Coups and Geopolitics, 2004, p.236].

Olson also notes how the use of Azerbaijani separatism simultaneously accommodates geopolitical objectives by removing Iran as a powerful state [a] and facilitate petroleum commerce [b]:

“The re-emergence of the Azeri question also fit the international geostrategic objectives of the US, EU, Turkey and Israel. First it would lessen the baility of Iran to participate in the distribution network of oil and gas pipelines criss-crossing Central Asia, the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Second, the growth of Azeri nationalism facilitated US and EU efforts to make the Caspian Basin region a “second” Persian Gulf…to exclude Arab and many Muslim countries…from having any effective voice in international affairs…to more effectively determine the price and access to…the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea basin.”

[Olson, Robert, Turkey-Iran Relations, 1979-2004: Revolution, Ideology, War, Coups and Geopolitics, 2004, p.155-156]

If the Greater Khorassan and Baluchistan projects are revived (and there are indications that this is happening), then eastern Iran will be detached as well, allowing for pipelines to be laid from Central Asia to Iran’s southern waters. Engdahl has argued that the main reason that the Taliban of Afghanistan was supported by the West was due to hopes of laying a Central Asian pipeline across Afghan territory all the way to Pakistani ports.

A popular argument in today’s media outlets is that much of today’s predicament is the result of more than two and half decades of political and ideological alienation between Iran and the United States. There is no question that this animosity must be lifted, and is a major contributor to present day politics. However the issue being discussed here is the largely unreported geopolitical and economic factor: Petroleum Diplomacy.

(3) Is Oil Running Out?

Cheap and plentiful Oil is rapidly becoming a diminishing resource. This fact has been hidden from global popular knowledge. All the facts about to be reported below are listed under Part VI References: Diminishing Petroleum Resources, just after the Web references. These are also reported by the aforementioned William Engdahl (see References, p.258-263, 284).

Just two days before the horrors of Sept 11, 2001, a very interesting memo was delivered to Tony Blair’s Cabinet Office in London. The Memo was called “Submission to the Cabinet Office on Energy Policy”. Virtually unknown is the fact that the panel which submitted the report to the British Prime Minister’s office included the aforementioned British Petroleum chairman, Lord Browne.

A number of details from that report and other subsequent communiqués can be summarized into the following:

[a] Global supplies of cheap oil are diminishing – output will soon decline. The global peak for oil was forecasted to be 5-10 years away and Natural Gas 20 years away.

[b] One of the reasons for declining access to cheap oil will have to do with the rise of new economic global powers: China, India and possibly Indonesia.

[c] At present, oil supplies are contributing 90% of the world’s transportation fuel as well as 40% of the world’s other vital energy necessities.

[d] Large investments in available Middle Eastern supplies will only result in limited increases. “Available” means those regions under the full sway of western interests.

[e] There is a significant amount of underdeveloped oil resources in the Middle East, notably Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the oil Emirates of the Persian Gulf. Iraq alone has been estimated to have perhaps 432 billion barrels of oil reserves, making it an even larger resource than Saudi Arabia. Western Africa and Libya were also reported as having significant reserves.

[f] The Caspian Sea region, especially in the Republic of Azerbaijan, is also seen as a lucrative resource base.

The report was prepared collaboratively by the following:

• United Kingdom Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (esp. world-renowned geologist, Dr. Colin J. Campbell
• British petroleum
• Colorado School of Mines
• Princeton University’s Geology Department
• The French Petroleum Institute
• University of Uppsala (Sweden)
• Petroconsultants (Switzerland)
• Douglas-Westwood Ltd.

Although news reports did appear in some of the world’s most highly respected media outlets (see Part VI References: Diminishing Petroleum Resources), none of these appear to have attracted much attention.

Engdahl’s analysis of the main thrust of geopolitical and Petroleum Diplomacy are of interest:

“…controlling every major existing and potential oil source and transport route on earth…deception would be essential…”

[Engdahl, 2004, p.263-264]

It is no co-incidence that geopolitical lobbies are also courting the overtly racist “Al-Ahwaz” Arab separatist organization in the endeavour to separate the oil-rich Khuzestan province in Iran’s southwest (see item 10).

SANAM, The Grey Wolves, the UAM, Dr. Silahi Diker, Mr. Mahmudali Chehreganli, and some elements of western scholarship (see following item), western media outlets (item 7) are all expendable assets in the “deception” (i.e. the Bernard Lewis Project) to extend geopolitical and petroleum hegemony.

(4) Manipulating Scholarship in the West:

There are a number of lobbies actively promoting pan-Turanian ideology in the west. The majority of these constitute the Petroleum and geopolitical lobbies discussed earlier in items 1-3. An important lobby affiliated with these is the American Turkish Council (ATC- see Web References).

(a) The ATC.

It is no coincidence that the ATC is one of the most powerful lobbies in America today. As a “non-profit” organization, the ATC operates tax-free and is kept out of the media and legal spotlights.  But perhaps the most interesting component is the “educational committee” of the ATC. This committee has successfully lobbied the US public and government branches on behalf of the ATC.

Political reporter Christopher Deliso has cited a distinguished array of American ATC members (see Web References). Their chair has been known to include Brent Scowcroft, an influential member of the US government. According to Deliso, the American membership is represented by an impressive array of military contractors such as   Boeing, Bechtel International, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and United Technologies/Sikorsky.

Political writer, John Stanton, has conducted considerable research into the activities of the ATC and its attempts to influence western centers of higher learning (see References).

Popular opinion regularly speaks of a powerful Jewish lobby in the US government: virtually unknown is the role of the “Turkish lobby”. These include Senators John Breaux and John McCain, and many other people of considerable influence including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith (long time chair of the Defense Policy Board and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy),  and Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Defense Secretary). The Turkish lobby is now able to overpower the Greek and Armenian lobbies in the US government. This has allowed for the unhindered manipulation of historical scholarship in American universities.

Reports of attempts at manipulating western scholarship began to surface in earnest by the mid-1990s. As reported in the Hellenic Nationalist Page

“Turkey has intensified her attempts to spread her propaganda to internationally renowned universities around the world…in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Amy Magarao Rubin exposes the Turkish attempts at historic revisionism…fraud and influence of appointments is being mentioned…”

[Hellenic nationalist Page - See Web References

It has been ten years since that report was put forward to US government officials and universities. Not only has that report has been quietly shelved, but the very warnings of that report are now being realized. For the first time in civilized human history, politics is being allowed to influence academia. Put simply, major western (mainly English language) universities are accommodating and promoting pan-Turanian ideology. Note the following review by Kazakh Professor Doulatbek Khidirbekughli’s of Schoeberlein’s “Mysterious Eurasia” which was hosted by Harvard University’s Eurasian Studies Society (CESS):

“Ten thousand years ago, ancestors of the Turkic tribes inhabited Central Eurasia. These Turkic Eurasian tribes migrated in all directions. During this great migration of peoples, they influenced the cultures of the European peoples, including Western Christianity, as well as the cultures of the …Chinese civilizations in the East…Some of these subsequently crossed the Bering Strait, forming the stock from which some Native American peoples descended. In Western Eurasia contact between Turkic and Germanic peoples came with the fall of the Roman Empire as the Huns settled in Europe.”

[Doulatbek Khidirbekughli Mysterious Eurasia: Thoughts in Response to Dr. Schoeberlein, CESS, Volume 3, Number 1, Winter 2004 - See Web References]

Recall the discussion in Part I, item 2, where we noted of Professor Silahi Diker’s claims of a 10,000 year civilizational legacy of the Turks as harbingers of world civilization (item 2a) and as the ancestors of the North American Indians (item 2g). Central to this argument is the fraudulent fallacy that “Turkic tribes inhabited Central Eurasia” (item 2l) as far back as 10,000 years ago. As noted in Part 1, item 2l, Turkic tribes arrived much later into Central Asia, with the earliest penetrations occurring in the 3^rd century BC. The professor is retroactively Turcifying all earlier non-Turkic peoples of the steppes. As noted previously, pan-Turanian academics repeatedly confuse facts on the ground today with past history. Thanks to universities such as Harvard, a fringe racialist ideology formed in 1920s Turkey is now being given a prestigious academic platform to propagate and disseminate its false and divisive doctrines into mainstream western society.

(b) CSIS.

Virtually unnoticed is another powerful lobby known as the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) (see
http://www.csis.org/
in web references). The CSIS website shows the powerful interest of petroleum and geopolitical lobbies with respect to the Republic of Azerbaijan. A very revealing link is entitled “Caspian Sea Region” (see
http://parstimes.com/Caspian.html
in Web References). This link reveals at least 21 academic and governmental organizations involved with “Caspian Studies”.

This is all a very recent development, and it is curious as to why so many academic outlets have virtually mushroomed – and what purpose these organizations serve. A quick study reveals famous names such as the University of Bremen, University of Indiana, University of Michigan, Berkeley, Virginia Tech University, Columbia and Harvard University. There is also a link to “Iran” on the top menu bar which shows surprising detail on that nation’s natural resources, especially on the Caspian Sea.

(c) Dr. Brenda Shaffer.

The leading western academic outlet providing support for pan-Turanian ambitions in Iranian Azerbaijan is the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University (see
http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/?program=CSP
in Web References). The Research Director of the Caspian Studies Project is Brenda Shaffer

(see photo below):

Brenda Shaffer

brenda_shaffer@harvard.edu

Dr. Brenda Shaffer is an American-born and Israeli-educated research director of Harvard University’s Caspian Studies Program. Her program is mainly funded by major oil companies and the US-Azeri Chamber of Commerce, which itself enjoys extensive funding by various anti-Iran economic and political interests. Despite her apparent profile as an academic, Shaffer has become a highly active proponent for the destruction of the state of Iran, by way of her political advocacy for Azerbaijani separatism. This is reflected in her writings as well as regular appearances in the media outlets of the US[vii], Britain[viii], Europe, Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan. She regularly appears in separatist Azerbaijani gatherings as a guest speaker. Previous to her Harvard posting, Dr. Shaffer served in Israel as a policy analyst, intelligence agent and in the Israeli Defence Forces.

Shaffer’s book, Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (see References – see book jacket below) claims to have proven that no such thing as a unifying collective Iranian identity exists.

ShafferBK

Shaffer also claims to have “objective proof” that the bulk of Azerbaijanis wish to separate from Iran. Shaffer’s textbook has become a standard reference for Washington Analysts, who regularly defer to Dr. Shaffer’s apparent “expertise” in Caspian and Iranian affairs[ix] – she is in fact a prolific writer on the Caspian and Iran. The confidence of the distinguished gentlemen in Washington is rather misplaced, as Dr. Shaffer has relied on Soviet methods of historiography. The aforementioned Professor Atabaki (of Iranian Azerbaijani descent) has provided a book review of Dr. Shaffer’s text – and with his permission, some of his direct reports are reproduced below (along with my humble comments):

1) “Within the first two chapters, however, the reader becomes disappointed with the unbalanced and sometimes even biased political appraisal which not only dominates the author’s methodology but also shapes her selective amnesia in recalling historical data… shortcomings in Shaffer’s study are vivid, both in regard to methodology and the data she offers us…”

Recall our discussions with respect to how the history of Babak Khorramdin, Sattar Khan, and the Safavids have been re-narrated by pan-Turanian ideologues. Professor Atabaki’s description of Dr. Shaffer’s “selective amnesia in recalling historical data” reminds us of the late Dr. Elchibey discussed earlier.

Had Shaffer’s text appeared during the Soviet era, her writing style would be indistinguishable from contemporary Stalinist history books. This is because she skilfully omits information that contradicts her views.

This is especially evident in Shaffer’s following statement:

“Amir Ali Lakhrudi, chairman of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan and a witness to the December 12 (Azer 21) takeover in Tabriz, stated that when Tehran retook the city, 30,000 people were killed and 300,000 deported and 10,000 immigrated to Soviet (north) Azerbaijan.“

As we noted in Part II (item 1e), there were no mass deportations, arrests or killings. Most importantly, there was no indigenous resistance to Tehran (item 1e). Dr. Shaffer’s methodology is indeed beset by selective amnesia.

2) “… Shaffer insists on mapping out the purely ethnic dimensions… one would expect arguments based on fieldwork among rural as well as urban Azerbaijanis in Iran as well as in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, her fieldwork is limited to interviews with some Iranian Azerbaijanis, elite individuals living in the Diaspora, often driven by strong political motivations. Obviously studying ethnic sentiments and identity in present- day Iran without conducting all-inclusive fieldwork inside Iran is inequitable… the author has not always observed academic accuracy in presenting data

In short, Dr. Shaffer of Harvard University is engaging in biased data selection – any Doctoral candidate or Professor caught engaging in such practices (i.e. violation of academic accuracy) would be failed and expelled from any reputable university and their credentials would be permanently stripped. To put it bluntly, biased data selection is the statistical equivalent of lying.

This is glaringly evident in the way Shaffer misrepresents the 1918 journal Azarbayjan, Joz’‑i la-yanfakk-i Iran (Azerbaijan, an Inseparable Part of Iran). Shaffer only refers to its title as “Azarbayjan”, and omits the rest of the title. Why? Because if she also included Joz’‑i la-yanfakk-i Iran (Azerbaijan, an Inseparable Part of Iran), this would contradict the message she is trying to get across: that the journal is an expression of an implied “separatist” identity. Once again, this is a prime example of “cut and paste” Stalinist scholarship.

These practices are not only tolerated but apparently encouraged by Dr. Shaffer’s sponsors in the US government. This is tragic, as this is the case of the blind leading the blind. People like Brenda Shaffer will only widen the chasm of misunderstanding between the United States and the people of Iran.

3) “…she (Brenda Shaffer) asserts that “the [Islamic] revolution’s failure to bring significant democratization attracted some [Iranian] Azerbaijanis, who had previously identified themselves chiefly as Iranians, to ethnic-based messages” (p. 79) and notes that “anti-Iranian sentiments …run high in the Republic of Azerbaijan” (p. 164). In neither case does she offer documentary evidence supporting her argument.”

This is similar to pan-Turanian scholarship. Arguments and “evidence” are always claimed (or invented), yet the only real “evidence” is the statement itself. Dr. Shaffer’s blanket statement that “anti-Iranian sentiments …run high in the Republic of Azerbaijan” is highly selective and is in fact untrue. Many highly educated academics in the Republic of Azerbaijan reject the Soviet-style historiography that Dr. Shaffer is reviving

This has been aptly expressed by the late Professor Zia Boniyadov (former academic of the Oriental Studies Institute of Soviet Azerbaijan) during a visit to Tehran in early 1989[x].

Ziya

Professor Boniyadov noted that much of the historical  claims of pan-Turanian ideology against Iranian Azerbaijan (i.e. “division” of “Greater Azerbaijan” by Iran and Russia) have their academic roots in the Stalinist era of the former Soviet Union[xi]. Boniyadov has noted that much of the claims for Iran’s destruction are “…Stalinist policies and expansionist…those who now pursue such policies in the name of ‘culture’…are simply the followers of Bagherov and Heidar Aliev and Stalin…”[xii]. It would seem that these statements were not to the liking of certain elements – the Professor was mysteriously murdered in his homeland in 1997. Viewpoints such as Boniyadov’s have been conveniently ignored by regional “experts” such as Shaffer, simply because they fail to validate her beliefs.

4) “…In conclusion, Borders and Brethren is an excellent example of how a political agenda can dehistoricize and decontextualize history…”

The key term is “political agenda” – this is what pays Dr. Shaffer’s salary. To put it mildly, Dr. Shaffer is telling the petroleum and geopolitical lobbies what they wish to hear, and they reward her with the proverbial “funding” and wide media and conference exposure. Is it I who is being overly alarmist, or is there a process of “academic prostitution” taking place?

The fact that Dr. Shaffer relies on pan-Turanian and Stalinist schools of “scholarship” does not appear to be of much consequence to her supporters. This is interesting as Soviet propaganda as a whole has generally been regarded as a laughing stock in the west. One example of comical historical revisionism were claims by Soviet “historians” that it was the Russians who invented the steam engine! If I may be so bold, I would suggest that Professors Diker and Shaffer consider collaborating with each other – after all, their methodologies and mindsets do intersect to a great extent.

Modern western scholarship seems to be selectively reviving past Soviet Stalinist historiography and collaborating with pan-Turanian activists to achieve the disintegration of Iran.

(d) A Personal Experience.

I would like to take this opportunity to share my own experience with western academics sympathetic to Iran’s dismemberment: Professor Darryl Maclean (see photo below) of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. Maclean is a historian of Islam and post-Sassanian Iran who can speak and write Persian very well[xiii]. He is also an expert on the history of the Shiite movement in Iran, and is extremely well informed of the history of the Safavids. The author interviewed the professor in his office in February 1993. With regards to Azerbaijan, Maclean noted that:

“Azerbaijan has no connection to Iran…it is totally different from the rest of Iran…no connection to today’s Persian culture … Azerbaijan could easily be separated from Iran and made into an independent state…all reports about the origins of the name Azerbaijan and its ties to the rest of Iran are simply nation-building[xiv]…I have read original texts that show that even the name Atur/Atar is of Arab origin… ”

Maclean

The last portion of his statement (Atar) is fascinating – virtually no reputable linguist of Iranian languages would agree with Professor Maclean.

[a] Atar is a term of Old Persian origin and has already been established to be of the Iranic family by linguists (see previously cited references) and Zoroastrian studies experts (see Boyce in references).

[b] the professor is falling into the same simplistic trap that pan-Turanian writers such as Professor Diker have been ensnared in: if a word in language A sounds the same as language B, then it must of the same origin. This is patently false.

P.J. Mallory (see references) notes that not only can words in different languages sound the same; sometimes the meanings of those words may be similar as well. Both Persian and English share the word “Bad” in its negative context – however this development has occurred independently in both languages. True, both Persian and English are Indo-European languages, however they are linguistically distant (Iranic of the Satem branch versus Germanic of the Centum branch) and the word “Bad” does not occur in any other Germanic language. This is called “linguistic co-incidence”, nothing more. Professor Maclean may have indeed seen an old Arab/Semitic word similar to “Atar”, however he is not a trained linguist, and as a result, makes mistakes.

To his credit, Professor Maclean did admit to me that “I know very little of Persia’s pre-Islamic past…”.  It would appear however, that this knowledge vacuum is having at least a partial influence on the Professor’s views of contemporary Persia.

It is apparent in the above statements that Professor Maclean makes no admission to the importance of the Caucasus to the culture and history of Persia, Iran’s pre-Islamic past, or even the focal role of Azerbaijanis in Iran’s modern history. Perhaps he does, but if so, he certainly has a strange way of expressing this. It is my sincere hope that I have simply misunderstood the distinguished professor and that what I am reporting is a case of false memory – Dr.  Maclean is highly educated and is held in high esteem in academic circles.

The man is truly knowledgeable, a fact which makes his views even more interesting. I personally wonder if he holds some views which are similar to pan-Turanian activists with respect to the Safavids?

Although Maclean is not politically involved in the advocacy of Iran’s destruction, his views have the potential to influence large numbers of undergraduate and graduate students of history and political science who enrol in his classes and engage in his academic endeavours.

The numbers of current western professors who entertain Maclean’s views have never been tabulated; however judging from Maclean’s opinions, there is a possibility that views in favour of Iran’s dissolution are gaining currency among western academics who have studied Iran’s history and languages. Professors such as Maclean may be training legions of future Brenda Shaffers.

(5) Geopolitics & Re-inventing History: The Macedonia Example.

Persia is not the only country which has witnessed its historical icons and geographical names hijacked in the quest to manufacture new nation-states. This has also happened in the Balkans, namely against Greece. There are two similarities between the “Greater Azerbaijan” and “Macedonia Resurrected” projects.

(a) Changing Skopje to the Republic of Macedonia.

As noted previously, the Yugoslav Federation disintegrated in the 1990s. One of the former federated regions, which had a pre-dominantly Bulgarian-speaking Slavic majority, appropriated the ancient Hellenic geographical designation “Macedonia”. This region was previously known as “Skopje” – the actual Macedonia remains mostly in modern Greece. Not surprisingly, a number of Greeks have suggested that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia be referred to by its former name: Skopje.

Note how this process is virtually identical to the way in which Albania/Arran was renamed as “Azerbaijan”, when in fact the real historical Azerbaijan has always resided in Persia (Part II, item 1).

The “Macedonia Resurrected” project not only threatens Greek territorial integrity, but the very basis of her culture and identity. Like anti-Iran Azerbaijan projects, there are now fraudulent “academic” projects endeavouring to prove that Macedonia was never historically Greek but “Macedonian”. Even the very Hellenic origins of Alexander and his father Phillip are being doubted by a select group of “experts”.

(b) Retroactive De-Hellenization & Petroleum Diplomacy.

The appropriation of geographical nomenclature has been immediately followed with claims to the Macedonian legacy of ancient Greece and all of the associated icons of that legacy. The Hellenic legacy of Phillip of Macedon, Alexander the Great and Macedonia is being rejected. This is a process called Retroactive De-Hellenization.

Again a quick study of archival documents contradicts the de-Hellenization of Macedonia. The term “Phillip” is derived from the Greek stem words “Phil” (to love) and “Hippos” (horses) – literally translated as “one who is affectionate to/loves horses”. “Alexander” is broadly translated as “the protector of men”. A handful of references below serve to illustrate the Hellenic legacy of Macedonia:

“…Now surely, as they all talk the same language, they ought to be able to find a better way of settling their differences…In any case, the Greeks, with their absurd notions of warfare, never even thought of opposing me when I led my army to Macedonia“.

[Herodotus commenting on the invasion of Greece by Darius the Great of Persia – Book VII 417-418 - see References]

“…but the Dorians on the contrary have been constantly on the move; their home in Deucalion’s reign was Phthiotis and in the reign of Dorus son of Hellen the country known as Histiaeotis in the neighbourhood of Ossa and Olympus; driven from there by the Cadmeians they settled in Pindus and were known as Macedons; thence they migrated to Dryopis, and finally to the Peloponnese, where they got their present name of Dorians.“

[Herodotus commenting on the Greek tribes of Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians, who were originally known as Macedones according to Herodotus – Book Book I 56 - see References]

There is virtually an endless stream of additional archival references, some which include: Thucydides (4.124), Demosthenes (Speeches 11-20, the Letter of Philip), Arrian (14,4), Quintus C. Rufus (3,3), Diodorus (17.67.1), Plutarch (47,6 & 69,4), Polybius (Book IX 37), Pausanias (7.6), Strabo (7.8), and Aphrahat/Aphraates.

Nevertheless, these facts seem to matter little. It is as if by the stroke of a pen, the Hellenic legacy of Macedonia is to be erased by those harboring a geopolitical agenda. This appears to be fitting into the larger scheme of the new Petroleum diplomacy.

As noted above, Skopje (renamed Republic of Macedonia) is a former province of Yugoslavia and neatly sits astride the pipeline route. In that endeavor, even history is to be changed to fit contemporary geo-economics. It is no co-incidence that the “Macedonia Resurrected” project is now funded by the same Soros Foundation which helped finance the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia – all in the latent aim of pipeline politics.

(c) South Slav Macedonian Nationalism.

Meanwhile the south Slav (Bulgarian-speaking?) residents of former Skopje view themselves as the heirs of a de-Hellenicized “Macedonia” which claims many facets of ancient Greek culture, and territory. Like pan-Turanian ideologues, no acknowledgement is made with respect to the fact that the south Slavs migrated to Skopje centuries after the foundation of ancient Greece. Similar to Professors Dikler (Turkey) and Khidirbekughli (Kazakhestan), facts on the ground today are deliberately confused with ancient history. Macedonian “nationalists”, like the Grey Wolves are impervious to objective archival and historical information. Faith-based nationalism and political orientation often results in the process of Cognitive Dissonance.

(6) Geopolitics and Psychological warfare

(a) Manufacturing Victims

Renowned clinical psychologist Dr. Tana Dineen (see references) notes that “Victim-making is part of …fabrications and illusions…(p.35)”. Dr. Dineen speaks of the abuse that’s been occurring in the field of psychology. Her statements are just as valid in the field of geopolitical manipulation. She notes that the process of “Manufacturing Victims” involves

“…exaggerated claims, unsupported “expert opinions”, sweeping public statements based on minimal or questionable data, broad generalizations…to understand this “other history” one must consider…how…”facts” were created or distorted to prove a biased view or to support a political or financial interest” (p.107

Professional cultural agitators such as Mr. Chehreganli and Dr. Brenda Shaffer certainly fit the criteria in the clinical sense. Both have “created or distorted“ information and are regularly consulted in order to solicit their “expert opinions” on Iranian Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis in general. Recall our discussion in Part II, where Chehreganli has literally “created” a new history for Sattar Khan (Part II, item 5) and Babak Khorramdin (Part II, item 6).  Chehreganli has also “distorted” the details of the Soviet supported Pishevari movement in 1946.

As seen in item 4c, Professor Atabaki has exposed Dr. Shaffer’s text as being riveted with “…exaggerated claims…sweeping public statements based on minimal or questionable data, broad generalizations”. The aim of Dr. Brenda Shaffer, Mr. Mahmudali Chehreganli, the UAM and similar organizations is to “manufacture” Azerbaijanis as “victims”. Claims of Azerbaijani “victimhood” are masking a nefariously destructive ideology. As noted by Dineen, manufacturing victims serves to “to prove a biased view or to support a political or financial interest”.

Manufacturing victims is part of the “deception” of oil diplomacy, described earlier by Engdahl (item 3): media portrayals of “victims” are simply another sophisticated tool in that “deception”. The Yugoslav tragedy was in reality a gross travesty that witnessed the vitimhood of all Yugoslavs – nevertheless the Serbs were disproportionately villified in the press. The same is true with respect to Iranians today (see item 7).

(b) False Flag Incidents.

One of the classic weapons of manufacting victims is the use of False Flag incidents. This is the situation of creating a violent incident and staging it as to falsely implicate an innocent party. The main objective of False Flag incidents is to manufacture victims to further a wider geopolitical agenda

Although concrete evidence has yet to surface, Imperial Britain is said to have utilized such practices in their India colony to pit Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus against each other. A more recent example of a False Flag incidents has been reported in present-day Basra, Iraq by  Christopher Bollyn of the American Free Press (see Web references):

“…After shooting and killing Iraqi police and civilians in Basra, two British agents from the Special Air Service (SAS)…disguised as suicide bombers from the Mehdi Army, were caught “red-handed” in a car loaded with explosives… Paul Wood of the BBC said the two British agents “…weapons, explosives and communications gear are standard kit for British special forces”…The two bearded British agents had been wearing black wigs and disguised as members of … the Mehdi Army…commonly employed tactic of “false flag terrorism“… Arab disguises are meant to guarantee that eyewitnesses of whatever terror operation the men were involved in saying that it been carried out by Iraqis.”

Iranians have accused British operatives of having been involved in recent “ethnic clashes” in Iran’s Khuzestan province. These involve dressing up as Arabs, spraying anti-Iran graffiti on walls, inciting anti-Persian feelings among local Arabs, etc. All of these claims are vociferously rejected by the British, who in turn accuse the Iranians of being involved in covert anti-British activities in Basra.

Nevertheless, the question of British complicity can be raised in relation to the capture of eight British servicemen by Iranian authorities on June 21, 2004. While the British alleged that the servicemen were engaged in patrol boat training, the Iranians noted that the servicemen had clearly violated Iranian territorial waters[xv]. The servicemen were later repatriated to British authorities without incident.

Close examination of the servicemen’s equipment appears to undermine the British claim of having been solely engaged in river patrol training. The gentlemen were carrying spy cameras[xvi], detailed maps of Iranian territory[xvii], and satellite communications equipment[xviii] when they were captured. Militarily, such equipment is standard to personnel engaged in intelligence gathering on hostile territory[xix] as opposed to routine river patrol training, where such equipment is unnecessary.

It is also interesting that many of these so-called “ethnic clashes” have been happening nearly simultaneously. As noted in Part III, item 3, Grey Wolf activists have been also working hard to create false flag incidents in Iranian Azerbaijan. So far, their efforts appear to have been unsuccessful. It is highly likely that the anti-Iran Kurdish separatist “Pezhak” organization (see item 9) has engaged in False Flag incdients in the recent riots in Iranian Kurdistan recently.

(7) Manipulation of Western Media.

In addition to their successes in western academia, pan-Turanian writers have been gaining steady support in the western (esp. English-speaking) world. As will be seen below, many media outlets are inadvertently becoming virtual mouthpieces for organizations such as the Grey Wolves.

The August 2000 issue of Celator (an academic journal for numismatic studies) published the following letter by Dean Sirigos

“…Turkey’s current nationalist ideology…seeks to deny the area’s (Asia Minor) Hellenic past. Tragically much of the mainstream US media have ratified this false revisionism, for example by identifying Ephesus as an “an ancient Turkish city” (CNN, 11/16/99) and … without references to their ancient Greek or Hellenistic past”.

[Dean Sirigos, Associate, American Hellenic Media Project (AHMP) – letter written to Celator journal on August 2000) – refer to Web References].

In 1993, the editor in Chief of the prestigious Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet, Erturul Ozdok made the following statement to New York Times correspondent, Alan Cowell:

“For us, the Bosnian Muslims are Turks”

The only element binding modern Turks to Bosnians is the Muslim religion; otherwise there is nothing else in common. Bosnians speak South Slav languages closely akin to Serbo-Croatian and are ethnic south Slavs. Turks speak an Altaic language unrelated to Indo-European languages. What Mr. Ozdok is stating is based on ideological beliefs, not objective facts. Cowell passively accepted Ozdok’s statements without the slightest effort at questioning their validity. Cowell then reported the following observation of the Turks made with respect to the Bosnians in the New York Times:

“…a powerful sentiment toward their religious and ethnic kin…”

[New York Times, January 19, 1993, p.A9]

Space limitations do not allow for the plethora of misinformed quotes now mushrooming in the western media; however one striking example was reported to the writer by a French Professor (who does not wish to be identified on-line):

“I recall many years ago watching a French TV talk-show program about the Kurds…the program then stated that the Kurds are a Turkish race…an audience participant who was Kurdish rose from her seat and angrily protested stating that Kurds speak an Iranian language and that Kurds are not Turks…the speaker simply paused and moved on with the program…”

Let us revisit the aforementioned Professor Günseli Renda, who recently stated in London, in the presence of the Turkish ambassador to England (Akın Alptuna) that “…the Ottoman sultans were descendants of Adam”. Professor Renda’s presentations were attended by BBC producer-speaker Michael Buerk (he stands at left next to Ambassador Akın Alptuna – photo below).

BBC

It is here where we must pause for thought. Professor Renda and Ambassador Alptuna may be excused – they may truly believe that the Ottoman Sultans were direct descendants of Adam. What is far more intriguing is what BBC producer Michael Buerk truly thinks of Adam and his “Ottoman descendants”? His pleasant smile belies the latent nature of his convictions.

Mr. Chehreganli has been allowed to appear in New York City parades in order to gain a wider (western) audience for his separatist agenda (see photo below – Chehreganli at left and wearing a red ribbon):

SANAMNY

Note flags and the caption (barely legible) “South Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement”. It would appear that support for Iran’s destruction is becoming more overt and direct. It may be only a matter of time before the “Azerbaijan issue” begins to hit mainstream western media outlets.

(8) Iranians as Negative Propaganda Targets

The promotion of separatism in Iran has been highly facilitated by the incessant portrayal of Iranians as negative propaganda targets. The Serbs were also vilified just prior to the partitioning of Yugoslavia. Iranians however have been the target of over twenty five years of negative media portrayals. Popular entertainment personalities such as radio host Howard Stern (below left photo) are on record as having stated “Kill all Iranians, Kill them“. Actors George Clooney (in “Peacemaker”- below middle photo) and Chuck Norris (in “The Hitman” – below right photo) have both used derogatory language against Iran and Iranians in their movies. One can only imagine what would happen to Mr.s Stern, Clooney and Norris if they dared used such language against any other ethnic group. They would be banished from the entertainment industry for good.

Stern Clooney Norris

It may be no exaggeration to state that Iranians are the most vilified and negatively portrayed people in the Anglo-Saxon media today. The majority of North Americans hold very irrational and inaccurate views of Iranians. The very word “Iran” evokes a knee-jerk reaction among most North Americans. “Iran” is now associated with abstractions such as “evil”, “terrorist”, or “fundamentalist”.

As noted by the author in previous writings, the majority of North Americans believe the Iranians to be Arabs. Simplistic abstractions and irrational beliefs have led to substandard reporting among many prestigious English language news outlets such as The Washington Times. Note the following quote by Editor Arnaud de Borchgrave (see photo below)

“TIME’s Michael Ware nailed down the details of Iran’s plans to create a greater Iranian Shiite empire…Iran’s objective could be a civil war between Shia Muslim and Sunni Muslim that would 1) encourage the U.S. to pull out its troops post-haste rather than be caught in the middle, and 2) secure Shia Iraq for a greater Shia Islam. The eastern Saudi oilfields, where Shia Arabs are in the majority, would then be one small Kuwait away”

[Arnaud de Borchgrave, Commentary: Iran's strategy in Iraq, The Washington Times On-line, Aug. 15, 2005 – see Web References]

Arnaud

What is most shocking regarding Mr. de Borchgrave’s statement is the very fact that it is taken seriously by western (mainly North American) readers. The notion of a “greater Iranian Shiite empire” is as logically absurd and untenable as a “greater Italian Catholic  empire”. Catholic Ukrainians, Poles, Frenchman, Fillipinos, Spaniards, etc. are no more likely (or willing) to join Italy in a “greater Italian Catholic empire” than are Saudi, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, etc Arabs within a “greater Iranian Shiite empire”.

It seems that Mr. de Borchgrave has failed to grasp the distinction religion and nationality. As for “Iran‘s objective could be a civil war between Shia Muslim and Sunni Muslim”, Mr. de Borchgrave fails to realize that sectarian instability within Iraq also threatens Iran’s own geopolitical stability. Simply put, Iran has nothing to gain from a potential civil war in a neighbouring country. The level of intellectual sophistication exhibited by Mr. de Borchgrave appears to rival that of Mr. Howard Stern mentioned earlier.

Editors such as Mr. de Borchgrave have no interest in exploring the possibility that Iranians can be well-adjusted three-dimensional human beings. Perhaps Mr. de Borchgrave is unaware that Iranians today are among the most highly educated and successful immigrants in the United States and Canada (see report by Karen Kelly in Web References). Facts such as these never make it to the evening news. Professor James Bill has provided a rare and balanced view of the present state of affairs:

“…the masses of Iranian people…hold warm feelings toward…American citizens…the American public has not been so forgiving…public opinion surveys consistently reveal that Americans consider Iran to be the least popular country in the world…distorted and simplistic mass media representations, such as the widely distributed Hollywood film “Not Without My Daughter!” (see poster below), question the very civility and humanity of Iranians…some officials such as former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, have had a personal, visceral dislike of Iran…”

[]James A. Bill, Iran and the United States: A Clash of Hegemonies, Middle East Report, 212, p.45, 1999].

Sally Field

As noted by Professor Bill, irrational views regarding Iranians are displayed at the highest levels. This has resulted in a very unique phenomenon: re-writing the Persian chapter of human history. Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian has duly noted of the current relentless assault on the heritage of Persian civilization in Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Indian subcontinent, The Near East, The Persian Gulf and The Islamic World, a process fully supported by the aforementioned geopolitical lobbies:

“…A not too hidden agenda to deny or… ignore the far-reaching cultural influence of Iran …When the Soviet Union disintegrated, very few were aware that the liberated countries of its southern republics (i.e. Azerbaijan Republic) had histories and cultures linked with Iran. The realization of this fact must have come as a shock to the governments of Western nations. The result was pressure on scholars to revise their writings and reattribute to others the chapters hitherto devoted to ‘Iran extérieur’…In more recent times pan-Turkists and Stalinists, though at odds with each other, had tried hard … to erase all remaining traces of Persian …Their example has inspired a new breed of imperialist nation-builders who, in turn, use their clout to distort history, for immediate purposes or as a reward to nations in need of creating an identity for themselves from the many strands of that of Greater Iran”

[Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian, The Other Terror (Parts I & II), posted on Iranian.com, see Web References]

Iranians as a whole have become propaganda targets. Their identity, culture, history, and legacy are at stake. But the silent assault goes much further: Professor Bill has noted that the very humanity and civility of the Iranians are now under siege. All of this makes perfect sense if we transcend the domain of morality and view the situation from a geopolitical and economic perspective. All the areas eyed by petroleum giants such as BP, Shell or Chevron are presently in Iranian territory or reside in areas that have a mighty Persian legacy (e.g. the Caucasus). To successfully appropriate those energy deposits, the very legacy and idea of Persia must be destroyed. This means that the very dignity in one being a citizen of “Eire-An” or Persia must be eliminated:

“A review of a book by Christin Marschall… has her quoting an official of the State Department in Abu Dhabi that American policy in the Persian Gulf in the 1980s aimed at “securing the free flow of oil at reasonable prices, freedom of navigation and the support of the friendly Arab regimes in the area.” And the main threat to that policy was Iran, the quote adds, because of the “policy of its government, [but also because of] Iranian society and the pride that comes with being Iranian.“

[Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian, The Other Terror (Parts I & II), posted on Iranian.com, see Web References]

Ms.  Farmanfarmaian’s succinct reporting should give the Iranian and non-Iranian reader pause for thought. The real propaganda targets are the people of Iran, irrespective of who holds the reigns of power in Tehran. Promotion and support for characters such as Mr. Chehreganli is wholly consistent with the policy of critically undermining “Iranian society and the pride that comes with being Iranian”. In the endeavour to dismember Iran, Mr. Chehreganli (with a whole lot of help from his geopolitical friends) is at the forefront in assaulting the very pride that is seen as “the main threat” to “the free flow of oil at reasonable prices”.

Media outlets, once the guardians of truth and objective reporting, seem to steer towards sensational and vindictive journalism whenever Iranians are involved. Portraying Iranians as negative propaganda targets is wholly consistent with the long-term objectives of Petroleum diplomacy.

(9) Turkey & The Republic of Azerbaijan: Victims of Geopolitical Manipulation.

The Bernard Lewis Project is using the Grey Wolves to implement its goal of fragmenting the Middle East into mini-states. Grey Wolf activists may have forgotten one small detail: the Bernard Lewis plan also targets Turkey for partitioning. Ironically, the Grey Wolves are ultimately acting in the worst interests of Turkey. Their dream to fragment Iran into mini-states will only endanger Turkey’s own territorial integrity, as most of the world’s Kurds live in eastern Anatolia.

A large number of Turks are wary of Kurdish separatism and suspect foreign complicity, an allegation that is not entirely unfounded. An amazing piece of anecdotal information was provided to me by two Georgian nationals who were visiting Turkey in the spring of 2002. On an Istanbul ferry, they met an American officer who stated to them, in no uncertain terms:

“We like the Kurds…we can use them to partition the entire region, I guess the Turks should be reasonable and mature and accept this and just let the Kurds go…”

There is no independent corroboration for this statement, nor has the name of this alleged person been identified. Also, we have no way of knowing if this officer was expressing a personal opinion or reflecting the mindset of his paymasters. If true however, this statement appears to confirm what many Turks have been suspecting all along: that the west is cynically supporting pan-Turanianism to create a war between the Turks and their neighbours while plotting Turkey’s own internal disintegration behind their backs.

This may explain the recent attempts at reaching out to Iran, Greece and Armenia. These are very positive steps, however the Turks are still supporting and promoting Grey Wolf activities within Iran and the Caucasus (and presumably elsewhere). SANAM continues to be supported as well.

There are possible reasons for this. First, the Turkish economy has been rescued a number of times by the IMF. Turkish ties to western geopolitical lobbies are very strong. Simply put, they may not have much choice or room to manoeuvre “Because of US (Financial-IMF loans, etc.) largesse and Turkish dependency on such funds…” (Olson, p.181 – see references).

Second, Turks have suspected that Iran has supported the separatist PKK party as well as fundamentalist groups. This is somewhat interesting as the major aid for the PKK has came from a variety of western sources, including Greece and England. The British are widely suspected by the Turks as having incited the Kurds to revolt against the new Turkish Republic in 1925[xx], in an attempt to weaken the Turkish bargaining position over the future of the ex-Ottoman vilayet (province) of Mosul[xxi].  Both Med-TV (see logo below) and its successor Medya-TV have been noted for their close links to the PKK. The broadcasts of Med-TV were made from Brussels and operated under license from the London-based Independent Television Commission for much of the 1990s[xxii]. The Turkish government did manage to persuade the British to drop their sponsorship of the Med-TV[xxiii], however this only resulted in the creation of a new station, Medya-TV, which apparently broadcasts with British sponsorship.

MedTV

The Turks may also not be aware of how anti-Iranian the PKK movement is. Essentially a Stalinist and Communist movement at its inception, the PKK relied on Stalinist historical manuals, which conveyed a very strong anti-Persian message. A satellite branch of the PKK known as “Pezhak” has been active in Iran recently, working hard to promote bloodshed and ethnic violence between Persians and Kurds. The PKK has worked very hard to culturally distance the Kurds from their historical associations with Persia – the Nowruz is now called by PKK ideologues as the “Kurdish New Year”. Iranians as a whole have a natural cultural and historical affinity to the Kurds, who are their ethnic cousins. Instead, the PKK has indoctrinated anti-Persian attitudes for decades. These attitudes are also prevalent among organizations such as the PUK, and KDP in Iraq as well as the Komala and KDP wing within Iran.

To summarize, the Iranians are as suspicious of the PKK (and similar organizations) as are the Turks. Although the gentlemen of the PKK, PUK, KDP, etc, may disagree, the Kurds too are simply another element of the Bernard Lewis plan for the Near East (see also item 10).

Turkish Islamic fundamentalist groups are Sunni and as such have been generously funded by the Bin-Laden style Madrasah systems of Saudi Arabia. The Madrasahs are vehemently anti-Persian. Whatever the truth of alleged Iranian complicity, there are no genuine calls for cooperation between iran and Turkey – as indicated by the recent high profile Turkish visits to Iran. The problem however is that no action is being taken to stop Grey Wolf activists from destabilizing their neighbours. As noted before, Turkish hands may be tied. More nefariously, the genie of racialism is out of the bottle; racialists often go against the policies of their governments (recall Tansu Ciller discussed earlier in this on-line book)

This being said, Turkey is still a democracy, and the people have made themselves heard. Public pressure forced the Turkish government to reject American requests for assistance in the Iraq invasion. As noted before, the Turkish populace is educated, has a voice, and makes itself felt. Thanks to the Turkish people, cooler heads may yet prevail. However, time is running out. Vast sums of money have already been spent for over two decades by geopolitical lobbies to create a heartrending and tragic conflict.

Are the Turks being set-up? In the humble opinion of this writer, the answer is yes. Simply put, a role has been neatly scripted for Turkey – that of a geopolitical partner to western geopolitical/Petroleum interests. The Turkish role is to facilitate the projection of military and economic might into the Caucasus, Iran, the Near East and the Persian Gulf. This “script” has been aptly summarized by Zalmay Khalilzad, Ian Lesser and Stephen Larabee (see references):

“Turkey is ideally suited to play a vital role to ensure security both in the Persian Gulf and in the Caspian Basin. Turkish military facilities provide an excellent location for projecting power to both regions…”(p.85)

[Zalmay Khalilzad, Ian O. Lesser, F. Stephen Larrabee, The Future of Turkish-Western Relations: Toward a Strategic Plan, 2000, p.85 – see also Ofra Bengio, The Turkish-Israeli Relationship: Changing ties of Middle Eastern Outsiders, 2004.

The Turks have been conveniently assigned the role of foot soldiers in the upcoming Petroleum wars. The report by the Khalizad team was prepared by the Center for Middle East Public Policy-National Security Research Division for the Smith-Richardson Foundation. This very same report mobilizes Pan-Turanian ideology as an instrument of foreign policy:

“Turks already consider the Caspian Basin as very important because of ethnic ties” (p.85)

[Zalmay Khalilzad, Ian O. Lesser, F. Stephen Larrabee, The Future of Turkish-Western Relations: Toward a Strategic Plan, 2000, p.85]

But what about the ethnic ties between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus to Persia and modern day Iranians? It would appear that Khalilzad is selectively adopting Grey Wolf rhetoric to cynically promote a wider Petroleum agenda. It is precisely that agenda that is putting the Turks in danger. We have already noted how Grey Wolf chauvinism has resulted in a Greek-Iranian-Armenian alliance. Further geopolitical tensions may lead to a series of tragic Turkish-Iranian, Turkish-Armenian and possibly Turkish-Russian conflicts. Such a calamity must be avoided – peace, rationality, cooperation, and dialogue are the only alternatives.

As noted repeatedly in this article, the majority of Turks reject Grey Wolf activism and favor accommodation, trade, and expansion of ties with the Iranians. The same is true with respect to mainstream Turkish attitudes to Greece and Armenia. The majority of Turks are aware of the very rich cultural links between them and the Persian world, Greece and the Caucasus. All of these peoples enjoy many deep-rooted cultural ties, a fact vehemently rejected by racist ideologues from all sides.

Many of the intelligentsia of the Republic of Azerbaijan are also wary of geological machinations in the Caucasus. Farhad Husseinov, a democratic activist from the Republic of Azerbaijan, notes of cynical western support for anti-Democratic autocrats in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Husseinov further adds that:

“Azerbaijan is the latest victim of this sacrifice of freedom in the pursuit of stability. A country of 8.5 million people – roughly half of whom live in poverty… it is preparing for parliamentary elections in early November. Baku, the capital, is the next obvious candidate for a democratic revolution of the kind witnessed in Georgia and Ukraine. At stake are the multibillion-dollar investments of oil giants like BP and Chevron… The incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev, is a Soviet-educated autocrat who inherited power from his late father, Geidar Aliyev, in late 2003 as a result of rigged elections followed by a ruthless police crackdown. Opposition activists were imprisoned and tortured. Yet the creation of the first dynastic regime in the post-Soviet space was, incongruously, blessed by the administration of George W. Bush.”

[Farhad Husseinov, It's Azerbaijan's Turn, International Herald Tribune On-Line, September 28, 2005]

It is interesting that the “Human Rights” organizations of the west are silent with respect to the anti-Democratic policies in place in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Citing such reports would be inconsistent with the economic interests of the petroleum organizations moving into the Caucasus.

As noted previously, there is no widespread antipathy against Iran in the Azerbaijan Republic, irrespective of Dr. Shaffer’s beliefs. An increasing number in fact are aware that Grey Wolf activism is being ultimately propelled by “multibillion-dollar …oil giants like BP and Chevron”.

(10) The Iranian Experience with Geopolitics & Petroleum Diplomacy.

(a) The Same Old Story?

There is nothing new in foreign powers trying to exploit Iran’s ethnic diversity in order to destroy it. The British have been entertaining this since the 18^th century. It is now acknowledged by British historians that, ever since the 1880s:

“The British would regularly toy with the idea of partitioning Persia, usually as a temporary response to a crisis”

[Edward Ingram, Britain’s Persian Connection 1798-1828: Prelude to the Great Game in Asia, 1992, p.41.]

In 1907, Britain in an accord signed with Russia in 1905, practically proposed to partition Persia into two distinct “spheres of influence” (see map below) with the north awarded to Czarist Russia (blue area) and the south to Britain (pink/red area); central area was to be a “neutral’ zone (see Adelson, p. 59-62 in References).

Persia Divided

The Iranians have witnessed numerous self-serving and cynical acts of violent and forceful foreign interference into their internal affairs in the recent history. This commentary has already noted the role of Britain and Russia in crushing the Iranian Constitutional Reform movement in Persia in the early 1900s. Professor Cosroe Chaqueri, notes of the role performed by the Russians and the British in crushing the first indigenous democracy movement of Western Asia. He describes:

“…democratic aspirations of a people being crushed by savage Cossacks of…tsarist Russia, with the cynical complicity of yet another European power, Britain – all in the name of Western civilization”

[Chaqeri, Cosroe, Origins of Social Democracy in Modern Iran, 2001, p.197].

The Iranians subsequently witnessed the Petroleum diplomacy of British Petroleum, who in collusion with the American CIA, overthrew yet another indigenous and popularly elected government, led by Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh (1882-1967) in 1953 (see photo below).

Mossadegh

There is also nothing new with respect to the falsification of Persia’s history to suit short-term business and geopolitical objectives. Whole schools and faculties to that end were first invented in the former Soviet Union – these have now been re-invigorated in the West. The calls for the partitioning of Iran’s northwest in the name of pan-Turanianism are as old as the Young Turk and Musavat movements (Part I, Part II, item 1).

(b) The Partitioning Agenda Continues

The twentieth century witnessed the Soviet Union using its military presence in occupied Iran to set up puppet mini-states among Iranian Kurds and Azeris (Part II, item1e). Saddam Hussein and pan-Arab ideologues targeted the Arabs of southwest Iran in an endeavour to have them separate and join “the Arab nation”. There are also reports of efforts at inciting separatist passions among the Baluchis of Southeast Iran.

These efforts are still continuing, with many western universities having founded academic institutions with an interest in partitioning Iran (mainly in the United States and Britain). In addition to Shaffer’s programs (item 4), there are others such as the “Al-Ahwaz Studies” centre in Britain which endeavours to separate Iran’s Khuzestan province (see Web references). There are now “maps of Arabistan” which claim a historical legitimacy in Khuzestan dating back thousands of years (see map of the Al-Ahwaz society below, refer to Web References):

Ahwaz Map

al-ahwaz@al-ahwaz.com

arabistan@al-ahwaz.com

What is most interesting in this map is the way it depicts “the independent nations of Baluchistan, and Kurdistan”. The Al-Ahwaz website makes a point of co-operating with the “other oppressed peoples of Iran to support our mutual aims for national liberation”. There are specific links to Chehreganli’s SANAM organization. Interestingly, Mr. Chehreganli has himself made clear that he intends to merge the activities of his organization with that of organizations such as Al-Ahwaz.

Almost predictably, the western world in the form of “Human Rights” and “Cultural” organizations, are again throwing their support behind (yet another) fringe racialist movement. This was preposterously demonstrated on June 31^st, 2005 when Pierre Pettigrew (Canadian Minister of Foreign affairs) officially met with Rafiq Abu-Sharif, a seperatist representative of the Al-Ahwaz organization (see Pettigrew at left and Abu-Sharif at right):

Rafiq

According to the Al-Ahwaz website, Abu-Sharif “…submitted a detailed letter to Pettigrew…detailing the nationalities under oppression…in Iran…”. Let us be clear by what Mr. Abu-Sharif means by “nationalities under oppression…in Iran”. Abu-Sharif isn’t just referring to Iranian Arabs; he is simultaneously advancing the cause of Mr. Chehreganli and Kurdish separatist groups.

How would the distinguished Canadian Minister (himself a Francophone) feel if a foreign nation was providing official recognition to the FLQ (Front de Liberation du Quebec) terrorist and French separatist organization of 1970s Quebec?

But perhaps Mr. Pettigrew and other supporters of the Al-Ahwaz movement have chosen to forget that Iran’s Arabs rejected and fought against Mr. Saddam Hussein’s pan-Arabist attempts at annexing Iran’s Khuzestan province during the bloody 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war (see photo below of Iranian Arabs preparing for battle against Saddam’s forces invading Iran in the 1980s):

Iran Arabs

The only non-Arab is the professional soldier with the green beret, who is training the Iranian Arabs on the use of a grenade launcher. There are now serious attempts by Mr. Abu-Sharif and his organization to re-write this part of Iran’s history – predictably with the support of certain geopolitical and Petroleum lobbies.

There is also strong funding and support for Kurdish anti-Iran academic literature, personified by Dr. Mehrdad Izady (photo below left) and his book (below right) – “The Kurds: A Concise Handbook” (see References):

Izady IzadyBK

The book is a Kurdish version of the Soviet-Pishevari sponsored “Vatan Dili” for Azerbaijan – it essentially writes out the Kurds from the history of Persia and attempts to portray a “Kurdish nation” (in an anti-Iranian context) that never was. This book has been celebrated by anti-Near East individuals such as Daniel Pipes who has noted that:

“…he (Izady) provides copious bibliographic references for further reading. Even Middle East specialists will find almost everything in Izady’s handbook … has done an exemplary job of bringing so much together in a clear and reliable fashion”.

[See Daniel Pipe’s web link in Web References]

The reality is different however. Like other racist organizations such as the pan-Turanian activists, Persian chauvinists or the Greek Chrysi Avgi, Izady manufactures information. Many of his references, when observed objectively, fail to support his assertions, making his book decidedly unreliable. The book is laden with errors and outright falsifications. One example is the claim that Ms. Pari Zangeneh, a popular Iranian opera singer, is Kurdish, when in fact Ms. Zangeneh has admitted to this author that she is not Kurdish and originally hails from Kashan. The last name “Zangeneh” originally derives from that of her ex-husband. Falsifications such as these are typical of Mr. Izady’s Soviet-style historiography, yet the book continues to be viewed by many western “experts” as a valid source of information. Like Brenda Shaffer, and Mr. Chehreganli, Dr. Izady has also been granted audience in front of the US congress due to his “expertise”.

(c) Supporting Racism to further The Bernard Lewis Plan

The Iranians have already been the victims of racial hatred, most recently by pan-Arabism, and now by the Islamic Fundamentalist followers of Mr. Osama Bin laden.  Pan-Arab racist literature has had the distinction of producing works such as Khairullah Tulfah’s “Three Whom God should not have Created: Iranians, Jews and Flies”. During the Iran-Iraq war, thousands of not only Iraqi troops, but Arab volunteers from many Arab nations, drew inspiration from the likes of Tulfa (For more information, refer to Kaveh Farrokh’s article on pan-Arabism in Web References).

The CIA and Pakistan intelligence generously funded and trained an anti-Persian religious fanatic, Mr. Bin Laden up to the 1990s, in the effort to eject the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Bin Laden was later courted in the hope to set up a Central Asian pipeline across Afghanistan. Predictably, his openly brutal treatment of Persian speakers went virtually unreported in the western press and “Human Rights” organizations.

It is both a shame and a sham to see a great nation, the United States, a land of racial diversity, tolerance, and democracy, making common cause with pan-Turanian ideologues who openly admire and draw inspiration from Hitler and Nazism. The Americans heroically fought the Nazis in World War Two in the name of justice and liberty.

But the recent western embrace of anti-democratic and anti-Iranian racist demagogues is anything but strange. Mr. Saddam Hussein, a pan-Arab racist, not only invaded Iran in 1980, but was generously rewarded with chemical and biological weapons, which he used not only against Iranian troops, but liberally against Iranian civilians and Iraq’s own helpless Kurdish population. Not only did any of this repel the west from Saddam, he was openly courted and congratulated by western officials such as Mr. Donald Rumsfeld (below left):

Rumsfeld

Although the above clearly shows the hypocrisy of the man, Rumsfeld is remarkably consistent in his focus: he profoundly dislikes Iranians. Even as the horrors of the gas attack on Halabja were surfacing, Rumsfeld and western media outlets were apologetic and circumspect – after all, Saddam was a useful ally against Iran in the 1980s.

Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian has noted that:

“…some of us (Iranians) remember how the United States insisted that it was Iran, not Iraq, that was using poisonous chemicals against Kurds, and so strong was that propaganda that most believed it, even after Flavio Cotti of the International Red Cross publicly corrected the record. Nobody was willing to defend Iranians, even less say a word against Iraqi bombing of World Heritage sites like Isfahan (and other important monuments)…”

[Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian, Defending Our Turf, posted on Iranian.com, see Web References]

Saddam finally outlived his usefulness and was as callously removed as the end butt of a used cigarette. Now that militant anti-Iranian pan-Arabism has temporarily spent itself, Mr. Rumsfeld (and friends) has “discovered” pan-Turanianism. Mr. Rumsfeld has in fact met Mr. Chehreganli several times and has shaken his hand in the name of Iran’s destruction. The US-Chehreganli connection was recently elaborated by Professor William Beeman (see Web References):

“…there have been continued contacts between Iranian Azerbaijani separatist Mahmudali Chehregani and the Bush administration…There is continued administration contact and support for the MEK…”

[William O. Beeman, US Attack on Iran may be in the Cards, Pacific News Service On-Line, June 28, 2005]

Then there is the “nuclear issue” of Iran, a topic which the author has purposefully avoided mentioning in this publication[xxiv]. The author has no firm opinion formed on the subject, as his knowledge of the issues are rudimentary at best. However, the writer does propose that even if Iran completely dismantled its nuclear program, the bigger (geopolitical-Petroleum) agenda would remain unchanged. Iran would still be vilified and attempts to dismember it (a la Chereganli) would continue unabated.

Many Iranians share this cynicism, viewing the current “nuclear crisis” as not only another extension of Petroleum Diplomacy[xxv], but an attempt to hinder Iran’s technological progress. Peaceful nuclear technology allows for the advancement of many areas of expertise, especially medicine. As noted by Mr. Reza Vatandoust, a high-profile and well respected member of Iran’s on-line cultural platforms:

“…this issue is not about preventing the falling of nuclear weapons into the hands of “So called terrorists”, it is about preventing/stopping the advancement of the Iranian people into the future.”

Mr. Vatandoust’s statement evokes vivid memories of Mr. George Ball in the 1970s and his vehement opposition to all aspects of technological advancement in Iran. Mainstream non-partisan Iranians now increasingly suspect that attempts are being made to hinder Iran’s technological progress, irrespective of whether there is a nuclear program in place or not. In the wider geopolitical-Petroleum scenario, it is simply not “good business” to have a technologically powerful and economically viable Iran. Such an Iran simply does not fit into the nefarious Bernard Lewis Plan.

This being said mention must be made of the long standing bellicose propaganda emanating from the seats of Tehran’s government. There is particular venom directed against Israel with outrageous calls for its destruction. But Why? Statements such as “Israel must be wiped off the map” only serve to focus international wrath against Iran and are a godsend to those with a long-standing geopolitical agenda to dismember Iran and destroy its Persian heritage.

Iran also has no historical disputes with Israel. First, Iranians have long-standing links with the Jewish people, dating to the time of the Medes and Cyrus the Great. Few in the world are aware the one of the first elements of the Jewish Diaspora settled in Hamadan, where many of their descendants live to this day. The tomb of esther and Mordechai is in Hamadan. Second, Iran has no territorial disputes with the Israel. Third, Iran is not an Arab country. Arab problems with Israel are best settled by the parties themselves.

As noted in Part II, item 8c, many Iranians have become disillusioned and tired of the current government’s adoption of pan-Arab issues. Iranians vividly recall how the majority of Arab nations sent volunteers to fight Iran in the 8 year Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), while offering meek protests with respect to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. The Arab world (with the exception of the Shia in Lebanon and Iraq) has certainly had a very cool reception to Iran, despite its pro pan-Arab rhetoric. Arab ideologues continue to openly call for Iran’s destruction as a nation, reject any suggestion of a Persian legacy in their culture or Islam, and continue to make demands on Iranian territory. As noted previously by this author, a number of hard-core Muslim fundamentalists regularly chant “death to Iran” alongside the boringly familiar “death to America…etc.”.

Having criticized the Iranians, geopolitical lobbies (including Israel) have nothing to gain by trying to dismember Iran as a state. These actions will only aggravate an already tense situation. Simply, the madness must end. It is time for calm and rational discourse to take place between reasonable people. To be frank, many Iranians are bored of slogans and propaganda, however they all unanimous in opposing any attempts at dismembering Persia and its legacy.

(11) A Final Note.

It is my sincere hope that this article will draw attention to pan-Turanian ideologues and allow questions to be raised as to their ambitions, especially in Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.Chauvenism in any shape or form (e.g. Nordicism/Nazism, Persian Chauvenism, Pan-Arabism, pan-Kurdism, pan-Turkism, etc.) remains a menace to humanity and world peace.

The main objective of this on-line book/commentary has been a simple one: preventing conflict by questioning the motives of those who wish to promote comflict. Their dogmas fail when exposed to the rigours of objective information. More important than objective information is the basic human decency of realizing how futile and wasteful wars, conflicts and child-like tribalisms are. Wars avail nothing but destruction and anguish. Conflict often has its roots in ignorance, as noted by the wise saying of the Guru Nanak (1469-1539 AD), the founder of the Sikh religion in India:

“Ignorance is the root of all Evil”.

Any teaching that promotes hatred is ultimately rooted in ignorance, and ignorance can be defeated with knowledge and human decency.

Part V <<<>>> Index

---

[i] Engdahl, 2004, p.171.

[ii] Robert Eringer has provided a rare and detailed report on the Bilderberg Group as well as the Trilateral Commission and other covert power groups in the western world. See references for details.

[iii] Dreyfus and LeMarc, 1980, p.157.

[iv] “Pakhtunistan” would assist in the process of the disintegration of Pakistan, Iran and possibly Afghanistan.

[v] As with the Al-Ahwaz and Arabian Gulf projects, the Azerbaijan project is being supported by lobbies harboring economic objectives. As noted by Olson, “…the growth of Azeri nationalism facilitated US and EU efforts to make the Caspian basin region a ‘second Persian Gulf’…” (Turkey-Iran Relations, 1979-2004, 2004, p.155-156).

[vi] Olson, 2004, p.89.

[vii] Dr. Shaffer asked the US Congress in 2002 to lift long-standing US sanctions on the Republic of Azerbaijan despite long-standing concerns with the Republic’s human rights records and anti-democratic procedures..

[viii] Dr. Shaffer has given speeches to the nationalist, pan-Azeri Vatan Society in Britain in 2004.

[ix] Afshin Molavi, a US-based Iranian analyst, has noted that Shaffer’s book has “captivated the attention of [Iranian] regime change advocates in Washington.”

[x] Matini, Jalal, “Azerbaijan Koja Ast?”, 1989, Iranshenasi, I(3), p.447.

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] The professor’s knowledge of all phonological and orthographic (Arabic-based) varieties of Persian are impressive. The Professor showed the author during his interview, a copy of old Tajiki hand-written manuscripts that he was researching. Maclean is also versed in the Dehlavi (Moghul Indian) style of Persian, the Masnavi of Jallale-Din Rumi, the Golestan Saadi and the Divan-e- Hafez.

[xiv] By “nation building” I assume that the Professor meant Iranian nationalism attempts at nation-building. This means that Iranians have invented Azerbaijan’s history as a way of keeping that province in Iran.

[xv] “Released Britons return to Iraq”, BBC TV News Broadcast June 25^th, 2004, also available on the following website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3837943.stm
.

[xvi] Iran’s Arabic language Al-Alam television noted after the seizure of the British and their equipment that “…on board (the seized boats of the British) they (Iranian authorities) found weapons and spy cameras, plus detailed maps of areas within Iran and Iraq.” The full text of this broadcast is provided in the on-line Payvand News network site of June 23, 2004 edition,
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/jun/1141.html
.

[xvii] Ibid.

[xviii] Gedye, Robin & Savill, Richard “Iran releases eight captured servicemen”, The Telegraph, June 25^th, 2004, also available on the following website
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/25/wiran25.xml
.

[xix] Ref

[xx] Philip Robins, Suits and Uniforms: Turkish Foreign Policy Since the Cold War, Hurst & Company, London, p.172-173.

[xxi] Ibid.

[xxii] Philip Robins, Suits and Uniforms: Turkish Foreign Policy Since the Cold War, Hurst & Company, London, p.81.

[xxiii] Philip Robins, Suits and Uniforms: Turkish Foreign Policy Since the Cold War, Hurst & Company, London, p.81. it is interesting to note that when British Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind visited Turkey in September 1995, the Turks made their dissatisfaction with British sponsorship of Med-TV very clear to the secretary.

[xxiv] For further discussion of the nucluer issue, refer to Professor Kaveh Afrasiabi’s article “US media and Iran‘s nuclear threat” (see Web References).

[xxv] One tiny piece of inconsistency is worthy of note: politically unstable Pakistan, with its vast arsenal of nucleur bombs, is not seen as a threat. This is very illogical, as much of the nation’s populace and upper leadership seethes with anti-US sentiment, and there is a genuine danger of a Taliban style takeover. The Taliban are highly irrational and bear a fanatic hatred of the west. Rather than finally confront reality, mainstream American analysts continue to parrot the fallacy that all Pakistanis and Saudis are friends of the United States.

A Geopolitical Agenda

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh

Kaveh Farrokh: Manuvera@aol.com

The entire article without pictures in PDF format

…….INTRODUCTION ………….PART I: A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO PAN-TURANIANISM ……………..(1) A Brief Note on the Origins of Pan-Turanianism. ………………..(2) Some of the Beliefs of Pan-Turanianism. …………………..(a) The Inventors of culture, language and civilization were Turks. ……………………………..(b) The Myth of the Grey Wolf ……………………………..(c) Ancient Sumeria was Turkish. ……………………………..(d) The culture of the ancient Greece and Anatolia is Turkish in origin. ……………………………..(e) The Etruscans of pre-Roman Italy were Turks. ……………………………..(f) Armenians are Turks. ……………………………..(g) The indigenous Indian peoples of North America are Turks. ……………………………..(h) Kurds and their Mede ancestors are Turks. ……………………………..(i) Tajiks are Turks. ……………………………..(j) Turks are the World’s Main Producers of World Class Persian Literature. ……………………………..(k) Judeo-Christianity and Islam have Turkish origins. ……………………………..(l) The Northern Iranians were all Turks. ……………………………..(m) The Parthian language was Turkish. ……………………………..(n) Bosnians, Macedonians, Albanians, and Ukrainians are Turks. …………PART II: PAN-TURANIAN CLAIMS TO AZERBAIJAN ……………..(1) Greater Azerbaijan was divided between Russia and Persia. …………………..(a) Arran & the Historical Azerbaijan. …………………………….(b) The Musavats and the early Pan-Turanianists. …………………………….(c) The Soviet Russians & Joseph Stalin. …………………………….(d) Mr. Amin Rasulzadeh. …………………………….(e) The role of Soviet Russia in 1941-1946. ……………..(2) Azerbaijanis have spoken Turkish since the advent of History. ……………………..(a) Archival Information. ……………………………..(b) The Turkic arrivals & Manzikert. ……………………………..(c) Linguistic Turkification. ……………………………..(d) Resistance against Ottoman Turks. ……………………………..(e) World War One. …………………(3) Turks have been in the Caucasus for over 5000 Years. ……………………………..(a) Armenia, Georgia, Albania/Arran ……………..(4) The Safavid Empire was Turkish. ………………..(5) Sattar Khan was a pan-Turanian separatist. ……………………………(a) Mr. Mahmudali Chereganli. ……………………………(b) Sattar Khan & the Constitutional Movement of Persia. ……………………………(c) European Intervention. ……………………………(d) SANAM & the Fabrication of History. …………………(6) Babak Khorramdin was a Turk who fought against Persia. ………………….(7) Azerbaijanis and all who speak Turkish are Turkish by race. ………………………(a) Ziya Gokalp ……………………………(b) The Richards et al. Genetic Studies ……………………………(c) The Analyses of Colin Renfrew ……………………………(d) The Cavalli-Sforza et al. Genetic Studies ……………………………(e) Transcending the Concept of “Race” …………………(8) Iranian complacency. ……………………………(a) Difficulty balancing Aryan Persia with Islam ……………………………(b) Toleration of Anti-Persian cultural expressions ……………………………(c) Iran’s Neglect of Persian culture ……………………………(d) A Bitter Tsarist Legacy …………PART III: THE GREY WOLVES …………………(1) Who are the Grey Wolves? …………………(2) Supporting Mr. Chehreganli …………………(3) Operations in Foreign Countries …………………(4) Grey Wolf Miscalculation: Greece ………...PART IV: THE PROMOTION OF DISCORD ………………...(1) Translating Nazi Literature to Turkish …………………(2) Anti-Armenian Literature. ………………….(a) Similarity to Nazi Propaganda. ……………………………(b) Mr. Talaat Pasha & the 1915 Armenian Tragedy. ……………………………(c) Forgotten Gallant Turks who Saved Lives. ……………………………(d) Political Influence and Re-Writing History. ……………………………(e) The Role of Mr. Chehreganli & SANAM. ………………….(3) Anti-Iranian Literature. ………………….(4) The Status of non-Turkic speaking Azerbaijanis. ………………….(5) Racialism and Fanaticism: Cancer at an International Scale ………….PART V: GREY WOLVES & FAILURE IN AZERBAIJAN ………………….(1) Grey Wolf Public Relations Failures. ………………….(2) Hostility to Grey Wolf Activism among Iranian Azerbaijanis. ………………….(3) Tepid Reception in the Republic of Azerbaijan. ………….PART VI: GEOPOLITICAL INTERESTS & PETROLEUM DIPLOMACY ………………….(1) The Bernard Lewis Project. ………………….(2) Geopolitics & Petroleum Diplomacy. ……………………………(a) The Role of British Petroleum and Oil Companies …………………………………..(b) Dismantling Geopolitical Obstacles: Dismembering Yugoslavia ………………….(3) Is Oil Running Out? ………………….(4) Manipulating Scholarship in the West: ……………………………(a) The ATC. …………………………………..(b) CSIS. …………………………………..(c) Dr. Brenda Shaffer. …………………………………..(d) A Personal Experience. …………………..(5) Geopolitics & Re-inventing History: The Macedonia Example. ………………………..(a) Changing Skopje to the Republic of Macedonia. ……………………………………(b) Retroactive De-Hellenization & Petroleum Diplomacy. ……………………………………(c) South Slav Macedonian Nationalism. ……………………(6) Geopolitics and Psychological warfare. ……………………………………(a) Manufacturing Victims. ……………………………………(b) False Flag Incidents. …………………….(7) Manipulation of Western Media. …………………….(8) Iranians as Negative Propaganda Targets. …………………….(9) Turkey & The Republic of Azerbaijan: Victims of Geopolitical Manipulation. …………………….(10) The Iranian Experience with Geopolitics & Petroleum Diplomacy. …………………………………….(a) The Same Old Story? …………………………………….(b) The Partitioning Agenda Continues …………………………………….(c) Supporting Racism to further The Bernard Lewis Plan …………………….(11) A Final Note. REFERENCES WEBSITE REFERENCES PART VI REFERENCES: DIMINISHING PETROLEUM RESOURCES FURTHER NOTES:THE FUTILITY OF RACIALISM FOOTNOTES

Killed Americans were part of 100-strong commando unit

[Is admitting that the dead Americans were Special Forces better than admitting that they were "Blackwater"?  The mission described below is identical to the missions described by Jeremy Scahill in the Nation.]

By Amir Mir

LAHORE: The three US soldiers who lost their lives on Wednesday in a school bombing incident in Dir Lower were members of the Army Special Forces, which has been training the Frontier Corps to improve its intelligence and combat tactics to effectively fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban insurgents in the Pak-Afghan tribal belt.

It is for the first time since the American occupation of Afghanistan in October 2001 that any US soldier has been killed in Pakistan, that too in a terrorist act. According to well informed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the slain US soldiers were part of a 100-member strong special American military training unit which was dispatched to Pakistan in 2008 to raise a 1,000-member strong well-trained paramilitary commando unit which could conduct guerrilla operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban militants active in the Pak-Afghan tribal belt and involved in cross-border ambushes against the US-led allied forces stationed in Afghanistan.

The military training programme was never officially announced by Pakistan to avoid a possible backlash by the opposition parties, which are opposed to the American military presence on the Pakistani territory. The US-funded training course for the largely under-equipped and under-trained Frontier Corps included both classroom and field sessions.

In the beginning, the American military trainers confined themselves to training compounds due to security concerns in Pakistan. However, they had now started accompanying Pakistani troops on special guerrilla operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, eventually leading to the Wednesday incident in Dir Lower which shares a border with Afghanistan and with the restive Swat district, where the Army had to carry out a massive military operation last year. The three slain US soldiers were travelling in a convoy with troops, journalists and officials to the opening of Koto Girls’ High School when the roadside bomb exploded.

The school was blown up in January 2009 and rebuilt with the help of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Dozens of girls’ school were set ablaze in Lower Dir area in 2008-2009 by the private army of Maulana Fazlullah, the fugitive chief of the Swat chapter of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Though a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq has claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying the dead Americans belonged to the US security company Blackwater Worldwide – now known as Xe, military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas has said that the American soldiers were in Pakistan to train the Frontier Corps. Informed diplomatic circles in Islamabad say the American soldiers were part of a $100 million Pentagon-funded training programme which is meant to equip the Frontier Corps with new body armour, vehicles, and surveillance equipment, and plans to spend $75 million more during the next year. As per the programme, the Pentagon intended to spend around $400 million more in the next few years to train and equip the Frontier Corps. Sources say, besides dispatching American marines to train the Frontier Corps personnel, the Pentagon had also sent a special team of its Special Forces military advisers, communication experts, technical specialists and combat medics to help establish coordination centres on Pak-Afghan border so that the American and Pakistani officials could share intelligence about al-Qaeda and Taliban elements in and around the tribal areas.

Why does the IRS need shotguns?

Terrorists or “Freedom Fighters”? American Duplicity in Its Terror War

[The illegal travesty of justice known as "Guantanamo" is bringing to the forefront all of the little perversities and the monstrous inhuman tendencies of those men who represent American "intelligence" in the war brought-on by their actions in the world.  The sheer insanity of calling one man a "freedom fighter" and the other a "terrorist," depending on whose side they are on, even though they commit the same acts, is readily apparent in the Uighur inmates.  The Uighurs taken in Afghanistan trained in the same South Waziristan camps that produced Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the leadership of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Jundullah group and several of the participants in the 911 attacks.  They are all terrorists, even if we hope that some of them succeed.]

Obama nears end of Uighur Guantanamo nightmare

Posted: 04 February 2010 1239 hrs

	Chinese Uighur detainees at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base.

WASHINGTON: Switzerland’s decision to take two Chinese Uighur inmates from Guantanamo Bay opens the way for the United States to close the case on the men whose long legal limbo has confounded two administrations.

President Barack Obama’s administration is seen as racing to find homes for the five remaining men in Guantanamo Bay by March 23, when the Supreme Court will hear their case and could potentially order them freed on US soil.

Switzerland said Wednesday it would grant asylum to two Uighurs from the controversial prison camp in Cuba, becoming the first Western nation to do so and risking reprisals from China.

“The government and people of Switzerland have made an extraordinary humanitarian gesture, which is even more remarkable in the face of unrelenting pressure from China,” said Rebiya Kadeer, the leader of Uighurs in exile.

Twenty-two Uighurs, member of a mostly Muslim minority in northwestern China, had set up a camp in Afghanistan and were shipped to Guantanamo Bay after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001.

US authorities cleared them of wrongdoing as early as 2004, coming to believe they were turned in by villagers seeking bounty money.

George W. Bush’s administration refused China’s requests for them, fearing they would be tortured. It has kept them on Guantanamo Bay but with greater freedom than other prisoners, including a recreational space and library.

Obama, who took office pledging to close down the camp, thought the Uighurs would be the easiest cases. But US lawmakers prevented efforts to free them in the United States and China has pressured other nations not to accept them.

Uighur inmates earlier found homes in the disparate nations of Albania, Bermuda and Palau.

Palau, an archipelago in the Pacific, has accepted six of the inmates and offered to accept all who remain. But the prisoners have hesitated, preferring a location with a Uighur community.

Nury Turkel, a Uighur-American lawyer and activist based in Washington, expected the Obama administration to try to free the remaining Uighurs before their case goes to the Supreme Court on March 23.

“It is a long overdue step. This should have been done long ago,” he said of their release.

“I salute Switzerland for standing up and protecting the humanitarian principles that their country and culture cherish,” he said.

A judge earlier ordered that the men be freed in the United States. But a higher court overturned the ruling, setting the stage for the upcoming Supreme Court case.

The nine-judge highest court has the power to throw Obama’s slow-moving Guantanamo closure plans into chaos.

“This case is about judicial power in an area that the president and Congress regard as their domain, so the stakes are very high,” said Matthew Waxman, an associate professor at Columbia Law School.

“I think all three branches of government – the executive, the Congress and the courts – hope a solution is found to resettle the Uighurs and avoid a constitutional showdown in this case,” he said.

The case marks the first time that the Supreme Court has taken up policies of the “war on terror” launched by Bush.

Obama pledged to shut down the Guantanamo prison camp within a year of taking office but missed the self-imposed deadline, with officials acknowledging that the task was more difficult than expected.

The Obama administration now plans to continue to detain some men indefinitely without trial but move them from Guantanamo Bay to a top-security prison in the small town of Thomson, Illinois.

- AFP/sc

Smoking Guns and Bulls-eyes: Israel rewrote the rules of War for Gaza

eileen fleming

On February 3, 2010, The Independent reported that a high-ranking officer who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, admitted that Israel’s army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives and “that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as ‘means and intentions’– whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter.” [1]

A junior officer described the new policy as one of “literally zero risk to the soldiers.” [Ibid]

Israeli human rights lawyers, Michael Sfard, commented that the senior commander’s acknowledgment was “a smoking gun.”

That gun has been smoking since July 2009, when 54 testimonies from Israeli soldiers regarding their experiences during Operation Cast Lead were published by the Israeli human rights group, Breaking the Silence, exposed the gaps between the reports given by the army in January 2009 and “accepted practices; the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions.” [2]

Their testimonies illuminated that the soldiers were not given directives regarding the goal of the operation and, one soldier testified, “there was not much said about the issue of innocent civilians.”

Many soldiers said that they fought without seeing “the enemy before their eyes.”

Another said, “You feel like an infantile little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them, a 20-year-old kid should not have to do these kinds of things to other people.”

Mikhael Manekin, was discharged from the IDF in 2002 and is now the Foreign Relations Manager for Breaking The Silence/BTS.

In July 2009, Maniken fired and hit the bull’s-eye when he stated, “The testimonies prove that the immoral way the war was carried out was due to the systems in place and not the individual soldier…through the IDF the exception becomes the norm, and this requires a deep and reflective discussion. This is an urgent call to Israel’s society and leadership to take a sober look at the foolishness of our policies.”

On August 8, 2009, Rob Lipton reported that Netanyahu asked Spain, Britain and The Netherlands to stop funding Breaking The Silence, which is made up of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories over the last ten years.

“The accounts by the soldiers are harrowing and document war crimes.  The Israeli government claims that governmental support of ‘politicized’ NGOs undermines democracy in the Jewish state [and] that foreign governmental funding of non-governmental institutions that are ostensibly working ‘against’ the interests of the duly elected government are undemocratic.” [3]

Don Futterman, program director of the Moriah Fund, a private American foundation working in Israel to support civil society and democracy, immigrant absorption and education, hit another bull’s-eye:

“If our defense minister (Avigor Lieberman) wants us to live up to the claim that the IDF is ‘the most moral army on earth,’ he should welcome soldiers who speak out about illegal acts that they have witnessed or were asked to perform. In our post-war rush to elections, we unfortunately – and perhaps, conveniently – skipped over any discussion concerning the morality of what the army has done. But even our fears of one-sided international condemnation of our actions in Gaza cannot justify official attempts to silence the messenger, especially when that messenger is us.”

Don Futterman also argued that, “BTS is not an advocacy organization, it is made up of IDF reservists who have served in the territories during their regular military service over the last nine years. In addition to recognizing the harm we are doing to our Palestinian neighbors, the organization urges us to look closely at the damage we are doing to our own soldiers when they are asked to engage in acts of questionable morality or legality. BTS gathers and then publicizes testimony in both words and pictures from soldiers who are willing to come forward. The organization makes every effort to check the veracity of these testimonies, and will not publish any soldier’s comments unless it has corroborating testimony from at least one other reliable source.

“[What] the government and the IDF find intolerable [is] opposition to their attempts to control the discourse concerning Israel’s behavior in the territories.

“Our government (Israel) should welcome other expressions of foreign support for our civil society, not attempt to control it. If the United Kingdom or Spain or any other state wants to be a true friend to Israeli democracy, it will renew its commitment to BTS.”

Bans on foreign government support of NGOs is a characteristic of dictatorships, and Israel was never a democracy, but has always been an Ethnocracy:
“An ethnocracy is the opposite of a democracy, although it might incorporate some elements of democracy such as universal citizenship and elections. It arises when one particular group-the Jews in Israel, the Russians in Russia, the Protestants in pre-1972 Northern Ireland, the whites in apartheid South Africa, the Shi’ite Muslims in Iran, the Malay in Malaysia and, if they had their way, the white Christian fundamentalists in the US-seize control of the government and armed forces in order to enforce a regime of exclusive privilege over other groups in what is in fact a multi-ethnic or multi-religious society. Ethnocracy, or ethno-nationalism, privileges ethnos over demos, whereby one’s ethnic affiliation, be it defined by race, descent, religion, language or national origin, takes precedence over citizenship in determining to whom a county actually ‘belongs.-Jeff Halper, An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Page 74.

“The terms ‘democracy’ or ‘democratic’ are totally absent from the Declaration of Independence. This is not an accident. The intention of Zionism was not to bring democracy, needless to say. It was solely motivated by the creation in Eretz-Isrel of a Jewish state belonging to all the Jewish people and to the Jewish people alone. This is why any Jew of the Diaspora has the right to immigrate to Israel and to become a citizen of Israel.”- Ariel Sharon, May 28, 1993 edition of Yedioth Ahronoth.

On July 27, 2007, during the last day of my fifth out of seven trips to Israel Palestine, Mikhael Manekin, informed this reporter:

“I am a practicing Jew and in two weeks we go into the month of repentance; which requires acknowledging our sins. We cannot change things until we acknowledge our culpability.

“The problem is government policy that is implemented by young soldiers and whenever religion is involved, we will have fundamentalism. The Israeli peace and justice activists are less than 1% of Israeli society and anybody who is an activist is an optimist. You cannot do anything if you do not believe you can do something to change the situation. We have to remind ourselves that we are the minority; [it appears that] we are loosing, but we remind ourselves we are right!

“Everybody in Israel knows somebody who has served in the occupied territories. The situation in 2007 is worse than 2006 and it looks worse for 2008, but more and more activists-like Anarchists Against the Wall and Tayoush are actively working with Palestinians against the occupation, they are not afraid to travel in the occupied territories and are learning Arabic. Two, three years ago you wouldn’t have heard anything; but now every week Israelis are getting arrested for fighting the occupation.

“A few years ago, the soldiers you have encountered at the checkpoints would have been me. Soldiers like myself who served during the second intifada, got our education on the job. You all have visited more places [the past nine days] than most Israelis ever have. Israeli’s have no idea what is happening in the occupied territories. But, so far in 2007 we have given more Israeli’s a tour through Hebron than we did in 2005 and 2006 combined. Hebron is a ghost town, the settlers are unbearable and every soldier who is stationed there understands the 600 settlers there are psychotic; insane.

“I became very opinionated while in the army, but I kept it all to myself. Nobody talks about it in the army and I was the commander and did not know until after I got out that one of the other soldiers in my unit was feeling the same way, until he gave his testimony. Israeli society wants you to believe you are a bad apple for speaking out because unless you trust the system, it will fall apart. Most Israelis who get out of the army leave the country and are probably all drugged out. They suffer post traumatic syndrome but we are the victimizers. My age group is getting the hell out of here or walling themselves off from society and are not involved in anything.

“Over 450 former soldiers have now given their testimonies and we don’t publish any stories without the corroboration coming from another former soldier and the testimonies are kept anonymous.

“You have to understand you must preach to your own people; we want to shake up the comfortable people who may agree with us in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but are not activists yet.”

1. 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-commander-we-rewrote-the-rules-of-war-for-gaza-1887627.html

2. 
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1344&Itemid=222

3. 
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2009/08/08/netanyahus-attempts-to-silence-breaking-the-silence/

4. 
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=595&Itemid=169

Are the pirates and the Islamists in cahoots?

Are the pirates and the Islamists in cahoots?

Posted By Elizabeth Dickinson

Somalia has two big scourges these days: Islamist milititas the run most of the country (and arelinked to al Qaeda) and piracy off the coast. (The combination yields a desperate humanitarian situation sandwiched in between.)

But what if the two scourges are linked? That was the  suggestion of the Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Stephen Musyok, speaking at the New America Foundation today. ”Piracy is another issue which I think has a  direct link with these extremist militant groups,” he told the audience.

It’s an odd idea at first. Al Shabaab has built its image on the harsh brand of Sharia that they hope to impose, and during the Islamic Courts government earlier this decade (of which al Shabaab was a part,) piracy was banned.

Not anymore. Last December, a Canadian intelligence report indicated that Shabaab was in fact training pirates for their “duties.” Further reporting from Jane’s (summarized here) notes how taxes are levied on the pirates’ booties. Yes, the pirates and the Islamists are definitely in cahoots.

One way they know that both are getting worse? “[I]n Nairobi today, property prices today are still rising, and we think this has a direct link with the piracy.” In other words, all those wealthy pirates are buying up fancy homes. And they’ve got a lot of cash to spend.

The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti

by F. William Engdahl* Behind the smoke, rubble and unending drama of human tragedy in the hapless Caribbean country, a drama is in full play for control of what geophysicists believe may be one of the world’s richest zones for hydrocarbons-oil and gas outside the Middle East, possibly orders of magnitude greater than that of nearby Venezuela. While bringing to light the geostrategic honeypot that Haiti has turned into, Engdahl also states his case against the advocates of the ‘Peak Oil’ theory.

Carribbean geology, geophysics and tectonics. © University of Texas Haiti, and the larger island of Hispaniola of which it is a part, has the geological fate that it straddles one of the world’s most active geological zones, where the deepwater plates of three huge structures relentlessly rub against one another—the intersection of the North American, South American and Caribbean tectonic plates. Below the ocean and the waters of the Caribbean, these plates consist of an oceanic crust some 3 to 6 miles thick, floating atop an adjacent mantle. Haiti also lies at the edge of the region known as the Bermuda Triangle, a vast area in the Caribbean subject to bizarre and unexplained disturbances. This vast mass of underwater plates are in constant motion, rubbing against each other along lines analogous to cracks in a broken porcelain vase that has been reglued. The earth’s tectonic plates typically move at a rate 50 to 100 mm annually in relation to one another, and are the origin of earthquakes and of volcanoes. The regions of convergence of such plates are also areas where vast volumes of oil and gas can be pushed upwards from the Earth’s mantle. The geophysics surrounding the convergence of the three plates that run more or less directly beneath Port-au-Prince make the region prone to earthquakes such as the one that struck Haiti with devastating ferocity on January 12. A relevant Texas geological project Leaving aside the relevant question of how well in advance the Pentagon and US scientists knew the quake was about to occur, and what Pentagon plans were being laid before January 12, another issue emerges around the events in Haiti that might help explain the bizarre behavior to date of the major ‘rescue’ players—the United States, France and Canada. Aside from being prone to violent earthquakes, Haiti also happens to lie in a zone that, due to the unusual geographical intersection of its three tectonic plates, might well be straddling one of the world’s largest unexplored zones of oil and gas, as well as of valuable rare strategic minerals. The vast oil reserves of the Persian Gulf and of the region from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden are at a similar convergence zone of large tectonic plates, as are such oil-rich zones as Indonesia and the waters off the coast of California. In short, in terms of the physics of the earth, precisely such intersections of tectonic masses as run directly beneath Haiti have a remarkable tendency to be the sites of vast treasures of minerals, as well as oil and gas, throughout the world. Notably, in 2005, a year after the Bush-Cheney Administration de facto deposed the democratically elected President of Haiti, Jean-Baptiste Aristide [1], a team of geologists from the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas began an ambitious and thorough two-phase mapping of all geological data of the Caribbean Basins. The project is due to be completed in 2011. Directed by Dr. Paul Mann, it is called “Caribbean Basins, Tectonics and Hydrocarbons.” It is all about determining as precisely as possible the relation between tectonic plates in the Caribbean and the potential for hydrocarbons—oil and gas. Notably, the sponsors of the multi-million dollar research project under Mann are the world’s largest oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and BHP Billiton. [2] Curiously enough, the project is the first comprehensive geological mapping of a region that, one would have thought, would have been a priority decades ago for the US oil majors. Given the immense, existing oil production off Mexico, Louisiana, and the entire Caribbean, as well as its proximity to the United States – not to mention the US focus on its own energy security – it is surprising that the region had not been mapped earlier. Now it emerges that major oil companies were at least generally aware of the huge oil potential of the region long ago, but apparently decided to keep it quiet. Cuba’s Super-giant find Evidence that the US Administration may well have more in mind for Haiti than the improvement of the lot of the devastated Haitian people can be found in nearby waters off Cuba, directly across from Port-au-Prince. In October 2008 a consortium of oil companies led by Spain’s Repsol, together with Cuba’s state oil company, Cubapetroleo, announced discovery of one of the world’s largest oilfields in the deep water off Cuba. It is what oil geologists call a ‘Super-giant’ field. Estimates are that the Cuban field contains as much as 20 billion barrels of oil, making it the twelfth Super-giant oilfield discovered since 1996. The discovery also likely makes Cuba a new high-priority target for Pentagon destabilization and other nasty operations. No doubt to the dismay of Washington, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew to Havana one month after the Cuban giant oil find to sign an agreement with acting-President Raul Castro for Russian oil companies to explore and develop Cuban oil. [3] Medvedev’s Russia-Cuba oil agreements came only a week after the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to meet the recuperating Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. The Chinese President signed an agreement to modernize Cuban ports and discussed Chinese purchase of Cuban raw materials. No doubt the mammoth new Cuban oil discovery was high on the Chinese agenda with Cuba. [4] On November 5, 2008, just prior to the Chinese President’s trip to Cuba and other Latin American countries, the Chinese government issued their first ever policy paper on the future of China’s relations with Latin America and Caribbean nations, elevating these bilateral relations to a new level of strategic importance. [5] The Cuba Super-giant oil find also leaves the advocates of ‘Peak Oil’ theory with more egg on the face. Shortly before the Bush-Blair decision to invade and occupy Iraq, a theory made the rounds of cyberspace, that sometime after 2010, the world would reach an absolute “peak” in world oil production, initiating a period of decline with drastic social and economic implications. Its prominent spokesmen, including retired oil geologist Colin Campbell and Texas oil banker Matt Simmons, claimed that there had not been a single new Super-giant oil discovery since 1976, or thereabouts, and that new fields found over the past two decades had been “tiny” compared with the earlier giant discoveries in Saudi Arabia, Prudhoe Bay, Daquing in China and elsewhere. [6] It is critical to note that, more than half a century ago, a group of Russian and Ukrainian geophysicists, working in state secrecy, confirmed that hydrocarbons originated deep in the earth’s mantle under conditions similar to a giant burning cauldron at extreme temperature and pressure. They demonstrated that, contrary to US and accepted Western ‘mainstream’ geology, hydrocarbons were not the result of dead dinosaur detritus concentrated and compressed and somehow transformed into oil and gas millions of years ago, nor of algae or other biological material. [7] The Russian and Ukrainian geophysicists then proved that the oil or gas produced in the earth’s mantle was pushed upwards along faults or cracks in the earth as close to the surface as pressures permitted. The process was analogous to the production of molten lava in volcanoes. It means that the ability to find oil is limited, relatively speaking, only by the ability to identify deep fissures and complex geological activity conducive to bringing the oil out from deep in the earth. It seems that the waters of the Caribbean, especially those off Cuba and its neighbor Haiti, are just such a region of concentrated hydrocarbons (oil and gas) that have found their way upwards close to the surface, perhaps in a magnitude comparable to a new Saudi Arabia. [8] Haiti, a new Saudi Arabia? The remarkable geography of Haiti and Cuba and the discovery of world-class oil reserves in the waters off Cuba lend credence to anecdotal accounts of major oil discoveries in several parts of Haitian territory. It also could explain why two Bush Presidents and now special UN Haiti Envoy Bill Clinton have made Haiti such a priority. As well, it could explain why Washington and its NGOs moved so quickly to remove— twice— the democratically elected President Aristide, whose economic program for Haiti included, among other items, proposals for developing Haitian natural resources for the benefit of the Haitian people. In March 2004, some months before the University of Texas and American Big Oil launched their ambitious mapping of the hydrocarbon potentials of the Caribbean, a Haitian writer, Dr. Georges Michel, published online an article titled ‘Oil in Haiti.’ In it, Michel wrote, … .[I]t has been no secret that deep in the earthy bowels of the two states that share the island of Haiti and the surrounding waters that there are significant, still untapped deposits of oil. One knows not why they are still untapped. Since the early twentieth century, the physical and political map of the island of Haiti, erected in 1908 by Messrs. Alexander Poujol and Henry Thomasset, reported a major oil reservoir in Haiti near the source of the Rio Todo El Mondo, Tributary Right Artibonite River, better known today as the River Thomonde. [9] According to a June 2008 article by Roberson Alphonse in the Haitian paper, Le Nouvelliste en Haiti, “The signs, (indicators), justifying the explorations of oil (black gold) in Haiti are encouraging. In the middle of the oil shock, some 4 companies want official licenses from the Haitian State to drill for oil.” At the time, oil prices were climbing above $140 a barrel — on manipulations by various Wall Street banks. Alphonse’s article quoted Dieusuel Anglade, the Haitian State Director of the Office of Mining and Energy, telling the Haitian press: “We’ve received four requests for oil exploration permits…We have had encouraging indicators to justify the pursuit of the exploration of black gold (oil), which had stopped in 1979.” [10] Alphonse reported the findings from a 1979 geological study in Haiti of 11 exploratory oil wells drilled at the Plaine du Cul-de-sac on the Plateau Central and at L’ile de La Gonaive: “Surface (tentative) indicators for oil were found at the Southern peninsula and on the North coast, explained the engineer Anglade, who strongly believes in the immediate commercial viability of these explorations.” [11] Journalist Alphonse cites an August 16, 1979 memo by Haitian attorney Francois Lamothe, in which he noted that “five big wells were drilled” down to depths of 9000 feet and that a sample that “underwent a physical-chemical analysis in Munich, Germany” had “revealed tracks of oil.” [12] Despite the promising 1979 results in Haiti, Dr. Georges Michel reported that, “the big multinational oil companies operating in Haiti pushed for the discovered deposits not to be exploited.” [13] Oil exploration in and offshore Haiti ground to a sudden halt as a result. Similar if less precise reports claiming that Haitian oil reserves could be vastly larger than those of Venezuela have appeared in Haitian websites. [14] Then in 2010 the financial news site Bloomberg News carried the following: The Jan. 12 earthquake was on a fault line that passes near potential gas reserves, said Stephen Pierce, a geologist who worked in the region for 30 years for companies that included the former Mobil Corp. The quake may have cracked rock formations along the fault, allowing gas or oil to temporarily seep toward the surface, he said Monday in a telephone interview. ‘A geologist, callous as it may seem, tracing that fault zone from Port-au-Prince to the border looking for gas and oil seeps, may find a structure that hasn’t been drilled,’ said Pierce, exploration manager at Zion Oil & Gas Inc., a Dallas-based company that’s drilling in Israel. [15] In an interview with a Santo Domingo online paper, Leopoldo Espaillat Nanita, former head of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (REFIDOMSA) stated, “there is a multinational conspiracy to illegally take the mineral resources of the Haitian people.” [16] Haiti’s minerals include gold, the valuable strategic metal iridium and oil, apparently lots of it. Aristide’s development plans Marguerite Laurent (’Ezili Dantò’), president of the Haitian Lawyers’ Leadership Network (HLLN) who served as attorney for the deposed Aristide, notes that when Aristide was President — up until his US-backed ouster during the Bush era in 2004 — he had developed and published in book form his national development plans. These plans included, for the first time, a detailed list of known sites where the resources of Haiti were located. The publication of the plan sparked a national debate over Haitian radio and in the media about the future of the country. Aristide’s plan was to implement a public-private partnership to ensure that the development of Haiti’s oil, gold and other valuable resources would benefit the national economy and the broader population, and not merely the five Haitian oligarchic families and their US backers, the so-called Chimeres or gangsters. [17] Since the ouster of Aristide in 2004, Haiti has been an occupied country, with a dubiously-elected President, Rene Preval, a controversial follower of IMF privatization mandates and reportedly tied to the Chimeres or Haitian oligarchs who backed the removal of Aristide. Notably, the US State Department refuses to permit the return of Aristide from South African exile. Now, in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12, the United States military has taken control of Haiti’s four airports and presently has some 20,000 troops in the country. Journalists and international aid organizations have accused the US military of being more concerned with imposing military control, which it prefers to call “security,” than with bringing urgently needed water, food and medicine from the airport sites to the population. A US military occupation of Haiti under the guise of earthquake disaster ‘relief’ would give Washington and private business interests tied to it a geopolitical prize of the first order. Prior to the January 12 quake, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince was the fifth largest US embassy in the world, comparable to its embassies in such geopolitically strategic places as Berlin and Beijing. [18] With huge new oil finds off Cuba being exploited by Russian companies, with clear indications that Haiti contains similar vast untapped oil as well as gold, copper, uranium and iridium, with Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela as a neighbor to the south of Haiti, a return of Aristide or any popular leader committed to developing the resources for the people of Haiti, — the poorest nation in the Americas — would constitute a devastating blow to the world’s sole Superpower. The fact that in the aftermath of the earthquake, UN Haiti Special Envoy Bill Clinton joined forces with Aristide foe George W. Bush to create something called the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund ought to give everyone pause. According to Marguerite Laurent (’Ezili Dantò’) of the Haitian Lawyers’ Leadership Network, under the guise of emergency relief work, the US, France and Canada are engaged in a balkanization of the island for future mineral control. She reports rumors that Canada wants the North of Haiti where Canadian mining interests are already present. The US wants Port-au-Prince and the island of La Gonaive just offshore – an area identified in Aristide’s development book as having vast oil resources, and which is bitterly contested by France. She further states that China, with UN veto power over the de facto UN-occupied country, may have something to say against such a US-France-Canada carve up of the vast wealth of the nation. [19] F. William Engdahl Author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation.. He also authored A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press). His latest book is Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press). This author’s articles To send a message [1] File : Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Voltaire Network. [2] Paul Mann, Caribbean Basins, Tectonic Plates & Hydrocarbons, Institute for Geophysics, The University of Texas at Austin.Download. [3] Rory Carroll, “Medvedev and Castro meet to rebuild Russia-Cuba relations“, London Guardian, November 28, 2008. [4] Julian Gavaghan, “Comrades in arms: When China’s President Hu met a frail Fidel Castro“, London Daily Mail, November 19, 2008. [5] Peoples’ Daily Online, “China issues first policy paper on Latin America, Caribbean region“, November 5, 2008. [6] Matthew R. Simmons, The World’s Giant Oilfields, Simmons & Co. International, Houston. Download. [7] Anton Kolesnikov, et al, “Methane-derived hydrocarbons produced under upper-mantle conditions”, Nature Geoscience, July 26, 2009. [8] F. William Engdahl, “War and Peak Oil—Confessions of an ‘ex’ Peak Oil believer“, Global Research, September 26, 2007. [9] Dr. Georges Michel, “Oil in Haiti“, English translation from French, « Pétrole en Haïti », March 27, 2004 [10] Roberson Alphonse, “Drill, and then pump the oil of Haiti! 4 oil companies request oil drilling permits“, translated from the original French, June 27, 2008 [11] Ibid. [12] Ibid. The full text indicated that, “five big wells were drilled at Porto Suel (Maissade) of a depth of 9000 feet, at Bebernal, 9000 feet, at Bois-Carradeux (Ouest), at Dumornay, on the road Route Frare and close to the Chemin de Fer of Saint-Marc. A sample, a ‘carrot’ (oil reservoir) drilled up from the well of Saint-Marc in the Artibonite underwent a physical-chemical analysis in Munich, Germany, at the request of Mr. Broth. ‘The result of the analysis was returned on October 11, 1979 and revealed tracks of oil,’ confided the engineer, Willy Clemens, who had gone to Germany.” [13] Dr. Georges Michel, op. cit. [14] Marguerite Laurent, “Haiti is full of oil, say Ginette and Daniel Mathurin“, Radio Metropole, Jan 28, 2008. [15] Jim Polson, “Haiti earthquake may have exposed gas, aiding economy“, Bloomberg News, January 26, 2010. [16] « Espaillat Nanita revela en Haiti existen grandes recursos de oro y otros minerals », Espacinsular.org, 17 November, 2009 [17] The Aristide development plan was contained in the book published in Haiti in 2000, Investir dans l’Humain. Livre Blanc de Fanmi Lavalas sous la Direction de Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Port-au-Prince, Imprimerie Henri Deschamps, 2000. It contained detailed maps, tables, graphics, and a national development plan for 2004 “covering agriculture, environment, commerce and industry, the financial sector, infrastructure, education, culture, health, women’s issues, and issues in the public sector.” In 2004, using NGOs and the UN and a vicious propaganda campaign to vilify Aristide, the Bush administration got rid of the elected President. [18] Cynthia McKinney, “Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux“,Voltaire Network, January 19, 2010. [19] Marguerite Laurent (Ezili Danto), “Did mining and oil drilling trigger the Haiti earthquake?“, OpEd News.com, January 23, 2010.

Both Republicans and Democrats Endanger Chinese Relationship for Political Gains

China Shows Little Patience for U.S. Currency Pressure

By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — To the growing list of grievances between the United States and China, add one more: the Obama administration is reviving American pressure on China to stop artificially depressing its currency, a policy that fuels its persistent trade gap with the United States.

Adrian Bradshaw/European Pressphoto Agency

The People’s Bank of China in Beijing. Washington wants China to stop depressing its currency.

But Beijing signaled on Thursday that it had little patience or sympathy for Washington’s stance.

“At the moment, looking at international balance of payments and forex market supply and demand, the level of the yuan is close to reasonable and balanced,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, told a news briefing in Beijing in a reiteration of China’s longstanding policy about its currency.

“Accusations and pressure do not help to solve the problem,” Mr. Ma added.

The Obama administration has told Chinese officials that currency policy will be high on its agenda this year for economic talks with China, a senior official had said on Wednesday. The White House is also weighing whether to designate China as a country that manipulates its currency, when the Treasury Department issues its semiannual report on foreign currencies in April.

President Obama signaled the tougher line when he told Democratic senators on Wednesday that the United States needed “to make sure our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are not artificially deflated in price; that puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage.”

Reopening the battle with Beijing over its currency may pay political dividends for Mr. Obama at a time of double-digit unemployment and growing fears that China is stealing American jobs. But experts say the president will have even less leverage over Beijing than President George W. Bush did. Mr. Bush prodded China for years to adjust its exchange rate with little success.

China, they say, is determined to reignite its export machine after a global recession that sapped demand for Chinese goods. A cheap currency is vital to that goal. And as indicated by Mr. Ma’s statement on Thursday, China’s leaders have grown impatient with lectures on economic policy from their chief debtor, the United States.

“It will be like water off a duck’s back,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “They’re puzzled by the criticism. They think they should be praised for keeping their currency stable at a time of global turmoil.”

Criticizing China’s policy, however, is likely to worsen a relationship already frayed by irritants on both sides.

In two weeks, Mr. Obama is expected to meet with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, over the objections of the Chinese, who condemn him as a subversive. The administration forged ahead with sales of weapons to Taiwan, drawing an angry blast from Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized China for censoring the Internet, in the wake of Google’s allegations about hacking.

For its part, the United States is frustrated that the Chinese will not back tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. And China has resisted American initiatives onclimate change policy, turning the recent climate meeting in Copenhagen into a diplomatic drama.

The administration has struggled to prevent the ill will from any single issue from contaminating the broader relationship. “We can’t pick the timing of when an issue becomes important,” said a senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.

Exchange rates are an arcane subject, harder to explain than a meeting with the Dalai Lama. But they influence easy-to-understand issues like the competitiveness of American exports and job security.

“The currency issue has the potential to become a very hot political issue,” said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, who worked on China policy in the Clinton White House. “We’re in significant danger of hitting a very rough patch in trade relations, in the latter part of this year.”

The first question for Mr. Obama in his meeting with Senate Democrats came from Senator Arlen Specter, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and it was about China. What, he asked, did the president plan to do to respond to China’s “unfair trade advantage,” which he said caused the huge trade imbalance?

Mr. Obama talked about enforcing existing trade agreements, before raising the issue of exchange rates. If the United States was able to increase its exports to Asia by a single percentage point, he said, it would generate thousands, maybe millions, of new jobs in the country.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, urged the president to put China on the list of currency manipulators, something the administration has not done in its first two reports.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who has sponsored legislation that would impose sanctions on China for its currency policy, said he hoped the popular mood would push the White House.

“One of the main causes of the public’s discontent is that they feel China doesn’t treat us fairly, and that no one is doing anything about it,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “That may importune the administration to act, but if they don’t, there’s a strong move in Congress to do so.”

Another factor affecting the administration may be shifting economic fortunes in both countries. China is rebounding faster from the recession than the United States, and as it does, the imbalances that result from its artificially depressed currency could become even starker.

Economists estimate that China’s currency is undervalued by at least 25 percent and as much as 40 percent, relative to the dollar and other currencies. That gap, they say, is wider than at any time since 2005, when Beijing, under pressure from the Bush administration, allowed the renminbi to rise modestly.

Given that, the administration hopes China, on its own, will come to recognize the need for a new currency policy.

“The silver lining of what the U.S. and China have been through is that there’s a greater appreciation in China of policies that would stimulate internal growth and make it less dependent on exports,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The administration’s point person on China’s currency is the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, who has an awkward history on the subject. In a written answer to questions during his confirmation process, Mr. Geithner said that China was manipulating its currency. He later disavowed that statement, and set about smoothing ruffled feathers in Beijing.

“Many of us in Congress are pretty frustrated that the administration has made no progress on this,” Mr. Schumer said.

‘Pak officers working with jehadis’

The FBI interrogation of David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani has, for the first time, confirmed what India has always known: A “section of serving Pakistan army officers” are working in collaboration with India-specific jehadi groups like LeT and JeM.

Sources said this was revealed by Headley to his FBI interrogators in what is the first confirmation by an independent probe agency of the involvement of Pakistani army officers in planning and executing terrorist operations against India.

This, sources said, had been conveyed to the Indian side by the FBI team which visited India to share information on Headley’s questioning. While Pakistan has explained away the instances of the involvement of army officials calling them “aberrations”, this has exposed the jehadi infiltration of the Pakistani army and their collaboration with terrorist outfits in anti-India operations.

Sources said the officials identified by Headley were working with Lashkar on ‘Karachi project’ as part of a larger campaign against India. This project involves using jehadi fugitives from India sheltered in Pakistan to draw in vulnerable Indian Muslim youth.

The FBI interrogation of David Coleman Headley has revealed a Lashkar training project involving jehadi fugitives from India. The youth, after they are trained by Pakistani army officials, are sent back to India as part of the gameplan to conceal the Pakistani involvement and pass off the terror in India as a home-grown phenomenon.

During their discussions with FBI, the Indian side told them about their strong suspicion that Headley was present in the Karachi control room from which the Lashkar leadership choreographed the 26/11 terror attacks. The FBI team said this was not borne out by the evidence in their possession but the Indian side has asked the US agency to check a few facts which they have promised to do.

The details of the Karachi project, revealed by FBI, corroborates India’s own findings. Agencies here have established that a number of absconding terrorists — Aamir Raza Khan, Mufti Sufi Patangiya and Rasool Parti and the remnants of Shahid Bilal gang from Hyderabad — have been luring Muslim youth to be trained as jehadis before being sent to India.

The launch of Indian Mujahideen, which tormented India with a wave of bombings, was part of the plan to erase Pakistan’s fingerprints and pass off the attacks as resulting from the disaffection of a section of its own population.

Even 26/11 attackers, armed with fake IDs of a Bangalore engineering college, had planned to mask their nationality. One of them had called up a TV channel introducing the gang as Deccan Mujahideen.

Former ISI Chief Wants Kashmiri Terrorists to be Called “Freedom Fighters”

Hamid Gul: PoK meet not on terror, but Kashmir

Even As Anti-India Jehadi groups prepare to meet in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for the first time since 26/11, special invitee to the meet, Pakistan’s former ISI chief Hamid Gul has lashed out at India saying India must distinguish between terrorists and ‘freedom fighters’.

Gul has said that the Pakistan government is aware of the meet taking place in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, where the LeT and the Hizbul Mujahideen have joined hands to discuss the issue of Kashmir.

Gul says that India should face the bitter truth and has no reason to feel unhappy as this is a meeting on Kashmir and not a terror meet. Slamming India for its ‘big brother’ attitude, Gul said Pakistan and India would have to make a distinction between terrorists and freedom fighters.

India has expressed concern over the LeT-Hizbul meet in Muzzafarabad.

Gul, who is largely hailed as the general who nurtured Pakistan’s campaign for Jammu and Kashmir, is also attending the meet in PoK.

“Why should we worry about India?The meet is for a very important human cause. If India feels unhappy about it, let them. It’s high time that India feels unhappy. The Pakistan government is aware of it. We don’t have to clarify everything with India. Pakistan has the right too. Pakistan and India have to make distinctions between terrorists and freedom fighters. India has to understand that this is a freedom movement,” he said speaking exclusively to TIMES NOW.

He said the meeting was to show solidarity with the people of Kashmir and was for a “very important human cause”.

Th meeting in Muzaaffarabad today is expected to be attended by top jehadi leaders including Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin, Jammat-ud-Dawah leader Abdul Rehman Makki and former Inter-Services Intelligence agency chief Hamid Gul. The meet in Muzaffarabad will be presided over by Abdul Aziz Alvi, the chief of the PoK chapter of the JuD. the JuD is widely known to be a front for the Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

26/11 mastermind Hafeez Saeed is expected to address another’Kashmir Solidarity’ conference to be held in Islamabad on Friday.

JuD holds meeting of terror groups in Pakistan

CNN-IBN

TERROR BRAIN: Jamaat chief Hafiz Saeed (inset) allegedly masterminded Mumbai terror attacks.

New Delhi: After lying low for more than a year following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks Lashkar-e-Toiba’s front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) is back in business.

The Jamaat is holding a Yakjaiti-e-Kashmir (Kashmir Solidarity conference) at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on Thursday.

Terror group Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin, Jamaat leader Abdul Rehman Makki and former ISI chief Hamid Gul are likely to attend the conference.

JuD is also planning more such conferences across Pakistan in the coming weeks.

The conference in Islamabad will be addressed by JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 attacks.

The development comes at a time when the Centre has begun to concede that Pakistan is acting against the Lashkar and the 26/11 perpetrators.

After the 26/11 terror attacks, the United Nations banned the JuD and its chief

Saeed was placed under house arrest by the Pakistani government.

However, Saeed was later released as the Pakistani government failed to substantiate the charges levelled against him.

The conference in Muzaffarabad is being held after a gap of several years as such gatherings were not permitted by authorities after former dictator Pervez Musharraf clamped down on jehadi groups following an assurance to New Delhi that Pakistani soil would not be used for anti-India activities.

Indian government sources said that if the reports of the terror meeting is true then it is a matter of great concern for the country.

Sources said that the meeting clearly showed that Jamaat-ud-Dawa was not a charity organisation as Pakistan has been claiming and is one more proof that territory in Pakistan was still being used for anti-India terror activities.

CIA/Peruvian Planes Mistake Missionary Family for Drug-Running Competitors

more about “ Video shows fighter jets shooting do…“, posted with vodpod

Spy Games? Deadly CIA Flap Caught on Tape

Unfriendly Fire 2 Christian Missionaries shot d…, posted with vodpod

It falls into the stranger-than-fiction category – but for one family, it’s a very tragic reality.

A tragic reality caught on tape.

Brian Ross and his Blotter team tonight bring us the investigation into a small plane that was wrongly shot out of the sky above Peru in April 2001. The Cessna was mistaken for a drug-smuggling aircraft.

Aboard, a family of American Christian Missionaries pictured above, the Bowers, was instantly torn apart – mother Roni and infant daughter Charity killed by gunfire – father Jim and 6-year-old son Cory surviving the crash. Pilot Kevin Donaldson also lived, injuring both legs.

The Peruvian Air Force fired the fatal shots from a gunship, but they were working at the time alongside the CIA on a drug prevention program.

Embedded below is a clip from a longer video, filmed by a CIA spotter plane, that shows the spy agency first misidentify the Cessna and then waffle on whether or not they think it’s part of the drug trade. There is a missed radio transmission between the Peruvians and the Bowers plane, and the gunfire begins.

What has followed is nine years of the CIA misleading government officials and the victims’ family about why rules of engagement failed to protect the family. Tonight, hear the full CIA response.

Click here for a slideshow of the Bowers family.

India and Iran Discuss Their Unused Road To Afghanistan

India, Iran discuss Afghanistan

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: India and Iran have held extensive discussions on the developments in the region including Afghanistan as part of their annual diplomatic consultations.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao headed the Indian delegation, while Mohammad Ali Fathollahi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Oceania led the Iranian side during the two-day dialogue.

Diplomatic sources told The Hindu that substantial discussions were held on “regional issues” including the recent developments regarding Afghanistan and the transit route from Iranian port of Chabahar to Afghanistan, which Iran and India have jointly developed. In the past, both India and Iran have been wary of engaging the so called “moderate Taliban” in Afghanistan. However, last month’s conference in London, in which Iran did not participate, has decided to create a fund in anticipation that resources would be needed to draw a significant number of Taliban into the Afghan mainstream.

Discussions were also held on transit, including further activation of the North-South corridor which has been a joint initiative of India, Iran and Russia.

Sources said Ms. Rao had an “excellent” meeting, which lasted for more than an hour on Tuesday, with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

She also met Iran’s point person on nuclear talks, Saeed Jalili, widely known as a confidant of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Jalili had led the Iranian delegation for talks, held last year in Geneva, in which the Americans had also participated.

He also led the Iranian side to talks held in Autumn in Vienna, where a deal was proposed to swap Iran’s stocks of lightly enriched uranium with atomic fuel rods for use in a Tehran research reactor engaged in producing medical isotopes.

Pakistan government faces furore over deaths of US soldiers

Analysis: Pakistan government faces furore over deaths of US soldiers

The killing of three American soldiers in Pakistan at the hands of the Pakistani Taliban – when Pakistanis did not know about their presence – will create a furore in the country

By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore

Somebody forgot to kill the goat!

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari Photo: REUTERS

President Asif Ali Zardari was already grappling with a severe economic crisis, unrest in Karachi where nearly 40 people have been killed in the past four days, a legal battle with the courts over corruption charges and demands from the opposition for him to resign.

The revelation will now create a major problem for his already beleaguered government.

The presence of US troops wandering around Pakistan will come as a shock to most Pakistanis. The soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Lower Dir, a former Taliban stronghold that had been secured by the Pakistan army only last year.

The Americans were most likely training members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps with secret permission from the government and the army. As the bombing was at the opening of a girls’ school, the incident also means that US soldiers have been helping the Pakistanis in development projects – something that was not known publicly.

The government in Islamabad has been under immense public and political pressure for refusing to own up to its secret deals with the US, while at the same time condemning the US and insisting that there was no American military presence in the country.

According to US congressmen, the Pakistani military has been secretly collaborating with the US in launching drone missile attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas where al-Qaeda and the Pakistani and the Afghan Taliban are based. On Wednesday some 30 people were killed in the tribal areas after US drones fired some 18 missiles into Taliban compounds.

However the government condemns the Americans every time a drone missile is launched even though some of the drones are believed to be launched from a Pakistani airbase in Balochistan province.

Pakistan has consistently denied that US soldiers and the CIA were operating in Pakistan but it is widely believed that they have been present in the tribal areas to gather intelligence about al-Qaeda.

Last month another scandal erupted. The government denied the US security contractoe Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, was operating in Pakistan, but on a visit to Islamabad Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, admitted the compnay’s employees were present and were guarding US civilians.

The government and the army’s constant denials of the increased US presence in Pakistan has invariably been contradicted and so it proved again on Wednesday when the US emabssy announced the deaths of the three soldiers

Taliban Attack Exposes U.S. Special Forces Mission Within Pakistan

Deaths of three soldiers blow the cover on U.S. mission

in Pakistan

Star news services

ISLAMABAD | The deaths of three American soldiers in a Taliban suicide attack on Wednesday lifted the veil on United States military assistance to Pakistan, which authorities here would like to keep quiet.

The mission — a U.S. program of training local forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida — is kept low-key because of staunch opposition to American boots on Pakistani soil, even as the U.S. chafes at not receiving credit.

The killings were the first known U.S. military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan’s Afghan border region, where militants are being pummeled by U.S. missile strikes and struggling to regroup after the loss of a key stronghold in a recent Pakistani army offensive.

The blast also killed three girls at a nearby school and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier traveling with the Americans. Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with about 100 other people, mostly students at the school. Several were left trapped, bloodied and screaming in the rubble.

The soldiers were among 60 to 100 members of a Special Forces team that trains Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in counterinsurgency techniques, including intelligence gathering and development assistance.

Pakistani police later said they had rounded up 35 suspects for questioning.

At least 12 other U.S. service members have been killed in Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001, in hotel bombings and accidents, according to the U.S. Central Command, but these were the first killed as part of the Special Operations training, which has been under way for 18 months.

That training has been acknowledged gingerly by both the Americans and the Pakistanis, but has been kept quiet so as not to trespass onto Pakistani sensitivities about sovereignty, and not to further inflame anti-American sentiment.

Although Pakistan is termed an ally by the U.S., Pakistan has not allowed American combat forces to operate in the nation, unlike in Afghanistan or Iraq, a point that is stressed by the Pentagon and the Pakistani army.

Instead the CIA operates what has become the main U.S. weapon in Pakistan, the pilotless drones that have struck with increasing intensity against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in tribal areas.

The American soldiers were probably targeted as a result of the drone strikes, said Syed Rifaat Hussain, a professor of international relations at Islamabad University. “The attack seems a payback for the mounting frequency of the drone attacks,” he said.

If the Americans were targeted, it raised the question of whether the Taliban had intelligence or cooperation from within the Frontier Corps.

According to police officials in the region, the armored vehicle in which the soldiers were traveling was hit by a suicide bomber driving a car.

To disguise themselves in a way that is common for Western men in Pakistan, the American soldiers were dressed in traditional Pakistani garb of baggy trousers and long tunic, according to a Frontier Corps officer. They also wore local caps that helped cover their hair, he said.

Their armored vehicle was equipped with electronic jammers sufficient to block remotely controlled devices and mines, the officer said. Vehicles driven by the Frontier Corps were placed in front of and behind the Americans as protection, he said.

Still, the Taliban bomber was able to penetrate their cordon. In all 131 people were wounded, most of them girls attending a high school adjacent to the site of the attack, the police said.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed that his group was responsible.

The Americans’ involvement in training Frontier Corps recruits in development assistance was little known until Wednesday’s attack.

“People are going to be very suspicious,” said Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of the North-West Frontier Province. “There is going to be big blowback in the (Pakistani) media.”

Sherin Zada and Chris Brummitt of The Associated Press and Jane Perlez of The New York Times contributed to this report.

Holbrooke Trying To Keep the Lid On the Cover-Up

US soldiers were not working for BlackWater: Holbrooke

WASHINGTON: Special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has rejected Taliban allegation that the soldiers killed in Lower Dir bomb blast were working for BlackWater. Talking to journalists in Washington, Holbrooke said that the American soldiers were training FC officials in Pakistan. He said that there is nothing secret about the presence of American soldiers in Pakistan. He said that killings of American soldiers in bomb blast at girls school is a big tragedy. Richard Holbrooke said that American ambassador in Pakistan Ane Patterson has told him that the American soldiers were not target in the blast. SAMAA

“Marines” Killed Alleged To Be Blackwater

Tehrik –E-Taliban Pakistan: An update

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2010

By B.Raman

(February 04, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The death of three US soldiers (Marines?), living under civilian cover in the Lower Dir District of the Malakand Division of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, in an explosion which a struck a convoy in which they were reportedly traveling with some Pakistani security forces personnel on February 3,2010, has been confirmed by the US Embassy in Islamabad.

Initially, the killed Americans were projected as journalists or as employees of the US Agency For International Development (AID), but subsequently, the US Embassy admitted that they were military personnel deployed in the area on a training-cum- civil construction mission. They were posted in the area to train personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC), a para-military unit headquartered in Peshawar and consisting largely of Pashtuns recruited in the NWFP and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Since 2005, there have been many reported instances of the penetration of the FC by the Pakistani Taliban and collusion of many FC personnel with the Taliban. There were also instances of the desertions of a large number of FC personnel to the Taliban during the fighting in the South Waziristan area.

Despite such instances, the US had proposed a project for the training of the FC personnel by members of the US Special Forces units and for undertaking civil construction projects in remote rural areas in the hope of thereby helping the FC win the hearts and minds of the local tribals and weaning them away from supporting the Taliban. This project, which was accepted by the Pakistan Government, has been under implementation for over a year.

The training project has two components. Under the first component, selected commissioned officers of the FC are taken to the US for special training. Under the second component, selected non-commissioned officers and other ranks are trained locally in the NEFP, but not in the FATA.

The three US military personnel killed on February 3 were reportedly proceeding in a convoy escorted by the FC to attend the inauguration of a school for girls constructed by the voluntary labour of the FC personnel and the US trainers. Available details regarding the incident are confusing. Some reports suggest the explosion was triggered off either by a suicide bomber or through a remote control device as the convoy was proceeding to the venue of the function. If this was so, it is not clear, as to how, many girls, who had assembled at the venue, were injured. A possibility is that the explosion struck the convoy just as it arrived at the venue.

It is also not clear whether the explosion specifically targeted the US military personnel or it merely targeted the girls school because the Taliban is opposed to girls’ education and the US personnel who were there got killed. A person, who claimed to be the spokesman of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed that the Taliban carried out the attack and alleged that the three US military personnel were actually working for Blackwater, a US security firm employed by the US Government for physical security and training purposes in the Af-Pak area.

The Dir area of the Malakand Division is the native place of Sufi Mohammad, the founder of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), a component of the TTP, which had established its control over the Swat Valley of the Malakand Division under the leadership of Maulana Fazlullah, son-in-law of Sufi Mohammad, who is a native of Swat. In operations undertaken towards the end of 2008 and in the beginning of 2009, the Pakistani Army managed to eject the TNSM from the Malakand Division, including Lower and Upper Dir and Swat. Its leaders evaded capture or death and managed to escape.

The explosion of February 3 shows that while the TNSM and its associates in the area may have lost their territorial control in the area, they still have some capability for random attacks with explosive devices. The incident is unlikely to affect the training programme of the US. What is significant is not the success of the terrorists on February 3, but their inability to identify and target US military trainers till now despite the fact that they have been operating in the area for over a year now. This speaks well of the high level of security of the training programme.

In the meanwhile, rumours regarding the death of Hakimullah, the Amir of the TTP, on January 26, 2010, as a result of the injuries sustained by him in a US Drone strike on January 14,2010, continue to persist despite the repeated denial of these rumours by the TTP. There is no way of establishing the veracity of these rumours unless the TTP itself decides to admit the truth, if he is really dead, as it did after a delay in the case of the death of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a Drone strike in August last.

What is clear is that despite the spectacular success of the TTP in getting seven CIA officers and one Jordanian intelligence officer killed in the Khost area of Afghanistan on December 30,2009, through a Jordanian double agent, it seems to be facing difficulties in Pakistani territory due to relentless air strikes by the US with its Drones and the Pakistani Army operations in the South Waziristan area. It has lost territorial control in the Mehsud area in South Waziristan and the disruption of its command and control has resulted in the senior leaders of the organization such as Hakimullah himself if he is still alive, Waliur Rehman, its leader in charge of South Waziristan, and Qari Hussain Mehsud, in charge of its suicide wing, being forced to move from place to place in non-Mehsud areas in order to escape attacks by the US Drones. This has added to their vulnerability and affected their ability to carry out spectacular terrorist strikes in the non-tribal areas. The TTP seems to be a weakened , but not a defeated force.

This may please be read in continuation of my earlier article titled CIA: Alive & Kicking at (Click here) .

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

Pakistani Bomber Knew Which Car the Marines (Special Forces?) Were In

[Remembering that the military tends to lie first in every sticky embarassing situation, why were marines first called USAID workers?  SEE: Pakistan blast kills US Marines and USAID (CIA?) Contractors]

Pakistani Police: Bomber Rammed US Soldiers’ Car

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The suicide bomber who killed three U.S. soldiers in northwestern Pakistan rammed his car into their vehicle, raising questions about whether the attacker had inside information on the location of the troops, police said Thursday.

The attack, which occurred Wednesday in the former PakistaniTaliban stronghold of Lower Dir, came as U.S. intelligence officials said they believe the militant group’s chief recently died from injuries sustained in a U.S.drone strike in mid-January.

Police official Naeem Khan said Pakistani authorities are investigating whether the bomber knew the soldiers, who were training Pakistani forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida, would be passing through Shahi Koto town where the attack occurred and which vehicle to target out of the 5-car convoy.

”We launched a massive search in the area yesterday, and now about 35 suspects are in our custody and we are questioning them in an effort to trace those who orchestrated the suicide attack,” Khan told The Associated Press. ”God willing, we will capture those responsible for this carnage.”

The blast also killed three girls at a nearby school and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with about 100 other people, mostly students at the school. Several were left trapped, bloodied and screaming in the rubble.

U.S. officials said Wednesday it did not appear the soldiers were specifically targeted in the attack, and initial reports indicated the blast was caused by a roadside bomb. The latest information raises the specter of a militant informant close to the training mission.

The soldiers’ deaths were the first known U.S. military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan’s Afghan border region, drawing attention to a training program officials rarely discuss because of opposition here to American boots on Pakistani soil.

Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan does not allow U.S. combat troops on its territory, making training local security forces an important part of ensuring that militants are not able to use the area as a sanctuary from which to attack American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has also relied on drone missile strikes to target militants in Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal area near the Afghan border. A senior intelligence official said Wednesday that U.S. counterterrorism officials believe Pakistani Taliban leaderHakimullah Mehsud is dead following one such strike last month.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

The statement came after days of posturing by Pakistani Taliban officials, who first said they would prove their leader was alive and well, then reversed course and said they saw no need to prove it.

It was unclear whether Wednesday’s bombing had any connection to Mehsud’s reported death. The group stepped up attacks last year after Mehsud’s predecessor was also killed in a U.S. drone strike.

The soldiers killed Wednesday were part of a small group of American soldiers training members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Pakistan’s army and the U.S. Embassy said. The mission is trying to strengthen the ill-equipped and poorly trained outfit’s ability to fight militants.

While not a secret, neither the Pakistanis or the Americans have talked much about the program because of the political sensitivity in Pakistan of accepting American assistance. While the government in Islamabad is closely allied with Washington, America is deeply unpopular among many Pakistanis, even those who recognize that fighting militants is in their country’s interest.

The soldiers killed Wednesday were driving to attend the inauguration of a girl’s school, but the school that was damaged in the blast was not the one where the convoy was heading.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under review, said at least one of the three American soldiers was a member of a unit designed to help local authorities publicize positive news — in this case, apparently, the opening of a girls school, which the embassy said had been renovated with U.S. humanitarian assistance.

Two local journalists in the convoy were under the impression that the soldiers, who were in civilian clothes, were American journalists because of comments from a Pakistani soldier suggesting that was the case.

Express TV reporter Amjad Ali Shah said as the convoy was about to leave from a paramilitary base, a Pakistani soldier entered the room and said to an officer, ”Sir, the foreign journalists have arrived,” in an apparent reference to the American contingent.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said authorities were looking into how the soldiers were presented.

Karzai Wants Peace With Taliban, So He Goes To Saudi King

[There is no other country in the world more involved in the creation of both Taliban and “Al Qaida” than Saudi Arabia.  No matter what the government says in its own defense, none of the mujahidin programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan could have happened without direct Saudi support.  The reach of the International Islamic Network that they have helped nurture extends deep into former Soviet territory as well as into China.  Wherever the word “Islamist” is used to describe militants it is reporting on an outlet of the Saudi/American/Pakistani/Israeli/British network of terror.]

Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai appeals to Saudi King to mediate with Taliban

President Hamid Karzai has appealed to the King of Saudi Arabia to mediate with Taliban commanders after he flew to Riyadh to seek support for peace talks.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul and Richard Spencer in Riyadh
Published: 7:16PM GMT 03 Feb 2010

Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrives at Downing Street Photo: EPA

The Afghan president was to meet the Saudi monarch on Wednesday evening after last week telling the London conference on Afghanistan he hoped King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz would play a prominent part in any talks to end the eight-year-long insurgency.

Saudi Arabia is believed to still wield influence among Taliban leaders as the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and one of a handful of states to recognise their former regime.

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Mr Karzai is also expected to ask for contributions for a scheme to coax Taliban fighters from the struggle and reintegrate them into Afghan society with for jobs, land and training.

Saudi Arabia has its own controversial programme to rehabilitate Islamist radicals which has been heavily criticised in America after former inmates set up an al-Qaeda cell in neighbouring Yemen.

Waheed Omer, a spokesman for Mr Karzai, said: "Saudi Arabia is most important. We hope it can use its influence in the Islamic world to try and bring peace and stability to our country.

"It can play an active role in both reintegration and reconciliation. It can also use its influence to try and rally support from other players in the region."

Prince Saud al Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, has said the Taliban must sever all ties with al-Qaeda before it will consider mediating. The Saudi government has also said it will not give up its militant rehabilitation programme despite the American criticism.

One former Guantanamo Bay inmate who went through the programme, which features "positive thinking" classes, art therapy and video games, is now deputy leader of Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, the cell in Yemen behind the attempted Christmas Day bombing on an airliner as it approached Detroit.

Four others from the same group of Guantanamo inmates handed over to the Saudis in November 2007 are among more than a dozen inmates who have returned to terrorism, including one who was shot dead while wearing a suicide vest under a burqa last year.

But senior officials including an interior ministry general and the cleric and psychologists responsible for overseeing the programme’s "religious re-indoctrination" courses told The Daily Telegraph it had been an overall success.

"We are confident in our system," said General Mansur al-Turki. "Part of that is the rehabilitation programme, and when we say that we are considering one thing – the results we are getting. We are not giving up because a few people decided to go back and share al-Qaeda activities."

At its showpiece rehabilitation camp outside Riyadh, the Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care, an exhibition shows artwork by the "beneficiaries", as inmates are called.

Paintings include vases filled with flowers, dolphins basking by moonlight and even a beach scene complete with bucket and spade.

Once released, inmates are found jobs and given government subsidies to help them marry. They are also given a free Toyota Corolla car.

Dr Turki al-Otayan, the senior psychologist, said: "People say we are spoiling them. They say they are terrorists yet we are giving them all this. But we say it’s our responsibility. If we don’t do it, someone else will.

Al-Qaeda is waiting. They will say they will take care of you, take care of your family."