Complete text of Hayrbyar Marri’s speech at the House of Lords

Following is the complete text of speech delivered by Hyarbyar Marri, at a public meeting, on May 5th, 2009, Tuesday evening held at the House of Lords. The public meeting was organised by his lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy and attended by human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce and human rights campaigner Peter Tetchell and many others.

Balochistan conflict and the international Community’s response

The Baluch: invisible victims of war on terror

Is Balochistan really invisible to the international community?

I would like to thank Estella for organising this very important meeting to address the grievances of Baluchistan and the systematic suffering of the Baluch at home and abroad.

Secondly, I would like to thank my and Faiz’s legal teams who made it possible with their efforts and determination for us to be here.

Balochistan has been the site of an intense struggle for Independence against Pakistan. Despite the Baloch land being rich in natural resources, the Baloch remain economically marginalised and receive little benefit from development in Balochistan. In its efforts to counter the Baloch struggle, Pakistan has employed summary executions, disappearances, torture and indiscriminate bombing and artillery attack.

Baluchistan’s history of struggle

We the Baloch have a long history of struggle against impositions by the Pakistani state. Our history, however, pre-dates the formation of Pakistan. We have a history reaching back thousands of years. In the 12th century, Mir Jalal Khan united 44 Baloch tribes; in the 15th century the Confederation of Rind Lashari was established and the Khanate of Balochistan in the 17 th century.

During the British Raj, Britain annexed a strip of land adjoining Afghanistan and named it “British Balochistan”, but beyond that did not interfere in the affairs of Balochistan so long as the Baloch allowed the British Army access to Afghanistan. The Baloch campaigned for independence during the final decades of the British Raj but were forcefully annexed by Pakistan in 1947. The struggle for Independence and the forced annexation continues till this day.

Since the occupation of Baloch land Pakistan has come into open conflict with the Baloch on four occasions — 1948, 1958, 1962, and, the bloodiest war against Baloch Nation was carried out, from 1973 to 1977, when a growing guerrilla movement led to an armed conflict that ravaged the region.

Three days before Pakistan’s secession from India Balochistan had already declared their Independence. On 11 th August 1947 the Khan of Kalat formally declared Balochistan’s independence and formed the House of Commons and Houses of Lords. On 16 th December 1947 Khan of kalat called a meeting of both the houses of Balochistan to discuss the possibility of joining Pakistan. All the members from both Houses had unanimously rejected the idea of joining Pakistan. By that time Pakistan had already recognised Balochistan as an independent state.

On 27 th March, 1948, the Pakistani army invaded Baluchistan, the Khan and his family members were made hostages in his palaces. His brother, Prince Abdul Karim Khan, continued to resist with around 700 men. To crush this movement the Pakistan army expanded the invasion and The Khan of Kalat was arrested and large-scale arrests were carried out.

Nawab Nauroz Khan led a resistance of 1000 Baloch freedom fighters that fought the army in pitched battles for over a year. In May 1959 Nauroz Khan was asked to come down from the mountains so that a peaceful way can be found out but as soon as Nawab Nauroz Khan came down he was arrested along with his companions and they all were put behind bars. Nawab Nauroz Khan died in prison in 1964, becoming a symbol of Baloch resistance. Five of his relatives, including his son, were hanged. This was the first example of Pakistan’s dishonesty and betrayal to Balcoh Nation. The struggle for Independent Balochistan continued even after the death of Nawab Nauroz Khan.

In 1973 President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto visited Iran, where the Shah of Iran warned him against allowing Baloch people more political rights. The shah was worried that the Baloch people in Iranian occupied Balochistan might ask for more rights as well. He gave a package of 700 million dollar to Bhutto and assured him more support if needed. After Bhutto had returned from Iran he dismissed the elected government of Balochistan. The provincial government had been seeking greater control in areas of development and industrialisation. The pretext used for dismissal was that a cache of weapons had been discovered in the Iraqi attaché’s house in Islamabad and were supposedly destined for Balochistan.

The Pakistani army started an operation in Balochistan with 78,000 troops supported by Iranian Cobra helicopters and were resisted by some 50,000 patriot Baloch. The conflict took the lives of 3400 Pakistani troops, 5300 Baloch freedom fighters and thousands of civilians.

The current insurgency

Baloch struggle against the forced annexation of their land has continued during all this period and the struggle for Independence is still going on. It however intensified after the former dictator Musharraf declared a war against the Baloch Nation since he came to power through a military coup.

In January 2000 a Marri Baloch judge was killed by Pakistan’s notorious agencies (ISI) and the blame was laid on my family. I and three of my brothers were in London when the judge was killed but I was however implicated as one the alleged killers of the judge. Everybody in Balochistan knew why cases were being brought against us because we were not allowing the exploration of oil and gas in Balochistan. In the FIR it was alleged that my father was driving and all of us the brothers were sitting next to him at the time when judge was gunned down in Quetta Balochistan. My father was later arrested and imprisoned under this pretext. This case was heard in a speedy court, but after ten years that court has not given any decision.

Apart from my father’s arrest around 250 -300 other Baloch were arrested, imprisoned and tortured severely under the same pretext. The ordeal of those Baloch we have explained in our trial but in brief they were humiliated, tortured, deprived of sleep and many have suffered long term psychological scars that will never heel. Some of them have later died due to severe torture they had faced in the prison and some have become completely paralysed. This was however just the beginning. The worst was yet to come.

On the night of 2 January 2005, three Pakistani army captains (one of them was named as captain Hammad) attacked and raped Dr. Shazia Khalid a lady doctor employed at PPL Company in Sui town in Balochistan; she was severely injured on resistance and left tied up with telephone cords. She was threatened with dire consequences if she raised an alarm or spoke to media about what had happened to her.

The Baloch people in Dera Bugti and in Baluchistan began a revolt after an army captain who had powerful family connections within the military, has never been tried in any court of law. Nor is he likely to ever face justice, after the then army general dictator Musharraf publicly declared he thought that the captain was innocent. The Baloch leader, Nawab Bugti insisted that the suspected rapist be tried according to Baluchistan’s legal and judicial system.

In Balochistan women and guest in particular are treated with high respect (in case of Dr Khalid she was a guest in Balochistan). That is why this incident of lady doctor’s rape further infuriated the Baloch people. They took to streets and protest against the shameless act of Pakistani army. The response from the army and FC was brutal; they fired upon peaceful protesters and arrested several man and women. After seeing their women being insulted, humiliated and tortured by the brutal Pakistani army many Baluch have taken up arms in self-defence to defend their children, women and the village from destructions by the Pakistani army.

On Pakistan TV on 10 th January 2005, the army general and self-proclaimed President, Pervez Musharraf told the Baloch nationalists: “Don’t push us … it is not the 1970s, and this time you won’t even know what has hit you.”

On 17th March 2005, Pakistan’s Paramilitary Forces, Started Shelling the town of Dera Bugti, more than 60 Civilians were killed in this indiscriminate Bombardment, a Hindu temple also came under attack by Pakistan fighter jets and gunship helicopter, 32 Hindu Baloch worshipers including women and children were killed inside the temple. Nawab Bugti’s guesthouse was also hit where he was present at the time.

Pakistani army’s controlled Electronic and print media denied this incident, which was caused by their own Army and security forces. Infect Pakistani Media have always ignored the death and destruction of Baloch Nation. We have video footage of this attack which we have shown in the United Nations for the world to see.

In late 2005-early 2006 the Pakistan military laid siege to Dera Bugti, attacking with artillery and air strikes. Many civilians were killed and 85% of the 25,000-strong population fled. The town of Kohlu also came under siege from Pakistan forces around the same time, virtually imprisoning the 12,000 inhabitants.

As well as the military attacks, the Frontier Corps (FC) has been responsible for indiscriminate rocket, artillery and helicopter gunship attacks on civilian areas. There has been widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, including schools and houses, particularly in Dera Bugti and Sui districts. Military operations occur throughout Balochistan.

On 15 December 2005, Musharraf visited Kohlu (Marri agency) to inaugurate a military garrison during his visit some rockets were fired into Kohlu town. No one was hurt – but the response by musharraf was intense, catastrophic and disproportionate.

On 17th December 2005 Pakistani Army launched an army operation against innocent Baloch people throughout Kohlu District, Parts of Dera Bugti, Noshki, Makran Districts and other parts of Balochistan.

More than thirty thousand army personnel twelve Gunship helicopters, four fighter jets, several spy planes of different sizes, heavy artillery and missiles were used only in Talli, Bambore, Kahan, Jabbar, Nasau, Quat, Mundai and other parts of Marri Bugti areas.

During ten days of intensive bombing and shelling by army Jets, Gunship Helicopters and heavy artillery at least 186 confirm deaths and more than 320 serious wounded were reported. Mostly victims were women and children. Such acts continued thought out 2005, 2006 and until early 2007. There were hardly a day which passed without any bombardment and shelling. Cluster and phosphorus bombs were used against Baloch civilians.

International Crisis Group reported that since then, tens of thousands of people have been displaced. From December 2005 onwards, at least 84,000 people, mostly from the Marri and Bugti tribes, were displaced in the districts of Dera Bugti and Kohlu alone. According to a humanitarian assessment in July and August 2006, the displaced people, including 26,000 women and 33,000 children, were living in makeshift camps without adequate shelter in Jafarabad, Naseerabad, Quetta, Sibi and Bolan districts. 28 per cent of children under five were acutely malnourished, and six per cent faced severe acute malnourishment and their survival depended on immediate medical attention. Over 80 per cent of the deaths among those surveyed were of children under five.

Aid agencies were repeatedly denied access to the displaced, although supplies of food and medicines lay in warehouses in the provincial capital Quetta. Local officials helped the agencies monitor conditions, but more senior provincial and federal officials refused humanitarian requests or blocked them with bureaucratic hurdles.

In June 2007 the news line reported that “In December 2006, under pressure from foreign governments and humanitarian agencies, the government finally allowed the UN to deliver a $1 million aid package to IDPs in Balochistan. The UN was allowed to set up 57 feeding centres there on strict conditions, for example that no UN official would communicate with the press. A few days later, however, the UN’s permission to assist the IDPs was revoked. The head of the local NGO Edhi Foundation was also told not to deliver any aid to the Baloch IDPs. Meanwhile, fear of army reprisals prevented locals from aiding the displaced”. Thousands of Baloch still remain displaced and are living in miserable conditions. Displaced families are still living without clean drinking water or medicine. Women had died of childbirth and dozens of children had died due to malnutrition and diseases such as typhoid and hepatitis.

It was these indiscriminate, brutal and criminal attacks of Pakistan Army which forced Nawab Bugti to leave his home town Dera bugti and head toward mountains. Pakistan army did not even spare him in the mountains and followed him to the neighbouring Marri hills.

On 26 th August 2006, Nawab Bugti and around 40 of his companions were killed in a military offensive. Pakistani media reported that several companions of Nawab Bugti were captured alive in same offensive. However their corpses were never recovered neither were those who were captured alive return home since their arrest on 26 th August 2006. We appeal that these captured Baloch man should be treated in accordance with Geneva convention as prisoners of War. Even though the army buried a coffin with big padlocks attached to it, claiming that it was Nawab Bugti’s coffin. No one has confirmed that it was Nawab Bugti’s body in that coffin. Even his own sons and other family members were not allowed to see his body. Thus it is believed that the army conceal his body to hide their crimes against humanity and to hide the weapons they used against the 80 year old Baloch leader. The captured Baloch will never return home alive because they are the only eye-witness as to how and in what conditions Nawab Bugti was killed and what sort of weapons were used against them.

Situations got even worse after Nawab’s death. Fighting erupted everywhere in Balochistan; the army intensified and expanded genocide all over Balochistan. The Baluch were pushed over the edge they had no other options left but to fight back to defend their families from the fascist Pakistani army. In response Pakistani Army started to abduct Baloch students, teachers, poets, social workers, farmers, shepherds, tribal elders and political activists including women. By mid 2006 Baloch families reported that thousands of their loved one were missing.

Pakistan’s then interior minister Mr Sherpao during his tour to district Turbat had also admitted that army had arrested 6000 Baloch political activists in Balochistan. The extra judicial abductions and killings went unnoticed as their families were threatened with dire consequences if they spoke to Media. In any event national and international media was not allowed access to Balochistan.

0n 20 th November 2007, my brother Balach Marri was murdered by Pakistan’s army in Balochistan. That gave Musharraf the opportunity to put more pressure on the British government to arrest me. As he had got rid of my brother and now he was after me. Mr Brown’s government succumbed to Musharraf’s pressure and they arrested me to appease him.

The jury which comprised people from different walks of life have understood the gravity of our problem and recognised our struggle for Independence. I sincerely thank the jury who have acquitted me of the terrorism charges. However I was appalled to find out that I was being prosecuted only because of my political stand. I was being prosecuted only because I am opposed to the exploitation of Baloch wealth and I am against the atrocities that the Pakistani army is committing against my Nation. I was being prosecuted because I asked my Nation to stand up for what is theirs. I was being prosecuted because I am a supporter of Independent Balochistan. “Freedom is the right of every Nation and asking for freedom should not be a crime”.

After the elections in 2008 the PPP’s so called democratic government came to power but Baluchistan’s situations almost remain same. Even though the newly elected president of Pakistan Mr Zardari talks of reconciliations but he has failed to withdraw the military from Balochistan. He has failed to stop the military operation in Balochistan and he has failed to produce the missing person in any court of law. Pakistan is run by the army and the Intelligence agencies. Every elected government has to be sub-servant to the military and the ISI. That is why zardari has no power to stop the Intelligence agencies and the military from committing atrocities in Balochistan.

Currently thousands of Baloch are missing including 141 women; some reports suggest that kidnapped Baloch female are being used as sex-slave by the Pakistani army. Pakistani agencies have started a crackdown against Baloch students and political parties and several of their activists have been arrested and detained for crimes they did not commit.

Six Bugti Baloch who had gone missing in 2008, their bodies were found in mountains of Noskhi and chaman in February 2009. According doctor’s report the bodies of the victims’ bare signs of tortured and their heads were ripped-off it seemed that nails were inserted into their heads.

In March 2009 two Baloch men were killed in cold blood in Mach town in Balochistan by Pakistani security forces. No inquiry took place into their murder. Their relatives have protested and try to register a case but the police refused to co-operate. Another daunting example is the burning alive of three Bugti Baloch men in barrels of hot tarmac.

On 3 rd April 2009 three Baloch political leaders namely Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Sher Mohammed Baloch and Lala Munir Baloch were abducted at gunpoint from their lawyers’ office in Turbat town by the agencies. On 8 th April 2009, they were murdered in cold blood and their bodies were found some 12 miles from Turbat town in a deserted area. According the eye-witnesses their bodies bare signs of torture and they were shot in heads.

Their lawyers’ are the eye-witness to their abduction. They submitted petitions to the courts. Their petitions were turned-down. Instead their lawyers’ and other eye-witnesses are receiving death threats from the pakistan’s intelligence agencies over the phone. They have been threatened not to discuss the matter with media and other people, else they will face the same fate as their clients.

One of the slain leaders Ghulam Mohammad Baloch was the president of Baloch National Movement (a political party in Balochistan) and a member of Baloch Qaumdost committee which was constituted by me to work for the release of UNHCR head of Balochistan chapter Mr john Solecki. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies did not want Mr Solecki to go back to his country alive. They tried their best to provoke those holding john to harm him but they failed. After john was released unharmed, it did not please the agencies I believe that is why they abducted the Baloch political leaders and killed them in cold blood.

On 25 th and 26 th April 2009, Pakistani army has killed several innocent Baloch including women and children in Dera bugti’s Marav area. Local sources reported that all the killed people were unarmed civilians. They were busy harvesting when they came under attack from Pakistan’s army gunship helicopters.

The slow motion genocide and massacre of Baloch people is taking place right under the nose of International community but the so called champions of human rights and International law makers remained silent on the death and destruction of my nation. Musharraf and his army generals had committed war crimes in Balochistan. They should be arrested and tried in the international criminal court, as its common knowledge these Pakistani army generals come to stay in the UK and United states after their retirement. Although they have committed crime against humanity, they are protected in western democracies. It is very unfortunate that UK being one the most democratic countries have arrested and put us behind bars to silent our voice forever. Our arrest was no co-incident but it was the result of Musharraf’s pressure on Mr Brown’s government, it was the result of the collusion between the UK and Pakistani agencies. They arrested us only to please Musharraf and the Pakistani army.

Today my main plea is that the international community must recognise our legitimate struggle against the illegitimate occupation of our land. Our struggle is for Independence and restoration of our sovereignty only. We are not trying to break or make Pakistan. Our struggle is not a movement of separation but it is against the occupation of our Independent state which was occupied at gunpoint by Pakistan in 1948.

Our language, culture, identity and existence are at the brink of extinction and we are struggling for our survival. We need the International community’s moral support. We need international intervention in Balochistan. International community must act now and help us to end the occupation of our land.

Thank you!

Eye of the Storm

Eye of the Storm

The recent killings of Baloch nationalist leaders left Balochistan in the grip of violent protests and adversely affected the process of reconciliation.

By Abdul Wahab

The mysterious kidnap and subsequent killing of three Baloch leaders has further deepened the hatred and sense of alienation in the province. When reports that the mutilated bodies of the leaders – Ghulam Muhammad Baloch, the president of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), Lala Munir Baloch, a member of BNM’s central committee and Sher Muhammad Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Republican Party – had been dumped in a deserted area near Turbat town started pouring into newspaper offices in Quetta, the journalist community was unwilling to believe the stories, as the three men were purely political activists and leaders. Although they all supported the Baloch resistance movement, none of them were involved in any armed activity themselves. The leaders had been whisked away on April 2 by armed assailants from the office of Kachkol Ali Advocate, a former leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, in Turbat town. A lawyer was also picked up from the office but later released.

Most Baloch nationalist parties accused the secret agencies of picking up the three Baloch leaders but this was strongly denied by Interior Minister Rehman Malik. He told a news conference in Quetta that, “The killing of the Baloch leaders was a conspiracy against Pakistan. How can the secret agencies be involved in such acts?”

The three men had appeared before the district and sessions court in Turbat in connection with cases that had been registered against them under the terrorism act. The court had granted them pre-arrest bail in the cases.

Two days before their disappearance, all three leaders had met a high-level UN delegation at Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri’s residence for negotiations to secure the release of John Solecki, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Quetta, who was kidnapped from the city on February 2. A previously unknown organisation called the Baloch Liberation United Front had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded the release of all the missing people and a solution to the Baloch problem under the Geneva Conventions in return for his release. The UN had requested Nawabzada Harbiyar Marri to play the role of a mediator for the release of Solecki. Harbiyar had formed a committee called the Baloch Qaum Dost Committee for negotiations for the recovery of the missing Baloch and John Solecki. Ghulam Muhammad Baloch was a member of that committee.

Sources in the provincial government claim that some quarters were angry about the meeting of the slain leaders’ team. “These quarters were very angry as they viewed the meeting with the UN as an attempt to drag the UN into the internal affairs of Pakistan.”

Sardar Akhtar Mengal, president of the Balochistan National Party, said in an interview: “The government agencies kidnapped these Baloch leaders two days prior to the release of John Solecki. The main purpose of this act was to provoke Solecki’s kidnappers so that they would kill him.” He added, “They wanted John Solecki to be killed so that the government agencies could mislead world opinion and brand the Baloch as terrorists.”

After the bodies of the Baloch leaders were found, there were rumours that they had been killed over a dispute about the ransom money that had been paid to secure Solecki’s release. This allegation was, however, strongly denied by Harbiyar Marri who said that Solecki was released without any payment of ransom. “The kidnappers released John Solecki at the request of our leaders and proved that the Baloch are a civilised people.”

Ghulam Muhammad Baloch, Sher Muhammad Baloch and Lala Munir Baloch were extremely popular among the Baloch youth. They had started their political careers with the Baloch Students Organisation. All of them had abandoned parliamentary politics when the military operation was launched in the province in 2004. They were of the view that parliamentary politics was not the panacea for Balochistan’s problems.

The reaction to the killings in Balochistan was strong, with most areas left in the grip of violent protests for four days. Eighteen people, including two security personnel, were killed and dozens of government properties were burnt during these demonstrations. The process of reconciliation, which had started to improve the situation in Balochistan, has also been adversely affected.

The Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfikar Magsi and Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani strongly condemned the killings, terming them as acts of terrorism. Raisani said, “The killing of the three Baloch leaders has badly affected the efforts that were underway for the past one year to improve the situation in the province.”

In a surprise move, the UN has also taken note of the killings and demanded that the Pakistani government initiate a probe into the matter. The provincial government has formed a judicial enquiry team headed by a judge of the Balochistan High Court. A fact-finding mission has also been formed by the federal government to look into the causes of the killings. The relatives of the slain leaders and all Baloch nationalist parties have rejected both enquiries, and are demanding that any investigation should be held under the auspices of the UN.

The Case of Three Baloch Leaders Taken By Agencies Then Assassinated

TURBAT FACT FINDING REPORT

Three Baloch leaders Assassinated in District Kech.

April 24 – 29 2009.

Lala Muneer               Sher Muhammad        Ghulam Muhammad

Fact finding mission for the killing of 3 Baloch nationalist leaders , Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Baloch , President Baloch National Movement , Sher Muhammad Baloch Joint Secretary Baloch Republican Party and Lala Munir  Baloch ex Voice President Baloch National Party.

Brief introduction of the Victims

Ghulam Muhammad Baloch:

Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Baloch was born on 1^st of January 1959 in a middle class family of district Kech Tehsil Mand he did his metric from Mand high school ,  F.S.c from Muslim Collage Karachi and his BA and MA from Balochistan University, he did his master Balochi Literature.

Sher Muhammad Baloch

Mr. Sher Muhammad Baloch was born on 8^th of may 1972 in a middle class family of District Kech Tehsil Mand he did his metric from Mind High school and his FSc from Balochistan board of intermediate and secondary education. And he got is rest of the education from Karachi university.

Lala Munir Baloch

Mr. Lala Munir was born in a middle class family  of district panjgur , he was 52 years old when he was killed he got his basic education from high school panjgur , he  did his inter from degree collage Turbat and his masters were from Sindh university Karachi , his masters was in Islamic studies.

Background of the Incident:

This incident came to the notice of HRCP through the coordinator of HRCP district Kech and Press statements that very well know and high profiled leaders of two separatist Baloch nationalist parties have been abducted and assassinated by Pakistani security forces later their decomposed dead bodies were found from Murghab Pasni road about 18 Km away from Turbat city. (reference to the chief minister Balochistan, statement in Balochistan assembly published in daily Intekhab Quetta date on 4^th of April 2009)   in the result of abduction and assassination violence erupted in Balochistan  more then 20 people were killed , government buildings , banks , vehicles , offices ,shops and houses were burnt during demonstrations thousands of non Baloch migrated from Balochistan to other provinces of Pakistan due to critical condition of province , several political activists of various parties  were arrested. Still situation is tense in different parts of Balochistan and non Baloch are being attacked and threats are being given by unknown persons though pamphlets.

From 3 of the leaders 2 Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Baloch and Sher Muhammad Baloch were abducted in 2006 from Karachi and they were kept in different torture cells for more then 5 month as they had given the details of abduction in honorable court and HRCP has showed its concerns regarding the life threats of Sher Muhammad and Ghulam Muhammad including all missing persons.

Fact-finding exercise

Muhammad Yousaf Baloch elder Brother of Ghulam Muhammad Baloch

Muhammad Yousaf Baloch

He is the elder brother of martyred Ghulam Muhammad Baloch. He said that, Ghulam Muhammad Baloch Started his struggle for the independence of Balochistan from Baloch students Organization (BSO) platform, first time he was arrested in 1984 with Mr Bizinjo in MRD struggle, latter on he was elected as chairman of Baloch student’s organization and President of Balochistan National Movement and Baloch National Movement.
On 3^rd of December 2006 he was going to attend a public meeting in Karachi and he was abducted by Pakistani security forces and he was kept illegally and brutally tortured for 9 months and 8 days, he was surfaced from district Sibi Balochistan.

When he was surfaced after long government of Pakistan had registered   8 anti state cases against him.

Mr. Yousaf strongly rejected the allegations against him by federal government that he was wanted by Iran Government.

He said suppose if  Irani  forces  killed him so what were the Pakistani forces doing when Irani armed forces entered   in Pakistan and the place they were abducted is away 200km from Iran , then why Pakistani security forces are giving threats to us to be quiet.

Mr. Yousaf said on 2^nd of January 2006 I was abducted by security forces and I was kept in torture cells and they were asking me about Ghulam Muhammad activities his relations with underground Separatist organizations, Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Baloch liberation Front (BLF) .

For 22 days I was illegally kept and then I was released and on 27^th February once again I was abducted by Pakistani security forces and after 2 days I was handed over to police station Turbat.

The object of kidnapping me was to put on pressure on Ghulam Muhammad to leave the struggle of independence Balochistan,

Ghulam Muhammad had no enmity with any one his struggle was against the occupation of Balochistan by Pakistan and he was struggling for the independency of Balochistan.

I request though HRCP to International Community, Russia, India, France, Germany and UN to take notice the assassination of Baloch Nationalist Leaders, Taliban is the production of Pakistan and Pakistan is blackmailing the world on the name of Taliban keeping this all situation in view, the international community should stop all kinds of support to Pakistan, and the arrested Baloch should be declared prisoners of war.

He said we can accept Pakistan as neighboring    country but not as occupier.

Through HRCP we Request UN to investigate the case of Ghulam Muhammad , Pakistani president doesn’t believe Pakistani judiciary so why should we and our complete family is being given threat by Pakistani agencies,   we don’t feel our self secure our life’s are on great threat.

And I am proud of my brother he scarified his life for cause of his mother land.

Findings

As this killing was a high profiled killing and three top Baloch nationalist leaders were killed in Turbat, after the incident the statement  of interior Minster made it more complicated keeping in the view the situation HRCP made a fact-finding  mission  to get  the real face of the incident.

1. As per the eyewitness statements and previous abdication cases of the Baloch leader show that the secret security forces of Pakistan had abducted the 3 Baloch nationalist leaders.
2. The dead bodies were found from district Kech Sadar police Area away some 200km from Iran Border, which strongly opposes the statement of IG frontier corps that there dead bodies were found near Iran border.
3. The dead bodies’ proper postmortem was not done, with out any proper reason.
4. As per the medical report the cause of death was gunshots but there was no blood found on the spot there for the place and reason of death was unknown the postmortem could verify the main reason of death.
5. As they were abducted from the area of city police station and the dead bodies were found in Sadar police station area, still it was not clear whom to investigate the case.
6. Eye witnesses were being given threats by security forces not to give any statement.
7. As the 3 Baloch nationalist were abducted from Kachkol Ali advocate chamber the same 3 person’s bodies were found about 18 km from Turbat city.
8. The FIR was registered against the IG frontier corps, Col MI and major ISI based in District Kech.
9. As per the statement of Interior Minster, Ghulam Muhammad was wanted by Irani Government in the case of Jindullah ( an Irani religious fundamentalist armed   party ) but no solid proves of being any religious link were found.
10. The 3 assassinated Baloch Nationalist Leaders were separatist political leaders and they were struggling for the independence of Balochistan.
11. As per claim  of interior  minister, that Sher Muhammad Baloch  is not Pakistani citizen  but the CNIC of Sher Muhammad’s father  , Sher Muhammad CNIC,   local certificate , educational documents , election ticket given by national alliance ,  verification letter given by election commissioner as candidate allowed to participate in elections proves  that he was  a Pakistani citizen.
12. thousands of Non Baloch have migrated from different parts of Balochistan and thousands are getting threats from unknown people

Recommendations:

1. An independent ,  transparent and fair investigation should be carried out as soon as possible in the interest of justice to ensure that innocent people are not victimized ( such  investigation team must be made which Is acceptable for the families of the victims.
2. The Federal security forces and secret agencies official nominated in FIR may be involved in investigation.
3. All the missing must be surfaced and the kidnapers must be brought to justices.
4. all the security and secret agencies must be answerable to honorable court  and before arresting any one they should get arrest warrants from competent courts, after arrest they must be produce in the court before 24 hours as per the constitution of Pakistan
5. All the eye witness must be given proper security and strong action against those officers should be taken they are giving threats to them.
6. The non locals must be given proper security.
7. Non locals doing jobs in unsafe areas must be transferred to safe areas.

Motorcycle-Riding Militants Nabbed in Zhob

Security forces apprehended four suspects

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: Security forces on Thursday claimed to have arrested four suspects believed to be militants from Zhob district.

According to sources, the four suspected militants were riding on a motorbike when security forces arrested them. Their names were identified as Abdul Samad, Shah Peen, Jamshed and Abdul Mateen.

However, sources said no suspicious substance or document was found from their possession.

They have been shifted to unknown location for further investigation.

Quetta Businessmen Close Shops To Protest Wave of Kidnappings, Killings

[Shop-keepers protest disappearances; blame MQM for wave of killing in Karachi.]

Traders observe strike in Quetta

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: The city traders on Wednesday observed a complete shutter-down strike to protest increasing incidents of kidnappings for ransom and growing lawlessness.

Most of the markets, shops and business centers located in the heart of the city including Jinnah Road, Double Road, Shara-e-Iqbal, Liaquat Bazaar and Abdul Sattar Road remained closed throughout the day.

The call for shutter down strike was given by Anjuman-e-Tajiran Balochistan which was completely supported by all political, religious and nationalist parties of Balochistan.

Traders also took out a rally led by President Anjuman-e-Tajiran Balochistan Abdul Rahim Kakar from Meezan Chowk. The rally passed through the various roads f the city.

The traders chanted full throat anti-government slogans and lashed out at the authorities concerned for not providing security to them. They demanded that the government should ensure recovery of kidnapped traders.

After marching through different streets of city the rally culminated into protest demonstration outside Quetta Press Club.

Addressing the participants of demonstration, President Anjuman-e-Tajiran Abdul Rahim Kakar, leaders of National Party and PKMAP Doctor Ishaq Baloch  Nasrullah Zeray strongly criticised authorities  for their failure to check rising crimes in the city.

They said that law and order situation was deteriorated in Quetta and there was no writ of government therefore robbers and abductors commit crime in the broad daylight.

They said that government had deployed Frontier Corps (FC) in the city to curb lawlessness and crimes but despite heavy deployment of force there was no any improvement.

They alleged that some gangs having support of influential people were involved in kidnapping of traders for ransom and other innocent people.

They said that growing incidents of robbery and kidnapping for ransom had caused sense of insecurity among the people and if government did not take timely action the situation would further deteriorate.

They demanded of the government for taking prompt action for the safe recovery of kidnapped traders.

They also condemned killings of traders in Karachi and termed Muttahida Qaumi Movement a fascist party which they said was responsible for deteriorating law and order situation and incidents of target killings in the port city.

It may be mentioned that incidents of kidnapping for ransom and robberies have increased manifold.

Mandal Bagh/Taliban Down Cobra Attack Copter

Suicide hit, Cobra crash, ambush kill brigadier, 20 others

Two Rangers officials, Tamgha-e-Jurrat nominee among the dead

PESHAWAR/JAMRUD: Three Pakistan Army officials, including a brigadier and a major, were killed and two others sustained serious injuries in a military gunship chopper (Cobra) crash and an ambush on a rescue team that was proceeding towards the Tirah Valley in the troubled Khyber Agency to recover bodies and wreckage of the helicopter, reportedly shot down by suspected militants on Wednesday.

Also, 18 people including Rangers and Khassadar officials were killed in a suicide attack at Wazir Dhand in Jamrud tehsil of the same tribal agency. Though no militant group has claimed responsibility so far for hitting the military helicopter, military sources said there were strong indications that the gunship chopper had been shot down by militants.

Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told The News by telephone that the chopper had crashed due to some technical fault.He said a rescue team headed by a Pakistan Army brigadier was dispatched to the area to recover bodies of the two slain officials — a pilot and a gunner — and wreckage of the chopper.

The rescue team, he said, was ambushed by the militants killing the brigadier and injuring two other officers, including a major and a lieutenant.Athar Abbas said bodies of the pilot and gunner as well as wreckage of the chopper could not be recovered due to the attack on the rescue party.

Official sources told The News that two gunship choppers were sent to the Tirah Valley, a remote and forested mountainous area of the troubled Khyber Agency, to blitz positions of the militants affiliated with the Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam.

The choppers heavily shelled some suspected positions of the militants and disappeared for some time. Later, when the choppers reappeared and were seen bombing suspected militants’ hideouts in the mountainous territory, the militants opened fire at the two gunship choppers and finally shot down one of the helicopters in the forests near Nangrosa area, the native town of Mangal Bagh.

Several hours later after the chopper hit the ground, a rescue team of the Pakistan Army’s 40 Baloch Regiment was sent to the area in two helicopters to recover the bodies of the two slain officials — a pilot Major Muzaffar and a gunner, Havaldar Asim, and wreckage of the destroyed helicopter.

It seemed the militants were already aware of the arrival of rescue team, as they attacked the two helicopters soon after its members touched the ground.According to sources, Brigadier Hussain, Major Zia and Lieutenant Ansar sufferedserious injuries in the attack.

Brigadier Hussain, they said, later succumbed to his injuries while the two other officials were airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar. It was the second crash of a military chopper almost in the same area.

The militants last year had shot down a Pakistan Army transport helicopter in the Ferozkhel area of neighbouring Orakzai Agency, killing 42 soldiers. According to sources, after their eviction from the Bara subdivision and nearby towns, Mangal Bagh and his men joined hands with militants linked with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) having camps in the nearby forests in Khyber and Orakzai tribal regions.

“Mangal Bagh and his men would not have the capability of shooting down the military chopper without support from well-trained TTP militants,” the sources said. In the Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency, a suicide bomber attacked Khassadar force personnel at Wazir Dhand, killing 18 people including two Pakistan Rangers officials, a Khassadar Line Officer and others.

(According AFP 18 people were killed in the attack. “Eleven are tribal policemen and seven are civilians,” Shafeerullah Wazir, the administrative chief of Khyber Agency, told AFP.)The incident took place at about 4:45pm when a suicide bomber walking on foot approached a vehicle of the Khassadar personnel and detonated the explosives at Wazir Dhand on the busy road linking Pakistan with Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.

Khassadar Line Officer at Jamrud, Naib Subedar Zarmat Khan, his driver named Khan, two deputy superintendents of Pakistan Rangers Salim Khan Afridi and Ibrahim Khan Afridi, who were real brothers, Khassadar force personnel Ehsan Shah, Fateh Gul, Ashfaq and Zarat Khan and two tribesmen Malik Shan Gul and Noor Wali Afridi were among the dead.

Those injured included the Khassadar Line Officer at Bara, Jan Afzal, Abdul Mannan, a local journalist Amjad, Najeed Khan, Rahman Shah, Attaur Rahman and an unknown person. The victims were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex and Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar.

Eyewitnesses said Naib Subedar Zarmat Khan, along with his armed Khassadar personnel, had gone to a car showroom of Shan Gul in connection with talks regarding a jirga. When he came out of the showroom, he saw Bara’s Khassadar Line Office Jan Afzal on the road along with his two cousins Salim Afridi and Ibrahim Afridi, who were serving as DSPs in Pakistan Rangers at Kasur and Bahawalpur respectively and had come to Bara on leave. They were on their way to Karkhano Market, or Hayatabad Market, to buy bulletproof jackets. But before they could make the purchase both brothers were killed and their cousin Jan Afzal was seriously injured in the suicide bombing.

According to the eyewitnesses, the suicide bomber attacked the government officials when they were greeting each other, and caused an explosion that destroyed the official vehicles and caught everyone by surprise.

Khassadar Line Officer Zarmat Khan, who was illiterate but was known for his bravery, had been nominated for the gallantry award Tamgha-e-Jurrat for standing up to the militants despite frequent threats. He was to receive the award on March 23 this year. Zarmat Khan had got married the second time a week ago. He was the third Khassadar Force official in his family to have died in the line of duty.

Soon after the incident, the security forces and fire-brigade vehicles rushed to the site and cordoned off the area. Traffic on Peshawar-Landikotal Road was suspended for two hours. Later, the security forces launched a search and clearance operation but there were no reports about any arrests.

This was the third suicide bombing targeting the Khassadar Force, which comprises local tribesmen and maintains law and orders on the roads, in Khyber Agency in a year. Last year on March 27, the suicide attack on a mosque at the Bagyari checkpoint killed 60 people including 20 Khassadars. The second suicide bombing against the Khassadars took place in September last year at the time of Iftar during Ramazan at Torkham in which 21 personnel of the Khassadar Force were killed.

APP adds: Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Chief Altaf Hussain has strongly condemned the suicide attack.

In a statement Altaf Hussain expressed profound grief over the deaths and injuries in the suicide attack.Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Kakar also condemned the attack. He expressed his deep grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in the incident.

While condoling with the bereaved families, the minister prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear the loss with equanimity.

Australia’s Principled Stand For Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

No uranium for India: Australia

By Mehtab Haider

CANBERRA: Australia has ruled out any possibility of exporting uranium to India keeping in view its principled stand and international commitment.

“The Australian government’s policy is to supply uranium to those countries that are parties to the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and have additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with which Australia has a bilateral nuclear safeguard agreements,” said Minister for Resource and Energy Martin Ferguson while talking to a select group of journalists from Pakistan, who are currently visiting Australia, here at his office the other day.

India and Australia had discussed the possibility of enhancing cooperation in areas of uranium trade in the past but now the incumbent regime led by Labour Party in Australia had ruled out any such possibility

Answering another query about any request made by Pakistan for enhancing cooperation in area of energy, the minister said that no one from Pakistani government had made any formal contacts with Australia.

Dwelling upon availability of sufficient energy reserves, the minister said that Australia was the biggest exporters of coal, third major exporter of uranium under restrict guidance of international rules and the fifth largest exporter of LNG.

To another query about production of power and possibility of cooperation with electricity deficient Pakistan, he said that Australia was producing electricity with coal at the rate of 3 to 4 cents per unit. “We are here to cooperate with anyone who is interested to enhance trade with us,” he added.

Time to End Every Jihad In Pakistan

Rolling back the tides of hatred

Kamila Hyat

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor

It must take quite inconceivable evil to plan and execute the kind of bomb attacks that targeted Shia mourners in Karachi on February 5. The second attack, outside the emergency department of a hospital where those wounded in the first attack were being rushed indicates intricate planning by those who lack conscience and humanity of any kind.

But it is pointless to talk of these qualities. The fact is that, as a society, these have been systematically chipped away from many – indeed most – of us. In schools everywhere children are taught a particular line of belief, one that is intolerant to diversity and which emphasises only the most staid, rhetorical aspects of religion. Distortions that vilify other creeds and other sects occur, most markedly in seminaries but also in mainstream schools – including those that project themselves as the more progressive or enlightened.

The gap between all the various sects has expanded most dramatically since the 1980s, when hard-line schools of thought were actively promoted. They in turn played a part in the emergence of groups such as the staunchly anti-Shia Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan in Jhang, and from within this even more extremist forces such as the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi with its strategy of extermination, in order to convert Pakistan into a Sunni state. Despite being banned in 2001- 2002, both groups remain intact and active. The LeJ has in fact survived through an organisational structure that emulates that of Fascist groups. It is set up as small cadres of five to eight members each, with one cell unaware of the composition or activity of others. Some of these units have linked themselves to Al Qaeda.

But this is not the principal reason why they are so dangerous. The problem is that from the fringes, extremist thoughts and ideas have, like a giant stain, seeped into the fabric of mainstream society. Technology has aided this. On email and over texting services, extraordinarily virulent sectarian messages are dispatched to tens of thousands. Many seem to accept at least portions of them as true. Awareness of difference based on sects has spread rapidly, and many seem unaware that jokes based on these differences are in bad taste – as ugly as the racist references to ‘Pakis’ or people who are black made in other societies.

We have, for over two decades now, watched the situation worsen. The number of attacks has generally risen – even though the frenzied sect wars of the late 1990s have been partially controlled. Literature by extremist groups is distributed at mosques, at markets and at seminaries. It is no coincidence that those who speak out against the content are often members of the older generation – those who retain the tolerance that marked our past and, unlike their children and grandchildren, are not brainwashed. In many ways those who have never been schooled at institutions that have become places to quash thinking are better off than those who have spent time in classrooms.

All this is, of course, not new. We have seen the change unfold before our eyes. The real question is if there is anything that can be done – and how soon. The point to remember is that the hatred we live with was created. It must then, be rolled back – leaving behind a cleaner surface. In some ways at least this task seems impossible. But hatred may not, after all, be quite as difficult to vanquish as it sometimes appears. Just one generation ago, in the southern states of the US, a brave black woman climbed into the front of a public bus and black parents walked past mobs of angry whites to enroll children at school. It took more years and decades for hatred to diminish; it has indeed still to disappear. It is there, more subtly but still distinctly, at many places. But this is a fact, too, that a black family today occupies the White House. Many young Americans are oblivious to colour. The same is true in Europe where many of the structures of racism have vanished from the minds of the young. Of course extremists exist in these societies; skin-heads and neo-Nazis sometimes rampage through the streets in the cities of Britain and Germany. A fierce war based around religion and colour rages on in France. But these battles take place on the very edge of society. In our country they have become so much a part of the mainstream that we see the expression of hatred almost as a norm. Certainly people find it surprising when anyone demonstrates tolerance for groups that have been vilified and deliberately marginalised, such as the Ahmadis.

The problems we have now are essentially a legacy of the 1980s – even though many of the issues were rooted before then. We need to conceive of plans that over the next two or three decades can bring in change. Through its control over curriculum, and over many other aspects of life, the state can play some part in this. But it cannot achieve what is now a mammoth task on its own. Religious scholars have a part to play as well. So does the media. The fact that so many sections of it are essentially insular and right wing in orientation does nothing to help. There is a role here, too, for popular music and songs. As the anniversary of the birthday of Faiz Ahmed Faiz is marked, perhaps the poets of today can take inspiration from him and set an agenda for social change. Perhaps they should keep in mind that if they fail to do so, the time may come when music of all kinds is silenced. This, after all, doesn’t seem that far-fetched; for months it was banned in Swat, and even today, at weddings in Peshawar, it is played only softly lest the wrong ears hear.

But it is the citizens, too, who must act. Not by risking bullets, but in quiet ways. School heads can be asked why their pupils are taught bigotry that warps minds. Parents can teach children to question, to think and to believe in a future that is brighter than their past. Till such efforts begin, we will not see change and will witness only more horrors such as those outside the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in Karachi, and in so many other places before this.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com

“Broke-Back” Militants Strike Police in Bannu

Thirteen killed in Bannu twin blasts

BANNU: Thirteen people including 9 policemen were killed and dozens others injured in 2 consecutive blasts that ripped through Bannu police line 2, police sources said here Thursday.

DPO Bannu Iqbal Marwat is among the injured who have been shifted to District Headquarters Hospital where emergency has been declared. The hospital sources have confirmed receiving 30 injured.

Police cordoned off the area after the powerful blasts which heard across a wide radius.

Heavy firing by miscreants was also reported in the area which continued for a long time after the blasts.

Police have made no remarks regarding the nature of the blasts in the area where usually over 100 police personnel remain present. However, 40 to 50 policemen were stationed there at the time of the blasts.

Pakistan ‘won’t talk with pro-Taliban militants’

PRESSTV

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik

Pakistan has made it clear that Islamabad will not hold talks with pro-Taliban militants active in the country, regardless of the peace talks planned by US and Afghan leaders.

“No matter whatever decision is taken by the US for holding talks with the Afghan Taliban but we have no intention to do so,” Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik, told reporters on Wednesday, the Press TV correspondent reported.

“We have broken their back; therefore, suicide attacks and terror incidents have been scaled down. We have taken stringent security measures and no one is ready to take any risk. The remnants of the Taliban are being chased and our forces are making achievements,” he added.

“Whether the Taliban are in Pakistan or Afghanistan, why should we talk to them if they cut the throats of people? The US has its own policy in this regard and I will not offer any comment on it,” the minister said.

The US has reportedly asked Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to mediate talks with the Taliban based in Afghanistan and to bring them on the negotiation table.

A former Pakistani lawmaker has recently revealed that he was offered $500,000 by American diplomats to mediate between the US and the militants.

“Some middlemen in the mediocre did approach me and they were asking about dialogue with the United States, and I told them that before dialogue there must be introduction,” Javed Ibrahim Paracha told press TV in November.

The remarks by the Pakistani interior minister come as the US is considering plans to allocate a specific fund to ‘soft’ measures against the Taliban, such as appeasing the militants.

Iranian Report–Bank Runs and Money Riots Underway

REPORT: Details on Money Shortage and Bank Protests in Iran

Editor’s Note: The following is a first-hand witness report sent via e-mail

REPORT: Details on Money Shortage and Bank Protests in Iran

* The government told the banks that it has no money to pump into them.

* Riots at the Banks in Iran

* “Mousavi, Mousavi” chants at the Bazaar

Two banks (Melli and Mellat) are planning to withhold funds from customers so they will be able to pay back their loans received from investors. The excuse that they are providing is that in order to complete their end-of-year calculations (by March 2010), they need to temporarily close down bank accounts.

The following is an excerpt from reports inside Tehran before the information was spread through word-of-mouth.

Yesterday, near a bazaar in Tehran, a big crowd gathered. Each minute that passed, the number of people demanding to withdraw their money increased.

At 11:30am, the account booths announced they are out of cash and that they are only able to issue interbank notes. The majority of customers objected. The head of the branch then denied reports [of running out of money] and claimed there was no need to empty bank accounts, since it was all just a rumor. The head of the branch was faced with customers demanding their money. The verbal conflicts grew louder and eventually security stepped in, which made the situation worse.

A few minutes later, special guard units entered the branch and beat people up in the worst possible way using batons. They also closed the door on people [to not enter the branch].  The assaulted customers started chanting, “Mousavi, Mousavi” outside the bank.

Upon hearing the chants, a few shops nearby closed down their stores. The bazaar for rugs turned into a security zone. Additionally, anti-riot police agents surrounded the bank.

Since Saturday news has leaked about secret government meetings regarding the banks going bankrupt. In these meetings, Ahmadinejad (the head of the Central Bank) and a few heads of government banks distributed a secret report about the bank crisis. [According to the secret report] Banks Mellat and Melli announced their bankruptcy and asked the government for urgent help.

The news about this meeting quickly spread within the upper echelon of Tehran’s bazaar. Following this news, owners of larger commercial firms decided to withdraw their cash from the two banks. However, the two banks decided to not allow withdrawals over $15,000. To avoid this rule, big investors used the technique of writing bounced cheques (translator’s note: bounced checks must be paid, by law).

Since last Friday, people have been text messaging each other about the bankruptcy of the two banks Melli and Mellat.

The city of Isfahan:

The Melli bank branches in Isfahan were also faced with a rush of people demanding to withdraw their money. At Chahar Bagh and Si-o-se Pol branches there were long lines, and the amount of security forces inside Melli Bank branches indicated the amount of fear the regime has of riots starting at the banks. At 12:00 pm, the Chahar Bagh branch ran into cash problems, and people who were standing in line for hours were sent home, and the bank doors were shut [on them]. These acts resulted in people chanting outside the banks.

Marand, Iran – People in Marand were confronted with bank officials saying:

- We have no money to pay

- We need to wait until a customer deposits cash

- Come back at 2:00 pm

People stood in lines until 2:00 pm, only to realize there was $500,000 set aside for one particular person. The protests began and people clashed with the bank’s security personnel. The clashes turned physical. Additionally, some people helped themselves to cash, and the bank alarms were set off.

Sadeghieh, Tehran:

People clash with police at a Melli Bank branch, causing injuries to one of the bank customers and the closing down of the bank. People had gone to the bank from the early morning hours to withdraw their money, but they only saw empty vaults. People began shouting and demanding their money and tried to cash their cheques, but the branch officials were unable to respond; even from early morning hours due to a lack of funds.

The bank employees blamed customers who had withdrawn hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from the bank last Saturday. In most branches, the bank officials asked customers to either use interbank notes or wait until funds arrive from the central branch. After half hour, instead of the funds arriving, security forces arrived and clashed with the people inside the branches.

The anti-riot police agents ordered people to leave the banks. The people resisted. In the Sadeghieh branch, one of the bank officials threw his pencil holder at a customer who happened to be a middle aged woman. Other people present at the scene then took the woman to the hospital for her injuries.  Out of fear of retribution by the angry crowd, the bank official began loudly cursing at regime officials. The bank official’s name tag read: Ebrahim Ghorani.

They were finally able to kick people out of the banks and close the doors. The lack of funds was such that the head of one of the branches ordered bank employees to empty the cash counting machines.

Translation by: Tour Irani
Persian2English.com

دولت به بانک ها گفته، آه در بساط ندارد!

شورش در بانک ها

فریاد “یاحسین، میرحسین” در بازار

«دو بانك ملی و ملت که هر دو حساب “سیبا” و “جام” دارند قصد دارند حجم وسیعی از پول های مردم را که در اختیار دارند، برای بازپرداخت بدهی های خود به بدهکاران بزرگ قبل از عیدنوروز ضبط کنند. بهانه این مسدود سازی اینست که برای محاسبات پایان سال مجبورند حساب ها را برای مدتی ببندند.»

این چکیده آن خبری است که از چند روز پیش در تهران و سپس در سراسر ایران دهان به دهان شد و یورش مردم به بانک های فوق الذکر برای بیرون کشیدن پولشان آغاز شد.

روز گذشته بانك ملت در بازار ( بازار فرش فروشان ) با ازدحام و شلوغی بی سابقه روبرو بود و هر لحظه بر شمار مراجعه کنندگانی که پول خود را طلب می کردند افزوده می شد.

ساعت 11 و نیم باجه پرداخت اعلام كرد كه موجودی ندارد و میتواند حواله بین بانكی صادر كند كه با مخالفت اكثر مشتریان روبرو شد .

رئیس شعبه به مشتریانی كه برای برداشت پول مراجعه كرده بودند اعلام كرد كه ورشكستگی این بانك شایعه است و نیاز به خالی كردن حسابها نیست، ولی با اصرار مشتریان برای گرفتن پولشان روبرو شد. درگیری لفظی چنان بالا گرفت که منجر به دخالت مامور بانك شد و همین دخالت درگیری را شدیدتر کرد.

لحظاتی بعد ماموران یگان ویژه وارد شعبه مذكور شدند و همه را به بدترین شكل و حتی زدن باتوم بیرون كردند و درب بانك را به روی مشتریان بستند. مشتریان کتک خورده و از بانک اخراج شده سپس در بیرون از بانک شعار “یاحسین- میرحسین” را آغاز کردند.

تعدادی از حجره ها و مغازه های اطراف با شنیدن شعار یا حسین میر حسین بلافاصله كركره ها را پایین كشیدند و بازار فرش فروشان در حالت امنیتی فرو رفت و نیروهای ضد شورش در اطراف بانك مستقر شدند.

از روز شنبه اخباری از جلسات محرمانه دولت به خارج از ساختمان ریاست جمهوری راه پیدا کرده بود که در ارتباط با ورشکستگی بانک ها بود. در همین جلسات که احمدی نژاد و رئیس بانك مركزی و همچنین ریاست چند بانك دولتی، از جمله دو بانك ملی و ملت در آن حضور داشتند گزارشات محرمانه بحران بانک ها به احمدی نژاد داده شد و دو بانک ملت و ملی ورشكستگی خود را اعلام کرده و از دولت خواستند به آنها كمك اضطراری بشود.

اخبار این جلسه بسرعت در محافل بالای بازار تهران زیر گوشی نقل شد و بدنبال آن شماری از صاحبان شرکت های بزرگ تجاری تصمیم گرفتند نقدینگی شركت خود را از این دو بانك خارج كنند. این تصمیم با همزمان شد با تصمیم جدید بانک ها مبنی بر مخالفت با پرداخت 15 میلیون به بالا. به این ترتیب راهكار برگشت چك برای برداشت كل موجودی حساب در دستور این سرمایه داران قرار گرفت.

از جمعه گذشته مردم ورشكستگی 2 بانك ملت و ملی را از طریق اس ام اس بصورت وسیع به یکدیگر خبر دادند.

در اصفهان

شعب بانك ملی در اصفهان نیز روز گذشته با هجوم بی سابقه مردم برای برداشت پول از حسابهایشان روبرو شدند. صف های طولانی در مقابل باجه های بانك ملی در اصفهان بخصوص شعبه های چهار باغ و 33 پل و حضور نیروهای امنیتی در داخل شعب بانك ملی نشانه وحشت از شورش مردم در بانک ها داشت. تا اینکه شعبه چهارباغ ساعت 12 با كمبود نقدینگی روبرو شد و مردمی را كه ساعت ها در صف منتظر بودند بیرون کردند و در بانك را به روی مشتریان بستند. این آغاز شعارهای مردم در خارج از محوطه بانک بود.

در بانك ملی شهر مرند

مردم وقتی در بانك ملی مرند با جواب مسئولین بانك مبنی بر اینكه

- پولی برای پرداخت نداریم

- باید منتظر مشتری برای دریافت پول بمانیم

- ساعت 2 بعد از ظهر مراجعه كنید

ساعت ها در صف منتظر ماندند و متوجه شدند كه در صندوق مرکزی بانك مبلغ 500 میلیون تومان برای یك شخص خاص! كنار گذاشته شده است. اعتراض ها آغاز شد و درگیری میان مردم و ماموران بانک آغاز شد. سرانجام مردم با فریادهای اعتراضی خود را به پشت باجه مذكور رساندند که با دخالت مامور بانك خشونت و درگیری فیزیكی تشدی شد. در این فاصله عده ای شروع به برداشتن اسكناس ها و چك پولها ( 500 میلیون) در آن شدند و بقیه نیز به سمت پولها هجوم بردند. آژیر بانك به صدا در آمد.

اما اكنون در خبرهای رسمی این خبر به شكل دیگری بازتاب یافته كه در اینجا میبینید :

در صادقیه تهران

گزارش دریافتی: درگیری پلیس با مردم در بانك ملی شعبه تیراژه (صادقیه) موجب مجروح شدن یكی از مشتریان بانك و بسته شدن در بانك به روی مشریان شد. مردم برای برداشت حساب خود از صبح زود به بانك مراجعه كرده بودند که با صندوق های خالی بانك روبرو شدند. مردم با فریاد خواهان پول خود و نقد کردن چک هائی شدند که در حسابشان موجود بود ولی مسئولین شعبه مذكور بعلت كمبود نقدینگی در همان ساعات اولیه صبح از پرداخت آن عاجز بودند.

كارمندان بانك نیز دلیل كمبود نقدینگی را ناشی آن میدانند که تعداد زیادی از مشتریان دانه درشت آنها ده ها و صدها میلیونی خود را روز گذشته شنبه از حسابشان بیرون کشیده اند.

سایر شعب بانكها نیز روز گذشته كم و بیش همین شرایط را داشته اند.

در اغلب شعب بانک ملی رئیس شعبه از مشتریان خواسته بود كه یا از حواله بین بانكی استفاده كنند و یا منتظر بمانند كه از شعبه مركزی برای آنها اعتبار برسد. اما پس از نیم ساعت انتظار به جای رسیدن اعتبار، نیروهای امنیتی سر رسیدند و در داخل شعبه ها با مردم درگیر شدند.

ماموران ضد شورش به مشتریان بانک ها دستور خروج از بانک را دادند كه اغلب با اعتراض مشتریان روبرو شد. در شعبه صادقیه یكی از ماموران با پرتاب یك جا خودكاری به سوی یك مشتری كه زن میانسالی بود، از ترس مردم حاضر و ناظر این صحنه خود با صدای بلند شروع به ناسزا دادن به مسئولین و نظام کرد. آن زن میانسان در این ماجرا دچار شکستگی سر شد كه بلافاصله توسط مردم به بیمارستان منتقل شد. آن مامور سرگردی بود که روی سینه اش نوشته شده بود”ابراهیم قرآنی”.

سرانجام توانستند مردم را بیرون کرده و درهای بانك را ببندند. كمبود نقدینگی به حدی بود كه رئیس شعبه دستور خالی كردن اسكناس های دستگاه خود پرداز را نیز داده بود.

Thailand Drops Case against Air Crew with North Korea Arms

[This bizarre case ends with a fizzle, even though it once showed all the elements of a new international arms dealing scandal--a Georgia-registered transport plane, flown by Kazakh and Belarus crew, carrying missiles and rpgs from N. Korea, is exposed by an American tip-off in Thailand.  The Wall St. Journal, the mouthpiece of the Republican Party, is the only source of details on this operation, charging that the plane is destined for Iran, even though its flight log lists Ukraine as one of its stops.  This was clearly some sort of "false flag" operation, probably intended to embarrass Iran, definitely aimed at Obama.  Where did it go wrong?]

Thailand said Thursday it had decided to drop a case against the five member crew of a plane carrying sanctions-busting weapons from North Korea.

“The trial here will not benefit Thailand so we have decided to drop the charges,” said Thanapich Mulapruk, spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General, in a statement.

“Their countries of origin want to try the men in their home countries,” he said.

Another official from the attorney general’s office said the Belarussian pilot and four Kazakh crew would not be formally extradited.

“(We) are sending an official to file a petition with the court to release all five men,” Kayasit Pissawanprkan told reporters. “This is not an extradition but we consider them as having entered (Thailand) illegally.”

No decision has been taken on what to do with the seized haul, which arrived on December 11 when the crew requested to land their Russian-made Ilyushin-76 plane at Thailand’s domestic Don Mueang airport for refueling.

The men claimed they were carrying oil drilling equipment bound for Ukraine.

The 35-ton cargo, which included missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, is being held at an air force base north of Bangkok.

“The plane landed to refuel. Those arms were not aimed at attacking Thailand so the trial does not benefit (us),” added Thanapich.

Police had charged the five men with possessing illegal weapons and ammunition, smuggling weapons and other banned products and failing to report the cache.

Kazakhstan and Belarus both petitioned Thailand to ask for their nationals to be released for trial in their home countries.

A flight plan obtained by investigators showed the plane was bound for Iran, while U.S. intelligence chief Dennis Blair has said that it was headed for an unspecified Middle Eastern destination.

The United Nations banned all North Korean arms exports in a tougher resolution passed in June following the North’s latest missile and nuclear tests.

The Bangkok case is believed to be the first airborne arms cargo from Pyongyang to have been seized since then.(AFP)

Muslim Fliers to US Subject to “Anal” Intrusions

U.S. Airports to Screen Lebanese, Other Travelers’ Buttocks

Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority has reportedly received a list of instructions from Washington, saying travelers may be subjected to random manual inspection that includes sensitive body parts like the buttocks.
The decision applies not only to Saudi Arabia, but also to Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Cuba.

The instructions also include denying passengers access to toilet facilities an hour before the flight’s arrival to any U.S. airport.

They give security guards the right to monitor any individuals using toilets more than once during the flight and the right to use x-ray vision at airport security checkpoints to give a naked image of passengers.

Travelers are also banned, under the new order, from covering themselves with blankets throughout the trip.(AP photo shows passengers waiting to be re-screened due to a security breach at Terminal 8 of JFK airport earlier this month in New York.)

Hariri: We Won’t Split Beirut, No Compromise on International Tribunal

Hariri: We Won’t Split Beirut,

No Compromise on International Tribunal

Prime Minister Saad Hariri was adamant that Beirut should not be divided, adding that that national unity is the most effective weapon to confront Israeli threats.
Hariri called for massive turnout in the Feb. 14 rally to mark the fifth anniversary of the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The rally “should renew Lebanese trust in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” Hariri told delegates representing Beirut families at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL).

“Let’s offer the world a national Lebanese panorama. Let us tell the world there will be no compromises on the STL,” he said.

“What we have already achieved on the path toward justice and truth is worthy of continuing the struggle for,” Hariri added.

Turning to Israel, Hariri said that national unity was the “most powerful weapon in our hands to face up to Israeli threats.”

“There is a stream of Israeli threats facing Lebanon today and those threats should not be handled as mere media messages,” Hariri pointed.

“Those threats are the equivalent of daily violations to Resolution 1701 and a clear announcement of Israeli intentions toward Lebanon,” he added.

Hariri stressed that Israel was betting on instigating splits among the Lebanese.

“Losing national unity would lead to a loss of Lebanon’s peace and stability,” he said.

The premier said Lebanon won’t take chances with its stability and national unity. “Lebanon refuses to be an easy target.”

On Beirut, Hariri said his father was convinced in the “role, the message and the exceptional status Beirut held.”

Beirut is a “symbol of unity, culture and coexistence.”

“We won’t divide Beirut,” he warned. “Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, and there is no room for divisions or segregation in the capital,” in reference to suggestions by several Lebanese officials to divide Beirut into three electoral constituencies during municipal elections planned for June.

Chinese see U.S. debt as weapon in Taiwan dispute

By Bill Gertz

China’s military stepped up pressure on the United States on Monday by calling for a government sell-off of U.S. debt securities in retaliation for recent arms sales to Taiwan.

A group of senior Chinese military officers also said in state-controlled media interviews that Beijing’s leaders should boost defense spending and expand force deployments in the wake of the Pentagon’s announcement last month of a new $6.4 million arms package for the island state claimed by Beijing.

Senior officers from the Chinese National Defense University and Academy of Military Sciences made what some view as an economic warfare threat, something outlined in past military writings.

The comments by Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu and Maj. Gen. Luo Yuan and Senior Col. Ke Chunqiao appeared in the state-run Outlook Weekly magazine, part of the Xinhua News Agency, published in Beijing on Monday.

Gen. Luo warned that China could attack the U.S. “by oblique means and stealthy feints,” and he called for retaliation for the arms sale.

“For example, we could sanction them using economic means, such as dumping some U.S. government bonds,” Gen. Luo said.

“Our retaliation should not be restricted to merely military matters, and we should adopt a strategic package of counterpunches covering politics, military affairs, diplomacy and economics to treat both the symptoms and root cause of this disease,” said Gen. Luo, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences.

China holds nearly $800 billion worth of Treasury debt securities. It is not clear what impact selling off some of the securities would have on the struggling U.S. economy. However, analysts say that selling off some bonds could drive up interest rates and disrupt U.S. economic recovery efforts.

At the State Department, spokesman P.J. Crowley dismissed the economic threat as potentially self-defeating. “That would be biting the nose to spite the face,” Mr. Crowley said. “The economies of the United States and China are intertwined.”

The Chinese military comments, however, reflect the contents of a 1999 book by two Chinese colonels called “Unrestricted Warfare,” which called on the Chinese military to adopt unconventional methods and strategy in waging war, specifically both “financial” and “trade” war along with other forms of warfare.

The second officer, Gen. Zhu, said Monday that proposed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan threatens Chinese military bases along the southern coast across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait. “This gives us no choice but to increase defense spending and adjust [military] deployments,” said Gen. Zhu, who is with the National Defense University in Beijing.

Gen. Zhu made headlines in 2005 when he told reporters that China would use nuclear weapons to attack U.S. cities if the United States struck China with precision-guided conventional missiles.

The statement raised questions at the time among Pentagon officials over whether China had abandoned its stated policy of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict.

After the remarks, China’s government sought to play down the incident by quietly putting out word to Western journalists that Gen. Zhu had been demoted, a claim accepted by many U.S. China hands but one that was called into question by his comments in the magazine this week.

The military leaders’ comments are unusual because tightly controlled state-run media in China normally do not permit such provocative comments directly criticizing the United States to be published.

China’s military has no apparent control over the country’s financial policies, although the military remains a powerful force in the communist system where ultimate power resides in the Central Military Commission, headed by Chinese President Hu Jintao along with two key generals as deputies.

Pentagon officials have expressed concerns in recent years that China’s military may be acting outside its political leadership. They pointed to differing explanations by Chinese military and civilian leaders regarding the secret January 2007 anti-satellite missile test, and a perplexing incident in 2007 when the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk had permission to dock in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving but was turned away by Chinese authorities upon nearing the port.

The last time Chinese officials raised economic threats against the United States was 2007 when two economic officials warned of what some called the “nuclear option” — a campaign of economic threats — meant as a political weapon to counter opposition in Congress to China’s currency manipulation that has undermined the U.S. dollar.

The Chinese military officers said China’s next defense budget, expected to be made public in February, should reflect Beijing’s opposition to the Taiwan arms sale.

“Clearly propose that due to the threat in the Taiwan Sea, we are increasing military spending,” Gen. Luo said.

Gen. Luo said China must change its approach to the United States and assert its power. “China’s attitude and actions over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan will be increasingly tough,” he said. “That is inevitable with rising national strength.”

John Tkacik, a former State Department China specialist, said China’s Central Military Commission has the power to order financial measures such as selling U.S. securities, although it is a complex process.

“The Chinese military now believes that China has tremendous economic and financial leverage, especially over the United States, and they are giving fair warning to the world that they will use it when they can,” he said.

The Obama administration, like its predecessors, has said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are authorized under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, passed by Congress in the aftermath of the shift in diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to mainland China. The act authorizes sales of defensive arms.

China’s government has rejected the U.S. justification, claiming that U.S.-China joint communiques outlining relations call for limiting and eventually ending all arms sales to Taiwan.

China and the United States have clashed in recent weeks on a number of issues in addition to the Taiwan arms sale, including Beijing’s opposition to the upcoming meeting between President Obama and the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also criticized China recently for tightening controls on the Internet, which she suggested was a violation of basic freedom.

The administration also has sought the Chinese government’s explanation for the recent computer attack on the Internet giant Google and several other U.S. high-technology firms, suggesting that Beijing was behind the computer intrusions and data theft.

China’s military spending has increased sharply over the past decade as part of China’s semi-secret military buildup that has involved new deployments of advanced ballistic and cruise missiles, large numbers of new warships and submarines, new advanced fighter bombers and various high-tech weapons ranging from computer network attacks and anti-satellite weapons.

India Begins Groundwork for Anti-Maoist War

Op Green Hunt groundwork begins in Bengal

Ajanta Chakraborty, Caesar Mandal & Sukumar Mahato, TNN, 11 February 2010, 05:20am IST

KOLKATA/MIDNAPORE: Operation Green Hunt, the Centre’s military offensive to crush the Maoists in their jungle hideouts, will be launched this

month-end or by mid-March. And it will kick off in Bengal with West Midnapore as the first target of the offensive.

The ground work for this “careful, controlled and calibrated” assault started within 24 hours of home minister P Chidambaram’s meeting with delegations from the Maoist-hit states of Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand. Though the chief ministers of Jharkhand and Bihar skipped the meet, it is clear by now that they will actively cooperate in Operation Green Hunt.

Bengal DGP Bhupinder Si-ngh led a high-level security team to Midnapore on Wedne-sday to chalk out the nitty gritty of the battle plan and carried out a helicopter survey of Maoist-controlled stretches of Lalgarh and Salboni and the Jharkhand-Orissa borders.

According to sources, the Maoist corridor in these four states will be divided into 10-12 zones for operations. West Midnapore was picked as the first target because this is where the rebels have their strongest base, said an officer. “The Maoist network is most well-established here. With the help of PCPA, they have secured the sentiments of tribals,” said an officer.

“Contrary to the Lalgarh operation, this mission will focus on penetrating the jungles along the 600-km inter-state Maoist corridor, chase away the leftwing extremists and reclaim the area so that government agencies can move in to start development work,” said another officer.

The operation will begin with gathering information from disgruntled Maoists and breakaway factions. On the basis of field intelligence and aerial surveillance, the CRPF’s crack force, the Cobra commandos, will spearhead the assault, say sources. There will be a lot of emphasis on infiltration operations. Cobra troops will track down guerrilla training camps in the jungles and destroy them. Two such camps were recently discovered at Ajnasuli in Lalgarh.

Cobra assault squads will undertake operations lasting 48-72 hours at a stretch. After sanitisation, bomb disposal squads will move in, backed by heavily armed paramilitary teams. As the forces make inroads, camps will be set up and areas dominated.

Unlike Lalgarh, security forces here will not leave the recaptured areas unmanned. But like Lalgarh, the forces will open fire only when they are attacked.

Operation Green Hunt will focus on avoiding collateral damage and civilian casualties.

In case the Maoists resort to their usual tactic of mobilising villagers and throwing women and children before the forces, the troops will avoid a confrontation with the human shields, say sources. The riot police will tackle the crowd as the main armed force splits and moves rapidly to encircle the Maoists from behind, thus minimizing bloodshed.

“We will make sure that no innocent person faces harassment at the hands of the forces. Many common people are helping us by providing information about Maoist movement. This is a positive change,” said West Midnapore SP SP Manoj Verma, who attended Wednesday’s war strategy meet with DGP Bhupinder Singh, district magistrate N S Nigam and top police and paramilitary officers.

Silent search operations have already started, and a report submitted to the Union home ministry, say sources.
According to one report, 20 senior Maoist leaders have fled the jungles and taken refuge in towns and subdivisions. “A section of the top Maoist rank is already away from the operational zone. They have moved out to areas where policing is not so intense and are living as paying guests.”

As the DGPs of four states exchanged notes at Writers’ Buildings on Tuesday, they were surprised to find that an automatic flushing out of top-ranking Maoist leaders had quietly been taking place over the last one month.

“This is quite a boost ahead of the main operation,” said an official.

Eight Maoist leaders including Balraj, head of the northern regional bureau of the CPI(Maoist) and associate of Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy were arrested at Kanpur last Monday. Some others were held in Allahabad and Gorakhpur.

According to intelligence sources, Maoists have been pushed on the back foot as increased patrolling had made it difficult for them to smuggle arms and ammunition.

Union home minister P Chidambaram has spelt out a cut-off time of six months for Operation Green Hunt, but Bengal officials have stretched it to eight months or beyond. “It will be a simultaneous mission in more ways than one. It will happen in our neighbouring states as well, followed by intense developmental activity. A flexible time frame is needed to win over the tribals,” a senior official told TOI.

Chevron, Repsol, ONGC to Develop Venezuela Fields

Chevron, Repsol, ONGC to Develop Venezuela Fields

By Steven Bodzin, Daniel Cancel and Jose Orozco

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) – Chevron Corp. and Repsol YPF SA will lead development of two $15 billion projects to pump and refine Venezuelan crude after winning the country’s first oil auction since President Hugo Chavez took office 11 years ago.

Chevron, Mitsubishi Corp., Inpex Corp. and Suelopetrol CA will take a combined 40 percent stake in the area called Carabobo 3 area, Oil MinisterRafael Ramirez said late yesterday in Caracas. Output will start in 2013 and rise to 400,000 barrels a day in 2016, he said. State-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, will hold 60 percent.

Repsol, Oil & Natural Gas Corp., Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Indian Oil Corp. and Oil India Ltd. will develop Carabobo 1 with PDVSA to pump 480,000 barrels a day, he said.

The Carabobo projects, along with similar ventures with Eni SpA, PetroVietnam and a group of Russian companies in the neighboring Junin field, are central to Venezuelan plans to boost oil output.

“Foreign oil investment is absolutely necessary to develop our reserves,” Chavez told company executives in a ceremony at the presidential palace. “We can’t do it alone.” He said the U.S. Geologic Survey found the Orinoco Belt has more than 500 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

The ceremony ended a selection process that began in 2008 and faced repeated delays. Of 52 companies that Venezuela invited to bid, 19 paid for field data and the two winning teams were the only publicly announced bidders.

‘Act of Resistance’

“It seemed like an act of resistance to the lack of legal security” for companies to abstain from bidding, Carlos Caicedo, head of Latin American forecasting at Exclusive Analysis in London, said in an interview. The lack of response left one project, known as Carabobo 2, unassigned.

Total SA, France’s biggest oil company, may have decided against bidding because of the Jan. 17 nationalization of Exito stores in Venezuela, which were owned by Casino Guichard- Perrachon SA of France, Caicedo said.

“It’s like a business, where I invite you to jump in a tandem parachute from 20,000 feet, and you say ‘no, I can’t’,” Chavez, a former paratrooper, told reporters after the ceremony. “Each is free to follow his interests.”

Madrid-based Repsol, ONGC of New Delhi and Petronas of Kuala Lumpur will each take 11 percent share in their joint venture while Indian Oil and Oil India will split a 7 percent stake and PDVSA will hold 60 percent, Nemesio Fernandez-Cuesta, Repsol’s executive vice president for exploration and production, told reporters.

Chevron Leads

Chevron, of San Ramon, California will take 34 percent of its project while the three Japanese partners will split about 5 percent and Caracas-based Suelopetrol will start with 1 percent, Ali Moshiri, president of Chevron’s Africa and Latin America unit said. The venture is supposed to form by March 24, he said.

The Repsol venture must pay $200 million of a $1.05 billion signing fee within 10 days of the incorporation, Baldo Sanso, the consultant who coordinated the bid process, said in an interview. The Chevron-led group will pay $100 million of its $500 million signing fee at that time, he said.

Each group will loan PDVSA at least $1 billion to get the projects started, Sanso said.

PDVSA has certified that the Chevron-led area has 12.9 billion barrels of reserves and the entire Carabobo area has 25.6 billion. That won’t immediately boost the companies’ proved oil reserves under securities rules, Moshiri told reporters.

Proven Reserves

“It would be very premature to talk about reserves,” Moshiri said. “It would be a couple years before we can come to you guys and say this is the exact number. Until then we aren’t going to give any number out.”

Chevron had 7.35 billion barrels of reserves of oil, condensate and natural gas liquids at the end of 2008, it said in a Feb. 20 U.S. securities filing.

Ramirez said the Carabobo and Junin projects will boost Venezuela’s oil output to 6 million barrels a day by 2016 from about 3 million barrels a day at present.

The two ventures will each spend $6 billion to $8 billion on specialized refineries to convert the area’s tar-like crude into lighter oil for export, Eulogio del Pino, PDVSA vice president of exploration and production, said in an interview.

The ventures will pay for later phases by selling oil starting in 2013, Sanso said. They will pump heavy oil and mix it with lighter grades to make it acceptable for export, funding later development.

“We’re talking about 300 million barrels per project in early production. At $70 that is $21 billion,” he said. “You will invest about $400, $500 million initially and you will begin early production.”

PDVSA will finance 60 percent of each project, Sanso said, with the first $1 billion coming from loans from the partners.

Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India’s biggest energy explorer, rose as much as 4.6 percent, the most since Nov. 23, and climbed 1.3 percent to 1,100.85 rupees at 11:33 a.m. local time. Indian Oil fell or 0.8 percent to 313.4 and Oil Indiawas little changed at 1167.7. Japanese trading was closed.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Bodzin in Caracas atsbodzin@bloomberg.net; Daniel Cancel in Caracas atdcancel@bloomberg.net; Jose Orozco in Caracas atjorozco8@bloomberg.net.

God Ousts Bush from the Garden of Eden

Growing Hunger In America

By Stephen Lendman

09 February, 2010
Countercurrents.org

In January 2010, Feeding America (FA, formerly America’s Second Harvest) released its disturbing new report on growing hunger titled, “Hunger in America 2010.” The Chicago-based organization is the nation’s “leading domestic hunger-relief charity,” serving the needy “through a nationwide network of member food banks, over 200 in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.”

Its study is based on interviews with over 62,000 clients served by the FA network, as well as information provided by 37,000 FA agencies – emergency food providers, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters for short-term residents.

FA’s system serves an estimated 37 million people annually, up 46% since 2005, including 33.9 million pantry users, 1.8 million kitchen ones, and 1.3 million in shelters.

About 5.7 million people (or 1 in 50) get emergency food aid from the system in any given week, an increase of 27% since 2005, and one in eight Americans (37 million people, including 14 million children and three million seniors) are food insecure, meaning they don’t get enough to eat. As a result, they need emergency help from food banks throughout the country. The latest data represent “a staggering 46 percent increase since” FA’s 2006 study.

“Indeed, the existence of so many people without secure access to adequate nutritious food represents a serious national concern….More than one in three client households are experiencing very low food security – or hunger – a 54 percent increase” compared to 2006.

FA calls food insecurity “a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that varies along a continuum of successive stages as it becomes more severe.” In contrast, food security enables “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, health life.”

FA agencies serve households across America:

– 38% of their members are children under 18, compared to 36% in 2005;

– 8% of household members are elderly, down from 10% in 2005;

– about 40% are white; 34% black; 20% Hispanic; and the remainder from other racial groups;

– 36% of households include at least one employed adult, the same as in 2005;

– 71% of households have incomes below the federal poverty level during the month preceding the survey, up from 69% in 2005;

– median monthly household income decreased by 7% from $825 to $770 in 2009 dollars; and

– 10% are homeless, compared to 12% in 2005.

Overall, 75% of client households are food insecure (based on the government’s food security scale), an increase from 70% in 2005; 39% of households have low food security; 36% very low.

Client households with children are 78% food insecure, up from 73% in 2005. “Many clients report having to choose between food and other necessities:”

– 46% between food and paying for utilities, including heating oil, up from 42% in 2005;

– 39% between food and paying rent or mortgages, compared to 35% in 2005;

– 34% between food and medical care, including drugs, up from 32% in 2005;

– 35% between food and transportation; and

– 36% between food and gasoline for a car.

Government-Provided Help

– 41% of households get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aid, up from 35% in 2005;

– 54% of households with children aged up to three get Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) help, compared to 51% in 2005; and

– 62% of households with school-age children participate in federal school lunch programs, unchanged from 2005; 54% participate in school breakfast programs, up from 51% in 2005; 14% participate in the summer food program.

As in 2005, 29% of households report at least one member in poor health. Most clients are grateful for FA help – 92% very or somewhat satisfied and 93% with food quality. The FA network includes about 33,500 food pantries, 4,500 soup kitchens, and 3,600 emergency shelters, up 13% for pantries from 2005, and down 20% for kitchens and shelters.

Faith-based agencies run 72% of pantries, 62% of kitchens, and 39% of shelters. Some also offer other services.

Sources of Food Provided

– food banks account for 75% of pantry distributions, 50% for kitchens, and 41% for shelters;

– religious organizations, government, and direct wholesale and retail purchases are other important sources;

– the Commodity Supplemental Food Program supplies 33% of pantries, 24% of kitchens, and 22% of shelters;

– The Emergency Food Assistance Program supplies 54% of pantries, 34% of kitchens, and 31% of shelters; and

– the Emergency Program on Indian Reservations supplies 2% of pantries, 1% of kitchens, and 2% of shelters.

FA’s president and CEO, Vicki Escarra said:

“Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs. Hunger in America 2010 exposes the absolutely tragic reality of just how many people in our nation don’t have enough to eat. Millions of our clients are families with children finding themselves in need of food assistance for the very first time. It’s morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic services.”

In November 2009, the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported that 49 million Americans, including 17 million children, are food insecure; that is, they “had difficulty providing enough food for all their (family) members due to a lack of resources. The prevalence of food insecurity was….the highest observed since nationally representative food security surveys were initiated in 1995.”

In September 2009, the US Census Bureau reported rising poverty, falling incomes, and growing numbers of uninsured US households. Even by the Bureau’s conservative estimates, 39.8 million Americans were impoverished, the highest level since 1960, and 17.1 million lived in extreme poverty at below one-half the official threshold.

A revised October 2009 Census analysis showed 47.4 million (15.8% of the population, including one-fifth of the elderly) below the poverty line, much higher than the above figure and rising.

The official poverty level for a family of four is $21,203, a way outdated threshold developed over 40 years ago. In 2007, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said a family of four in Peoria, IL needed $42,900 to be above poverty. In Chicago, it was $49,000 and in New York nearly $72,000. The same reality exists in large and smaller cities throughout America.

A recent Brookings Institute report titled, “The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty” was equally disturbing, showing one in five US children under age 18 in families below the official poverty level, based on September 2009 Census data. According to Brookings’ Julia Isaacs:

Census 2008 information “lag considerably behind current economic conditions. Job losses and wage reductions occurring in 2009 were obviously not captured. In addition, many adverse events in 2008 were only partially captured.”

As a result, current conditions are far worse than reported and will keep deteriorating ahead, for at least several years according to Isaacs. She called the situation “sobering.”

It showed in late November when reported food stamp usage was at record levels, and according to a study by Cornell University’s Thomas Hirschl and Washington University in St. Louis’ Mark Rank, half the children in America will need food stamps at some point in their childhood, 90% for black children.

Despite a growing national crisis, Obama proposed less, not more, saying “our fiscal situation remains unacceptable,” not growing poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair at levels not seen since the 1930s.

On February 1, he sent Congress a budget freezing social spending for three years, a de facto cut in real terms. At the same time, he lets Wall Street keep pillaging, plans more wealth transfers to the rich, and proposed the largest ever defense and homeland security budgets, leaving little for cash-strapped states and growing millions of desperate people out of luck and on their own.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to the Lendman News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday – Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.

DU – The Stuff of Nightmares

JULIE FLINT / The Daily Star (Beirut) 14sep04

Two years before the invasion of Iraq, a report [Radiological toxicity of DU] commissioned by the World Health Organization warned that the long-term health of Iraq’s civilian population would be damaged by the use of depleted uranium (DU) – radioactive waste from the nuclear industry which is used to harden missiles, shells and bullets and which slices through tank armor like a knife through butter. The WHO did not make the report public. Odd, that.

Iraq is now playing host to some 350 tons of DU fired in 1991, but also to more than 1,000 tons reportedly fired in 2003. The “reportedly” is needed here because the armed forces are playing coy with figures. No wonder: handlers of DU in the US and Britain are required to wear masks and protective clothing. Imagine Iraqis having to dress like that for 4.5 billion years. The Hardest Hit: Iraqi children *

DU has been called the “Trojan Horse” of the wars in Iraq – and Afghanistan and Kosovo and Bosnia – a weapon that keeps on killing. On detonation, DU armaments release a spray of radioactive dust that can be carried in the air over long distances and which, when inhaled, goes into the body and stays there. The dust remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years.

The WHO report was written by three of Europe’s top radiation scientists, including Dr. Keith Baverstock, for more than a decade the WHO’s leading expert on radiation and health. After retiring from the WHO, Baverstock leaked the report to the media earlier this year. It concluded that microscopic particles of DU would be blown around and inhaled by Iraqi civilians for years to come, and could trigger the growth of malignant tumors. Baverstock believes the WHO deliberately suppressed the report – probably under pressure from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a more powerful UN body that promotes nuclear power. In response, WHO claims the IAEA’s role was “very minor” and says the report was not approved for publication because “parts of it did not reflect accurately what a WHO-convened group of international experts considered the best science in the area of depleted uranium.”

In other words, its own chosen experts got it wrong. Odd, again.

Had the study had been published in November 2001, Baverstock believes there would have been more pressure on the Allies to limit their use of DU during the invasion of Iraq – and to clean up afterward. But it wasn’t published. As a result, Iraq is now playing host to some 350 tons of DU fired in 1991, but also to more than 1,000 tons reportedly fired in 2003. [Mindfully.org note: the official figure is actually 2,200 tons! Knowing how the military likes to minimize such news, the tonnage could be double that. ] The “reportedly” is needed here because the armed forces are playing coy with figures. No wonder: handlers of DU in the US and Britain are required to wear masks and protective clothing. Imagine Iraqis having to dress like that for 4.5 billion years.

Nuha al-Radi, the much-loved Iraqi artist and diarist who died in Beirut on August 31, believed her leukemia could have been caused by DU. And if not DU, then something else to which Iraqis were knowingly exposed in the wars since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. For DU is not the only concern in the “toxic wasteland” that many scientists say Iraq has become. There are also the chemical weapons the Baath regime used against its own people, and in its war with Iran, and, most recently, the chemical and biological materials released into the atmosphere by Allied bombing of Iraqi stockpiles in the first Gulf war of 1991.

Nuha, who didn’t believe the first war would take place, was devastated by the second. “The carnage takes place in apocalyptic proportions,” she wrote at her lowest point. “Sometimes I want to cry, but I resist. I am totally withered, and feel so useless.” We talked of working together on a film that would investigate the pollution of Iraq and its people. Nuha was convinced that DU was entering the water table and flowing into every corner of the country, poisoning everything. But she fell ill, and we did nothing.

Looking at the DU debate now, one thing is crystal-clear: there are two very district bodies of opinion – and both claim to be informed. The question is, by what?

On one side, there are the governments that use DU weapons, the IAEA, NATO and WHO, who maintain (publicly, at least) that DU is not particularly dangerous and has no long-term effects. On the other side, united by varying degrees of concern, are the European Parliament, which has called for an immediate moratorium on the use of DU weapons, Belgium, Portugal, France, Spain and Italy, who don’t use them and want an inquiry into them; the United Nations Environmental Program; and many independent scientists, several of whom have first-hand experience of the legacy of DU.

After the first Gulf war, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a colonel in the US Army Medical Corps, was put in charge of Nuclear Medicine Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He discovered unusual radiation levels in veterans and became convinced not only that DU was killing them, but also that it was causing changes in the human gene pool that would damage future generations. He found “considerable resistance” from the government to his work on DU and was asked to stop. He refused. Two months after writing to President Bill Clinton to request an inquiry into DU contamination, he was fired – and went on to become Clinical Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington.

A nutter? Hardly. Yet Durakovic says soil samples from Iraq show radiation levels 17 times higher than is acceptable – threatening, he says, environmental “catastrophe.” He believes that DU contamination from the 1991 war may have exposed the entire Gulf population.

When the 1991 war started, Dr. Doug Rokke, a Vietnam veteran, forensic scientist and retired army major, was recalled from academia and sent to the Gulf as part of the army’s Depleted Uranium Assessment team. “The US Army made me their expert,” he says. “I went into the project with the total intent to ensure they could use uranium munitions in war, because I’m a warrior. What I saw as director of the project led me to one conclusion: uranium munitions must be banned from the planet, for eternity, and medical care must be provided for everyone” – those on the firing end and those on the receiving end.

Many in Rokke’s Gulf team are now dead. He himself suffers from serious health problems including brain lesions and lung and kidney damage. When government doctors finally agreed to test him in November 1994, three-and-a-half years after he fell ill, while he was director of the Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Project, he was found to have 5,000 times the permissible level of radiation in his body – enough to light up a small village.

DU, he says, is the stuff of nightmares.

Julie Flint is a veteran journalist based in Beirut and London. This is the first of two articles on depleted uranium, which she wrote for THE DAILY STAR

source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=8333 13sep04

* Photos added by Mindfully.org: the top photo is from The Silent Genocide from America, Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD, Director Afghan DU & Recovery Fund. The bottom photo is from Uranium Projectiles: Severely Maimed Soldiers, Deformed Babies, Dying Children, Siegwart-Horst Günther.AHRIMAN-Verlag GmbH Freiburg, Germany (2000)

Iraq to Sue Over DU

Iraq to Sue Over DU

by Denise Nichols

This should now get interesting with Gulf War Veterans 90-91 and to present and their health effects that our own government has ignored for 19 years

Iraq to sue US, Britain over depleted uranium bombs

Iraq’s Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq, an Iraqi minister says.

Iraq’s Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the lawsuit will be launched based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment.

According to the reports, during the first year of the US and British invasion of Iraq, both countries had repeatedly used bombs containing depleted uranium.

According to Iraqi military experts, the US and Britain bombed the country with nearly 2,000 tons of depleted uranium bombs during the early years of the Iraq war.

Atomic radiation has increased the number of babies born with defects in the southern provinces of Iraq.

Iraqi doctors say they’ have been struggling to cope with the rise in the number of cancer cases —especially in cities subjected to heavy U-S and British bombardment.

The high rate of birth defects and cancer cases will move in the coming years to the central and northern provinces of Iraq since the radiation may penetrate the soil and water by air.

The ministry will seek compensation for the victims of these bombs.

The Link Between War and Hunger

Submitted by Emily-

The link between war and hunger, both in the assaulted countries and the ones carrying out the assault, is just one of many kinds of ties that one can figure out without much prompting. This in mind, you’ll more readily see about where the U.S.A., formerly considered a great nation by many people across the globe, is heading and the horrors being visited upon us all by our current set up. And we were “set up”, all right — set up in the halls of power in Washington, D.C. and corporate boardrooms (i.e., Blackwater/Xe’s, General Dynamics’s, Robinson Armament Company’s, etc.). They all own the American taxpayer lock, stock and barrel for many generations to come.

- E. S.

At Dwight D. Eisenhower – Wikiquote:

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.

• Speech in Ottawa, 10 January 1946, published in Eisenhower Speaks : Dwight D. Eisenhower in His Messages and Speeches (1948) edited by Rudolph L. Treuenfels

After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.

• Quoted in Quote magazine (4 April 1965) and The Quotable Dwight D. Eisenhower (1967) edited by Elsie Gollagher, p. 219

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. … Is there no other way the world may live?

• Speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, “The Chance for Peace” (1953-04-16)

A preventive war, to my mind, is an impossibility today. How could you have one if one of its features would be several cities lying in ruins, several cities where many, many thousands of people would be dead and injured and mangled, the transportation systems destroyed, sanitation implements and systems all gone? That isn’t preventive war; that is war.

I don’t believe there is such a thing; and, frankly, I wouldn’t even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing.

… It seems to me that when, by definition, a term is just ridiculous in itself, there is no use in going any further.

There are all sorts of reasons, moral and political and everything else, against this theory, but it is so completely unthinkable in today’s conditions that I thought it is no use to go any further.

• News Conference of (11 August 1954)

No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice. … No nation’s security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations.

• Speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors “The Chance for Peace” (1953-04-16),

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

• Letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower, his brother (November 8, 1954) More information at Snopes.com

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

• TV talk with Prime Minister Macmillan, August 31, 1959
• “Selected Quotations”. Eisenhower Archives. Eisenhower Library. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

• Remarks at Fourth Annual Republican Women’s National Conference (1956-03-06)

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. … Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

• Farewell address, 17 January 1961

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present — and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

• Farewell address, 17 January 1961

Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. …the Secretary, upon giving me the news of the successful bomb test in New Mexico, and of the plan for using it, asked for my reaction, apparently expecting a vigorous assent.

During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face’. The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude…

• The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953–1956: A Personal Account (1963), pp. 312-313

I was against it on two counts. First, the Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing. Second, I hated to see our country be the first to use such a weapon.

• On his stated opposition to the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese
• Newsweek, 1963-11-11

It is my personal conviction that almost any one of the newborn states of the world would far rather embrace Communism or any other form of dictatorship than acknowledge the political domination of another government, even though that brought to each citizen a far higher standard of living.

• Cole C. Kingseed, Eisenhower and the Suez Crisis of 1956, p. 27

==

In relation to Eisenhower’s last statement, consider the Taliban freedom fighters (AKA terrorists). What would you do in their shoes if your country were invaded for resources?

Afghan ‘geological reserves worth a trillion dollars’: Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, is sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one trillion dollars, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Alan Greenspan: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” And what a high price has been paid for it so that the oil corporations can sell it to the highest bidders (whether China or any other countries willing to pay top dollar) worldwide. Maximal profit, after all, is everything in our current economic climate.

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Obama Has … … AMY GOODMAN: Joe Stiglitz, our guest, he’s the Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University and co-author of ‘The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict”… www.democracynow.org/2009/2/25/stieglitz - Similar

EXCLUSIVE – The Three Trillion Dollar War: Nobel … It’s titled The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. Joseph Stiglitz was the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in …www.democracynow.org/2008/2/29/exclusive_the_t... - Similar

[ More results from www.democracynow.org ]

Explain to some grieving relatives that their dead family members were killed in a bid to plunder another nation’s bounty. The other type of costs affiliated with these resource wars:

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 4,693

Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 1,631

Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq “1,366,350“

… and the Americans wonder about the reason that they are largely hated and feared across the world? How would they react if they faced these scenes in their own country from an invading army?

What is Patriotism?

Emma Goldman’s speech
San Francisco, CA, 1908

Men and Women:

What is patriotism? Is it love of one’s birthplace, the place of childhood’s recollections and hopes, dreams and aspirations? Is it the place where, in childlike naiveté, we would watch the passing clouds, and wonder why we, too, could not float so swiftly? The place where we would count the milliard glittering stars, terror-stricken lest each one “an eye should be,” piercing the very depths of our little souls? Is it the place where we would listen to the music of the birds and long to have wings to fly, even as they, to distant lands? Or is it the place where we would sit on Mother’s knee, enraptured by tales of great deeds and conquests? In short, is it love for the spot, every inch representing dear and precious recollections of a happy, joyous and playful childhood?

If that were patriotism, few American men of today would be called upon to be patriotic, since the place of play has been turned into factory, mill, and mine, while deepening sounds of machinery have replaced the music of the birds. No longer can we hear the tales of great deeds, for the stories our mothers tell today are but those of sorrow, tears and grief.

What, then, is patriotism? “Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels,” said Dr. Samuel Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our time, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment in the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the honest workingman.

Indeed, conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.

The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, with the result that from early infancy the mind of the child is provided with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition.

An army and navy represent the people’s toys. To make them more attractive and acceptable, hundreds and thousands of dollars are being spent for the display of toys. That was the purpose of the American government in equipping a fleet and sending it along the Pacific coast, that every American citizen should be made to feel the pride and glory of the United States.

The city of San Francisco spent one hundred thousand dollars for the entertainment of the fleet; Los Angeles, sixty thousand; Seattle and Tacoma, about one hundred thousand. Yes, two hundred and sixty thousand dollars were spent on fireworks, theater parties, and revelries, at a time when men, women, and children through the breadth and length of the country were starving in the streets; when thousands of unemployed were ready to sell their labor at any price.

What could not have been accomplished with such an enormous sum? But instead of bread and shelter, the children of those cities were taken to see the fleet, that it may remain, as one newspaper said, “a lasting memory for the child.” A wonderful thing to remember, is it not? The implements of civilized slaughter. If the mind of the child is poisoned with such memories, what hope is there for a true realization of human brotherhood?

We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and that she will eventually plant her iron foot on the necks of all other nations.

Such is the logic of patriotism.

Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realize that patriotism is too narrow and limited a conception to meet the necessities of our time. The centralization of power has brought into being an international feeling of solidarity among the oppressed nations of the world; a solidarity which represents a greater harmony of interests between the workingman of America and his brothers abroad than between the American miner and his exploiting compatriot; a solidarity which fears not foreign invasion, because it is bringing all the workers to the point when they will say to their masters, “Go and do your own killing. We have done it long enough for you.”

The proletariat of Europe has realized the great force of that solidarity and has, as a result, inaugurated a war against patriotism and its bloody specter, militarism. Thousands of men fill the prisons of France, Germany, Russia and the Scandinavian countries because they dared to defy the ancient superstition.

America will have to follow suit. The spirit of militarism has already permeated all walks of life. Indeed, I am convinced that militarism is a greater danger here than anywhere else, because of the many bribes capitalism holds out to those whom it wishes to destroy.

The beginning has already been made in the schools. Children are trained in military tactics, the glory of military achievements extolled in the curriculum, and the youthful mind perverted to suit the government. Further, the youth of the country is appealed to in glaring posters to join the Army and the Navy. “A fine chance to see the world!” cries the governmental huckster. Thus innocent boys are morally shanghaied into patriotism, and the military Moloch strides conquering through the nation.

When we have undermined the patriotic lie, we shall have cleared the path for the great structure where all shall be united into a universal brotherhood — a truly free society.

Tea Party Movement To Tea or Not To Tea

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A lot of political dissidents and rebels like me surely have some good reasons for not joining the national tea party movement.

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by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010

As a long term, proud political dissident and rebel I have had some admiration for the national tea party movement. I welcome all that shakes up and reforms our dysfunctional political system. But in the end I find far too much distasteful about what these people embrace to participate in or support it.

I have been especially disappointed with their lack of interest in reforming the American political system through a third political party. Sometimes tea party people say they are fed up with both major parties, but they keep supporting Republicans. As if this will put people in Congress who would actually act as independents and work courageously to enact true, deep reforms. Call my cynical, but I doubt whether people like Senator Scott Brown will resist pressures to be loyal Republicans no matter how extensively they avoid calling themselves Republicans in their campaigns. Sadly, the tea party movement is a blow to third parties, particularly the Libertarian Party that has struggled for many years. Could some very clever people be using this movement to strengthen the Republican Party rather than transform the political system? If so, then most of the tea party crowd have been conned and deceived.

Second, I am nauseated by the noxious negative views about President Obama, even though I did not support or vote for him. Attacks on his citizenship, calls for his impeachment, and labeling him a Marxist seem thinly disguised tactics hiding racism and not an accurate understanding of the facts about him and his policies. To simplify, for example, getting the nation out of the Great Recession requires massive government spending to reboot the economy, a plain fact that virtually every economist over the entire political spectrum recognizes. It does not represent socialist or Marxist principles. Yes, there should have been more spending on directly helping people and small businesses rather than the financial sector, but this does not invalidate massive government spending.

Third, the pervasive support for smaller federal government and so many other openly expressed platitudes reveal inconsistencies and outright hypocrisy about what tea party zealots are willing to do to show their true beliefs. I want to see these people proudly professing their commitment to stop participating in social security and Medicare; stop using public schools for their children; stop taking unemployment payments or support for job training; stop using local police and fire departments and public libraries. I want to hear far more support for necessary government functions. Less government does not necessarily equate to better government.

With critical thinking tea party zealots must recognize that it was not excessive government action that caused the Great Recession, bur rather too little government action to stem the greedy actions among banks and other financial institutions. The core problem is not excessive government but corruption of government by private sector corporate and other special interests. Yet I hear very little from this crowd about the exact means they would use to eliminate pervasive corruption of the two-party plutocracy. Their glib talk about freedom and regard for the Constitution is not supported by more than empty rhetoric.

I would have much more respect for this movement if it embraced the nonpartisan effort by Friends of the Article V Convention at foavc.org to make Congress obey the Constitution and give us what the Founders believed would be a necessary option: An Article V Convention of state delegates that could propose constitutional amendments, true reforms that the corrupt Congress will never propose. Without this there are a whole lot of constitutional hypocrites.

Fourth, passionate support for Sarah Palin is appalling. There is no rational basis for such support based on her beliefs, actions and policy positions. She is a blatant numbskull and intellectual midget with damn good looks and speaking skills, but to make her a political leader is disgraceful.

In sum, it is heartening to see so many Americans with genuine anger, frustration and disgust about American politics and government. I share these feelings. Great motivation, but what it is producing seems little more than an avenue for racist views and desire to strengthen the Republican Party, which when it had considerable political power did far more to advance corporate interests and the wealthy than helping ordinary Americans.

We need a populist Second American Revolution. Populism yes; Republicans and Democrats NO! Recognize this or die still waiting for the change you have been waiting for and suffering with a delusional democracy. See the Article V convention option as the constitutionally provided populist path to true reforms. Demand that candidates openly support making Congress obey the Constitution and give us the first Article V convention. An Article V convention would be the way to have a meaningful tea party that honored our Founders.

“Israel’s Man In Washington” Dies, But Their War Drags On

Former Texas congressman Charlie Wilson dies aged 76

The architect of US support for anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan and subject of Charlie Wilson’s War has died

• Daniel Nasaw
• guardian.co.uk

Charlie Wilson on a white horse while in Afghanistan. Photograph: AP

Former Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, the architect of the US support for anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan and subject of the Hollywood movie Charlie Wilson’s War, died today. He was 76.

In the 1980s Wilson, a Democrat, used his position on a military appropriations subcommittee to secure covert US backing for the mujahideen forces instrumental in driving the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq, who had allowed the CIA to ship arms through his country, credited Wilson with the defeat.

During his more than two decades in Washington, Wilson was known as ‘Good Time Charlie’, the scotch-sodden womaniser portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 2007 movie.

Charlie Wilson’s War was based on a 2003 book by former 60 Minutes producer George Crile. According to Crile, Wilson once brought a belly dancer from Texas to Cairo to perform for the Egyptian defence minister, who was supplying ammunition to the Afghans.

The CIA officers Wilson worked with joked that his reputation as a party animal gave him the perfect cover for his work in arming the insurgents, using conservative Muslim countries in supporting roles. The operation eventually grew to about $750m a year – at the time the largest covert operation in the spy agency’s history.

To the public, Wilson appeared a political backbencher, rarely speaking on the floor of the House and staying out of the major policy battles of the day. But behind closed conference room doors on Capitol Hill, Wilson worked in secret to secure his colleagues’ support for the mujahideen by supporting military contracts in their constituencies, according to Crile.

While Wilson’s efforts helped win one of the deadliest proxy battles of the Cold War, the victory left a power vacuum later filled by the Taliban, many of whom were heavily armed with weapons procured by Wilson and provided by the CIA.

A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Wilson served as a lieutenant before entering the timber business. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1973 and retired in 1996.

Wilson died at Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin after he started having difficulty breathing while attending a meeting in the eastern Texas town where he lived, said Yana Ogletree, a hospital spokeswoman. Wilson was pronounced dead on arrival, and the preliminary cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, she said.

In 2007, Wilson had a heart transplant at a Houston hospital. Doctors had told Wilson, who suffered from cardiomyopathy, a disease that causes an enlarged and weakened heart, that he would likely die without a transplant.

Indian offer of limited talks dismays Pakistan

[Limiting the talks to the one topic that nobody is willing to talk about (even the US) is a guaranteed way to prevent talks while pretending to the world that you are the reasonable side.]

By Nasir Jaffry (AFP) – 5 hours ago

ISLAMABAD — India’s offer of a limited dialogue with Pakistan on terrorism has dismayed Islamabad, where officials and analysts believe only full-blown peace talks can foster regional stability.

New Delhi’s call for talks between the top foreign ministry civil servants in the two countries was welcomed last week as indicative of a major breakthrough in relations frozen since the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

But India and Pakistan have yet to announce a date for their first direct talks in 15 months, still haggling over the framework of the dialogue.

The tension between the nuclear rivals, which have fought three wars since British partition of the sub-continent in 1947, has fanned instability on their border and in Afghanistan.

India’s overture was interpreted as a result of pressure from the United States, keen to keep South Asia trouble free while throwing tens of thousands more troops into battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Defeating Al-Qaeda and beating back the Taliban is a US priority, considered impossible without engagement from Pakistan, accused in the West of still supporting Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Regional security is likely to be a focus of talks between US national security adviser James Jones and Pakistani officials this week in Islamabad.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi chaired a meeting of Pakistani officials that stressed Pakistan’s commitment “to enter into a meaningful and result-oriented Composite Dialogue process with India in the interest of peace, development and stability in South Asia,” his ministry said.

But a Pakistani government official told AFP there was disappointment with India’s more limited scope for the talks.

“India says terrorism is their main concern and that the talks should focus on this issue,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.

India and Pakistan started peace talks, or Composite Dialogue, on eight main topics, in 2004 that significantly helped to ease tension — notably over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, the focus of two wars.

India broke off the dialogue after blaming the Mumbai carnage on Lashkar-e-Taiba and “official” agencies, agreeing on a return to talks only if Pakistan were to bring the perpetrators to justice and dismantle militant groups.

An Indian government source said that while Pakistan had taken the “few small steps” needed for talks to resume, it had not gone far enough to merit a return to a full dialogue.

“We have said the talks would include all relevant issues from our side and issues that will contribute to creating an atmosphere of peace and stability between the two countries,” said the Indian government source.

“Maybe these talks would lead to the resumption of the Composite Dialogue. Let us not prejudge the issue,” the source added.

Analysts believe foreign secretary talks will eventually get off the ground as neither side wants the blame for sabotaging the process and hampering international efforts in Afghanistan.

India is now a massive investor in Afghanistan, fanning Pakistani fears over what the military traditionally regards its own playground to offset India’s emerging superpower status by forging ties with the Taliban and other groups.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent visit to India, where he warned that an Al-Qaeda “syndicate” could trigger a fourth Indo-Pakistan war, was a major factor in the New Delhi talks offer, Pakistani analysts believe.

“India was clearly told that if this relationship is not established, Taliban would become a major player in Afghanistan and keep receiving support from Pakistan,” Pakistani security analyst Talat Masood told AFP.

Pakistani officials have sought to deflect some US pressure to do more in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban, by claiming that the perceived threat from India limits its military capacity to fight militants.

But Pakistani political analyst Hasan Askari cautioned that dialogue only about terrorism would be “a non-starter”.

“There will be no result if India talks about terrorism and Pakistan talks about its concerns in Afghanistan. There has to be composite dialogue and terrorism is one of the eight issues,” said Askari.

Wars sending U.S. into ruin

Obama the peace president is fighting battles his country cannot afford

By ERIC MARGOLIS, QMI AGENCY

U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health.

In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug — debt.

More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks.

Washington’s deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion US this year. The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, to which the U.S. already owes $1.5 trillion. Debt service will cost $250 billion.

To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.

Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military “contractors” (mercenaries and workers); and veterans’ costs. Add $75 billion (nearly four times Canada’s total defence budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees.

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan “surge” of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion — more than Germany’s total defence budget.

No wonder U.S. defence stocks rose after Peace Laureate Obama’s “austerity” budget.

Military and intelligence spending relentlessly increase as unemployment heads over 10% and the economy bleeds red ink. America has become the Sick Man of the Western Hemisphere, an economic cripple like the defunct Ottoman Empire.

The Pentagon now accounts for half of total world military spending. Add America’s rich NATO allies and Japan, and the figure reaches 75%.

China and Russia combined spend only a paltry 10% of what the U.S. spends on defence.

There are 750 U.S. military bases in 50 nations and 255,000 service members stationed abroad, 116,000 in Europe, nearly 100,000 in Japan and South Korea.

Military spending gobbles up 19% of federal spending and at least 44% of tax revenues. During the Bush administration, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars — funded by borrowing — cost each American family more than $25,000.

Like Bush, Obama is paying for America’s wars through supplemental authorizations — putting them on the nation’s already maxed-out credit card. Future generations will be stuck with the bill.

This presidential and congressional jiggery-pokery is the height of public dishonesty.

America’s wars ought to be paid for through taxes, not bookkeeping fraud.

If U.S. taxpayers actually had to pay for the Afghan and Iraq wars, these conflicts would end in short order.

America needs a fair, honest war tax.

The U.S. clearly has reached the point of imperial overreach. Military spending and debt-servicing are cannibalizing the U.S. economy, the real basis of its world power. Besides the late U.S.S.R., the U.S. also increasingly resembles the dying British Empire in 1945, crushed by immense debts incurred to wage the Second World War, unable to continue financing or defending the imperium, yet still imbued with imperial pretensions.

It is increasingly clear the president is not in control of America’s runaway military juggernaut. Sixty years ago, the great President Dwight Eisenhower, whose portrait I keep by my desk, warned Americans to beware of the military-industrial complex. Six decades later, partisans of permanent war and world domination have joined Wall Street’s money lenders to put America into thrall.

Increasing numbers of Americans are rightly outraged and fearful of runaway deficits. Most do not understand their political leaders are also spending their nation into ruin through unnecessary foreign wars and a vainglorious attempt to control much of the globe — what neocons call “full spectrum dominance.”

If Obama really were serious about restoring America’s economic health, he would demand military spending be slashed, quickly end the Iraq and Afghan wars and break up the nation’s giant Frankenbanks.

Mossad Into Central Asia

[SEE: Powder Keg in Central Asia Raises Concerns in West]

Russia vs. Turkey / Israel vs. Palestine

The Great Game Playoff

By ERIC WALBERG

A vital playing field in today’s Great Game is Palestine/Israel, where again there is a tentative meeting of political minds between Russia and Turkey. In defiance of the US and much of Europe, both endorsed the Goldstone report into atrocities committed during Israel’s invasion of Gaza in December 2008, where 100 Palestinians died for every Israeli casualty. Neither government is captive to Israel in the way European and US governments are, though they both have important economic relations with Israel.

Israeli dissident writer Israel Shamir commended the Turkish leaders at a conference in Ankara in December: “Your president, Mr Gul, said a few days ago to our president, Mr Peres, that he will not visit Israel while the siege of Gaza continues. Turkey is no longer an American colony. You stopped joint air force exercises with Israel and the US. You expressed your clear anger over the horrors of Gaza. Now you pay more attention to the area where you live; you play an important role already and are destined to play an even greater role. So much depends on you! We feel it every day in Palestine.”

He called on Turkey, as inheritor of the Ottoman-era responsibility for Palestine, to follow the lead of the Spanish and British judges who issued arrest warrants for Chilean General Pinochet and Israeli prime minister Tzipi Livni for murder, and issue an arrest warrant for the infamous Captain R, accused of murdering a Palestinian child Iman Al-Hams, but feted in Israel as a hero. “A Turkish warrant for his arrest should await him wherever he goes,” just as “according to Israeli law, if a Turk does wrong to a Jew in Turkey, he may be snatched, arrested, tried and punished in Israel. Turkey should introduce a symmetrical law, covering offences against Palestinians who otherwise are not protected by law.”

Though unlikely, this would be wildly popular in Turkey. Similarly, unlike brainwashed Westerners fed daily doses of pro-Israeli media, Turks and most Russians have no use for the Zionist project. True, over one million Russians took up the tantalising offer of instant Israeli citizenship in search of a better life, qualifying as Jewish merely via marriage or with as little as one grandparent racially Jewish. But, despite the chauvinism of the Russian-Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, many of these Russian Israelis, too, have no use for the Zionist project, with its innate racism, some even marrying Palestinians. Many are returning to Russia, bitter at the way they are treated by sabra (Jews born in Israel). The natural sympathy of these and non-Jewish Russians is for the Palestinians.

The Soviet Union was one of the first states to recognise the state of Palestine after the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, and Russia has maintained that position. As Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki said during a visit to Moscow last year, the “fact there is a Palestinian embassy in Moscow is a sign of the strength of our relationship.” Visiting Russia a week after the Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman, he found the Russian position on the peace process and the question of Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories unchanged.

As a member of the so-called “quartet” of negotiators (along with the European Union, the United States and the United Nations), Russia has stuck to the principles of the “road map” for peace, which requires Israel to freeze expansion of settlements in the occupied territories as a condition of further talks.

Russia has 16 million Muslims, about 12 per cent of the population, and Western-style Islamophobia — and, the flip side, Judophilia — is largely absent. It recently attended the Organisation of Islamic Conference as an observer and expressed interest in joining. The problem with asserting a clear policy towards Muslim countries, including Turkey, is of course the tragedy of Chechnia and the persistence of Islamist terrorism within Russia, resulting in anti-Muslim sentiment in Russian cities, which thrive on cheap labour from the “stans” and where much of the small-scale trade has been run by Chechens and other “blacks”.

Shamir explains: “In Europe, if you inspect the coffers of anti-Muslim neo-Nazi groups, you’ll find that they thrive on Jewish support. In Russia, Jewish nationalists and Zionists try to rally the Russians against their Muslim brethren. Sometimes they do it under cover of the Russian Church, or of Russian nationalism. The most fervently anti-Muslim forces in Russia are organised by crypto-Zionists.”

As is the case in all countries of importance, the Zionists have their lobby in Russia too. Yevgenny Satanovsky (that’s right), the president of the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies in Moscow, using the royal we, argues, “For us, there is no distinction between ‘rebels’ and ‘terrorists,’ as there is in Europe. They’re all part of the same jihad, and on this we agree with Israel.” But while busy promoting anti-Muslim sentiment among Russians, he fails to mention the support that his colleagues give to those very forces.

The Zionist footprint in Chechnia was hinted at during the scandal surrounding the murder of Russian FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2008. In a Le Carre twist, Litvinenko converted to Islam on his deathbed, attended by exiled Chechen rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev and exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, whose Zionist credentials are well known. While the nature and extent of Mossad activity in the Caucasus is impossible to know for sure, there is no doubt that abetting terrorists is a useful way for Israel to apply pressure on the Russian government, and that Russian security forces do their best to keep track of it.

Turkey, Russia and Palestine all share a common geopolitical threat in the form of US and Israeli global plans, from NATO expansion eastward and US-Israeli plans to wage war on Iran, to the ongoing US-Israeli colonisation of what remains of Palestine. Just as Russia must struggle against NATO expansion eastward, intended to encircle and contain Russia, “if the US and Israel do take Iran, Turkey will be encircled and cut off. The fate of Palestine also depends on the fate of Tehran,” writes Shamir.

Shamir congratulated the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) on its resounding reelection in 2007: “The East returns to God, and finds its own way. Istanbul has followed Gaza: the AKP-ruled Turkey will be a friend to Hamas-ruled Palestine, to Islamic Iran, to Orthodox Greece and Russia, to the religious anti-occupation forces of nearby Iraq. She will again take her place of pride as the centrepiece of the Eastern mosaic, while its pro-American and God-hating generals, the Turkish Dahlans, will creep back to their barracks. Faith in God unites us, while the nationalists had divided us.” The shift in Turkish politics since then only confirms Shamir’s words.

Is there is a pax russia unfolding? Ukraine is poised to turn back the anti-Russian policies of the Orange revolutionaries. Both Ukraine and Turkey depend heavily on Russian energy supplies, and their political course is responding to this as well as to an aversion to the aggressive nature of US foreign policy around the world. If Georgia rids itself of its pro-US anti-Russian president, suddenly US hegemony in the region evaporates.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, despite their bitter standoff now have good relations with both Turkey and Russia and will inevitably have to bury their hatchet as their conflict loses its ability to mobilise support in the interests of power politics. The Iranians sensibly refuse to cave in to Western and Israeli pressures. Their star can only rise as the US and Israel’s sets.

Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly

Haiti: hunger sparks growing protests

Four weeks after earthquake

By Bill Van Auken
9 February 2010

On Sunday, Haiti saw one of its largest protests since the January 12 earthquake, as four weeks after the disaster, frustration with continuing hunger and homelessness mount.

A scene of the devastation in Haiti shortly after the earthquake

Thousands of demonstrators, most of them women, marched through the streets of Petionville, a Port-au-Prince suburb, denouncing the local mayor, Lydie Parent, for hoarding food for resale and not distributing it to the hungry.

A significant amount of food aid has been channeled into Haiti’s informal markets, sold at elevated prices and clearly yielding a profit for some officials who are in charge of its distribution.

Congregating in front of the local municipal building, the demonstrators chanted “if the police shoot at us, we will burn everything,” Reuters reported.

“I am hungry, I am dying of hunger,” one of the marchers told the news agency. “Lydie Parent keeps the rice and doesn’t give us anything. They never go distribute where we live.”

Petionville, up the mountain from the capital, has traditionally been the preserve of Haiti’s economic elite. Shanty towns sprung up around the walled mansions of the country’s businessmen and politicians, however. Since January 12, one of the principal watering holes of the well-heeled, the Petionville Club, has been transformed into the capital’s biggest homeless encampment, where more than 40,000 quake victims have sought refuge on the club’s nine-hole golf course.

Sent in to police this yawning social divide are 360 US combat troops from the 82^nd Airborne Division, who have set up camp around the club’s swimming pool and restaurant.

Last Friday, former US President Bill Clinton was also met by protests upon his return to Haiti. Hundreds gathered outside the judicial police headquarters, the makeshift headquarters of the Haitian government, during Clinton’s visit there with the country’s President Réne Préval.

“Our children are burning in the sun. We have a right to tents. We have a right to shelter,” one of the protesters, Mentor Natacha, 30, a mother of two, told Agence France Presse.

Hundreds of others demonstrated outside the US embassy.

Clinton, who was named the United Nations special envoy to Haiti last May, was forced to acknowledge the failure of sufficient aid to reach the majority of the Haitian people nearly a month after the earthquake. “I’m sorry it’s taken this long,” he said. “I’m trying to get to what the bottlenecks are.”

Clinton also visited the Gheskio medical clinic in Port-au-Prince, announcing the donation of various supplies by his foundation. However, the clinic’s director, Jean William Pape, told AFP that the facility is overwhelmed and has not received adequate aid.

“It has been huge on us because in addition to providing the care to our HIV/AIDS patients, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, we have to take care of around 6,000 refugees,” said Pape. “We don’t have enough supplies. We don’t have tents for them and the rainy season is coming and we live in a flood area.”

According to press reports, barely 10,000 tents of the 200,000 requested by the Haitian government have arrived in the country. Clinton said that another 27,000 would come in the next week, still grossly inadequate to meet the massive need.

The ex-US president felt compelled to deny that he had been sent in as a de facto colonial governor of the devastated Caribbean nation. “What I don’t want to be is the governor of Haiti,” said Clinton. “I want to build the capacity of the country to chart its own course. They can trust me not to be a neocolonialist, I’m too old.”

Whatever Clinton’s personal role, his attempt at self-deprecating humor cannot hide the fact that Washington is playing precisely the role of a neocolonial power in Haiti. Within hours of the earthquake, the Pentagon launched an operation that has thus far seen the deployment of some 16,000 troops and the assumption of US military control over the country’s airports and port facilities. US naval warships and Coast Guard vessels have imposed a blockade off Haiti’s shores, ensuring that any of the earthquake’s victims seeking to escape to the US will be swiftly repatriated.

Colonel Gregory Kane, the operations officer for US Task Force Haiti, said that US troops would remain in Haiti as long as necessary. “We are in Haiti as long as needed and are welcomed by the government of Haiti,” he said.

Aid groups and government officials in Europe and Latin America have sharply questioned the US militarization of the response to the Haitian disaster. Many blame Washington’s making the deployment of US troops—rather than the provision of desperately needed aid—the top priority in the first critical days following the earthquake for increasing the death toll.

The militarization of aid and obsession with security remain clearly in evidence nearly a month after the earthquake. This was reflected in a report by the AFP on food distributions over the weekend. “Surrounded by dozens of heavily-armed US soldiers, old ladies and even young men struggled under the burning tropical sun to carry away sacks of rice,” the news agency reported. “In another part of the city a detachment of around a dozen Argentine troops, some enclosed in an armored personnel carrier equipped with a turret gun, escorted a small flat-bed truck laden with food to its destination.”

For its part, the Haitian government has appeared largely powerless and has grown increasingly unpopular with the Haitian people. Graffiti reading “Down with Préval,” the Haitian president, has begun appearing with increasing frequency on walls in the capital.

President Préval, who has been virtually unseen by the population since the quake hit, announced over the weekend, while meeting with officials from the neighboring Dominican Republic, that the estimate of the number of people killed in the earthquake has risen to a quarter of a million, while 250,000 homes have been destroyed and more than a million people are facing an urgent need for temporary shelter with the rainy season fast approaching.

Speaking with the media on Saturday, he urged the Haitian population to remain calm. “We understand the difficulties faced by the people who sleep outside, homeless, we understand the frustration about food and water distribution being difficult,” he said. “But it is in discipline, in solidarity, in patience that we will be able to solve the problems that confront us.”

The real class position of the Haitian regime was evident in an interview given by the country’s Prime Minister to the Colombian daily País. “The ones who lost the most in Haiti on January 12 weren’t the poor, it was what was left of the middle class,” he said. “Because the poor didn’t have houses before, and they still don’t have houses. The middle class, which had stayed in Haiti, which had made some effort to build a house, a small business, lost everything.”

The fact that the poor “didn’t have houses” has been cited by relief organizations as a significant factor in the present crisis, in that they have no means of rebuilding and nowhere to go. According to the Catholic relief group Caritas International, 70 percent of those displaced by the earthquake in the capital did not own their own homes before the disaster struck.

More than half a million of these people have left Port-au-Prince, with the encouragement of the government, to return to rural areas from which many of the capital’s poorer layers had migrated and where they still have relatives.

The reason that people had migrated to the capital in the first place, however, was that they could not sustain themselves through agriculture. Now these areas have seen a massive influx of hungry people for which there is little or no food. Relief supplies have yet to arrive in the rural areas, and there is growing fear that farmers will begin using their seed supplies for food, endangering next year’s harvest and leaving even greater hunger.

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reported Saturday that there is a new crisis with the emergency medical flights that bring severely injured Haitian children to US hospitals for treatment, and that once again it is costing lives.

Last month, the military suspended the flights after Florida Governor Charlie Crist sent a letter to the Obama administration questioning whether the federal government would assume responsibility for the costs being incurred at the state’s hospitals, where most of the young Haitian victims had been brought.

After a growing public outcry over the suspension, the Obama administration agreed to foot the bill through the US Department of Health and Human Services.

But now, the department has imposed such stringent eligibility requirements for the medical flights that few patients qualify, and those who don’t are dying in Haiti.

“They want paperwork. We don’t have paperwork,” Miami Children’s Hospital Dr. William Muinos, who heads the pediatric unit of a field hospital in Port-au-Prince told the Herald. “They don’t have passports. They don’t have IDs. They don’t have homes. They don’t have anything.”

The paper cited the case of a 15-year-old girl, Whitney Constant, who was told she would be taken to Florida for treatment, but then was stopped by the government requirements. Three days after she was to have been flown out, she contracted gangrene, forcing doctors to amputate the lower half of one leg and the foot of the other.

Another 14-year-old child died of a pulmonary embolism last Tuesday. Doctors said she would have survived had she been evacuated. “She was told she would leave,” said Dr. Muinos. “Within 24 hours, that promise was denied.”

“The Department of Health and Human Services lifted the embargo on flights but made the criteria so strict that you can’t get anybody in,” said Elizabeth Grieg, director of the field hospital. She told the Herald that since the flights resumed only nine of the hospitals’ patients have been accepted, six of whom had been scheduled to go out before the military suspended them last month.

Russia condemns US move to put missiles in Romania

Russia has attacked a US decision to site interceptor missiles in Romania, saying the move imperils Barack Obama’s much-vaunted “reset” of relations between the two countries and the final stages of nuclear arms reduction talks.

By Andrew Osborn

Sergey Lavrov has asked Washington for an “exhaustive explanation” Photo: AP

The Kremlin said it was taken aback by news that Romania’s top military body had agreed to host US SM-3 interceptor missiles and other military infrastructure in response to an alleged missile threat from Iran. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he had demanded an “exhaustive explanation” from Washington, citing a treaty that would prevent US ships delivering the necessary equipment via the Black Sea.

“How can we stay calm when alien military infrastructure, US military infrastructure, has come to the Black Sea area?” Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to Nato, told Russian state TV separately.

Mr Obama last year dropped a Bush-era plan to install a missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland. Russia at the time hailed that decision as “brave”, viewing it as a diplomatic victory. But a few months later, Kremlin officials say they are deeply disappointed that Washington did not consult Moscow about the Romanian missiles. They were similarly nonplussed last month when the US confirmed it was planning to place Patriot missiles in Poland close to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

The disagreement comes as Russian and US negotiators finalise a pact that will make deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals.

Sergey Ivanov, Russia’s deputy prime minister, warned the Romanian move would complicate those talks. “It is impossible to talk seriously about a reduction of nuclear capabilities when a nuclear power is working to deploy defensive systems against nuclear warheads possessed by other countries,” he said.

Military experts warned the interceptor missiles could be upgraded to pose a threat to the Kremlin’s intercontinental nuclear missiles. Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor of Russia’s National Defence magazine, urged the Kremlin to retaliate. “Russia should warn Romania that if elements of a US missile shield are sited in the country they will be viewed as legitimate targets for Russian missile attack.”

On Sunday the head of Nato said the alliance should develop closer ties with China, India, Pakistan and Russia and become the forum for consultation on global security.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato secretary-general, said: “What would be the harm if countries such as China, India, Pakistan and others were to develop closer ties with Nato? I think, in fact, there would only be a benefit, in terms of trust, confidence and co-operation … Nato can be the place where views, concerns and best practices on security are shared by Nato’s global partners.”

But Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Russian Duma’s International Affairs Committee, reacted with scepticism, saying Nato first had to think globally, and complained that Russia had not been involved in the process.