[This is it, folks. Whenever the returning vets turn to the protest lines to say "no" to more of the illegal hell on earth that they have experienced---Then you know that the revolution has come--All that holds it back is you, and me.
Listen to Chris Hedges speak of hope and know that something has to change --NOW. If We the People want our children and our grandchildren to fight for corporate profits for what amounts to all of their lifetimes, then we will turn away from these brave veterans and the cause of Peace which compels them to chain themselves to the White House fence in the freezing cold.
Fighting this war is NOT our Manifest Destiny, but ending the war is one step closer to our best destiny, towards that American ideal that our troops have always thought they were defending. That was the reason all of these good veterans offered their own lives in battle, thinking that they were defending all that "America" stood for. The corporate reality they were really fighting for was a big fat lie, adorned in the most complicated of Hollywood's illusions. This protest is them offering their own bodies once again, to defend that one universal human right, which is worth all of our lives. The Right to Live.]
This video, featuring portions of a speech given by Chris Hedges, was shot outside the White House on Dec. 16, 2010.
America’s military and economic empire could collapse at any time, but predicting the precise day, week or month of its potential demise is unattainable, according to a former New York Times war correspondent who spoke with Raw Story.
“The when and how is very dangerous to predict because there’s always some factor that blindsides you that you didn’t expect,” Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges said in an exclusive interview. “It doesn’t look good. But exactly how it plays out and when it plays out, having covered disintegrating societies, it’s impossible to tell.”
He explained that he learned this lesson as events unfolded around him in the fall of 1989. Then, members of the opposition to the Soviet Empire told him that they predicted travel across the Berlin Wall separating East from West Germany would open within the year.
“Within a few hours, the wall didn’t exist,” he said.
Hedges was one of the 131 activists were arrested in an act of civil disobedience outside the White House yesterday, even as Obama was unveiling a new report citing progress in the Afghanistan war.
Speaking to Raw Story on Wednesday night, he said the signs of US collapse are plain to see and compared the country’s course through Afghanistan to Soviet Russia’s.
“We’re losing [the war in Afghanistan] in the same way the Red Army lost it,” he said. “It’s exactly the same configuration where we sort of control the urban centers where 20 percent of the population lives. The rest of the country where 80 percent of the Afghans live is either in the hands of the Taliban or disputed.”
“Foreigners will not walk the streets of Kabul because of kidnapping, and journalists regularly meet Taliban officials in Kabul because the whole apparatus is so porous and corrupt,” he said.
One day after this interview was conducted, reports hit the global media noting the CIA’s warning to President Obama, that the Pakistan-supported Taliban could still regain control of the country.
Hedges predicted that President Obama’s war report released Thursday would “contradict not only [US] intelligence reports but everything else that is coming out of Afghanistan.”
His prediction came startlingly true: the CIA’s own assessment was said to stand in striking contrast with President Obama’s report.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, insisted that the US controlled more territory in Afghanistan than it did a year ago.
‘A corporate coup d’état in slow motion’
Hedges said he attended the protest and planned to get arrested because he is against the corporate powers that have enveloped the nation.
“We’ve undergone a corporate coup d’état in slow motion,” he said. “Our public education system has been gutted. Our infrastructure is corroding and collapsing. Unless we begin to physically resist, they are going to solidify neo-feudalism in this country.”
“If we think that Obama is bad, watch the next two years because these corporate forces have turned their back on him,” Hedges warned.
Hedges, author of “Death of the Liberal Class,” said that his vision of America is one with a functioning social democracy, which stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of the corporate state.
“American workers, as they are repeatedly told, will have to become competitive with prison labor in China,” he said. “That’s where we’re headed, and all the pillars of the liberal establishment are complicit in this.”
“At least if you get sick in the UK, you don’t go bankrupt or die,” he added.
Hedges said that another pressure point is the US dollar, which he pointed out had been dropped by Russia and China in favor of modified ruble/renminbi exchanges.
“A few more deals like that, and our currency becomes junk,” he said.
Hedges continued, “As long as we have relative stability, these lunatic fringe movements can be held at bay, but if we don’t undertake serious structural reform, which we’re not doing, then it is inevitable that we will come to a tremendous crisis – economic and political as well as environmental.”
Excellent documentary! These are the effects of the neoliberal economic model, which is imposed through violence. Transnational corporations profit from the displacement of communities; in this case, the people are persecuted and run off their lands to make way for palm oil cultivation and cattle production, which also destroys biodiversity and ecological self-sustainability.
[This explains the wide discrepancies between Obama's report and the real Afghan report. We shall call the deviation in the two estimates "progress," to justify the pull-out of most Afghan forces for the next wars. These military/political douche-bags have no intention of ending this war or any other war in our lifetimes.
It's high time to pull-down the barricades, folks. We must end the CIA and its manufactured wars before it puts an end to us.]
’Tis the season to bash Pakistan. That’s the message that leapt from the Obama administration’s Afghan strategy review last week. It’s Pakistan fault that we Americans are not winning the war, so we better get tough with Pakistan.
We “will continue to insist to Pakistani leaders that terrorists safe havens within their borders must be dealt with,” said President Obama. Others, such as retired Gen. Jack Keane, put it more bluntly: “Don’t just put a finger in their chest, put a fist in their chest.” But the message is the same — “U.S. Will Widen War On Militants Inside Pakistan,” headlined the New York Times. “Pentagon Planning More Attacks With Drones And Commandos.”
There can be no doubt of what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, called — in Pentagon-speak — “the criticality of Pakistan in terms of overall success.” But is putting a fist in Pakistan’s chest really going to solve the “criticality” issue?
Pakistan is already permitting drone attacks on its territory — attacks that kill as many or more civilians than militants. It has also allowed limited U.S. special operations within Pakistan. Eighty percent of U.S. war material passes through Pakistan. Put a fist in Pakistan’s chest, as we did in September when a cross-border operation killed three Pakistani soldiers, and you may see some of this support dry up.
I recently drove past the hulks of burned out oil tankers by the side of the Grand Trunk Road headed to the Khyber Pass, torched by militants when Pakistan temporarily halted the convoys in retaliation for our incursion.
One might ask General Keane: What is it you don’t understand about closing the Khyber Pass? What chance would you give either the short-term or long-term sustainability of our Afghan effort without Pakistani cooperation? One hundred dollars worth of gasoline passing through Pakistan costs one thousand to ship though Central Asia.
So let’s stop all this talk of cleaning out the sanctuaries ourselves if the Pakistanis won’t. The United States doesn’t need to get involved militarily in another Muslim country.
The U.S. is extremely unpopular as it is with the Pakistani public. Do we really think we could prevail in the mountains of the Northwest Frontier with the whole countryside up in arms against us? If you really want to destabilize a nuclear-armed Pakistan, that would be the best way to do it.
Pakistanis feel, with some justification, that they are being scapegoated. “I’m not saying we are entirely innocent,” a member of Pakistan’s intelligence service told me, but after nine years of failing in Afghanistan it is easy to “put all the blame on someone else.”
Or as Lt. Gen. Asif Malik, commander of the Pakistani Army 11th Corps responsible for the tribal territories, told me: Organizations such as the Haqqani group are not completely dependent on Pakistani territory. They, and the rest of the Taliban, can operate quite well in Afghanistan without sanctuaries — to which the deterioration of security in northern Afghanistan attests.
And from Pakistan’s point of view, there are Taliban attacking Pakistani soldiers from safe havens in Afghanistan that NATO cannot stop. The frontier with Pakistan will always be porous. The mountainous border cannot be sealed completely.
Yes, Pakistan wants to keep some Pashtun guerilla groups close as a hedge against the future. General Keane says that once we show Pakistan that the Taliban cannot come back to power in Kabul, Pakistan will abandon these groups and get on the team.
But Pakistan’s Afghan policy is consistent. It does not want a hostile neighbor on its western border. Pakistan fears the present Kabul government, dominated by the India-backed Northern Alliance of Tajiks and Uzbeks, unless more pro-Pakistan Pashtuns are better represented.
How can Pakistan be confident that the United States will be able to turn security over to an Afghan Army by 2014? Afghan soldiers regularly loot the properties of the very citizens they are tasked with defending, and the Karzai government is unloved. Although there has been much progress in training the Afghan Army, serious training began only last year. My tennis game can show a lot of improvement in one year, but it doesn’t mean I will be ready to play Roger Federer by 2014.
Pakistanis know that, whether it be 2014 or 2024, Americans will go home, and Pakistan will still be left with Afghanistan next door.
The Obama administration understands the need to work closely with Pakistan, and yes, Pakistan can be endlessly frustrating — even to Pakistanis. But more emphasis on trying to understand Pakistan’s vital national interests — some “strategic patience,” as Admiral Mullen put it, and a little less bullying — might be more productive. Too often, the American attitude is master to servant: We give you money now do what we say, and do it right now.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. — File photo
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on Monday to arrest and hand over “known terrorists,” the Iranian leader’s office said on its website.
In a telephone call, the Iranian president “asked Zardari to order his country’s security forces to quickly arrest known terrorists and hand them over to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ahmadinejad’s office said in a statement posted on its website.
The phone call followed a suicide attack last week in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar that killed 39 people during a Shia mourning procession.
The attack was claimed by Sunni militant group Jundallah (Army of God), which Iran claims receives support from the intelligence services of Pakistan, Britain and the United States.
“The perpetrators of this act are not only non-Muslims, but belong to no religion,” the website quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Zardari.
Jundallah says it is fighting for the rights of the ethnic Sunni Baloch in the Sistan-Balochistan province of Iran which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The group has been accused of carrying out several such deadly attacks in Sistan-Balochistan.
The website said that Zardari told Ahmadinejad Pakistan would not hesitate to help eradicate terrorism.
Earlier on Monday, Iran hanged 11 members of Jundallah in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Balochistan.
There are 8,000 missing people in Pakistan, half of whom are in one way or another involved with the Balochistan crisis, according to unofficial estimates. Most of those picked up, are in the custody of the country’s intelligence agencies, with no official record available of their confinement,
say observers.
Amina Masood Janjua, of the Defence of Human Rights Commission, says that the reason for this high number of detainees is the unchallenged powers of the country’s various secret and intelligence agencies, who work under the umbrella of national security.
However, there is some hope for the thousands of families who look for the day when their loved ones will be released.
Earlier this week, the Pakistan Supreme Court ordered the authorities to arrange a meeting between eleven persons thought to be missing from Rawalpindi’s notorious Adiala Jail and their families. A three member bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry pushed the country’s intelligence agencies for details of the detention of the eleven men, who had earlier been released by the court but had gone missing from the prison premises.
But despite this week’s Supreme Court order, most families are not happy with the way the legal system is working to bring them justice.
For its part, the Zardari government has maintained that it was doing all it could to recover the missing persons. However, in most instances, observers say that this issue was beyond the purview of the country’s civilian leadership.
For several days now, Russia has been haunted by nationalistic demonstrations, violent ethnic brawls, and resulting mass arrests. The series of interrelated events was triggered by the death of a Russian soccer fan in a scuffle between ethnic Russian and north Caucasian youth in Moscow, on 6 December 2010. International media has focused on the following violent clash between neo-Nazi demonstrators, on the one side, and Russian policemen, on the other, on Manezh Square, in the Moscow city center, on 11 December 2010, as well as on some subsequent clashes in the Russian capital. There were several other, less spectacular, but also massive Russian nationalist public gatherings before this confrontation in Moscow as well as more in other cities including Rostov-on-the-Don and St. Petersburg.
Russia’s Murderous Skinhead Movement
In fact, these news-making events are merely the latest episodes in a story that – often unnoticed outside and concealed inside Russia – has been developing over several years now. The Moscow SOVA (Owl) Center for Information and Analysis, Russia’s leading xenophobia monitoring NGO, has been closely watching the multifarious Russian ultra-nationalist scene since the middle of this decade. According to SOVA, in 2004-2009, Russian racists killed on average between one and two persons per week – a death rate that has no equivalent, in any comparable country. The peak of the violent campaign was reached in 2008 when SOVA reported 114 deadly hate crimes as well as 497 cases of serious injuries – most of them committed by young russocentric skinheads.
To be sure, the number of grave hate crimes (heavy health damages, murders) recorded by SOVA has decreased in 2009-2010 as a result of the increasingly harsh measures of the Russian state against neo-Nazi youth groups during the last couple of years. Yet, as the events of last week illustrate, the Russian state’s recent resoluteness in persecuting racist murders has had so far little effect on the overall spread of ultra-nationalism in Russian society, in general, and Russia’s male youth, in particular. (It also needs to be noted that SOVA has a conservative approach to counting xenophobic offenses and is cautious to qualify a certain misdemeanor or murder as a hate crime. Moreover, many, if not most xenophobic assaults are, because of the bad reputation of the Russian law enforcement agencies, probably never reported to the police. It is thus likely that the real numbers for the various ultra-nationalist transgressions, listed in the below table, is higher – perhaps, much higher – than it has been possible to record for SOVA.)
Neither the Russian nor the Western public have so far become fully aware of the magnitude of Russia’s neo-fascist subculture. Meanwhile, the embassies of Asian and African countries in Moscow have been struggling to deal with the problem that, each year, dozens of their nationals are insulted, harassed, attacked, injured, as well as sometimes killed in Russia because of their skin color. In March of this year, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs took the unusual step to issue an official recommendation not to visit the Russian Federation because there had been several assaults on Korean citizens, in the preceding months.
The Sad Irony of Post-Soviet Russian Anti-Fascism
Especially during the last decade, Russia has been presenting itself, on the international scene and in her national mass media, as the prime defeater of fascism. Yet, among foreign students, guest workers and migrants who come to visit or to live in Russia as well as among Russian citizens with a “non-Slavic” appearance, the country has acquired a strange reputation. Russian officials and mass media have been missing no opportunity to berate neighboring countries such as Estonia and Ukraine for their alleged support of “fascist” tendencies. Mostly, these allegations concerned some post-Soviet governments’ permissiveness towards reunions of veterans who had collaborated with the Nazis and fought with the SS and Wehrmacht against the Red Army during World War II.
Incongruously, at the same time, Russia’s authorities have been ignoring, misunderstanding or/and misinterpreting far more serious trends in various sectors of their own society. Racially motivated hate crimes are frequently presented as outcomes of mere “youth hooliganism” while the manifestly neo-Nazi skinhead mass movement has, until recently, often been dismissed as a marginal phenomenon. In fact, the overwhelmingly ultra-nationalist Russian skinhead movement has been estimated to have between 20 and 70 thousand members – depending on the definition of such membership. This would seem to make the Russian skinheads the largest informal, openly neo-Neonazi youth movement in the world.
Reflecting the degree of delusion among relevant Russian officials about what is actually going on in their country, government-controlled mass media has initially been trying to interpret the last events in Moscow as a result of football fanaticism, an allegation strongly rejected by the relevant soccer fan clubs of the Russian capital. In a further surrealistic turn, Russia’s Minister of Interior Rashid Nurgaliev classified the instigators of the Moscow city center race riot on 11 December as “left-wing radicals.”
Putin’s Utilization of Russian Nationalism
The apparent uneasiness of the Russian authorities to deal with the rising ultra-nationalist tendencies in their country has an obvious reason: A more moderate and subtle, though hardly less manifest form of nationalist xenophobia has been a – if not the – major legitimizing code of Russia’s neo-authoritarianism during the last ten years. Manifest bellicism and frank law-and-order rhetoric was the ticket that made Putin popular as Boris Yeltsin’s last prime-minister in 1999. In August 1999, it was essentially Putin who started the Second Chechen War. In September of that year, a number of apartment bombings in Moscow and elsewhere, by supposedly Caucasian terrorists, lead to a further escalation in Russian-Caucasian relations. Within weeks, Putin’s popularity skyrocketed as he was seen as the right man to secure the safety of Russia’s citizens from separatist fanatics and religious fundamentalists in the country’s instable south. The Caucasophobic frenzy and climate of insecurity within the Russian population in the second half of 1999 were important determinants in the election of the previously unknown former KGB officer to President of Russia in spring 2000.
In November 2010, the strange aftertaste of this breathtaking turnaround in Russian politics was further increased with the release into public of Dr. Yurii Felshtinsky’s documentary “Blowing Up Russia.” Now freely available on the New York Russian-language site RUNYweb.com, this carefully researched historical documentation provides stunning footage and several authentic interviews with eyewitnesses of the terrorist events in 1999. This evidence suggests that the Russian security service may have either been directly involved in, or become ready to use as a model, the 1999 apartment bombings.
Whatever really happened in Russia in September 1999, the nature of the political trends that took their beginning in the anti-Caucasian hysteria of that autumn are hardly disputable. Since then, Russian public discourse – whether in mass media, party politics, academia or other social spheres – has become more and more characterized by an isolationist, ethnocentric, and manichean view of the world. Within this mode of thought, the Russians appear as an insufficiently respected, but heroic ethnic collective that has been cheated into its current national borders by cunning Western governments, treacherous Russian liberals, and the unthankful national elites of the former Soviet Union. In the New Brave World of Vladimir Putin, it has become a compliment to be labeled a Russian “nationalist” (in the “good sense of the word”), and a commonplace to defame those critical of Soviet history or Putin’s rule as “agents” of foreign powers, notorious “Russophobes,” or even “fascists.”
The Dialectics of Nationalist Political Campaigning
Many Russians today believe that their nation is surrounded or has been infiltrated by various aliens who are engaged in, or planning to, subvert the Russian national government, security, traditions and culture. Oddly, the most serious potential future threat to the Russian state and its borders, the increasingly nationalistic and powerful People’s Republic of China, is exempted from the various xenophobic campaigns of Russia’s government-controlled mass media.
The function of the ethnocentric agitation of the Russian leadership during the last ten years is obvious. If the Russian state is a fortress which has to protect the country’s national sovereignty, integrity and identity – then unfettered permission of civic freedoms, overly trustful relations with foreign countries, and uncontrolled pluralism of political opinion are dangerous luxury. A “sovereign democracy,” “dictatorship of the law,” and “vertical of power” – such are the labels that Putin and Co. have come up with during the last years – are not only modes of government deeply rooted in Russian history. They are also badly need in the uncertain waters of post-Soviet national and international politics in order to secure the survival of Russia.
The peculiar dialectics of such a strategy are seemingly only now starting to get to the Russian leadership. While it is, in times of social crisis, easy to wake the genie of nationalism, it is difficult to control him once he is out of the bottle. As it becomes clearer with every year, Putin and his associates may have succeeded in consolidating their rule over the country today. At the same time, their manipulation of the national feelings and social anxieties of post-Soviet Russia’s crisis-stricken population has been a play with fire. Ironically, historians may one day come to the conclusion that it had not been the “enemies,” but the leaders of the Russian Federation who, with their risky political technologies, undermined the integrity of this newly independent state.
Flags. These are always a bad sign. Hardly a politician appears on television who doesn’t stand in front of an American flag, sometimes three American flags. A venomous nationalism now poisons the air, and grows. We are off and rolling.
The trappings of fascism spread. General David Petraeus, commander of the Eastern Front, poses with the President in the White House in combat fatigues. The country is now the Homeland, reminiscent of the Nazi Fatherland and the Soviet Motherland. We hear of American Exceptionalism, the ritual self-idolization beloved of pathological nationalism. Blood and Soil. The American Dream. Ubermenschen. All we need is a short Austrian.
We may get one. The times ripen for a man on a horse. (Or perhaps a woman: Twitler of Alaska looms.) An ignorant population, unread, unfamiliar with the outside world, focuses its anxieties on troubling dark things lurking abroad, the brown hordes from the south, the rising Chinese, inexplicable Moslems who want to kill all Christians. Sooner rather than later such a mob finds solace in an angry unity. From an unhappy lower middle-class spring Brown Shirts. Wait.
Things come together: Falling standards of living across a country in irremediable decline, diminishing expectations, growing anger in search of focus, a sense of a birthright being stolen as preeminence drifts across the Pacific. Here is fertile soil for some strange crop not yet clearly seen.
It will play out against a backdrop of totalitarian watchfulness all too imaginable. A digital world lends itself to tyranny, making it, I think, inescapable. For practical purposes, the capacity to store data is infinite, to network it across the world, to track, to scan, to watch. This is not the place for a disquisition on the technology of surveillance. Just note that the machinery exists for a totalitarian watchfulness beyond Stalin’s wettest dreams. The government wants this, pushes for it daily, and gets it. You can’t spend a dollar, take a flight, or send an e-mail without a federal office watching. It is getting worse and cannot be stopped. Surveillance is too easy.
We will be told, are being told, that to be safe we must submit, that enemies within and without are upon us, that terrorists spawn plots everywhere. Where communists once hid in every closet and the House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC, hunted them, now we have Islamo-terrorists hunted by Homeland Security.
What matter civil rights when the Moslem is at our throats? The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and the vigilance ends liberty.
Hysteria darkly flowers. Homeland Security now wants to train us in how to react to a nuclear attack, à la 1950. Scare’m, keep’em scared, tell them you are protecting them, and they will kiss your boots. An Australian publishes embarrassing cable traffic from American embassies, and politicians call for him to be killed by the CIA. The agency is revered as a sort of clandestine Batman and Robin, defending America secretly where evil swirls in the coming night. Kill, kill. On subways we are told to watch each other, to report curious behavior to the authorities. Nothing can stop this.
Constitutionality becomes a fading memory. Random searches in train stations, genital examinations in airports, the decline of habeas corpus, the evasion of the duty of Congress to declare wars, on and on. The government does what it wants. There is no recourse. We are told that it is to make us safe. I haven’t asked to be made safe.
The genius of American politics is to espouse democracy while keeping political power from the people. The trick is to have barely distinguishable candidates for the presidency who carefully avoid mention of substance – the wars, for example, or affirmative action, guns, abortion. These elections, if so they be, allow people to wave placards, roar invective about throwing the rascals out and returning to traditional American etc. The dust settles and things remain as they were.
Governance does not rest with the people. Today, decree replaces legislation, and must, for our safety. If Homeland Security says you must go through a CAT scan, naked, and singing the Star Spangled Banner, then you have to do it. There is no recourse. You can unelect an elected official, but there is no way to get at a bureaucrat. If you do not submit, you go to jail.
Shortly we will hear the death rattle of free expression. No government sees an advantage to itself in a free press, though countries with decent governments feel much less threatened. Our government fears nothing more.
America has a carefully controlled press that appears free because it is not explicitly controlled by the government. But the real power in America rests with the big corporations and their lobbies, with Wall Street, whose personnel move in and out of the formal government at will. All of the traditional media, radio, newspapers, and television, are owned by large corporations. How curious that they do not question large corporations.
The only free press in America is the Internet, and the government does not like it. Washington now moves to “regulate” it. To promote fairness, you see, to prevent piracy, and to maintain national security. Then it will be found necessary to suppress “hate sites.” Just now you are reading a site that has been blocked on many federal installations for promoting hate. There is no recourse.
How will this play out? America retreats behind its emotional borders, gazes over the ramparts, frightened and hostile. In those outlets of the media than pander to The Heartland, to the manipulable unlettered, the nationalist drumbeat grows apace. That America’s bankruptcy results from America’s economic policies, that the country is everywhere hated because of willfully chosen behavior – this does not occur to people who do not read, who do not so much as know the dates of World War II. They will find someone else to blame. Liberals. Mohammedans. Mexicans.
A danger is that the country will lash out abroad, ever more feebly as the economy declines, at nations that no will longer pay attention to it. Washington says that it “will not tolerate a nuclear Iran,” and Iran ignores the admonition. You cannot not tolerate what you can’t prevent. The Pentagon sends the carriers to steam ferally in circles off North Korea, which ignores them. The consequences of wounded vanity are not trivial in world affairs, as anyone knows who has a familiarity with the Treaty of Versailles. But who does?
It serves nothing to raise alarms, to pen Philippics, to gnash hands and wring teeth. Minor political currents can be diverted by protest, but this one is the torrent subsequent to a broken dam. It will go where it will, as the Thirties went where they would. Hold on tight.
[Clamping-down on internal movement is a logical step in the regression back into the former Soviet Union. We fought and won the Cold War for nothing, it seems.]
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 21, 2010; 12:21 PM
MOSCOW — Russians may face new restrictions when trying to move from the provinces to Moscow, St. Petersburg or other large cities, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signaled Tuesday.
Putin portrayed the move as a way to cut down on ethnic violence in the streets, but Kremlin critics say those tensions are being fanned deliberately as a pretext to introduce repressive legislation ahead ofRussia’s 2012 presidential election.
Ethnic tensions have been simmering since the death of a Slavic soccer fan during a fight with southern people from the Caucasus earlier this month. Racist hooligans reacted by conducting violent protests chanting “Russia for Russians!” and other slogans near the Kremlin, and police have arrested thousands of people since then to keep a lid on further unrest.
Putin appealed to soccer fans in Moscow on Tuesday to distance themselves from any ultranationalists and announced the possible measures, ostensibly to combat ethnic violence.
[The greatest tragedy of the Twentieth Century may prove to be that we did not guarantee that the Soviet beast was not really dead. In the coming days, it will become even clearer that "Democracy" has absolutely ZERO chance under Vladimir Putin or his sharp-dressed little puppet. In the Neo-Soviet Union there is no room for unsanctioned or spontaneous protests. The New Soviet Union has so far been called a "customs union."]
MINSK, Belarus—Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko extended his crackdown on opponents Tuesday, as authorities charged around 600 activists with taking part in an unsanctioned protest and threatened to disband political parties and organizations involved in Sunday’s protest against his landslide re-election.
At least four opposition candidates remained in detention Tuesday as Mr. Lukashenko sought to stamp out any embers of dissent after around 20,000 people hit the streets Sunday to protest a vote Western observers said was deeply flawed.
The activists will be locked up for up to 15 days, and the leaders of the protest face up to 15 years …
[The following might be considered to be an amazing admission by the ultra-legitimate MarketWatch, in that it openly discusses some of the brutal, ugly facts of American political and economic life, for which people like myself are often branded as "conspiracy theorists," whenever we dare to write on the subject.
Politics is hopeless, there is no free market, individualism is targeted for elimination.
Our world is totally controlled by a tiny super-wealthy elite. Our only hope is REVOLUTION, in some form, hopefully a “mini-revolution,” something short of an armed rebellion.
Whenever the friends of the Wall St. Journal are saying the same thing–
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Why did Obama cave? Is he a hostage?
New York Times columnist Frank Rich branded himself a new kind of wikileaker in his column, “All the President’s Captors.” Rich diagnosed Obama using “an article titled ‘Understanding Stockholm Syndrome’ in the online archives of The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. It explains that hostage takers are most successful at winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on his captors ‘good side’ and develop psychological characteristics to please them, ‘dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to act, decide or think.’”
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R, Wis., insists that the deal between Republicans and the White House on the Bush tax cuts is not a second stimulus and that the agreement will promote growth despite adding to the deficit.
There, in a few short sentences is everything you need to know about Obama’s meltdown: From powerful campaigner to a presidential caver, surrendering without a fight. But even if the president is a hostage, who are Obama’s real captors? The GOP? No. Not the GOP. The GOP is also a hostage. So who are the real culprits?
First, we know the FBI bulletin is an accurate psychological diagnosis: Outwardly Obama exhibits the classic signs of a hostage captured by criminals, trapped in a Stockholm syndrome. The prisoner surrenders, does exactly what his captors demand, without a fight. Joins them.
Here the cave is so complete he’s reduced to publicly condemning his own party for being “sanctimonious” hypocrites, while he’s hypocritically “selling” Bush’s totally ineffectual non-job-creating tax cuts for the rich to his Democrat challengers. The irony is historic.
Forget Sen. Mitch McConnell and the GOP. Forget the GOP’s disastrous Reaganomics. Forget the Supreme Court flooding billions into GOP campaign war chests. Forget even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s billionaire GOP donors. All front men, stooges, bagmen.
Who’s really pulling the strings? The Goldman Conspiracy, the Wall Street Banksters, the guys getting rich taking huge risks again, pushing America ever closer to a new meltdown, bigger than 2000 and 2008 combined. This Conspiracy has absolute power; It runs America. Democracy is dead. Capitalism is dead. Think otherwise? You’re self-delusional.
So on the surface, it may look like a tragically weak President Obama is surrendering to his GOP captors, siding with his captors to bring back the GOP’s disastrous Reaganomics policies, destroying the American economy without a fight. But the truth is, Obama defected to the dark side before he was elected, just as Clinton, Bush and Reagan caved into the same Conspiracy.
Jack Bauer stopped a hostage taking of a president. Obama caved
This is all so predictable: We warned our readers of this takeover early in Obama’s administration: When Obama discarded guys like Paul Volcker, picked insiders like Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and Ben Bernanke with ideological ties to the Goldman Conspiracy and the GOP, we knew Obama was doomed from the get-go.
Yes, we saw it coming: Back in early 2009 we saw parallels of the Goldman Conspiracy’s takeover to an episode of the TV hit series “24.” and its mythical hero Jack Bauer. See ‘Even Jack Bauer couldn’t stop the Goldman Conspiracy
Here’s the plot, originally dramatized when President Obama was new, when he was a savior with a powerful mandate. But lurking in the shadows we saw an ominous dark shadow that is rapidly becoming a reality, as he merges into the Conspiracy:
1. American government is now run by the Goldman Conspiracy
Article in Portfolio: “The Usual Suspects … exposed … the Goldman Sachs ‘conspiracy’ to take over the U.S. financial system.” The financial sector explodes: 19% of U.S. corporate profits in 1986 to over 40% in a decade.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at Goldman for 30 years. His $700 million fortune threatened in 2008 by Goldman’s $20 billion derivatives exposure at AIG; he “saved” AIG. Today, his puppets Geithner, Summers and Bernanke still working inside for Wall Street.
3. Wall Street’s Quiet Coup also runs global banking system
Article in Atlantic, “The Quiet Coup.” Simon Johnson, former IMF chief economist, co-author of “13 Bankers,” warns “financial industry has effectively captured our government.” Break Wall Street’s “stranglehold” or we can’t “prevent a true depression.”
4. Wall Street used the meltdown to take over America’s government
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi: “The Big Takeover, how Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution … By creating a crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand.” And the Conspiracy is “transforming a democracy into a two-tiered state, one with plugged-in financial bureaucrats above and clueless customers below.”
5. How Wall Street insiders mislead American for personal gain
Before the meltdown, Paulson mislead America: “This is far and away the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime.” He lied. Bloomberg reported that in 2006, a month after leaving Goldman, Paulson was at Camp David warning the president of “over-the-counter derivatives as an example of financial innovation that could, under certain circumstances, blow up in Wall Street’s face and affect the whole economy.”
6. Wall Street’s CEOs rule like dictators in a banana republic
Taibbi adds: “Paulson and his cronies turned the federal government into one gigantic half-opaque holding company, one whose balance sheet includes the world’s most appallingly large and risky hedge fund, a controlling interest in a dying insurance giant, huge investments in a group of teetering megabanks,” and many more bad deals, including $5.5 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and $3.3 trillion at the Fed.
7. Banks recycled cheap bailout money, got richer, shafted America
Wall Street was virtually bankrupt when insider Paulson conned a clueless Congress out of $780 billion of taxpayer cash to save his Wall Street buddies His buddies quickly reported “blockbuster” earnings and mega-bonuses, while shafting taxpayers.
8. Wall Street has already set the stage for another, bigger disaster
After the 2008 election at the peak of the banking crisis, John Whitehead, former Reagan deputy secretary of state, former Goldman Sachs chairman and former chairman of the New York Fed, warned America’s recovery would take years, burn trillions, result in massive deficits: “A road to disaster … but I don’t see a solution here” just another depression.
9. Wall Street made an un-American bet on Disaster Capitalism
Buy Goldman stock? Yes, if you’re betting that the GOP’s Reaganomics is coming back, strong, tightening its stranglehold on Washington, taxpayers, the American economy.
10. Now Obama’s turned the Goldman Conspiracy into a superpower
Jack Bauer’s a great mythical hero. We need to believe in heroes who will protect the little guy, the middle class. Barack Obama’s voters expected a hero, a savior like Jack Bauer. Today Obama’s gone from hero to a hostage of the dark side. Still, Bauer remains a symbol of hope for a real revolution, not a temporary populist Tea Party-style reform movement that is also a hostage of the Conspiracy. Hopefully some new hero will emerge, take power back from Wall Street, from the GOP, from Obama, and return it to the people.
11. Warning, all Americans now hostages to the Conspiracy
America is ruled by this Conspiracy, its lobbyists’ cash, its Congress, its billionaire backers. Accept it. Eventually everyone surrenders. Congressional leaders, political parties, even presidents all become hostages: Bush, Clinton, even Reagan, now Obama. All this was so predictable early in Obama’s presidency, which made the episode of “24” so prophetic. Just as Paulson took Congress and Bush hostage, in “24” Jack Bauer was fighting a terrorist dictator attacking the White House and taking a president hostage. A dramatic signal of things to come, the Conspiracy holding Obama hostage.
Forget America’s external enemies, China, Iran and al Qaeda. We have enemies within who need no help in destroying American. Indeed, if as predicted China becomes the sole global superpower by 2040, three times America’s GDP, it will happen because we self-destruct, because as a nation we cave, because we surrender to the Goldman Conspiracy, we let them continue on their megalomaniacal path to a mega-meltdown.
Hopefully we will get a soft wake-up call, a divine intervention, black swan, maybe a mini-revolution overthrowing the Conspiracy holding America hostage. Unfortunately the real wake-up call is likely come too late, catch our leaders by surprise, before they can react. Then we’ll get the Great Depression II, a pandemic consuming all world economies, triggering mass class rebellions against the rich, much like revolutions that overthrew past empires.
All so predictable: Even Warren Buffett knows a revolution is coming, admitted as much a few years ago: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Warning: His world is reaching a incendiary flash point: Revolutions are coming, much sooner than you think.
WASHINGTON — Senior American military commanders inAfghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground raids across the border into Pakistan’s tribal areas, a risky strategy reflecting the growing frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out militants there.
The proposal, described by American officials in Washington and Afghanistan, would escalate military activities inside Pakistan, where the movement of American forces has been largely prohibited because of fears of provoking a backlash.
The plan has not yet been approved, but military and political leaders say a renewed sense of urgency has taken hold, as the deadline approaches for the Obama administration to begin withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan. Even with the risks, military commanders say that using American Special Operations troops could bring an intelligence windfall, if militants were captured, brought back across the border into Afghanistan and interrogated.
The Americans are known to have made no more than a handful of forays across the border into Pakistan, in operations that have infuriated Pakistani officials. Now, American military officers appear confident that a shift in policy could allow for more routine incursions.
America’s clandestine war in Pakistan has for the most part been carried out by armeddrones operated by the C.I.A.
Additionally, in recent years, Afghan militias backed by the C.I.A. have carried out a number of secret missions into Pakistan’s tribal areas. These operations in Pakistan by Afghan operatives, known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams, have been previously reported as solely intelligence-gathering operations. But interviews in recent weeks revealed that on at least one occasion, the Afghans went on the offensive and destroyed a militant weapons cache.
The decision to expand American military activity in Pakistan, which would almost certainly have to be approved by President Obama himself, would amount to the opening of a new front in the nine-year-old war, which has grown increasingly unpopular among Americans. It would run the risk of angering a Pakistani government that has been an uneasy ally in the war in Afghanistan, particularly if it leads to civilian casualties or highly public confrontations.
Still, one senior American officer said, “We’ve never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across.”
The officials who described the proposal and the intelligence operations declined to be identified by name discussing classified information.
Ground operations in Pakistan remain controversial in Washington, and there may be a debate over the proposal. One senior administration official said he was not in favor of cross-border operations — which he said have been generally “counterproductive” — unless they were directed against top leaders of Al Qaeda. He expressed concern that political fallout in Pakistan could negate any tactical gains.
Still, as evidence mounts that Pakistani troops are unlikely to stage a major offensive into the militant stronghold of North Waziristan, where Al Qaeda’s top leaders are thought to be taking shelter, United States commanders have renewed their push for approval to send American commando teams into Pakistan.
In announcing the results of a review of the strategy in Afghanistan, Obama administration officials said they were considering expanded American operations to deal with threats inside Pakistan. They offered no specifics.
In interviews in Washington and Kabul, American officials said that officers were drawing up plans to begin ground operations to capture or kill leaders from the Taliban and the Haqqani network. American officers say they are particularly eager to capture, as opposed to kill, militant leaders, who they say can offer intelligence to guide future operations.
Even before finalizing any plans to increase raids across the border, the Obama administration has already stepped up its air assaults in the tribal areas with an unprecedented number of C.I.A. drone strikes this year. Since September, the spy agency has carried out more than 50 drone attacks in North Waziristan and elsewhere — compared with 60 strikes in the preceding eight months.
In interviews, the officials offered a more detailed description of two operations since 2008 in which Afghans working under the direction of the C.I.A. — a militia called the Paktika Defense Force — crossed the border into Pakistan. They also offered a richer account of the activities of these militia groups throughout the country.
According to an Afghan political leader, one of the raids was initiated to capture a Taliban commander working inside Pakistan. When the Afghan troops reached the compound, they did not find the Taliban commander, but the Pakistani militants opened fire on them, the Afghan said.
An American official disputed this account, saying that the C.I.A. militias are not sent over the border to capture militant leaders, but merely to gather intelligence.
In a second raid, the Paktika militia attacked and destroyed a Taliban ammunition depot and returned to base, officials said. Both of the C.I.A.-backed raids were aimed at compounds only a few miles inside Pakistani territory.
The Paktika Defense Force is one of six C.I.A.-trained Afghan militias that serve as a special operations force against insurgents throughout Afghanistan. The other militias operate around the cities of Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad as well as in the rural provinces of Khost and Kunar.
One American service member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the C.I.A.-backed militia near Khost had recently deployed in the mountains along the Pakistan border, where it would spend the winter trying to intercept Taliban fighters. So far, the C.I.A.-backed force has proven effective, he said.
“The rockets we endured for the past seven months suddenly dried up,” the service member said.
In the past, the American military has had only limited success in its few cross-border operations. In October, an American military helicopter accidently killed a group of Pakistani soldiers during a flight over the border in pursuit of militants. The episode infuriated Pakistan’s government, which temporarily shut down American military supply routes into Pakistan. Several fuel trucks sitting at the border were destroyed by insurgents, and American officials publicly apologized.
Two years earlier, in September 2008, American commandos carried out a raid in Pakistan’s tribal areas and killed several people suspected of being insurgents. The episode led to outrage among Pakistan’s leaders — and warnings not to try again.
Mark Mazzetti reported from Washington, and Dexter Filkins from Kabul, Afghanistan. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
About 200 Turkish officers, the Istanbul 10thHigh Criminal Court appear before a judge.
ROSE-ERDOGAN duo, THE WAR BEGAN ON soldiers
About 200 Turkish officers, the Istanbul 10th High Criminal Court appear before a judge.Three-quarters of active duty officers among the defendants and the former Air Force Commander, retired Admiral Ozden Example retired Gen. Halil Ibrahim also has storm. Republic of Turkey for the first time such a wide range of high-ranking Turkish soldiers is a political case that comes across because of a civil court. Charge different penalties of up to 20 years in prison for crimes ispatlanırsa officers. The indictment prepared by prosecutors consists of a thousand pages. Trial hearings open in the next few months if the soldiers of the Turkish community in terms of information will remain subject to a period of high tension can be sure.Because, as foreseen, during hearings on Turkey’s recent political history of the language will be brought sensational events. Lawsuit filed against the soldiers as phony show a great interest in assessing the opposition in this case is not getting that much doubt. They also need to add this: Turkey, the only state in Europe that perform a similar case. This history demonstrates, Stalin, the USSR carried out a similar type of cases is identity. In such a situation, the provision requires a certain scenario, though, because what is in question, the Turkish troops since 1960, starting four coup to remove the political prestige of abuse.
From the time of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey’s secular foundations of the state to protect the Turkish troops engaged, but also implemented the policy of state capitalism. Moreover, the West, their ideological and practical principles of Westernization in the East was looking through the eyes of carriers. However, major changes occurred in Turkey during the eighth President Turgut Ozal. Ozal in the early ’80s with the prime minister, to push into the market economy began to practice. At that time, the whole world, “the Turkish economic miracle” was talking about. However, a certain distrust of the generals against Özal that nurture its suspected Islamist. However, the main reasons were different: the generals, the so-called Turkish businessmen and intellectuals formed a new political class in a rapidly
saw formed.
Today, Gul-Erdogan government holds those who see it as the duo continue to implement their ideas Ozal is not a coincidence. Similarly, poisoned and his wife Semra Ozal Ozal in 1993, insisted that a special parliamentary investigation in making sensational claims in the Turkish media, especially the emergence of these days is far from being a coincidence. Ozal’s plans to solve the Kurdish problem, Kurdish mother of the publicity gained at the truth condition. In parallel here is obvious: These days, Erdogan also effectively dealing with the Kurdish question.Thus, some circles in Ankara, the official’s actions against the soldiers behind the moment in question is a serious historical background. The plot itself-is-such a system in terms of plot you reach the very serious indeed reflect the existence of contradictions.
But the situation can change on the eve of general elections scheduled for the summer months. Therefore, current conditions, Gul-Erdogan duo, no matter what needs to undermine the opposition front as possible, especially the accounts that are common in the spotlights Erdogan’s candidacy for president this time in the future. Holding power in binary, backed by the EU’s response to the implementation of liberal economic reforms with the opposition, clearly some of the soldiers of the country’s secular foundations of the state of a possible collapse of Islamization and the Turks to use the trump card to scare continues. The goal of these tactics, however, at this stage to another: the Nation partisan divide that figure to create political conditions necessary to be president.
Many experts on the future political developments, largely of Turkish troops would be based on the results of the process of starting the court thinks. Moreover, not only in Turkey, the military epaulet those bearing a broad sense, but also as the opposition, the ruling party, in a veiled way to support them effectively necessary to include a portion of the bureaucrats. Now this is not an official camp, the net movement of a scheme can intuit: Erdogan, the president wants to give up the leadership of the ruling party. Erdogan and Gul-dispersible in this case, the party under the ruins of the duo can embed their own. If the withdrawal of soldiers from the scene, even if these leaders themselves chances to beat their supporters to power, the struggle between parties will lead to a difficult catch.
Therefore, the court process, which started in Istanbul, with intrigue and Sledgehammer are not directly connected with the operation of the various political stories can accompany the process of moving the agenda effectively. Here, the soldiers on trial, the government’s relationship with the Kurds or the “Ankara with Washington to develop a common struggle against terrorism” on many issues, such as efforts to bring some information that may be expressed. Two days before the start of the hearing chairman of the Turkish government to carry out the trial judge to change is not a coincidence. For this reason, Turkey is in anticipation of the political sansasyonlar. Source: Regnum
President Obama’s hopes for progress in Afghanistan were undermined today by a spy agency report that paints a bleak picture of the conflict.
Large swathes of Afghanistan remain in danger of falling to the Taliban and Pakistan is still secretly supporting the insurgency, according to U.S. intelligence experts.
The grim assessment of the nine-year war is in start contrast to the upbeat view of defence chiefs.
U.S. soldiers help a wounded comrade after their armoured vehicle was struck by an IED in Afghanistan in July (file picture). Intelligence chiefs have painted a bleak assessment of the war
And it has fuelled a bitter row between the CIA and the military over who has a better idea of what is really going on in the war zone.
The dispute comes on the eve of the unveiling of Mr Obama’s security review for Afghanistan in which he plans to tout the optimistic outlook of his generals.
He will now have to overcome the perception that U.S. forces are banging their heads against a brick wall.
One of the key obstacles to peace is the Pakistani government’s refusal to stop its clandestine support for Taliban fighters who mount attacks on U.S. troops from tribal mountainous areas across the Afghan border, according to the national intelligence estimates assessments complied from more than a dozen spy agencies.
Last week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates suggested the administration’s strategy has helped turn the corner in Afghanistan and Mr Obama is expected to say that his troop surge was working.
An Afghan boy greets a U.S. soldier manning a checkpoint outside Kandahar (file picture)
Pentagon officials argued last night that the intelligence claims were out of date because they were completed nearly three months ago – before all the extra troops had arrived on the front line.
‘You are missing at least 2 1/2 months of intensive operations with the full complement of surge forces,’ a senior defence official told the Los Angeles Times.
He added that intelligence analysts lack the ‘proximity and perspective that our forces have who are on the ground living this every single day.’
A senior intelligence official hit back, saying: ‘The notion that intelligence officers aren’t on the ground in Afghanistan and on the front lines in the fight against terrorism is preposterous.
‘Our people are working side by side with the United States military and our foreign partners to thwart our common enemies,’ he told the Times.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the strategy will say that ‘there has been some important progress in halting the momentum of the Taliban in Afghanistan.’
He conceded there were still problems with safe havens in Pakistan, but added: we’ve seen greater cooperation over the course of the past 18 months with the Pakistani government.’
Mr Obama sent an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan as part of his plan to replicate the success of the surge in Iraq.
He has pledged that military withdrawals would start next July and hopes to hand over control to the Afghans by 2014.
Dr. Zulifiqar Mirza Minister of Interior of Sindh, rightly pointed our that majority of those arrested after recent target killing were belonging to MQM.
He addressed the Traders and Merchants of Karachi as asked their stance on Law and order when they were paying “ Bhatta “, Money for Protection to biggest Party of Karachi that is MQM .
Minister of Interior Dr Zulifiqar Mirza for Sindh , where Karachi is the Biggest city also Questioned the Responsibility of MQM to its citizen’s in regards to Law and order.
While Majority of Target Killers Arrested totaling 26 in number were from MQM Militant Wings arrested red handed.
After this disclosure, which is nothing new to people to Karachi and Pakistan , MQM i( Mutahida Qaumi Movement ) is the one which made a lot of noise in media , against other Terrorists not belonging to MQM.
But when action was taken it was found to have a major share in law and order Situation, worsening through their Militant wings goons.
Killing of Pashtuns, in Karachi Happened, after ANP rose to prominence from nowhere in 2007. This Infuriated MQM.
After Mayor of Karachi ignored totally the Pashtun Inhibited areas of Karachi in Development schemes.
Then on 12 May 2007 which is fresh in people’s memory , in order to stop chief justice entering Karachi. MQM on call of General ‘Pervaiz, Musharraf Performed the Pashtun Massacre Live in Front of the Cameras of Aaj TV and Geo in May 2007.
Billion of Rupees worth of Property belonging to Pashtuns were destroyed burned in Karachi .
Multiple Billions worth of Trucks and Tankers that are owned by Pashtun only , were burned too. No compensation was paid to them to this day.
Destruction of Property belonging to Non-Urdu Speaking People seems to Past time of MQM and Religious Parties like Jammat Islami and JUI etc. who does it on one pretext or another.
Pashtuns became aware of their rights and they wanted somebody to lead them and it was not the MQM as their choice .
May 12 2007, was the day when Massacre happened Live on Camera , otherwise countless happening had happened but were ignored by Media.
This Massacre which Disturbed the International community so much that British consulate sent it staff to witness the firings in Locality of Aaj TV Building By MQM in Guru Mander Intersection Karachi , near Shrine of Quaid-i-Azam ( founder of Pakistan) with Red Diplomatic plates car when AAJ TV came under fire after it reported MQM staff firing live in streets of Karachi.
British were sheltering Altaf Husain as Political Asylum Seeker, for last 2 decades and this could have been Political crises for Britain as it was Harboring a Terrorist.
He was facing cases in Pakistan especially killing of Hakim Muhammad Syed a Social Worker too after he refused to Pay “ Bhatta “ , protection money .
The US media ignored this incident and it was hushed down.
The Chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is yet to repay the loan of 100 People who died for him and so does the Sindh High court after being surrounded by goons of MQM, who threatened the judges not to open cases against them. Or take any Suo Moto action on May 2007 Massacre in Karachi by chief justice of Supreme court.
It may, be noted that MQM goon had burned the Lawyers alive in a fire that was caused by them at chief justice visit to Karachi, Punjabi Lawyers who were burnt Alive right in the City Courts areas of Karachi , had a Terrifying effect of on Lawyers community .
A Lawyer, who spoke against MQM, was tortured and burned with Cigarettes and thrown on Streets of Karachi and asked to shut up. After he was picked from Military cantonment area of Karachi called Clifton.
Lawyers became so frightened that not a single case is running against MQM , even after NRO was abolished recently.
MQM has many Murder cases against them in NRO waived off which are still to be re-opened.
The stance of Pakistan Army is also very clear as, is it was ISI who made this in times of Lt-General Hameed Gul being ISI DG in 1980, s , who made this Party to deal with Popularity of PPP in Karachi Urban .
As Pro establishment Jammat Islami and JUI was popular in slums of Karachi only and was failing to Get Popular in Biggest Educated Urban class of Karachi.
Lt-Gen Hameed Gul DG ISI , is the Man who makes the civilian Government as failed Governments . To make them week and bow to American interests and to their Strategic Objectives.
He was involved in sabotaging PPP government thrice (Current one too) and named as one of Killer of Benazir too.
He is one man who has benefitted the US and its Interest many times, he wanted to Take revenge of Vietnam from Russians by Planning and executing the Kandahar Operation by Making them run in Helicopters which never happened as Mujahedeen were bogged down by Afghan Air force under Dr Najeeb .
He has continued to serve them right till Taliban and now the war on Terror as without Terrorist and Taliban, US will not be able to stay in Af-Pak region and establish its bases in Afghanistan that can be used against Iran China and the Russians.
He provides them the Perfect Excuses and justification a State less Islamic Terrorists .
Neither can the US pursue its goals of, Great Game, and capture of Mineral and Oil Resources of Af-Pak and CAR states worth multi –Trillions of US Dollars which the western Civilization are dreaming of for past 300 Years right under nose of Russians .
The Al-Qaeda and Taliban are in the Interests of US and Mega corporations that want war.
Hameed Gul and ISI promises them just that a formidable enemy in form of Taliban and Al-Qaeda while Russians went out of Game after Gorbachov.
While Simpleton US citizens are being Hood winked for Their hard earned tax Payers Money being squandered on Mega Wars , and corporations likes of the Halliburton and Others of same Nature .
They take bulk of their money as Profits when they sell to their Biggest customer the US army and its War Machine.
That is reason Obama Betrayed US Tax Payers , too when he Promised change while he Turned full 180 degrees around too and went for more war and bloodshed by Boosting troops and became a stooge to mega War corporations.
MQM is a small Player and a helpful contributor in All this Af-Pak drama too. The, Aaj TV, and Geo –TV , footing clearly showed MQM goons Killing the Pashtun People and yet Pakistan Army has refused to come Karachi in IS ( Internal Security ) duties recently in Muharam and for Past three years when 3000 Pashtun people died in Target Killings .
The Famous DG rangers Major General Javaid Zia , who took no action against MQM while it had erected containers to block Pro chief justice March by ANP and PPP, on 12 May 2007 has large moustaches , was very chummy with MQM Higher command and was usually reported to be sitting with them in his un-official times at their homes .
He was in most evenings found to be sitting in Privates Parties with Dr Muhammad Ali shah, (MPA, MQM and Owner of AO clinic Karachi ) private Stadium in North Naziabad Block A where they would enjoy themselves to goodies of world along with other MQM leader
There are some case in Sindh High court against, DG Ranger in Karachi Major General javiad Zia of Harassment and were reported in Newspapers too, that he threatened some people who were involved with MQM Leader Babar Ghori Ports minister in financial Transactions to favor the MQM Minister in Musharraf Government.
Instead of this Major General being investigated and Proper action taken against him, he was promoted to Lt-general and was put in lucrative position as QMG, (Quarter Master General), that involved Purchases and supply to Army.
The wife of Lt-General Javiad Zia was seen wearing a Lot of Gold Ornaments according to witnesses up to shoulders, in her hands although he belongs to a very humble back ground before joining the Army while studying in MCJ (Military College Jhelum)
There was case of rangers investing in Mutual Funds under him and stock Market too and loosing money in billions of rupees, just like NLC, (National Logistic cell which deals with Transport of American goods and is governed by the Army officers).
Now he is in very sensitive Post put by no Other than Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Ahmad Kiyani, as Corps commander Quetta in Baluchistan.
This sensitive position while Whole Province of Baluchistan is burning with Hatred against Punjabis and the Army and there is Insurgency running that cannot be controlled by Pakistan Army is very disturbing to Patriotic People of Pakistan.
Baluchistan belongs to Majority Pashtun rather than Baluch who are a Minority in this province, the Pashtuns although are Pro-Pakistani but the Attitude of Army and rangers / FC there can change the situation very rapidly.
The Wiki Leaks says that Baluchistan mayhem is being financed with money and Arms from Afghanistan where there is US led Karzai Govt (Read CIA and USA ) and it stopped the IPI , Iran and Pakistan Piper line of Gas as reported by Wiki Leaks cable.
Through BLA and BRA (Baluchistan Liberation and republican army) , led insurgency protecting US interest not Indian it may noted that the High lighted IPI( Iran Pakistan and India Pipe Line ) would have ended in India as last stop. It means India and with a shorter route of Pipe line and cheaper Gas for India would mean India was better off with IPI Pipe Line.
Sabotage of IPI, promoted the TAPI, (Turkmenistan Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) , Pipeline after Pakistan Army failure to crush the Insurgency in Baluchistan. This Pipe line would also end in Pakistan and India but more expensive Crude oil would come out of it .
Clearly India would have benefitted from IPI rather than TAPI.
As Afghanistan is a Land Locked country (Surrounded by Koh-Solomon range of Mountains thousands of Km long) Afghanistan cannot import anything, without Port of Karachi and the two Passes called Khyber Pass in FATA and Chaman/ Quetta, Kandahar route.
To this day American have failed to find an Alternative route to Karachi Port, and the Chubhar port in Iran is un-acceptable to them.
The Georgian route was sabotaged after Russian troops intervention.
So in in Implied sense all the weapons used In Af-Pak region are all reaching this area through a single Port of Karachi .
So the BLA and BRA are getting these weapons from Karachi port after they reaches Afghanistan and then are smuggled back to Baluchistan and rest of Pakistan including Back to Karachi .
MQM has got strategic hold on these weapons.
While the Pakistani Authorities cannot Blame USA out of fear of Public reprisals and Anti –Americanism rampant in Pakistan.
They are blaming the Indians, by its Multiple Embassies in Afghanistan Mantra. Which is half truth, really a Lie.
Lt-General javiad Zia now corps commander Quetta, who can now be a another Musharraf in the Ranks, of Army as he is Pro-MQM and MI-6 and CIA. Even Musharraf, had support of Israel and Mosad , wiki Leaks confirmed it.
General Musharraf was a staunch supported of MQM too even as a colonel in the Past , he used to Visit 90 HQ of MQM , and his staff car as brigadier was also found according to Intelligence reports by ISI many times in front of 90 MQM HQ in Karachi.
Lt-General Javaid Zia although a Punjabi is staunch supporter of MQM and a Pashtun Hater, for sure as he failed to Protect citizens of Pakistan and created a Massacre in may 2007 ( Witnessed Live on Pakistan TV channels ) ,that nobody is ready to take up in courts as well as Politically.
Pakistan Army too is Part of this Problem too, when it comes to MQM , as many officers of Rangers told me in Person that they would make fake cases against Pashtuns Mainly of Poor Backgrounds to appease the DG rangers Javaid Zia and on requests of MQM.
The refusal to Do Operation against Target Killers in Karachi by Army is testament to this.
Baluch Leaders Openly say that Punjabi Dominated Army is doing Operation against Baluch but fails to do any Operation in Karachi even when requested by ANP (Awami National Party of Pashtuns) and required even by the ruling PPP ( Pakistan People Party ) many times.
The commando like training of MQM Militant wings and their training has raised eye browns by many people as it cannot be done without a Proper Military training them just like the Taliban has this kind of Training too.
Just Like the religious parties Jammat Islami and Jameet Ulema Pakistan, PML-Q and N Variety, MQM is Party of Punjabi Establishment who works for Pakistani Establishment interests and Indirectly for USA . ( Remember it was PML-N , that snatched the contract of TAPI Pipeline from Argentinian Company Bridas and awarded it to Unocal / Union Texas of USA , through influence on Taliban ) .
Altaf Hussein was allowed to Visit and stay in UK with Consent of GHQ. Most of funds of USA in Excess of 20 Billion US dollars from 2001-2007, went to this Party and PML-Q.
The recent billion of Dollar worth of corridors in Karachi to facilitate NATO containers Passage from Karachi which used to Take full 48 hours to reach just out of Karachi , was shortened to few hours after Lyari and Malir Bypass and Stop Less corridors and Under passes were built inside Karachi leading from Karachi Port to Outside city .
Roads and Infrastructure and Under Passes were made in Karachi with US Dollars that Boosted the Image of MQM which was considered as Party of Slums of Orangi Town and a Terrorist Party by Many Karachites and its support was fledgling.
Mustafa Kamal Karachi youthful Mayor became a celebrity with US Dollars to finance him and Musharraf was behind MQM, too and so was the GHQ and the Generals likes of Major General javiad Zia.
While he made the whole Karachi Developed, he conveniently left the Pashtun area’s of Karachi and Labor slums just like that underdeveloped.
The caused the Pashtun who are most disunited force in whole of Pakistan and Victim of Divide and rule of British since Year 1800 to unite as ANP in Sindh and win 3 Seats in Sindh for first time in history of Pakistan annoying MQM as it wants to share Karachi with Nobody else , even the PPP or Jammat Islami or JUI .
The area’s of Most Interest to MQM like where the Un-recorded land belonging to slums of Karachi where Non –Muhajir / Non- Urdu speaking Labor settled in 1960,s ( Mostly Pashtuns from North ) , after Industrialization was promoted by Gen Ayub Khan and Ghulam Farooque another Pashtun founder of PICIC , by the 24 mainly Rich Memom and Pashtun families in those times.
The Love between Major General Javiad Zia and MQM was so much that gifts would be exchanged regularly; DG rangers would send Mango Crates to Babar Ghori and Dr Muhammad Ali shah AO clinic regularly after Shabaz rangers would send it from Interior Sindh mango Orchids.
While his association with a MQM, which is Terrorist organization that is controlled as according to wiki Leaks from UK, and MI-6, through Altaf Husain Protected by UK Government and is under Influence of MI-6 and CIA .
They were rocking the Boat of current Government through request of UK and US government s are reported in Wiki Leaks too US government Cables.
First was case of Kerry Lugar Bill and now the Reformed GST laws currently of fixed 15% (Although People are already paying them at rate of 21% ) .
Mainly the MQM and other Pro-establishment makes more noises when Zardari becomes closer to China and Iran and away from USA.
It may be noted the Protection of NATO supplied from Karachi port is also ascertained by Babar Ghori the Ports minister of MQM. The closeness and meetings of US Ambassador Ann Peterson with 90 HQ of MQM is known to all.
Thousands of containers were directly released by MQM without custom being done, bypassing it through convinces of MQM and Port Ministry and no record was entered in the computers of customs and Excise of these NATO and ISAF containers. Most of time computer were switching off.
No records of Thousands, of NATO ISAF container exists so far in 2001-2008 Years of such containers of NATO and ISAF , in customs and Excise department of Pakistan as a result.
As it passed directly out of Karachi Port , and not through the Excise and customs of Pakistan, under patronage of Karachi Port Ministry, of Babar Ghori of MQM.
This is on record that Supreme Court and Chief justice of Pakistan has taken a Notice of this container’s disappearances on Suo-Moto cases which mysteriously stopped in the Middle.
When the Port Ministry was not given to MQM and was given to PPP,s , Nabil Gabol , a spate of Target Killings followed in Karachi that forced the PPP to Give the Ministry of Ports back to MQM back after Arm twisting measures were taken when PPP Government came into being in 2008 .
Even in Strategic Meetings with USA, MQM was meeting Pentagon (CIA and Military front) people while PPP was not allowed in. As Karachi Port is the only Port that handles all the ISAF and NATO Military vehicles and the Ammunitions and 95% of each and everything Afghanistan consumes is passing through this port.
Afghanistan is a Land Locked country and it cannot bring heavy weapon without Karachi Port and all the weapons in Karachi and Baluchistan comes from Karachi Port and through MQM minister.
The containers are sealed and they have a satellite system Installed in the Locks of NATO Container and when somebody tries to open them a Signal is sent through Satellites to USA and Pentagon.
As result the NLC and Pakistan Army Personal are not allowed to Open it and no Taxes are paid on these containers apart from Meager rupees for documentation is paid to NLC.
The Roads and infrastructure of Pakistan have been damaged because of these loads and many Bridges have collapsed in Peshawar area and in FATA because of this. Resulting in Long Lanes of NATO trucks which wait for Hours to cross over.
This is Point where they are Hit by Rocket Launchers and resulting in their Burning of Containers and Oil tankers by Terrorists. As roads are in shambles left deliberatively by Pakistani Establishment.
According to Wiki Leaks 300 Million US dollars was just allotted for Roads of Peshawar and FATA and not a single cent was spent there .
Another 300 Million dollars were earmarked for Medical Evacuation and Hospitals for Frontier Corps the Pashtun forces that are fighting Taliban and are 150,000 strong , but still do not have a single Hospital but Loans beds in CMH ( combined Military hospital in Peshawar ) –according to wiki Leaks .
The FC in Baluchistan and FATA are only troops of Pakistan, not to Have adequate Medical facilities which Pakistan army enjoys.
Many Army officers in Private had told me that they are not sure what is inside these containers and suspicion are ripe that they contain the weapon ending in BLA and BRA hands. This matter has been reported in Newspaper’s in Pakistan widely.
This Matter is of Grave concern to Patriotic people of Pakistan who wonder which way the Matter will Lead to with these Kind of Alliance between the Pakistan Army and Such Parties like pro-establishment MQM.
The Pakistani Press is another coward in all this Matter and MQM is regularly involved in shutting down of TV channels which are in Majority based in Karachi and they use distribution channels that are based in Karachi city and whenever something is not of taste of MQM and GHQ or Washington, they shut off the Privately owned TV channels by No Other the mafia Like MQM.
Newspaper belonging to Jang –Geo , Group were Burned in Bulk and in one instance whole Sindh and Karachi could not read a single Newspaper of jang that said something bad about MQM and it Militant wing burned all the Printed copies of Jang Newspaper and even PIA Airlines had no newspaper that day.
It is widely believed the Media in Pakistan pays “Bhatta”, and security money to MQM too. This is what Zulifiqar Mirza the Interior Minister of Sindh said too in his speech to Big wigs and Trader of Sindh recently.
That what can government do when Traders are willingly paying to MQM who has most of Target Killers .
The MQM is involved in Censure ship that might be controlled from UK and USA , through Altaf Hussein too , as some people suspect .
Recently when Dr. Imran Farooq’ the Partner of Altaf Hussian’ Leader of MQM was Murdered, it killer were never exposed by UK Police. The Legendry Scotland yard is looking like idiot dude now.
It was rumored that Imran Farooq’ was separating from MQM and had left MQM for last 2 Years and was making another Party called BQM.
As BQM (A Bihari Qaumi Movement as MQM has majority of Biharis People in Orangi Town) and this would have made MQM a week Party without DR, Imran Farooq’ and the Biharis and this resulted in his murder.
Recently MQM complained to President Zardari that Dr Zulifiqar Mirza should be either shut up or removed. Which the President Zardari listened too but we have to see the out come of this.
While Brave Zulifiqar Mirza repeated his statement again , the next day as that what he had said was true and he repeated it .
IT is up to MQM to keep Karachi in Calm or continue its spate of target Killings and than blame it on others. Portraying itself as Victim ,falsely.
According to Wiki Leaks , Privately President Zardari wondered and Pondered aloud to Ann Paterson the US ambassador that he is still not sure what MQM is up to and why it engages in Violence in Karachi while it keeps it Militant wing active in Target Killing Pashtuns in Karachi.
The same Pashtuns, who are perceived, as Part of Taliban, in Afghanistan too by UK and USA are being targeted by MQM.
While conveniently, forgetting the whole south Punjab where the Madrasah and Taliban centers are situated .
Maybe British want to take revenge of their crushing defeats of 1838 and 1878 first and second Afghan wars, through MQM in Karachi.
Federal Minister Rehman Malik complained to USA through US Ambassador that MQM was rocking boat of Civilian Government on Behest of UK as MQM Leaders had confided to him.
Rehman Malik had asked UK and US to Stop doing it through MQM as reported in Wiki Leaks.
It seems that US and UK has a Lot of Pressure groups and Fake Political Parties that want to keep Pakistan as week country under clutches of Military establishment modeled on Egypt as fake democracy.
Without Proper democracy neither Pakistan nor Neither the US or world can be a safe place as it seems.
The direct cause of Terrorism seems to stem now from Britain and USA it seems now and Terrorism seems to be benefiting Military Mega Corporation of US now, but not People of US and Pakistan.
The point of this film is that the Baluchs are people too, no different than anyone else in Pakistan. If the Punjabi were treated in the same manner as the Baluchs, I guarantee that they would take-up arms to survive, as well.
Baloch armed guerillas forces seem to have now increased their attacks on Pakistani Army, which according to baloch are occupying forces. In response, the Pakistani Army’s Punjabi generals and civil bureaucrats have now adopted a counter strategy of abduction- kill and dump of soft targets. This is to prevent the energetic part of Baloch society, the youths from joining the Baloch national movement. And being more sinister, the teachers, students and Journalists are also its prime targets to deprive Baloch society of its literati.
It has been observed that Baloch resistant forces are targeting Pakistani army and its installations.
Yet the state sponsored terrorist organizations, Lashker e Jangvie, a much closed affiliate of Talban, lashaker e Taeyaba and Al-Qaida from Jumiet e Ulmae Islam side, is said to be involved in the target killing of teachers, journalists and political workers in Balochistan at the behest of Pakistani state agencies Pakistani army.
Baloch Musaleh Defie Tanzeem, a pocket organization of Pakistani political establishment, has been allegedly tasked with the responsibility of particularly targeting those Baloch Journalists and political workers, who are outspoken of Pakistani state policies regarding the Baloch national question in the historical perspective.
Gen Salim Nawaz, a Punjabi ex corps commander of Frontier Corps (FC) in Balochistan, who, under the command of Gen Musharraf had carried out the genocide of Baloch youths and martyred Nawab Akber Bugti, has been replaced by a Pashtun general from Khaiber Pashtunkhowa province , Gen Ubaidullah Khan khatak, to head Frontier Corps. Baloch say that the new mercenary general Now he has taken the charge of Baloch genocide “as a Pashtun” under the command of Punjabi Gen Ashfaq Kayani.
It was the Khuzdar Cantonment where the Gen Ubaidullah Khan khatak made its first visit when he was appointed as the corps commander of FC in Balochistan. He allegedly met Mengal and Zehri sardars and then he went to Chaman as a guest of Mahmmod Achakzai, where on record he announced the induction of Pashtuns in Pak army from Pashtun dominated areas of Balochistan, he also said that “as Khuzdaar and Quetta districts are with us, other remaining districts cannot make any trouble for us.” It is noteworthy to mention here that the land on which the Khuzdar Cantonment is established belong to Zehri and Mengal brothers. It is more than 20 thousand acres land leased to Punjabi military by Mengal and Zehri brothers.
But Archen Baloch of the Baloch resistance says that they have ripped through the order of the tribal societies. Powerful tribes have been reduced into fraternity groups by resistance movement. The recent attacks on two high profile government officials by Baloch resistance forces show that Baloch society is fully controlled by Sarmachars (the freedom fighters). Even though the CM and Governor are chieftains of their respective tribes, they are unable to seek their revenge on Baloch resistance movement as it has broken all barrier of tribalism. Baloch Sarmachars, the freedom fighters, have now totally changed the landscape of resistance.
Pakistani state writ in Baluchistan’s social life is totally eroded, except the military cantonments and garrisons, which houses only Punjabi military personnel and with Pushton mercenary armed men. They are totally alienated from Baloch society, they have been rendered as estrange objects in Balochistan by Baloch nationalist forces.
Pakistani army personnel without heavy columns of armed vehicles cannot enter into Baluchistan’s cities and towns. The constant resistance of 10 years has worn the morale of Pakistan army across Balochistan. Balochs say that the Pakistani Army is demoralized.
Apart from Armed resistance, in general society, people have now refused to pay utility bill, which is costing Pakistan billions of rupees.
Without the presence of helicopters and tanks it is utterly an impossible task for Punjabi dominated army to make sure that Baloch natural gas is flowing into Punjab’s cities and factories from already depleted Gas fields of Balochistan.
Baloch students have refused to be taught Pakistan Study text books in schools, colleges and universities. Reciting Pakistani national anthem in all education institutions and schools in Balochistan is a sin. Pakistani flag can be seen hoisted only on its cantonments and military camps. In place of Pakistani flag, azad Balochistan flag is flying on all schools, colleges, shops and homes across Balochistan.
All provincial and national assembly members from Balochistan have now bought homes in Islamabad and want to leave Balochistan forever, because, they are isolated from Baloch society of general public. They are now called pariah in Baloch society for reasons that they have done nothing for Baloch national struggle for freedom. Instead they are believed to be the collaborators of enemy.
Civil courts in Balochistan are deserted, as Baloch have abandoned the hope that their day to day social grievances would be redressed Pakistani courts. Balochs say that all courts in Balochistan are now engaged only with false cases framed against Baloch youths by occupying Punjabi military establishment as a measure of preventing them from the participation of freedom struggle.
As per the Baloch resistance, Pakistani military is putting all blame of Baloch insurgency on India, Afghanistan and Russia; and particularly India is its prime target of the entire blame.
At least 27 people were killed as a pipeline exploded in central Mexico when thieves were trying to steal oil.
Rescuers stand in front of a wall of flames in the San Martin Texmelucan town after the pipeline exploded Photo: EPA
10:13PM GMT 19 Dec 2010
Authorities estimated that the explosion and resulting spill affected a three-mile radius radius, injuring at least 32 people and scorching more than 100 homes.
The principal explosion, followed by four additional minor blasts, forced hundreds to flee the city of San Martin Texmelucan, 55 miles east ofMexico City.
“We saw rivers of fire in the streets,” Valentin Meneses, interior secretary for the state of Puebla, where San Martin is located, told Milenio Television.
Television images showed a scorched ghost town of houses, businesses and trees blackened by the huge explosion and a black crude-like substance covering the streets.
Meneses said the explosion, which happened before dawn Sunday, was apparently provoked by thieves trying to steal crude oil.
“They lost control because of the high pressure with which the fuel exits the pipeline,” he said, adding that the oil began to flow down the city’s streets and into a nearby river.
The state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a statement that it had shut down the pipeline. Government authorities said the fire was under control by midday, but the area was without electricity or water.
Civil protection authorities, firefighters and military officers are investigating and trying to ensure there are no more explosions. No one has been detained.
Pemex has struggled with chronic theft, losing as much as 10 percent of all of its product.
Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year, Pemex has said.
IS SEIZING THE OIL FIELDS THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THIS COUNTRY?
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America’s military and economic empire could collapse at any time, but predicting the precise day, week or month of its potential demise is unattainable, according to a former New York Times war correspondent who spoke with Raw Story.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. — File photo
11 reasons Reagan, Bush, Clinton also hostages to an enemy within
U.S. soldiers help a wounded comrade after their armoured vehicle was struck by an IED in Afghanistan in July (file picture). Intelligence chiefs have painted a bleak assessment of the war
An Afghan boy greets a U.S. soldier manning a checkpoint outside Kandahar (file picture)
