British oil dispute with Argentina escalates

British oil dispute with Argentina escalates

A row between Britain and Argentina over oil exploration off the Falkland Islands is threatening to escalate into a major diplomatic row after a ship carrying drilling equipment was blocked from leaving an Argentine port.

By Nick Allen

Goose Green, Falkland Islands Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND

Argentina’s government claimed the ship, the Thor Leader, was loaded with pipes bound for the Falklands and accused Britain of “illegally promoting” drilling operations.

Geologists estimate there are up to 60 billions of barrels of oil in the seabed near the Falklands and a British company, Desire Petroleum, is due to begin drilling 100 miles north of the islands before the end of the month.  A £20 million offshore oil rig, the Ocean Guardian, is expected to arrive next week.

Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over the islands, is objecting to the drilling and says it will take its case to the United Nations.

The Thor Leader, a foreign-flagged vessel, was carrying pipes made by the Techint group in Argentina and was stopped in the southern port of Campana.

Techint, the world’s biggest producer of seamless steel tubing for the oil industry, denied that the equipment was even bound for the Falklands and said it was going to clients in the Mediterranean.

But Jorge Taiana, the Argentine Foreign Minister, said: “Evidence exists that indicates that the freighter was to be used to supply material linked to oil industry activities that the United Kingdom is illegally promoting in the Malvinas Islands.

“The Argentine government has energetically protested to the United Kingdom over each and every one of the British unilateral actions with which it has tried to explore or exploit natural resources in an area that is the subject of a dispute over sovereignty.”

He said Argentina’s claim to the islands remained “firm and permanent” and it would “take all necessary measures in the legal and diplomatic framework to preserver our rights and our resources.”

Fabiana Rios, the governor of Tierra del Fuego province, claimed: “Great Britain is violating Argentine sovereignty.”

The Foreign Office declined to comment on the latest claims from Argentina.

It was the latest in a series of diplomatic spats over the licensing of private companies to drill for oil and gas in Falklands waters.

Last week the Argentine foreign minister summoned the charges d’affaires from the British embassy to receive a “most forceful protest.” Before that Argentina’s senior diplomat in Britain, Javier Pedrazzini, was hauled into the Foreign Office in London for a dressing down after Buenos Aires passed a law claiming sovereignty over the Falklands.

Mr Pedrazzini was given a “note verbale” – a firm rejection of the claim – to take back to Buenos Aires.

Argentina invaded the South Atlantic islands in April 1982 only to be defeated and expelled by a British naval force.

The conflict lasted 74 days and cost the lives 255 British soldiers, and 649 Argentine soldiers.

Since 1993, the population of over 3,000 people on the self-governing overseas territory have all been legal British citizens.

In a New Year’s message to Falkland Islands residents, Gordon Brown said he had made clear to Argentine president Cristina Kirchner that there were “no doubts” about sovereignty.

He said: “There can be and there will be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the islands unless and until such time as you wish.”

Shahid Azmi never tried to hide his past as Tada detainee

[Shahid was accused of trying to kill Bal Thackeray, the founder and chief of the Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist, some say, Fascist political party.  Memories are very long in both India and Pakistan.  That is a big part of the problem.]

Nikhil Dixit / DNA

Mumbai: Shahid Azmi often joked that he would be felled by bullets. And death, ironically, came exactly the way he had predicted — while sitting in the same chair where he often laughed off his premonition. He would shrug, saying, "I’ve died a hundred times and if death did come knocking, I would look it in the eye." As a Tada detainee, the teenaged Shahid was lodged in two of India’s biggest prisons and had felt the hangman’s noose around his neck several times, as a ‘dummy’ before it was readied for those on death row.

A fearless lawyer, he refused to erase his past. For, it was instrumental in shaping his life, step by step. Scarred by his past, he decided to join the system to beat the system and reform it in his own capacity.

One of the few lawyers who could empathise with the accused, particularly, those labelled "anti-nationals", the soft-spoken Shahid was often reluctant to charge legal fees. "They were all victims of the system," he often reasoned.

A few years ago, a local newspaper carried Azmi’s interview in which he was described as a ‘Reformed Radical’. This hit him hard, and a terribly saddened Shahid had retorted, "I was never a radical, so where is the question of reforming myself."

The first time I saw Shahid was when he entered a journalism class in 1999. Dressed in a blue jeans and white shirt, a haversack slung around his shoulders, Shahid sat on the first bench in class.

The replies of the shy Shahid would often be in monosyllables, sometimes stammered. But the anger never left him. And neither did his past. Naturally, he was anti-establishment and could not stomach anybody praising the system. Slowly, we got chatting in the canteen and bonded over books. Soon after college, we got our first jobs together. Eventually, he decided to pursue law, while I continued with journalism. And life moved on.

Then one day in 2002, I chanced upon a news report immediately after the Parliament attack, where Shahid was accused of having links with terror groups. Needless to say, I was shocked.

Next, I bumped into him at the Sessions court in 2005, where he was clad in a crisp black advocate’s coat. He instantly knew he had to tell his story. And, he said it all, freely, episode by episode. After a couple hours, as he was pouring his heart out, I noticed the stammer had gone…

Lawyerspeak: Many were unable to react. "I am shocked. He was my best friend when we were studying LLM at University. I cannot believe it," said advocate Nilofer Saiyed.

Senior public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, who has appeared in cases against Azmi, said, "This is very unfortunate. This reflects not only on the security of defence counsels, but on everybody."
"Azmi used to appear with me in many cases. As an officer of the court he was a thorough professional. He would meticulously prepare for every case. Though he had a tendency to stammer a little, in court he was very impressive. I was a year or two his senior, but there were times when I learned from him," said advocate Mubin Solkar.

Adv Shahid Azmi had received threats, yet not given any security

By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: Both Ajmal Amir Kasab and Fahim Ansari are accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case. Kasab’s lawyer K P Pawar has Z-category security while Ansari’s lawyer Shahid Azmi was not given any security. Adv Shahid Azmi was shot dead yesterday evening by some unidentified men in his office in Taximen’s Colony, Kurla (West), Mumbai. He was receiving threats for few years but the government did not give him any security.

Azmi was defence counsel for three accused in the 7/11 serial train bombings in Mumbai in 2006. He had challenged application of MCOCA in that case in the Supreme Court. The case is pending with the apex court. Besides, Adv Azmi had defended some of the September 2006 Malegaon blast case accused on behalf of Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra.

As early as in 2006 he had approached the police about threats he was receiving. But he was not provided any cover. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deven Bharti has been quoted as saying, “We are probing all possible angles. It is true that he had received threats some years back.”

Jamiat Ulema Maharashtra General Secretary Gulzar Qasmi has described Adv Azmi’s death as great loss to the Muslim community. “His death is a huge loss for those innocent Muslim youths whose cases he was seeing. When youth of the Muslim community are being picked from here and there in the name of terrorism, his death is a great loss to the Muslim community,” Qasmi said.

After the murder of Shahid Azmi, who was also defending 26/11 accused Fahim Ansari, Ansari’s wife has expressed apprehension about the fate of the case. Ansari’s wife Yasmin has said she feared for her husband’s defence now. She has been quoted as saying: “I don’t understand why this happened. He was supposed to argue my husband’s case. It was essential that he should have been there.”

32-year-old Shahid was only 15 in 1992 when, soon after the demolition of Babri Masjid and the riots that followed, he was arrested under Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). He was accused of conspiring to assassinate Bal Thackeray. He was convicted in 1999 with five years imprisonment by the TADA court. But the Supreme Court acquitted him of all charges the same year.

Remembering Adv Shahid Azmi, journalist Nikhil Dixit, who knew him from his journalism school days, says in a story in DNA: Shahid Azmi often joked that he would be felled by bullets. And death, ironically, came exactly the way he had predicted — while sitting in the same chair where he often laughed off his premonition. He would shrug, saying, “I’ve died a hundred times and if death did come knocking, I would look it in the eye.”

Nikhil further writes about Azmi: A fearless lawyer, he refused to erase his past. For, it was instrumental in shaping his life, step by step. Scarred by his past, he decided to join the system to beat the system and reform it in his own capacity. One of the few lawyers who could empathise with the accused, particularly, those labelled “anti-nationals”, the soft-spoken Shahid was often reluctant to charge legal fees. “They were all victims of the system,” he often reasoned.

Before opting for law Shahid Azmi had done a journalism course in 1999.

Nikhil says: The first time I saw Shahid was when he entered a journalism class in 1999. The replies of the shy Shahid would often be in monosyllables, sometimes stammered. But the anger never left him. And neither did his past. Naturally, he was anti-establishment and could not stomach anybody praising the system. Slowly, we got chatting in the canteen and bonded over books. Soon after college, we got our first jobs together. Eventually, he decided to pursue law, while I continued with journalism. And life moved on.”

2007 Interview With Murdered Mumbai Defender–Also Defender July 11, 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings

[Shahid Azmi was targeted because he was a very visible defender of Muslims in some of India's most prominent terror attacks.  This points to a Hindutva attacker.  The fact that this assassination was quickly followed by a terrorist bombing in Pune, which was intended to implicate "Islamic" terrorists, suggests that the same source may have been behind both attacks.  The other option would seem to be that both Hindu and Muslim terrorists share a common objective at this time, the sabotage of upcoming India-Pakistan talks, suggesting that both religion-based terrorist outfits work for one paymaster.  Both the ISI and RAW are under the direct influence of the CIA; the ISI is a virtual branch of the spy agency.]

‘Introspect why the educated Muslim is taking to violence’

July 27, 2007

Shahid Azmi is angry with the establishment, the police and politicians.

The 29-year-old Mumbai lawyer was arrested under TADA — even was 18 — for harbouring Kashmiri radicals; while in Tihar jail, he befriended terroristsOmar Sheikh and Masood Azhar; both men were released in exchange for the passengers and crew abroad the Indian Airlines aircraft hijacked to Kandahar on December 31, 1999.

After dabbling in journalism, Azmi became a lawyer to espouse his convictions. Thus, it is no surprise that he has taken up for some of the accused in the July 11, 2006 train blasts in Mumbai.

In an interview with Managing Editor Sheela Bhattand Chief Correspondent Syed Firdaus Ashraf, Azmi defends the accused — Faisal Attaur Rehman Shaikh, his brother Muzzamil, Zameer Latifur Rahman Shaikh, Naved Hussain, Rashid Hussain and Abdul Majeed — while strongly arguing against the investigation conducted by the Maharashtra police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad.

What is your view of the ATS investigation into the 11/7 blasts?

There is no investigation as such. The primary thing on which the entire case rests is the confessional statement of the accused.

Under the special provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, their confessional statements can be used against them.

However, our basic challenge is to this provision itself, against the trial under this Act. Because, according to us the only definition under which we fall is ‘promoting of insurgency’.

We have challenged this definition by way of a writ petition saying that the state government is not competent to enact any legislation on insurgency because insurgency is a threat to national security and any act or offence which poses a threat to national security, regarding that, the only government that can make law is the central government.

Our basic challenge is to this draconian law. Once this draconian law is challenged there is hardly any evidence against the accused.

The only other evidence is of an eyewitness who has been an eyewitness in three other blast cases. How is it possible that this man is always in the right place at the right time? The police claim he has seen people gathering and discussing the making of a bomb.

Who is this witness and where does he hail from?

His name is Ajmeri and he is from Mumbai. According to his earlier deposition he deals in automobile batteries. He claims he saw the accused meeting and talking about planting bombs. Basically, the attempt by the prosecution is to prove a conspiracy.

Apart from him there are no other witnesses. They have one more witness who is gullible. He says he was standing at platform number one at Churchgate station and witnessing the activities on platform number four.

Anybody who belongs to Mumbai will know it is not possible to witness such an act from such a distance and that too during rush hour. Even otherwise, one cannot see what people are doing from platform one to platform four.

What are the major objections you have against the prosecution?

The first and foremost objection is to the confessional statement itself.

Second, I don’t know how can this witness (Ajmeri) always be present at the right place at the right time.

Third, how can you accept this sort of gullible witness?

Fourth, I have an objection to the circumstances of the case itself. You see, by July 22, 2006, the police had arrested all these accused but till September 2006 they never made a claim what their link to the blasts was and how it was carried out.

Now a delayed claim — after three months — that they have cracked the case puts a question mark on the case.

Remember the Aurangabad arms haul case? Documents prove that those people who have been arrested in the 11/7 case were first named in the Aurangabad arms haul case. The police later found a better opportunity to implicate them in the 11/7 case. They used this opportunity to involve as many people as they could who were already under the scanner.

What was the Aurangabad case about?

The police seized weapons on the Malegaon-Aurangabad highway. It was the first time the name of Faisal Shaikh came up, allegedly the kingpin in the 11/7 case. It was in May 2006. The police arrested the guys who were wanted in the Aurangabad arms haul case and implicated them in 11/7.

If so, how do you explain the Antop Hill encounter where a Pakistani was killed soon after July 11, 2006?

Let me explain. That area is an isolated and sparsely populated place. Nobody stays in that area. Why would a terrorist who wants to hide choose such an area? It is not like he is a petty thief. The police is saying he is a terrorist. Terrorists always hide in places where you find a lot of other people.

In a city like Mumbai, if you live in an isolated place you can avoid people for a day or two but on the third day someone will question your presence there.

According to the police the terrorists were staying there for a month and nobody saw them. It is impossible to stay there. This place is known for staged encounters in Mumbai.

Since you are a defence lawyer, you are expected to say these things.

It is not so. My clients have consistently said they are innocent. Here is one case where I am damn sure that the arrested people are innocent.

Their best years will be destroyed in jails and they will bear the brunt of the case in spite of being innocent.

So, you believe the police has fixed them all?

I will just give you an example. Open Secrets, a book by M K Dhar, former joint director, Intelligence Bureau, claims that they (the Intelligence Bureau) identified Muslim groups who were a potential threat or potentially militant minded.

They then planted their agent and when we see these cases and then analyse we see a common, monotonous thing happen. In every case, you hear the police claim that how Muslims go to Pakistan, take training, acquire arms and it is during the acquisition of arms that they are arrested.

The police say the missions failed. There can be failure of one mission here or there but not a consistent failure of missions since 1992. Somewhere there is a pattern to the manner in which the police works.

How can you make such a claim when actual blasts are taking place? Not all missions fail.

There are clear demarcations where cases have happened and where it has not happened. The cases where blasts have not happened you will see that the people who get caught are cadre-based, like the Students Islamic Movement of India.

Where missions have taken place they are not from organisations. So what has happened? The police have kept an eye on Muslim organisations who could be a potential threat but they have not been able to do anything. They were annihilated and eliminated before that.

Certain sectors where they were not identified, blasts are happening. It is not happening from Muslim jihadi organisation but some other elements like renegades working for the State.

In some cases the police are very lenient in the investigation. Like the Nanded blast, seizure of explosives in Jogeshwari and Ghatkopar, Mumbai. In such cases the police are lenient. But when Muslims are involved police uses different yardsticks.

Don’t you think Pakistan is involved in some way?

They are involved in some disruptive activities in India. To blame everything on Pakistan is shunning our own responsibility. Somewhere justice is not being done to every section of people in society.

Do you think a large section of young Muslims are getting attracted to the global perception of jihad?

To some extent it is true that the educated or upwardly mobile section of the Muslim intelligentsia finds a ray of hope in such activities. I don’t say on the whole but a miniscule segment have been fascinated by violence.

But it is for a short while. When the truth about violence emerges they get brushed aside.

It is time for the system to introspect why the educated Muslim is taking to violence and not the uneducated kind.

Educated young minds see through the layers in which the government suppresses the truth and to them this system is almost a failure and they might be doing this.

How will you describe Faisal Shaikh?

He is like the boy next door.

Is he deeply religious?

No, no. In fact, there are allegations he had a string of dalliances. He is in no way a global terrorist.

So, how did he get involved in this case?

One’s involvement in such cases cannot be because of their acts. Our police, as many internal reports say, is communal. As regards Faisal, there is no evidence of his involvement in 11/7, except his confessional statement and that too, he has retracted.

But he admitted the statement in court.

No, he did not. He was taken to the house of the metropolitan magistrate.

But he could have objected to it?

Not everybody can do that. The best thing is that they can say these things freely in judicial custody. If they are hardcore terrorists, why will they repent their act?

On the one hand you say they are global terrorists and on the other you say they are repenting their act.

I meet Faisal very often. He is one accused whom I was never allowed to meet when he was in police custody.

He always told me, he had nothing to do with the blasts. He was arrested on July 22, 2006, from Mira Road (a satellite town, close to Mumbai, in Thane district). His family was conservative. He was liberal minded. He had a string of dalliances with several girls. He was asked to get married, but he was not getting married. He was an exporter. He used to import dry fruits from Iran. He was never involved in any Islamic religious organisation.

Is it not true that Faisal and his brother Muzzamil may have gone from Iran to Pakistan because he had been to Iran?

No. The Iran-Pakistan border is not as porous as the India-Nepal border. Pakistan has always seen Iran as a threat.

But didn’t he go for ziyarat? He is a Sunni Muslim, why would he go to visit Shia holy places?

You see, he went but did not take any offerings, it is gairullah (doing so would mean putting faith in something other than Allah). Sunnis don’t take offerings but they visit it.

Who planted the bombs on the trains, according to the police?

Had they been very sure about it, they would have named them in the chargesheet.

What devices were used in the 11/7 blasts?

According to me RDX was not used because the nature of the blast was not such.

Secondly, when the state forensic team visited the site they were not allowed to conduct investigations. It was only when the central team visited they were allowed to investigate and then they said RDX was used.

Who could have perpetrated the blasts then?

Several people. Several people from the Indian intelligence can do it. These people can be within India or outside India who could have gained. They have it in them.

What will they gain?

To stereotype the enemies, that is Islam and Muslims.

The IB won’t do it because blasts do not help India’s national interests.

It helps those people who want to have stringent laws in India. They want to curb these people who want to have their own different identity, an identity different from that defined by them as national identity.

There also, you are wrong. India’s intelligence agencies know that if there are communal disturbances then it is not good for the country.

This is not about profit or loss. It is a particular ideology working in India.

Are you accusing the Indian government?

No, I am not accusing the Indian government but certain elements in the Indian government are doing this.

What do you think society must do to end such problems?

You see, whenever a Muslim seeks justice he should get it. The scale of justice is not evenly balanced in India. You see the Bhagalpur riots, the manner and the way in which it was perpetuated we know but the accused got only a life sentence.

Mumbai Suspect’s Lawyer Murder Ordered by Crime Boss Chhota Rajan?

[Indian authorities are concerned that the killing of the public defender of alleged Mumbai attack accomplice Fahim Ansari represents an escalation in the international crime/religious war between Indian crime lords Dawood Ibrahim and former partner Chhota Rajan.  Both crime lords have been associated with their separate state intelligence agencies (Dawood ISI and Chhota RAW), acting as covert terrorist arms.  Where Dawood was implicated in the Mumbai seige, Rajan is allegedly over the RAW Special Operations Division, that allegedly supplies men, money and equipment to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).

Chota Rajan

Lawyers of Hindutva leaders next on underworld’s hit list?

TNN

NEW DELHI: Authorities are concerned about the safety of lawyers representing Hindutva leaders as well as those accused of “Hindu terror”, fearing they may be targeted by underworld elements to avenge the killing of Shahid Azmi, counsel for the 26/11 accused Fahim Ansari, in Mumbai.
Suspicion is that Azmi, who was himself detained under the now-defunct anti-terror law Tada, was bumped off by gunmen belonging to the Ravi Pujari gang. Pujari’s hand was also suspected in assassination of Naushad Kasim, counsel for Yusuf Malabari, who had been contracted by Chhota Shakeel to eliminate Siddharth Luthra, a city lawyer defending BJP’s Varun Gandhi in the “hate speech” case.
With two successful hits against lawyers representing “Islamic terrorists” and the underworld elements belonging to the minority community, authorities are wary of a retaliation against counsels for the Sangh Parivar leaders as well as those engaged by the accused in the Malegaon and Nanded cases — both allegedly the handiwork of Hindu gangs.
The killing of Azmi puts the underworld elements seeking to portray themselves as champions of the minority community under pressure. More so, because their plots against the lawyer representing Pragya Thakur, the sadhvi arrested for her alleged involvement in the blast in a Malegaon mosque, came a cropper.
Authorities here have watched with concern the zeal of the members of the underworld belonging to the majority community to target lawyers of terror accused and suspected ISI operatives both here and abroad.
The past one year or so has witnessed the killing of three alleged ISI operatives in Nepal — Parvez Tanda, Majeed Manihar and Zameem Shah. Of the three, Shah has, in particular, been a thorn in India’s side for long.
One Bharat Nepali has owned up the killing of Shah who, working at the instance of ISI, used his cable network and TV channel to hurt India’s interests and promote those of Pakistan. Indian agencies are yet to make a determination, suspecting that Nepali’s claim could be a red herring thrown by Chhota Rajan who has styled himself as a Hindu don or, to be more precise, the community’s defence against Dawood Ibrahim and Company.
The communal divide in the underworld dates to the time Dawood collaborated with ISI to engineer the Mumbai blasts in 1993 — the first case of terror involving serial bombing — in retaliation against communal riots in Mumbai.

Clearly, the Terrorists Want India/Pakistan Talks Disrupted

[The most effective counter-terrorist move that India and Pakistan could possibly make would be to make peace with the other side.  This strategy applies to all the terrorists who are actively at work trying to undermine security on the sub-continent, especially to the state terrorists.  All the super-power plots rely on internal and interstate divisions.  The healing of the artificial manufactured rifts between Pakistan and India would bring the war of terror to a standstill and open a real path towards world peace.]

A reminder from terrorists: We don’t want India-Pakistan talks

Siddharth Varadarajan

The first major act of terrorism since 26/11 strongly indicates a likely motive

New Delhi: Investigators will doubtless establish the identity of those behind Saturday evening’s bomb blast in Pune but the timing of the first major act of terrorism since 26/11 strongly indicates a likely motive: to ensure the forthcoming dialogue between India and Pakistan is sabotaged even before it has a chance to get off the ground.

The coincidence is striking, the bomb attack coming just a day after the two governments announced their foreign secretaries would meet in New Delhi on February 25.

The targeting of a café frequented by foreigners and the proximity of the blast site to Pune’s Chabad House for Jews suggest the terrorists who are behind the latest attack want to remind ordinary Indians of the November 2008 strike on Mumbai. They want to remind India that neither their ability nor their determination to kill innocent civilians has been diminished by the security measures the country has taken. Most of all, they want to drive a still brittle body politic and civil society back into a confrontationist mode with Pakistan.

The ‘syndicate of terror’ whose footprints appear evident from both the choice of timing and target would like nothing better than a continuation of the diplomatic stalemate. The aim of the 26/11 attack was to provoke a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.

That didn’t work because the Manmohan Singh government understood what the jihadi groups and their backers were trying to accomplish. What followed, then, was a year of ‘no war, no peace’ but with India offering talks late last month, the terrorist groups felt the initiative slipping out of their hand once again.

At a rally in Islamabad on February 5 to denounce the idea of an India-Pakistan dialogue, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa deputy chief, Abdur Rehman Makki, posted warning of Pune being a target. “Kashmir had become a cold issue. But by denying Pakistan water, India has ensured that every farmer in Punjab is lining up with his tractor and plough, ready to overrun India.” At one time, jihadis were interested only in the liberation of Kashmir, but the water issue had ensured that “Delhi, Pune and Kanpur” were all fair targets, The Hindu’s correspondent in Islamabad, Nirupama Subramaniam quoted him as saying.

Though the opposition will try and corner the government for trying to meet its goal of ending terrorism from across the border through both a focussed dialogue and renewed emphasis on homeland security, the Pune bomb blast has underlined the importance of staying the course. And one of the first issues India will have to raise with the Pakistani Foreign Secretary is the need for Makki to be arrested and interrogated for his ‘prescient’ statement about Pune. The fact that terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba don’t want India and Pakistan to talk is a good reason to question the logic of not talking. Talks do not represent an easing of pressure on Pakistan to crack down on the LeT/JuD. Indeed, that they are likely to be a more effective instrument for pressing one’s demands is precisely why terrorist organisations are so keen to ensure the proposed dialogue never takes off.

Asif Zardari says Shut up!

Web of silence?

By Huma Yusuf

Concerns about online free expression grew last year after the passage of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act.—File photo

Pakistanis have always had a taste for delicious ironies — and we can always count on our leaders to serve them up. The latest treat comes from none other than President Asif Zardari.

In a recent speech, while speaking about democracy, Zardari paused, glared at a heckler in the crowd, and then shouted at him to “shut up!”

This being the 21st century, the not-so-proud moment was caught on camera and widely circulated via the video-sharing website, YouTube.

more about “Asif Zardari says Shut up! – by Asif“, posted with vodpod

Those who saw the clip were already tittering about the irony of democracy’s greatest defender shushing free speech in such a literal manner when the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) decided to up the ante. Since last Sunday, links to the video have been blocked and anyone trying to view the clip is informed that the ‘site is restricted’.

Moreover, on Friday, the webmaster of the ‘Make Pakistan Better’ website reported that the PTA has also directed that the site be blocked on an Internet protocol level. The webmaster alleges that the site has been blocked for hosting anti-government content, though the PTA has cited no reason for the clampdown.

These are not the first instances in which websites have been blocked. In October last year, websites hosting a video that showed a Pakistan Army major interrogating people suspected of harbouring terrorists was blocked — the clip revealed that the major ordered his team to beat the suspects. In August 2008, the PTA blocked links to a video alleging the misuse of power by naval chief Admiral Afzal Tahir.

Before that, during the February 2008 elections, links to a video that showed election rigging by a major Karachi-based political party were blocked. In that instance, the PTA drew global attention to its censorship tactics — as well as the limits of its technical know-how — by blocking the YouTube website around the world for a few hours.

The authorities also sporadically block the websites of Baloch nationalist groups. In fact, online activists have been fighting against Internet censorship since 2005, when the PTA blocked hundreds of blogs hosted on the ‘blogspot.com’ domain.

Concerns about online free expression skyrocketed last year after the passage of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, mention of which is often preceded by the use of the adjective ‘draconian’.

In yet another ironic twist, our civilian, democratically elected government passed the act even though it was a vestige of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s regime and encapsulated his increasingly authoritative attitude towards press freedom.

Much has already been written about this legislature, which aims to curb cyber terrorism but employs vague language that could be invoked to slap serious charges on anyone who owns a computer.

Under the act, the PTA can arbitrarily invoke hazy definitions for what constitutes spamming, spoofing, stalking, ‘terroristic intent’, or a terrorist act to put someone behind bars for years. Indeed, the act is peppered with words such as ‘lewd’, ‘obscene’, and ‘immoral’, which are not legal terms and are thus highly subjective. In other words, it is up to the authorities’ discretion to determine what is unacceptable.

For months, there have been calls to redraft the law and to bring it in line with international legal standards for cyber crime as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The PTA’s decision to block a YouTube clip and a website recently are reason enough to renew that call.

Admittedly, Pakistan does not have the poor track record of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries that restrict online free expression by filtering or blocking content or monitoring activity — at least till now.

But it is absolutely essential that the Pakistani authorities do not go down that route, for it is an affront to press freedom at large and would be another setback to this country’s newest exercise in democracy.

The fact is, online monitoring and blocking are modern versions of old-school tactics to rein in a free press, such as detention, harassment and intimidation. Around the world, attacks against bloggers and other individuals who post content online is the first front in authoritarian crackdowns on press freedom.

After all, individuals who go online are more vulnerable to censorship than professional media personnel because they do not have the backing of organisations or unions, nor do they have adequate resources such as money, lawyers or awareness about their right to free speech.

Until now, the PTA has only blocked a handful of websites. But Internet connectivity is becoming widespread — according to Internet World Stats, there are currently 18.5 million Internet users in Pakistan, a 13,716 per cent increase from 2000.

As more youngsters go online, we are bound to see a new generation of citizen journalists posting video clips, images or blogs that document official transgressions such as corruption or torture.

To ensure that their right to do so is protected, we must speak out now against the PTA’s blocks as well as the cyber crimes act that support such actions.

There is already a push in the US and EU to include violations of online free expression in countries’ human rights portfolios. If we do not set a precedent for protecting online free speech, the PTA’s activities could become yet another issue that makes us pariahs among the international community.

Pakistan has long prided itself on having a relatively free press, and military dictators and civilian governments — when flagging their democratic credentials — point to the open conversation in the country’s column inches and on its airwaves. The government should make a policy decision to extend that conversation into the Pakistani websphere.

huma.yusuf@gmail.com

Zardari Shut Up (Remix)

more about "Zardari Shut Up (Remix)", posted with vodpod

Pak Government Playing Double-Game With the Pakistani People

Double game

The death of three US marines in a bomb blast in Lower Dir has confirmed what up till now has been rejected as ‘conspiracy theories’; that a US military footprint exists on Pakistani soil. Moreover, it reinforces the notion that this war is definitely America’s war, as is evident from the US military, economic and intelligence commitment to it. One fails to understand how our rulers can oppose the Kerry-Lugar Bill and drone attacks on the one hand, but allow US marines and private security firms to operate on Pakistani soil on the other.

We often hear about the ‘double game’ being played by Pakistani policy-makers in which we are forced to believe that the interests of Pakistanis are covertly being secured through cooperation with the United States. This bizarre assessment is beyond the comprehension of the common man who can see that on issues of national security like Kashmir and nuclear programme, a complete capitulation to the US has taken place. The shocking revelation of the death of US marines in Lower Dir, inaction over increased drones attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the acceptance by ANP leader Bashir Bilour of the presence of US private security firms in Pakistan go on to show that a double game is being played by the Pakistani policy-makers, not with the US, but with Pakistanis.

Moez Mobeen

Islamabad

Zardari Impeachment Preferrable to Investigation of Pakistan’s Missing

[It is shaping-up as the Pakistani people--vs.--America's puppets match.  No matter how much effort is expended to convince us otherwise, the Pakistani Army is also subservient to the US govt.  It is only a matter of time before Gen. Kayani steps in, since many of the "disappeared" cases being investigated involved claims of kidnapping and murder directed at the ISI, for selling suspects to the CIA, according to Musharraf.]

Biggest gamble lost even before the game started

News Analysis

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani have played their biggest gamble on Saturday which could not only seal their fate but is also expected to lead to the issuance of contempt notices and even a possible registration of high treason cases against the ruling duo.

To the disappointment of Zardari and Gilani, the judges of the superior judiciary have taken a united stand to outsmart any government effort to apply the “divide and rule” formula in the judiciary. Yet to their bad luck, government’s attack on judiciary has enraged the PML-N top leader Nawaz Sharif, who sounded quite furious on the issue.

Anything is possible now and according to a PML-N source a key leader of the party would Sunday pop up the suggestion of moving an impeachment motion against the president for his latest unconstitutional action before the party meeting on Sunday at Murree.

“What more could be done than violating the Constitution to hit a state institution,” the source wondered.

Honourable Justice Saqib Nisar, who has been notified by the government as acting Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, when approached categorically told The News, “I would follow the orders of my Chief Justice (Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry)”.

Sources close to the Chief Justice LHC Justice Khawaja Sharif have also confirmed to this correspondent that he would not join the Supreme Court as judge unless it is done by the government on the recommendation of Chief Justice of Pakistan. Justice Saqib Nisar has been showered with praises from all sides for refusing to dance to the tunes of the rulers.

The sources said that judges of the superior judiciary in all the four provinces and particularly in Punjab Lahore High Court, which is the immediate target of executive’s conspiracy, have resolved to stay united and remain at the beck and call of the chief justice of Pakistan. The government did not find any Dogar in the present superior judiciary to repeat what the then dictator had done on Nov 3, 2007.

Constitutional and legal experts generally agree that the president, who could have differed with the recommendations of the chief justice, had violated the Constitution by unilaterally rejecting the CJP’s recommendations and notifying the judges’ appointment just contrary to what was proposed by the top judge of the country.

It was in the same context that the Registrar Supreme Court had recently told The News that any government order for the appointment of judges in disregard to the recommendations of the chief justice of Pakistan would be an act of subversion. As defined by the Article 260 of the Constitution, the chief justice of Pakistan’s consultation with regard to the appointment in the superior judiciary is binding on the president/executive.

Contempt of the court proceedings is the minimum pay back, which is being discussed by the legal and constitutional experts, for the adventurous president and his dummy prime minister.

Within few hours of the issuance of the government orders, the Supreme Court suspended the notifications the same evening. To the bad luck of the Pakistan People’s Party, except Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani all those who sat in the Presidency on Saturday to surprise the nation with a new shock, all the four have their personal grudge against the present judiciary.

President Asif Ali Zardari was fond of Dogar court and never wanted to restore the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. To Zardari’s back luck all his three legal eagles, whom he depends on, have no standing on constitutional matters. Farooq H Naek, Babar Awan and Latif Khosa are known lawyers on criminal side. They also have the commonality like their top boss that they were fond of the post-Nov 3 PCO judges and great supporters of Dogar court. All these were opposed to the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Farooq Naek was the author of the much condemned “Naek formula” by which he has been struggling to convince those judges, who had refused to take oath under PCO under Musharraf, to accept re-appointment through a fresh oath from the condemned Dogar. Latif Khosa and Babar Awan too were the known close friends of the Dogar court. These two have personal grudge against the present judiciary and particularly against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

On the incumbent CJP’s initiative, Khosa was removed from the office of Attorney General of Pakistan after the CJP had received a complaint that Mr Khosa had allegedly received Rs3 million from a client to get a favourable decision from Dogar court. Babar Awan too faced high embarrassment after one of the Haris Steel directors told the Supreme Court that Awan had taken Rs35 million as bribe from them to get a decision from Dogar court in their favour.

Amongst the political parties, the opposition sounds furious, and all importantly Nawaz Sharif while taking to this correspondent on Saturday evening sounds to be returning to his real mode of an opposition leader. His Sunday’s press conference is expected to issue a stern warning to government.

What is, however, nothing less than a ridiculing factor for the coalition partners of the PPP, none of them have been consulted by the prime minister or the president to make the shocking appointments in the judiciary. The coming few weeks would be too tough for the already beleaguered Presidency and the prime minister for committing the latest what a source called “failed suicide attempt”.

Economic Warfare Against Pakistan’s Chief Justice

NBP stops CJ from cashing his cheque

ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: The authorities of National Bank of Pakistan refused to cash a personal cheque of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, NBP sources said.

Spokesman for President Zardari Farhatullah Babar said he was completely unaware of any such development.

According to sources, a personal check of Rs 99,000 of Chief Justice was returned by the bank’s Melody Branch, Islamabad, without any reason. The cheque was kept on hold for more than two weeks.

Regional Operations Manager of NBP in Islamabad Malik Hayat admitted that there was sufficient money in the relevant account and the cheque could have been paid. “I don’t’ know further details so I cannot comment on this,” Hayat said while confirming the unfortunate event of January 27, 2010.

According to NBP sources, following the bouncing of the check on Jan 27, junior staff of the SC considered it some mistake on the part of the bank official. However, sources say as the top NBP management was ordered by the highest office of the country, they continued to defy the requests from the SC officials.

On February 12, 2010, the SC administration came into knowledge of the actual situation and high-level NBP management was asked to conduct immediate inquiry over this humiliating act and take appropriate action. Sources told The News on Saturday that the bank management suspended three junior officials who had no link to the episode.

The officials suspended were Chief Manager Muhammad Irfan, Operation Manager Abdul Nasir and Deposit Manager Ibrahim. Chief Manager confirmed in no way he had any link with the process of cashing this cheque. Irfan insisted that his suspension on the issue was purely an official matter. He said that he will prove before the inquiry committee that he was not guilty.

Turkish General Issues Threats to Expose Politicians Over Ergenekon Expose’

[Like all "Gladio" type "stay behind" operations, the ones being exposed in Turkey are related to ultra-right-wing military and police and secret buried arsenals.  SEE: Gladio- Death Plan for Democracy]

‘Take action or else,’ Turkish military tells government

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Gen. İlker Başbuğ

Infuriated at what he sees as growing smear tactics against the military, the country’s top general has indirectly demanded the government take action to stop the campaign, threatening to share intelligence on the issue if necessary.

The chief of the Navy Command, meanwhile, has continued to criticize what he called the targeting of his forces during an interview with daily Hürriyet.

“[If the campaign goes too far,] we’ll begin to share our own intelligence with the public. We also have much information and we’ll be obliged to disclose it,” Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ said in an interview with daily Habertürk. “We’ll resort to the judgment and we’ll fight for our rights.”

The military brass has been complaining of what it terms an asymmetric psychological campaign aimed at tarnishing the military’s credibility through allegedly fake coup plots. A number of top military personnel have been prosecuted for their alleged links to the plotters while two top officers were arrested last year on charges of planning to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.

Daily Taraf later published a military plan, allegedly dating from 2003 and detailing a coup plot that included bombing mosques in Istanbul. At the same time, prosecutors arrested Navy officers on charges of planning to kill the Navy Forces Commander.

Başbuğ earlier described these revelations as part of a smear campaign, asking government officials to take action to stop them.

“Our patience has a limit,” the general said. “You should know very clearly that whatever we do will be within the legal framework.”

“When I say that our patience has a limit, I mean that we know perfectly the whole background to this campaign,” he added. “We know it, but we have remained silent. We remain silent in the hope that someone will take the necessary steps.”

Başbuğ’s words have been interpreted as an indirect message to the government. The general and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have established a direct channel of dialogue and meet on a weekly basis to discuss recent developments. Although Başbuğ is believed to have shared the military’s information on the campaign, it is understood that the government has not yet taken any action on the matter.

Saying that the campaign had similarities with past ones in Latin American countries, a region that was marked by frequent coups, the top general said the campaign aimed to depict the Turkish military as an enemy of the Turkish people.

“I share everything [including this impression of mine] with the president and the prime minister,” he said. “I share problems with them. I can say this: The state shares the same opinion on this issue.”

Noting the military was classifying its own intelligence and that the necessary explanations would be made when appropriate, Başbuğ said forces were adopting various technological measures to halt the leakage of confidential data to outside parties.

When asked the military’s opinion on changing the country’s present nation-state model into a federation, Başbuğ said the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, would never allow such a development.

“It cannot happen. Loose federative systems are also a matter of discussion in Europe. Isn’t France a nation-state? Britain? Or Germany?” he said. “It’s a philosophy. Existing problems can be solved within this philosophy.”

Başbuğ’s grievances received a positive reaction from the opposition, with Deniz Baykal, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, calling on all parties to consider the general’s remarks.

“The military has obviously embraced a new way out in its fight against this campaign,” Baykal said, adding that the military’s complaints have not received an encouraging response from the government.

Navy commander complaints

In the wake of the alleged suicide of Navy Col. Berk Erden, Navy Force Commander Eşref Uğur Yiğit continued his criticisms of recent affairs during a Friday interview with daily Hürriyet. In addition to this incident, a number of navy officers have been arrested as part of an investigation over unearthed weapons in the Poyrazköy neighborhood of Istanbul.

“The accused officer is the commander of the nearby military unit from which these unearthed weapons are considered to have been taken,” Yiğit said. “He has the keys to the arsenal. If he needed weapons, he would open the doors and get what he needed. Why would he bury them?”

Başbuğ meanwhile visited the Navy’s facilities in Gölcük to boost the morale of personnel there.

Taser Abuse in the United States

Since June 2001, more than 351 individuals in the United States have died after being shocked by police Tasers. Most of those individuals were not carrying a weapon. Amnesty International is concerned that Tasers are being used as tools of routine force — rather than as an alternative to firearms.

Medical studies so far on the effects of Tasers have either been limited in scope or unduly influenced by the weapons’ primary manufacturer. No study has adequately examined the impact of Tasers on potentially at-risk individuals — people who have medical conditions, take prescription medications, are mentally ill or are under the influence of narcotics. Rigorous, independent, impartial study of their use and effects is urgently needed to determine what role Tasers may have played in the 351 deaths and to determine appropriate guidelines for future Taser use.

Given the unresolved safety concerns, Amnesty International recommends that police departments either suspend the use of Tasers and stun guns pending further safety research or limit their use to situations where officers would otherwise be justified in resorting to firearms.

Taser Overview

More Background Information on Tasers

Taser Reports and Briefings by Amnesty International

• Dec 2008:  Less than Lethal (PDF)
  Read the press release
• Sept 2007: Amnesty International briefing to the U.S. Justice Department inquiry into deaths following discharges from Tasers: Briefing (PDF) | Public Statement | AI Statement on Justice Department’s Interim Report (June 2008) | AIUSA applauds launch of Justice Department inquiry (June 2006)
• March 2006 report: Amnesty International’s Continuing Concerns About Taser Use(PDF) | Press Release
• Novemeber 2004 report” Excessive and Lethal Force? Amnesty International’s Concerns About Deaths and Ill-treatment Involving Police Use of Tasers (PDF)
• “Aftershocks” (Amnesty Magazine)

Taser Policy Recommendations and Campaigning Tools

• List of Deaths Occurring after Individuals were Struck by Taser in Police Custody from June 2001 to August 2008
• What You Can Do to Make Sure Your City Doesn’t Abuse Tasers
• Recommendations to Law Enforcement Agencies on Taser Use
• Case Study: The Death of Darryl Turner

Personal Tasers

Amnesty International believes Tasers and other electro-shock weapons should not be sold to members of the public, whose use of the device cannot be monitored, constrained or accounted for. Civilian Tasers have been used in domestic abuse, theft and other crimes.

• AIUSA statement on personal (civilian) stun guns (Taser C2 and others)
• Law and Disorder Radio: Taser International Unveils Newest Civilian Stun Device(MP3; item begins at 2:22)

Taser DISCUSSIONS

NPR’s Diane Rehm Show on Tasers, December 5, 2007

• USA Program Director Dalia Hashad (Real Audio , Windows Meida).

United Nations Documents on Use-of-Force Guidelines for Law Enforcement Agencies

• Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
• Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials

Tasers on Video

Viewer discretion is advised — graphic content.

• March 20, 2008, Charlotte, NC – Darryl Turner was struck by a Taser after being in an argument with his store manager. He was shocked for 37 seconds, and then shocked again, and later died. Video
• December 20, 2007, Daytona Beach, FL - Elizabeth Beeland was struck by a Taser after she became loud and unruly at a Best Buy store. Video
• November 18, 2007, Trotwood, OH - Valreca Redden was struck by a Taser while pregnant. Police claim that they did not know she was pregnant at the time. Video
• October 14, 2007, Vancouver, BC - Robert Dziekanski became agitated after waiting ten hours in the Vancouver International Airport. Police shocked Dziekanski with a Taser multiple times, and soon after he was pronounced dead. Video
• September 17, 2007, Gainesville, FL - Andrew Meyer persistently questioned Senator John Kerry at a university forum. University of Florida police tried to escort him from the auditorium and later struck him with a Taser for resisting arrest. Video| Statement | Statement on report on incident
• September 14, 2007, UT - Jared Massey was struck by a Taser for refusing to sign a speeding ticket. Video
• September 2, 2007, Warren, OH - Heidi Gill got into an altercation with a bartender and mistakenly got into the wrong car while waiting for her friend to drive her home. When she refused to get out of the vehicle, she was struck by a Taser multiple times. Video
• November 23, 2006, Austin, TX - Eugene Snelling was pulled out of his car after trying to get his license and registration. He was struck by a Taser less than a minute later. Video
• November 14, 2006, Los Angeles, CA - Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a student at UCLA, neglected to show his student identification card at the library. He was then asked to leave, and when he refused he was struck by a Taser multiple times. Video
• November 13, 2006, Sheffield Lake, OH - Kristina Fretter was taken to the Sheffield Police Department after being picked up for drunk driving. She was later struck by a Taser while wearing handcuffs. Video

Law and Disorder Radio’s Taser Series

• The Use of Tasers Among Law Enforcement Agencies in the UK–Oct 30, 2006 (MP3; item begins at 2:05)
• Featuring Paul L. Mills, Attorney and Co-Director with L.A. Police Watch–Jul 31, 2006(MP3; item begins at 31:08)
• Featuring Mona Cadena, AIUSA’s Western Region Field Organizer–Jun 19, 2006(MP3; item begins at 16:55)
• Featuring Ed Jackson, Former Spokesperson for AI–Jun 12, 2006 (MP3; item begins at 31:47)

Terror ‘death lists’ target Americans

Terror ‘death lists’ target Americans Sherwood Ross February 13, 2010 Raising troubling comparisons to tactics employed by Josef Stalin and right-wing Latin American dictatorships, the U.S. government has created a “hit list” of Americans abroad marked for murder. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Feb. 3 the U.S. may, with executive approval, target and kill American terrorist suspects, Inter Press News Service reported. “We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community,” he said. Blair added that U.S. counterterrorism officials may try to kill U.S. citizens involved in terrorism overseas with “specific permission” from higher up. In response to questions from the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Blair said, if “we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.” Blair’s statement recalls the policies of Soviet Russia’s secret police, who often murdered those who fled Stalin’s tyranny. Red Army founder Leon Trotsky, for example, was tracked to Mexico by a Soviet agent who killed him with an ice pick. Blair’s remarks followed a Washington Post article reporting that President Barack Obama had embraced President George W. Bush’s policy of authorizing the killing of U.S. citizens involved in terrorist activities overseas. The Post reported: “After the Sep. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush gave the CIA, and later the military, authority to kill U.S. citizens abroad if strong evidence existed that an American was involved in organizing or carrying out terrorist actions against the United States or U.S. interests, military and intelligence officials said. “The evidence has to meet a certain, defined threshold. The person, for example, has to pose ‘a continuing and imminent threat’ to U.S. persons and interests.” Daphne Eviatar, an attorney with Human Rights First, told Inter Press, “The short answer is that combatants can be targeted and civilians cannot under international law. Their citizenship isn’t relevant. But just being a ‘suspected terrorist’ doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a combatant.” She added, “The key question, and where there may be serious disagreement, is whether the person targeted is ‘directly participating in hostilities.’ If not, and they’re targeted, it’s a war crime.” Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said, “It is alarming to hear that the Obama administration is asserting that the president can authorize the assassination of Americans abroad, even if they are far from any battlefield and may have never taken up arms against the U.S. , but have only been deemed to constitute an unspecified ‘threat.’” Attorney George Brent Mickum, an American lawyer who has defended a number of Guantanamo Bay detainees, told Inter Press, “I guess my sense is that it’s just more fear mongering. They kill somebody and don’t need to offer any justification.” “We have killed thousands of innocent civilians while attempting to target alleged operatives,” Mickum said. “And let us not forget how frequently our intelligence has been wrong about alleged operatives.” “My clients Bisher al Rawi, Jamil el-Banna, Martin Mubanga, abu Zubaydah, and Shaker Aamer all are alleged to have been operatives based on intel. In every case that intel was incorrect,” Mickum told Inter Press. “I don’t have any expectation that our intel with respect to alleged American operatives is likely to be any better.” Other experts on international law were outraged, too. “This extrajudicial execution of human beings constitutes a grave violation of international human rights law and, under certain circumstances, can also constitute a war crime under the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949,” said Francis Boyle, University of Illinois professor of international law at Champaign. “In addition, the extrajudicial execution of U.S. citizens by the United States government also violates the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution mandating that no person “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Boyle said, “The U.S. Government has now established a ‘death list’ for U.S. citizens abroad akin to those established by Latin American dictatorships during their so-called ‘dirty wars.’” He claimed President Bush “reduced the United States of America to a Banana Republic waging a ‘dirty war’ around the world in gross violation of international law, human rights law, and the laws of war. It is only a matter of time before the United States government will establish a similar ‘death list’ targeting U.S. citizens living here at home.” Boyle added that, “As someone who used to teach Constitutional law, President Obama knows better.” Boyle, a leading U.S. authority in international law, drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 for the U.S. He is the author of a number of books in his field, including Destroying World Order. Chip Pitts, president of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, told Inter Press, “As with its embrace of the [George W.] Bush approach to indefinite detention, the Obama administration’s even greater reliance on targeted extrajudicial killing – including of U.S. citizens – is a tragic legal, moral, and practical mistake.” “Even for those who accept the legitimacy of the death penalty,” Pitts continued, “this further undermines the rule of law that is our best weapon in the fight against true terrorists, while completely subverting due process and constitutional rights of U.S. citizens.” – Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based columnist who writes on world events. Ross formerly worked for the Chicago Daily News and wire services. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com. Basic reporting for this article came from Inter Press News Service of Rome.

:: Article nr. 63274 sent on 14-feb-2010 08:39 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=63274

Happy Valentine’s Day From Iraq

Love & Destruction… Layla Anwar February 14, 2010 Hey, it’s St.Valentino…Happy Shitty St.Valentine. I no longer give a fuck about roses and hearts, I just go through the motions, like on every occasion…. You know why I have given up ? Because Love requires, necessitates Faith and my faith in mankind, has been ripped to pieces… Again, I can’t divorce the personal from the political, and the political from the personal…. Again, I can’t separate the inside from the outside, they are a dialectic…a dance, if you wish, a tango…and my tango is about tripping….getting up, tripping again, getting up again, tripping again…trying to find that space inside where love is not corrupted, nor polluted, nor soiled, nor cheapened, nor sold, nor bought…trying to find that space inside where it is still intact, hopeful, eager, desiring…virgin. But you motherfuckers, rapists of nations, rapists of people, rapists of souls and of hearts have left no space without setting your foot in, your army boot, your shoe, your prints…your mark… Whether you are from the right or from the left, it no longer matters….for me you are all the same… Remember, I am on the receiving end…I do not distinguish. Distinguishing, distinction, discrimination is the luxury of the giver not of the receiver…. I just take it whole, black and white…and I vomit it out in grays… You pick the gray and distinguish if you can…who is left, who is right, who is wrong who is not…go figure it out in that mass of puke….if you can. I see end results, I see facts, I see Reality…I see how it was, and how it is now…I see the fruits. I don’t care about who said what and when, I don’t pay attention to little details, to subtle nuances…this is another luxury I can’t afford…maybe you can, but not I. Maybe you can afford to pontificate, debate, argue, stress, pinpoint, analyse, theorize, expose, summarize, conclude.. I, on the other hand, have only one reality staring me in the face. Only ONE and not any other…. And whichever way I try to look at it, it does not go away, it does not run away, it does not escape…. Whichever way I look at it — despite your silence, despite your shelving it, despite your forgetting it, despite your denying it, despite your relegating it to a second or third rank, or no rank, despite your hiding it, despite your avoiding it, despite your covering it, despite your occulting it …despite…despite, despite… This reality is that your occupation has destroyed us… The reality is that YOU have destroyed us… Destroyed us on every level, in every aspect, in every domain, in every sphere, in every sense… You have destroyed us. Now let me ask you — Is this your victory ? Painting : Iraqi female artist, Betool Fekaiki

:: Article nr. 63276 sent on 14-feb-2010 10:54 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=63276

Link: arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-destruction.html

In Pakistan, high court investigates ‘disappearances’ in wake of 9/11

In a move that could shed light on Pakistan’s intelligence services, the Supreme Court is investigating the extrajudicial detention of more than 1,000 Pakistanis after 9/11, some of whom are still missing.

• 

In this 2008 photo, Pakistani human rights campaigner Amina Janjua holds a photograph of her husband, Masood, who disappeared in 2005. Hundreds of Pakistanis are said to have gone missing at the hands of Pakistan intelligence agencies since Pakistan joined the “war on terror.”

Photo courtesy of Amnesty International/MCT/Newscom

By Issam Ahmed

Islamabad, PakistanNearly five years after her husband went missing, Amina Janjua remains hopeful of his recovery along with scores of others who were “disappeared” by Pakistan’s secretive intelligence agencies in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We’re confident now. The courts are on the right track and they’re making progress,” says the diminutive, head-scarfed woman, who insists on representing herself before Pakistan’s Supreme Court. “Of course it’s going to be difficult… the last time they looked into these cases they were sent home,” she says, referring to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of a state of emergency in November 2008, which resulted in most of Pakistan’s Supreme Court justices being sacked.

Experts say an ongoing hearing in Pakistan’s Supreme Court tests the limits of the judiciary’s ability to curb the influence of Pakistan’s security agencies, including the all-powerful Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) which has in the past been termed a “state within a state.”

In the years since the 2001 attacks in the US, several hundred people suspected of links to militant groups have been held in secret detention centers and some were transferred to the the United States for cash. The Pakistani government also imprisoned hundreds of activists fighting for autonomy in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Case of Junjua’s husband typical

The case of Mrs. Janjua’s husband, Masood Anwar, is fairly typical. According to Janjua, the travel-agency owner stepped out on the evening of July 30, 2005, along with Faisal Fayyaz to catch a bus. She hasn’t heard from him or seen him since. A leaked confirmation of his detention from a senior intelligence officer and the testimony of a former detainee who claims he briefly shared a cell with Mr. Janjua keeps her hope alive.

“This [case] is important in the sense that this would result in accountability of the intelligence agencies because intelligence agencies would be scrutinized,” says Hassan Askari-Rizwi, a political analyst based in Lahore.

Pakistan’s civilian establishment was rocked last month when the Supreme Court ruled a political amnesty known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance was unconstitutional. That ruling paved the way for a revival of corruption cases against senior politicians, bureaucrats, and diplomats. Among them are several cabinet members and Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington.

Mr. Rizwi says the missing person’s case has the potential to challenge Pakistan’s security establishment, and by extension the Army, in the same way the amnesty case challenged the civilian politicians. But, he cautions: “This is happening for the first time. I don’t know if they will be able to succeed.”

Up to 1,600 people went missing

The so-called missing persons case was earlier headed by Ifthikar Chaudhry, Pakistan’s iconic chief justice, before he was sacked in 2008. He was restored as a result of the so-called lawyers’ movement in the spring of 2009 and the case was reopened in late November.

Thursday’s hearing directed the government to provide a full list of Pakistanis handed over to the US as well as those in jail in Afghanistan, India and other countries.
Attorney General Mansoor Khan told the court that up to 1,600 people went missing between 2001 and 2008 though most have now been recovered. According to Janjua, who now heads an organization called the Defence of Human Rights and Public Services Pakistan, some 172 people remain missing.

“It may be that my husband is still missing because they [the ISI] want to take revenge on me for embarrassing them,” she says. Justice Iqbal, who heads the three-member bench which is overseeing the case, said on Thursday that answers provided by the ISI are likely to be “unreliable.” He also said the ISI is unlikely to fully cooperate with the court, which could derail the investigation of the disappearances.

Some analysts here predict that the judiciary will be no match for the army and the ISI.

“They don’t have the resolve or power to bring the military establishment to account,” says Badar Alam, a senior editor for Pakistan’s Herald magazine, noting that the heads of the ISI and IB were called before the court in 2008 in connection with the case, without resolution.

Pakistan’s Flirtation with Cyber Crime

by Kalsoom

As Pakistani twitterette KomalWaqar aptly noted, “Nothing says civilian, democratic government” quite like this following story. According to Dawn, Pakistan’s government announced Sunday that “sending indecent, provocative and ill-motivated stories and text messages” through emails and mobile phones is an offense under the Cyber Crime Act [CCA], and violators could be sent to prison for up to 14 years. A senior official in the Interior Ministry told Dawn it was “launching a campaign” against the circulation of “concocted” stories against the civilian leadership and security forces, since “some elements had been trying to malign” the government and Pakistani military, and the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Cell has been tasked to block or trace such emails and text messages. Moreover, reported The News, “Any Pakistani living abroad and violating the provisions of the Cyber Crime Act can also be chargedunder the Act and is liable for deportation to Pakistan.”

This of course is not the first time the “Cyber Crime Act” has garnered media headlines. A decree against cyber crime or “terrorism” was first issued by former President Pervez Musharraf in December 2007, and was also addressed by President Asif Ali Zardari in September 2008. According to the law, which went into effect September 19, “the offender, whether a person, group or organization, will be deemed to have committed ‘cyber terrorism’ if they access a computer, electronic system or an electronic device with a view to engaging in a ‘terroristic act,’” which is defined as an attempt to “alarm, frighten, disrupt, harm, damage or carry out an act of violence” against people or the government.

While “cyber crime” is not a new phenomenon, Sunday’s announcement adds a very ambiguous dimension to the ordinance. What kinds of stories are considered “concocted” or “provocative”? Does that refer to Taliban propaganda against the state or does it also include any criticism against the government?

Even more important – how does the government propose to monitor Pakistani citizens’ text messages? According to Dawn today, neither the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) nor the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) even has a system to screen such communication in bulk. In lieu of this fact, it seems the FIA can only launch investigations after receiving such complaints, quite a difference from them strutting around like cowboys rounding up those nasty e-outlaws. Dawn cited a representative of a cell phone company, who said, “In the absence of any mechanism to screen millions of emails and SMS, the government apparently wants to merely warn those who have launched propaganda against its top functionaries.”

The entire story is interesting because it raises the oft-debated question ofwhere freedom of speech ends and where government intervention begins. When is it okay for the government to intervene and block websites, text messages, and other forms of electronic communication? More importantly, can we be sure that the state won’t abuse such ordinances to round up citizens who are voicing their criticism? For more background information on cyber crime and terrorism in Pakistan, see below:

more about “Pakistan’s Flirtation with Cyber Crim…“, posted with vodpod

Balochistan govt calls SC for recovery of missing persons

Baloch nationalist parties claim that thousands of political workers are languishing in torture cells of secret agencies. -Photo by AFP

NATIONAL

Ninety-two of 282 missing people traced

Ninety-two of 282 missing people traced

QUETTA: The Balochistan government has requested Supreme Court to direct foreign office and ministry of interior officials to contact neighboring countries to provide the list of detained people in an attempt to trace out missing persons.

Well-placed official sources told DawnNews that Balochistan government had failed to make any ground in the recovery of these individuals and thus sought out help from the federal government.

The Balochistan government claims that a large number of political workers fled to neighboring countries when former president General Pervez Musharraf launched a military operation in region. However, Baloch nationalist parties claim that thousands of political workers are languishing in torture cells of secret agencies.

Advocate General Balochistan Salahuddin Mengal told DawnNews that following the request of Balochistan government the apex court ordered Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan to nudge the foreign office and ministry of interior and submit a report in this regard by Wednesday.