Are Foreign Lives of Equal Worth to Ours?

By Adil E. Shamoo, June 16, 2010

When a U.S. civilian is murdered in a foreign land or in the United States, we rightfully feel angry, sad, and some of us demand vengeance. These are normal, primordial, and instinctive feelings of group loyalty and herd mentality that have bound communities and countries for thousands of years. Should such human traits, which are often beneficial, emotional and irrational, continue to justify the retaliatory killing of innocent civilians in the 21^st century?

After the tragic murder of nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens on 9/11, the United States toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and killed and captured hundreds of al-Qaeda leaders and members. However, Afghanistan lost as many as 32,000 citizens since the U.S. invasion in 2001.

The U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan was followed immediately by a plan to invade Iraq and topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The invasion went ahead despite the inconclusive evidence that Iraq posed any immediate threat to the United States or was involved in 9/11. In the years and months following the invasion, evidence that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction and was not involved in the 9/11 attacks has become distressingly clear. Iraq by all accounts has suffered a few hundred thousand deaths, a million wounded, and the destruction of its infrastructure for economics, health, and education.

The U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq continues on a massive scale. We still have nearly 200,000 troops and contractors in the two countries. The argument is that our enemy is still plotting to kill us here in the United States and elsewhere. The plan seems to be to keep retaliating and punishing the plotters in both countries to force them to submit to our will. In the process, whether it is admitted or not, we have killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians not involved in trying to kill us.

More recently, the United States is trying to lessen the number of civilians killed or injured.

How do Afghan and Iraqi civilians view the injuries or deaths of tens of thousands of their countrymen and women? How do they view the continued killing and wounding of hundreds or thousands of non-combatants? How would we view this number deaths and injuries among our own population As citizens of the United States, we face the moral obligation to not only understand the tragedy of the loss of civilians, as U.S. President Barak Obama declares, but to reduce to a minimum or eliminate civilian deaths, if at all possible. Every innocent civilian killed or wounded in Afghanistan and in Iraq has a mother, father, sister, or brother, and in these close-knit tribal communities many more who are considered very close relatives. The families and friends of those harmed in these conflicts could carry with them the need for vengeance for decades to come.

More recently, we have entered a covert and overt war against the Taliban in Pakistan. In Pakistan, a country in which the United States is not officially at war, U.S. actions and offensives have killed and wounded a large number of Pakistani civilians. The high civilian death toll is in part a consequence of the Taliban living and hiding with the people of Pakistan in dense urban centers. The killing and wounding of innocent Pakistanis is also troubling because Pakistan is a large country with nuclear weapons. The killing of innocent Pakistanis will result in increased hatred and cries for revenge that is becoming a part of Pakistan cultural norms. This situation could destabilize the country and put the safety of the nuclear arsenal at risk.

The United States needs to face the moral paradox that stems from the lack of regard for Afghan and Iraqi lives in comparison with the value placed on the lives and safety of those living in the United States.

As U.S. citizens, we value the lives of our fellow countrymen many fold over the lives of other citizens. How else could we allow our government to continue this policy of killing and wounding our opponents in such disproportion to the number of casualties of U.S. troops and contractors for nearly nine years after 9/11.

I know that there will be loud protest of this view. However, we need to remember that the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes the equal worth of all human beings across the globe.

The U.S. military has achieved a killing machine that is less encumbered by popular views of war than at other times in our history. The military has mechanized and contracted out the war machinery in order to minimize the impact on U.S. citizens. The mechanization of the war can be potentially beneficial to individuals, but also very dangerous to our democracy.

This mechanization of war has also resulted in treating other nations’ citizens as less than equal to citizens of the United States. U.S. military actions kill innocent civilians in a repeated and almost routine manner. However, modern communications are informing people around the world that U.S. policies value other citizens less than its own. The human instinct of herd mentality can’t serve as justification for the indiscriminate killing of civilians outside U.S. borders.

Adil E. Shamoo is a senior analyst at Foreign Policy In Focus, and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He writes on ethics and public policy. He can be reached at: ashamoo@umaryland.edu.

Recommended Citation:

Adil E. Shamoo, “Are Foreign Lives of Equal Worth to Ours?” (Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, June 16, 2010)

Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D., CIP

Editor-in-Chief,

Accountability in Research

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Geopolitics: new moves

16/06/2010 Andrew Diev While the U.S. spends hundreds of billions to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida, China provides a raw material, that is the world’s superpower is bent on safety, while its nearest competitor and very successful – in making money … The bloody riots in southern Kyrgyzstan these days attract the attention of world media and analytical centers. The dramatic events in the small republic, consists of up to December 1991 the Soviet Union, are, according to many experts, reflecting the complex processes in the Central Asian region, paired with the clash of geopolitical and economic interests of traditional and new centers of power. Among other things, talking about energy and direction of their transportation to world markets. In May this year, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov made a two-day state visit to India. Given the fact that Turkmenistan is one of the leading gas-producing countries, this visit, of course, did not go unnoticed for the expert community. At the talks in New Delhi Theme expanding bilateral cooperation in the energy sector was one of the leading. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the energy sector a priority partnership with Turkmenistan. The Indian side also expressed willingness to develop close contacts in the field of high technology and transport. Manmohan Singh made no secret that India is very interested in the TAPI project – the construction of the Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan – India. In the statement of Indian Foreign Minister on the results of the talks it was emphasized that India and Turkmenistan are going to continue to cooperate on the project Trans pipeline to its early implementation. In turn, Berdymukhammedov stressed that Turkmenistan considers India as a future strategic partner in the energy sector. The new pipeline, India intends to get the “blue fuel” from the Turkmen fields Davletabad. It is assumed that the pipeline will allow Turkmenistan to export up to 100 million cubic meters of gas per day, ie more than 35 billion cubic meters a year. Our Help. Pipeline Project, the cost of construction estimated at $ 4 billion, has existed since 1990, but its implementation hinder instability in Afghanistan and the complex relations between India and Pakistan. However, both India and Pakistan is in dire need of hydrocarbon raw materials (petroleum consumption in India in the 2009-2010 fiscal year grew by 3.5 percent with government forecasts of 2.4 per cent) and are willing to buy from Turkmenistan 70 billion cubic meters of gas annually. This is twice the amount provided for the project. Turkmenistan is interested in India not only as a market for hydrocarbons, but also as a source of new technologies for its energy sector. Its officials stress that would welcome the participation of Indian partners in the modernization of oil and gas sector of Turkmenistan. Oil Minister Murli Deora industry at a meeting with Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov offered to build a petrochemical plant in Turkmenistan with the terms of the guarantee of gas supplies. Indian companies are also willing to participate in the exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons on Turkmen territory. Berdymukhammedov at the talks in New Delhi said that his country is banking on diversification of the national economy and is interested in developing broad cooperation in such fields as chemical, mining, textile industry, pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, and telecommunications. A promising area of cooperation between Turkmenistan and India is, moreover, the sphere of transport. According Berdymukhammedov, his country could become a convenient transport corridor to enter India to Europe. Between Turkmenistan and India have already established cooperation in the field of air traffic. Turkmenistan Airlines operates regular flights from India to Europe and from Europe to India. According Berdymukhammedov, it is time to think about the possibilities of cooperation in the development of ground systems. These systems could be in transit through Turkmenistan to connect India to the markets of CIS and the Caspian and Black Sea regions. “We are interested in attracting Indian capital in the development of transport infrastructure – said Berdymukhammedov – and fully support the establishment of cooperation in this promising direction.” Central Asia is seen as a promising market for its products and investments not only by India. In addition to the traditional players in this field, regional geopolitics – the U.S., EU, Turkey and Russia – are increasingly manifests itself China. Central Asia has become just one of those geographical areas where the natural face economic interests of many nations, including the two great Asian powers. Relations between India and China, despite the outward calm, far from simple. In addition to the complex history of bilateral relations, the reason for this growing needs of both economies in raw materials, especially energy, which creates competition for their sources. India, not having unlike China land border with the former Asian republics of the USSR, later expressed interest in natural gas and oil in the region. Chinese companies are already receiving oil by pipeline from Kazakhstan and gas from Turkmenistan. Our Help. Turkmenistan – China, passing through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, was inaugurated in the presence of leaders of the four countries in December 2009 length of the pipeline to the border of China more than 1.800 km. In 2010, for it will be pumped 13 billion cubic meters of gas. At design capacity of 40 billion cubic meters of this transport artery will be released in 2013 30 billion cubic meters intends to sell Turkmenistan 10 billion cubic meters – Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The contract with Turkmengaz Chinese concluded for 30 years. Chinese business, supported by the state, rather successfully strengthens its position in Central Asia – and not only in the sphere of energy. Few people know that China’s economic interests are realized today in Afghanistan – a country virtually under the control of the Western States. In this connection it is appropriate to quote the American newspaper The New York Times, on the pages which in January this year, Michael Vines shared his impressions on Afghan soil: “The fence energized. Blast sandbags. Fifty-three of the national police checkpoint … But Marines stationed in the bowl-shaped valley about twenty miles (32 km) south-east of Kabul, do not fight with the Taliban and do not even carry guns. First, they are preparing to extract copper ore in one of the richest of the never developed such deposits on earth.Secondly, they are Chinese. These people are working on investment projects that address among similar projects in war-torn Afghanistan, the first place by a large margin. Two years ago, the Chinese state-owned conglomerate, corporation Steel Group of China “has paid for the right to mine ore deposits near the village Ainako 3,4 billion, that is, one billion more than competing with the Canadians, Europeans, Russian and American. In the next 25 years will be drawn from the bowels of the earth about eleven million tonnes of copper, which is one third of all proven reserves in China. It turns out that while the U.S. spends hundreds of billions to fight the”Taliban”and”Al Qaeda”, China provides a raw material, actively absorbed its booming economy, that is the world’s superpower is bent on safety, and its nearest and highly successful competitor – on making money. “ The New York Times reported that “China Metallurgical Group” is committed “to build thermal power stations (TPS) of capacity 400 megawatts and supply electricity as a copper mine, and often suffers from power cuts the city of Kabul. For the purposes of TPP CIM intends to open new coal mine and metallurgical plant for the enrichment of copper ore and the railway to transport coal to thermal power plants and copper in China. If contract terms are met, the Chinese also take in Afghanistan, building schools, roads and even mosques. “ Curious comparative assessment of the Americans and Chinese Afghans. “Nurzaman Stanikzay – writes Michael Vines – in the eighties was a mujahid, a soldier shot in the Red Army from the American arms. Now he works contractor CIM constructs to aynakskoy mine electric fencing, Blast walls, dormitories for workers and a highway to Kabul. – The Chinese are much smarter. The negotiations with local, they dress in civilian behave very friendly. Americans are worse. We arrived in the form, with machine guns and stuff, just not as good, – he said recently. We then chatted for a long time with him in his apartment in Kabul. “ Interestingly, the Afghan police, which is responsible for security in the area of the mines, was formed and trained almost exclusively on American money. However, fifteen hundred Afghan police officers stationed in Ainako and its surroundings, not part of the main police force and hired under special conditions. U.S. Army units stationed in the province of Logar, where the village Ainako amounted to about two thousand troops. His patrol operations are usually carried out south of the location of mines … These are the metamorphosis of the modern world economy. By the way, the subsoil in the area Ainako in 1979 studied by Soviet geologists. They then took samples of ores and mapping of the area Aynakskogo deposits, but mining operations have not been initiated because of the outbreak of civil war. When American troops landed in Afghanistan in 2001, Afghan geologists have harbored collected data on the Soviet specialists Ainako until not yet been set for the resumption of work at the field. It was then and there were Chinese businessmen. It is easy to assume that China’s activity in Central Asia does not meet the geopolitical interests of the United States. Americans want to send oil and gas in Central Asia in the west or south. As the Armenian analyst Igor Muradian, “India, the idea of American designers to become a pole of attraction of vast regions of Central Asia, providing a great power in South Asia, its resources. In 2006, Bush signed a document containing a mission to organize the overflow of energy resources of Central Asia to India. Despite the fact that the document states the entire South Asia, including Pakistan, as a consumer of these Central Asian resources, but there is no doubt that the true purpose – is strengthening prevention and India targeting oil, gas and other raw resources of Central Asia to China. “ That is why the U.S. since the Clinton administration trying to create a military-political conditions for the realization of the idea of construction of the pipeline Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan – India. He must pass through the Afghan province of Helmand in Pakistani Baluchistan, which has access to the Indian Ocean. In Balochistan problems potentially no less than Afghanistan. This area is more than 40 percent in Pakistan. Part of the tribal chiefs unhappy with the economic policies of the central government in Islamabad, and from time to time in the province of an armed strife.The essence of the requirements of the local elite is quite simple: the central government should leave the province in more revenue from the mining of uranium and copper. Until the separatist claims department until it comes. But hypothetically, it is not difficult to imagine how events might develop in this province, if the extremist organizations of the religious persuasion will be able to plunge Pakistan into turmoil. Geopolitical benefits for certain centers of power – the possibility to export oil and liquefied natural gas to world markets, bypassing Pakistan. Of course, this is only one of the potential scenarios in the Indian Ocean. The Western think-tanks have a whole set of geopolitical scenarios to redraw borders in Asia, depending on the “geopolitical situation of the moment”: the creation of a Kurdish state, dividing Iraq into Sunni and Shiite parts, and Turkey, reduced by removal of her Kurdish and Armenian ” areas – in Europe and Asia, Iran’s crushing and separation from his northern areas, where traditionally occupied Azeri (Southern Azerbaijan), “sorting” of Pakistan, which became the state only recently, after giving the British India’s independence in 1947 … The new national security strategy, U.S. President Barack Obama is considering India as a rising power. “Responsible promotion of India, – the recently released document – provides a positive example for developing countries, as well as an opportunity to expand economic, scientific, environmental, partnership and partnership in the sphere of security.” It is stressed that the U.S. and India – are the two largest democratic countries in the world, who build strategic partnerships, supported by “common interests and common values.” President Obama said recently that he plans a trip to New Delhi in November this year.According to the owner of the White House, his country appreciates India, not only for geographical position in South Asia, but mainly profound social, political and strategic ties linking the two States. U.S. geopolitical vision is clear, including to New Delhi. With regard to India itself, it tends to hold with regard to the neighbors very well-balanced policy of keeping peace on its borders. The pipeline project from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan (TAPI) in the original American version, apparently did not realize in the foreseeable future. First, the situation in Afghanistan can not quickly normalize. Secondly, extremist groups, based on Pakistani soil, apparently, will continue terrorist attacks against India, which is fraught with new periodic exacerbations of bilateral relations between the neighbors (because of the difficulties with other projects – the Iran – Pakistan – India). There is another variant of gas deliveries from Turkmenistan to India. But this must be activated Iranian territory. Extracted from the Turkmen gas can be supplied for the needs of the northern regions of Iran, and Iran is in the same volumes of gas from its southern oil fields to Indian companies. “Blue fuel” does not necessarily carry through Pakistani territory.It can be pumped into India in the underwater pipeline, bypassing Pakistani territorial waters. The draft, note, expensive, but technically implement. Although there are caveats – the negative U.S. attitude toward Iran, with which can not be in New Delhi. Yet, apparently, hopes the Indian business is not lost. Indian companies declare their intention to acquire stakes in gas fields in Turkmenistan and to direct their investments in gas fields on land. So the wealth of Central Asia attracted to centers of the world economy. Competition for influence in the region escalates. About the author: Andrew Diev – expert of the Institute of geopolitical information “Energy”.

Source:: Red Star

“Voice of Freedom” Journalist Jailed In S. Kyrgyzstan

In southern Kyrgyzstan, the police, without charge, two days of holding human rights activist who filmed evidence of looting

17/06 15:43, Bishkek – IA “24.kg”, Irina Dudko

In southern Kyrgyzstan, the police, without charge, two days of holding human rights activist who filmed evidence of looting, said the public fund “Voice of Freedom. According to them, June 15, 2010 Director of the NGO “Air”, a human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov was arrested by the Bazar-Korgon police department. This protocol of detention was issued only on the following day – June 16. “Today we know that Azimzhanu Askarov prosecutors might be charged with the murder of a police officer”, – commented on the detention of the head of OB “Voice of Freedom” Sardar Bagishbekov. “We believe that the detention Azimzhana Askarova due to the fact that he was involved in fixing the violations of human rights in Bazar-Korgon district, collected data on deaths and injuries, documented facts riots, arson, looting and called for a cessation of hostilities”, – said Sardar Bagishbekov. He noted that an unknown group of men with guns have twice broke into the house of human rights and conducted unauthorized searches. “From the words of his brother Azimzhana Askarova, who also was with him in a cell and was released on June 17, it became known that the human rights activist was severely beaten during interrogation, so there is a real threat to his life,” – said Sardar Bagishbekov. He noted that it is necessary to immediately release human rights activist, to explain the reason for his detention and to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation. This fact is cause for concern and indignation of the well-known international organizations around the world. They can not understand the logic in the actions of the interim government.

URL: http://www.24.kg/osh/76871-na-yuge-kyrgyzstana-miliciya-ne-predyavlyaya.html

Russian Press Claims That 70 Percent of Osh Burned

In Kyrgyzstan, during the riots burned 70 percent of the city of Osh

17/06 12:40 Bishkek – IA “24.kg”, Daria PODILSKY

In Kyrgyzstan, during the riots burned 70 percent of the city of Osh. This is the press-service municipality south of the capital. According to preliminary estimates produced by the City can not be recovered 76 buildings and facilities. The press release states that from now on as normal operating items such social unit – SE “Heat”, Osh city municipal transport enterprise, Osh plant improvement and green economy. According to the press service, during the riots Oshu caused enormous damage. How much does it cost recovery of the southern capital, in the City Hall has not yet calculated.

URL: http://www.24.kg/osh/76837-v-kyrgyzstane-vo-vremya-besporyadkov-sozhzheno-70.html

Russia to host trilateral meeting between Armenia, Azerbaijan

ST PETERSBURG – Daily News with wires

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (C), Armenian President Serge Sarkisian (R) and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L) at a ski resort in Sochi, Russia, on Jan. 25. AFP photo

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was scheduled to host a trilateral meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in St. Petersburg on Thursday,the Azeri-Press Agency, or APA, reported, citing the vesti.ru website.

The meeting was set to take place within the framework of the 14th Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum in the Russian city.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was expected to be the main topic of discussion between Medvedev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian.

The most recent talks between Sarkisian and Aliyev, also hosted by Medvedev, took place in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi in January.

Aliyev has since repeatedly accused Armenia of dragging its feet over international mediators’ existing peace proposals, which he says are largely acceptable to Baku. Aliyev warned earlier this month that Baku will pull out of further negotiations with the Armenian side if the peace process remains

deadlocked.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenian forces since the end of a six-year conflict that left some 30,000 people dead and displaced approximately 1 million prior to a 1994 truce. The territory’s unilateral independence is not recognized by the international community.

Mediation efforts brokered by the so-called Minsk group – made up of France, Russia and the United States – have failed to produce a settlement to the conflict.

Bad Blood in Baku

[Another clear case of American leaders pushing away the countries they may need the most, to carry on in Afghanistan.]

foreignpolicy.com,

by Thomas Goltz –

If I were still a journalist, I would have had juicy scoop last Saturday when I learned of the imminent but still unannounced arrival in Azerbaijan of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates had been tasked with hitting the reset button — there are a lot of those in the former Soviet Union these days — on Washington’s increasingly problematic relationship with Baku.

I learned of the emergency visit when an old friend of mine called to say he knew I was in the Azerbaijani capital, and that his former boss, a U.S. intelligence officer, wanted to buy me a few beers and chat about my nearly 20-year hobby of reading tea leaves and goat entrails in the Land of Az.

“The American chargé d’affaires told me not to talk to you, but he is State Department and I am not,” the official said — I’m paraphrasing from memory here, but closely — putting initial pleasantries out of the way. “I am here to set up the Gates visit tomorrow. We finally decided to give the Azerbaijanis something before this thing deteriorates any further.” Then he sort of smirked while saying the following: “We frankly don’t care about human rights or democracy-building, or Israel and Turkey, or peace in Karabakh or Georgia, or even Azerbaijani energy. There is only one thing we really care about right now, and that is Afghanistan.”

I was not surprised, but had to ask:

“Afghanistan,” he said, and then repeated the word.

Afghanistan.

Azerbaijan’s role in that war is fairly well known: The country has donated a symbolic company of 90 soldiers (which has suffered no casualties to date) and shared intelligence with the United States. But Azerbaijan’s main contribution to the U.S.-led war effort has been geographic: The country’s location in the Caucasus is a gateway between Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, and Baku has provided a vital transportation alternative by opening its air, rail, and seaport space to NATO.

There has been no murmur of a threat to close or restrict the Azerbaijan corridor, but even the remote possibility that the Azerbaijanis would do so has apparently worried Pentagon contingency planners — enough so that a decision was made to show Baku some respect, in the form of a personal letter from President Barack Obama to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Delivering the missive was the purpose of Gates’s visit, and news of the surprise stop-off was regarded as important enough that the usual Associated Press and Reuters stories about the visit and the letter were soon splashed across the front pages of most international and virtually all American newspapers — even small ones, such as my local rag in Bozeman, Montana.

After the usual schmooze about Azerbaijan playing an important role in regional and international security, energy issues, and the need to seek a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict with Armenia (and the obligatory, respectful nod toward Aliyev’s father), Obama finally got to the point:

“I am aware of the fact that there are serious issues in our relationship,” he wrote, “but I am confident that we can address them.”

I’ll say.

But whether the letter will help shore up the increasingly tattered relationship is an open question, especially when it is all too clear to Azerbaijani leaders that U.S. interests in their country are almost entirely limited to the Kabul quagmire. What American politicians fail to understand (or at least it seems to me) is that today’s Azerbaijan is quite a different place than the chaotic, war-torn, nearly failed state that the United States dealt with in its early years of independence. Then, Azerbaijan was brought back from the brink of self-destruction by the elder Aliyev, Heydar, the Soviet-era strongman who clawed his way back to power in Baku in 1993. At the time, Azerbaijan was more or less without friends other than the international oil companies seeking to cash in on its natural riches, and proud Heydar Aliyev was obliged to endure all manner of slights to survive.

But when Ilham “inherited” the presidency upon Heydar’s death in 2003, he also inherited a vastly different state than the one Heydar ruled in the 1990s. The trickle of oil- and gas-related wealth of the 1990s had started to turn into a river of cash (GDP was growing more than 36 percent a year as of 2006), and the little Caspian country of 8 million had started to attract so many flatterers that my Azerbaijani friends — at least the ones with a sense of perspective — have started to worry about a growing arrogance in Baku, one summed up by a sense that America needs Azerbaijan more than Azerbaijan needs America.

“Our attitude is that Washington should stop thinking of Azerbaijan in terms of Afghanistan and start thinking of Azerbaijan in terms of Azerbaijan,” my old pal Araz Azimov, now deputy foreign affairs minister, told me. “The official attitude as enunciated by the president is, ‘We want respect.’”

Thus, it was not surprising to hear whispers in the corridors of power that Aliyev was not as pleased with Obama’s letter as the copy churned out by Gates’s hack pack would suggest, and that the downward spiral will continue. Although it is true that he was preparing for a Eurasian summit in Istanbul the next day, it was more than notable that Alyev did not invite Gates to the presidential dinner table, appointing the Azerbaijani defense minister to assume the obligatory hosting duties instead — which Gates, in turn, declined to accept, thus allowing the Americans to violate yet another Caucasian social protocol.

Indeed, from the Azerbaijani perspective, the list of American insults is long and growing longer.

The most galling of these was and remains the Armenian diaspora-driven Section 907 caveat to the Freedom Support Act passed by Congress in 1992, which restricted all U.S. government-to-government aid to Baku until Azerbaijan essentially capitulated in its vicious war with Armenia over mountainous (“Nagorno”) Karabakh, a contested region that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has remained under Armenian occupation since the fall of the Soviet Union. The loss of the territory — some 15 percent of Azerbaijan — deeply grates in Baku, and despite multiple meetings between various Azerbaijani and American presidents over the years, there has been no real progress, and Azerbaijanis increasingly (and vocally) mutter about the United States not being a completely honest broker. They’ve got a point: Section 907 is still on the books, identifying Azerbaijan as the aggressor. Although whittled down under Bill Clinton’s administration and suspended under George W. Bush’s after 9/11, the legal caveat has never been officially lifted and thus still makes Azerbaijan a quasi-pariah state.

Compounding that impression was last year’s initiative by the Obama administration to rejuvenate relations between Armenia and Turkey at Azerbaijan’s expense, namely by celebrating reconciliation by opening the Turkish-Armenian frontier — closed in 1993 by Turkey in an act of solidarity with Azerbaijan — without a concomitant Armenian withdrawal from at least part of Karabakh. The details of the diplomacy involved in the so-called “Turkish-Armenian Protocols” are truly byzantine, but suffice it to say that Baku effectively forced Ankara to publicly announce that Karabakh was included in the package, which in turn led to a public denial by Armenia and the scuttling of the Obama-inspired accords.

The restoration of the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance (encapsulated in the local slogan “one nation, two countries”) and the continued closure of the Turkish-Armenian frontier was regarded as a nearly existential diplomatic victory for Baku, and proof of the little country’s ability to swing its weight in the international arena.

But still the diplomatic slights continue: There has been no U.S. ambassador in Baku since July 2008, which has been taken as a sign of Washington’s indifference or displeasure. Last month, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza was finally nominated — though he has yet to be confirmed — to the job. But Bryza’s history as the U.S. point man in the Karabakh negotiations, and identification with U.S. governments’ distracted handling of them, has left him unpopular with both many Azerbaijanis and especially diaspora Armenians, neither of whom consider him a good-faith arbiter of the conflict.

Azerbaijan was also snubbed in April when Aliyev was not invited to the 47-country Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, which was attended by the leaders of all of Azerbaijan’s neighbors except Iran — despite the fact that Azerbaijan, as a U.S.-aligned front-line state, would find itself in the thick of any action should push come to shove against Tehran. (An anonymous U.S. diplomat told the Azerbaijani press agency Turan that “It was Ilham Aliyev’s personal choice” not to attend the conference, but didn’t address whether he had been invited.)

Taken even more personally in Baku was an article that ran on the front page of the Washington Post in March that teasingly alleged that Aliyev’s 11-year-old son owned millions of dollars’ worth of Dubai real estate. According to an Azerbaijani diplomat friend of mine, the piece so infuriated Aliyev that he was literally gasping with rage. “As a politician, Ilham can take his hits,” said my friend. “But they were attacking his family.” The president, he said, was convinced the story was fed to the Post by the State Department in an effort to undermine his legitimacy.

It could be worse, and one day probably will be. Azerbaijanis are perfectly aware of the aforementioned intelligence officer’s diplomatic calculus, and aware that it cuts both ways. Washington may only see Baku as a stop on the way to Kabul, but it’s a necessary stop — if he were so inclined, Aliyev could make life very difficult for the U.S. military. Word in Baku has it that Hillary Clinton is on her way here soon to show some more respect, to make sure that doesn’t happen.

But then, Azerbaijan has always fought for a place on the world stage. On a visit to London earlier this year, I was taken out to lunch by the Azerbaijani ambassador, who later invited me back to his private room in the embassy for tea. The walls were festooned with photographs from his professional life — as a much younger man with hair on his head, accompanying Heydar Aliyev to his state visit to the Clinton White House in 1998; a picture with the Canadian prime minister when he was elevated to ambassador to Ottawa; he and his wife boarding a fancy, horse-drawn carriage to present his credentials to the Queen of England.

And then there he was again, smiling broadly, next to a very vigorous-looking Heydar Aliyev in the company of Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill.

“Madame Tussauds,” the ambassador explained. “Sadly, it was only a temporary exhibit.”

Azerbaijan seeks to develop partnership with NATO

Thu 17 June 2010 | 08:18 GMT Text size: 

Ramil Usubov

A NATO delegation, led by the secretary general’s special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, is visiting Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s interior minister, Ramil Usubov, met Robert Simmons and the NATO delegation on Wednesday.

Usubov briefed Simmons on work done by the Interior Ministry following the then President Heydar Aliyev’s 1997 order on ‘Measures to strengthen the Azerbaijan Republic’s cooperation with NATO’.

He said that Azerbaijan backed the principle of security in the Euro-Atlantic Community and participated in NATO-led peacekeeping operations sanctioned by the UN Security Council. The minister said that Azerbaijan was keeping a close eye on the further development of partnership with NATO and trying to contribute to it.

For his part, Robert Simmons praised Azerbaijan’s active involvement in NATO-led peacekeeping missions and the country`s deepening the cooperation with the Alliance.

He said that such meetings contributed to developing mutually beneficial cooperation.

AzerTAj

Predictable Reactions To Revolutionary Provocations In Kyrgyzstan

[The latest wave of violence has subsided...the next wave is surely building.  This is the way that the "Silent Weapon" works--each wave worsens the situation and creates the conditions which will cause the next massive social eruption.  The weapon aims at the entire Kyrgyz population, as well as the surrounding states.  It is not entirely "silent," because the echo of its firing rings at the level of a human whisper.  American behavioral technology is a powerful but largely unknown tool.  It gives the bearer of this technology the capability to know when and where to whisper the right suggestion that will set-off a wave of popular reaction.

We see this technology being deployed in Kyrgyzstan today.  It is creating ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan just as surely as it has in the past, in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and a long list of targeted states.  Resistance is not fighting, it is the cooling, or debunking of the rhetoric being whispered.  Introduce sanity to the debate, to preempt irrational reactions to the provocative stimulus.  Learn to look deeper, before you allow yourselves to leap]

Osh. Pogroms ceased. Began looting …

M. Kuliev
17/06/2010 12:35

Pogroms ceased. Began looting …

According to residents of Osh, the last two days of shooting was not heard. People are more or less peacefully spend their time, though still afraid to go beyond their mahalla. Also received humanitarian assistance, but, unfortunately, can not get it. First, the population spread rumors that “corrupt officials provide a humanitarian aid in warehouses so that a day or two to sell at exorbitant prices.” How would it not upset, witnesses had attested the fact of sale humanitarian aid from the responsible persons.

Such irresponsibility of the authorities may lead to most disastrous results. Residents of Osh reported that crowds of hungry people are scouring the city, and looting abandoned houses. Basically they are interested in food, but some do not forget to collect the money and valuables. House of refugees are located in residential areas and protected citizens’ associations, almost completely looted.

This situation is of utter confusion of refugees.

- Thank God that we have achieved in Uzbekistan and were alive and well, – said a citizen of Kyrgyzstan Dilsabo Karimdzhanova. - But how will we live when we get home, if they stole all our property?

All this shows that the Provisional Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, despite his assurances, does not hold under the control of the situation in Osh region. Residents of Osh, Jalal-Abad and other cities as Uzbek and Kyrgyz national, not yet able to overcome fear and live a normal life. They are still awaiting entry peacekeepers, preferably with the participation of troops in Uzbekistan.

World Kuliev
free reporter.
osh_v_ogne@list.ru

Continuing Operations In Baloch Strategic Corridor–Reports From Baloch Hal

[The following reports from Baloch Hal (they only trustworthy news site on Balochistan that I have come across) would seem to confirm NCA reports on an impending American invasion to establish a "strategic corridor" for the movement of military supplies and building new pipelines, if Pakistan was participating in its own dismemberment (SEE: ‘Final Solution’ Frenzy – Part Four: Final Solution for Pakistan).  If this is the case, then it must be the ultimate secret, which neither Pakistan or the US can ever admit to.  The essence of the psyop is the "frenemy" concept, where we are friends who secretly wage deadly war against each others' interests.  If this central deception breaks down, all covert operations are exposed.  (It is the same for all scenarios set-up with "frenemies," like Russia, Georgia and the rest.)  This is a most disturbing concept, when you stop to think about the treasonous element which is necessary for these operations to take place at all.  This standard CIA operation relies upon local collaborators (think "Vichy"), criminal types who agree to participate in attacks upon their own countrymen.  Such collaborators are all subject to extortion, later on, if they start to talk.

The central question remains--is the Pakistani Army helping America take over, or trying to eliminate the possibility of that happening?]

Naushki under full siege of FC: Khurshid Jamaldini

The Baloch Hal News

NOSHKI: District Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Khurshid Jamaldini has criticized the Balochistan Government for keeping the entire Naushki region under siege of the Frontier Corps.

Talking to journalists, he said that the Frontier Corps had established check posts in all direction keeping the entire population under siege.

He specifically mentioned the areas where the FC personnel laid the siege as it Naushki is war zone and a battle is going on against the enemy forces.

Mr. Jamaldini charged that each and every vehicle passing those FC check points are being searched and even women and children are not spared from intense questioning.

The Government claimed to have removed about a dozen check posts of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan, it did not mention hundreds of new ones set up by the Frontier Corps only to suppress and oppress the local people and their legitimate aspirations.

He demanded that the Government should remove all the new check posts in all parts of Balochistan, send the Frontier Corps back to its barracks or on the Afghan border instead of suppressing the Baloch people.

Police ASI accused of opening fire on Khuzdar community

The Baloch Hal News

KHUZDAR: A police assistant sub-inspector (ASI) along with other personnel is reported to have opened indiscriminate fire on people’s residences in Niamjo area of Khuzdar district here on Wednesday.

However no causality has been reported. Balochistan National Party (Awami) took out a protest rally against the incident calling for punitive action against the police personnel.

Residents of the area, Lal Mohammad, Maula Bakhsh and Ameer Bakhsh were working on their fields, where their houses are also located, came under fire from the police personnel, local people said.

Addressing the rally, district president BNP (Awami), Javed Baloch said that such acts of violence from police cannot be tolerated. “This is not the first time such incident has taken place in the district. Ironically, the high-ups of the department are unable to take action against such police officers due to unknown reasons,” he remarked.

The participants of the rally demanded of the Chief Minister and Governor to take notice of the incident and warned that they would resort to a severe step if action is not taken against the culprits.

Ex-Kohlu Nazim condemns operations in Marri areas

The Baloch Hal News

SIBI: The former Nazim of Kohlu district, Mir Ali Gul, has strongly condemned the search operation of levies force in different areas of Kahan and Maiwand here on Tuesday.

He said Levies force arrested dozens of people during raids carried out in different places of Kahan and Maiwand. “The law enforcement agencies are harassing the people without rhyme and reason,” he added

He said that the siege and search operation was also being carried out in Nal, Garri, Barwall, Qambar and Bardani area

He said during the search operation the herd of sheep was also killed and they destroyed standing crops of poor people.

Further he said that on the one hand government making dream of Balochistan package and on the other the harassing the people with certain police action.

He appealed to the Government to release the innocent Balochs who were taken in to custody by Levies Force.

Icelandic Parliament Passes WikiLeaks Proposal To Create “Media Haven” Outside of Western Control

WikiLeaks inspired “New media haven” proposal passes Parliament

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 7:25 PM

Reykjavik, Iceland; 4:00 UTC, June 16th 2010.

The WikiLeaks advised proposal to build an international
“new media haven” in Iceland, with the world’s strongest
press and whistleblower protection laws, and a “Nobel” prize for
for Freedom of Expression, has unaminously passed the
Icelandic Parliament.

50 votes were cast in favor, zero against, one abstained. Twelve
members of parliament were not present. Vote results are available
at http://www.althingi.is/dba-bin/atkvgr.pl?nnafnak=43014

One of the inspirations for the proposal was the dramatic August 2009 gagging of
of Iceland’s national broadcaster, RUV by Iceland’s then largest bank, Kaupthing:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Financial_collapse:_Confidential_exposure_analysis_of_205_companies_each_owing_above_EUR45M_to_Icelandic_bank_Kaupthing,_26_Sep_2008

Two changes were made to the proposal from its original form as per
the opinion of the parliament’s general affairs committee
[http://www.althingi.is/altext/138/s/1329.html]. The first of these
altered slightly the wording of the first paragraph so as to widen
the arena for research. The second of these added two new items to
the list of tasks for the government:

- That the government should perform a detailed analysis,
especially with respect to operational security,
for the prospect of operating data centers in Iceland.

- That the government should organize an international conference
in Iceland regarding the changes to the legal environment being caused
by expansion of cloud computing, data havens, and the judicial state
of the Internet.

Video footage from the proposal’s vote will be available at:

http://www.althingi.is/altext/hlusta.php?raeda=rad20100616T033127&horfa=1

http://www.althingi.is/altext/hlusta.php?raeda=rad20100616T033306&horfa=1

For details of the proposal and press contacts, please see
http://www.immi.is