US To Spend $700 Billion On New Nukes and Modernization In Next Ten Years

What We Spend on Nuclear Weapons

BY JOEL RUBIN

The United States is projected to spend over $700 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs during the next ten years. As federal budgets tighten and officials address the most pressing national security needs of the 21st century, the substantial cost of nuclear weapons must be fully examined. By understanding these costs and setting effective national security priorities, policymakers can reduce nuclear budget excesses incurred by the active stockpile of approximately 5,000 nuclear weapons.

Ploughshares Fund has written a working paper (http://ploughshares.org/sites/default/files/resources/What%20We%20Spend%20on%20Nuclear%20Weapons_0.pdf) to address the magnitude of this complex issue. As a result of this analysis, we are convinced that the current projected expenditures on nuclear weapons are mismatched for both the fiscal and physical threats we face as a country, and must therefore come down. This working paper should be viewed as a living document that, as the budget picture for nuclear weapons spending becomes clearer, will be adjusted to match the changing policy environment.

We hope that this working paper will contribute to the overall national debate about defense spending, both for the sake of our national security and our country’s fiscal health. It is our view that these projected investments are oriented towards fighting last century’s wars, thereby creating significant financial waste while undercutting our country’s ability to address the threats we all face. In an era of tight federal budgets, limited defense dollars must be spent wisely to address the security needs of today and the anticipated security needs of tomorrow. Our projected nuclear weapons spending, as outlined in this paper, does not meet this standard.

Ultimately, the United States must find a bipartisan path forward for reducing the nuclear budget burden that we all face. We should not saddle our children and grandchildren with hundreds of billions of dollars of unnecessary future expenditures for weapons systems that we neither need nor can afford.

ORIGINAL POSTING LINK: http://www.ploughshares.org/blog/2011-09-14/what-we-spend-nuclear-weapons

Iran Says NATO Shield In Service Of Israel

Written by: Radio Zamaneh

Commander Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Defence Minister, says NATO’s anti-missile shield in Turkey is really a defence system for Israel and he accuses Turkey of double-dealing in its stance against Israel.

An ISNA report quotes Vahid as saying: “There is no justification for establishing this defence system, and we see it as a U.S. defence strategy for the Zionist regime.”

Vahidi said Israel cannot be saved by such measures because its problems lie in its “lack of legitimacy and internal collapse … the freedom and awakening of the regional nations …. [and] the takeover of its embassy by Egypt’s Muslims.”

Vahidi went on to say that the West is trying to limit Russia and Iran’s regional influence but he called those efforts “futile.”

Last November, NATO approved the establishment of anti-missile shields in Europe to defend against possible ballistic missile attacks by Iran.

This month, Turkish authorities announced they have agreed to let NATO set up an anti-missile shield in Turkey.

Iran has condemned the Turkish move and accused the country of “using double standards” in its stance against Israel.

About the author:Radio Zamaneh

Since 2006 Radio Zamaneh has successfully facilitated Persian writers, Islamic scholars, prominent Iranians and personalities at the heart of Iranian culture to provide their views and thoughts.

Professor Sues Pittsburgh for Zapping Her With Weapon Developed to Fight Terrorists

By KEVIN KOENINGER

PITTSBURGH (CN) – An English professor says she suffered “permanent hearing loss, nausea, pain and disorientation” when Pittsburgh police used a Long Range Acoustic Device, developed to fight terrorists, on a peaceful demonstration against the IMF, in which she was not participating, but merely watching.
Karen Piper sued Pittsburgh and its police force for negligence, civil rights and constitutional claims, in Federal Court.
“During the G-20 Summit Meeting held in Pittsburgh in September 2009, City of Pittsburgh Police used a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) against civilians on or about the streets of Pittsburgh,” the complaint states. “The LRAD, a distance hailing and crowd control device, was developed in response to the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in October 2000, and was originally intended to be used by American warships to warn incoming vessels approaching without permission. Among other things, it emits harmful, pain-inducing sounds over long distances. The LRAD is a military-style weapon, and it was used for the first time in the United States when the Pittsburgh Police directed it on civilians in September 2009. Plaintiff Karen L. Piper, a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was an innocent bystander on September 24, 2009, who suffered permanent hearing loss, nausea, pain and disorientation when the LRAD was activated without any warning. Piper alleges in this 42 U.S.C. §1983 civil rights lawsuit that Defendant City of Pittsburgh and its officials violated her rights under the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and that the City of Pittsburgh used the device negligently.”
Piper, an English professor at the University of Missouri was a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University when the police zapped her. She says she rode her bicycle to Arsenal Park when she heard that protesters were gathering there.
At the time, Piper says, she was working on a book about the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. “Her field of interest included examining whether protestors have any impact on these institutions. …
“Consistent with her academic interest, plaintiff’s intention was to take photographs and observe rhetoric on any signs.”
She says she “stood on the road beside a wall of police” and watched people “calmly and peacefully milling about in the park.”
The complaint states: “At or about 10:30 a.m., plaintiff observed the police marching in formation. Plaintiff, along with numerous journalists, followed the police down Butler Street to the corner of 32nd Street and Liberty Avenue.
“Because of the police activity she was observing, plaintiff became concerned and attempted to leave the area.”
That’s when defendant John Doe Officers Nos. 1-3 “activated an LRAD without warning, causing a continuous piercing sound to be emitted for a number of minutes.”
The complaint continues: “The LRAD was affixed to a motor vehicle that was about 100 feet away from her and moving along the street.
“When the LRAD was activated, plaintiff suffered immediate pain in her ears, and she became nauseous and dizzy. She developed a severe headache. She was forced to sit down and was unable to walk.”
Piper says she was “an innocent bystander,” and that “When the LRAD was activated, there was no imminent threat of harm to the police or other individuals, and defendants and/or their agents, servants and/or employees had ample and abundant time to determine how and/or when to activate the LRAD.”
She says the police “were aware, from warnings by the manufacturer, that the use of the LRAD was capable of causing permanent hearing damage and other injury, and said defendants deliberately disregarded the significant risk of bodily harm,” and that they did it with no warning, in fact, that they “deliberately failed to warn”.
She seeks damages for pain and suffering, lost earning capacity, “permanent loss of a bodily function,” medical expenses, negligence, and constitutional violations.
She is represented by Witold Walczak, by Sara Rose with the ACLU, by Michael Louik with Rosen Louik & Perry, and by Thomas Hollander, all of Pittsburgh.

faggotty situation in Af/Pak

Mostaque Ali

The USA and Pakistan created the Taliban in 1994, following “Operation Cyclone” and Brzezinski’s plan to destabilize the region with Islamists from the late 1970′s.

The USA continued its relationship with the Islamists, thereafter, using them especially in the Balkans and other theaters.

The 40,000 Taliban in 2001 were armed, supplied, trained and directed by the Pakistan military for the USA. Their performance in battle was extremely poor, given that they were a militia armed with light equipment.

After Israel conducted 9/11, the USA falsely decided to invade Afghanistan, under the pretext that “al-Qaeda”, a non-existent phantom group run by the USA, and OBL had carried it out.

Yes indeed there were thousands of Jihadis/Islamists in Afghanistan before 9/11, trained by the Pakistanis for the USA, BUT they were not led by one leader…….accepting OBL as their undisputed leader, nor with a plan for global Jihad. Young misguided men from the Greater Middle East went there to train and fight during the 1980–1990′s and ended up being USED as pawns in the agenda’s of the Jewish run USA………in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in the Balkans and of course in the Greater Middle East, and with the recent “Arab Spring” in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

This is the first faggotty fact that one needs to grasp, before trying to understand the faggotty situation in Af/Pak.

Since then after 2001 Afghanistan mysteriously has become the number 1 Opium/Heroin exporter in the world.

Or to put it another way, the foreign Western occupation forces are able to attack wedding celebrations and other such suspicious gatherings in Afghanistan with great precision year in year out for 10 years, killing thousands upon thousands of civilians with wild careless abandon, but are somehow incapacitated to irradiate Opium poppy growing through days and nights in the open, flat, satellite monitored fields of that wretched country.

To seek clarity of this faggotty fact one must turn to history as it sometimes repeats itself. The East India Company, run by private individuals with connections to establishment figures and protected by the British army, grew Opium in India and exported it to China. This is what is happening with Afghanistan now except the exports of Opium/Heroin is to Pakistan, parts of India, Iran, Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine, EU and North America.

The retail value of this trade is between $50–80 billion, just out of Afghanistan. The business is run by the Western military in a controlling position in Afghanistan. The money is laundered in the big banks of London and New York. A few mainly Jewish individuals and their dumb-fuck WASP minions benefit from this criminal activity……….whilst millions of Americans, British, Europeans, Russians, Ukrainians, Central Asians, Iranians, Pakistanis ………………..SUFFER from this Jew run International trade worth globally about $600–1,000 billion annually.

This is the faggotty fact, but obviously Panetta and Mullen who are believed to be gentiles can hardly admit to the media that the USA is in Afghanistan purely so that the Opium can be safely harvested, at an annual cost to the American taxpayer of $100 billion OFFICIALLY, so that the Jew banks can launder the money, which forms a major part of their annual profits.

So over the years strange cock and bull stories have emanated from the USA (and the UK) as to why the Western unpopular occupation forces, who kill so many innocent civilians must stay to help the Afghans build a secure democracy, and fight the noble fight against the Taliban, created by the USA, run by the Pakistan military for the USA as “Controlled Opposition”.

The real villain of the piece is of course the Pakistan military. Without the cooperation of the Pakistan military the USA would never had the chance to occupy Afghanistan, and now kill countless Pakistani civilians from Afghanistan.

The Pakistan military still run the Afghan Taliban for the USA, provide them with sanctuary in the border areas, and R & R in Karachi. This is a fact the Americans know after all the Americans pay for and run Pakistan’s Intelligence service the ISI, through various fusion centers and at many other levels.

The Americans “need” the Taliban to sell the occupation and permanent “war” in Afghanistan, and the vast bloated failed state Pentagon budget.

80% of the Occupation troops are killed by the Taliban or Afghan’s in uniform, but the other 20% is killed by the Occupation forces themselves for particular agenda’s………This is the foggy faggotty fact mess of Af/Pak……….where the Coolie Kuta Chamar Chamcha’s, themselves victims of terrorism and 35,000 dead since 2001, and the loss of $70 billion to the failed State economy suddenly become the accused……perhaps serves them right for being such good, easily disposable servants of the whimsical USA?

__________________________

Pakistan Challenges US to Prove Allegations

Warns US Not to Invade Tribal Areas

by Jason Ditz at antiwar.com

Tensions between the US and Pakistan appear to have reached a boiling point today, with Admiral Michael Mullen accusing the Haqqani Network of being a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani military’s spy agency, and claimed Pakistan had direct involvement in the attack on the US embassy in Kabul.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik was quick to respond,saying that if the US was going to persist with such accusations they ought to provide some sort of evidence. He also added that if the US wanted Pakistan to move against the Haqqanis they should provide them the intelligence on their locations.

Malik also warned the US not to invade, following repeated US comments suggesting a ground operation may be in the offing, saying that Pakistan would “not allow the boots on our ground, never” and that cooperation with the US would continue so long as Pakistan’s sovereignty is respected.

The Obama Administration has dramatically ratcheted up the rhetoric with respect to the Haqqani Network over the past several weeks, dismissing public claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks by the Afghan Taliban to claim that they were secretly Haqqani plots. Though this first moved toward claims Pakistan wasn’t invading its own tribal areas often enough, it seems to have morphed into elaborate accusations of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terror.

This is a NO-Troll Zone

This website is not like other sites.  It is tightly focused on the investigation of evil, specifically, government evil.  You won’t find too much here that breaks that focus.  When I first started this site three years ago, it quickly became obvious to me that the comments left here by the angry, or the deranged added nothing to the site but distraction.  I learned that from the most popular article ever posted on this site–The Unspeakable Truth of 9/11, that the loonies were just waiting for an opening to turn this into another 911 site.  They have to learn on their own that there are things bigger than 911.  I caught hell from all sides in the comments, all of them trying to tear me a new one for not buckling under and promoting somebody else’s theories.  After that, came other lunatic conspiracy issues, most of them slanted towards forcing me to turn this into another anti-Jewish website.  This is not another anti-Semitic website (although many have accused me of it), just as it is not a 911 conspiracy site, a “holocaust” denial site, a Communist site, an anti-American website, or an environmentalist website.  Everybody, it seems, even friends, wants me to focus this site on their own pet issues.  It will never happen.     

Since I follow a policy of screening trolls and moderating comments that are left on the articles I post, then I probably should have posted some kind of commentary rules or guidelines in the beginning, but it seems that they have been forced upon me over the years.

This site is composed of three kinds of articles–articles that I write, articles that I enjoy reading each day, and evidence that I find on the criminals who think they own this world.  If I have any knowledge which adds to the articles being posted, and I have the time, then I often include it with the article.  If anyone posts a comment which does the same–ADDS TO the post, then it gets included as well.  Any comment given, which doesn’t  ADD TO the post, but instead distracts from the point being made, or is plainly intended to be abusive, is deleted. 

This is a NO-Troll Zone.  We have all encountered them–they exist to disrupt whatever conversation is going on.  They are different from your average assholes, in that they are mean individuals, with a false sense of power and an inflated sense of intellectual superiority, all of them possessed by an overwhelming desire to spread their fear, their hatred and their ignorance.  Forums which think that everyone should have the right to express their ignorance are made pointless because of them, since everything degenerates into an argument or a name-calling contest.  If everyone had the time to wade through all the BS, to find the truths that have been buried beneath the excrement, then things might be different.  I am here to cut through the bullshit and to lay-out what I find out in the straightest line that I can.

If anyone has noticed, I am often embroiled in some kind of sparring match with pissed-off Pakistani readers.  That is understandable, considering my focus upon Pakistan as the place that we have fucked-up more than any other.  When the crap really hits the fan, it is my opinion that the main shit-storm will probably be in Pakistan.  Our government’s primary tool for abusing Pakistan has been its own government, especially its military/intelligence services.  My efforts are intended to create a common understanding of how, and how much, we have actually hurt Pakistan over the years.  It is just as necessary to tell the truth about Pakistan’s brutal, abusive leaders as it is to tell the truth about our own.  Therefore, I piss-off a lot of Pakistani military people, just as I piss-off American military types.  Sorry about that, but that is just the way it is. 

Like I have always said, I welcome well-written or informative submissions (in the beginning I ran a permanent ad asking for submissions, but received mostly spam).  If what you are saying is relevant to our dilemma (the terror war), or if it meets the standards of things I post on this site, then I may post it.  If it interests me, it is given to my readers…Nothing more…Nothing less.–[Peter]

SUBMISSION LINK

Ahmadinejad Criticizes US and NATO Policy in Perpetuating Wars

NEWYORK, (SANA) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday criticized the US and NATO policy in perpetuating wars, indicating to the catastrophic situation of the Iraqi and Afghani people under occupation.

Iranian News Agency (IRNA) quoted President Ahmadinejad in his speech at the UN General Assembly as saying that it is not allowed to undermine the UN position and turn it into a tool for certain parties.

The Iranian President raised questions about the powers behind imposing colonialism for over four centuries, triggering the first and second world wars , occupying land and imposing Zionism and over sixty years of war, homelessness, terror and mass murder on the Palestinian people and on countries of the region.

Ahmadinejad condemned the US use of nuclear weapons against innocent people, stockpiling thousands of warheads in arsenals.

He pointed out that Washington used September 11 incident as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and Iraq, killing, injuring, and displacing millions with the ultimate goal of bringing into its domination the Middle East and its oil resources.

What is the justification for the presence of hundreds of US military and intelligence bases in different parts of the world other than military occupation, President Ahmadinejad asks.

Some parties look for their progress and prosperity through destroying other countries and spreading poverty. They use power, proclaim themselves the custodians of all governments and abuse the international law. They weaken countries through military intervention and destroy their infrastructures in order to plunder their resources by making them all the more dependent, he said.

On September 11 attacks, Ahmadinejad said that “instead of assigning a fact-finding team, the US Administration killed the main perpetrator and threw his body into the sea.”

“Would it not have been reasonable to bring him to trial in order to identify the elements behind the safe space provided for the invading aircraft to attack the twin world trade towers!” , President Ahmadinejad concluded.

R. Raslan/ al-Ibrahim

 

The full text of the Ahmadinejad speech follows, courtesy of the United Nations

(–and Kenny)

 

 

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am grateful to the Almighty Allah who granted me, once more, the opportunity to appear before this world assembly. I have the pleasure to express my sincere thanks to H.E. Joseph Deiss, president of the sixty-fifth session for his tremendous efforts during his tenure. I also would like to congratulate H.E Nassir Abdulaziz AI-Nasser on his election as the president of sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly and wish him all success.

Let me seize the moment to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the past year, particularly to the victims of the tragic famine in Somalia and the devastating flood in Pakistan and especially the earthquake and the ensuing explosions in the nuclear power plant in Japan. I urge everyone to intensify their assistance and aid to the affected populations in these countries.

Over the past years, I spoke about different global issues, and the need to introduce fundamental changes in the current international order.

Today, considering the international developments, I will try to analyze the present situation from a different angle. As you all know the dominance and superiority of human beings over other creatures, lie in the very nature and the truth of humankind which is a divine gift and a manifestation of the divine spirit including: faith in God, who is the ever-lasting creator and planner of the entire universe.

Showing compassion to others, generosity, justice-seeking, and having integrity both in words and in deeds.

The quest for dignity to reach the pinnacles of perfection, the aspiration to elevate one’s material and spiritual status, and the longing to realize liberty; Defying oppression, corruption, and discrimination in trying to support the oppressed; Seeking happiness, and lasting prosperity and security for all.

These are some of the manifestations of common divine and human attributes which can clearly be seen in the historical aspirations of human beings as reflected in the heritage of our search for art and literary works both in prose and poetry, and in the socio-cultural and political movements of human beings in the course of history.

All divine prophets and social reformers invited human beings to tread on this righteous path. God has given dignity to humankind to elevate his status to assume his successor role on Earth.

It is vividly clear that despite all historical achievements, including creation of the United-Nations, which was a product of untiring struggles and efforts of free-minded and justice-seeking individuals as well as the international cooperation, human societies are yet far from fulfilling their noble desires and aspirations.

Most nations of the world are unhappy with the current international circumstances. And despite the general longing and aspiration to promote peace, progress, and fraternity, wars, mass-murder, widespread poverty, and socioeconomic and political crises continue to infringe upon the rights and sovereignty of nations, leaving behind irreparable damage worldwide.

Approximately, three billion people of the world live on less than 2.5 dollars a day, and over a billion people live without having even one sufficient meal on a daily basis. Forty-percent of the poorest world populations only share five percent of the global income, while twenty percent of the richest people share seventy-five percent of the total global income.

More than twenty thousand innocent and destitute children die every day in the world because of poverty. In the United States, eighty percent of financial resources are controlled by ten percent of its population, while only twenty percent of these resources belong to the ninety percent of the population.

What are the causes and reasons behind these inequalities? How can bone remedy such injustice?

The rulers of the global management circles divide the social life from ethics and spirituality while claiming the situation is the outcome of the pursuit of the path of divine prophets or the vulnerability of nations or the ill performance of a few groups or individuals. They claim that only their views and approaches can save the human society.

Wouldn’t you think that the root cause of the problems must be sought in the prevailing international order, or the way the world is governed? I would like to draw your kind attention to the following questions:

Who abducted forcefully tens of millions of people from their homes in Africa and other regions of the world during the dark period of slavery, making them a victim of their materialistic greed?

Who imposed colonialism for over four centuries upon this world?

Who occupied lands and massively plundered resources of other nations, destroyed talents, and alienated languages, cultures and identities of nations?

Who triggered the first and second world wars, that left seventy millions killed and hundreds of millions injured or homeless. Who created the wars in Korean peninsula and in Vietnam?

Who imposed, through deceits and hypocrisy, the Zionism and over sixty years of war, homelessness, terror and mass murder on the Palestinian people and on countries of the region?

Who imposed and supported for decades military dictatorship and totalitarian regimes on Asian, African, and Latin American nations?

Who used nuclear bomb against defenseless people, and stockpiled thousands of warheads in their arsenals?

Whose economies rely on waging wars and selling arms?

Who provoked and encouraged Saddam Hussein to invade and impose an eight-year war on Iran, and who assisted and equipped him to deploy chemical weapons against our cities and our people?

Who used the mysterious September 11 incident as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and Iraq , killing, injuring, and displacing millions in two countries with the ultimate goal of bringing into its domination the Middle East and its oil resources?

Who nullified the Breton Woods system by printing trillions of dollars without the backing of gold reserves or equivalent currency? A move that triggered inflation worldwide and was intended to prey on the economic gains of other nations?

Which country’s military spending exceeds annually a thousand billion dollars, more than the military budgets of all countries of the world combined?

Which governments are the most indebted ones in the world?

Who dominates the policy-making establishments of the world economy?

Who are responsible for the world economic recession, and are imposing the consequences on America, Europe and the world in general?

Which governments are always ready to drop thousands of bombs on other countries, but ponder and hesitate to provide aid to famine-stricken people in Somalia or in other places?

Who are the ones dominating the Security Council which is ostensibly responsible for safeguarding the international security?

There exist tens of other similar questions. Of course, the answers are clear.

The majority of nations and governments of the world have had no role in the creation of the current global crises, and as a matter of fact, they were themselves the victims of such policies.

It is as lucid as daylight that the same slave masters and colonial powers that once instigated the two world wars have caused widespread misery and disorder with far-reaching effects across the globe since then.

Dear Colleagues and Friends;

Do these arrogant powers really have the competence and ability to run or govern the world. Is it acceptable that they call themselves the sole defender of freedom, democracy, and human rights, while they militarily attack and occupy other countries?

Can the flower of democracy blossom from NATO’s missiles, bombs and guns?

Ladies and Gentlemen;

If some European countries still use the Holocaust, after six decades, as the excuse to pay fine or ransom to the Zionists, should it not be an obligation upon the slave masters or colonial powers to pay reparations to the affected nations?

If the damage and losses of the period of slavery and colonialism were indeed compensated, what would happen to the manipulators and behind-the-scene political powers in the United States and in Europe? Would there remain any gaps between the North and the South?

If only half of military expenditures of the United States and its allies in NATO was shifted to help solve the economic problems in their own countries, would they be witnessing any symptom of the economic crisis?

What would happen, if the same amount was allocated to poor nations?

What is the justification for the presence of hundreds of US military and intelligence bases in different parts of the world, including 268 bases in Germany, 124 in Japan, 87 in South Korea, 83 in Italy, 45 in the United Kingdom, and 21 in Portugal? Does this mean anything other than military occupation?

Don’t the bombs deployed in the said bases undermine the security of other nations?

The main question is the quest for the root cause of such attitudes. The prime reason should be sought in the beliefs and tendencies of the establishment. An assembly of people in contradiction with the inner human instincts and disposition who also have no faith in God and in the path of the divine prophets, replace their lust for power and materialistic ends with heavenly values.

To them, only power and wealth prevail, and every attempt must bring into focus these sinister goals.

Oppressed nations have no hope to restore or protect their legitimate rights against these powers. These powers seek their progress, prosperity and dignity through imposing poverty, humiliation and annihilation to others.

They consider themselves superior to others, enjoying special privileges and concessions. They have no respect for others and easily violate the rights of all nations and governments.

They proclaim themselves as the indisputable custodians of all governments and nations through intimidation, recourse to threat and force, and abuse the international mechanisms. They simply break all the internationally recognized regulations.

They insist on imposing their lifestyle and beliefs on others. They officially support racism. They weaken countries through military intervention, and destroy their infrastructures, in order to plunder their resources by making them all the more dependent.

They sow the seeds of hate and hostility among nations and people of different pursuits, in order to prevent them from fulfilling their goals of development and progress.

All cultures, identities, lives, values and wealth of nations, women, youth, families as well as the wealth of nations are sacrificed to their imperialistic tendencies and their inclination to enslave and captivate others.

Hypocrisy and deceit are allowed in order to secure their interests and imperialistic goals. Drug- trafficking and killing of innocent human beings are also allowed in pursuit of such diabolic goals. Despite NATO’s presence in the occupied Afghanistan, there has been a dramatic increase in the production of illicit drugs there.

They tolerate no question or criticism, and instead of presenting a reason for their violations, they always put themselves in the position of a claimant. By using their imperialistic media network which is under the influence of colonialism they threaten anyone who questions the Holocaust and the September 11 event with sanctions and military action.

Last year, when the need to form a fact-finding team to undertake a thorough investigation concerning the hidden elements involved in September 11 incident was brought up; an idea also endorsed by all independent governments and nations as well as by the majority in the United States, my country and myself came under pressure and threat by the government of the United States.

Instead of assigning a fact-finding team, they killed the main perpetrator and threw his body into the sea.

Would it not have been reasonable to bring to justice and openly bring to trial the main perpetrator of the incident in order to identify the elements behind the safe space provided for the invading aircraft to attack the twin world trade towers?

Why should it not have been allowed to bring him to trial to help recognize those who launched terrorist groups and brought wars and other miseries into the region?

Is there any classified information that must be kept secret?

They view Zionism as a sacred notion and ideology. Any question concerning its very foundation and history is condemned by them as an unforgivable sin.

However they endorse and allow sacrileges and insult against beliefs of other divine religions.

Dear Colleagues and Friends;

Real freedom, justice” dignity, well being, and lasting security are the rights of all nations. These values can neither be achieved by reliance on the current inefficient system of world governance, nor through the invasion of the world by arrogant powers and the gun barrels of NATO forces.

These values could only be realized through independence and recognition of others’ rights and through harmony and cooperation.
Is there any way to address the problems and challenges besetting the world by using the prevailing international mechanisms and tools to help humanity achieve the long-standing aspiration of peace, security and equality?

All those who tried to introduce reforms whilst preserving the existing norms and tendencies have failed. The valuable efforts made by the Non-Aligned movement and Group 77 and GrouplS as well as by some prominent individuals have failed to bring fundamental changes.
Governance and management of the world require fundamental reforms.

What should be done now?

Dear Colleagnes and Friends;

Efforts must be made with a firm resolve and through collective cooperation to map out a new plan, on the basis of principles and the very foundation of universal human values such as Monotheism, justice, freedom, love and the quest for happiness.

The idea of creation of the United Nations remains a great and historical achievement of mankind. Its importance must be appreciated and its capacities must be used to the extent possible for our noble goals.

We should not allow this organization which is the reflection of the collective will and shared aspiration of the community of nations, to deviate from its main course and play into the hands of the world powers.

Conducive ground must be prepared to ensure collective participation and involvement of nations in an effort to promote lasting peace and security.

Shared and collective management of the world must be achieved in its true sense, and based on the underlying principles enshrined in the international law. Justice must serve as the criterion and the basis for all international decisions and actions.

All of us should acknowledge the fact that there is no other way than the shared and collective management of the world in order to put an end to the present disorders, tyranny, and discriminations worldwide.
This is indeed the sole way to prosperity and welfare of human society which is an established and vivid truth.

While acknowledging the above truth, one should note that acknowledgement alone is not enough. We must believe in it and spare no effort toward its realization.

Dear Colleagues and Friends;

Shared and collective management of the world is the legitimate right of all nations, and we as their representatives, have an obligation to defend their rights. Although some powers continuously try to frustrate all international efforts aimed at promoting collective cooperation, we must, however, strengthen our belief in achieving the perceived goal of establishing a shared and collective cooperation to run the world.

The United Nations was created to make effective participation of all nations in international decision-making processes, possible. We all know that this goal has not yet been fulfilled because of the absence of justice in the current management structures and mechanisms of the UN.

The composition of the Security Council is unjust and inequitable. Therefore, changes including the restructuring of the United Nations are considered the basic demands of the nations that must be addressed by the General Assembly.

During last year session, I emphasized the importance of this issue and called for the designation of the current decade as the decade of shared and collective Global Management.

I would like to reiterate again my proposal. I am sure that through international cooperation, diligence and efforts by committed world leaders and governments and through insisting on the realization of justice and the support of all other nations, we can expedite the building of a common bright future.

This movement is certainly on its rightful path of creation, ensuring a promising future for humanity. A future that will be built when humanity initiates to trend the path of the divine prophets and the righteous under the leadership of Imam al-Mahdi, the Ultimate Savior of mankind and the inheritor to all divine messengers and leaders and to the pure generation of our great Prophet.

The creation of a supreme and ideal society with the arrival of a perfect human being who is a true and sincere lover of all human beings, is the guaranteed promise of Allah.

He will come alongside with Jesus Christ to lead the freedom and justice lovers to eradicate tyranny and discrimination, and promote knowledge, peace, justice freedom and love across the world. He will present to every single individual all the beauties of the world and all good things which bring happiness for humankind.

Today nations have been awakened. With the increase in public awareness,they no longer succumb to oppressions and discriminations.

The world is now witnessing more than ever, the widespread awakening in Islamic lands, in Asia, Europe, and America. These movements are ever expanding their spirit everyday and influence the pursuit of the realization of justice, freedom and the creation of a better tomorrow.

Our great nation stands ready to join hands with other nations to march on this beautiful path in harmony and in line with the shared aspirations of mankind.

Let us salute love, freedom, justice, wisdom, and the bright future that awaits humankind.

Thank you.

Moment of Truth for Palestine and All Her Friends

Moment of Truth for Palestine and All Her Friends, posted with vodpod

Change the False Narrative and the Facts On the Ground Will Follow

the players know the rules of the game

twelfthbough.com

UPDATE: 

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton asks Palestinians to please not go to the ICC, even if they get non-member state status.

“Ashton even asked us that if we get non-member state, not to go to the International Criminal Court,” said Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said on Monday.

Hmm what’s the word… pathetic? Yes. That’s it.

‘Palestinian statehood to kill Israel’s immunity’, posted with vodpod

This is about accountability.
And smashing the narrative of lies to pieces.
As many pieces as there are people who died, and had lives destroyed, and futures ruined, in Palestine.
Whether it changes the facts on the ground next week is not the point.
It changes the narrative.
It changes the definitions.
Sooner or later the facts on the ground follow.

This is the game the players have been playing.
They know the rules.
The facts on the ground follow the narrative.
That is why they made up all these narratives in the first place.
The narratives created and justified the facts on the ground.
Even though the narratives were lies.
It still worked.
That’s the way the game works.

What happens when the narrative is the truth?
The facts on the ground will follow.
They always do.
Has this not been demonstrated with lies enough times?
It works with the truth also.
It works even better.
That’s the point.

occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

‘Palestinian statehood to kill Israel’s immunity’

‘Palestinian statehood to kill Israel’s immunity’, posted with vodpod

Obama’s “Soul Kiss” of Dictator Karimov–US Congress suspends sanctions against Uzbekistan

	Ray Mabus, US Secretary of the Navy; photo: flot.com

US Congress suspends sanctions against Uzbekistan

The US Congress voted on 22 September to remove restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan. The sanctions were imposed seven years ago in response to Uzbekistan’s deteriorating human rights record,EurasiaNet.org reports.

The decision was taken after the administration of the US President Barak Obama suggested lifting barriers to military aidat the beginning of September. Human Rights Watch, the international human rights organisation, came out firmly against the administration’s stance.

“For the USA to lift the sanctions now would be to present a huge gift to one of the most repressive regimes in Central Asia,” the Europe and Central Asia Director of HRW, Hugh Williamson, said on 7th September.

The decision of the Congress on 22 September coincided with a reception for officials of Ubekistan’s foreign ministry being hosted by United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, although the details of the meeting between the two parties have not been disclosed.

On 13 September, in its annual International Religious Freedom Report the US State Department named Uzbekistan as a “Country of Particular Concern”.

It seems possible that this is the reason that a meeting between the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and head of Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry Elyor Ganiev, which was due to take place in New York as the Uzbek delegation arrived for the UN General Assembly, did not take place, EurasiaNet.org claims.

Nevertheless, recent events have not prevented the US Congress deciding to remove sanctions on military aid to Uzbekistan, which, HRW says, should help the US strengthen its military positions in Uzbekistan and support its forces in Afghanistan.

The aims of the American and Uzbek governments in allowing this concession are not clear, says Fergananews.com, citing anonymous senior US administrative sources.

‘The US is not trying to buy off Uzbekistan, but wants to help out with non-weapon items such as bullet-proof jackets so that the country can defend itself in the event that its enemies try to strike against Uzbekistan in revenge for its providing the Northern supply route for the US to supply positions Afghanistan.”

Congress introduced sanctions on aid to Uzbekistan in 2004. The move was designed to persuade the government of Uzbekistan to improve its human righs record and implement wide ranging political and institutional reform. This, according to analysts of the region, has still not happened.

Uznews.net

India Endorses Hillary’s Central Asian Silk Power Grab

[India, like Turkey (SEE:  Turkish Navy Enforces Imperial Edicts, Seizes Syrian Transport Vessel), today embraces its designation as Imperial anchor, each pawn nation serving the Evil Empire's demands to police its end of the New Middle East (SEE:  US Implementation Plans Behind India/Vietnam Challenge To China).  They have fallen under Hillary's siren spell, apparently now believing that they too, can take what they want by force, despite Washington's abject failure in doing so over the past ten years.  There will be no TAPI gas for India as long as Afghanistan remains unpacified and Pakistan still exists as a separate Nation.  "Sucker Bait" for greedy delusional would-be gangster nations.]

India backs ‘New Silk Road’ in Central Asia

PRAVEEN SWAMI

Krishna says new pipelines, rail links and highways are building blocks of region’s future

India has backed a multinational initiative to build a multi-billion dollar network of roads, railways and gas pipelines linking the resource-rich Central Asia with the continent’s fast-growing economies — a project that its advocates describe as a “New Silk Road,” a modern version of the fabled trade routes.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told a meeting of foreign ministers, held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, that the project would develop the “building blocks of our vision for Afghanistan as a hub linking Central and South Asia through pipelines, trade and transit routes for the common good of the people of our region and the world.”

He said the project would help build upon Afghanistan’s “comparative advantage of abundant natural resources and its strategic geographical location.”

Thursday’s talks have paved the way for high-level meetings in Istanbul on November 2 and in Bonn on December 5, where the building blocks of the “New Silk Road” will be discussed — among them roads, railways, mining projects and gas pipelines.

Afghanistan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul, the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the foreign ministers of France, China, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Norway and the United Arab Emirates as well as senior officials from Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan attended the meeting.

“This was a great day for Afghanistan and the region,” Mr. Rassoul said.

Ms. Clinton said the new network would allow Afghanistan and other Central Asian states to attract new sources of foreign private sector investment and access markets abroad. This, in turn, would provide people in the region “with credible alternatives to insurgency.”

However, Ms. Clinton said the project’s success would require “changes in attitude and a sustained commitment of political will.”

Indian firms are already bidding for the development of the Hajigak iron ore mines in Afghanistan, while Chinese corporations have begun work on a $3 billion investment to tap the country’s copper.

New Delhi has also signed on to an $7.6 billion project to build a 2,000-kilometre pipeline that will bring some 70 billion cubic metres of gas each year from Turkmenistan’s Daulatabad fields to India, via Afghanistan and Pakistan. The construction of the pipeline, which will run through some 700 kilometres of Afghan territory and another 800 kilometres of Pakistan, is dogged by security concerns. India and Pakistan will both benefit from its construction, though, since it will give them reliable access to the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.

For its part, China has already made substantial investments in Central Asia. In December, 2010, a 1,833 kilometre pipeline carrying gas from the Saman-Depe gasfields of eastern Turkmenistan to China’s Xinjiang region went online. China has made substantial investments in energy infrastructure in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Beijing has also launched a number of ambitious highway and rail projects linking Central Asia to its western regions.

The highways and rail links the “New Silk Route” projects envisage will also give Europe a level of direct access to Central Asia it has not enjoyed since at least the sixteenth century, when the caravans that ferried goods across the region were rendered redundant by the new oceanic trade.

Pakistan not Quetta Shura’s representative, says letter from Rabbani’s Assassin

KABUL: A blood-stained letter has been found in the pocket of the suicide bomber who assassinated High Peace Council chief Burhanuddin Rabbani. It was addressed to Mr Rabbani and sent by the Taliban’s Quetta Shura.

In the letter, obtained by TOLOnews, the Quetta Shura poses a number of questions and sets out a series of demands relating to the peace process. The letter was sent by Mawlawi Enayatullah Makhtoum. He is the brother of Mawlawi Hayatullah who was the deputy minister of agriculture and livestock during the Taliban regime. The letter was sent through Mullah Esmatullah, who lives in Kandahar province, the birth place of the Taliban.

The Islamic Emirate sees presence of foreign troops, airstrikes, night raids, oppression, torture and bullying as the main factors of war, the letter said. It added that contacts to exchange prisoners could never bring the end of war.

Part of the letter said that vows made by Pakistan to co-operate in bringing the Taliban were misplaced because Pakistan was not the Quetta Shura’s representative.

The letter went on to suggest that the withdrawal of “foreign mercenaries” in small numbers would not resolve anything and that Jihad would continue intensively.

Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, an ex-president of Afghanistan and the head of the peace council, was assassinated on Tuesday evening at his home.

Turkish Navy Enforces Imperial Edicts, Seizes Syrian Transport Vessel

Syria hit by new sanctions, arms seizure

A Syrian refugee family sits in a room in Wadi Khaled, Lebanon’s impoverished mountain area near its northern border with Syria. (AFP PHOTO / ANWAR AMRO)

DAMASCUS : New sanctions against Syria come into effect on Saturday as Turkey says it has intercepted an arms shipment at sea destined for the protest-wracked country after another day of deadly demonstrations.

Both the European Union and Switzerland have targeted Syria’s oil sector in new sanctions that bite from Saturday, with the EU banning new investments there and also prohibiting the delivery of bank notes to Syria’s central bank.

The EU has also added two individuals and six companies to a list of people and entities facing an assets freeze and travel ban.

The new measures are the seventh set of EU sanctions imposed to punish the regime of President Bashar al-Assad for its relentless crackdown on dissent that erupted in mid March.

Earlier this month, the EU adopted a ban on Syrian crude oil imports. That is expected to hit hard, as the EU buys 95 percent of Syrian oil exports, providing a third of the regime’s hard currency earnings.

The Swiss sanctions put an embargo on the import, sale and transport of Syrian oil and oil products.

Turkey, formerly a key regional friend of Syria, has intercepted a shipload of weapons bound for Syria, the Anatolia news agency reported.

“Turkey has arrested a ship flying the Syrian flag and carrying weapons,” it quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as telling reporters in New York, where he attended the UN General Assembly.

Erdogan did not say when and where the ship was stopped.

The Turkish leader lashed out at Assad last week, telling him the era of oppressive dictators was past.

Erdogan said he had told Damascus arms shipments would be stopped, adding: “If in the future arms shipments are made by air or land, we will stop and seize them as we have done.”

On Tuesday, Erdogan said he had broken off dialogue with Damascus and warned of sanctions, after talks with US President Barack Obama in which the two discussed the need to “increase pressure” on Assad’s regime.

Friday — traditionally a day when anti-regime demonstrators take to the streets in Syria — saw the latest civilian deaths in the deadly crackdown on dissent, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had shot dead nine people in the Homs area in the centre of the country, while the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) group reported 12 killed nationwide.

The Observatory also said nearly 2,000 people had demonstrated in the eastern oil hub of Deir Ezzor, calling for Assad’s downfall.

State television said “six security agents were wounded in Deir Ezzor by armed terrorist groups.”

More than 10,000 demonstrators also gathered in four locations in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh in the northeast, and protests were also reported in the southern Daraa region, a hub of anti-regime activity.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has said the death toll from the crackdown on dissent since March 15 has risen to more than 2,700.

Damascus does not accept that popular opposition to the authorities exists, instead blaming “armed gangs” and “terrorists” for trying to sow chaos.

Amnesty International said on Friday it had uncovered evidence of the gruesome death of an 18-year-old girl in custody in Syria, and said it had compiled the names of more than 2,200 people reported killed during the unrest.

The London-based rights watchdog said the girl’s mutilated body was discovered in a Homs mortuary last week, two months after her arrest.

She was thought to be the first woman among more than 100 Syrians known to have died in custody since the protests erupted, Amnesty said.

The family of Zainab al-Hosni discovered her body “by chance” and “in horrific circumstances,” while collecting the corpse of her activist elder brother Mohammad Deeb, it said in a statement.

He too had apparently been tortured and killed in detention. But his sister’s body had been decapitated and her arms and skin removed, the rights group said.

“We have documented other cases of protesters whose bodies were returned to their families in a mutilated state during recent months,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“But this is particularly shocking.”

- AFP /ls

Mahmoud Abbas Makes His Move At UN

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas makes UN statehood bid

Mr Abbas said Palestinians were waiting to hear the world’s answer

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has submitted his bid to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state.

Addressing the General Assembly shortly afterwards, he called on the Security Council to immediately approve full Palestinian membership of the UN.

He said the Palestinians had entered negotiations with Israel with sincere intentions, but blamed the building of Jewish settlements for their failure.

Israel’s PM will speak shortly. Israel regretted the bid, his spokesman said.

Israel and the US say a Palestinian state can only be achieved through talks with Israel.

President Barack Obama told Mr Abbas on Thursday that the US would use its UN Security Council veto to block the move, but Mr Abbas vowed to press ahead with the bid.

“I call upon Mr Secretary-General to expedite transmittal of our request to the Security Council, and I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favour of our full membership,” he told the General Assembly, as many delegates gave a standing ovation, adding that he hoped for swift backing.

“I also appeal to the states that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine to do so.”

“The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland,” he said.

‘Future and destiny’

Meanwhile in the West Bank, crowds roared their approval as Mr Abbas demanded UN acceptance of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders.

“With our souls, with our blood, we will defend Palestine,” they said.

Mr Abbas had called for peaceful marches in support of his initiative, but some clashes were reported:

• One Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Palestinian sources say
• At the Qalandiya checkpoint, Israeli troops fired tear gas on stone-throwing Palestinian youths
• In the village of Nabi Saleh, protesters burned Israeli flags and pictures of President Obama

The process began with Mr Abbas presenting a written request for UN recognition of the Palestinian territories as a state to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Palestinian sources say the request is concise and short, and envisages a state based on pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman Gidi Shmerling responded almost immediately, saying: “We regret the step. We believe that the only path to true peace is through negotiations and not unilateral steps.”

The BBC’s Kim Ghattas at the UN says that until the last minute Western diplomats tried and failed to stop the Palestinians making the request.

Even now, efforts are under way to restart direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians in an attempt to defuse tensions, our correspondent says.

If Mr Ban decides the application is in order, the Security Council will examine it and vote on it. In order to pass, it would need the backing of nine out of 15 council members, with no vetoes from the permanent members.

A Security Council vote could take weeks to come about and the US may not even need to exercise its veto – Washington and Israel have been lobbying council members to either vote against the Palestinian plan or abstain.

But the Palestinians’ application has given them some political initiative, putting their case for independence back on the international agenda in a much more urgent way than it was before, says the BBC’s Middle East analyst Jeremy Bowen.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged a compromise, suggesting the General Assembly give the Palestinians enhanced status as a non-member state to allow a clear timeline for talks – a month to start negotiations, six months to deal with borders and security and a year to finalise a “definitive agreement”.

A vote on enhanced status – enjoyed by others such as the Vatican – would not require a Security Council recommendation but a simple majority in the General Assembly, where no veto is possible.

Currently the Palestinians have observer status at the UN.

The “Quartet” of US, European, Russian and UN mediators has been working on reaching a framework agreement to restart talks, based on Mr Obama’s vision of borders fashioned from Israel’s pre-1967 boundary, with agreed land swaps.

they martyr everyone who is opposed to their permanent presence

Iranian FM Official Blames NATO for Rabbani’s Assassination TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official here on Wednesday condemned the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan for the last night assassination of former Afghan President Burhanudin Rabbani.

Speaking to FNA here in Tehran on Wednesday, Head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Afghanistan Headquarters Mohsen Pak-Ayeen voiced deep regret over the cowardly assassination of the former Afghan president, and described Rabbani as a clergy Mujahed (combatant of God) who fought against the colonialist policies of such countries as England and the former Soviet Union. He reminded that Rabbani also strongly opposed a security pact between Kabul and Washington on the establishment of permanent US military bases in Afghanistan. “His assassination was aimed at an omission of a Mujahed who has fought for Afghanistan’s independence for years and came as part of a chain of terror attacks which led to the killing of Davoud Zee and Ahmad Karzai,” the diplomat stated. He said those behind the terror attack on Rabbani’s life aimed to pressure Karzai’s government to consent to their demands. “The NATO member states, and the US at the top of them, are responsible for this terror attack as they invaded Afghanistan under the excuse of establishing security and campaign against terrorism 10 years ago, but they have failed to restore security to Afghanistan. “Foreign countries, headed by the US, are seeking to gain a permanent military deployment in Afghanistan and they martyr everyone who is opposed to their permanent presence, including Martyr Rabbani.” Pak-Ayeen reiterated. Rabbani was killed in a terror attack Tuesday night by a bomb hidden in a turban. Rabbani was the head of a high-profile council called Afghanistan’s High Peace Council formed of former and present senior officials. He also was Afghanistan’s president from 1992 to 1996, when the country went through a brutal civil war. His government was ousted by the Taliban in 1996.

Afghans Say Taliban’s Top Leadership Sent Murderer of Peace Envoy Rabbani

By Eltaf Najafizada and James Rupert
The suicide bomber who killed Afghanistan’s top peace envoy this week was sent by someone in the Taliban’s Pakistan-based leadership, said the Afghan official who arranged the bomber’s visit to Kabul.

The killing Sept. 20 of Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairman of the Afghan government’s High Peace Council, came after secret contacts between the council and the Quetta Shura, the main leadership committee of the Taliban, said Rahmatullah Wahidyar, the council member who instigated talks. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency spokesman, Shafiqullah Tahiri, told a news conference with Wahidyar that “the Quetta Shura is involved in this killing,” and that investigations were continuing into who else might have participated.

While other Afghan officials said it’s unclear who sent the assassin, evidence pointing to the Taliban’s inner circle will further complicate a peace process the U.S. needs to ease its planned withdrawal of major combat forces by 2014. “If it is proved that the Quetta Shura is behind this attack, it will mean that they want to kill peace negotiators and there is no chance for talks,” said Arsala Rahmani, a senior peace council member.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters in Kabul yesterday that “the brutal murder of a national statesman who sought to promote outreach in the interest of bringing peace to his country raises very serious questions as to whether the Taliban and those who support them have any real interest in reconciliation.”

U.S., Pakistan Channels

While the exact makeup of the Quetta Shura, or council, is not known, it operates under the authority of the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Omar, U.S. and Afghan officials say. When U.S. forces led the overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001, Omar and other top Taliban officials fled their base in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to Quetta in Pakistan, where they have been based for years, say officials including U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers.

Pakistan denies that the Taliban leadership operates from its soil.

The U.S., Pakistani and Afghan governments are competing to establish channels for talks with the Taliban, each hoping to shape any eventual negotiations in its own interest, said Waliullah Rahmani, director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies. The U.S. and Afghan efforts to engage Taliban leaders led officials last year to fly a man they thought was an Omar deputy to Kabul for talks only to discover he was an impostor.

Pakistan arrested a Omar lieutenant, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in 2010 after he had held discussions with mediators from the United Nations, former U.N. envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide told the BBC. A third conciliation effort, in which U.S. officials met Tayeb Agha, a former assistant to Omar, stalled after news of the contacts was published, the New York Times reported last month.

Haqqani Faction

The Taliban movement’s two regular spokesmen said in phone interviews they are awaiting information from the leadership’s cultural and information committee on whether the group played any role in Rabbani’s killing. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed, whom Reuters quoted Sept. 20 as saying the Taliban conducted the attack, called that report incorrect.

Wahidyar’s accusing of the Quetta Shura shifted attention from a distinct faction of the Taliban, the Haqqani group based in Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan officials say that group, backed by Pakistan’s main military intelligence agency, carried out recent high-profile attacks in Kabul, including the Sept. 13 assault that hit the U.S. Embassy with rocket-propelled grenades.

U.S. Attacks

About 30 of the Taliban’s most prominent leaders have served on the shura in recent years, and many of the group’s members may have dispersed to Karachi or other cities to escape possible U.S. attack, according to the Long War Journal, a U.S.- based monitoring group on the Afghan war.

While the Taliban movement includes distinct factions, analysts say it is unclear how unified or divided the leadership may be on talking peace with the U.S. or President Hamid Karzai’s government.

The Quetta Shura is fragmented enough that it “precludes the possibility of the Taliban making a definitive break with the Pakistani military and its other allies,” to negotiate peace, wrote analystCandace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group, a policy research organization.

Wahidyar, who was injured in the bombing, had cuts and bruises on his face and spoke in a near whisper to reporters. He said in May he sent a former Taliban commander named Abdul Sattar to the Pakistani border town of Chaman, north of Quetta, to make contact with the Quetta Shura.

Turban Bomb

Sattar “called me from Chaman and told me that a Mullah Hamidullah would call me and then come from the Quetta Shura to Kabul” for meetings, Wahidyar said. Two rounds of talks with Hamidullah led to the arrival last week of a Mullah Esmatullah, who carried conciliatory audio messages on a flash drive for Rabbani and the peace council that he said were from the Quetta Shura, Wahidyar said.

Karzai said yesterday he heard one of the messages, which seemed authentic, greeting Rabbani and his colleagues with respectful titles. “We came to see that this was not a peace message but was deception,” Karzai told a news conference.

On Sept. 20, when Wahidyar escorted Esmatullah to meet Rabbani, guards deferentially avoided a scrupulous body search of the visitor, and as he hugged Rabbani in greeting, he detonated a bomb hidden in his turban, police said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net; James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg in Hong Kong atphirschberg@bloomberg.net

US Special Forces Simulate Pursuit of IMUTerrorists Into Tajik/Kyrgyz Earthquake Zone

In the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan are the teachings of “Regional Cooperation-2011″

Avaz Yuldashev

Representatives of the defense and security agencies of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and the U.S. are taking part in today launched the active phase of exercises “Regional Cooperation-2011″ at the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Tatarstan.

According to legend exercises in the city of Isfara Sughd two in the morning there is a strong earthquake of magnitude 9 points. As a result, the city is destroyed by 70%, many dead and wounded, out of order transmission lines, communications, water. By the earthquake also badly damaged a neighboring Isfara Batkentkaya area of ​​Kyrgyzstan. Rescue severely hampered by looting and penetrated into the ruined city of international terrorists.

As reported in an interview with “AP” deputy head of the teachings of data, the U.S. Central Command, Colonel Ted Bale, in the prevailing situation in the region of elements are special forces of the States Parties exercises, which, along with rescue operations, are fighting with looters and terrorists.

The exercises will last until September 27, operative groups involved defense ministers of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and the U.S..

According to the Defense Minister of Tajikistan, in the run-up to the teachings of their agreement to participate in them have given Pakistan and Uzbekistan, however, they have not sent their representatives in Dushanbe.

Saakashvili Uses UN Floor to Accuse Russia of Terrorism and Tie Abuse

Saakashvili uses UN floor to accuse Russia of terrorism

Saakashvili also said that Russia uses “embargo, blackmail and brutal dictates” against Ukraine, Moldova or Belarus.

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 (RIA Novosti)

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili used the UN floor on Thursday to accuse Moscow of terrorism and reiterate the claims that Russia occupies Georgian territories.

Russia fought a five-day war with Georgia in 2008 after Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Moscow then recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia, as independent states. The move was condemned by the West.

Saakashvili said Georgia had pledged earlier that it will “never use force to liberate its regions currently occupied by the Russian Federation,” and that it expects Moscow to respond in kind.

“Unfortunately, instead of dialogue, the response… has come in the form of a dozen terrorist acts targeting Georgia – attacks directly organized and supervised, as it is well confirmed by different international actors – by officers of the Russian secret services,” Saakashvili told the UN General Assembly.

He also said that Russia uses “embargo, blackmail and brutal dictates” against Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus

Ukrainian Afghan Veterans and Chernobyl Rescue Workers Storm Parliament Over Benefit Cuts

Protesters try to storm Verkhovna Rada building

Yuriy OnyshkivEmergency workers who fought the blaze at the Chornobyl nuclear reactor and veterans of the 1979-89 Soviet-Afghan war break a police cordon near parliament in a Sept. 20 rally against Ukrainian authorities’ attempts to cut social benefits. Hundreds of Ukrainians, mostly veterans of the 1979-89 Soviet Afghan war, tried to storm into the Verkhovna Rada’s headquarters in Kyiv and scuffled with police. Lawmakers delayed action on the cuts in government benefits.REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

 

In the latest sign of rising social discontent, thousands of demonstrators stormed parliament this week and came surprisingly close to actually breaking in.

The tension came n Sept. 20 during a protest outside of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada organized by Afghan war veterans and rescue wor—kers from the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

Venting their frustration over plans by lawmakers to cancel subsidies for these struggling groups, the protesters broke past police squads and nearly made their way into parliament. They clashed with law enforcement and managed to reach parliament’s doors, before ultimately being pushed back.

The incident clearly rattled pro-presidential lawmakers, who immediately put off legislation that would have cut into longstanding subsidies for millions of veterans, teachers, doctors, pensioners and police.

Some of the 1,000 or so Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-1989) and Chornobyl catastrophe liquidators shout in front of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on Sept. 20 during a protest against the adoption in parliament of a bill abolishing their social benefits. (AFP).

It was the most recent in a flurry of incidents in which Ukraine’s poorer citizens have fumed with disapproval with hard economic realities and the policies of President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration.

The tense standoff took many in Ukraine by surprise, and could yet inject fresh energy into a divided opposition movement that accuses Yanukovych of setting Ukraine on a path towards authoritarianism and kleptocracy.

“Protests are possible whey they (the government) hit people’s pockets,” said sociologist Iryna Bekeshkina, commenting on the social protest.
Ukraine’s government is struggling to cut a budget deficit in order to secure a much-needed fresh disbursement of billion-dollar loans from the International Monetary Fund.

But some, such as lawmaker Serhiy Sobolev from the bloc of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, criticized plans to put the burden of cuts on millions of cash-strapped citizens that are on the verge of poverty.

Rather, he said, government should combat corruption, such as murky privatization dealings that rob budget coffers for the personal gain of billionaire oligarchs that back the nation’s leadership.

“It does not suit for parliament to be seeking to save kopecks” from the poorest echelons of society “while billions are passing by to oligarchs,” Sobolev said.

Oleksandr Yefremov, head of the pro-presidential Regions Party faction which dominates parliament could not clarify how much in subsidy cuts were planned and the number of citizens that would be affected.

“Millions would be affected, if not more,” Yefremov said, responding to Kyiv Post questions. “In total, all existing subsidies – are about half the nation’s Hr 400 billion budget.”

Citizens that took part in the Sept. 20 protest said that the issue is a matter of survival for them.

Serhiy Khraptovych, head of the Chornobyl Union of Ukraine organization and a rescue worker at the Chornobyl nuclear plant in 1987, was among the protesters who tried to storm the parliament.

“People stormed the parliament because patience is running out,” Khraptovych said. “If the law is adopted, those affected will lose more than 50 percent of their pensions and compensations on utility bills and public transportation.”

Three broken windows remain after the Sept. 20 protest of Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and Chornobyl nuclear power plant workers. (Yaroslav Debelyi).

For many citizens living on several hundred dollars a month or less, such subsidies are the difference between living on the edge and poverty.
Much is also at stake for Yanukovych, who has seen his popularity plunge during his first year and a half in office.

An April Kyiv-based Razumkov Center poll showed that Yanukovych’s rating reached an all-time low of 11 percent, down from 41 percent a year ago. According to another recent poll conducted by GfK market research firm, his approval rating dropped to 13.4 percent in June from 16.1 percent in May.

Dissatisfaction with all politicians appears to be running high. The same poll showed that ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko support fell by 2 percent reaching to 9.6 percent in June.

In a July poll conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and released in September, more than half of the respondents said the country is moving in the wrong direction.

More than half named inflation, poverty and unemployment among the country’s most serious problems and 87 percent of people expressed dissatisfaction with the economic situation.

Yet, unlike public protests under opposition party banners which took place after Tymoshenko’s arrest on Aug. 5 and on Independence Day on Aug. 24, the recent non-political protests seem to have shaken up government officials more.

Sergiy Tigipko, vice prime minister for social affairs, promised protestors that the controversial draft legislation would be put on hold until a compromise is reached on the issue.

Sociologists said that the protest was successful because those that showed up in mass, namely war veterans, were organized, strong willed and eager to flex their muscle. Such might and determination is rarely demonstrated by others that are to be affected by a cut in subsidies, namely teachers, doctors and pensioners.

Protesters in the Sept. 20 demonstration of Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and Chornobyl nuclear power plant broke through iron fences meant to protect lawmakers. (Yaroslav Debelyi).

Just as with the tax protests from the autumn of 2010, the Sept. 20 standoff appears to have taken government by surprise.
Bekeshkina said government technocrats rarely “look at how their policies will affect the people.”

More tough decisions are ahead for Ukraine’s leadership. In return for billions of dollars in fresh bailout loans, the IMF is also demanding authorities further increase utility prices for households towards market levels.

If subsidies are cut and utility prices hiked, sociologists say the prospect of bigger protests breaking out is very likely.

“I think that this protest will inspire others to protest,” Bekeshkina added.

Khraptovych promised bigger protests if government and parliament failed to meet their demands.

Will crowd sizes get as big as during the Orange Revolution, enough to challenge Yanukovych’s grip on power?

Not likely, according to Bekeshkina, unless a major economic crash takes place such as a slide in the currency or sharper inflation spike.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost.com.

Afghan Leaders Blast Negotiations with Taliban

Upshot of Rabbani’s murder: Pressure on Karzai to end Taliban talks

By Tahir Khan

Abdullah Abdullah said Karzai should respond to all questions about Rabbani’s assassination. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Taking advantage of the widespread anger at the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani by a ‘Taliban peace messenger’, opposition leaders have mounted pressure on President Hamid Karzai to stop all efforts for talks with the Taliban.

The main leader of the opposition ‘Coalition for Change and Hope’, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, blamed the Taliban for the murder of Rabbani and said terrorists had proved that the peace process was not acceptable.

Rabbani, the head of the Afghan High Peace Council, was killed at his residence in Kabul on Tuesday by a bomber concealing explosives in his turban.

“The government should immediately stop all contacts and talks with the Taliban and chalk out a new strategy for the reconciliation process,” Abdullah Abdullah told a news conference in Kabul.

He called the peace and reconciliation process ‘illegitimate’ and claimed that these efforts are aimed at cheating people, adding that the senior Taliban leadership has not yet shown any inclination to hold peace talks with the government.

(Read: Taliban silence on Rabbani spotlights splits)

He lashed out at Karzai for trying to make contacts with the Taliban and said he (Karzai) should respond to all questions about the assassination.

“Karzai should go to the Taliban, whom he has repeatedly called the sons of Afghan soil and disaffected brothers. Karzai should leave Afghans to decide their fate on their own,” the opposition leader said.

“Afghans have now lost patience and will no more allow this weak government to play with the sentiments of the people,” Dr Abdullah said.

Former minister and a leader of Northern Alliance Mohammad Yunas Qanuni said that by killing Prof Rabbani, armed opponents had proved that the peace process was not acceptable to them.

Qanuni said Rabbani’s assassination was the most high-profile killing since Ahmad Shah Masud, who was killed in a suicide attack in 2001. He stressed that the recent killings of important national figures, including Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, reveal the strategy of al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Ahmad Wali Masud, the head of the Ahmad Shah Masud Foundation, has held the government responsible for Rabbani’s murder.

Another member of the opposition Coalition for Change and Hope Mawlana Farid said in Kabul that the peace process run by the government of Afghanistan will not work and must be stopped. He said the High Peace Council did not produce substantial results and instead people were losing their national figures.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who used to appeal to the Taliban to join the peace process, did not adopt the same stand when he addressed a crowded press conference in Kabul on Thursday to talk about the assassination.

(Read: Taliban CD plot before Rabbani killing: Karzai)

President Karzai spoke about one of his visits to Pakistan along with Prof Rabbani and said they had told Pakistan military and political leaders that they not only want peace for Afghanistan but also for Pakistan. “Prof Rabbani had told the Pakistani leaders that if they would cooperate with Afghanistan on the peace process, they should cooperate mostly for the sake of Pakistan and not so much for Afghanistan,” Karzai said at his press conference, beamed live by Afghan national TV.

Published in The Express Tribune