Osh Resistance Protesting Westernized OSCE Cops Causes Delay In Incursion

Southern Kyrgyz mayor challenges gov’t authority

OSH, Kyrgyzstan – The Associated Press

Mayor Melis Myrzakmatov delivers a speech during an opposition rally in Osh on Friday. AFP photo

Kyrgyzstan’s interim government suffered a humiliating blow Friday as a powerful opponent refused to step down as mayor of a southern city devastated by deadly ethnic violence two months ago.

Osh Mayor Melis Myrzakmatov – a self-avowed Kyrgyz nationalist of former Soviet republic in Central Asia – told a rally of about 3,000 people in the city’s main square that he would defy government efforts to have him fired.

“I am going nowhere. I am with the people, I am with you,” Myrzakmatov told the crowd to loud cheers.

The mayor’s show of force challenged the authority of the interim government, which took power after former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a bloody street revolt in April. In June, renewed violence between ethnic Kyrgyz mobs and minority Uzbeks killed at least 370 people, mainly Uzbeks, and forced 400,000 others to flee.

Myrzakmatov, a former Bakiyev loyalist, has fought to keep his job despite his ally’s ouster. The mayor’s supporters delivered fiery speeches at Friday’s rally condemning the government and calling for interim President Roza Otunbayeva to step down.

Government deputy leader Azimbek Beknazarov – who stood flanked by bodyguards and holding a reinforced briefcase to his chest at the mayor’s rally Friday – was heckled when he gave a brief speech confirming that “Myrzakmatov is still the mayor of Osh, even though he was offered other jobs in the interim government.”

Some in the crowd then lashed out at Beknazarov, hitting and kicking him before his security detail whisked him away.

An analyst said the rally showed the country was in danger of splitting between two camps claiming legitimacy of power.

“The government has essentially lost control of part of the country,” said Paul Quinn-Judge, Central Asian project director for International Crisis Group.

Hundreds of Myrzakmatov’s supporters gathered Thursday in Osh amid mounting speculation that the government planned to dismiss him as mayor.

Tensions rose further after Myrzakmatov told Russian newspaper Kommersant in an interview published Thursday he would refuse to recognize the interim government’s authority and would not acknowledge the legitimacy of its decrees.

“This further undermines the diminishing authority of the president, who put her prestige and authority very much behind removing Melis Myrzakmatov,” Quinn-Judge said.

Myrzakmatov has alarmed the government by making strong nationalist statements perceived as marginalizing the Uzbek community, stoking fears of renewed ethnic clashes.

Speaking at the rally, Osh’s police chief Kursan Asanov also offered support to Myrzakmatov – adding to concern about the central government’s control over law enforcement in the south.

Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, was a power base for the ousted president and his family. The ethnically mixed city of Kyrgyz and Uzbeks lies on the fringe of the fertile Ferghana Valley near Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on one of the most heavily used routes for Afghan heroin heading to Russia.

Many in the city have criticized the government’s recent decision to invite a 52-member delegation of police advisers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Amid the protests, the unarmed force looks unlikely to arrive next week as the government had hoped.

Otunbayeva went to Armenia on Thursday for an informal summit of the Russian-dominated security grouping of several ex-Soviet nations, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO.

Quinn-Judge suggested her decision to leave Kyrgyzstan as her government’s authority was being questioned could further erode her standing.

Kyrgyzstan, which hosts both U.S. and Russian military bases, plans to hold parliamentary elections in October in which current interim government members are barred from entering. A June constitutional referendum also reduced presidential powers in favor of those of the parliament.

Turkey Inherits the War, As Iraq Tensions Escalate

US war legacy becomes Turkey’s Pandora’s box

Sevil KÜÇÜKKOŞUM

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq could lead to a civil war in the country unless a stable government is formed, experts have warned, noting that the outcome would have negative impacts on Turkey.

“The biggest concern is a possible clash between Kurds and Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds or Shiites and Sunnis, which would directly have an impact on Turkey. The second concern is that instability might create a convenient environment for terrorists,” Sedat Laçiner, the coordinator of the International Strategic Research Organization, or USAK, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Friday.

The difficulties Iraq has had in forming a Cabinet have prompted concerns in both Turkey and the United States about the country’s future in the wake of the ongoing troop withdrawal, which will be concluded in 2011. All combat troops have already completed the pullout, with 50,000 American soldiers remaining in Iraq to assist Iraqi security forces.

In this environment, Turkey’s main concern is whether Iraq will be able to maintain its unity, or whether instability in the country will spark divisions.

“Any clash between groups might lead to violence. There are concerns that an international force like in Afghanistan might be needed in Iraq too,” Laçiner said, noting that Turkey could be drawn into a clash between Kurds and Arabs if Turkomen became involved.

Instability in Iraq could also lead to an increase in terrorist attacks, not just by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq, but by other groups as well.

“In such a case, not only the PKK, but also Turkish Hizbollah or even al-Qaeda could directly or indirectly affect Turkey. They could easily supply arms or hide terrorists in Iraq,” Laçiner said. “In the event of an increasing threat of PKK attacks, Turkey might have to ensure its security in northern Iraq with a military presence.”

Even the current efforts to put together a government in Iraq may be put at risk by the pullout, said Serhat Erkmen, an expert from the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies. “If they cannot manage a stable government in Iraq, it may lead to clashes between groups. For instance, clashes between Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq could bring about disintegration and that would affect Turkey,” Erkmen told the Daily News on Friday.

He added, however, that the troop withdrawal would not create any serious change in the short term to the United States’ political presence in Iraq. “The current cooperation between Turkey and the U.S. will continue regarding the struggle against PKK,” he said.

Turkey has been actively engaged in efforts to form a unity government in Iraq since the general elections in the spring. It has hosted representatives of different groups in Ankara to push them to accept the formation of a government that could best represent and stabilize the country. The issue came to the agenda of Turkey’s top security board Thursday as members discussed the efforts to establish a government in Iraq.

American Delegation Delivers Godfather’s Threat To Cut Turkey’s Economic Throat

Turkish firms deal with Iran at their peril, the US warns

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

World powers, led by Washington, backed a fourth round of United Nations sanctions against Iran on June 9, cold-shouldering a Turkey-Brazil-brokered nuclear swap plan. AP photo

Turkish companies that continue their relations with Iran in defiance of sanctions risk having all business ties with the United States severed, a U.S. government delegation to Turkey has reportedly warned.

The United States says it will enforce sanctions against Turkish organizations investing in Iran’s energy sector and those that sell processed petrol products to Iran.

“A group visited this week from the Treasury Department and discussed the new U.S. legislation on the U.N.’s decision [to impose] sanctions against Iran. There are Turkish companies that want to do business with the United States and they should be aware of the latest law,” Deborah Guido, the spokeswoman of the U.S. Embassy to Turkey, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Friday.

Daily Cumhuriyet reported Friday that a U.S. delegation visited Ankara in order to discuss outcomes of the new U.S. Iranian Sanctions Law, which was influenced by the United Nations Security Council’s judgment that “Iran is funding its arms through its energy sector.” The law targets Iran’s energy sector and states that companies doing business with the Islamic republic will be blacklisted by the United States and be subject to sanctions.

Since the law binds third countries that have relations with Iran, Turkey also would be affected, the officials said. According to the daily, “All companies investing in the Iranian energy sector above a certain amount will enter the U.S. blacklist and be subject to sanctions.”

World powers, led by Washington, backed a fourth round of United Nations sanctions against Iran on June 9, cold-shouldering a Turkey-Brazil-brokered nuclear swap plan. The U.N. sanctions have been followed by unilateral punitive measures imposed by the U.S. and the European Union.

In addition to the sanctions threat, firms that continue relations with Iran risk losing all business connections with the United States. The sanctions will be carried out in nine areas, from import-export permits to credit opportunities.

The United States has said that the banking sector, including government banks, must take action in order to put effective international pressure on Iran over its controversial nuclear program. The U.S. law, passed July 1, contains a list of international private and state-owned banks – including Turkish banks – having connections with Iranian banks. These banks have been warned to cease money transfers to their Iranian counterparts or risk the severing of relations with the United States.

Turkey has said that enforcing sanctions toward Iran would be difficult. In response, the U.S. said, according to daily Cumhuriyet: “Turkey isn’t the only neighboring country doing business with Iran. These difficulties do not pertain only to Turkey. This is not a trade embargo. It’s a controlled effort that will take time and energy. Its legitimacy lies in U.N. decisions.”

Swedish Rape Warrant For Assange Allegedly Issued and Cancelled In One Day

[The more that the public sees the American government dip into its bag of dirty tricks, the quicker that they learn to see through the bullshit.]

Swedish rape warrant for Wikileaks’ Assange cancelled

Julian Assange had been cited as saying the release of the allegations was “deeply disturbing”

Sweden has cancelled an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on accusations of rape and molestation.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said the chief prosecutor had come to the decision that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape but did not give any further explanation.

The warrant was issued late on Friday.

Wikileaks, which has been criticised for leaking Afghan war documents, had quoted Mr Assange as saying the charges were “without basis”.

That message, which appeared on Twitter and was attributed directly to Mr Assange, said the appearance of the allegations “at this moment is deeply disturbing”.

In a series of other messages posted on the Wikileaks Twitter feed, the whistle-blowing website said: “No-one here has been contacted by Swedish police”, and that it had been warned to expect “dirty tricks”.

In its “official blog” on Saturday before the warrant was cancelled, Wikileaks said it was “deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind Wikileaks think highly of Julian and and he has our full support”.

The current whereabouts of Mr Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, are unclear.

More documents

The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said chief prosecutor Eva Finne had come to the decision that Julian Assange was not subject to arrest.

In a brief statement Eva Finne said: “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.”

The website said there would be no further immediate comment.

Earlier, Karin Rosander, communications head at Sweden’s prosecutors’ office, said there were two separate allegations against Mr Assange, one of rape and the other of molestation. She gave no details of the accusations. She said that as far as she knew they related to alleged incidents that took place in Sweden.

Media reports say Mr Assange was in Sweden last week to talk about his work and defend the decision by Wikileaks to publish the Afghan war logs.

Last month, Wikileaks published more than 75,000 secret US military documents on the war in Afghanistan.

US authorities criticised the leak, saying it could put the lives of coalition soldiers and Afghans, especially informers, at risk.

Mr Assange has said that Wikileaks is intending to release a further 15,000 documents in the coming weeks.

The Sacking of Amrullah Saleh

AFP (FROM OUTLOOK, AUGUST 30, 2010)

Wood engraving depicting the British massacre in the first Anglo-Afghan War, 1838-1842

EXCLUSIVE
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE IN AFGHANISTAN

Souter Takes The Call

As the Great Game repeats itself, India must wake up to Karzai’s new moves

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

P

In 1843, shortly after his return from Afghanistan, an army chaplain named Rev G.H. Gleig wrote a memoir of the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War of which he was one of the very few survivors. It was, he wrote, “a war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which waged it. Not one benefit, political or military, was acquired with this war. Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated”.

It would be difficult to imagine any military adventure today going quite as badly as the First Anglo-Afghan War, an abortive experiment in Great Game colonialism that ended with an entire East India Company army utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen, at the cost of Rs 80 billion and over 40,000 lives. But this month, almost 10 years on from NATO’s invasion of Afghanistan, there were increasing signs that the current Afghan war, like so many before them, could still end in another embarrassing withdrawal after a humiliating defeat, with Afghanistan yet again left in tribal chaos, possibly partitioned and ruled by the same government which the war was originally fought to overthrow.

Certainly it is becoming clearer than ever that the once-hated Taliban, far from being defeated by the surge, are instead beginning to converge on, and effectively besiege, Kabul in what is beginning to look like the final act in the history of Karzai’s western-installed puppet government. For the Taliban have now reorganised, and advanced out of their borderland safe havens. They are now massing at the gates of Kabul, surrounding the capital, much as the US-backed mujahideen once did to the Soviet-installed regime in the late ’80s. The Taliban controls over 70 per cent of the country, where it collects taxes, enforces the sharia and dispenses its usual rough justice. Every month their sphere of influence increases. According to a recent Pentagon report, Karzai’s government only controls 29 out of 121 key strategic districts.

Last month marked a new low with the Taliban inflicting higher levels of casualties on both civilians and NATO forces than ever before and regaining control of the opium-growing centre of Marja in Helmand, only three months after being driven out by American forces amid much gung-ho cheerleading in the US media.

The Taliban are massing at the gates of Kabul, much as the US-backed mujahideen once did in the late ’80s.

Worse still, there are unsettling and persistent rumours that Karzai is trying to reach some sort of accommodation with elements in Pakistan that aid and assist the Taliban: the ISI head, Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, has secretly been shuttling to and from Islamabad to meet Karzai, and last month, General Kayani, head of the Pakistani army, visited Kabul.This followed the sacking of Amrullah Saleh, Karzai’s very pro-Indian security chief. Saleh is a tough, burly and intimidating Tajik with a piercing, unblinking stare, who rose to prominence as a mujahideen protege of Ahmed Shah Masood, the legendary, India-backed Lion of the Panjshir. Saleh brought these impeccable credentials to his job after the American conquest, ruthlessly hunting down and interrogating any Taliban he could find, with little regard for notions of human rights.

The Taliban, and their backers in the ISI, regarded him as their fiercest enemy, something he was enormously proud of. When I had dinner with him in Kabul in May, he spoke at length of his frustration with the Karzai government’s ineffectiveness in taking the fight to the Taliban, and the degree to which the ISI was still managing to aid, arm and train their pocket insurgents in Waziristan, Sindh and Balochistan.

Saleh’s sacking in early June merited much less newsprint than last month’s sacking of General Stanley McChrystal. Yet in reality, McChrystal’s departure reflects only a minor personnel change, no important alteration in strategy. The sacking of Saleh, however, gave notice of a major and ominous change of direction by President Karzai.

Bruce Riedel, Obama’s Afpak advisor, said when the news broke: “Karzai’s decision to sack Saleh and (Hanif) Atmar (head of the interior ministry) has worried me more than any other development, because it means Karzai is already planning for a post-American Afghanistan.”

US soldiers frisk an Afghan during a patrol in Shahwali Kot, in Kandahar, Afghanistan
(Photograph by AFP, From Outlook, August 30, 2010)

The implication is that Pakistan is encouraging some sort of accommodation between Karzai and the ISI-sponsored jehadi network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, which could give over much of the Pashtun south to Haqqani, but preserve Karzai in power in Kabul. The Americans have been party to none of this, and administration officials have been quoted as being alarmed by the news.

India’s expulsion from Afghanistan, or at least a severe rolling back of its presence, can be presumed to be a demand on the ISI shopping list in return for a deal. Under Karzai, India had increasing political and economic influence in Afghanistan—it opened four regional consulates, and provided around $662 million of reconstruction assistance. Pakistan’s military establishment has always believed it would be suicide to accept an Indian presence in what they regard as their strategic backyard, and is completely paranoid about the still small Indian presence—rather as the British used to be about Russians in Afghanistan during the days of the Great Game.

MEA sources say there are less than 3,600 Indians in Afghanistan, almost all of them businessmen and contract workers; there are only 10 Indian diplomatic officers as opposed to nearly 150 in the UK embassy. Yet the horror of being squeezed in an Indian nutcracker has led the ISI to risk Pakistan’s own internal security and coherence, as well as its strategic relationship with the US, in order to keep the Taliban in play, and its leadership under watch and ISI patronage in Quetta, something the Wikileaks documents amply confirmed.

The horror of being squeezed in an Indian nutcracker forces Pakistan to risk all to keep the Taliban in play.

If it is true that Karzai is tilting away from NATO and India, and towards Pakistan, it would represent a strategic victory for the Pakistani military, and a diplomatic defeat for India—though the ISI will have to first deliver the Taliban, who still say they are unwilling to negotiate with Karzai. It also remains to be seen whether Pakistan can be defended from the jehadi Frankenstein’s monster its military has created: the recent bomb blasts in Lahore at the shrine of Datta Sahib would seem further evidence to indicate not. The other question is whether India can succeed in its reported attempts to resuscitate the Northern Alliance as a contingency against the Taliban’s takeover of the south, possibly in conjunction with Russia, Iran and the Central Asian ‘stans’.Either way, within Afghanistan, it’s a grim picture. Already, it’s now impossible—or at least extremely foolhardy—for any foreigner to walk even in Kabul without armed guards; it is even more inadvisable to head out of town in any direction except north: the strongly anti-Taliban Panjshir Valley, and the towns of Mazar and Herat, are really the only safe havens left for non-Afghans in the entire country, despite the massive troops levels all over. In all other directions, travel is only possible in an armed convoy. This is especially so around the Khoord Kabul and Tezeen Passes, immediately to the south of Kabul, where around 18,000 East India Company troops, many of them Indian sepoys, were lost in 1842, and which is today again a centre of resistance against foreign troops.   (read HERE)

The Inhumanity Inherent In Capitalists

Geeth Says:
August 9th, 2010 at 6:42 am

Ajith,

World’s largest fresh water reserves, the five great lakes are resting between two countries, the USA and Canada. The other greatest water stream is located in the South America, the Amazon River. Transnational Corporations’ are encroaching the exterior domains of traditionally known production and markets. Drinking water has been the target of Trans National Corporations for couple of decades now. The pressure of IMF and World Bank for the privatization of water resources in Sri Lanka including ancient reservoirs was not a secret, and it is still in the cards. The sole objective is to build a monopoly of global drinking water supply into the hands of TNCs. The day they achieve this target will mark the day of ultimate western dominance upon global humanity. From that point onward, the man’s right to life will be in the hands of TNCs. And thus the ultimate subjugation of the humanity of the rest will be achieved.

Although I do not agree with Marxism for many reasons, Marx’s analysis of the future of capitalism has never been challenged by any one yet. When even the capitalist wants to mirror his own image, he even reads Marx. Day by day capitalism proves that Marx was right abut capitalist’s inhuman soul. Our cultural upbringing never even allows us to believe their callousness because we can never conceive it through the logic we culturally accustomed with. We can never rationalize their objectives and agendas of working on future drinking water monopoly in global scale because naturally we question “why and for what reason anybody wants to do that?” For us it seems illogical and therefore we do not see any sense in it; but for the west, it is more than logical and make a lot of sense. In future, things are going to be much uglier than we can picture now.

Marx envisioned this situation more than hundred years ago. Although we are boasting about post French revolutionary modern achievements, we can feel that there is a big pitfall along the way of global humanity; and as I said, things are going to get much uglier than we can envision. I even do not believe that avoiding world war three is a possibility. The war is inevitable. My concern is that, most probably this war may fought in Indian Ocean and Sri Lanka will be in the midst of it. Our belief in modern progress has brought us to a dead end in which we can see only conflicts and disasters and ultimate subjugation of humanity by TNCs or else, freedom with enormous sacrifice and cost.

We all were given a beautiful rosy picture of modern progress, and we never knew that we were being herding to our own slavery by a very few of the world. Marshal Berman beautifully tells us a part of the story of modernism like this… “

“There is a mode of vital experience – experience of space and time, of the self and others, of life’s possibilities and perils—that is shared by men and women all over the world today. I will call this body of experience ‘Modernity’. To be modern is to find our selves in an environment that promises adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology; in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity; it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish To be modern is to be a part of a universe in which, as Marx said, ‘all that is solid melts into air” (Marshal Berman, “All that is solid melts into Air” 1982)
You know Ajith, as an artist, a humanist, and an activist against all sorts of marginality and dominance, I can feel the gravity of your article in its maximum effect not only mentally, but also even physically I can feel it. Because after reading it, I felt almost throwing up by the disgusting feeling of the contempt for knowing the intentions of western administrations’ and the depths to the low levels they prepared to go down to subjugate the rest of global humanity. Their moral bankruptcy is unbelievable.

The American/Western Conspiracy to Control the World’s Fresh Water Supplies

Refusal to endorse water as a human right exposes the US and UN conspiracy

Posted on August 8th, 2010

Ajit Randeniya

Late last month, there were two pointers, both arising from the UN within the span of just two days, that exposed the ugliness of the US devised human rights conspiracy and the increasingly visible face of the UN as an organisation serving only the interests of the rich, domineering countries.

On 28 July, the champions of the global human rights movement, the US, the EU (except Germany and Spain), Canada, and Australia, abstained from voting for a resolution presented by Pablo Solon, the Bolivian ambassador to the UN, co-sponsored by 31 other countries, declaring that: “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”

Unbelievably, just two days later on 30 July, Jean-Paul Laborde, chairman of the UN Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), demanded that the African countries ‘get their act together’ in fighting terrorism!

In short, this French pale-skin comprador was reinforcing, on behalf of the alliance he was representing, that the hungry and thirsty Africans need to forget about their own priorities and help the ‘G_d-chosen’ Europeans kill the opponents of their arrogant blood-sucking ways!

What needs to follow from this shameless demonstration of the ‘human rights conspiracy’ is that those in the developing world -including the so-called NGOs and INGOs, ‘transparency inspectors’, sundry ‘aid-workers’ and ‘think-tank operators’- who continue to serve in the post July 28 world in perpetuating the lie that the US (and other white nations) have any genuine interest in safeguarding ‘human rights’ are dealt with appropriately; the average citizen as well as governments now can take action. Here are some reasons why.

The world needed no reminder that the most pressing problem afflicting the world’s poor who account for more than five sixths of the global population, is lack of access to clean water: according to UN statistics, nearly one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, more than 2.6 billion have no basic sanitation and around 1.5 million children under age 5 die each year from water borne diseases, mainly diarrhoea.

This is the reason why the Bolivian resolution was supported so overwhelmingly by the developing world. The Bolivian ambassador’s speech included simple ‘facts of life’, that the human body and brain consisted predominantly of water that is its transport and cooling system, and that the human survival period without water is much shorter than that without food.

He also pointed out that the number of deaths resulting from the consumption of unclean water globally is higher than those resulting from AIDS, malaria and measles combined. An estimated 1.5 million children under age 5 die every year of diarrhoea.

What all these facts point to is that the lack of access to clean water is the greatest human rights violation, most certainly so when compared to the ‘rights’ promoted by the US and Europe mafia, of the freedoms to disrupt societies and to spy for foreign countries.

The resolution was voted in easily, with 122 countries voting in favour. But the most remarkable thing was the ‘curious’ abstention by 41 rich countries of the world, the champions of the global human rights campaign! No other international event in the recent past exposed the degree of utter contempt with which the US, EU and its lackeys treat the developing world, as much as this dishonourable act did.

The abstaining hypocrites accused the sponsors of the resolution of seeking to pre-empt the findings an independent expert, Portuguese lawyer Catarina de Albuquerque, who is due to report to the UN Human Rights Council next year on countries’ obligations related to water and sanitation. This is going to be another imposition on resource-starved developing country governments, so that the World Bank and IMF could come in with offers of ‘help’.

In explaining his country’s abstention, the appropriately named US delegate John ‘Sammis’ provided a disgusting parody of the double talk that is the hallmark of their conspiracies: he said, “We support the goal of universal access to safe drinking water. The US is ‘committed’ to working with our development partners …But he charged that “the resolution undermined the work underway in Geneva” and charged that ‘sponsors had rushed it through’.

In other words, the US human rights guardian is saying to the world: you have no ‘right’ for water; we’ll give you water when ‘we’ feel like it!

British delegate Nicola ‘Freedman’ said London “does not believe that there exists at present sufficient legal basis under international law to either declare or recognize water or sanitation as free-standing human rights”. The new Conservative government of David Cameron had already declared that it will oppose this resolution ‘unless it is amended to remove sanitation and only refer to ‘access’ to clean water, not the human right to water itself’.

In other words, the British imperialists are saying: ‘we’ make laws, not ‘you’!

Canada hid behind the false claim that the resolution might force it to share its water with the US, [therefore the poor should continue to die of thirst]; Australia preferred the route of water ‘markets’ [that allow the wealthy to appropriate water supplies for private profit] and not public ownership of water!

Insult to the injury in the minds of the developing country representatives at the General Assembly was added when, on 30 July, the French head of the CTITF demanded that African governments ‘take stronger steps’ to try to break connections between terrorism and organised crime, and, to broaden their anti-terrorist strategies beyond the military and law enforcement agencies.

He pointed to the recent killing of a French ‘aid worker’ in West Africa to show that Africa was a ‘hot spot’ for terrorism. He said that Africa’s often porous borders, low standards of living and political and social tensions were the ‘problems’. This Mr. Laborde’s game plan is to call up a meeting in early September to review the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy that was adopted in 2006, providing them another opportunity take the African’s minds away from their ‘real’ priority of economic development.

There are several aspects to the current conspiracy to block any ‘democratically based’ moves at the UN to promote the right to clean water as a human right: firstly, as it has already done, the move called the bluff of the US, EU and the rest of the pale-skins’ ‘commitment’ to protect human rights globally.

Their failure to support the right to water, that is biologically vital, exposes that their campaign is all about hindering the development of poor countries by creating chaos rather than to preserve right to life. To this extent, the Bolivian move has already achieved its aims by exposing this evil conspiracy.

Secondly, they are busily continuing with the campaign for the ‘privatisation’ of water resources in the ‘globalised’ world: a new World Bank reports has already created the demand-supply equation, by announcing that by 2030, global demand for water will exceed supply by more than 40%. This is the first step in the process of demanding of developing countries that they allow ‘market intervention’ to ‘rationally’ utilise this vital resource, with their capital of course!

The trend to privatise water has been resisted by the developing world at least since the year 2000 when the ‘globalisation’ thrust started it’s full swing. They started work towards a UN commitment that no one should be denied water for life because of an inability to pay, in the light of the water markets conspiracy.

UN recognition of water as a human right will shift the power of decision-making over water policy to national governments, undermining the power of the World Bank, the World Water Council and the World Trade Organisation, whose charter is creating market ‘solutions’.

The 28 July UN resolution may not have any legal standing due to access to water not being mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was announced in 1948. But it opened the door for an annual report to the General Assembly on the topic from the UN expert on the issue.

Every now and then, humanity needs to take a collective look at various conspiracies that are consuming their lives and well being. The 28 July resolution provided one such opportunity by laying bare the US hypocrisy.

Robert Blake is busy undermining Kyrgyztan

Posted on July 29th, 2010

Ajit Randeniya

It is for very good reasons that Robert Blake who ‘underachieved’ in terms of neocon expectations in Sri Lanka was quickly appointed Assistant Secretary in the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs: the region involving Afghanistan and Central Asia that is crucial to the illegal war in Afghanistan needed a trusted neocon operator and there aren’t many left these days at the State Department. They found their man in Robert Blake.

The major handicap for the neocon operations in Afghanistan is the problem of a safe route for supplies to the troops pillaging the villages of this long suffering country: the route through Pakistan is notoriously unsafe due to attacks by tribal supporters of the Taliban, and the preferred way is through the Central Asian state of Kyrgyztan. The retired war criminal Douglas Rumsfeld had negotiated a corrupt deal with the former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to rent the Manas air base for this purpose.

Readers may remember that a popular revolution in April this year led to the ousting of the corrupt regime of President Bakiyev, completing the reversal of the CIA-NGO orchestrated ‘colour revolutions’ in former Soviet states; with the interim government accusing Washington of sustaining the corrupted regime, the future of the all important Manas base became uncertain.

While the interim President Roza Otunbaeva, a former diplomat, has been equivocal about closing Manas, the views of the majority of the new cabinet were clear; the base had to close. Elections for a new legitimate parliament ware due in October and the newly renamed Manas ‘Transit Centre’ was high on the agenda of the new government.

Lo and behold! In early June, ethnic violence broke out between the Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks (who form the majority) in the southern Kyrgyz cities of Osh and Jalalabad. The American neocons couldn’t have been happier!

As always, neocons start circling, like flies on excreta, any poor country experiencing ethnic turmoil, and they had the right man in the region to dispense medicine for the Kyrgyz Republic: it was Robert Blake! He grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

During the last two weeks, Blake has been busy coordinating the usual apparatus of intervention made-up of the World Bank-IMF axis, the NGO networks, and in this particular case, a false front, the Vienna based so-called Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE): they made declarations of ‘grave’  humanitarian concerns about the affected minority, proposed the need for ‘independent’ international investigation and proceeded to appoint one, urged the resettlement of IDPs, ordered confidence building measures and sugar coated all the intervention measures with ‘pledges’ of financial aid of US$ 1.1 billion.

The template of the neocon strategy of taking control of Kyrgyztan is identical to the one they tried and failed in Sri Lanka.

Blake is hiding the US involvement behind the OSCE, an ad hoc regional organisation formed during the Cold War, with 56 participating states in Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America. Extending its ‘White’ nature, in December 2009 Australia was recruited as its Asian Partner. OSCE, like the UN, grants Consultative Status to NGOs and INGOs in the form of ‘Researcher-in-residence programme’.

This shady organisation managed the ‘Orange Revolution’ fraud in Ukraine in 2004, urging Vladimir Putin to comment: “They are trying to transform the OSCE into a vulgar instrument designed to promote the foreign policy interests of one or a group of countries. Decision-making procedures and the involvement of so-called non-governmental organizations are tailored for this task. These organizations are formally independent but they are purposefully financed and therefore under control.”

The campaign of lies started with gross exaggerations of the number of dead in the ethnic conflict: the Kyrgyz Health Ministry’s report of 313 deaths was disputed by the hastily put together ‘Interim Committee on Covering the Events in Southern Kyrgyzstan’, a coalition of local and exile NGOs. They asserted that many more deaths went unregistered as people hastily buried their relatives during the conflict. However, they were unable to provide evidence to support this assertion because ‘thousands of Uzbeks have already left for Russia and other countries due to ongoing persecution, making tracking of their testimony difficult’!

There were clear signs that the so-called US policy on the country had been formulated not at the State Department, but by the resident neocons at the Heritage Foundation. The activities Blake was engaged in, criss-crossing the world at the expense of the US tax payer, were exactly those foreshadowed in a typically arrogant and assertive statement issued by this ‘think tank’ which said: “Kyrgyzstan’s internal strife, coupled with Russia’s growing influence in the region, should be of concern to US policymakers. The Pentagon, the State Department, and the intelligence community should bolster US military, law enforcement, and government reform assistance in Kyrgyzstan and prevent Russia from controlling Manas. Thus, the US should work with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to deploy police monitors to Osh and surrounding communities to oversee the restoration of law and order.”

These instructions were followed to the letter by Robert Blake.

The process started on June 27, with the presentation of a report of the ‘experts’ of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the IMF “Joint economic assessment: consent and restoration” at the forum of donors in Bishkek, the capital. The ‘report’, directly addressed the plea by the Kyrgyz Finance Minister, to the global community for a $1.2 billion to help begin reconstruction of areas devastated by clashes.

The US ‘pledged’ $48.6 million by 2011. The donors represented at the conference collectively ‘pledged’ $1.1 billion ‘to meeting immediate humanitarian needs’, providing assistance to displaced and returning families, and addressing the roots of the conflict through community development and conflict mitigation programs in the southern regions of the Kyrgyz Republic.

All funding provided by the US will be closely aligned to the needs identified in the World Bank ‘Joint’ Economic Assessment. What is startling is the process through which the US proposes to distribute its ‘pledged’ aid: $21 million immediately by USAID for ‘community improvement and stabilization projects’, including a broad range of ‘community defined’ projects; $6.1 million in USAID grants to NGO partners to support protection activities, and $732,716 in USAID grants to NGOs to support economic recovery and market systems!

Long before any of the ‘pledges’ of financial assistance materialised, the OSCE appointed the Finnish parliamentarian Kimmo Kiljunen, their ‘Special Representative for Central Asia’, to form an ‘international commission’  to investigate the atrocities in southern Kyrgyzstan.

This is without any invitation by the Kyrgyz Republic!  The Kyrgyz interim government had written to the UN Secretary General on 21 July, requesting support for an International Independent Commission and is awaiting reply. With Russia, who has blocked any UN action on Kyrgyzstan, due to occupy the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in August, any UN involvement is unlikely.

Knowing this,  Blake organised this ‘investigation’ and lied to the US ‘Helsinki Commission’ on 27 July that ‘the United States welcomes President Otunbaeva’s decision” to ask Mr. Kiljunen to organise the investigation.’  Kyrgystan’s neighbour Kazakhstan who currently holds the OSCE chairmanship pleaded ignorance about the OSCE moves on the international investigation.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also expressed concerns about ‘ongoing human rights violations’ and sent a team to Osh and High Commissioner. So far she herself called for an independent investigation to take place rather than joining the OSCE initiative.

In addition to the ‘inquiry’ The 56 member states of the OSCE, also ‘agreed’ on the 28^th on the deployment of ‘an international police mission’ to Kyrgyzstan. The police officers, the OSCE announced, would “monitor and advise counterparts in the Kyrgyz police force, with a focus on southern Kyrgyzstan. They will be unarmed and have no executive police powers.” The police advisory group would initially be deployed for a period of four months, but the mission could be extended with the agreement of Kyrgyzstan and the OSCE permanent council.

The Mayor of Osh city told Al-Jazeera that most of residents of Osh are against bringing in this OSCE group and that he entirely supported the citizens and thought that ‘we are able to manage the situation on our own’.

Protest action took place in the two largest cities of Kyrgyzstan – Bishkek and Osh – against the deployment of the OSCE police forces in the south, with young people wearing blue arm ribbons, carrying placards ‘No OSCE police’ and ‘Let us not turn the country into Kosovo!’ They burnt an effigy of OSCE policeman.

The protests appeared to have infuriated another neocon, Daniel Rosenblum, whose tip of the nose touches the big toe. He held a press conference in Osh and dictated that “The OSCE police group, will contribute to stabilisation of the situation in south Kyrgyzstan, “People should stop being afraid. Force structures perform their duty professionally and should be accountable.’

Meanwhile Blake reported to the conspiratorial Helsinki Commission on his visit to Kyrgyzstan:  “the government has failed to win the confidence of its Uzbek minority after ethnic violence in the southern part of the country. Fear and tension remains. In Uzbekistan’s displaced persons camps, although there were no reports of force to promote returns, reports of psychological pressure, monetary incentives, threats of loss of citizenship, coercion and/or encouragement to participate in the June 27 referendum, and concerns for family members who remained in Kyrgyzstan may have factored into the rapid repatriation of those who were displaced.”

Targeting the independent minded mayor of Osh he said: “I also heard complaints that the mayor of Osh does not act in a balanced manner and that he is pursuing a nationalist agenda. I shared these concerns with government officials and urged that they be addressed on an urgent basis. To me, It’s a matter of holding the government responsible for holding transparent elections, and to think about using conditionality on further assistance if the government doesn’t meet the standards that [the OSCE] holds before them.”

This worm clearly thinks that he ‘rules’ the world!

The more such neocon conspiracies surface, the more Sri Lankans can take satisfaction at their massive achievement of frustrating the evil spirits of parasites like Robert Blake. The feat would not have been possible without the strong leadership of President Rajapakse.

Kazakhstan takes over Azerbaijan wheat market from Russia

Kazakhstan has agreed to take over Russian wheat exports to AzerbaijanWASHINGTON, DC – Wednesday, August 18, 2010 – The great Eurasian drought and crops shortfall of 2010 took a dramatic twist this week with reports that Kazakhstan would replace Russia as the main supplier of wheat to Azerbaijan.

Yury Shedrin, Russia’s veteran chief trade representative in Azerbaijan, told a press conference in the Azeri capital Baku Wednesday that starting August 15, Russia had halted all grain exports, including those to its 11 fellow member nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – all former Soviet republics.

Shedrin, however, assured the Azeris that they would not suffer from the change because Kazakhstan had agreed to replace Russia’s total annual export supply of wheat to oil-rich Azerbaijan in the southern Caucasus.

The implications of the change are significant. The current heat wave and drought across Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia are the worst since modern records have been kept and have had devastating effects on the annual grain harvest of all three countries, causing drops by 30 to 40 percent in them all .

However, Kazakhstan has weathered the crisis best because it only has a population of 16 million to feed – little more than 10 percent of Russia’s 150 million people.

Also, as Central Asia Newswire has documented, Kazakhstan has been successfully expanding its agricultural output to become a major global food exporting power. This year, even with the drought, it will have at least 6 million tons of wheat to spare for export and it has another 8 million tons stored in its granaries from last year’s record harvest.

Kazakhstan is also Russia’s partner in a new customs union that began operating in mid-July and the Russians have been pressuring the Kazakhs to ban their own wheat exports outside CIS nations. The Kazakhs have not formally bowed to the Russian demands. But their willingness to take over Russia’s wheat export market to Azerbaijan is in effect the first stage of that process.

Ironically, before the drought, the Russians were arch-rivals of the Kazakhs in the wheat export markets of Eurasia, pushing them out of Iran. However, now Kazakhstan’s wheat-export clout within the CIS is growing at the expense of Russia’s.

The Azerbaijan Business Center reported Wednesday that Kazakhstan had already announced its readiness to deliver 2 million tons of wheat to Azerbaijan and other nations in the south Caucasus.

“In (the first five months of) 2010, the volume of grain supplies from Russia to Azerbaijan was reduced from $72 million to $12 million,” Shedrin told the reporters in Baku according to the Azerbaijan Business Center report.

As a result of the changes, “Russia provides 15 percent of the grain imports of Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan has increased its share to 85 percent,” Shedrin said. “The issue is not on quality. Russian grain is not worse than Kazakhstan’s.

”Concerning the price, Kazakhstan offers its grain at the price of $204 per ton, while Russian suppliers (charge) more than $230 per ton,” Shedrin continued. “(Therefore) it is clear that Azerbaijan will buy Kazakhstan’s grain, although, the logistics of Russian grain is more convenient.”

It remains to be seen if Armenia will also need to import significant quantities of Kazakh grain. If that happens, Kazakhstan will enjoy powerful diplomatic leverage on Armenia to abandon its more than 20-year-long occupation of Azerbaijan’s province of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Kazakhstan, as this year’s chairman of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has taken a leading role to try and peacefully resolve the long-running conflict.

Without citing any sources for the statement, Azerbaijan Business Center also reported that Russia will not begin exporting its grain overseas again until the beginning of next year.

Even that date would be dependent on an easing of the drought, and on the hope that drought conditions do not return next year.

But if the drought is caused by long-term cyclical weather changes related to global warming, then Russia may have to abandon its grain exports for a longer period.

Kazakhstan certainly will not suffer financially from taking over the Azeri market for grain from Russia, because oil-rich Azerbaijan can afford to pay market rates for its imports.

But the development will certainly increase Kazakhstan’s economic, and therefore its diplomatic, leverage well beyond Central Asia. At least for the moment, Kazakhstan has replaced Russia as the key “swing” producer of grain for the populations of Central Asia and of the southern Caucasus west of the Caspian Sea.

Source: Centralasianewswire.com

Pakistan’s South Sees New Flooding

[If you want to see the level of hatred and ignorance that prevail in America today, read the COMMENTS for the following article.  To our shame as Americans, we have surrendered our own humanity, because we believe that we are better than the rest of those "multicultural" savages. You can always count on American racism to raise its ugly head whenever our foreign brothers and sisters need a helping hand.]

Flooding submerges new towns in Pakistan’s south

Kevin Frayer / AP

Pakistanis crowd around a Pakistan Army helicopter during a drop of much needed food supplies to the flood encircled village of Tul in , Sindh Province, southern Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

By ASHRAF KHAN

SUKKUR, Pakistan — About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south, a government spokesman said Saturday.

Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea. Survivors may find little left when they return home, however: The waters have washed away houses, roads, bridges and crops vital to livelihoods.

Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh province during the flooding over the past month.

As the latest surge approached, “We evacuated more than 150,000 people from interior parts of Sindh in the past 24 hours,” said Jamil Soomro, a spokesman for the provincial government. The floods submerged new areas in Thatta district.

At a relief camp in the Sukkur area, some victims said it was difficult to get food dropped off by relief trucks.

“I am a widow, and my children are too young to get food because of the chaos and rush,” said Parveen Roshan. “How can weak women win a fight with men to get food?”

Nearby, a doctor treated a boy whose back was injured after someone pushed him during a scramble for food at a truck.

The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, straining its civilian government as it also struggles against al-Qaida and Taliban violence. At least 6 million people have been made homeless and 20 million affected overall. The economic cost is expected to run into billions of dollars.

The United Nations has appealed for $460 million in emergency assistance, and the U.S. has promised $150 million. Pakistan said it would even accept $5 million in aid from India, its archrival.

The floods began in late July in the northwest of the country after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, expanding rivers that have since swamped eastern Punjab province and Sindh province in the south.

A slew of aid groups have been trying to help the government in its relief effort by providing food, medicine, shelter and other crucial assistance. Poor weather and the destruction of roads and bridges have hindered the distribution.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Pressure mounts for inquiry into embankment breaks

[The canals around the Jacobabad facility were obviously breached to divert the water away from the American predator base, as well as the new F-16s which Pakistan partially owns, which are also there.   Cold-hearted moves such as this, to protect the Empire in Pakistan will instead endanger American interests as they intensify the anti-American hatred.  It remains to be seen whether moves such as this are explained as the clumsy stumbling of Leviathan, or intentional decisions intended to provoke rioting.  When the idea is to create mass-chaos, it doesn't matter who the people are angry at, as long as they are in stampede mode, letting mob-mentality rule. ]

By Hasan Abdullah

Breach at Tori Bund. – Dawn Photo.

KARACHI: A growing number of politicians from opposition and ruling parties are putting their weight behind the demand for an independent inquiry into the unannounced and mysterious breaches in the Indus river embankments in upper Sindh that led to the inundation of large areas of Balochistan.

Local people and politicians have expressed frustration at the “secretive handling” of the case and the flat refusal by many government officials, both in Sindh and in the federal capital, to say on whose orders the river water was diverted.

The question still being asked is: who took the decision to breach the Jamali bypass?

“I don’t know. It’s a top-level decision. The word breach does not exist in our dictionary,” says Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo.

However, former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali refuses to believe that the breach in embankments which destroyed his hometown and adjoining towns and villages was caused by water pressure or was unintentional. A furious Mr Jamali insists there could be a few specific reasons behind this decision.

“I believe there was American pressure on the authorities to safeguard the Shahbaz airbase,” he told Dawn. “Furthermore, it is well known and established that the Jakhranis have a stake in this airbase and the contractors were linked to them,” he said, adding that federal Minister Aijaz Jakhrani also had his land to protect.

“I was in Karachi when I was informed that Aijaz Jakhrani along with the local administration and Sindh police were trying to breach the Jamali bypass. I immediately tried to speak to the Sindh and Balochistan administrations, but to no avail,” he said. “Then in the middle of the night, I telephoned Corps Commander Quetta who was kind enough to respond immediately,” Mr Jamali said.

The former prime minister further said: “The civil authority at present is indecisive with no desire to save the country. All decisions to breach bunds are unfortunately being taken by merely looking at factors such as whose land to save.”

This assertion is supported not only by the opposition members but even partners in the ruling coalition.

“These decisions are being heavily influenced by feudal lords of the areas concerned. It’s not about saving people, the decisions are based on saving the land of these influential. We strongly condemn this,” says Haider Abbas Rizvi, MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader.

Several attempts were made to contact Aijaz Jakhrani to get his side of the story, but he refused to take calls. But some parliamentarians, when contacted for their views, pointed fingers at the military establishment, accusing them of influencing the decisions to breach bunds.

“The media is pointing fingers at Syed Khurshid Shah over the Ali Wahan controversy but the fact is it was GOC Pano Aqil who has been interfering in the case,” claimed one PPP official.

However, the military rejects the charge.

“All these decisions are for the competent civilian authority to take based on their technical and political considerations. Once they have done that, the army engineers are there merely to execute the job,” says Major-General Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman.

While many appear perplexed, still trying to figure out how decisions are taken to breach bunds, the irrigation department tries to offer some assistance.

“Contrary to what some believe, there is actually a proper procedure to decide if a bund should be breached or not. We look at factors such as population density of the concerned areas, the direction of natural flow, elevations, water stopping points and so on,” said a senior official from the Sindh Irrigation department.

But not everyone buys this claim.

“I have been closely following the floods since the 30th July. I am convinced that the government does not have any standard operating procedures in this regard,” asserted PML-Q MNA Marvi Memon.

The flood water’s journey towards Balochistan started with a breach at the Tori bund, which lies close to the Ghauspur town of Kashmore district. This breach triggered huge controversy as many argued that the breach was deliberately caused in an attempt to avoid a breach at Ali Wahan bund. Some critics and local people have alleged that despite being a logical and tested choice, the Ali Wahan bund has been spared to protect the interests of a federal minister. The breach at Tori bund flooded Guddu canal, Ghauspur, Karampur and entered the Shikarpur district. As the water headed towards Khanpur and Sultankot, the Begari Sindh feeder which is an offshoot of the Guddu canal was breached to save Shikarpur city. The water then made its way into Jacobabad district, causing mass destruction and evacuations. This is where Nur Wah, an offshoot of Begari canal and the Jamali bypass were breached to save Jacobabad city but leading the water into Balochistan. After initially moving north into Sohbatpur, Dera Allahyar and Dera Murad Jamali, the flood water made its way down south towards Usta Mohammad, Garhi Khairo and Qubboo Saeed Khan.

While the government denies any malafide intention, Baloch nationalists have a different perspective.

“The Balochs are a poor and deprived people. The government felt that these people would not be able to do anything anyway, so they decided to destroy our only greenbelt,” Fahad Bugti, the nephew of the late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, told Dawn.

They too are demanding an independent inquiry to establish who issued the order to breach the embankments at different places, and to save whose land and property at the cost of houses and livestock of the poor Baloch people.

The irony, as pointed out by many people in the area, is that after causing mayhem in various districts of Sindh and Balochistan, the flood water is once again on course to re-enter Sindh to cause further death and destruction in Shahdadkot and adjoining areas.

Pakistan Bans Islamist Aid, Even Though In Some Places It Is the Only Aid

Pakistan to clamp down on Islamist militant charities

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD | Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:58pm EDT

(Reuters) – Pakistan said on Friday it will clamp down on charities linked to Islamist militants amid fears their involvement in flood relief could exploit anger against the government and undermine the fight against groups like the Taliban.

Islamist charities have moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by a government overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and struggling to reach millions of people in dire need of shelter, food and drinking water.

It would not be the first time the government has announced restrictions against charities tied to militant groups, but critics say banned organizations often re-emerge with new names and authorities are not serious about stopping them.

"The banned organizations are not allowed to visit flood-hit areas," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters. "We will arrest members of banned organizations collecting funds and will try them under the Anti-Terrorism Act."

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warned on Thursday that militants were trying to exploit the floods to promote their agendas — as they did after a devastating earthquake in Kashmir in 2005.

More than 4 million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, making urgent the critical task of securing enough aid.

In a sign of improving relations between the Pakistan and India since the Mumbai militant attacks in 2008, New Delhi said that $5 million in aid had been accepted after initial reluctance from Islamabad.

"We welcome acceptance of our offer by Pakistan’s government. It is a goodwill offer for solidarity," India’s foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in New Delhi.

The decision comes a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday to express sympathy and condolences.

Eight million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance after around a third of the country was hit by floods, with waters stretching dozens of miles (km) from rivers.

The floods have marooned villages and destroyed power stations and roads just as the government had made progress in stabilizing Pakistan through offensives against militants.

There were increasing fears of disease outbreaks.

"With over 38,000 reported cases of acute diarrhea already and at least one confirmed cholera death, the specter of major cholera outbreaks is real," Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta of the women and child health division at Aga Khan University in Karachi wrote in the Lancet medical journal.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said millions of livestock were at risk and at least 200,000 cows, sheep, buffalo, goats and donkeys had already died.

"Livestock in this country are the poor people’s mobile ATM," said David Doolan, Senior FAO Officer, in charge of FAO programs in Pakistan. "In good times people build up their herds and in bad times they sell livestock to generate cash."

Weather officials said floods could recede in Punjab province but there was a danger of more rain in Sindh over the next week. These provinces, where the majority of Pakistanis live, have been hit hardest by the floods.

The United States led a stream of pledges of more funds for Pakistan during a special meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised a further $60 million, bringing to more than $150 million the contribution Washington would make toward emergency flood relief.

The U.N. has issued an appeal for $459 million, of which about 60 percent had been pledged.

Highlighting the wider problems facing Pakistan, 14 people were killed on Thursday in different incidents of targeted killings in Karachi after a Pashtun political leader was gunned down, a sign of underlying ethnic and political tensions in the country’s biggest city.

Pakistan officials are due to meet the International Monetary Fund next week for talks on easing growth and fiscal deficit targets following the country’s worst ever floods.

Pakistan turned to the IMF in 2008 for emergency financing to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves, agreeing to a set of conditions including revenue targets.

The IMF meetings will start on August 23 and were scheduled for even before the floods began. In May, Pakistan received $1.13 billion, the fifth tranche of a $11.3 billion IMF loan.

(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony in Islamabad and Sahar Ahmed and Faisal Aziz in Karachi; Bappa Majumdar in New Delhi; Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations and Kate Kelland in London; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Michael Georgy)

Who’s blowing up Iran’s gas pipelines?

By Con Coughlin

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad points during the inauguration of Iran’s fourth gas refinery in the port town of Assalouyeh, south of Tehran, in 2008 (AP Photo/ISNA, Ruhollah Vahdati)

In the past few weeks Iran’s gas infrastructure, which is central to the country’s energy requirements, has been hit by a series of unexplained explosions.

The series of mysterious explosions began at the end of July when the state-owned Tehran Times reported that a pipeline carrying gas from Iran to Turkey had exploded near the eastern Turkish town of Dogubayazit. Iranian officials blamed the blast on Kurdish rebels.

This was followed earlier this month by reports in the Iranian press of an explosion in a gas pipeline on the outskirts of Tabriz. A few days later there was a more serious incident on August 4 when five people were killed when another gas pipeline exploded on the outskirts of  the Pardis petrochemical plant. The explosion took place just a week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had made an official visit to the complex.  Finally, on August 10, a pipeline exploded in the city of Masjed Sleiman.

Internal investigations by Iranian officials have blamed this recent spate of explosions on bad maintenance. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which are responsible for maintaining the country’s vital gas infrastructure, have been accused of under-investing in routine maintenance so that they could divert funds to other programmes with higher priorities, such as the nuclear programme.

But the high number of attacks on Iran’s gas pipelines within the space of less than a month will inevitably raised suspicions that this is the work of professional saboteurs. The CIA, for example, is known to have a clandestine operation underway to destabilise the Iranian regime. Certainly the prospect of facing the next winter without adequate fuel supplies would not go down well in a country which has still not come to terms with last year’s rigged presidential election contest.

Counter-Insurgency: From Latin America to Afghanistan

The US COIN program has its origins in the decades long US interventions – secretive and not so – in its own southern hemisphere. And the war in Afghanistan (and in Iraq) takes on the same state terror versus insurgent terror attributes of that long era of violence, notes Pablo Behrens.
In recent decades there have been only one or two precedents in which the United States and the United Kingdom could analyze directly the use of guerilla warfare by insurgents, and the response by government authorities. In the US’ case it was the urban guerilla movement and the ‘threat’ of progressive political parties in South and Central America and the State terror it unleashed during the 1970s. In the case of the UK, it was the IRA mainland attacks of the 1980s.

Their experience in those two conflicts cannot be underestimated and in one form or another lessons learnt by both re-surfaced in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is unthinkable that US government agencies such as the Pentagon, the CIA and the NSA has not applied the lessons learned in Latin America, when less than twenty years later the White House would be directly involved in a war against insurgency.

In the case of the UK, it was a source of pride for their military cadres to freely admit that British commanders were applying “lessons learnt in Belfast” in their war against the urban insurgency in Basra.

At some point, the Global War on Terror of 2001 turned into a War on Insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the nations that signed up for those wars did not imagine is that one day they would be using the same tactics as the enemy they were trying to destroy.

Terror attack takes various forms. A bomb from nowhere, kidnap or arrest without trial, renditions, assassinations, secret prisons, improvised explosive devices, drone attacks, summary executions and torture. Anything goes. Terror is a State tactic as well as an insurgency tactic. It is borne from a need to produce results quicker than more conventional warfare or legal means. The difference is that one side is condemned by the law of the land while the other acts with impunity and is above the law.

The methods of recruitment, command, control and attack used by the urban guerillas in the big cities of South America in the past are very similar to the methods insurgents use today in Baghdad, Basra, Kandahar or Kabul — with the exception of suicide attacks and that Latin American guerillas generally targeted government forces as per the Cuban model. But for any insurgent anywhere in the world it’s still the same old Che Guevara tactic of “bite and flee” (muerde y huye). In its simplest form it’s a small arms attack by a group of guerillas and then back to the shadows. By the time government forces are able to respond they find only the dust settling and a few dead bodies.

The authority in Iraq and more so now in Afghanistan is none other than the US occupation army. As such it responds the only way it knows: an iron fist that smashes anything that moves — it’s the ‘kill today, ask human rights questions tomorrow’ method. The reasoning is simple: If Che Guevara and his urban cohorts had been dealt with that way, why not Osama bin Laden’s irregulars?

There is no other recent learning curve in either the United States or the UK than their respective experiences in Latin America and Northern Ireland. Except Vietnam, but that was a war the United States lost.

Thanks to the passage of time we now know how military juntas in Latin America dealt with guerillas or political threats. Torture was widespread as well as mass arrests; paramilitary elements organized political assassinations via death squads; illegal flights across frontiers were used to transport kidnapped dissidents or insurgency suspects for torture. During this period, a permanent, widespread presence of US intelligence operatives maintained contact with local military agencies, advising and protecting.

All the above was ‘stock in trade’ in Latin America between the early 60s and the mid 80s. A kind of ‘operations manual’ for counter-insurgency success was being drawn up for future conflicts by research elements in the US state security establishment. The preferred chapter was the use of violent attack against anybody deemed a suspect on the flimsiest of evidences. Insurgency was stamped out in Latin America by the sheer force of the bloodbath committed by State terror. Only human rights organizations bothered then as they still bother today and only one or two Western countries batted an eye as the horror was unleashed.

All Latin American military juntas of the period were supported by successive US administrations through generous loans, arms and training of military, police and intelligence cadres. That campaign is still today considered an unmitigated military success by US security.

That’s why we should not be surprised if in the last few years a similar counter-insurgency strategy was apparently applied by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hallmark was the same: rendition flights of suspects, arrests without trial and rumors of torture in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. There were also secret assassination squads, trigger happy soldiers and CIA-run secret prisons.

In the War on Insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq what was happening was just the recycling of a tried and tested formula first applied “successfully” years earlier in Latin America.

The main difference between a war on insurgency in Latin America and counter-insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan is that in the former case, the human rights violations were carried out by the military juntas of each country concerned and US involvement was kept out of the limelight. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the equivalent military power is nonexistent or unreliable, so the United States has to carry out the repression by itself. Their heavy handed modus operandi — the only one they know — is confirmed in a number of leaks over the years and published by newspapers like the Washington Post, by the WikiLeaks web site, or by denunciations from organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

So now the counter-insurgency manual is found faulty, as the power exercising the repression, the United States, has been caught red-handed and there is no one else to blame. It was easy to claim “plausible deniability” when violations were carried out by well known South American military butchers like Garrastazu Medici in Brazil, Videla in Argentina, or Pinochet in Chile. It is more difficult to apply it when the only military game in town is the United States.

State terror has its limits. It can kill some of the people all the time. It can even kill all the people some of the time. But it cannot kill all the people all the time. Some wars are better lost.

Pablo Behrens is a Uruguayan freelance journalist based in London, England. Between 2005-2008 Pablo was London correspondent for La Republica covering the terrorist attacks in the London Underground, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and general national and international policy of the British government within the War on Terror framework.

Copyright © 2010 Pablo Behrens – distributed by Agence Global