Pakistani Journalist Found Dead After Reported Abduction By Intelligence Agency (NOT by “Al-CIA-da”)

[SEE:  ISI Purportedly Holding “CIA Mouthpiece”]

Pakistani journalist found dead after reported arrest by intelligence agency

Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, shown in a Nov. 28, 2006 file photo, was found dead Tuesday.Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, shown in a Nov. 28, 2006 file photo, was found dead Tuesday.

BANARAS KHAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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By Rick WestheadSouth Asia Bureau

NEW DELHI — The deadliest country to be a journalist in just got deadlier.

Pakistan is reeling after news late Tuesday that journalist Saleem Shahzad’s body was discovered near his abandoned car in Islamabad.

Shahzad went missing Sunday night, his family said, after he left his home heading for a local TV station.

Almost immediately after his disappearance, Human Rights Watch issued a release saying it had reason to believe Shahzad had been arrested by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI. His body was found with signs that he had been tortured, according to local news reports.

When Shahzad went missing, many locals in Pakistan feared the worst.

Operating as an objective, honest journalist in Pakistan is like navigating a minefield.

Reporters Without Borders has noted news media freedom in Pakistan has plunged in recent years and it is now among the world’s most dangerous places to report from. Last year, 11 journalists were killed in Pakistan, the organization said.

Shahzad was certainly known to Pakistan’s ISI.

He vanished two days after he wrote a story for the Asia Times that said Al Qaeda attacked a naval base in Karachi on May 22 because its negotiations with the Pakistan navy had collapsed. Shahzad wrote Al Qaeda orchestrated the attack as retribution for the arrest of naval officers who were suspected to have ties to Al Qaeda.

Human Rights Watch was told Shahzad would be returned home by Monday evening.

“The relevant people were informed that his telephone would be switched on first, enabling him to communicate with his family,” a Human Rights Watch official told Time magazine. “They were told that he would return home soon after.”

A Human Rights Watch researcher on Twitter released an email that Shahzad had forwarded him Oct. 18, 2010. The human-rights organization had instructions to release it if Shahzad disappeared.

Shahzad told Human Rights Watch he had been summoned to the ISI’s headquarters on Oct. 17, 2010, a day after he published another controversial story. He met with two ISI officials: Rear Admiral Adnan Nawaz and Commodore Khalid Pervaiz.

Pervaiz has just been appointed head of the naval base in Karachi that was just attacked, Time reported.

Shahzad’s October story alleged Pakistan had released the Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Baradar from custody. Baradar was Mullah Omar’s deputy and Shahzad reported he’d been freed to negotiate with the Pakistan army.

The Oct. 18 email, purportedly from the ISI to Shahzad, was labelled “For future reference.”

“I must give you a favour,” the ISI officer wrote to Shahzad. “We have recently arrested a terrorist and recovered a lot of data, diaries and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know.”

Infighting among North Waziristan groups could provide opening for Pakistani army

Infighting among North Waziristan groups could provide opening for Pakistani army

By: Kathy Gannon, The Associated Press

 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Crumbling unity among militants could provide the Pakistan army an opening to conduct a limited offensive against a particularly vicious Taliban group in a strategic tribal region, according to analysts and a senior military official.

The target of such an operation in North Waziristan would be the most violent factions within the so-called Pakistani Taliban. Their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is believed to be increasingly isolated after executing a prominent former Pakistani official over the objections of senior militant leaders.

Although Mehsud has been linked to attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan, his main focus appears to be in plotting carnage elsewhere in Pakistan. And that makes him a prime target for the army.

Washington has long urged the Pakistanis to launch an operation in North Waziristan, a region overrun by an assortment of militant groups including al-Qaida. Most U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan take place in North Waziristan.

Already there are more than 30,000 soldiers in North Waziristan, and some analysts say the Pakistani army could quickly redeploy to the area. The army has 140,000 soldiers in the tribal regions that border Afghanistan

The Pakistanis, however, are unlikely to target the Haqqani group, which the U.S. considers its greatest enemy in Afghanistan. U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, complained last week that Pakistan’s secret service maintains links to the Haqqani network. The Haqqanis are Afghan Taliban who control parts of eastern Afghanistan and have bases in North Waziristan.

If the Haqqanis and other militant groups in North Waziristan co-operate with a military assault against the Pakistani Taliban, that would give the army more options.

The fissures among the militants were laid bare in February, when Mehsud released a gruesome video that confirmed the shooting death of former Pakistani spy Sultan Amir Tarar, better known as Col. Imam, according to a senior Pakistan army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

As Pakistan’s consul general in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province during the Taliban’s rule, Imam was the conduit for money and weapons to the religious movement. A former Pakistani intelligence officer, Imam met regularly with Afghan Taliban’s reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Imam was known to have kept contact with leading Taliban in hiding in Pakistan since the U.S.-led coalition ousted them from power in Afghanistan in 2001.

Mehsud’s group had held Imam for 10 months. The killing confounded Pakistani military officials. They had long believed the Haqqanis held sway over the myriad of groups — including militants from Uzbekistan, Chechnya and the Middle East — operating in North Waziristan.

“We always thought that the Afghan Taliban had a sway over these groups, but Col. Imam’s killing shows that no one is in control of anyone there,” he said. “His death was a shock for us.”

Taliban members who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they feared being arrested said Mullah Omar made a personal plea for Imam’s life. Also requesting that Imam’s life be spared was Sirajuddin Haqqani, a key leader of the Haqqani group.

The senior military official said Mehsud defied Mullah Omar and Sirajuddin Haqqani and went ahead with the execution after the government and army refused his demands to free several of his imprisoned men.

Not only that, Mehsud boasted on a jihadi website about the killing, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The same website carried an Urdu language condemnation of Mehsud’s organization, calling those behind the execution “beasts” and “ignoble killers,” SITE said.

The divisions that Imam’s death revealed among the militant groups could provide an opportunity for the army to hit hard at insurgents in the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali, where Mehsud set up bases after fleeing last year’s military assault on his headquarters in neighbouring South Waziristan, according to Mahmood Shah, a retired army brigadier and former security point-man for the government in the tribal regions.

Mir Ali is about 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the town of Miram Shah, where the Haqqanis are based.

Tribal elders from North Waziristan, all of whom were too afraid to talk on the record, fearing retribution from militants, said the landscape in their home region has undergone massive upheavals since the army operation in South Waziristan.

They said Mehsud and his men were among the most troublesome of the militants, largely because of their affiliation with criminal gangs.

Mehsud and his followers are also among the richest, having accumulated wealth through kidnappings for ransom, thefts and extortion, said a tribal elder from Shawal district of North Waziristan.

Mehsud’s close affiliation with Lashkar-e-Janghvi, a Punjabi-based Sunni Muslim militant group blamed for dozens of attacks against minority Shiite Muslims, has also provided him with a reservoir of suicide bombers. They have carried out dozens of attacks throughout Pakistan and in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject said the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed six CIA operatives in Afghanistan’s Khost province in December 2009 was trained by Lashkar-e-Janghvi’s Qari Hussain, who was also a member of Mehsud’s group. Hussain was killed in a drone attack but was quickly replaced by a cousin and fellow tribesman of Mehsud’s (SEE: Another rumor of Qari Hussain’s death in October Predator strike ).

Mehsud has overseen the Pakistani Taliban ever since his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a CIA missile strike on Aug. 5, 2009. Hakimullah Mehsud is affiliated with the Taliban’s most violent factions and has survived U.S. and Pakistani attempts on his life.

In recent years the United States has identified Mir Ali as the site of a reconstituted al-Qaida. Also on the run in Mir Ali is Ilyas Kashmiri, a confidante of Mehsud’s. The United States this month put a $5 million bounty on Kashmiri’s head.

___

Gannon is The Associated Press special regional correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

North Waziristan Operation Anti-Taliban Only, Haqqanis To Slide By?

Is Pakistan going to attack the Taliban in North Waziristan?

By BILL ROGGIO

 

Pakistani sources are telling The News that the military has agreed to launch “a careful and meticulous military offensive” in the tribal agency of North Waziristan. The report has not been confirmed, and we’ve heard multiple reports over the past two years of an impending operation in the Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold that never occurred. Here is the meat of The News report on the latest yet-to-be-launched North Waziristan operation:

The understanding for carrying out the operation was developed during the recently-concluded visit of the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. Pakistan has always maintained that any such operation would be at its own time of choosing. It argues that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are too stretched fighting militants who pose a domestic threat.Highly-placed sources told The News that the strategy drawn up for action in North Waziristan had been worked out long ago and accordingly the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will be put in operation in first place. It will be softening the targets already determined and pointed out by the intelligence network and that would be followed by the ground action. A joint operation with the allies has also been discussed but no decision has yet been made for it since it involves numerous sensitivities. In case the two sides agreed to go for a joint action, it would be for the first time in the present war that foreign boots will get a chance to be on Pakistan’s soil with the consent of the host country. It will be done after a careful assessment of the situation and deliberations by the armed forces’ command in Pakistan.

The sources reminded that the armed forces are already present in North Waziristan. The target of such an operation in North Waziristan would be the most violent factions within the so-called Pakistani Taliban. Their leader, Hakimullah Mahsud, is believed to be increasingly isolated after executing a prominent former Pakistani official over the objections of senior militant leaders.

We’ll leave aside the deteriorating US-Pakistan relationship and the years of US arm twisting, begging, and pleading for an operation. If the Pakistani military is indeed planning an operation in North Waziristan (and again, we’ve all heard this one before), it will be, according to The News, extremely limited in scope. Here are some things to keep in mind, at least based on this report:

  1. The primary target is the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. This does not include Taliban groups such as the Haqqani Network and Bahadar’s Taliban faction. This would be similar to the limited operation in South Waziristan in the fall of 2009, when the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan was targeted but Mullah Nazir’s forces were left intact (Nazir, who recently affirmed he is an al Qaeda commander, openly controls half of South Waziristan to this day, and continues to shelter al Qaeda and other terror groups).
  2. The location appears to be limited to Mir Ali, one of two main towns in North Waziristan. Abu Kasha (or Abu Akash) al Iraqi, an al Qaeda commander and vital link to the Taliban, is based in Mir Ali.
  3. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is known to operate three major suicide training camps in the Mir Ali area.
  4. Mir Ali is one of three major hubs for terror groups, the two others being Miramshah and Datta Khel. Al Qaeda and terror groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are also based in Mir Ali.
  5. The military is telegraphing this operation, giving the top leadership of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, the IMU, and other groups ample time to flee. The report notes that the operation will begin with airstrikes. The same thing happened in South Waziristan in the fall of 2009; the blockade and airstrikes gave the top leaders time to leave, and a rearguard was left behind to attempt to blunt the Pakistani military assault. No senior Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leaders were killed during the South Waziristan operation.
  6. As noted above, the Haqqani Network and Bahadar’s Taliban faction, both of which are viewed by Pakistan’s military and intelligence services as “good Taliban,” will be spared, despite the fact that these two groups have violated a two-year-old peace agreement with the military that prohibited them from hosting the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, al Qaeda, and other allied terror groups. The Haqqanis and Bahadar’s Taliban faction have violated this agreement from the very beginning, but the Pakistani state has refused to hold the groups accountable.

One other point: Remember when the Pakistani military made the false claim it was conducting a “surgical” operation in North Waziristan? This claim was even repeated by top US commanders. So is the Pakistani military now admitting that the previous “operation” failed, or are Pakistani officials admitting it never occurred in the first place? Don’t expect anyone else to ask that question.

ISI Purportedly Holding “CIA Mouthpiece”

[SEE:  “CIA Mouthpiece” Saleem Shahzad of Asia Times Goes Missing]

Missing journalist in ISI custody, says HRW

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has, through credible sources, learnt that journalist Saleem Shahzad is in custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), HRW’s Pakistan representative Ali Dayan Hasan told Daily Times on Monday.

Dayan remarked that the ISI remained a major human rights abuser in Pakistan and it frequently kept abusing and torturing those journalists it disagreed with. He further said the HRW had previously documented similar cases of abduction and torture on journalists by security agencies.

People close to Shahzad told Daily Times that he was picked up by officers of an intelligence agency who have promised through anonymous calls to release him soon. Shahzad, who was working as bureau chief of the Asia Times Online in Islamabad, was whisked away by unidentified people on Sunday evening when he left his F-8 Sector residence to participate in a television talk show. His mobile phone remained switched off and his car could not be traced.

People close to Shahzad stated that he had received numerous warnings from security agencies for his reporting in the past, adding that his recent reporting on the issue of terrorist attack on PNS Mehran might have become the reason of his abduction.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered against the unidentified kidnappers in the F-8 Sector Police Station.

Georgian Treatment of Democratic Protest

Police claim Burdzhanadze wants ‘Egyptian scenario’ in Georgia

 

Georgian opposition leader refuses to pay bail for husband

 

Georgian police thwart ‘plot to destabilize country’

Georgian policemen. Archive

Georgian policemen. Archive

© AFP/ Vladimir Valishvili

Georgian police said on Monday they had arrested 24 members of an armed group that was planning attacks in an attempt to destabilize the situation in the country, the Gruziya Online news agency reported.

Police said the group was headed by former Georgian foreign minister Temur Khachishvili, who currently lives in Russia. They also said a member of the group had said that Badri Bitsadze, the husband of Nino Burdzhanadze, the opposition People’s Assembly leader and parliamentary speaker, was also one of the main figures.

“The group was preparing a number of armed provocations on the territory of Georgia to destabilize the situation,” police said in a statement.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that leaders of the People’s Assembly party had planned to arm protesters calling for the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Riot police used water cannons, rubber bullets and teargas to disperse opposition activists who gathered late on Wednesday on Tbilisi’s main street in an attempt to prevent an Independence Day military parade. Georgia said Russia was behind the rally.

Tensions between Russia and Georgia remain high over a number of issues, including Moscow’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war over the later in 2008.

MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti)

Rehman Malik Announces Joint US/Pakistani Operations Against “High-Value Targets”

[The US can always count on Malik to say what it wants him to say.]

US, Pakistan to take on Islamists jointly

Lahore, May 30 (IANS) After squabbling over the killing of Osama bin Laden, Washington and Islamabad have decided to jointly target “high value targets” among Islamists inside Pakistan, a minister has said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave this indication Sunday after announcing that an independent commission is to be set up in a day or two to probe the Osama killing May 2.

Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Malik as saying that it seemed the Taliban had intensified their attacks in Pakistan after Osama’s killing by American commandos.

He indicated that joint operations with the US against “high-value targets” — he did not say from which group — would be launched in future inside Pakistan.

Osama was gunned down by US Navy commandos who sneaked into Pakistan using stealth helicopters and stormed the Al Qaeda leader’s hideout in Abbottabad city.

The minister also announced a prize of Rs.5 million for any information leading to the arrest of Islamists who attacked a huge Pakistani navy base in Karachi May 22.

Terrorists took virtual control of the PNS Mehran base for about 16 hours before security forces seized control. The attackers destroyed two costly surveillance aircraft sold by the US.

Germany pulls plug on nuclear power

Germany pulls plug on nuclear power

By Georg Ismar, Berlin

GERMANY has announced plans to become the first major industrialised power to shut down all its nuclear plants, with the last to be closed by 2022.

Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen announced the government’s “irreversible” decision, which was prompted by the Japanese nuclear disaster.

Germany has 17 nuclear reactors, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid. Seven of those off-line are the country’s oldest nuclear reactors, which the government shut down for three months pending a safety probe after the Japanese disaster at Fukushima. The eighth, in northern Germany, has been mothballed for years because of technical problems.

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Most of the plants are to be off-line by 2021, sources said, but three plants were to serve as a back-up in case of energy shortages and would be closed a year later.

The decision comes after the environment ministers from all 16 German regional states on Friday called for the temporary order on the seven plants to be made permanent. The agreement emerged after 12 hours of negotiations between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of the three government parties — Dr Merkel’s Christian Democrats, the Christian Social Union and the pro-business Free Democrats. Also involved in the talks were the chiefs of the two main opposition parties.

Dr Merkel has said she wants to set a policy to end a dispute that has split Germans since the 1970s.

The decision is effectively a return to the timetable set by the previous Social Democrat-Green coalition government a decade ago.

It is a humbling U-turn for Dr Merkel, who at the end of 2010 decided to extend the lifetime of the reactors by an average of 12 years, which would have kept them open until the mid-2030s. That decision was unpopular in Germany even before the earthquake and tsunami in March that severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear facility, prompting Dr Merkel’s review of nuclear policy.

Her zigzagging on the highly emotive issue has cost at the ballot box. Dr Merkel herself has blamed the Fukushima disaster for recent defeats in state elections.

In the latest election, on May 23, the anti-nuclear Greens pushed her conservative party into third place in a vote in the northern state of Bremen, the first time they had scored more votes than the conservatives in a regional or federal election.

The decision means Germany will have to find the 22 per cent of its electricity needs covered by nuclear reactors from another source.

Business supporters of the centre-right government of Dr Merkel had urged caution, warning that power shortages could cripple the country’s industry.

The government is considering keeping 2000 megawatts of capacity — equivalent to two power stations — on standby after the shutdown in case of emergency, an idea that experts consider difficult to put into practice.

■In Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Co said two of its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant workers had high levels of radiation in their thyroid glands. The power utility is assessing the level of exposure, according to a company statement issued yesterday.

The Final Proof of Gen. Kayani’s True Loyalties Will Be US and Pakistani Troops Fighting Side-by-Side

Pakistan may permit US troops in N. Waziristan offensive

Pakistan may permit US troops in N. Waziristan offensive
U.S Admiral Mike Mullen Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speaks during a joint news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, (L), at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad on May 27.(Reuters)

 

The United States has long demanded that Pakistan attack its own region to eliminate the Haqqani network, one of the most important Afghan factions fighting U.S. troops occpying Afghanistan. 

Pakistan will launch a military offensive in North Waziristan, a newspaper reported on Monday, days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Muslim country.

An understanding for an offensive in North Waziristan, one of the main opposition center in Pakistan against US-led invasion in Afghanistan, was reached when Clinton and Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen visited Pakistan last week, Pakistan’s the News newspaper reported.

The United States has long demanded that Pakistan attack its own region to eliminate the Haqqani network, one of the most important Afghan factions fighting U.S. troops occupying Afghanistan.

The News quoted unidentified “highly placed sources” as saying Pakistan’s air force would soften up opposition targets under the “targeted military offensive” before ground operations were launched. There was no timetable given.

The newspaper cited the sources as saying that a strategy for action in North Waziristan had been drawn up some time ago and an “understanding for carrying out the operation was developed” during the Clinton visit.

(Supporters of the political party Tehreek-e-Insaf hold placards as they shout anti-American slogans during a protest rally against the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Lahore May 27.)

 

Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment. A U.S. embassy official had no immediate comment.

Foreign troops on Pakistani soil?

The newspaper said a “joint operation” with allies had been discussed but no decision had been taken because of sensitivities.

“In case the two sides agreed to go for a joint action, it would be the first time in the present war (on opponent fighters) that foreign boots will get a chance to be on Pakistani soil with the consent of the host country.”

That could be highly risky for Pakistan’s generals.

The military, long regarded as the most effective institution in a country with a history of corrupt, inept civilian governments, suffered a major blow to its image when U.S. special forces killed bin Laden deep inside Pakistan.

Some analysts say any joint U.S.-Pakistani operation would subject the army to even more public criticism in a country where hate against U.S. runs deep.

“The reaction could be even more vociferous, just because everybody is so suspicious — as well as dismissive — of American interference,” said Imtiaz Gul, an author.

“People already feel so humiliated because of this Osama bin Laden thing and now they will have another reason to react.”

Pakistan maintains about 140,000 troops in the northwest, including about 34,000 in North Waziristan, but says they are too stretched fighting Pakistani pro-Taliban insurgents in other parts of the region to tackle North Waziristan.

But analysts say Pakistan sees the Haqqani network as an asset to counter the growing influence of rival India in occupied Afghanistan.

Aside from strategic concerns, an attack on the Haqqani network could further threaten Pakistan’s security as it faces a new wave of attacks by the Pakistani Taliban to avenge the killing of bin Laden by U.S. special forces on May 2.

Pakistan could pay a heavy price if Haqqani’s formidable fighters, believed to number in the thousands, and their allies, turn on Pakistani security forces.

Reuters

Chinese Press Reports NATO Incursion In N. Waziristan, Helicopters Take Pakistan Taliban Leaders To Afghanistan

[I had decided to ignore Western media reports that Pakistan had agreed to launch the long-awaited clean-up operation into North Waziristan, until I read the following Chinese report.  Of course, the CIA and Special Forces spooks would want to protect their most useful anti-Pakistan assets.  The same thing allegedly took place before the Pak Army invaded the previous "nerve center of the Taliban" in S. Waziristan, according to retired Gen. Aslam Beg (SEE:  Gen. Beg Claims US Helicopter Flew Hakeemullah to Safety).  Since there is ZERO chance that any Western media will pick up on this story, this Chinese report is all we will hear on the subject.

Sorry to admit this, but it looks like it might really be time for the Pakistani Army to cut its own throat in North Waziristan.  The complete subjugation of the top military brass must be complete (SEE: Pakistan to launch operation in North Waziristan ).

The big stinking question that remains is:  How is it, that Special Forces could easily capture 5 TTP leaders without killing them, unlike the alleged bin Laden affair?]

5 Pakistan Taliban leaders arrested by NATO forces in Pakistan

English.news.cn
ISLAMABAD, May 30 (Xinhua) — Unconfirmed news from intelligence sources said on Monday that five Pakistan Taliban ( TTP) leaders were arrested Monday morning in the Gorvait area of North Waziristan by NATO forces and later taken away by two NATO helicopters to Afghanistan.

According to the sources who asked to remain anonymous, the action was taken by the NATO forces without informing the Pakistani government. If so, this is another Abbottabad-like operation taken by the foreign forces on the Pakistani soil without the knowledge of the Pakistani side.

Political agent of North Waziristan also confirmed the news.

So far, there is no official report about the Monday morning’s operation taken by the NATO forces in North Waziristan, a tribal area in northwest Pakistan, which is believed to be a stronghold of militants in the country, who often launch attacks on the NATO forces in Afghanistan across the border.

On May 2, the U.S. forces conducted a raid in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Abbottabad, during which the former al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden was killed in his compound. As the U.S. side did not inform the Pakistani side until the raid was over, it led to a strong protest from the Pakistani side as Pakistan considers the unilateral action taken by the United States has seriously violated its sovereignty.

Editor: Yang Lina

Yemen Sit-In Broken-Up by Govt. Troops–20 Dead

 

[Remember "Sit-ins"?]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/04/28/nyregion/28nyu.600.jpg

[Yemeni govt. troops, backed by tanks, just broke-up Yemen's longest running sit-in, killing 20 peaceful protestors and removing the wounded from hospitals, just like the Saudis in Bahrain.  Saudi Oil outweighs human rights, any day.  How long can Obama resist the urge to protect the democratic movement in Yemen or Bahrain?  Will American/NATO bombers enforce Yemeni "no fly zone," to end government bombardment of political opposition?  Yeah, sure they will.  (SEE: Yemeni jets 'target rival tribal group' ).]

AFP

Yemeni government forces killed 20 protesters at sit-in in Taez, organisers say (AFP, -)

Yemeni forces kill 20 protesters as sit-in smashed

By Hammoud Mounassar (AFP)

SANAA — Forces loyal to the embattled Yemeni president killed 20 protesters as they dispersed a sit-in in Taez, an organiser said on Monday, as suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed six soldiers in the south.

Security service agents backed by army and Republican Guard troops stormed the protest against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Freedom Square in the centre of Yemen’s second-largest city during the night, shooting at the demonstrators and setting fire to their tents, protesters said.

“At least 20 protesters have been killed,” one of the protest organisers said.

Troops backed by tanks stormed a field hospital and detained 37 of the wounded receiving treatment there, among hundreds of people rounded up as security forces pursued the protesters into nearby streets, medics and organisers said.

“This was a massacre. The situation is miserable. They have dragged the wounded off to detention centres from the streets,” activist Bushra al-Maqtari told AFP.

Protesters said that the square had been entirely cleared, while security forces stormed a nearby hotel and arrested several journalists.

The Common Forum opposition coalition condemned the “crimes against humanity” committed by Saleh’s “remaining military and security forces and armed militias.”

It warned the veteran president he would be “held personally responsible for his continued crimes against the people.”

“These crimes do not get forgotten with time. They are being monitored and documented, and those who have committed them, and who provided arms and money, will not escape justice.”

The four-month-old sit-in in Taez was the longest-running protest against Saleh’s rule.

The clashes erupted on Sunday evening outside a nearby police station as some 3,000 people gathered to demand the release of a detained protester.

Police fired warning shots then fired into the crowd when the demonstrators refused to leave, a local committee of the “Youth of the Revolution” group said.

On March 18, 52 people died when regime loyalists attempted to break up a similar protest against Saleh’s rule in University Square in the capital Sanaa. The president declared a state of emergency after the bloodshed.

More than 200 demonstrators have been killed since the protests first erupted in Yemen. Scores more have died in armed clashes between loyalist troops and dissident tribesmen.

In the south, meanwhile, suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed six Yemeni soldiers, an army officer and a security official said.

The officer said that two soldiers from the 25th mechanised brigade, the headquarters of which is under siege in Zinjibar, were killed by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The security official said that militants ambushed a military convoy outside Zinjibar during the night, killing four soldiers. At least seven soldiers were wounded, a medic said.

A security official said on Sunday that suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen had taken control of most of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, in three days of fighting during which officials and medics said at least 21 people were killed.

Witnesses said that aircraft were carrying out strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda positions to the east of the city on Monday, while there were also unconfirmed reports of naval shelling in the area of Zinjibar, which sits a few kilometres (miles) from the coast.

Four suspected Al-Qaeda fighters were killed in overnight fighting in Zinjibar, another security source said, but a source close to the gunmen who control much of the city said that only two were killed.

Dissident army commanders accused Saleh of surrendering the province to “terrorists.”

The Common Forum charged that he had “delivered Zinjibar to groups that he has formed and armed, to continue to utilise the spectre of Al-Qaeda to frighten regional and international parties.”

The opposition grouping signed up to a deal brokered by impoverished Yemen’s wealthy Gulf neighbours under which Saleh, in power since 1978, would hand power to the vice president within 30 days in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

The president initially agreed to the plan but then repeatedly set new conditions for signing it, prompting the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to suspend its mediation efforts.

Imperial Eye on Pakistan

Imperial Eye on Pakistan

Pakistan in Pieces, Part 1

 

By Andrew Gavin Marshall  

Introduction

As the purported assassination of Osama bin Laden has placed the focus on Pakistan, it is vital to assess the changing role of Pakistan in broad geostrategic terms, and in particular, of the changing American strategy toward Pakistan. The recently reported assassination was a propaganda ploy aimed at targeting Pakistan. To understand this, it is necessary to examine how America has, in recent years, altered its strategy in Pakistan in the direction of destabilization. In short, Pakistan is an American target. The reason: Pakistan’s growing military and strategic ties to China, America’s primary global strategic rival. In the ‘Great Game’ for global hegemony, any country that impedes America’s world primacy – even one as historically significant to America as Pakistan – may be sacrificed upon the altar of war.

Part 1 of ‘Pakistan in Pieces’ examines the changing views of the American strategic community – particularly the military and intelligence circles – towards Pakistan. In particular, there is a general acknowledgement that Pakistan will very likely continue to be destabilized and ultimately collapse. What is not mentioned in these assessments, however, is the role of the military and intelligence communities in making this a reality; a veritable self-fulfilling prophecy. This part also examines the active on the ground changes in American strategy in Pakistan, with increasing military incursions into the country.

Imperial Eye on Pakistan

In December of 2000, the CIA released a report of global trends to the year 2015, which stated that by 2015, “Pakistan will be more fractious, isolated, and dependent on international financial assistance.”[1] Further, it was predicted, Pakistan:

Will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive politics, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction. Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. Further domestic decline would benefit Islamic political activists, who may significantly increase their role in national politics and alter the makeup and cohesion of the military – once Pakistan’s most capable institution. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the central government’s control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi.[2]

The report further analyzed the trends developing in relation to the Pakistan-India standoff in the region:

The threat of major conflict between India and Pakistan will overshadow all other regional issues during the next 15 years. Continued turmoil in Afghanistan and Pakistan will spill over into Kashmir and other areas of the subcontinent, prompting Indian leaders to take more aggressive preemptive and retaliatory actions. India’s conventional military advantage over Pakistan will widen as a result of New Delhi’s superior economic position.[3]

In 2005, the Times of India reported on a US National Intelligence Council report, written in conjunction with the CIA, which predicted a “Yugoslavia-like fate” for Pakistan, saying that, “by year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation.”[4]

In November of 2008, the US National Intelligence Council released a report, “Global Trends 2025,” in which they outlined major trends in the world by the year 2025. When it came to Pakistan, the report stated that, “Ongoing low-intensity clashes between India and Pakistan continue to raise the specter that such events could escalate to a broader conflict between those nuclear powers.”[5] It stated that Pakistan “will be at risk of state failure.”[6] In examining potential failed states, the report stated that:

[Y]outh bulges, deeply rooted conflicts, and limited economic prospects are likely to keep Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and others in the high-risk category.  Spillover from turmoil in these states and potentially others increases the chance that moves elsewhere in the region toward greater prosperity and political stability will be rocky.[7]

The report referred to Pakistan as a “wildcard” and stated that if it is “unable to hold together until 2025, a broader coalescence of Pashtun tribes is likely to emerge and act together to erase the Durand Line [separating Pakistan from Afghanistan], maximizing Pashtun space at the expense of Punjabis in Pakistan and Tajiks and others in Afghanistan.”[8]

In January of 2009, a Pentagon report analyzing geopolitical trends of significance to the US military over the next 25 years, reported that Pakistan could face a “rapid and sudden” collapse. It stated that, “Some forms of collapse in Pakistan would carry with it the likelihood of a sustained violent and bloody civil and sectarian war, an even bigger haven for violent extremists, and the question of what would happen to its nuclear weapons,” and as such, “that ‘perfect storm’ of uncertainty alone might require the engagement of U.S. and coalition forces into a situation of immense complexity and danger.”[9]

A top adviser to former President George Bush and current President Obama warned in April of 2009, that Pakistan could collapse within months, and that, “We have to face the fact that if Pakistan collapses it will dwarf anything we have seen so far in whatever we’re calling the war on terror now.” The adviser and consultant, David Kilcullen, explained that this would be unlike the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, which each had a population of over 30 million, whereas “Pakistan has [187] million people and 100 nuclear weapons, an army which is bigger than the American army, and the headquarters of al-Qaeda sitting in two-thirds of the country which the Government does not control.”[10]

Target: Pakistan

Going back to the later years of the Bush administration, it is apparent that the US strategy in Pakistan was already changing in seeing it increasingly as a target for military operations as opposed to simply a conduit. In August of 2007, newly uncovered documents revealed that the US military “gave elite units broad authority” in 2004, “to pursue suspected terrorists into Pakistan, with no mention of telling the Pakistanis in advance.”[11]

In November of 2007, an op-ed in the New York Times stated categorically that, “the United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss,” and that, “we need to think — now — about our feasible military options in Pakistan, should it really come to that.” The authors, Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon are both well-known strategists and scholars at the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution, two of the most prominent and influential think tanks in the United States. While stating that Pakistan’s leaders are still primarily moderate and friendly to the US, “Americans felt similarly about the shah’s regime in Iran until it was too late,” referring to the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. They warn:

The most likely possible dangers are these: a complete collapse of Pakistani government rule that allows an extreme Islamist movement to fill the vacuum; a total loss of federal control over outlying provinces, which splinter along ethnic and tribal lines; or a struggle within the Pakistani military in which the minority sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda try to establish Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism.[12]

They state that the military solutions are “daunting” as Pakistan is a nation of 187 million people, roughly five times the size of Iraq. They wrote that, “estimates suggest that a force of more than a million troops would be required for a country of this size,” which led them to conclude, “Thus, if we have any hope of success, we would have to act before a complete government collapse, and we would need the cooperation of moderate Pakistani forces.” They suggested one plan would be to deploy Special Forces “with the limited goal of preventing Pakistan’s nuclear materials and warheads from getting into the wrong hand.” However, they admit that, “even pro-American Pakistanis would be unlikely to cooperate.” Another option, they contend:

would involve supporting the core of the Pakistani armed forces as they sought to hold the country together in the face of an ineffective government, seceding border regions and Al Qaeda and Taliban assassination attempts against the leadership. This would require a sizable combat force — not only from the United States, but ideally also other Western powers and moderate Muslim nations.[13]

The authors concluded, saying that any state decline in Pakistan would likely be gradual, therefore allowing the US to have time to respond, and placed an emphasis on securing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and combating militants. They finished the article with the warning: “Pakistan may be the next big test.”[14]

In December of 2007, the Asia Times Online ran a story about the US plan to rid Pakistan of President Musharraf, and that the US and the West, more broadly, had begun a strategy aimed at toppling Pakistan’s military. As part of this, the US launched a media campaign aimed at demonizing Pakistan’s military establishment. At this time, Benazir Bhutto was criticizing the ISI, suggesting they needed a dramatic restructuring, and at the same time, reports were appearing in the US media blaming the ISI for funding and providing assistance to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. While much of this is documented, the fact that it suddenly emerged as talking points with several western officials and in the media does suggest a turn-around against a long-time ally.[15]

Both Democratic and Republican politicians were making statements that Pakistan represented a greater threat than Iran, and then-Senator (now Vice President) Joseph Biden suggested that the United States needed to put soldiers on the ground in Pakistan in cooperation with the “international community.” Biden said that, “We should be in there,” and “we should be supplying tens of millions of dollars to build new schools to compete with the madrassas. We should be in there building democratic institutions. We should be in there, and get the rest of the world in there, giving some structure to the emergence of, hopefully, the reemergence of a democratic process.”[16]

In American policy-strategy circles, officials openly began discussing the possibility of Pakistan breaking up into smaller states, and increasing discussion that Musharraf was going to be “removed,” which obviously happened. As the Asia Times stated:

Another worrying thing is how US officials are publicly signaling to the Pakistanis that Bhutto has their backing as the next leader of the country. Such signals from Washington are not only a kiss of death for any public leader in Pakistan, but the Americans also know that their actions are inviting potential assassins to target Bhutto.

If she is killed in this way, there won’t be enough time to find the real culprit, but what’s certain is that unprecedented international pressure will be placed on Islamabad while everyone will use their local assets to create maximum internal chaos in the country.[17]

Of course, this subsequently happened in Pakistan. As the author of the article pointed out with startlingly accurate foresight, “Getting Bhutto killed can generate the kind of pressure that could result in permanently putting the Pakistani military on a back foot, giving Washington enough room to push for installing a new pliant leadership in Islamabad.” He observed that, “the US is very serious this time. They cannot let Pakistan get out of their hands.”[18]

Thus, it would appear that the new US strategic aim in Pakistan was focused on removing the Pakistani military from power, implying the need to replace Musharraf, and replace him with a new, compliant civilian leadership. This would have the effect of fracturing the Pakistani elite, threatening the Army’s influence within Pakistani politics, and undertaking more direct control of Pakistan’s government.

As if on cue, in late December it was reported that, “US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.”[19]

The New York Times ran an article in early January 2008, which reported that, “President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.” The article stated that the new strategy was purportedly in response to increased reports of Al-Qaeda and Taliban activity within Pakistan, which “are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government.” Bush’s National Security team supposedly organized this effort in response to Bhutto’s assassination 10 days previously.[20]

Officials involved in the strategy discussions said that some “options would probably involve the C.I.A. working with the military’s Special Operations forces,” and one official said, “After years of focusing on Afghanistan, we think the extremists now see a chance for the big prize — creating chaos in Pakistan itself.” Of pivotal importance to the strategy, as the Times reported: “Critics said more direct American military action would be ineffective, anger the Pakistani Army and increase support for the militants.”[21] Perhaps this is not simply a “side-effect” of the proposed strategy, but in fact, part of the strategy.

As one prominent Pakistani political and military analyst pointed out, raids into Pakistan would expand anger and “prompt a powerful popular backlash” against the Pakistani government, losing popular support.[22] However, as I previously stated, this might be the intention, as this would ultimately make the government more dependent upon the United States, and thus, more subservient.

On September 3, 2008, it was reported that a commando raid by US Special Forces was launched in Pakistan, which killed between 15 and 20 people, including women and children. The Special Forces were accompanied by five U.S. helicopters for the duration of the operation.[23]

In February of 2009, it was reported that, “More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas.” So not only are U.S. Special Forces invading Pakistani territory; but now US military advisers are secretly advising the Pakistani Army on its own operations, and the advisers are themselves primary made up of Special Forces soldiers. They provide the Pakistani Army “with intelligence and advising on combat tactics,” and make up a secret command run by US Central Command and Special Operations Command (presumably JSOC – Joint Special Operations Command).[24]

In May of 2009, it was reported that, “the U.S. is sending Special Forces teams into one of Pakistan’s most violent regions as part of a push to accelerate the training of the Pakistani military and make it a more effective ally in the fight against insurgents there.” The Special Forces were deploying to two training camps in the province of Baluchistan, and “will focus on training Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force responsible for battling the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.” Further, the project “is a joint effort with the U.K.,” which helps “fund the training, although it is unclear if British military personnel would take part in the initiative. British officials have been pushing for such an effort for several years.”[25]

In December of 2009 it was revealed that, “American special forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids into Pakistan’s tribal areas as part of a secret war in the border region where Washington is pressing to expand its drone assassination programme,” which was revealed by a former NATO officer. He said these incursions had occurred between 2003 and 2008, indicating they go even further back than US military documents stipulate. The source further revealed that, “the Pakistanis were kept entirely in the dark about it. It was one of those things we wouldn’t confirm officially with them.” Further, as the source noted, British “SAS soldiers have been active in the province” of Bolochistan in 2002 and 2003 and “possibly beyond.”[26]

The “Balkanization” of Pakistan: Blaming the Pakistanis

Selig S. Harrison is a director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former journalist and correspondent. “His reputation for giving ‘early warning’ of foreign policy crises was well established during his career as a foreign correspondent.  In his study of foreign reporting, Between Two Worlds, John Hohenberg, former secretary of the Pulitzer Prize Board, cited Harrison’s prediction of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war eighteen months before it happened.” Further, “More than a year before the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Harrison warned of this possibility in one of his frequent contributions to the influential journal Foreign Policy.”[27]

On February 1, 2008, Selig Harrison threw his renowned “predictive” abilities on Pakistan in an op-ed for the New York Times in the run-up to the Pakistani elections. He started by stating that, “Whatever the outcome of the Pakistani elections, now scheduled for Feb. 18, the existing multiethnic Pakistani state is not likely to survive for long unless it is radically restructured.” Harrison then went on to explain that Pakistan would likely break up along ethnic lines; with the Pashtuns, concentrated in the northwestern tribal areas, the Sindhis in the southeast uniting with the Baluch tribesmen in the southwest, with the Punjab “rump state” of Pakistan.[28]

The Pashtuns in the north, “would join with their ethnic brethren across the Afghan border (some 40 million of them combined) to form an independent ‘Pashtunistan’,” and the Sindhis “numbering 23 million, would unite with the six million Baluch tribesmen in the southwest to establish a federation along the Arabian Sea from India to Iran,” presumably named Baluchistan; while the rump state of Pakistan would remain Punjabi dominated and in control of the nuclear weapons. Selig Harrison explained that prior to partition from India, which led to the creation of the Pakistani state in 1947, Pashtun, Sindhi and Baluch ethnicities had “resist[ed] Punjabi domination for centuries,” and suddenly:

they found themselves subjected to Punjabi-dominated military regimes that have appropriated many of the natural resources in the minority provinces — particularly the natural gas deposits in the Baluch areas — and siphoned off much of the Indus River’s waters as they flow through the Punjab.

The resulting Punjabi-Pashtun animosity helps explain why the United States is failing to get effective Pakistani cooperation in fighting terrorists. The Pashtuns living along the Afghan border are happy to give sanctuary from Punjabi forces to the Taliban, which is composed primarily of fellow Pashtuns, and to its Qaeda friends.

Pashtun civilian casualties resulting from Pakistani and American air strikes on both sides of the border are breeding a potent underground Pashtun nationalist movement. Its initial objective is to unite all Pashtuns in Pakistan, now divided among political jurisdictions, into a unified province. In time, however, its leaders envisage full nationhood.

… The Baluch people, for their part, have been waging intermittent insurgencies since their forced incorporation into Pakistan in 1947. In the current warfare Pakistani forces are widely reported to be deploying American-supplied aircraft and intelligence equipment that was intended for use in Afghan border areas. Their victims are forging military links with Sindhi nationalist groups that have been galvanized into action by the death of Benazir Bhutto, a Sindhi hero as was her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.[29]

This passage is very revealing of the processes and perceptions surrounding “Balkanization” and “destabilization.” What I mean by this, is that historically and presently, imperial powers would often use ethnic groups against each other in a strategy of divide and conquer, in order “to keep the barbarians from coming together” and dominate the region.

Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in his 1997 book, “The Grand Chessboard,” that, “Geopolitics has moved from the regional to the global dimension, with preponderance over the entire Eurasian continent serving as the central basis for global primacy.”[30] Brzezinski then gave a masterful explanation of the American global strategy, which placed it into a firm imperialistic context:

To put it in a terminology that hearkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.[31]

While imperial powers manipulate, and historically, even create the ethnic groups within regions and nations, the West portrays conflict in such regions as being the product of these “ethnic” or “tribal” rivalries. This perception of the East (Asia and the Middle East) as well as Africa is referred to as Orientalism or Eurocentrism: meaning it generally portrays the East (and/or Africa) as “the Other”: inherently different and often barbaric. This prejudiced perspective is prevalent in Western academic, media, and policy circles. This perspective serves a major purpose: dehumanizing a people in a region that an imperial power seeks to dominate, which allows the hegemon to manipulate the people and divide them against each other, while framing them as “backwards” and “barbaric,” which in turn, justifies the Western imperial power exerting hegemony and control over the region; to “protect” the people from themselves.

Historically and presently, Western empires have divided people against each other, blamed the resulting conflict on the people themselves, and thus justified their control over both the people, and the region they occupy. This was the strategy employed in major recent geopolitical conflicts such as the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide. In both cases, Western imperial ambitions were met through exacerbating ethnic rivalries, providing financial, technical, and military aid and training to various factions; thus, spreading violent conflict, war, and genocide. In both cases, Western, and primarily American strategic interests were met through an increased presence militarily, pushing out other major imperial and powerful rivals, as well as increasing Western access to key economics resources.

This is the lens through which we must view the unfolding situation in Pakistan. However, the situation in Pakistan presents a far greater potential for conflict and devastation than either Yugoslavia or Rwanda. In short, the potential strategy of “Balkanization” and destabilization of Pakistan could dwarf any major global conflict in the past few decades. It’s sheer population of 187 million people, proximity to two major regional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its strategic location as neighbor to India, China, and Iran with access to the Indian Ocean, and its nuclear arsenal, combine to make Pakistan the potential trigger for a much wider regional and possibly global war. The destabilization of Pakistan has the potential to be the greatest geopolitical catastrophe since World War II.

Thus, Selig Harrison’s op-ed in the New York Times in which he describes the “likely” breakup of Pakistan along ethnic lines as a result of “ethnic differences” must be viewed in the wider context of geopolitical ambitions. His article lays the foundation both for the explanation of a potential breakup, and thus the “justification” for Western intervention in the conflict. His “predictive” capacities as a seasoned journalist can be alternatively viewed as pre-emptive imperial propaganda.

Fracturing Pakistan

The war in Afghanistan is inherently related to the situation in Pakistan. From the days of the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s, arms and money were flowing through Pakistan to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. During the civil war that followed, Pakistan armed and financed the Taliban, which eventually took power. When the U.S. and NATO initially attacked Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, this was primarily achieved through cooperation with Pakistan. When the war theatre was re-named “AfPak,” the role of Pakistan, however, was formally altered. While the previous few years had seen the implementation of a strategy of destabilizing Pakistan, once the “AfPak” war theatre was established, Pakistan ceased to be as much of a conduit or proxy state and became a target.

In September of 2008, the editor of Indian Defence Review wrote an article explaining that a stable Pakistan is not in India’s interests: “With Pakistan on the brink of collapse due to massive internal as well as international contradictions, it is matter of time before it ceases to exist.” He explained that Pakistan’s collapse would bring “multiple benefits” to India, including preventing China from gaining a major port in the Indian Ocean, which is in the mutual interest of the United States. The author explained that this would be a “severe jolt” to China’s expansionist aims, and further, “India’s access to Central Asian energy routes will open up.”[32]

In August of 2009, Foreign Policy Journal published a report of an exclusive interview they held with former Pakistani ISI chief Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, who was Director General of the powerful intelligence services (ISI) between 1987 and 1989, at a time in which it was working closely with the CIA to fund and arm the Mujahideen. Once a close ally of the US, he is now considered extremely controversial and the US even recommended the UN to put him on the international terrorist list. Gul explained that he felt that the American people have not been told the truth about 9/11, and that the 9/11 Commission was a “cover up,” pointing out that, “They [the American government] haven’t even proved the case that 9/11 was done by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.” He said that the real reasons for the war on Afghanistan were that:

the U.S. wanted to “reach out to the Central Asian oilfields” and “open the door there”, which “was a requirement of corporate America, because the Taliban had not complied with their desire to allow an oil and gas pipeline to pass through Afghanistan. UNOCAL is a case in point. They wanted to keep the Chinese out. They wanted to give a wider security shield to the state of Israel, and they wanted to include this region into that shield. And that’s why they were talking at that time very hotly about ‘greater Middle East’. They were redrawing the map.”[33]

He also stated that part of the reason for going into Afghanistan was “to go for Pakistan’s nuclear capability,” as the U.S. “signed this strategic deal with India, and this was brokered by Israel. So there is a nexus now between Washington, Tel Aviv, and New Delhi.” When he was asked about the Pakistani Taliban, which the Pakistani government was being pressured to fight, and where the financing for that group came from; Gul stated:

Yeah, of course they are getting it from across the Durand line, from Afghanistan. And the Mossad is sitting there, RAW is sitting there — the Indian intelligence agency — they have the umbrella of the U.S. And now they have created another organization which is called RAMA. It may be news to you that very soon this intelligence agency — of course, they have decided to keep it covert — but it is Research and Analysis Milli Afghanistan. That’s the name. The Indians have helped create this organization, and its job is mainly to destabilize Pakistan.[34]

He explained that the Chief of Staff of the Afghan Army had told him that he had gone to India to offer the Indians five bases in Afghanistan, three of which are along the Pakistani border. Gul was asked a question as to why, if the West was supporting the TTP (Pakistani Taliban), would a CIA drone have killed the leader of the TTP. Gul explained that while Pakistan was fighting directly against the TTP leader, Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani government would provide the Americans where Mehsud was, “three times the Pakistan intelligence tipped off America, but they did not attack him.” So why all of a sudden did they attack?

Because there were some secret talks going on between Baitullah Mehsud and the Pakistani military establishment. They wanted to reach a peace agreement, and if you recall there is a long history of our tribal areas, whenever a tribal militant has reached a peace agreement with the government of Pakistan, Americans have without any hesitation struck that target.

… there was some kind of a deal which was about to be arrived at — they may have already cut a deal. I don’t know. I don’t have enough information on that. But this is my hunch, that Baitullah was killed because now he was trying to reach an agreement with the Pakistan army. And that’s why there were no suicide attacks inside Pakistan for the past six or seven months.[35]

An article in one of Canada’s national magazines, Macleans, reported on an interview with a Pakistani ISI spy, who claimed that India’s intelligence services, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), have “tens of thousands of RAW agents in Pakistan.” Many officials inside Pakistan were convinced that, “India’s endgame is nothing less than the breakup of Pakistan. And the RAW is no novice in that area. In the 1960s, it was actively involved in supporting separatists in Bangladesh, at the time East Pakistan. The eventual victory of Bangladeshi nationalism in 1971 was in large part credited to the support the RAW gave the secessionists.”[36]

Further, there were Indian consulates set up in Kandahar, the area of Afghanistan where Canadian troops are located, and which is strategically located next to the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, which is home to a virulent separatist movement, of which Pakistan claims is being supported by India. Macleans reported on the conclusions by Michel Chossudovsky, economics professor at University of Ottawa, that, “the region’s massive gas and oil reserves are of strategic interest to the U.S. and India. A gas pipeline slated to be built from Iran to India, two countries that already enjoy close ties, would run through Baluchistan. The Baluch separatist movement, which is also active in Iran, offers an ideal proxy for both the U.S. and India to ensure their interests are met.”[37]

Even an Afghan government adviser told the media that India was using Afghan territory to destabilize Pakistan.[38] In September of 2009, the Pakistan Daily reported that captured members and leaders of the Pakistani Taliban have admitted to being trained and armed by India through RAW or RAMA in Afghanistan in order to fight the Pakistani Army.[39]

Foreign Policy magazine in February of 2009 quoted a former intelligence official as saying, “The Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” and that, “the same anti-Pakistani forces in Afghanistan also shooting at American soldiers are getting support from India. India should close its diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan and get the Christ out of there.”[40]

The Council on Foreign Relations published a backgrounder report on RAW, India’s intelligence agency, founded in 1968 “primarily to counter China’s influence, [however] over time it has shifted its focus to India’s other traditional rival, Pakistan.” For over three decades both Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies have been involved in covert operations against one another. One of RAW’s main successes was its covert operations in East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh, which “aimed at fomenting independence sentiment” and ultimately led to the separation of Bangladesh by directly funding, arming and training the Pakistani separatists. Further, as the Council on Foreign Relations noted, “From the early days, RAW had a secret liaison relationship with the Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency.”[41]

Since RAW was founded in 1968, it had developed close ties with the Afghan intelligence agency, KHAD, primarily to do with intelligence sharing on Pakistan. In the 1980s, while Pakistan was funding, arming and training the Afghan Mujahideen with the support of Saudi Arabia and the CIA, India was funding two covert groups which orchestrated terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, which included a “low-grade but steady campaign of bombings in major Pakistani cities, notably Karachi and Lahore.” RAW has also had a close relationship with the CIA, as even six years before RAW was created, in 1962, the CIA created a covert organization made up of Tibetan refugees, which aimed to “execute deep-penetration terror operations in China.” The CIA subsequently played a part in the creation of RAW. In the 1980s, while the CIA was working closely with the ISI in Pakistan, RAW, while wary of their relationship, continued to get counterterrorism training from the CIA.[42]

In October of 2009, the New York Times reported that the US strategy “to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors here, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban.” The U.S. gave Pakistan an aid deal of $1.5 billion per year for the next five years, under the stipulation of “Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics.” President Zaradari accepted the proposal, making him even more unpopular in Pakistan, and further angering Pakistan’s powerful military, which sees the deal as interfering in the internal affairs of the country.[43]

America is thus expanding its embassy and security presence within the country, as the Embassy “has publicized plans for a vast new building in Islamabad for about 1,000 people, with security for some diplomats provided through a Washington-based private contracting company, DynCorp.” The NYT article referred to how relations were becoming increasingly strained between Pakistan and the US, and tensions were growing within the country exponentially, as “the American presence was fueling a sense of occupation among Pakistani politicians and security officials,” and several Pakistani officials stated that, “the United States was now seen as behaving in Pakistan much as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Futher:

In particular, the Pakistani military and the intelligence agencies are concerned that DynCorp is being used by Washington to develop a parallel network of security and intelligence personnel within Pakistan, officials and politicians close to the army said.

The concerns are serious enough that last month a local company hired by DynCorp to provide Pakistani men to be trained as security guards for American diplomats was raided by the Islamabad police. The owner of the company, the Inter-Risk Security Company, Capt. Syed Ali Ja Zaidi, was later arrested.

The action against Inter-Risk, apparently intended to cripple the DynCorp program, was taken on orders from the senior levels of the Pakistani government, said an official familiar with the raid, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The entire workings of DynCorp within Pakistan are now under review by the Pakistani government.[44]

As revealed in the Wikileaks diplomatic cables, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson wrote in September of 2009 that the U.S. strategy of unilateral strikes inside Pakistan “risk destabilizing the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis in Pakistan without finally achieving the goal.”[45]

In an interview with Press TV, Hamid Gul, former Inter-Services Intelligence chief revealed more of what he sees as the US strategy in Pakistan. He explained that with the massive expansion of the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, and alongside that, the increased security staff, the Chinese are becoming increasingly concerned with the sovereignty and security of Pakistan. He claimed that the money that the US government offered (with heavy conditions) to Pakistan, $1.5 billion every year for five years, will be spent under the direction of the Americans, and that “they are going to set up a large intelligence network inside Pakistan,” and ultimately “they really want to go for Pakistan’s nuclear assets.” He further claimed that the Indians are trying to destabilize Pakistan; however, he explained, this does not necessarily mean disintegrate, but rather:

they are trying to destabilize Pakistan at the moment so that it feels weak and economically has to go begging on its knees to Americans and ask for succor and help. And in that process they will want to expect certain concessions with regards to nuclear power and also with regards to setting up their facilities here in Pakistan.[46]

When he was asked what America’s long-term goal was in regards to Pakistan, Gul responded that the goal:

for America is that they want to keep Pakistan destabilized; perhaps create a way for Baluchistan as a separate state and then create problems for Iran so that this new state will talk about greater Baluchistan… So it appears that the long-term objectives are really to fragment all these countries to an extent that they can establish a strip that would be pro-America, pro-India, pro-Israel. So this seems to be their long-term objective apart from denuclearizing Pakistan and blocking Iran’s progress in the nuclear field.[47]

In Part 2 of ‘Pakistan in Pieces’, I will examine the specific ways in which the American strategy of destabilization is being undertaken in Pakistan, including the waging of a secret war and the expansion of the Afghan war into Pakistani territory. In short, the military and intelligence projections for Pakistan over the next several years (discussed in the beginning of Part 1 above) are a self-fulfilling prophecy, as those very same military and intelligence agencies that predict a destabilized Pakistan and potential collapse are now undertaking strategies aimed at achieving those outcomes.

Notes

[1]        NIC, Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts. The Central Intelligence Agency: December 2000: page 64

http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2015.html

[2]        Ibid, page 66.

[3]        Ibid.

[4]        PTI, Pak will be failed state by 2015: CIA. The Times of India: February 13, 2005: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Pak-will-be-failed-state-by-2015-CIA/articleshow/1019516.cms

[5]        NIC, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World. The National Intelligence Council: November 2008: page x

http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html

[6]        Ibid, page 45.

[7]        Ibid, page 65.

[8]        Ibid, page 72.

[9]        Peter Goodspeed, Mexico, Pakistan face ‘rapid and sudden’ collapse: Pentagon. The National Post: January 15, 2009:http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=1181621

[10]      PAUL MCGEOUGH, Warning that Pakistan is in danger of collapse within months. The Sydney Morning Herald: April 13, 2009: http://www.smh.com.au/world/warning-that-pakistan-is-in-danger-of-collapse-within-months-20090412-a40u.html

[11]      Scott Lindlaw, AP: U.S. gave troops OK to enter Pakistan. USA Today: August 23, 2007: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-08-23-pakistan-engagement_N.htm

[12]      Frederick Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon, Pakistan’s Collapse, Our Problem. November 18, 2007: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/opinion/18kagan.html

[13]      Ibid.

[14]      Ibid.

[15]      Ahmed Quraishi, The plan to topple Pakistan’s military. Asia Times Online: December 6, 2007: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IL06Df03.html

[16]      Ibid.

[17]      Ibid.

[18]      Ibid.

[19]      Ian Bruce, Special forces on standby over nuclear threat. The Sunday Herald: December 31, 2007: http://www.heraldscotland.com/special-forces-on-standby-over-nuclear-threat-1.871766

[20]      Steven Lee Myers, David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, U.S. Considers New Covert Push Within Pakistan. The New York Times: January 6, 2008:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/washington/06terror.html

[21]      Ibid.

[22]      Ibid.

[23]      Farhan Bokhari, Sami Yousafzai, and Tucker Reals, U.S. Special Forces Strike In Pakistan. CBS News: September 3, 2008:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/03/terror/main4409288.shtml

[24]      Eric Schmitt and Jane Perlez, U.S. Unit Secretly in Pakistan Lends Ally Support. The New York Times: February 22, 2009:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/asia/23terror.html

[25]      YOCHI J. DREAZEN and SIOBHAN GORMAN, U.S. Special Forces Sent to Train Pakistanis. The Wall Street Journal: May 16, 2009:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124241541672724767.html

[26]      Declan Walsh, US forces mounted secret Pakistan raids in hunt for al-Qaida. The Guardian: December 21, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/21/us-forces-secret-pakistan-raids

[27]      CIP, SELIG S. HARRISON. Center for International Policy: http://www.ciponline.org/asia/Seligbio.html

[28]      Selig S. Harriosn, Drawn and Quartered. The New York Times: February 1, 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/opinion/01harrison.html

[29]      Ibid.

[30]      Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives. (New York: Perseus, 1997), page 39

[31]      Ibid, page 40.

[32]      Bharat Verma, Stable Pakistan not in India’s interest. Indian Defence Review: September 11, 2008: http://www.indiandefencereview.com/2008/09/stable-pakistan-not-in-indias-interest.html

[33]      Jeremy R. Hammond, Ex-ISI Chief Says Purpose of New Afghan Intelligence Agency RAMA Is ‘to destabilize Pakistan’. Foreign Policy Journal: August 12, 2009:http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2009/08/12/ex-isi-chief-says-purpose-of-new-afghan-intelligence-agency-rama-is-%E2%80%98to-destabilize-pakistan%E2%80%99/

[34]      Ibid.

[35]      Ibid.

[36]      Adnan R. Khan, New Delhi’s endgame? Macleans: August 23, 2009: http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/23/new-delhi%E2%80%99s-endgame/

[37]      Ibid. See also Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Pakistan, Global Research, December 30, 2007

[38]      Imtiaz Indher, Afgan MPs call for early withdrawal of foreign troop. Associated Press of Pakistan: April 1, 2009: http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72423&Itemid=2

[39]      Moin Ansari, Proof: Captured TTP terrorists admit to being Indian RAW agents. Pakistan Daily: September 20, 2009: http://www.daily.pk/proof-captured-ttp-terrorists-admit-to-being-indian-raw-agents-11015/

[40]      Laura Rozen, Can the intel community defuse India-Pakistan tensions? Foreign Policy: February 16, 2009:
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/16/can_the_intel_community_defuse_india_pakistan_tensions

[41]      Jayshree Bajoria, RAW: India’s External Intelligence Agency. The Council on Foreign Relations: November 7, 2008: http://www.cfr.org/publication/17707/

[42]      Ibid.

[43]      Jane Perlez, U.S. Push to Expand in Pakistan Meets Resistance. The New York Times: October 5, 2009:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/asia/06islamabad.html

[44]      Ibid.

[45]      US embassy cables, Reviewing our Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, The Guardian, 30 November 2010: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/226531

[46]      US military bases ‘will destabilize Pakistan’. Press TV: September 13, 2009: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=106106&sectionid=3510302

[47]      Ibid.

Andrew Gavin Marshall is a frequent contributor to Global Research.NOTE:THIS IS A CROSS POST FROM GLOBAL RESEARCH

Now They Are Frying Baby Brains

[Electroshock works by overstimulating the electrical circuits of the mind until they shut down, or "reboot."  It calms agitated minds by silencing part of the mind itself.  In extreme examples of electroshock, the mind is literally erased, at least the short-term memory is disrupted, leaving a blank slate that "psychologists" or "hypno-therapists" can then re-write, with whatever new thoughts they choose.  The dangers of using this "medical procedure" (which was first used extensively by Nazi scientists in terminal experiments in the death camps) to erase or recondition human minds cannot be overstated.  I say this as a family member of a former electroshock patient (SEE:  Human Nature Is the Enemy of the State).  It is obvious that this treatment causes massive permanent brain damage.  To use this technique upon a fitful, unruly, or autistic child to calm whatever it is that agitates them, is criminal, in my opinion.  How much of their minds and their future memories will be destroyed?  No one bothers to mention that the alleged "therapeutic" benefits gained in the sessions are only temporary, needing to be reinforced at approximately two week intervals to maintain the new balance (SEE:  Electric shock therapy blanked out parts of my life says Erdington man).]

Electroconvulsive Therapy in Pediatric Psychiatry

Neuron back backgroundElectroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial practice of dealing with mental disorders and one that has attracted its fair share of detractors. Despite the fact that it was first used as long ago as 1938, it still carries with it a stigma that some find difficult to overlook. One might believe this method is one as harebrained as those employed in the middle ages to rid people of the demons that had possessed their minds. Unlike holes drilled into the skull, the use of ECT as a form of psychiatric treatment has continued into the present day. However, the ethical questions and legislations governing its practice mean that its use in the resolution of the severe symptoms of mental disorders in children is bound to be a delicate topic.

In recent years, the research on the effective ECT has been extended to its application in pediatrics. A recent study provides hope that the may be beneficial in the treatment of the more severe symptoms of autism as well as mood disorders in children. This study, undertaken by Wachtel, Jaffe and Kellner, examined the effectiveness of pediatric ECT in treating the symptoms exhibited by an autistic prepubescent boy with bipolar affective disorder. The 11-year-old child had been diagnosed with autism when he was two and a half years old. This combined with his unpredictable mood swings had resulted in him behaving aggressively towards his own family and caregivers. However the damage meted out to those who looked after him in no way compared to that he inflicted on himself. Photographs included with the research show the child with his face and hands bloodied from self-abuse.

A slew of pharmaceuticals prescribed to subdue these symptoms had no discernible effect on his behavior. As an inpatient, he was put on a new combination of drugs that led to some improvement but the violent symptoms returned in full force shortly after he was discharged. It was possibly the severity of the situation that led to his case being accepted as a candidate for pediatric ECT.

Eight ECT treatments were conducted on a three-times-a-week basis. By the fourth treatment, the child who had been unable to go to school or interact with other children due to “safety concerns” and needed two adult supervisors around him at all times, could now enjoy family outings and community interaction. He was reported to be “happy and calm” and, for what might have been the first time, could sleep soundly through the night. The paper closes with a recent picture of this boy we know only as J., sliding down a tunnel in a public playground smiling broadly for the camera. Following the end of J.’s ECT treatment he still required “maintenance” ECT on a weekly or fortnightly basis to prevent the symptoms from returning. While his therapists work on weaning him off the treatment entirely, his parents and carers continue to report on his ever-increasing cache of achievements, most recently spending five days away at summer camp.

Lee Wachtel has done some extensive work in the field of autism and the catatonic symptoms that accompany it in its more severe forms. She tends to focus her research on disorders that affect children and adolescents and the effectiveness of ECT on cases that are exceptionally severe. In addition to this study, Wachtel together with Griffin, Dhossche and Reti also put together a paper documenting their work with 14 year old autistic boy who was exhibiting the standard symptoms of catatonia including waxy flexibility, mutism and unresponsiveness. In this case, the symptoms were non-violent but more resistant to treatment. A number of variants of electroconvulsive therapy were utilised before a change in behavior was evident. However, those changes in behavior include independent performance of all activities of daily living, an active return to academics via home-schooling, and participation in sports including running, swimming, basketball and even horse-riding as a component of equine therapy.

The use of ECT in pediatrics is inadequately researched, not just because of the stigma associated with the practice,, but also because of legislation that governs the administration of this form of therapy on minors due to ethical concerns. In addition, Croarkin et al say that most psychologists who deal with adolescent and child psychiatry are not sufficiently trained in the use of ECT. Even more sparsely researched are the long term effects of ECT on its recipients. Though a handful of longitudinal studies do exist that attempt to cover this, the standard of the research methods employed remains ambiguous. Studies such as those conducted by Wachtel and others like her demonstrate the almost immediate benefits ECT has to offer in the field of pediatric mental health. However the question remains as to whether these benefits will hold in the long run without causing in any additional damage to the brain. Unfortunately, the answer is one we will have to wait for, but till then we can hope.

References

Avery D, & Winokur G (1977). The efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy and antidepressants in depression. Biological psychiatry, 12 (4), 507-23 PMID: 889984

Croarkin, P., McCaffrey, P., McClintock, S., Rodez, C., & Husain, M. (2009). Electroconvulsive Therapy in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Current Psychiatry Reviews, 5 (4), 298-305 DOI: 10.2174/157340009789542141

Greenberg RM, & Kellner CH (2005). Electroconvulsive therapy: a selected review. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 13 (4), 268-81 PMID: 15845752

Payne NA, & Prudic J (2009). Electroconvulsive therapy: Part I. A perspective on the evolution and current practice of ECT. Journal of psychiatric practice, 15 (5), 346-68 PMID:19820553

Wachtel LE, Griffin MM, Dhossche DM, & Reti IM (2010). Brief report: Electroconvulsive therapy for malignant catatonia in an autistic adolescent. Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 14 (4), 349-58 PMID: 20591959

Wachtel LE, Jaffe R, & Kellner CH (2011). Electroconvulsive therapy for psychotropic-refractory bipolar affective disorder and severe self-injury and aggression in an 11-year-old autistic boy. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 20 (3), 147-52 PMID: 21249407

Radhika Takru, MA

Ms. Takru has a Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in Psychology, a Postgraduate Degree in Media, and is currently working on a Masters degree by research from Monash University on digital media and its effects on individual behavior and socialisation. She moonlights as a music critic.

PNS Mehran: Ex-Navy commando held

PNS Mehran: Ex-Navy commando held

LAHORE: A former Pakistan Navy Commando and two of his associates have been arrested in connection with attack on Pakistan Navy airbase PNS Mehran, Geo News reported Monday.Kamran Ahmed was court-martialed 10 years ago on charges of torture. A brother and aide were also arrested by the security agencies on Friday.

He had been posted at PNS Mehran and PNS Iqbal.

“CIA Mouthpiece” Saleem Shahzad of Asia Times Goes Missing

[SEE: CIA Agent Sees Dead People   ;  CIA Mouthpiece Credits “al Qaida” With “Strategic Corridor” Idea ]

Journalist Saleem Shahzad goes missing

Days before his disappearance, Shahzad had authored an article that alleged links between navy officials and al Qaeda. — File photo

ISLAMABAD: Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistan bureau chief of Asia Times Online, went missing Sunday evening, DawnNews reported.

Days before his disappearance, Shahzad had authored an article that alleged links between navy officials and al Qaeda.

Ali Imran, a Coordinator at the South Asia Free Media Association (Safma) in an email stated that Mr Shahbaz had left his house in Islamabad to participate in a television program but that he did not reach the TV station.

He did not contact his family and friends either, Mr Imran said, adding that Mr Shahzad’s mobile phone and car had not been traced yet.

French lawyers plan Libya lawsuit against Sarkozy

French lawyers plan Libya lawsuit against Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy

TRIPOLI: Two French lawyers said they planned to initiate legal proceedings against French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday for crimes against humanity over the NATO-led military campaign in Libya.

A Libyan justice ministry official Ibrahim Boukhzam told reporters in Tripoli that Jacques Verges and Roland Dumas had offered to represent families he said were victims of the NATO bombing campaign.

“The two lawyers are going to file a complaint in the French courts in the name of the Libyan families,” Boukhzam said, at a press conference on Sunday attended by 30 representatives of the families.

Verges, whose past clients include Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal, denounced a “French state led by hoodlums and killers.

“We are going to break the wall of silence,” he added.

Dumas, a former socialist minister, said the NATO mission, which was meant to protect civilians, was in fact killing them.

He denounced what he described as “a brutal assault against a sovereign country” and said he was ready to defend Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi should he ever be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Earlier this month, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked for arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam, and his brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi as part of an investigation into crimes against humanity.

On March 19, Sarkozy announced the launch of military action in Libya, backed by Western countries and Arab allies, as Gaddafi’s forces threatened the rebel-held city of Benghazi.

A French warplane was the first to enforce a UN resolution calling for a no-fly zone and protection of civilians in Libya.

Dumas and Verges were speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Libya. They said they would begin legal proceedings on their return to France on Monday.

An Eyewitness Account of the Attack At Mehran

[A friend in Pakistan (retired military) sent me the following.]

An Eyewitness Account of the Attack At Mehran

http://old.thenews.com.pk/updates_pics/5-22-2011_15944_l.jpg
Friends,
A friend, senior retired professional general well respected, sent me this alarming piece. I am forwarding for your analysis and comments.
XX
                              Where do we go from here?!

I met an officer of my unit at a wedding on Sunday 29 may ’11.  As my unit is in Malir, I asked him if he had any knowledge of the Mehran attack. He said, his company was the one called in for the operation as it was on rapid deployment force duty. He gave me a blow by blow account of what happened. I shall only give the gist of what he said.

 

 

   The runway of Shahrah e faisal is shared by the Navy as well as the PAF. The runway is the dividing line.

 At the perimeter of the naval base is a nullah about 15-20 meters wide. This is full of shrubs and trees and bushes.  The terrorists had parked their vehicles about two KMs down and walked along the far side of the nullah. At exactly 90 degrees from the Orions they built a proper infantry fashion Assault Bridge. They crossed the nullah over the assault bridge, and  made a bee line to the Orions. Four of the attackers went round from the PAF side and took up positions facing the Orions, across the runway.

 They fired all the seventy rocket launchers they had brought onto and into the two parked Orions. The destruction was total. The officer said except for two pieces of tyres of  an aircraft which he saw, everything else was total ashes.

 

 The attackers had come in totally undetected. When they fired the rockets simultaneously, the local naval security forces rushed to the point. They ran in along the runway. The firing went on for about 12-15 mns. Immediately after the fire the attackers on the Naval side withdrew across the assault bridge and disappeared. No one knows how many they were. Figures quoted are only conjectures.

When the local security forces rushed along the runway, they inadvertently cut off the route of withdrawal of the four attackers. And a cross fire started between the two sides.

In the meantime, this officers company had reached the mehran base by about 11 pm. However, they had orders ‘from above’, to not to enter the base. They could hear the firing but were not allowed to move in.

 At 1:30 in the morning they were allowed to move in but were prohibited to open fire. At this stage I asked him if they had been sent in to sell pakoras! He was quite cut up and said the troops were very upset about it too. But their orders were very strict – no fire.

By this time all fire had stopped before they were allowed to move in.

 They knew that four attackers were still there in the PAF area. An area search was carried out but no one was found because of the night. After first light along with the Zarrar company of SSG the grounds were scoured. An officer with a jawan were searching for a lost magazine, as they neared a large bush, they were fired upon. The sepoy was injured. The officer fired back and killed the attacker. Thereafter three more were killed in an exchange of fire. No more bodies were found

While this company was being held outside the Base, the officer said he saw Rahman malik on the TV giving a running commentary on the action as if he was standing in the witness stand!! He also stated that before they were allowed in, RM was announcing very happily “all the terrorists have escaped. No one has been killed or captured”. The troops and officers were all aghast at his attitude and his glee!!

 All the weapons and equipment found on the site and attackers was of Russian origin.

The attackers were in the middle of two bases and all the aircraft of the PN and PAF were within their beat. They could have destroyed or incapacitated most of the PAF aircraft and helicopters including Lamas. But nothing else was touched.. They had concentrated their total fire power onto the total destruction of the two Orions only.

  The Americans on the base were flown out the same night.

 I have tried to reproduce what the officer said, verbatim.

 

My observations.

These Orions had been used for surveillance in Baluchistan where the Americans are actively involved in terrorist activities. All their activities were monitored and the wireless messages were recorded. This is the capacity of the Orion. And therefore that could have been a great embarrassment for the Americans if it leaked out. Hence the Orions had to be destroyed so much that the recorders and black boxes were destroyed too along with the nefarious evidence.

    The attackers came direct onto the two parked Orions because they were guided through Satellite GPS. The Americans at the base were acting as FACs to direct them. They had finished their jobs and were no longer required. Their safety demanded they be not available for any interrogation etc.

     RM was in charge of the operations, and thus the peculiar orders to the army unit,  ostensibly for the safety of his American friends

 

  Another revealing news I got was that the Americans are paying USD 500millions each annually to Asif, Rahman and Nawaz  Sharif to keep their mouths shut and look after US interests. One of the bankers being quoted said he had been involved personally in the transaction of $500 M in the case of Nawaz!

 

   The photo of one attacker killed shows a full tattoo on his left arm fro stout shoulder to hand. This excludes the person being a Taliban, a Muslim, Pakistani or even Indian. Its not part of our culture. Russian or Europeans would have a single tattoo. The full arm or body tattoos are only American culture. Draw your own comclusions.

  I thought you should know.

  ( Name removed )

Israel’s Fission Field Warfare: Pakistan, Iraq and Egypt

Israel’s Fission Field Warfare: Pakistan, Iraq and Egypt

Israel’s Fission Field Warfare 
is the highest degree
of false flag terrorism.

by Jonathan Azaziah

Fission is defined as ‘the act or process of splitting into parts.’ In a more scientific explanation, fission is defined as ‘division of the atomic nucleus into two lighter fragments releasing energy. In a nuclear power station, fission occurs slowly, while in a nuclear weapon, very rapidly. In both instances, fission must be very carefully controlled.’

When applied to daily shifts on the geopolitical front, the first definition is self explanatory. The second definition however, requires a bit of dissection. The ‘nucleus’ of a stable society is the peaceful, brotherly and harmonious interaction between its people. To split this nucleus through fission, thus disrupting the interaction and establishing division, the variable needed is any type of bombardment.

Once the nucleus is split, the energy released is that which resembles misunderstanding, enmity, frustration and even hatred. Since the fission itself is controlled ‘very carefully,’ the manipulators must also induce the bombardment. This bombardment can be directed at either side of the divided societal ‘nucleus,’ fomenting an ever-expanding atmosphere of perpetual blaming and infighting. By constantly injecting deception into the enclaves where the newly formed ‘fragments’ have been divided, they remain quite incognizant of the reason that they have been split from their harmonious core to begin with.

Sustaining this division in nations which aren’t fully aligned with the greater globalist agenda, also known as ‘hostile environments,’ tips the geopolitical scale in the favor of the manipulators and their agents who designed the bombardment. There is an entity that has mastered this political fission, or ‘fission field warfare.’ And that criminal entity is Israel.

The Zionist entity has always
considered the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan its enemy.

Hostile Environment I: Humiliation In Pakistan

The Zionist entity’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, an insidiously racist man devoid of any humanity and the architect of the Palestinian Nakba which ethnically cleansed Palestine of its indigenous, possessed an excessively xenophobic and brutally delusional world view. Nothing provides better evidence of this than the disturbing remarks that Ben-Gurion levied against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1967:

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first
prime minister, laid out the
blueprints to destroy
Pakistan in 1967.

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological state is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs. This lover of Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for world Zionism that it now take steps against Pakistan. Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian Peninsula are Hindus, whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims. Therefore, India is the most important base for us to work from against Pakistan. It is essential that  we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans (1).”

Fast forward to the new millennium, and David Ben-Gurion’s speech has manifested within every inch of Pakistan’s societal woes via extensive fission field warfare employed cooperatively by Mossad and Hindutvadi India’s RAW.

In 2001, Mossad and RAW founded four new agencies for the specific purpose of unleashing chaos throughout Pakistan, targeting the upper echelons of its political sphere and financial sectors. Using high-powered explosives, trains, railway stations, bus stations, hotels and cinemas would all be targets of bombardment. Most integral to the Zionism-Hindutva intelligence nexus however, was the religious establishment. Operatives would strategically place explosives in the mosques of various sects and leave false flags to create the appearance of a ‘sectarian’ hit. RAW led the way in the recruitment phase of the operation, luring Pakistani men between the ages of 20 and 30 into visiting India, before ruining them with entrapment and subversion, coercing them into working against their nation (2).

Following the example of the Zionist entity’s usual knack for extremism when titling its subversive military-intelligence operations, the next phase of Pakistan’s ‘crushing’ is known as the ‘Dragon Policy,’ named after the Talmudic interpretation of the dragon, where the serpent-like beast serves as the splitter and transformer of light into darkness. This facet of the Zionist stratagem begins with the recruiting, where experts of Mossad and RAW train personalities from varying criminal sectors in the finer arts of covert operations and terrorism, including mercenaries, mafia dons and narcotics tycoons. Like the CIA funding its covert operations in Latin America with monolithic amounts of cocaine distribution in poor African-American communities at home (3), Zionist and Hindutvadi intelligence mirrored this format, only with heroin cultivated from illegal poppy crops.

Kept in the dark for decades, 
the collaboration between 
Mossad and RAW against 
Pakistan has been deadly.

At least 57 recruitment/training camps across India and illegally occupied Kashmir were established by the Mossad-RAW alliance; each camp breeding terrorists controlled by Tel Aviv and New Delhi to be launched inside Pakistan. Mossad and Aman (Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate) financially contributed to this operation in an elephantine manner. Once recruits are deployed into the field, RAW provides them with cash, weapons and ammunition while posing as Al-Qaeda. Subsequently, through the media networks in the West, which are exclusively owned by fierce Zionist extremists, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are blamed for ‘terrorism’ and Pakistan is heavily criticized for being incompetently unable to combat it (4).

The strength of the Mossad-RAW Dragon Policy is solidified through its partnership with the hunter-killer mercenary giant, Blackwater, now known as Xe. Blackwater, under the leadership of ex-CIA officer Erik Prince and Christian Zionist-Dominionist Dick DeVos, became a hive for Israel Firsters within America’s power structure; a haven for elements sympathetic to Zionism and full of irrational hatred for the Arab and Muslim world (5). This Zionist fervor within Xe made it an obvious candidate for a confederation with Israel and Hindutva.

Blackwater (Xe) is actively working with Mossad and
RAW in the implementation of the Zionist 
operation known as the ‘Dragon Policy.’

Personnel from the top tiers of Mossad and RAW ordnance units have coordinated strikes with strategically  placed Xe cells within Pakistan to unleash furious bombings when ‘patsy’ agents are unable to secure a ‘checkout’ on a designated mission. The massacre that claimed the lives of 54 innocent Shia and injured 150 others at an Al-Quds Rally in early September 2010 was initially blamed on the ‘Tehrik-I-Taliban,’ a fictional ‘Sunni’ extremist group, as per Dragon Policy strategy. In reality however, this bloodbath was a fission field warfare operation carried out by Xe, in cohesion with Mossad and RAW, to foment division between Sunni and Shia and Pakistan (6). The real Taliban has pegged Blackwater (Xe) on numerous occasions for committing atrocities and wrongfully blaming it on Islam (7).

Recent atrocities in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan fall along the lines of the exact pattern. Twin truck bombings in the northwestern Pakistani town of Peshawar have just claimed the lives of at least 7 innocents, including 2 women, and injured 14 others. The ‘Taliban’ has been blamed for the crime (8). Peshawar is an active stronghold for the Mossad-RAW nexus, and the intelligence agencies have been previously caught by local police engaging in terrorism (9). The truck bomb of course, is a surefire sign of Israeli involvement; it serves as one of Tel Aviv’s signatures. Nearly 29 years ago, the Zionist entity infamously used this highly destructive and deadly weapon to murder 241 US Marines in Beirut while they were sleeping (10).

On January 25th, at least 16 Shia were murdered and 70 others were wounded when car bombs and motorcycle bombs detonated during a religious ceremony. The attacks were blamed on ‘pro-Taliban militants (11),’ revealing the fingerprints of the Dragon Policy. The car bomb is another of Mossad’s signature devices, primarily used in the execution of false flag operations, whether the designated target is a political assassination or everyday terrorism against civilian populations (12). The motorcycle bomb is also a weapon of the Israeli agency, typically unleashed in high-level operations, including in its recent hit on Iranian nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Muhammadi, murdered by Mossad in front of his home (13).

The imaginary ‘Tehrik-I-Taliban’ was at it again on January 28th, in perfect union with the increasing activity of the Mossad-RAW Dragon Policy, blowing up two girls’ schools and a college in southwestern Pakistan (14). Military-grade dynamite was used, powerful enough to level city blocks, not homemade bombs as the media of the Zionist criminal network would lead the masses to believe.

“By deception, thou shalt wage war” are the words that govern every action of the Mossad. Deception is the very essence of fission field warfare. The bombardments that foment the fission are only the top layer of this intricate form of terrorism. There is a specific reason behind each operation, an ‘origin point.’ The origin point is a world event needing to be deflected from public attention, as a means of exhorting further Zionist control over the masses and consolidating as much power as possible.

An agent of Xe (Blackwater) just
gunned down two innocent
Pakistani men in Lahore for 
absolutely no reason.

At this particular time, the origin point for deliverance of fission field warfare in Pakistan is the growing  concern over Blackwater’s all-out infiltration of the Islamic nation, culminating in a mercenary of the hunter-killer corporation gunning down two innocent Pakistani men in front of the US embassy in Lahore (15). This act of blatant lawlessness and degradation is coupled with the growing unrest throughout Pakistan regarding drone strikes and ongoing injustice against Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. The Resistance of the people has grown stronger and even bolder.

Tribesmen in north Waziristan are suing the CIA for killing their family members (16). In trepidation, the CIA pulled ‘Jonathan Banks,’ its station chief in Islamabad and target of the tribesmen’s lawsuit, hoping it could bury the fury of the people and continue its drone campaign (17). But its move was futile. The protests are becoming larger in terms of sheer size, including one that exceeded 10,000 demonstrators in the Mossad-riddled town of Peshawar (18), and another which was comprised of tens of thousands in Karachi (19). And the people aren’t alone in their disgust and desire to see the CIA “video-game” style murder campaign come to an end. All leading political parties in Pakistan (puppets and non-puppets alike) have united in the call to end the CIA’s drone campaign (20), a showing of political unity not seen in decades.

The nucleus of Pakistan was reforming; rejecting calls of the hegemonists in D.C. and Tel Aviv and expelling the energies of enmity and frustration for a common cause of national unity and the defense of its sovereignty. Israel’s fission field warfare however, has reestablished the foundation of division laid out by Ben-Gurion over 40 years prior.

Zionist agents of the Project for a New American Century 
(PNAC) planned and executed the annihilation of Iraq.

Hostile Environment II: Destruction of Occupied Iraq

Fission field warfare is the armed aspect of the Zionist entity’s “Greater Israel” grand scheme, which it is attempting to bring forth through the ‘Fracture Theory of Zion (FTZ).’ FTZ is a centuries-old operation that was born with Zionism in the echoes of the infamous extremist saying, “from the Nile to the Euphrates.” It encompasses fission field warfare, which breeds division through military and intelligence means, along with diplomatic manipulation (i.e. the global Zionist lobby), financial isolation (i.e. the Zionist international banking cartels and sanctions against Iran) and opposition infiltration (i.e. the subversion of the anti-war and truth movements by Zionist-run Wikileaks). FTZ is the doctrine which provides cover for Israeli expansionism and generates a plethora of new wars to strengthen the ‘Israeli empire (21).’

There isn’t a country on earth that has suffered more at the hands of Israel’s Fracture Theory of Zion than the occupied, annihilated Arab nation of Iraq. The evidence of it is ample. The admissions of guilt from the Zionist criminal network are numerous. Mossad began funding Kurdish collaborationists in northern Iraq as early as the 1950s (22), planting the seeds for Arab-Kurdish ethnic tensions and divisions. Israeli foreign policy advisor Oded Yinon compiled the blueprint for splitting Iraq, a centrist nation of religionists and secularists, Muslims and Christians, affluents, the working class and the poor, into three sectarian states in 1982 (23), furthering ethnic tensions and creating religious divides.

Yinon’s blueprint was reinforced by the “Clean Break Papers,” written for Benjamin Netanyahu by a study group of Zionist war criminals led by chief criminal, Richard Perle. This document emphasized Israel’s necessity to destabilize then “redefine” Iraq to its liking (24). Immediately following the Clean Break papers, the Project For A New American Century (PNAC) was created by a who’s who of top tier Zionists with dual American-Israeli citizenship, including the Clean Break authors and the architect of the invasion of Iraq himself, Zionist mass murderer Paul Wolfowitz (25). Obliterating Iraq was one of PNAC’s primary objectives, and the think tank wrote a letter to war criminal Bill Clinton in 1998, mapping out the steps to be taken for regime change and nation destruction, including “a systematic air campaign (26).” Two years later, it would write a monumental foreign policy dictate which prominently featured Iraq’s annihilation and the means needed to carry it out via a “new Pearl Harbor,” a.k.a. the September 11th attacks (27).

One year after September 11th, and 6 months before the genocidal “liberation” of Iraq, Israeli war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu echoed his colleagues at PNAC when he issued a lengthy speech to the House Committee on Government Reform in promotion of invading and occupying Iraq, stating that before any action is taken against the Arab nation, the “people of Israel” must be insured that they will be safe (28). Condoleeza Rice, the Zionist war criminal that held the Secretary of State position in the Likudnik Bush White House, has gone on record to state that America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq was for the protection of the usurping entity in Tel Aviv (29).

Decades of Zionist positioning culminated in the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. The ‘shock and awe’ tactics implemented by the US-UK occupying forces to decimate the Iraqi people allowed Israel to penetrate every sector of their society. Deploying Mossad agents in every region of the nation, the Zionist entity assassinated over 530 Iraqi scientists and academics, initiated an extermination campaign targeting Iraqi Christians and commissioned Zeev Belinsky, a Zionist criminal who is one of the leading businessmen behind the Apartheid Wall in occupied Palestine (30), to build a separation wall in Baghdad to divide Shia and Sunni communities and breed enmity between them (31).

Genocidal criminal Paul Wolfowitz, 
an avid Zionist, led the march into Baghdad 
at the behest of Tel Aviv.

Belinsky’s project was aided by one of Iraq’s most notorious traitors, Ahmed Chalabi, whose INC (Iraqi National Congress) was created by the CIA and whose very political existence was created by the Zionist decision-makers within PNAC. His handler after Iraq was invaded in ‘03 was Wolfowitz himself (32). Chalabi was intimately involved with the Mossad in the 1980s, and was mentored by Albert Wohlsetter, the godfather of neoconservatism, whom Chalabi met while visiting occupied Palestine to meet his Mossad contacts. Wohlsetter would introduce Chalabi to Richard Perle (33).

With Iraq’s intelligentsia massacred, the Iraqi Christian community in shambles, Zionist-handpicked traitors governing Iraq while masquerading in full “free and democratic garb” and Zionist agents like Michael Fleischer in full control of Iraq’s finances, prostituting Iraqi assets to private corporations closely allied with the usurping Israeli entity (34), the Fracture Theory of Zion was deeply entrenched into Iraq’s infrastructure. The bombardments were in place, and the fission field warfare was ready to be unleashed.

Mossad’s favorite weapon, the car bomb, was to put to use across occupied Iraq with the help of its allies in the CIA and MI6. Sunni mosques were bombed, resulting in the murder of innocent men, women and children, only to be blamed on Shia ‘terrorists.’ Shia mosques were bombed, resulting in the murder of innocent men, women and children, only to be blamed on Sunni ‘terrorists.’ Shia were frequently targeted during their holiest religious proceedings. The media described it as ‘sectarian warfare,’ one sect pitted against the other, covering up that it was nothing more than divide-and-conquer strategy dominantly controlled and manipulated by the Zionist entity. The Iraqi people however, wholeheartedly rejected these contrived divisions, knowing full well that the car bombs were the work of Israeli, British and American intelligence services (35).

P2OG, an intelligence agency
designed to carry out false flag
operations, was created by the
Zionist-run Defense Science
Board.

American intelligence rigs cars with explosives at military checkpoints throughout Iraq, due to the US military’s control over them. Eyewitness accounts from Shia districts in Baghdad and Mossad-infested Mosul have confirmed it. This ‘American’ degree of Zionism’s fission field warfare in Iraq originated in the office of Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, from a shadowy organization called Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), created by the Defense Science Board. P2OG advocated using assassinations, sabotage and deception to provoke the Iraqi people into bloody civil war (36).
The Defense Science Board was headed by William J. Schneider Jr., a staunch Zionist and member of PNAC. Schneider put forth an all-out media blitz regarding the legitimacy and legality of P2OG despite its very concept being rooted in illegitimacy and illegality (37). P2OG raked in billions upon billions of dollars for the Zionist-controlled Pentagon, all of which was used to annihilate Iraq (38). P2OG is still functioning as an intelligence agency, only specializing in false flags.

William J. Schneider Jr., 
Zionist PNAC member and 
head of the Defense Science 
Board that created 
the P2OG 
intelligence agency.

The FTZ-P2OG nexus has established a breeding ground for fission field warfare to flourish across occupied Iraq. In the new year, the false flag terror campaign has been stepped up substantially, following a strict ‘sectarian’ pattern. A blast inside a chicken coop claimed the lives of two children in Diyala while an explosion murdered an ex-Jaysh al-Mahdi militiaman and his brother in al-Nasiriyah (39). Three simultaneous blasts in Baghdad murdered 2 innocents and wounded 13 others. The Shia Husseiniya mosque, the Sunni Abdul Qadir Gilani mosque and the Sunni al-Assaf mosque were the targets (40). A massive explosion ripped through a police recruitment site in Tikrit and slaughtered over 54 innocents and wounded 150 others (41). 15 people were murdered and 64 others were severely wounded when twin explosions tore into a security station in Baquba (42).

Multiple blasts including twin explosions in Karbala targeted Shia pilgrims on the holy day of Arba’een, murdering at least 50 and injuring over 150 others (43). A string of explosions in Baghdad claimed 8 lives, including Shia pilgrims and two teenagers (44). 18 more innocents were murdered in Karbala and 34 others were wounded when twin blasts rocked the neighborhood of al-Ibrahimiyah (45). And quite possibly the most heinous attack of all, was when a giant blast targeted the funeral of a Shia sheikh in the Shula district of Baghdad, murdering 80 innocents, including 11 children, and wounded 120 others (46). The method of murder in every single terrorist act, against Shia and Sunni alike, was a car bomb (in one case, an ambulance bomb) or an IED, or both. Signature weapons of Israel. The benefactor of every drop of Iraqi blood shed was the Zionist entity.

The Zionist entity employs Fission Field Warfare
in occupied Iraq to tear it apart, preparing it
for colonization as ‘Greater Israel.’

Replicating the Dragon Policy that frames ‘Al-Qaeda’ and the Taliban for attacks on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Zionist media blamed the new years assault which has claimed hundreds of innocent Iraqi lives on “any number of Shia factions (47).” Never will it be mentioned by the Zionist media that thousands of Mossad agents and assets of the Israeli military establishment operate within occupied Iraq (48), engaging in fission field warfare to tear the once-strong Sunni-Shia unity apart.

The origin point for the Zionist entity’s genocidal new years campaign in occupied Iraq is two-pronged. Firstly, with the well-known “deadline” approaching for the US to withdraw all of its armed forces from Iraq, the Zionist entity bombarded the people, unleashing fission throughout every community in Iraq, to convince Iraqis that the already weak puppet government is incapable of protecting them; that the Iraqis need an occupying presence to maintain order in their nation. Hence self-admitted Zionist Joe Biden’s recent trip to Baghdad focusing on the extension of an American presence in occupied Iraq (49). Though the fantasy of the occupation coming to a close at the end of 2011 was never taken seriously, the January mass murder frenzy, which has been frenetically promoted by the Zionist media, will make it easier for the public to believe the fairy tale.

Secondly, the current batch of fission field warfare operations was meant to keep disgraced ex-Resistance leader Muqtada al-Sadr in check. Al-Sadr recently arrived back in Iraq after a self-imposed exile in the Islamic Republic of Iran. He didn’t return to lead the Iraqi people against the occupying powers in armed rebellion however. He returned to swear allegiance to his one-time enemy, Nouri al-Maliki. Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement sealed the deal for the Maliki government to remain in power, granting longevity to a regime that is devoid of any connection to the Iraqi people; a regime of war criminals, thieves and murderers unabashedly subservient to Israeli, American and British interests. He sold out the Iraqi people that looked to him as a hero for 40 seats in parliament and 8 ministries (50).

Muqtada al-Sadr sold out the Iraqi
people to the occupation. He is
now being humiliated by the Zionist
entity.

Since al-Sadr returned, relations with Maliki have been tense at best. Maliki threatened al-Sadr with an old arrest warrant and rumors are abound that he has left Iraq again; fleeing to either Iran or Lebanon (51). Mossad’s bombings, especially in areas where al-Sadr has a multitude of support like Karbala and the Shula district of Baghdad, serve as a reminder to al-Sadr that his days of Resistance are over, and he is fully under the control of the Zionist Power Configuration. Whether Muqtada stays on the six-pointed-star-patterned strings of the oppressors and exists as a stooge within the corrupt Iraqi government remains to be seen. The evidence certainly suggests that he is content as a traitor.

With Iraqi journalists being offered exuberant payment plans or persecution by the brutal Maliki-Talabani regime (52), mainstream media owned by Zionists and alternative media infiltrated by gatekeepers who refuse to tell the truth about Iraq, 9/11 or the intelligence operation known as Wikileaks (53), it seems that the ugliness of Zionism’s fission field warfare tearing Iraq to pieces for nearly 8 years now will remain in a black hole of obscurity. Unless the eyes of the world are opened by what is so blatantly right in front of them.

Muslims and Christians are standing together
against Zion’s Fission Field Warfare in Egypt.

Hostile Environment III: Failure In Egypt

“From the Nile to the Euphrates.” Iraq and Egypt are forever linked through the delusional, Talmudic dream of ‘Greater Israel,’ the pinnacle and ultimate goal of international Zionism. A Zionist utopia devoid of democracy, freedom and reality. The destabilization of Egypt has been laid out in detail by Oded Yinon, former senior Israeli foreign policy advisor, in the same document laying out the blueprints for the annihilation and annexation of Iraq. Similar to the ‘sectarian’ plan for Iraq, Israel wants to crack Egypt in half, splitting Muslims, Christians and other ethno-religious minorities into ‘distinct geographical regions.’

Mossad bombed al-Qiddisin church
in Alexandria on New Years Day
to create a schism between 
Egypt’s Muslims and Christians.

On New Years Day, a massive explosion claimed the lives of 25 Coptic Christians at al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria, Egypt. At least 97 others were wounded, including several Muslims. While the regime of the Zionist dictator Hosni Mubarak attempted to blame the attack on a suicide bomber belonging to the fictional monolith known as Al-Qaeda, this lie collapsed when it was uncovered the weapon used in the murderous operation was a car bomb, validating Mossad’s signature in the ‘sectarian’ attack. Mubarak’s infamous (and savage) security forces collaborated with the Zionist entity in the bloodshed, withdrawing from al-Qiddissin only an hour before the car bomb exploded, granting Israeli operatives the opportune time needed to plant the explosives and vanish (54).

Staying true to the Dragon Policy, the official line from the Israeli-owned Mubarak regime now blames an enemy of the Zionist entity for the bombing, the Army of Islam, a Palestinian Resistance movement in illegally besieged Gaza. The Interior Ministry cited “conclusive evidence (55),” which obviously, doesn’t exist.

The origin point of this barbarity is on display for the entire world to see; an event that isn’t only shaking the Arab world to its roots, but the globe itself: The Egyptian Revolution. The Zionist entity attempted to drum up enough sectarianism to incite a communal war in Egypt, quelling the possibility of this historic movement of people power. The false flag bombing was designed to salvage the waning Israeli stranglehold on Egypt, and strike back at Egyptians for uncovering another of its infamous spy rings (56) while ensuring a media blackout on the Mubarak regime robbing the Muslim Brotherhood in the latest round of parliamentary elections (57). This backfired completely, unifying the Egyptian people instead; to a degree that superceded the worst nightmare of the most abysmally hawkish Zionist.

Egyptians have gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square
in the millions since January 25th in a historic 
revolutionary display.

After the bombing, Muslim and Christian leaders met in friendship, and stood together in a powerful display of understanding and solidarity (58), reaffirming the warmness and harmony that the two communities have always had (59). The solidarity deepened six days after Mossad’s sanguinary false flag attack, when thousands of Muslims joined their Christian brothers for Christmas Mass, offering themselves as human shields to protect their fellow Egyptians (60). This precious unity, transcended solidarity and transformed into an unbreakable, unshakable armor when the Revolution began on January 25th, the “Day of Rage.” Invoking the Zionist entity’s darkest fears, Muslims and Christians have marched through the streets together from the very beginning, chanting “We are all Egyptians (61)!”

The usurping supremacist entity has admitted that a revolution in Egypt would be a “loss” for its Zionist empire of colonialist expansionism (62). Benjamin Netanyahu, the war criminal and mass murderer, exhibited his typical racism but with an underlying hint of fear, “We believe Egypt is going to overcome the current wave of demonstrations, but we have to look to the future. Having said that, I’m not sure the time is right for the Arab region to go through the democratic process (63).” So says the illegitimate entity that calls itself ‘the only democracy in the Middle East.’ Zionism’s feelings of cynicism and apprehension are based on the idea that a revolutionary leadership would cut it off from gas supplies that Israel has secured from collaborators in Egypt for over 30 years, as well as damage a massive $10-billion deal that Zionist firms signed with Mubarak in December of 2010 (64).

Avi Dichter suggested the “isolation” of Egypt to prepare 
the Arab nation for annexation in the Zionist entity’s
‘Greater Israel’ scheme.

Former director of Shin Bet and war criminal Avi Dichter issued an enormously disturbing speech on May 26th, 2010 to the Israeli National Security Research Center, arrogantly pinpointing Zionist successes in occupied Iraq. However, the iniquitous offering did briefly touch on Egypt. The following excerpt is essential to understanding the efforts being pursued by the Zionist entity and its lapdogs within the US government to crush the Egyptian Revolution, “Weakening and isolating Iraq is no less important than weakening and isolating (neutralizing) Egypt. Weakening and isolating (neutralizing) Egypt has been done by diplomatic methods while everything has been done to achieve a complete and comprehensive isolation of Iraq (65).”

The Zionist regime made one last ditch attempt to resurrect and subsequently sustain its fission field warfare in Egypt, sending three planes full of illegal gas to Mina International Airport in Cairo to be used by Mubarak’s security forces on unarmed protesters (66). An Israeli minister told Egypt to “exercise force, power in the street” to demolish the uprising and restore the old order that adheres to Zionism (67). Mubarak obliged with an ‘exercising of force,’ deploying his brutal secret police into the street in plain clothes, ordering them to pose as ‘pro-government’ protesters. They attacked the unarmed revolutionary demonstrators with meat cleavers, fire bombs, knives, chains and clubs (68), saving the Israeli-delivered weapons for a ‘final showdown’ of sorts.  Since the beginning of the Revolution, at least 300 protesters have been murdered (69), and over 5,000 other protesters have been wounded, many of them critically (70).

Egyptians haven’t been discouraged in the slightest by the Zionist Mubarak regime’s brutality. Millions have taken to the streets on several occasions since the Revolution began nearly two weeks ago. Realizing this, the Israeli occupiership set aside its fission field warfare goals and directed its attention towards Avi Dichter’s May 2010 speech, invoking the political wing of the Fracture Theory of Zion (FTZ) to put the people’s Revolution to sleep once and for all.

Mohamed ElBaradei is not a friend of the Egyptian people. 
He is a stooge of the Zionist-controlled International
Crisis Group.

Firstly, the Zionist entity and its vast globalist network sought to penetrate the opposition. Enter ‘opposition figure’ Mohamed ElBaradei, hated across the region for ‘warmly’ shaking hands with multiple Israeli war criminals and relentlessly promoted by corporate Arab media heavyweights Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya (71). ElBaradei is being presented as a man with an immense amount of credibility because he ‘slammed’ the West for presenting exaggerated reports about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program (72), while calling the illegal Israeli nuclear arsenal the ‘greatest threat to the region (73).’ However, ElBaradei has also gone on the record to state that, ‘My gut feeling is that Iran definitely would like to have the technology that would enable it to have nuclear weapons if they decided to do so (74),” giving credence to the Zionist narrative which has spread en masse for nearly a decade.

Despite his harsh rhetoric towards the Zionist entity’s nukes, it must be treated as just that: rhetoric. ElBaradei has attacked Hamas, the Palestinian Resistance movement in occupied Gaza, as ‘radical (75),’ and is also a supporter of the apartheid two-state solution based on the ‘1967-borders (76),’ a full blown endorsement of the Zionist ethnic cleansing operation known as al-Nakba. ElBaradei has also said that a democratic Egypt becoming anti-Israel or anti-US in its foreign policy was nothing but “hype and fiction (77).”

The righteous people of Egypt consider dictator Hosni
Mubarak an agent of Israel.

This in and of itself is a contradiction of what the Egyptian people want. The revolutionaries have staged mock hangings of Mubarak dolls with an Israeli six-pointed star drawn on its chest (78), written graffiti on US corporate establishments that label Mubarak as a US client (79), displayed posters of Mubarak with Israeli stars all over his face (80) and in a moment of true historical precedent, forced the Zionist entity to take down its flag at the Israeli embassy in Cairo and evacuate all of its staff (81). Egyptians have absolutely had enough of Mubarak’s kowtowing to Zionism’s every whim, whether the orders are barked from occupied Palestine or the Israeli Lobby’s stomping grounds in Washington D.C. Mubarak is a wolf. ElBaradei is a wolf in blue-and-white sheep’s clothing.

Due to his “critical remarks” about the Zionist entity and his “support” for Iran, Zionist war criminal Phillip Zelikow, the man responsible for covering up Mossad’s false flag attack on 9/11 with the absurd ‘9/11 Commission Report (82),’ suggested that the US should support ElBaradei by pretending that it doesn’t like him (83). Why has ElBaradei been chosen over any other collaborator on the long list of collaborators in the possession of Zion and its worldwide network of cronies? Because ElBaradei serves on the board of trustees at the International Crisis Group, a globalist giant funded by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation and internationalist Zionist criminal George Soros’ Open Society Institute. Soros, along with global power broker Zbigniew Brzezinski also sit on the board (84). The International Crisis Group was founded by Morton I. Abramowitz, PNAC member, CFR member and ardent Zionist (85).

Omar Suleiman (left) is a notorious 
brute, torturer and Zionist traitor.
He is known as Mossad’s and CIA’s
man in Egypt.

While Tel Aviv’s agents attempted to manipulate the people from the shadows, it demanded from its ‘allies’ in the United States and European Union to tone down the anti-Mubarak rhetoric and support the dictator (86). The Zionist-owned Obama administration followed suit, offering its full support to a ‘transitional’ government led by Omar Suleiman, whom Hosni Mubarak appointed Vice President of Egypt (87). What Israel wants is a ‘Mubarakite’ Egypt, even without Mubarak. Suleiman serves this agenda gratuitously. He vehemently despises the Palestinian Resistance in occupied Gaza and has close ties to Mossad, Shin Bet and Aman. Suleiman is also a good friend of ex-Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit, and they routinely talk via phone about their children and grandchildren (88). How pathetically and disgustingly touching.

Suleiman is the chief Egyptian collaborator in assisting the Zionist entity with its crippling siege against Gaza, and has been personally thanked by genocidal Zionist madman Avigdor Lieberman for his treason (89). And arguably the most notable part of Suleiman’s lengthy and brutal collaborationist resume: his senior role in the CIA’s exceptionally illegal Rendition program, which under his watch, left dozens of innocent Muslim men tortured and psychologically ruined (90). Torture hasn’t stopped since the Revolution commenced either, as police under the direct orders of Suleiman and new Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy, former head of the Egyptian Prison Authority (91), have engaged in repeated acts of barbarity against protesters (92). The revolutionaries of Egypt mustn’t lose; an Egypt controlled by Zionist war criminal Omar Suleiman would be aeons worse than an Egypt controlled by Mubarak.

Due to their dignity and their steadfastness, Egyptians overcame Israel’s fission field warfare and left it in a heap of failure. They are now fighting the Fracture Theory of Zion head on, and as millions continue to pour into the streets daily (93), they are overcoming it as well. While the Zionist criminal network maneuvers in the open and in the shadows to politically influence the ‘game-changing’ events in Egypt, Egyptians themselves reject a future controlled by foreign interests and continue to unleash their ire at the illegitimate Israeli entity and the Zionist-owned US government (94). Racist war criminal MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who has a close friendship with Hosni Mubarak has gravely insulted the Egyptian people by stating, “I don’t think it is possible for there to be a revolution in Egypt (95).” The Egyptian people are proving him, and every other Zionist and Mubarak supporter wrong at this very moment: a revolution in Egypt isn’t only possible. It’s happening.

Julian Assange is the leading head
of the Israeli intelligence Hydra
known as Wikileaks.

 Conclusion: The Wikileaks Hydra and Reality

As aforementioned in the section regarding Israel’s fission field warfare against occupied Iraq, the Fracture Theory of Zion has incorporated an infiltration wing into its foundation, to penetrate opposition and subvert it or destroy it, whichever will better serve the global agenda of Zionism. In the case of Wikileaks, subversion reigns supreme.

It is has become an impossibility to remain updated on the world’s current events, whether choosing the Zionist-owned mainstream media as your provider, or the alternative media, without hearing the name of Wikileaks or its ‘founder,’ Julian Assange. Vociferously promoted by the Zionist media and despicably worshiped as the idol of choice by the alternative media, Wikileaks now permeates every aspect of ‘information age’ journalism. While both media spheres will lead their readers and viewers to believe that Wikileaks is a whistleblower of the utmost dignity, honor and integrity, as well as an organization that thrives on truth and the exposure of corruption, this is a lie of the most monstrous proportions. In reality, Wikileaks is an Israeli intelligence operation coordinating attacks against ‘anti-Zionist’ journalists and online publications with known Tel Aviv-intelligence wing, the Anti-Defamation League (96).

Wikileaks has absolved the Zionist entity of any connection to the 2008 ‘terror’ attacks in Mumbai, despite all evidence confirming the fingerprints of Mossad, CIA and India’s RAW collaborating in a deadly false flag paramilitary operation. Instead, it blames the Pakistani government and Pakistani ‘Jihadi terrorists (97).’

Wikileaks claims that Hamas, the Islamic Resistance of Gaza, broke the ceasefire in 2008 which provided the pretext for Operation Cast Lead, not the Zionist entity. Additionally, Wikileaks has accused Hamas of using human shields, though the only use of human shields that has ever been recorded is by Israeli occupation forces. Wikileaks claims that the Hindutva entity of India is a major force for peace in occupied Kashmir, not an illegal occupier and notorious violator of human rights. Wikileaks heinously claims that Syrians assassinated former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri, and not Mossad through its signature car bomb. And quite possibly, the most horrifically false claim of all, Wikileaks says Israel has no ‘assets’ in occupied Iraq, though Iraq is corroded with Mossad’s presence from north to south, east to west (98).

The Wikileaks ‘whistleblower’ fraud has been a vital asset
to the CIA and Mossad.

The most successful product of Zionist criminal Cass Sunstein’s cyber COINTELPRO, Wikileaks has served the illegitimate Israeli state’s international agenda flawlessly. Any major story that needs to be buried by the Zionist media can easily be done by using a Wikileaks falsehood-ridden scandal. Latest on Israel’s hitlist, is the Egyptian Revolution and its righteous organizers. Right on schedule, Wikileaks arrives on the scene with a means of discrediting the movement, its people, its methods and its motives. According to the latest documents dumped by Julian Assange’s organization, the United States backed the ‘pro-democracy’ groups that have organized the massive protests against Mubarak in Egypt (99). Not only have Zion’s gatekeepers swallowed this abomination of the truth and regurgitated it to their followers, well-respected journalists who were instrumental in exposing Wikileaks for the intel-op that it is, have also bought into this pathetic theory.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah recently addressed this exact issue in his most recent speech, emotionally displaying full solidarity with the Egyptian people, “The worst accusation against this complete humanitarian and political intifada is that American intelligence has incited the Egyptian youth against the regime. Even more, it is a grave insult and an injustice to the youth of Egypt to claim that their movement is directed by the US. Who would imagine that the US would topple such a loyal ally working day and night to protect Washington’s interests and projects? It is illogical (100).”

Unlike disposed puppet dictators like Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein and Jonas Savimbi of Angola, all of whom began operating in their own interests, instead of the interests of their American and Israeli puppet masters, Mubarak and his regime have catered to Washington and Tel Aviv in an unimaginable manner. The Sayyed hit the nail directly on its head; the insinuation that this populist revolution is the work of intelligence agencies or Western governments is not only an insult and an injustice to the Egyptian people, it is not only illogical, but it is absolutely asinine. To this very moment, as Sayyed Nasrallah stated in the same speech, the Zionist entity and its criminal network are fighting tooth and nail to undermine the people’s Revolution, and keep Mubarak in power.

The latest round of the Wiki-Hydra’s Zionist poison is directed at the courageous, revolutionary protesters of Egypt for one reason: to convince all of the people in the Middle East living under US-backed, Zionist-funded dictatorships, including those Egyptians who are yet to take to the streets with their brethren, that revolution isn’t possible. That Resistance isn’t possible. That assembling for an honorable cause isn’t possible because all honorable causes have been hijacked by the usurping entity of Zion and its eternal supply of cronies. Israel has underestimated the Arabs however. It has underestimated their steadfastness, their dignity, their righteousness, their Godwariness, their love of country and their willingness to sacrifice their very lives for freedom.

Arab unity absolutely petrifies the 
Zionist entity. It is the 
antithesis to Israel’s 
Fission Field Warfare.

Protesters have taken to the streets in Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, occupied Iraq, Bahrain and occupied Palestine in solidarity with the people of Egypt in defiance of apathy and the Zionist entity’s manipulation. And while Mubarak’s heavyweight American lobbyists try to secure more aid from the US Congress (101), Zionist ideologues go back and forth attempting to present a legitimate two-sided discourse on Egypt, though they are simply preserving Israel’s point of view (102), and mass murdering war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu threatens the world with another racist diatribe about the rise of an “Islamist” Egypt (103), Egyptians continue their calls for the end of Mubarak in Ismailia, Mahalla, Suez, Alexandria, Mansoura and of course, Tahrir Square in the capital city of Cairo as if the powers that be and the cancer of Zionism that governs them didn’t exist. Upper Egypt, including the cities of Kharga and Assiut, has also joined the revolt (104).

Knowledge is what transforms a sleeping people into an unbreakable force of Resistance. It snatches them from their dream state and catapults them into the battlefield of reality. Egyptians are well aware of their cold, hard, dictatorial reality and subservience to it has disappeared as a viable option for them. This awakening is the model that needs to be duplicated in occupied Iraq, Pakistan and every other nation victimized by the supremacist entity of Israel’s fission field warfare.

An awakened populace, determined to achieve revolution, can take the Zionist entity’s Fracture Theory and fracture it into an infinite number of pieces, rendering its restoration impossible. An Iraqi-Egyptian-Pakistani union, fully backed and controlled by the will of the people, will not just disrupt the Zionist entity’s plans, but decimate them.

Revolution in its purest form is the end of oppression and the beginning of freedom. Once Mubarak falls at the hands of the Egyptian people, so falls his oppression. Freedom from tyranny isn’t the aspiration of all men. It is a gift that man is born with and one that cannot be usurped by any power, no matter how perceivably powerful. As the great anti-apartheid activist Steven Biko said, “The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” A revolutionary mind state is the bitter enemy of the oppressor.

In a revolution, the oppressed transcend from the downtrodden and the exploited to the champions of a nation reborn. Egypt is being reborn right now. And in its transcendence, the oppressors are being burned in the blaze of revolutionary champions who refuse to be humiliated ever again.

~ The End ~

Sources:

(1) Ben Gurion On Pakistan by Judicial-Inc.Biz; “Strike And Crush Pakistanis” by Peter Chamberlin, Wake Up From Your Slumber

(2) Mossad And India Spy Agency Team Up, Target Pakistan by Tariq Saeedi, Globe Intel

(3) Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, And The Crack Cocaine Explosion by Gary Webb (rip)

(4) Mossad-RAW Nexus by S.M. Hali, Pakistan Daily

(5) Wikileaks, A Circus With No Elephants by Gordon Duff, Veterans Today

(6) Blackwater/Xe Attacks In Pakistan by The Daily Mail Online Edition

(7) Taliban Blame ‘Blackwater’ For Pakistan Bombings by Robert Mackey, The New York Times

(8) Bombings Kill 7, Injure 14 In Pakistan by Press TV

(9) Peshawar Police Chief Claims RAW, Mossad Behind Killing Of Three Chinese by Andhra News

(10) Beirut Marine Bombing Was Mossad False Flag Operation by Rehmat’s World

(11) Sixteen Killed In Pakistan Bombings by Press TV

(12) The Baghdad Cathedral Massacre: Zionist Fingerprints All Over by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(13) Iran Claimed To Capturing The Mossad Spy by Putu Karya, All Voices
(14) Militants Blow Up 2 Schools In Pakistan by Press TV

(15) ‘US Embassy Official Blackwater Agent’ by Press TV

(16) Pakistan Tribesmen ‘To Sue CIA’ Over Drone Deaths by The Raw Story

(17) CIA Chief In Pakistan Leaves After Drone Trial Blows His Cover by Declan Walsh, The Guardian

(18) Thousands Hold Anti-US Rally In Pakistan by Press TV

(19) Thousands Rally In Karachi Over Scientist Doctor Aafia Siddiqui by Pak News Net

(20) All Parties Demand End To Drone Attacks by Ahmad Noorani, The International News

(21) Israel’s Grand Design: Leaders Crave Area From Egypt To Iraq by John Mitchell Henshaw, Media Monitors Network

(22) The Israeli-Kurdish Relations by Sergey Minasian, 21st Century, Number 1, April, 2007

(23) A Strategy For Israel In The Nineteen Eighties by Oded Yinon, Kivunim

(24) A Clean Break: A New Strategy For Securing The Realm by The Institute For Advanced Strategic and Political Studies

(25) 9/11: Israel’s Grand Deception by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(26) Open Letter To The President February 19, 1998 by Iraq Watch

(27) Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces And Resources For A New Century by The Project For A New American Century

(28) Conflict With Iraq – An Israeli Perspective by Benjamin Netanyahu

(29) Rice: US Army Presence In Iraq Protects Israel by The Jerusalem Post

(30) Dirty Hands by Sreemati Mitter, MIFTAH

(31) The Zionist Murderers Of Iraq by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(32) Who Is Ahmed Chalabi? by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research

(33) Ahmed Chalabi’s Ties To Mossad And Neocons by Christopher Bollyn, Rumor Mill News

(34) The Zionist Occupation Of Iraq Is The War In Iraq by Christopher Bollyn

(35) British Terrorism In Iraq by Dr. Elias Akleh, Global Research

(36) “Combat Terrorism” By Causing It by Imad Khadurri, Free Iraq

(37) ‘P2OG’ Allows Pentagon To Fight Dirty by David Isenberg, The Asia Times

(38) Profile: William Schneider Jr. by History Commons

(39) Bombs Kill Four, Wound Five Across Iraq by Press TV

(40) Baghdad Violence Kills Three, Wounds 14 by Yahoo! News

(41) VIDEO: Iraq 54 Killed In Car Bomb Tikrit, 3 US Soldiers Die Iraq War Rages on by World News

(42) Bomb Attacks Claim 17 Lives In Iraq by Press TV

(43) 50 Dead By Iraq Car Bombs by The Bangkok Post

(44) Car Bombs Kill 8 In Iraq by Press TV

(45) 18 Killed, Dozens Hurt In Karbala blasts by Press TV

(46) Car Bomb At Iraq Funeral Kills 80 And Triggers Clashes by Al-Arabiya News Channel

(47) Iraq Car Bombing Kills 48 by Ned Parker and Salar Jaff, Los Angeles Times

(48) Wikileaks Is Zionist Poison by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(49) VP Biden Looks To Extend Iraq Presence by War On Terror News

(50) Occupied Iraq: New Year, Same Zionism by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(51) Thursday: 87 Iraqis Killed, 153 Wounded by Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com

(52) Iraqi Journalists Face Sacks Of Gold, Fists Of Fire by Khalid al-Ansary, Reuters

(53) Wiki-Hydra: Israel’s Favorite PSYOP Just Won’t Die by Jonathan Azaziah, Veterans Today

(54) The Alexandria Church Bombing: Mossad, Who Else? by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(55) Egyptian Minister Accuses Gazan Group Of Church Bombing by The Guardian

(56) “Israeli Spying Network” Uncovered In Egypt Days Before Church Bombing by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat, Veterans Today

(57) Cyber-Dissent And Egypt’s Latest Stolen Election by Ahed Al Hendi, Cyber Dissidents

(58) Egypt: Muslims And Christians Show Unity After Bombing by Kelly Heffernan-Tabor, CBS News

(59) Egyptian Religious Leaders Affirm Unity by Al-Masry Al-Youm

(60) Egypt’s Muslims Attend Coptic Christmas Mass, Serving As ‘Human Shields’ by Yasmine el-Rashidi, Al-Ahram Online

(61) ‘Muslims, Christians We Are All Egyptians:’ Scenes From A Revolution As Told By My Eyewitness by Parvez Sharma, Mondoweiss

(62) Israeli Lawmaker Backs Hosni Mubarak by Press TV

(63) Egypt’s Crisis: Israel Has Faith Mubarak Will Prevail by Karl Vick, Yahoo! News

(64) Israel Fears Egypt Unrest Will Threaten Gas Supplies by The Business Standard/The Press Trust Of India

(65) Israel: We Destroyed Iraq.. Iraq Must Stay Divided And Isolated… The Oil Of Northern Iraq Will Flow Into Israel by Jouhina Portal News; And Former Israeli Minister Of Security (Avi Dichter) We Have In Iraq Is More Than We Planned And Expected by Al-Hurriya News

(66) Israel Arms Egypt Against Protesters by Press TV

(67) Israeli Minister: Mubarak Regime Will Prevail In Egypt, Despite Protests by Haaretz

(68) How Mubarak’s Thugs Work by Rich Lowry, The Corner, National Review Online

(69) Around 300 Dead In Egypt Unrest: UN by The Hindustan Times

(70) Health Minister: 5000 Protesters Injured Since Friday by Al-Masry Al-Youm

(71) Al-Baradi’i’s Family Album by As’ad Abu Khalil, The Angry Arab News Service

(72) ElBaradei: “Iranian Nuclear Threat Was Exaggerated By The West by Mihai-Silviu Chirila, Metrolic

(73) Israel’s Nukes Most Serious Threat To Middle East: ElBaradei by The Deccan Chronicle

(74) Iran Seeking Nuclear Weapons Technology: ElBaradei by Reuters

(75) ElBaradei: A Contentious Consensus Figure For Opposition by Oren Kessler, The Jerusalem Post

(76) Mohamed Elbaradei by The Boston Globe

(77) ElBaradei: Democratic Egypt Won’t Be Anti-Israel, US by The Jerusalem Post

(78) Israel Wary Of Transition In Egypt, Concerned About Regional Stability by Janine Zacharia, The Washington Post

(79) ‘No To Mubarak The US Client’ by 3arabawy

(80) Egypt Protests: Start Of A New Middle East by Anshel Pfeffer, The Jewish Chronicle

(81) Israel Pulls Down Flag At Cairo Embassy by Ahlul Bayt News Agency; Israeli Embassy Staff Evacuate Egypt by Press TV

(82) 9/11: Israel’s Grand Deception by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(83) U.S. Scrambles To Size Up Egypt’s ElBaradei by CBS News

(84) Mohamed ElBaradei: Globalist Pied Piper Of The Egyptian Revolt by Paul Joseph Watson, Counter Currents

(85) Profile: Morton I. Abramowitz by History Commons

(86) Israel Urges World To Curb Criticism Of Egypt’s Mubarak by Barak Ravid, Haaretz

(87) Obama Backs Suleiman-Led Transition by Mark Landler and Steven Erlanger, The New York Times

(88) Israel Pinning Hopes For Hamas Deal In Gaza On Egypt Intel Chief by Yossi Melman, Haaretz

(89) Lieberman Thanks Suleiman Over Libya-Chartered Gaza Aid Ship by Al-Manar

(90) New Egyptian VP Ran Mubarak’s Security Team, Oversaw Torture by Matthew Cole and Sarah O. Wali, ABC News

(91) Mahmoud Wagdy, New Interior Minister Of Egypt, Oversaw The Police State by American Everyman

(92) Torture ‘Business As Usual’ In Egypt Amid Revolt by Charles Onians, Agence France-Presse/The Jordan Times

(93) Millions Gather To Honor Egypt Martyrs by Press TV

(94) Egyptians Unleash Anger At US, Israel by Press TV

(95) Ben-Eliezer: All We Can Do Is Express Support For Mubarak by The Jerusalem Post

(96) ADL: Wikileaks Vital To Israel’s Intelligence Program by Gordon Duff, Veterans Today

(97) 26/11: Mossad Terrorizes Mumbai by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(98) Wikileaks Is Zionist Poison II: Deconstruction Of The Myth by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(99) US Funded Pro-Democracy Movement by Agence France-Presse

(100) Sayyed Nasrallah To Egyptians: Your Victory Will Change The Face Of Region by Hussein Assi, Al-Manar

(101) Who’s Doing Mubarak’s Bidding In Washington? by Justin Elliot, Salon

(102) Obama Administration Contemplates Legal Nightmare In Egypt After Mubarak by Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy Magazine

(103) Netanyahu: Egypt Could Fall Into Hands Of Radical Islamists by Jonathan Lis, Haaretz

(104) Upper Egypt Joins The Revolution by Mai El-Wakil and Louise Sarant, Al-Masry Al-Youm

Posted by Mask Of Zion

India’s Stingy Poverty Definition Irks Critics

[SEE: India has 69 billionaires ]

India’s Stingy Poverty Definition Irks Critics

India Poverty

MUNEEZA NAQVI    AP

NEW DELHI — Every day, through scorching summers and chilly winters, Himmat pedals his bicycle rickshaw through New Delhi’s crowded streets, earning barely enough to feed his family. But to India’s government he is not poor – not even close.

The 5,000 rupees ($110) he earns a month pays for a tiny room with a single light bulb and no running water for his family of four. After buying just enough food to keep his family from starving, there is nothing left for medicine, new clothes for his children or savings.

Still, Himmat is way above India’s poverty line.

Earlier this month, India’s Planning Commission, which helps sets economic policy, told the Supreme Court that the poverty line for the nation’s cities was 578 rupees ($12.75) per person a month – or 2,312 rupees ($51.38) for Himmat’s family of four. For rural India, it’s even lower at about 450 rupees ($9.93).

The revelation set off an angry debate in a country with soaring economic growth that has brought Ferrari dealerships and Louis Vuitton stores to cater to the new urban rich but left hundreds of millions of others struggling without access to adequate food and clean water.

The World Bank global poverty line, at $1.25 a day or about $38 per month, is three times higher than India’s urban level. Local activists say a better name for India’s standard would be “the starvation line.”

“This number is a joke. There’s no seriousness about the poor,” activist Aruna Roy said.

The Planning Commission said it has to set the poverty line – which determines who gets government assistance – to make the best use of limited funds.

“When you have such a large number of people, given the resources that are available to the government, do you target the poorest of the poor or do you spread your net wider and succeed in covering nobody?” Pranab Sen, an adviser to the Planning Commission, recently told the NDTV news channel.

A daily allowance of 19 rupees (42 cents) would buy 3 1/2 bananas from a stall outside the commission’s own office in the Indian capital or less than two pounds (one kilogram) of wheat flour or rice, staples for most Indians.

Himmat, who like many Indians uses just one name, said India’s poverty line was ridiculous.

“What can we eat with that much money? Not even two dry rotis,” he said, referring to the traditional flat bread of north India.

Rent for his room, which is no larger than 10 feet by 4 feet, costs 1,500 rupees ($33). He struggles to send his two children to a poorly run government school that costs him another 1,000 rupees ($22). The remaining 2,500 ($55) must pay for food, medicines and any other necessities for his family.

In the summer, he sends his wife and children back to their village in eastern India and sleeps on the sidewalk to save on rent.

“I am a very poor man. I can’t imagine living on any less money,” he said.

The poverty debate began after India’s top court asked the Planning Commission to explain earlier this month why hundreds of millions of Indians are undernourished when the country had vast stores of food grains – at times running into millions of tons of surplus.

The commission maintained the government has only limited resources to distribute the grain to subsidized shops, and that it must set its poverty line accordingly to target the neediest.

Rights activists and some economists have slammed the commission, saying it should guide the government to set aside adequate resources to help the poor, and not merely set a poverty line so low that hundreds of millions are kept out of the social security net.

“In a globalized economy why are the people of India naked? It’s because the planning is to keep them naked,” said activist and lawyer Colin Gonsalves.

Dozens of activists protested outside the commission’s office earlier this week carrying small cardboard gift boxes for its members. The boxes contained the cheapest bus ticket, a pound (about 500 grams) of the cheapest rice, one potato, one onion, one banana, a matchbox and a pencil and overshot the daily budget by two rupees (4 cents).

“I propose that the Planning Commission members do their own research for one day. If they can live on this money and tell us how they did it we will stop protesting,” said activist Nikhil Dey.

For most of the last six decades since gaining independence from British rule, India has struggled to find a method to identify its poor and provide for them, at times trying to count calorie intake and now using income data that economists acknowledge are unreliable.

Using the commission’s poverty line, 37 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people qualify as poor.

The country currently spends 2 percent of its GDP – about 29 billion – in social protection, and half of that goes to the Public Distribution System, which provides the poor with subsidized food. Even with the low poverty line, the system – riddled with corruption and mismanagement – caters to over 440 million people, more than the entire population of the United States.

The World Bank poverty line would add about 60 million more people to that category.

Critics say even that is too few, and that India needs to extend its social security net to hundreds of millions more who like Himmat, the rickshaw puller, live in penury.

The Planning Commission’s current approach implies that the coverage of social benefits will shrink if not disappear over time, said Jean Dreze, a development economist affiliated with the Delhi School of Economics.

“In a rapidly growing economy, one would like to see the opposite,” he said.

For Himmat, who is illiterate and oblivious to what he can expect from the government, the debate has little meaning.

“My existence doesn’t matter to the government. They don’t care if people like me live or die,” he said.

Nato air strikes kill 52 Afghans

Nato air strikes kill 52 Afghans

KANDAHAR: Afghan authorities said Sunday Nato had killed 52 people, mostly civilians, in air strikes against insurgents as violence picked up in recent weeks with the start of the fighting season.In the southern province of Helmand, local authorities said at least 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed and six injured in an air
raid Saturday.

US Marines in Helmand’s Nawzad district called in air support after their base came under attack from small arms fire, the provincial government said in a statement.

“During the air strike, two civilian houses were targeted which killed 14 civilians and six others were wounded,” it said.

The statement said the dead included five girls, seven boys and two women.

“ISAF are aware of the reports that civilians were allegedly killed in an ISAF air strike,” Major Tim James, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, said.

“(The) Regional Command South West has sent a joint assessment team to the area to look into the allegation and they will issue their findings to the press.”

Aslam, a local elder of Nawzad district, said he “lost 12 relatives while 10 others including children were injured” in the air strike.

He said some shots were fired at ISAF helicopters which flew into the area, adding that the choppers returned after 10 to 20 minutes and fired rockets, killing the “innocent civilians”.

According to him, five children, five men and two women were killed in the attack.

Separately the governor of Nuristan on Sunday said that 18 civilians and 20 police were killed by “friendly fire” during US-led air strikes against insurgents in his troubled northeastern province.

Nuristan was the scene of heavy battles last week between the Taliban and Afghan security forces. The police and civilians were targeted Wednesday after they were mistaken for militants, Jamaluddin Badr said.

“The policemen were killed due to friendly fire,” Badr said, adding the air strike in the troubled district of Do Ab targeted a location that the officers “had just” taken from the insurgents during fighting.

“Civilians were killed because the Taliban… (who) ran out of ammunition fled into the civilians’ houses and then the civilians were mistaken with the Taliban and fired upon,” the governor said.

Major James said those allegations were also being investigated.

“ISAF has sent a fact-finding team to investigate the allegations about civilian and police casualties in Nuristan,” he said.

“Our initial reporting does not indicate civilian casualties in that air strike,” he added.

Civilian casualties in the US-led war against Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban insurgents is a sensitive issue and one of the main causes of a widening drift between President Hamid Karzai and his US backers.

Karzai on Saturday ordered Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak to take over control of night raids from the Nato forces.

Karzai’s administration says most civilian casualties occur during such operations and that night raids of civilian homes drive war-weary Afghans against his already-fragile administration.

There are around 130,000 Nato-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, fighting a Taliban-led insurgency launched after the 2001 invasion brought down their regime in Kabul. (AFP)

Calling America’s bluff

Calling America’s bluff

By Kurt Jacobsen and Sayeed Hassan Khan

HAS Obama unwittingly called his own bluff? The spooky so-called mastermind Osama Bin Laden is rubbed out, courtesy a Hollywood-style hit squad operation. What more is there to say?

Everything, actually. But nervous authorities want to curb jubilation so as not to give the exasperated American public any funny ideas about pulling their stupendously expensive military apparatus out of battered Afghanistan.

Many American tycoons are profiting from these perpetual small wars and, with those profits, calling all the shots in Washington. Yet Bin Laden was apparently out of the active terrorist equation since almost 9/11 itself, cut off from real command except for his role as a symbol for a tiny contingent of angry Arab youth. Can the troops, ‘kill squads’, drones and all please go home?

The quick answer from impervious, imperial Washington is, nothing has changed since Bush told us that everything had changed. The top brass and the arms dealers are addicted to hunting monsters largely of their own making everywhere.

That’s a pricey enterprise for a US leadership that tells its citizens that the country is broke, as if it is the citizenry’s fault and not that of the bankers, brokers and other sleazy-money magicians.

The few Americans who still swallow the official line that the US is in Afghanistan solely to destroy Bin Laden’s organisation are about to face the stark fact that the government has been lying. By poll data, at least two-thirds of Americans want to withdraw troops from Afghanistan now. The declared purpose of the ‘war on terror’ was to snuff out the reputed leader and financier of 9/11, not to crush the Taliban or install the phony democracy Afghanistan now has. George W. Bush showed remarkably little zest in ferreting out the alleged culprit — ‘alleged’ because the US could not prove anything at the time.

Here was a serenely arrogant empire doing what it pleased, gunslinger-style, to destroy an ultimately pathetic, if widely hated, figure.

According to their own ever-shifting accounts, American spokespersons found Bin Laden himself really posed no threat. Al Qaeda was a brand name anyone could adopt. So Bush probably had a point: Bin Laden really wasn’t worth fretting about anymore except as a mobilising figurehead to keep enough of the American public on the government’s side — a war for feeding vast profits into Wall Street, energy companies and other well-connected industries.

Bin Laden was doing invaluable service for American elites by staying alive. Accidentally or not, he fulfilled the dearest desires of Washington’s second-rate right-wing ideologues. Bin Laden and Bush, and their allies, played happily into each other’s hands at the cost of the rest of us. The former sensed that his arrogant enemies would pounce on the opportunity to attack Muslim lands, gut civil rights at home and bankrupt the economy. Once any ‘mission’ is set in motion, as any bureaucrat knows, a hundred additional reasons are concocted to enable it to continue beyond the stated goal.

Yet the US cannot afford to act as the world’s policeman nor even the world’s hit man. The US economy remains on its knees, or at least for 90 per cent of the citizens who find they do not count anymore. Americans reside in a class society where the rules, once somewhat fair, have been reordered to award the rulers total licence. Bin Laden was an excuse, not the reason, why the US plunged so deeply into the Middle East and South Asia.

Does Pakistan owe the US an abject apology for Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad? Must amends be made? Why exactly?

Never forget that Bin Laden surfaced during the 1980s’ Afghan war under the patronage of the US and the Saudis. Bags full of high denomination dollars were stuffed into the tattered pockets of Afghan refugees in Pakistan to lure them to serve the holy cause of expelling the Russians. Later, and not without many warnings, Bin Laden turned against his masters. During the mercifully short rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, an Islamic mini-caliphate on the model of the earliest Islam was imposed.

Scarcely anyone wants to relive that miserable experience but, foremost, Afghans now want Americans and Nato out.

Bin Laden was briefly a major figure among the Taliban but soon, for his own authoritarian reasons, had to distance himself.

Reporter Robert Fisk met him several times and noticed that Bin Laden preferred Fisk be escorted by his own Al Qaeda guards. Bin Laden clearly felt safer in Pakistan than in Afghanistan, where he was dependent on the fickle Taliban.

Now that he is beneath the waves, there is no central figure to direct the movement, although there will be groups of Muslims who will assume a franchise on Al Qaeda. The next phase will likely be an armed version of Trotskyism, one that will acquire its devotees both among the upper-class and ordinary Muslims without the remotest chance of success.

Bin Laden left no concrete or coherent legacy, except for a vague exhortation to form an Islamic caliphate. Obama never had a better chance to end the military mayhem in Afghanistan yet he looked intent on passing it up. Pakistan owes the US the most abject of apologies only if US forces depart soon. If they don’t, then Bin Laden never mattered and it will be the US that ought to be doling out apologies for all the lies its spokespersons have been telling about its motives in the region.

Zardari’s Security Chief Attacked

[Probably some kind of personal vendetta.  (SEE:  Hearing of Justice Nizam murder case.........)

Bilal Shaikh, one of the accused in the double murder case of Justice Nizam Ahmed and his son Nadeem Ahmed Advocate]

President’s chief security officer attacked: DawnNews

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari’s Chief Security Officer Bilal Shaikh was attacked by unknown assailants late Saturday, DawnNews reported.

Shaikh was on his way from Firdous Colony to Khamosh Colony when unknown men opened fire. The assailants fled the scene after security forces fired back, leaving behind their car and weapons.

Two security officers named Mehmood and Farooq were injured in the incident. Both were shifted to a hospital immediately.

According to PSF leader Faisal Shaikh a rocket launcher, hand grenade and other weapons were recovered from the assailants’ car.

As Hillary Spoke, the Streets Raged with Anti-American Anger

Clinton said that United States was more committed to Pakistan after the Osama bin Laden crisis and Islamabad mustmake “decisive steps” in the days ahead to defeat Al-Qaeda, while hundreds of protesters across the country took to the streets, shouting against the visit of Clinton.

Clinton is the most senior US official to visit Islamabad after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

hilary-islamabad-1

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a news conference with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the US embassy in Islamabad. – Photo by AFP

hilary-islamabad-2

At the same time, protesters burns a US flag during a demonstration against the visit of Clinton, in Lahore. – Photo by AFP

hilary-islamabad-3

Protesters rally in Lahore. – Photo by AP

hilary-islamabad-5

Another US flag is burned in Multan. – Photo by AP

hilary-islamabad-7

Protesters rally against US in Quetta. – Photo by AP

hilary-islamabad-8

Protesters hold placards as they shout anti-US slogans, in Multan. – Photo byAFP

 

NATO Type Walkie Talkies Used Recovered from Mehran Attackers

[This, in addition to a Russian made walkie talkie found on Mehran runway (SEE:  Russian-made walkie-talkie set found near PNS Mehran runway).]  

PNS attack: Terrorist were using walkie talkies of NATO forces

The walkie talkies used by the terrorist are used by the NATO forces in Afghanistan.

According to the ongoing investigations in the attack on the Pakistan Naval Base Mehran in Karachi, the terrorists were using the LXT 303 walkie talkies made by an American company.
Dunya News received exclusive pictures of the walkie talkies used by the terrorists in the attack.

 

According to the investigation officer, there walkie talkies are specifically made to be used in military operations. The terrorist had at least three walkie talkie sets which were set one channel through which they were contacting each other.

Northern Alliance General Daud Daud Killed By Taliban Suicide-Bomber

[He was a close friend and deputy to Ahmed Shah Massoud.]

 

bbc

The Last Tweet of General Daud

by Joshua Foust, REGISTRAN.NET

The last tweet of General Mohammad Daud Daud. He was reporting this incident in Takhar province, where a Taliban commander is accused of burning two people alive. This morning he was targeted in a massive suicide bomb at the Governor’s Palace in Taloqan and killed, along with three German soldiers and an unknown number of Afghans.

While I’m confused as to why it took immolation to prompt an order to capture a Taliban commander, General Daud was universally respected in Afghanistan. His death is a serious blow to the country, and to those he served.

[THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH]

Afghanistan: Taliban suspected of burning two alive

By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul

A senior Afghan general has ordered the capture of a Taliban deputy governor alleged to have authorised the burning alive of two people.

General Daud Daud told the BBC that the incident happened last Friday in the northern province of Sar-e Pol.

He said that the gruesome killings were ordered by Maulvi Nasrullah, a deputy governor of the Taliban in neighbouring Balkh province.

Afghanistan’s human rights commission condemned the incident.

In a statement, it said that all those responsible must be arrested for what it called “the gravest human rights violation”.

The Taliban say that they are unaware of the incident.

Officials say that one of those killed was a driver of a local Taliban commander.

They say that the burning happened when the Taliban commander, Mastu Khan, abducted an influential tribal elder from Gosfandi district.

Mr Khan’s bodyguard, known only as Daoud, opposed the abduction and was beaten by Mr Khan for not obeying orders.

Daoud allegedly killed Mr Khan in retaliation for his beating and escaped. He is now receiving hospital treatment in Kabul.

It was a rare case of a Taliban subordinate turning against a superior.

Officials say that on the morning after the escape, the kidnapped trader and the driver were beaten by the Taliban who suspected them of having a role in Mastu Khan’s killing.

Maulvi Nasrullah is alleged to have ordered that the pair be doused with fuel and burnt alive.

RIP.

The lip of insanity

The lip of insanity

The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I have been knocking from the inside. (Rumi)

Schizophrenia is “a mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically and to have normal emotional responses”. Delusion and denial are amongst the symptoms that generally work hand in glove. On May 2, 2011, immediately after the US Osama operation in Abbottabad General Aslam Beg, former army chief, declared that, “it was a drama and a lie to embarrass Pakistan…there was no Osama there…attack helicopters came from Tarbela base, carrying an Osama look-alike and killed him in cold blood.” Admiral Noman Bashir, our naval chief, has asserted that there was no security lapse at PNS Mehran and the navy prevented the terrorists from accomplishing their objectives. General Hamid Gul, former ISI chief, told Channel Four that he was “100 percent sure” that the Taliban-claimed attack at the naval base was an “American operation”.

Embarrassed and angry that Osama bin Laden had been lounging around Pakistan Military Academy Kakul for years and the US had managed to assassinate him and carry his body back in a covert military operation deep inside Pakistan without our security forces finding out, the nation looked forward to the joint parliamentary session called to take cognizance of the fiasco. The unanimous resolution affirmed “full confidence in the defence forces of Pakistan in safeguarding Pakistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and in overcoming any challenge to security”, and expressed “distress on the campaign to malign Pakistan, launched by certain quarters in other countries, without appreciating Pakistan’s immense sacrifices in combating terror and the fact that more than 30,000 Pakistani innocent men, women and children and more than five thousand security forces personnel had lost their lives”.

But there was not a word about Osama’s shocking presence in Pakistan or the urgent need for a counterterrorism strategy to protect citizens and frontline law enforcement personnel who have been reduced to cannon fodder. The Defence Committee of the Cabinet that finally met on Wednesday to discuss the PNS Mehran disaster reportedly mandated, “security, defence and law-enforcement agencies to use all means necessary” to eliminate terrorists, and also “expressed full confidence in the ability and the capacity of the armed forces and law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in meeting all threats to national security.” So have security and law-enforcement agencies been holding their punches so far? Now that they have the DCC’s blessing they will start taking terrorists seriously and it will be hunky-dory? If a country loses 35,000 precious lives, how can it repose confidence in a national security apparatus that was responsible for protecting them? Are Pakistani lives so expendable that we keep losing them in droves and no one is to account for them?

Blame and accountability are two sides of the same coin. Given that we live in the land of denial, no one is willing to accept fault and thus calls for accountability are seen as unhealthy finger pointing. But admission of mistakes and attribution of responsibility is a prerequisite to taking corrective measures. If there have been no intelligence and security lapses and the security apparatus is both able and performing, what explains the ability of terrorists to attack our citizens and security providers with impunity? Is it all a US-Zino-Hindu conspiracy to bring us to our knees and steal our nuclear weapons and natural resources? But have we not been on our knees for a while, dependent on foreign handouts even to finance and equip our security providers? And let us assume it is a conspiracy. Shall we just wail till the world order relents and the conspiracy goes away? The more important question is what we are going to do about it? How are we going to develop all instruments of state power to defeat this conspiracy and help Pakistan emerge as a secure, stable and responsible state?

We seem to have relied on blind faith and conspiracies for too long. It is time to add facts and reason to the mix. We need to transform the unanimous parliamentary resolution of October 22, 2008 – that resolved not to allow Pakistani soil to be used for terror attacks inside or outside Pakistan – into state policy. Defence analysts of the know-it-all khaki variety tell us that all states covertly support rogues in foreign lands to pursue national interest. The little detail they miss out is that probably no other state in the world has been reckless enough to transform its own citizens into non-state rogue elements as a matter of policy, and nurture, protect and finance them as strategic assets. That conniving foreign states have harnessed the disgruntled band amongst our own jihadis to attack the Pakistani state and citizens is the conspiracy. They do so to create chaos and engender circumstances wherein stealing our nuclear weapons programme would become justifiable.

The instrument being used to further this goal is our own misguided jihadis. So then for once do the conspiracy theorists and realists not agree that our jihadi assets have turned into a liability and must be liquidated? We have already lost over 35,000 Pakistani lives to terror. Even if there is immediate change in policy, our jihadi terrorists will have claimed many more of us before the madness ends. The manifestation of this policy will not be staunch military operation in Waziristan, but cession of recruiting camps in the outskirts of Lahore and Bahawalpur. Let us understand that there is no room for equivocation here. Irrespective of how the imperial powers ‘tricked us’ into assembling the jihadi project in our backyard, its prime victim is now the ordinary citizen and the sentry. If the state and the security agencies continue a double game, they are only playing it with the lives of Pakistanis.

Once we rethink and review our domestic security policy and identify the weak links in our security and intelligence apparatus, we will need to build institutional structures to give effect to the revised policy and plug holes in our approach to security. The parliamentarians cannot limit their role to passing truistic resolutions and be done with their jobs. They will need to act as legislators and pass laws to create structures that ensure accountability and oversight in the realm of national security. We need a strong counterterrorism agency, independent of the interior division or the military, responsible for coordinating and enforcing our homeland security policy.

We need to provide statutory mandate for the ISI’s role that provides for internal accountability to check incompetence and abuse of authority and external policy guidance and supervision, apart from enabling intelligence to be used to prosecute and convict terrorists through our court system. We need a law that details how the military is to act ‘in aid of civil power’ when called upon to do so in order to integrate its internal security function into our criminal justice system. We need to amend our Anti-Terrorism Act to give it teeth and create automatic penal consequences for proscribed organisations. We need to exclude ouster clauses from the Army, Air Force and Navy Acts that shield actions and decisions of military commanders from judicial scrutiny.

None of this is rocket science. But who will assume responsibility for our moribund national security complex: our incompetent civilian leadership or our blinkered military high command? Who will purge the armed forces of jihadi sympathisers? Will those presiding over a blundering security policy suddenly have an epiphany? Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

Email: sattar@post.harvard.edu

Three Chinese government buildings bombed

Three Chinese government buildings bombed

Three Chinese government buildings have been bombed in the southern city of Fuzhou, in Jiangxi province, killing two and injuring six.

Three Chinese government buildings bombed

Smoke rises after the explosion in the Linchuan district government office in Fuzhou city Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
By Malcolm Moore, Shanghai 7:24AM BST 26 May 2011

The first blast went off in the car park of the Fuzhou public prosecutor’s office just after nine o’clock this morning, as workers were arriving for the day.

Two other bombs went off in the following 30 minutes, one at the Linchuan district government building and another at the local pharmaceutical drug administration bureau.

The three buildings were within walking distance of each other and two of the bombs were left inside cars parked outside.

According to Xinhua, the state news agency, three of the six injured are critical. The bombings were initially blamed on a local farmer who was said to be upset at the progress of a court case, but Xinhua later said the cause of the attacks was still under investigation.

However, the coordination of the blasts and the use of car bombs pointed to a more sophisticated attacker, or group of attackers. “One farmer? Only if he was a member of al Qaeda,” said one comment on the Chinese internet.

US Navy forecast shows super typhoon may hit Fukushima plant on May 30

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US Navy forecast shows super typhoon may hit Fukushima plant — TEPCO “still considering typhoon measures”

Typhoon Songda strengthens; may hit Fukushima nuclear station, Bloomberg News, May 27, 2011:

Typhoon Songda strengthened to a supertyphoon after battering the Philippines and headed for Japan on a track that may pass over the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant by May 30, a U.S. monitoring center said.

Songda’s winds increased to 150 miles per hour, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said on its website. [...]

The center’s forecast graphic includes a possible path over Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant [...]

“We are still considering typhoon measures and can’t announce detailed plans yet,” Takeo Iwamoto, a spokesman at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said by phone when asked about the storm. [...]