US in talks with India for providing missile defence

US in talks with India for providing missile

defence

As part of their overall strategic partnership, the US and India are engaged in talks over sale of missile shield systems to help New Delhi face any nuclear threats from Pakistan and other “volatile” countries in the region, a media report here said on Thursday.

Quoting unnamed US diplomats, the Financial Times said the preliminary talks took place mainly at a scientific and technical level and American defence officials had conducted computer simulations with their Indian counterparts.

Noting that India is a partner of the US, the officials said “we want to provide it with whatever it needs to protect itself. This fits into the overall strategic partnership we

are building.”

The Indo-US relations blossomed in the recent years culminating in the signing of a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The report said India’s need for greater protection against threats emanating from Pakistan and other volatile countries in the region was highlighted by an escalation in the Indo-Pak tensions in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

It claimed that India also views China, with which it has a border dispute, as “a potential adversary.”

Israel’s Strategy of Terror against the Palestinians

Massacre and state terror as tactics of war have been the meat and bones of Israeli military thinking ever since the foundation of the state in 1948, notes Simon Assaf.
When it comes to war Israel has a single, simple strategy. Trap millions of people between tanks and warplanes. Cut off all food, water and electricity. Then systematically bring buildings down on their heads.

This is the murderous aim of Israel’s ground invasion and air campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel does not distinguish between “militants” and “civilians” among Palestinians – their target is an entire people.

Massacre and state terror as tactics of war have been the meat and bones of Israeli military thinking ever since the foundation of the state in 1948.

Israeli generals think that if you starve and kill enough people, at some point the resistance will agree to save lives by surrendering.

Sometimes this strategy works – as in Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon – but sometimes it does not, as Israel discovered when it invaded Lebanon again in 2006.

It was the actions of ordinary people that made the difference between victory and defeat. In 1982 the Palestinians and Lebanese were trapped in Beirut as Israeli forces and allied militias encircled the city.

Escape

In contrast during the 2006 war, over one million mainly Shia Lebanese managed to escape from the Israeli juggernaut to find refuge in Christian, Druze and Sunni areas of Lebanon.

This meant that resistance forces headed by Hizbollah were free to inflict a punishing military lesson on Israel’s invading army. In the final days of the war, the Shia refugees returned to their homes in huge numbers, sweeping away the remaining Israeli troops.

Israel’s intentions in Gaza are becoming clearer as the ground war progresses. It has sliced the Gaza Strip into three and surrounded Gaza City. From there it hopes to start on the systematic destruction of the city.

These are the tactics the Israelis used to destroy Beirut in 1982. The only relief from the onslaught came when Palestinian fighters and their allies agreed to abandon the city.

Just like today, the Israelis demonised the Palestinians as “terrorists, terrorists, terrorists”. Just like today, the “international community” made noises about a ceasefire, but took no action.

Israel’s current assault on Gaza is part of the wider “war on terror” – a war to crush any resistance to US imperialism and its allies in the Middle East.

This war has been going badly. The US and its allies have found themselves dragged into an endless war and are now caught in the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our rulers hoped these invasions would consolidate their power. Instead it has exposed their limits. Now they are desperately searching for a victory in Palestine to mark the last, bloody days of George Bush’s administration.

Israel aims to deliver that victory by crushing Palestinian resistance and handing over the smouldering remains of Gaza to Mahmoud Abbas, the corrupt president of the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas is collaborating in the destruction of his own people in the vain hope that the US will make good on its pledge of a “viable Palestinian state”.

Israel has no intention of honouring any such promise. Nevertheless Abbas has taken this opportunity to crush all dissent in the West Bank.

The defeat in Lebanon still hangs over Israel. Its generals declare that they have “learnt the lessons” of that war. For that they have Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak to thank.

Mubarak has sealed Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip to block any Palestinians fleeing the carnage. He has halted attempts by ordinary Egyptians to rush emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory. He has even told Egyptian troops to fire on Palestinians attempting to cross the border to safety.

Protests

All this triggered an unprecedented wave of mass protests in Egypt that has spread from the capital Cairo to smaller towns and cities.

The most notable was the huge demonstration on Friday of last week in Arish, the largest city in the Sinai region. Tens of thousands took to the streets chanting “Hosni Mubarak – you bring us shame!”

Arish is about 37 miles from the border with Gaza. It became a lifeline for Gaza when Palestinians stormed the border with Egypt in January last year. People in the city helped Palestinians grab much needed supplies and temporarily break the Israeli blockade.

The Mubarak regime is now facing a whirlwind of anger from every corner of the country. He has been able to quell the protest for now with his usual brand of mass arrests and vicious repression.

But the scale and nature of these demonstrations has deepened the crisis of a regime that has been rocked by two years of strikes and protests.

The anger against Egypt has found its expression across the Arab world. In Beirut demonstrators surrounded the Egyptian embassy, burning tyres and clashing with riot police before trying to storm the US embassy.

In Yemen the Egyptian embassy was briefly occupied by demonstrators. Similar protests took place in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other oil rich states before being battered off the streets.

Israel can take comfort in the power of the mass destruction its military can wreak. It can be assured of help from the West and its Arab allies. But any Israeli “victory” over the Palestinians will be short-lived.

Their “victory” over Lebanon in 1982 gave birth to the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbollah. It is the only force in the region to have militarily humiliated Israel, in 2000 and again in 2006.

As the war on Gaza enters another bloody phase only one thing is certain – the retribution from ordinary people in the Middle East on the corrupt regimes and their Western backers will be immeasurable.

© Copyright Socialist Worker

Israeli propaganda takes international beating

Despite Israel’s propaganda campaigns on Gaza conflict, world public opinion remains critical of Tel Aviv.
TEL AVIV – Israel has taken a battering in the global media battle over its war on Gaza, despite deploying a propaganda campaign that used Youtube and blogs, experts said.

Populations and even governments worldwide have slammed the Israeli military onslaught on the Gaza Strip, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemning attacks near UN schools that killed dozens and foreign media angry at being kept out of the Palestinian territory.

With images of parents carrying lifeless children to overwhelmed hospitals dominating international media, angry protests have been staged in major capitals and Israeli websites have reportedly come under cyber attack.

European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told President Shimon Peres in a meeting on Tuesday that “Israel’s image is being destroyed” by its refusal to heed appeals for a ceasefire.

Hamas has been largely shunned by western media, but its plight – as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and even in East Jerusalem – is recognized by much of the world. .

Israel has sought to blame Hamas for its attacks on Gaza, ignoring the fact that Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinians and that the people in Gaza know very well that Israel is the party behind their suffering.

But that fact is not commonly known in the West, where Israeli propaganda enjoys a large influence.

Israeli military spokeswoman Major Avital Liebovich and Israeli ambassadors have joined the television battle.

The defence ministry in Tel Aviv has posted videos of Israeli air strikes on Youtube, and the government has also tried to spur debates on Facebook.

But both sites are also a favorite of peace and humanitarian activists condemning Israeli policies long before Israel’s new offensive.

The Israeli consulate in New York this week organised a Twitter social networking debate on the merits of the war which drew more than 2,500 bloggers.

But blogs are the last place Israeli propaganda is expected to prevail, where they have long been used as a platform to expose Israeli ‘crimes’.

Israel says it will not let world public opinion sway the decision whether to call a ceasefire in the conflict that has left more than 680 Palestinians dead since December 27 — a third of them children.

According to the president’s office, Peres replied to Ferrero-Waldner: “We are not in the business of public relations or improving our image.”

But experts say Peres tells a lie as Israel is doing all it can to present its war on the besieged Palestinian population in Gaza as an act of “self defense”.

Israel last year had hired a British public relations firm that had worked with Lebanon and the Northern Ireland governments on their image, experts say.

The Israelis “are the ones who have a grip on communications,” said Dominique Wolton, a specialist on media at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris.

“But Israel will not win the communications battle because whatever Israel’s legitimate rights are, the unbalanced use of force and the unleashing of violence by Israel is acting against it.

“The Palestinians are not saying a lot. Israel has a grip on the communications and Israel manages its very well,” Wolton commented. “The word ‘terrorist’ is systematically linked to Palestinians.”

Charles Tripp, professor of Middle East politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, said that in Europe, “the very powerful images of what’s happening to civilians in Gaza must be having a greater impact than seeing Israeli spokesmen talking about the war on terror.

“In many ways, one of the main targets of the Israeli propaganda is Europe and the US, and I would have thought they’re not doing too well there.”

Meanwhile, two press rights groups Wednesday urged a media corridor in Gaza and called for Israel to allow journalists to work unfettered in the conflict zone.

Israel had blocked international journalists from entering Gaza. Israel had also bombed a Hamas-run TV station during its second day of raids against Gaza.

NATO ratifies ICP agreement with Israel

[The timing of this story and the fact that the only source for this story is the Israeli/Jewish press tells us that this news is not as alarming as it might seem.  This agreement is a maritime issue, primarily, dealing with the harmonization of forces and technology, making Israel and six other Mediterranean nations compatible.  This in no way relates to the op in Gaza, or future NATO peacekeepers.] NATO ratifies ICP agreement with Israel

December 2, 2008

(Click to enlarge) FM Livni with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at ministerial meeting in Brussels (Photo: NATO) Cooperation between Israel and NATO in defense and diplomatic matters will be boosted (Communicated by the Foreign Minister’s Bureau) With the arrival of Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni to the NATO Ministerial Meeting, the NATO council ratified the Individual Cooperation Programme (ICP), an agreement that strengthens and expands the working relations between Israel and NATO in the fields of security and diplomacy. The ICP encompasses a broad range of fields in which Israel and NATO will cooperate fully. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in effect opening the door for cooperation of Israel’s security services and NATO in various fields such as counterterrorism, including the exchange of intelligence and security expertise, increasing the number of joint NATO-Israel military exercises, broadening cooperation in the fight against nuclear proliferation, improving cooperation in the areas of armament and logistics, connecting Israel electronically to the NATO system, etc. The Commander-in-Chief of the IDF, Lieutenant-General Ashkenazi, visited NATO headquarters in Brussels two weeks ago. Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni commented on the upgrading of relations between Israel and NATO: “Israel’s defense capabilities are world-famous, and we see the boosting of cooperation between Israel and international security bodies as a strategic goal that adds to Israel’s strength. The relations between Israel and NATO states are of prime importance, and translating the mutual understandings among the states into concrete security cooperation has serious operative implications.” “All of the free nations of the world who understand the nature of the terrorist threat recognize the need to form a united front against it. Israel’s standing in terms of military might and counterterrorist capabilities is recognized by the entire world, aptly conveyed by the expansion of cooperation between Israel and NATO that we witnessed this morning.” “The agreement is a practical expression of the values and responsibility shared by the free nations to preserve world security; it signifies genuine recognition of Israel’s special contribution to the international fight against extremism.” Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni will address the NATO ministerial meeting today. During her visit to Brussels, she will meet with the NATO Secretary General, the US Secretary of State, the French foreign minister, and with other foreign ministers who are attending the meeting. She will also meet with heads of the European Union – President of the European Commission Jose Manual Barroso, Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner and others.

Hamas is a Creation of Mossad

by Hassane Zerouky – Global Research March 23, 2004

Thanks to the Mossad, Israel’s “Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks”, the Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat’s Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation

Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)”.

Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamist movement in Palestine, returning from Cairo in the seventies, established an Islamic charity association. Prime Minister Golda Meir, saw this as a an opportunity to counterbalance the rise of Arafat’s Fatah movement. .According to the Israeli weekly Koteret Rashit (October 1987), “The Islamic associations as well as the university had been supported and encouraged by the Israeli military authority” in charge of the (civilian) administration of the West Bank and Gaza. “They [the Islamic associations and the university] were authorized to receive money payments from abroad.”

The Islamists set up orphanages and health clinics, as well as a network of schools, workshops which created employment for women as well as system of financial aid to the poor. And in 1978, they created an “Islamic University” in Gaza. “The military authority was convinced that these activities would weaken both the PLO and the leftist organizations in Gaza.” At the end of 1992, there were six hundred mosques in Gaza. Thanks to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad (Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks) , the Islamists were allowed to reinforce their presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, the members of Fatah (Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine) and the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression.

In 1984, Ahmed Yassin was arrested and condemned to twelve years in prison, after the discovery of a hidden arms cache. But one year later, he was set free and resumed his activities. And when the Intifada (‘uprising’) began, in October 1987, which took the Islamists by surprise, Sheik Yassin responded by creating the Hamas (The Islamic Resistance Movement): “God is our beginning, the prophet our model, the Koran our constitution”, proclaims article 7 of the charter of the organization.

Ahmed Yassin was in prison when, the Oslo accords (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government) were signed in September 1993. The Hamas had rejected Oslo outright. But at that time, 70% of Palestinians had condemned the attacks on Israeli civilians. Yassin did everything in his power to undermine the Oslo accords. Even prior to Prime Minister Rabin’s death, he had the support of the Israeli government. The latter was very reluctant to implement the peace agreement.

The Hamas then launched a carefully timed campaign of attacks against civilians, one day before the meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, regarding the formal recognition of Israel by the National Palestinian Council. These events were largely instrumental in the formation of a Right wing Israeli government following the May 1996 elections.

Quite unexpectedly, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered Sheik Ahmed Yassin to be released from prison (“on humanitarian grounds”) where he was serving a life sentence. Meanwhile, Netanyahu, together with President Bill Clinton, was putting pressure on Arafat to control the Hamas. In fact, Netanyahu knew that he could rely, once more, on the Islamists to sabotage the Oslo accords. Worse still: after having expelled Yassin to Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu allowed him to return to Gaza, where he was welcomed triumphantly as a hero in October 1997.

Arafat was helpless in the face of these events. Moreover, because he had supported Saddam Hussein during the1991 Gulf war, (while the Hamas had cautiously abstained from taking sides), the Gulf states decided to cut off their financing of the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, between February and April 1998, Sheik Ahmad Yassin was able to raise several hundred million dollars, from those same countries. The the budget of The Hamas was said to be greater than that of the Palestinian Authority. These new sources of funding enabled the Islamists to effectively pursue their various charitable activities. It is estimated that one Palestinian out of three is the recipient of financial aid from the Hamas. And in this regard, Israel has done nothing to curb the inflow of money into the occupied territories.

The Hamas had built its strength through its various acts of sabotage of the peace process, in a way which was compatible with the interests of the Israeli government. In turn, the latter sought in a number of ways, to prevent the application of the Oslo accords. In other words, Hamas was fulfilling the functions for which it was originally created: to prevent the creation of a Palestinian State. And in this regard, Hamas and Ariel Sharon, see eye to eye; they are exactly on the same wave length.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ZER403A.html

Last updated 08/01/2009

Israel Created Hamas to Split Palestine

Israel’s False Flag Operations Know No Bounds

By Brandon Dean
waronyou.com

One thing that truly made me ill while perusing the photos of the world-wide anti-Israel protests in the last few days is the repeated use of Hamas flags/posters, as if Hamas is somehow fighting for the freedom of the Palestinians. Give me a god damn break…

For those unaware, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were the government of Palestine until the Israelis invaded, only leaving in 2005, when Hamas had been secured in power. And hey presto! they are still the ruling party in Palestine!

Not only that, but all the Hamas fighters have (wisely) holed up and hidden themselves in anticipation of the Israeli massacre. Gee, how very convenient for them that the Israelis are content with killing 1.3 million civilians (the population of Gaza)…

The Israeli Mossad (their CIA) created Hamas in 1987, with the frontmen Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, because, as Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says: “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).”

Well ain’t that something? So, the Mossad starts Hamas, with the original “intention” of being a charitable organization to the Palestinian people. And charity they did. Slowly, of course, it turned into a political and military organization, which was the true original intention. It challenged Fatah and the PLO as it does to this day. Divide and conquer: the oldest military tactic in the book…

Do you doubt what you’re reading? Well, how about an actual photo of an Israeli Mossad agent in Hamas gear who forgot to take off his Star of David?

Oops!

Or how about July 2006, when Hamas fighters supposedly kidnapped an IDF soldier, then went to the middle of Gaza City and held a press conference about it?

If there had really been a kidnapping, those “terrorists” would have been executed, or at least arrested, on the spot. I mean, the photo above was taken not ten miles from the Israeli border! There are Israeli agents all over Palestine, for Christ’s sake!!

Hamas was invented by the Israelis to be an opposing force to the PLO, and that is the exact capacity in which it has acted. Hamas has done reportedly little to “help” the Gazans during this latest massacre besides hide. They kidnap Israelis, or even blow up Israeli bars, supposedly killing Israeli Jews. But in reality, the bar was an Israeli Arab bar, and 90 percent of the patrons are Muslim, not Jewish..

It’s nice to see the world angry at Israel for their obvious atrocities in the last few weeks, but it’s time for the world to the see the reality of the false flag operation as well. It’s time to be able to see it in the plain light of day, knowing the tactics. The Israelis are better at false flags than anyone else, as evinced by the utterly fantastical “holocaust” of World War II. And with a lie that monumental, which persists in earnest to this day, how hard is it to see the lie of the Hamas soldier, or their phony “Qassam” rockets? Again, give me a god damn break…

Must read article:
Hamas is a Creation of the Mossad, by Hassane Zarouky.

Must read book:
Devil’s Game, by Robert Dreyfuss

Red Cross Reports Grisly Find in Gaza

Israel Accused of Blocking Aid to Wounded

By Craig Whitlock and Griff Witte

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 8, 2009; 8:14 AM

JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had found at least 15 bodies and several children — emaciated but alive — in a row of shattered houses in the Gaza Strip and accused the Israeli military of preventing ambulances from reaching the site for four days.

Israel’s offensive against militants in Gaza continued with intense bombing in the southern part of the territory, near the border with Egypt. There was also a brief exchange of fire across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

In the Lebanon incident, militants in the southern part of that country lobbed several rockets into Israeli territory, and the Israeli military responded with fire of its own. Though the exchange harkened to the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah, Lebanese officials promptly condemned the fire from their side and said they were taking steps to more closely patrol the area.

Lebanese information minister Tareq Mitri released a statement saying that the government had been assured by Hezbollah — which serves as a political party in the Lebanese government and is particularly influential in the southern part of the country — that it was not responsible for the Katyusha rockets that landed near the Israeli town of Nahariya. Only minor injuries were reported.

The Israeli strikes in southern Gaza were focused on the area around Rafah, a border crossing town that is also the site of a network of smuggling tunnels used by the militant group Hamas.

Under an agreement announced on Wednesday, Israel was to pause attacks beginning at 1 p.m. local time so that Gaza residents could emerge for food and other basic supplies.

But humanitarian criticism of the ongoing operation intensified after the Red Cross announced its discovery of several underfed children in a house with a number of dead adults.

Red Cross officials said rescue crews had received specific reports of casualties in the houses and had been trying since Saturday to send ambulances to the area, located in Zaytoun, a neighborhood south of Gaza City. They said the Israeli military did not grant permission until Wednesday afternoon.

In an unusual public statement issued by its Geneva headquarters, the Red Cross called the episode “unacceptable” and said the Israeli military had “failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”

When rescue workers from the Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent arrived at the site, they found 12 corpses lying on mattresses in one home, along with four young children lying next to their dead mothers, the Red Cross said. The children were too weak to stand and were rushed to a hospital, the agency said.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment early Thursday on the specific allegations made by the Red Cross but said in a statement that the military “has demonstrated its willingness to abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to assist innocent civilians.”

“Any serious allegations made against the IDF’s conduct will need to be investigated properly, once such a complaint is received formally,” the statement added.

CONTINUED 1 2 Next

America’s Foot Soldiers In Islamabad

America’s Foot Soldiers In

Islamabad: Durrani’s Firing

Reveals How Pakistan Is

Penetrated At The Top

M. A. Durrani was busy leaking information to embarrass Pakistan internationally. He was part of an influential group in Islamabad that worked overtime to ensure Pakistan accepted blame for Mumbai and initiated action against the military and ISI without verifying the so-called evidence. Mr. Durrani says his leaks had the blessings of President Zardari. Who are they working for? Alarmingly, Pakistan’s security stands breached at the highest levels in the capital, where shady individuals are working for foreign interests with impunity. It is time for a major purge to cleanse Pakistani government and politics of foreign assets. Mr. Durrani should be debriefed as to whose interests he was serving in his sensitive position.

By AHMED QURAISHI

Thursday, 8 January 2008.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A secretive powerful group in the top corridors of the Pakistani government has been working overtime for the past few weeks to push Islamabad into publicly accepting the half-cooked ‘evidence’ provided by the United States and India that implicates Pakistan, its military and the ISI in the Mumbai attacks.

Two prominent names in this group are national security adviser Mehmud Ali Durrani and the Ambassador in Washington Husain Haqqani. They pushed hard for Pakistan to accept blame without verification and without pursuing other compelling leads in the Mumbai attacks. These other leads cast a wider net and significantly weaken India’s ‘Pakistan-only’ fixation.

The behavior of Mr. Durrani became particularly desperate in the last few days, and especially on Wednesday, Jan. 7. His boss, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was not off the mark when he cited betrayal of Pakistan’s national security as the main reason for sacking Mr. Durrani.

The question is: Who was Mr. Durrani working for? There is even chatter about the possibility that he might be arrested and interrogated to determine whose interests he was serving. There is no question that his bold moves were sanctioned by President Zardari. It is also interesting to note that information minister Sherry Rehman came to Mr. Durrani’s rescue in the final stage of the bizarre power struggle that marked Durrani’s last few hours in office.

Given the traps created by this government for Pakistan and especially for the ISI after the Mumbai attacks, it is safe to conclude that Pakistan’s power echelons stand breached by individuals, like Mr. Durrani, who are keenly pursuing policy objectives of a foreign government or governments.

The conduct of Mr. Durrani, coupled with massive recent policy failures with direct bearing on national security, reinforce the need for a purge within the government and within the country’s political elite. Foreign governments have been able to penetrate both and cultivate assets. These ‘assets’ conduct their own private foreign policies directly with foreign powers without the approval or knowledge of the Pakistani state.

The Signs

Sitting in Washington, Ambassador Husain Haqqani has been wrangling with the Pakistan Foreign Office for several days now over the FBI evidence shared with Pakistan, which apparently includes a tape recording purporting to show a Pakistani citizen inside Pakistan talking to a Mumbai terrorist over telephone. Mr. Haqqani wants Pakistan to accept this piece of evidence as final proof that elements within Pakistan executed the attack on Mumbai. Other Pakistani officials disagree and say the audio tape and other information need to be verified by Pakistani experts to determine if it is fake or real. We don’t trust India and they don’t trust us. It’s as simple as that.

Durrani’s Suspicious Role

Behind the scenes, Mr. Durrani has been playing what amounts to a dirty role in this whole crisis with India. In the last week of December, he contacted a known Pakistani journalist working for the Wall Street Journal and leaked to him a ‘breaking’ a story: an activist of the defunct Lashkar Tayyeba in Pakistani custody had confessed to making phone calls to Mumbai terrorists.

It was strange that Mr. Durrani chose to leak this information to a U.S. newspaper. If the story was true [it wasn’t. It was officially debunked later] the Pakistani government would have released it through its spokespeople. The only plausible purpose of the leak was to embarrass Pakistan, quash the voices calling for evidence and verification, and push a weak government into accepting responsibility for the Mumbai attacks. It was a classic pressure tactic, in this case used by an insider – Mr. Durrani – against his own government.

Using this deliberate leak, the Wall Street Journal came out with an elaborate story . Its editors somehow linked the alleged confession to ISI’s tense relations with elected governments in the 1990s. There was a separate box in the story that gave a timeline to the supposed tense relations.

In short, Durrani’s leak to Wall Street Journal became a condemnation of the ISI. Which seems to be the whole purpose of the Indian drama anyway. The leak also weakened the effect of foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s rare bold statement that demanded India deactivate its forward air bases, withdraw troops and defuse the war hysteria.

Durrani’s leak in effect threw the ball back in the Pakistani court.

Desperation

With Ambassador Haqqani’s failure to convince Pakistani officials to accept the American evidence, the pro-American lobby in Islamabad began to get desperate. U.S. military chief Adm. Mike Mullen flew into Islamabad to convince President Zardari to allow the Indian air force to conduct limited ‘surgical strikes’. He asked Zardari to deactivate the state of alert in the Pakistan Air Force for this purpose. The deal was sealed if not for the strong stand taken by the Pakistani military. Mullen returned empty handed.

The ‘Charge Sheet’

Mr. Durrani’s reign of double dealings at the top, as Prime Minister’s adviser on national security, makes the list of foreign policy blunders by the government appear deliberate and calculated and not just the work of incompetent administrators:

1. The immediate admission of guilt on behalf of ISI, when Mr. Gilani was told to accept sending ISI chief to New Delhi on India’s ‘summon’.

1. The weak, apologetic diplomacy in the face of Indian warmongering.

1. Misleading China in the U.N. Security Council voting, resulting in incriminating Pakistani individuals and organizations without evidence. Some observers even go as far as saying that this vote has smoothed the way for future sanctions on Pakistan and its military if and when major powers pursue this.

1. The Zardari government is suspected of having dragged its feet on issuing orders to the Pakistani military to raise the level of alert even when Indian army, air force and navy were moving to forward positions. The plot becomes sinister when the consequences of this reluctance become clear. A snap attack by India when the Pakistani military was not ready could have resulted in humiliation for the military. This would have emboldened the current government to take on a humiliated military and pursue the U.S. agenda of dismantling the ISI and transform the Pakistani military into a glorified police force at the beck and call of U.S. and India. This ‘ideal role’ for Pakistan is now openly discussed in Washington and is no longer a secret.

The Memorable 7 January

The actions of Mr. Mehmud Ali Durrani on this day show how desperate he had become to see Pakistan taking the blame and submitting before India. This portion of the story needs careful reading because it reveals how far this game goes to the top levels of the Pakistani government.

Mr. Durrani apparently leaked to an Indian TV channel and a couple of Pakistani news channels that Pakistan has accepted Indian ‘evidence’ that Ajmal Kassab, the lone surviving Mumbai terrorist, was a Pakistani citizen. [Please click here for an incisive examination of the Indian and American ‘evidence’].

Mr. Durrani probably intended for this information to be quoted ‘anonymously’. But one of the journalists probably made the mistake of mentioning Durrani’s name.

Reacting to this, Pakistan’s second most senior diplomat, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, came out to deny that Kassab’s identity has been determined, in effect brushing aside Durrani’s leak.

To counter Mr. Bashir, Information Minister Sherry Rehman went a step further. She volunteered this information [that Kassab is a Pakistani] through a text message to a reporter of the American Associated Press news agency. Her move seconded Durrani’s.

Surprisingly, the government’s own Minister of State for Interior, Mr. Tasnim Qureshi, reacted angrily to Mr. Durrani’s leaks. He told reporters that Kassab’s Pakistani links mean little because Kassab was a “creation of Indian intelligence.”

Now, was Mr. Durrani acting alone in making the leaks? After being sacked, Mr. Durrani told Geo News that he consulted the President on all his moves.

This begs the question: Did President Zardari approve the calculated leaks to the media by Durrani and Sherry? If so, why? Why did they have to do it this way? Who were they hiding from? Why try to force the hand of the rest of the organs of the Pakistani state?

Does this mean that Mr. Zardari, Mr. Durrani, and Mr. Haqqani will leak confidential material to the media every time things don’t go their way? Why this act of desperation? Who were they trying to please?

Time For A Purge In Islamabad

A growing number of Pakistani officials and politicians have been cultivated by foreign governments in a variety of ways to pursue the goals of those governments. This foreign meddling and direct contact is confined in large part to the United States, and then to the United Kingdom. It is happening outside the knowledge of the Pakistani state and has reached dangerous proportions. Mr. Durrani’s story is a case in point.

Mr. Durrani was and remains an active member of something called the Balusa Group, created and financed by the U.S. government as a way to create influence in the upper echelons of the Pakistani government. The Americans say the purpose of this group was to bring peace between Pakistan and India through ‘Track II’ diplomacy. But the truth is that its members, like Mr. Durrani, were involved in lobbying for U.S. sponsored energy corridors between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. A side goal was to convince Pakistan to give India unlimited access to Afghanistan and Central Asian republics as a free concession without asking for anything in return, like resolving Kashmir and water disputes.

Foreign Minister Mehmood Qureshi distanced himself from the group as soon as he assumed his new position. He wanted to ensure he was not linked to foreign interests while discharging important business of the state. However, Mr. Durrani and Mr. Husain Haqqani have not publicly ceased their associations with foreign policy groups and interests after becoming servants of the Pakistani state. Mr. Durrani has been serving the state for almost three years now without renouncing his foreign associations, and all of them happen to be tied to U.S. interests.

The result of the damage brought by Mr. Zardari, Mr. Durrani and Mr. Haqqani to Pakistan in the past few weeks is obvious. Pakistan’s wishy-washy diplomacy in the face of Indian belligerence and warmongering has emboldened New Delhi to pursue a tougher line with Islamabad. Officials in Washington and New Delhi are betting on the confusion created by the actions of Mr. Durrani to make it easier for them to extract concessions from Pakistan.

There is no question that the United States plans to expand the war in Afghanistan to include Pakistan. This is the only way to weaken the Pakistani military and firmly align Pakistan with American interests opposite China and others. The only way this is possible is with India’s help. People like Mr. Durrani are helping this happen from the inside. Such elements need to be purged form the system.

In conclusion, this is what Dr. Ayesha Siddiq, the author of Military Inc., had to say about Mr. Durrani when he was first appointed in government:

“The PPP selected Washington‘s dream team to run foreign relations and national security. One is not sure that appointing Durrani as the National Security Adviser will do the job. The appointment (of Durrani) is in consideration of the general’s close ties with the US Pentagon. Not to mention the fact that Durrani owes his intellectual growth to Shirin Tahirkheli, a Bush administration adviser and former senior official of the [U.S. delegation to the] UN National Security Council”.

Enough said.

Paid “blog attack” armies flood blogs with comments

As a 9/11 truth activist, I read a fair amount of what is written about 9/11–whether in the mainstream media, the alternative media, or on sites that I have learned to trust.  Frequently the comments are polarized:  those of us who know the awful truth, and another group, much angrier, seemingly younger and much less well educated:  those who are enraged that anyone would even suggest that the government lied to us about 9/11.

Who are these people who are apparently oblivious to the hundreds of well documented lies from the Bush administration?

Here’s a clue:  a company that advertises blog armies to “flood the zone with comments from professionals who are ready to put your talking points on the blogosphere 24/7.”

Next time you’re engaged in a nasty debate with someone who seems to have unlimited amounts of time to rebut your every point in the most scathing way possible, you might just be arguing with a member of one of these paid blog armies.

Here’s the ad:

A SATANIC GENOCIDAL ISRAEL

Jan 7, 2009 For years, I have been warning that Israel is psychologically and morally capable of carrying out a holocaust or a genocide against the Palestinian people. Needless to say, the horrible events of the past two weeks in Gaza seem to have enforced and vindicated my convictions in this regard. Israel, government and people, seem to possess the psychological propensity that would make her embark on such a monstrosity. Yes, there is a minority of Israeli Jews and non-Israeli Jews who say “No” to all the evils and crimes Israel is doing in the name of their name. However, let us be honest and realistic. These people are a small minority and have very little influence if any on the Israeli government and army. Today, what many people had thought would be unthinkable or far-fetched in terms of the extent to which Israel would be willing to go in savaging the Palestinian people seems quite possible in light of the Jewish state’s Nazi-like behavior in the Gaza Strip. Given the Israeli mindset, Israel may well be hoping the latest genocidal onslaught could have a certain desensitizing and de-mystifying effect on people’s perceptions and attitudes. The logic is quite simple. If the world can be bullied or cajoled into silence and apathy when Gaza is ravaged and thousands of its inhabitants are slaughtered en mass in full view of humanity, the same world can likewise be manipulated in similar fashion to come to terms with a greater genocide. On Tuesday, 6 January, one Israeli official, Eli Yeshai, called for the total extermination of Gaza. The leader of the ultra Orthodox Shas party argued that “extermination of the enemy is sanctioned by the Torah.” Other Israeli political and religious leaders have lately spoken enthusiastically of the need for “wiping off Gaza from the face of earth” and “annihilating of every moving thing there.” Interestingly, this is by no means a minority opinion in Israel. Indeed, one could safely argue that the “ideology of annihilation” now represents the mainstream in the Israeli society. As we all know, Israel heavily employs mendacity, deception and disinformation to conceal, or at least blur, its criminality and barbarianism. The Israeli hasbara machine’s main job has always been and continues to be to turn the black into white, the white into black and the big lie into a “truth” glorified by millions, especially in the west. To effect these obscene lies and “virtual realities,” the Israeli government counts heavily on the Jewish-controlled or Jewish influenced media in the western world, especially in North America where telling the truth about Israel is the ultimate taboo. In truth, what has been happening in Gaza is a huge massacre of genocidal proportions as many conscientious Jews have testified. What else can be said of this wanton, deliberate and indiscriminate blanket bombing of densely-populated neighborhoods and refugee camps? I believe terms such as “huge massacres” and “genocidal onslaught” used in reference to the Gaza nightmare cannot be dismissed by Israel and her supporters as merely overstatements or rhetorical exaggerations. This is unless Israel views non-Jewish pain and suffering as disingenuous, probably because non-Jews or “goyem” are actually considered “human animals” by a large and growing class of fanatical rabbis, politicians and military leaders. So far, more than 4000 Gazans have been mercilessly killed or badly mutilated or incinerated in less than two weeks of intensive indiscriminate aerial and artillery bombing targeting everyone and everything. Mosques, homes, public buildings, shelters, schools, colleges, dormitories, factories, cultural institutions, businesses, even hospitals and drug stores as well as the entire civilian infrastructure have been bombed and reduced to rubble. The rabid bombing from high altitudes has exterminated numerous whole families and destroyed entire neighborhoods. This is probably what Israeli leaders had in mind when they spoke earlier about a “shock and awe” campaign against Gaza. On 6 January, Israeli tanks fired several artillery shells at a school at the Jabalya refugee camp, killing more than 40 civilians, mostly children and women, who had sought shelter at the UNRWA-run facility. Dozens others were injured, many critically. Israeli army spokespersons, who are actually professional liars, claimed that Palestinian fighters were seen in the vicinity of the building and that some of these actually fired on Israeli troops from the school. However, UN officials in Gaza strongly denied the Israeli account, with one UN official saying that he was “99.99%” that the Israeli army was lying. Earlier, the Israeli air forces hit a mourning reception, killing 15 members of the same family. The pornographic killing of civilians has no explanation other than the ostensible fact that Israel is adopting a no-holds-barred approach toward Gaza, which is still under effective Israeli occupation despite the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the coastal enclave more than three years ago. Well, if we are to accept this logic, namely that everything is fair in war, then Jews should stop complaining about what the armies of Hitler did to them during World War II. It is just unacceptable to apply two standards of morality, one for Jews and another for non-Jews. For if what Israel is doing in Gaza is right, as Israel and her supporters maintain, then what the Nazis did in Europe several decades ago must have been right as well. And vice versa. After all, crime doesn’t become kosher when committed by Jewish hands. Colossal crime The enormity of the present holocaustic assault is undoubtedly a colossal crime against humanity. In proportion to the size of population, the murder and maiming of 4000 Gazans (the number keeps rising) is like the US having at least a million of its citizens killed or badly injured as a result of a foreign aggression. As to the utter destruction of Gaza, it is equally shocking. Some American expatriates here in occupied Palestine have spoken of a double holocaust in Gaza, one targeting humans, and another targeting civilization. Facing their crimes, pornographic and outrageous as they are, many Israelis, probably the majority, are simply so gleeful that they think Israel is doing the right think and that God is standing on the side of Israel in this war and every war. Some religious Israelis have become so euphoric, thanks to the Gaza blitz, that they think the Messiah’s coming imminent. Other “religious” Israeli Jews, including rabbis, readily justify the wanton slaughter by quoting biblical verses justifying genocide. One Israeli settler leader recently argued during a conversation with a visiting American peace activist that “if it was right to commit genocide during Biblical time, why can’t it be right to commit genocide now . Has God changed his mind,” the settler wondered sarcastically. As to Israeli leaders and officials, they simply indulge in what they have always been indulging in, namely “denial” and “self-righteousness” or simply playing the role of victim. Thus behaved Shimon Peres, the Israeli President, when he told al-Jazeera during a live interview on Monday, 5 January. ” We don’t kill and we have not killed any children in Gaza. We are the victim of Hamas aggression,” said the pathological liar and certified war criminal rather shamelessly. Peres’s pornographic lies don’t need any further comment. They speak for themselves. Zionist Jews may very well think that might is right, and that morality is unneeded and unnecessary as long as they possess overwhelming material strength. They may think that the rivers of blood the “only democracy in the Middle East” has been shedding will strengthen Israel and terrorize its neighbors. Well, it may in the short run. However, in the long run, Israeli criminality and evilness will make it sterile from within to the point of death. Like evil people, evil states shall not prosper.