Monthly Archives: July 2009
California Leading the Assault, Cutting the Bottom Rungs from the Escape Ladder
Massive austerity measures approved by California Legislature
By Dan Conway
27 July 2009
The California Assembly approved a series of 31 separate bills Friday to close the state’s $26 billion budget shortfall through drastic cuts in social programs and education. The vote comes after a bipartisan agreement between state Democrats and governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to resolve the budget crisis on the backs of the working class.
It is widely expected that despite the latest agreement, the state’s fiscal woes will deepen. California’s official unemployment rate is expected to rise during the remainder of 2009 and currently stands at 11.6 percent, the sixth largest in the nation.
Steve Levy, economist at the Center for the Continuing Study of California Economy, stated, “Next year’s budget will start with a very large shortfall even if there’s a good recovery.” He also cautioned that the state will face continued hardship once federal stimulus funds run out.
Democratic state senate president Darrell Steinberg, for his part, said after last Thursday’s vote, “I have no illusions that we may be back [to address the deficit].”
Approximately 60 percent of the budget reductions are being made to core state services, while the remainder will be delivered by raiding local government funds and through accounting maneuvers, including the deferral of state employee paychecks by one day in order to delay deficits until fiscal year 2010-2011.
The largest portion of the budget reductions includes $8.1 billion in cuts to public education. Of this sum, $6.1 billion will be taken from K-12 education and community colleges, and $2 billion will be taken from higher education. California elementary and high school students will now rank last in the country in per pupil spending
In response to the higher education cuts, the California Faculty Association representing 22,000 faculty members at the California State University system, voted by a 54 percent majority to mandate that faculty members take two unpaid furlough days each month, while the California State University Employees Union approved a similar furlough agreement earlier in the week. Additionally, the system has reduced enrollment by 40,000 students. It has also raised student fees by 20 percent and reduced course offerings. Students and parents are essentially being asked to pay a great deal more for a great deal less.
About $1.3 billion in cuts have been made to the state’s Medi-Cal program, which provides health care to low-income families. Half a million will be cut from the state’s welfare program, and $124 million from an insurance program for children.
Another $1.3 billion was taken from state workers through a mandatory three unpaid furlough days a month, which amounts to a net 15 percent pay cut per worker. There is also a distinct possibility that state workers will be asked to take an additional fourth and fifth unpaid furlough day each month, resulting in a total loss of pay of 25 percent.
In addition to the closure of state offices in accordance with the furlough days, it is widely expected that state infrastructure will be severely affected. Potholes and even traffic lights may go un-repaired. Most recently, a hazardous chemical spill in San Luis Obispo was not cleaned for a full ten hours due to the unavailability of Department of Transportation workers.
Local infrastructure will also be devastated by $2 billion in forced borrowing from local governments to the state. These funds will not be repaid until 2012, if at all. As a result, needed repairs to bridges and roads will be postponed until funding is procured.
The state will also take $1.7 billion from local redevelopment agencies, devastating urban communities in particular.
A further $1.7 billion in new revenue will also be achieved by requiring taxpayers who make quarterly-estimated tax payments to make larger payments in the first two quarters, and $600 million will also be received from increased income tax withholdings from paychecks.
The sale of a portion of the State Compensation Insurance Fund will yield $1 billion. This is effectively the beginning of the privatization of workers compensation insurance.
Two provisions-one on offshore drilling and another on requisition of local funds-failed to pass the Assembly. The governor has indicated that he will respond to the resulting budget gap by using his veto power to enforce further cuts in social spending.
As far as the state’s issuance of registered warrants (IOU’s) is concerned, state controller John Chiang has reported that the state will continue to issue the warrants in lieu of actual cash payments. Most large banks, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, stopped accepting the IOUs on July 10, despite each already being the recipients of tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
The issuance of the IOU’s was a result of the fact that the state could not sell short term loans, or what it calls Revenue Anticipation Notes, to outside investors. The situation was exacerbated by the Obama administration, which flatly refused to underwrite the notes.
The state’s bond ratings were reduced to near junk status by Fitch and Moody’s rating services, placing further pressure on the state to reach a solution to the budget crisis in the interests of Wall Street investors. Despite the fact that the desired solution was achieved, the ratings agencies have not yet upgraded the state’s credit rating.
The budget crisis reveals in stark terms the class character of American society, and in particular the role of the Democratic Party and the media. At a state level, the Democratic Party has fully supported the principle that the budget crisis must be solved on the backs of the working class.
Recent columns in the Los Angeles Times by Steve Lopez have sought to blame the current crisis in California education on a handful of so-called bad teachers, as if the $20 billion funding cut during the past year alone is of negligible importance. In a recent column, Lopez gave support to a reactionary organization called “Parent Revolution,” a group that aims to issue threats to form charter schools when public schools in their district don’t perform to their expectations. His article finished with a call to “Storm the gates and take no prisoners.”
The Obama administration has pushed charter schools and other right-wing proposals on education, while standing by as California has implemented its crippling cuts in public education.
As a result of these cuts, more than 40,000 teachers and staff will not be returning to their jobs this September, meaning that the remaining teachers will face excessively large class sizes and in many cases will be forced to teach subjects that they are unqualified to teach.
The budget crisis continues to reveal the desire of the American ruling elite to transform class relations within states across the country, dismantling whatever remains of the social safety net along with vital resources and infrastructure.
The Socialist Equality Party will be holding a meeting on Saturday, August 1 in South Pasadena, California to address the crisis and build a conscious movement in the working class in opposition to it. We urge all workers, student youth and intellectuals to attend this important event. Click here for more information.
This author also recommends:
Oppose budget cuts in California! Defend jobs and education! Unite workers behind a socialist program!
[13 July 2009]
Copyright © 1998-2009 World Socialist Web Site – All rights reserved
Teachable moments require willing learners
Teachable moments require willing learners
by Robert Jensen
Honoring President Obama’s request that the controversy involving a black Harvard University professor and a white Cambridge police officer become “a teachable moment,” here’s my contribution to an old lesson that we white people tend to be slow to learn.
In lectures about the United States’ system of white supremacy and the privileges that white people have in that system, I have sometimes told a story about being stopped by police in Austin, TX.
I was driving home in a dilapidated old Volkswagen Beetle on a busy street, late at night after a long day at work. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, feeling rather cranky and looking rather raggedy. Eager to get home, I saw the yellow light and gunned it. Next I saw the flashing red lights of a police car.
I turned off onto a dark side street and dug in my wallet for my license. Just as the officer got to my car, I was opening the glove compartment to get the vehicle registration when out popped a small knife I keep for emergencies. I looked at the knife, looked at the white officer, and wondered what he would say.
“Sir, would you mind if I held that knife while we talked?” he asked politely. I handed him the knife and my documents, and he walked back to his car. When he returned he handed me those documents, along with a ticket, and my knife, without comment. “Please drive safely,” he said. And safely I drove home.
When I told that story to illustrate white privilege, I asked people of color in the room what they imagined might have happened to them in such a situation. The black and Latino men, especially, laughed. “Do you mean before or after I’m on the ground with a gun at my head?” one of them said.
My point was not that every cop is out to harass or brutalize every person of color, but that people of color could never be sure a routine traffic stop would play out routinely. I could be reasonably sure that, barring unusual circumstances, such a stop would be uneventful. Even when the knife popped out, I didn’t feel at risk.
I was feeling proud of myself for making this point to the mainly white audience, when I saw a hand go up. I called on the young black man, assuming he would endorse my analysis.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” he said. “You think your privilege started when the cop came up to the car and saw you were white. Has it ever occurred to you that when you turned onto a dark side street you were taking your privilege for granted?”
My first response was to explain: I had been on a busy street and turned to avoid blocking traffic. I was trying to be considerate of other drivers, I said.
“I know why you did it. My point is that I would never turn onto an unlit street with a cop behind me,” the young man said. “I would have pulled over and blocked traffic. I’m not going to take myself out of public view with a cop.”
My next response was to feel appropriately foolish for my unwarranted self-righteousness, and then to be grateful to the man for using that teachable moment.
He wasn’t suggesting that I be ashamed of myself, only that I recognize the burden he carries in the world that I don’t. The story was one more example of the privilege that comes with being a member of the dominant group in an unjust hierarchical system. It’s the same lesson men should learn about the sexual violence women face. Heterosexuals should learn it about the condemnation that lesbians and gays endure. The wealthy should learn it about the insecurity that poor and working people cope with. U.S. citizens should learn it about the fear of arbitrary authority that haunts immigrants no matter what their status.
I still tell that story when I lecture, now emphasizing that the man’s comments had reminded me no one with privilege ever fully “gets it.” It doesn’t mean we whites — or men, or heterosexuals, or the well off, or citizens — are consigned to perpetual stupidity, but rather that we should never think we have it all figured out.
In this allegedly “post-racial” era, these teachable moments are an important reminder that white supremacy is woven deeply into the fabric of this country. A system as perverse and pervasive as white racism — in all its forms, conscious and unconscious, brutal and subtle, personal and institutional — will not end simply because we appoint black professors or elect a black president.
In this moment, we white folks should ask ourselves, after so many teachable moments, why we still have so much to learn.
US bails out India from Balochistan wrangle
US bails out India from Balochistan wrangle
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has not provided any evidence to the United States of India’s
involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan, and Washington attaches no credibility to Islamabad’s charges in this regard, a top US official has indicated.
The US view on Pakistan’s allegation came during a briefing by the Obama administration’s Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke, who, while acknowledging that Pakistan brought up the subject during his recent visit to the country, told Washington’s foreign press corps, “I would be misleading if I said it didn’t come up, but the narrow answer to your question (has Pakistan given you any credible evidence of India’s involvement?) is no.”
Holbrooke’s terse response to the Balochistan wrangle — the latest between India and Pakistan — broadly squares with the assertion in New Delhi that while Pakistan has raised the issue of India’s alleged involvement in the region, it has offered no evidence, even as it falsely propagates in the Pakistani media that it has give a dossier to New Delhi in this regard. The Pakistani press is full of dark conspiracies of Indian intelligence involvement in the province, an inference to which New Delhi credulously allowed Islamabad to incorporate in a joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh.
The US has now, in effect, bailed out New Delhi. Holbrooke has previously rubbished Pakistan’s charges about alleged Indian provocations from its consulates in Afghanistan, saying he had no reason to believe Islamabad’s charges, and Pakistan would do well to examine its own internal problems. Other officials too have said Pakistan is merely trying to externalize a serious internal crisis while evading responsibility to crack down on home-grown terrorism.
In fact, Holbrooke’s briefing following his latest visit to the region was notable for its dire tone with regard to Pakistan, a country which he characterized as “facing a staggering number of front-page story problems at one time.” Describing Washington’s efforts to stamp out terrorists in Pakistan frontier province, Holbrooke said it “hard to imagine a more dangerous area on the face of the earth today than an area which contains al-Qaida, Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, two and a half million refugees. It’s just extraordinary how difficult it is.”
The US envoy also trashed speculation about a rift with India that led to the reported cancellation of his visit to New Delhi with an extraordinary revelation. “You know, if there’s a rift between me and India, it would be the first rift between me and India since I was seven years old. You know, India was the first country in the world I was ever aware of. I have a very special feeling for it,” Holbrooke said.
Such expression of personal affection for countries is seldom expressed by US officials and is certain to rankle Pakistan, which is already sour about a perceived American tilt towards India over the last decade. Holbrooke went on to clarify that the only reason he scrubbed the New Delhi leg of his visit was because three of the four Indian interlocutors he engaged with were all going to be out of town. He would be going back in mid August, “within the limits of Indian independence (day).”
IMF Offers to Deepen Third World Debt
The Cheap High is Never as Good the Second Time!
IMF offers new loans to low-income countries
31. July 2009. | 07:12
Source: EMportal, Washington File
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a package of measures aimed at providing loans of up to $17 billion over five years to low-income countries that have been hit hardest by the global economic crisis.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a package of measures aimed at providing loans of up to $17 billion over five years to low-income countries that have been hit hardest by the global economic crisis.
“This is an unprecedented scaling up of IMF support for the poorest countries, in sub-Saharan Africa and all over the world,” IMF Managing-Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said July 29 in Washington. The Group of 20 (G20) nations asked the IMF to respond to the global financial crisis, he added, and this is part of that effort.
The resources — which include funds generated by the planned sale of IMF gold — are expected to increase IMF lending up to $17 billion through 2014, including up to $8 billion over the next two years, the fund said.
The IMF said there would be no interest payments through the end of 2011 for loans to low-income members and lower interest rates on a permanent basis after that. “A new set of lending instruments will underpin this increased support,” the fund said.
While the current economic crisis began in the advanced Western economies, its most visible impact has been on emerging-market countries, the fund said. A third wave of the crisis has threatened the economic achievements of the last decade for many low-income countries.
As part of its response, the IMF more than doubled its financial assistance to low-income countries. New lending to low-income countries through mid-July reached $2.9 billion compared with $1.5 billion for all of 2008. Supporting this effort further, the IMF will double average loan-access limits for the poorest nations.
“All this represents a historic effort by the fund to help the world’s poor,” Strauss-Kahn said. And there will be greater emphasis in IMF-supported programs on poverty reduction and growth objectives, which will include targets to safeguard social and other priority spending, he added.
“We are responding with a historic set of actions in terms of support for the world’s poor. The new resources and new means of delivering them should help prevent millions of people from falling into poverty,” Strauss-Kahn said.
The G20, composed of advanced and emerging economies, met in London in early April, and will meet again in Pittsburgh on September 24–25.
Swati doctor interviewed in Banaras, Karachi
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Pak Navy gets F-22P frigate from China
Pak Navy gets F-22P frigate from China
KARACHI: The first F-22P Frigate was handed over to the Pakistan Navy in a ceremony at Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on Thursday.
According to an ISPR (Navy) press release, the ceremony was followed by commissioning of the ship, in which Pakistani flag was hoisted on the ship.
Officials from the navies of both countries attended the event. Naval Chief Noman Bashir told the audience that with the passage of time ties between Pakistan and China had grown deeper.
Bashir said Pakistan was proud of its close association with China, adding that this unique relationship had no parallel elsewhere in the world.
The vessel is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and sensors and also carries a Z9EC helicopter. Earlier, while welcoming the guests at the event, Chief Naval Overseer Commodore Mahmoodur Rehman said the successful culmination of the project was the result of efforts and competence of the officials involved. app
Do strange clouds associated with recent Chinese earthquakes offer photo evidence of HAARP attacks?
Do strange clouds associated with recent
Chinese earthquakes offer photo evidence
of HAARP attacks?
Peculiar phenomenon appears in sky after earthquake (2)
According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China’s Ao’an Country in Yunnan Province at 7:19 pm, July 9, at a depth of about 10 kilometers. Half an hour after the quake, peculiar phenomenon appeared in the sky above Yao’an.(www.Yunnan.cn photo)
Evidence of HAARP?
Previous Chinese Quake, 12th May was preceded by these strange glowing clouds and odd formations
China dips its toe in the Black Sea
China dips its toe in the Black Sea
By M K Bhadrakumar
Like the star gazers who last week watched the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, diplomatic observers had a field day watching the penumbra of big power politics involving the United States, Russia and China, which constitutes one of the crucial phenomena of 21st-century world politics.
It all began with United States Vice President Joseph Biden choosing a tour of Ukraine and Georgia on July 20-23 to rebuke the Kremlin publicly for its “19th-century notions of spheres of influence”. Biden’s tour of Russia’s troubled “near abroad” took place within a fortnight of US President Barack Obama’s landmark visit to Moscow to “reset” the US’s relations with Russia.
Clearly, Biden’s jaunt was choreographed as a forceful demonstration of the Barack Obama administration’s resolve to keep up the US’s strategic engagement of Eurasia – a rolling up of sleeves and gearing up for action after the exchange of customary pleasantries by Obama with his Kremlin counterpart Dmitry Medvedev. Plainly put, Biden’s stark message was that the Obama administration intends to robustly challenge Russia’s claim as the predominant power in the post-Soviet space.
Biden ruled out any “trade-offs” with the Kremlin or any form of “recognition” of Russia’s spheres of influence. He committed the Obama administration to supporting Ukraine’s status as an “integral part of Europe” and Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Furthermore, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Biden spoke of Russia’s own dim future in stark, existential terms.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promptly responded in an interview with the Moscow-based Vesti news channel. He said, “I hope the administration of President Obama will proceed from the agreements reached in Moscow. We believe the attempts by some people from within the administration to pull all of us back into the past, the way that Vice President Joe Biden, a well-known politician, did it, are not normative.”
Return to Reaganism
Lavrov added, “Biden’s interview with the Wall Street Journal seemed to have been copied from the speeches by leading officials of the George W Bush administration.” However, it is difficult to be dismissive of Biden as an unauthentic voice. It was Biden who spoke of “resetting” the US’s relations with Russia. He did raise expectations in Moscow. And Obama’s visit to Moscow early in July has been widely interpreted as the formal commencement of the “reset” process.
Now it transpires that the “reset” might take the US’s policy towards Russia back to the 1980s and towards president Ronald Reagan’s triumphalist thesis that Russia could not be a match for the US, given its deeply flawed economic structure and demography and, therefore, the grater the pressure on the Russian economy, the more conciliatory Moscow would be towards US pressure.
As Stratfor, a US think-tank with links to the security establishment, summed up, the great game will be to “squeeze the Russians and let nature take its course”.
There is already some evidence of this coordinated Western approach toward Russia in the European Union’s “Eastern Partnership” project, unveiled in Prague in May, the geographical scope of which consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine, and which aims at drawing these post-Soviet states of “strategic importance” towards Brussels through a matrix of economic assistance, liberalized trade and investment and visa regimes that stop short of accession to the EU but effectively encourages them to loosen their ties with Russia. Indeed, the EU thrust has already begun eroding Russia’s close ties with Belarus and Armenia.
An immediate challenge lies ahead for Moscow as the parliamentary election results in Moldova have swept Europe’s last ruling communist party from power by pro-EU opposition parties. The US and the EU have kept up the pressure tactic of April’s abortive “Twitter revolution” in Moldova to force a regime change that puts an end to the leadership of President Vladimir Voronin, who has pro-Moscow leanings. The EU has made generous promises of economic integration to Moldova and Moscow made a counter-offer in June of a US$500 million loan.
However, in a stunning development, China entered the fray this month and signed an agreement to loan $1 billion to Moldova at a highly favorable 3% interest rate over 15 years with a five-year grace period on interest payments. The money will be channeled through Covec, China’s construction leviathan, as project exports in fields such as energy modernization, water systems, treatment plants, agriculture and high-tech industries.
Curiously, China has offered that it is prepared to “guarantee financing for all projects considered necessary and justified by the Moldovan side” over and above the $1 billion loan. In effect, Beijing has signaled its willingness to underwrite the entire Moldovan economy which has an estimated gross domestic product of $8 billion and a paltry budget of $1.5 billion.
The Chinese move is undoubtedly a geopolitical positioning. In an interesting tongue-in-cheek commentary recently, the People’s Daily noted that “under the [Barack] Obama administration, the meaning and use of ‘cyber diplomacy’ has changed significantly … US authorities … stirred up trouble for Iran through websites such as Twitter … [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] said that this is the essence of smart power, adding that this change requires the US to broaden its concept of diplomacy”.
Moldova is a country where China has historically been an observer rather than a player. This is Beijing’s first leap across Central Asia to the frayed western edges of Eurasia. Why is Moldova becoming so terribly important? Beijing will have calculated the immense geopolitical significance of Moldova’s integration by the West. It would then be a matter of time before Moldova was inducted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), before the Black Sea became a “NATO lake” and the alliance positioned itself in a virtually unassailable position to march into the Caucasus and right into Central Asia on China’s borders.
What we may never quite know is the extent of coordination between Moscow and Beijing. Both capitals have stressed lately of increased Sino-Russian coordination in foreign policy. The joint statement issued after the visit by the Chinese President Hu Jintao to Russia in June specifically expressed Beijing’s support for Moscow over the situation in the Caucasus. Clearly, a high degree of coordination is becoming visible across the entire post-Soviet space.
Islamists on the Silk Road
Thus, it is conceivable that Moscow would have sensitized Beijing about its intention to set up a second military base in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, which is located in close proximity to China’s Xinjiang, and is a principal transit route for Central Asian Islamist fighters based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There are definite signs of a revival of Islamist activities in Central Asia and the North Caucasus. China is carefully watching its fallout on Xinjiang. Though Western commentators take pains to characterize the renewed Islamist thrust into Central Asia as an outcome of the Pakistani military operations along the Pakistan-Afghan border areas which used to be sanctuaries for militant groups, the jury is still out. Chinese experts have pointed out that with the easing of cross-strait tensions in China’s equations with Taiwan, the scope for US meddling in China’s affairs has drastically reduced and this, in turn, has shifted US attention to China’s western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.
There is much strategic ambiguity as to what is precipitating the fresh upswing of Islamist activities in the broad swathe of land that constitutes the “soft underbelly” of Russia and China. Within 48 hours of the outbreak of violence in Xinjiang earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi telephoned his Russian counterpart and Moscow issued a statement strongly supportive of Beijing.
On July 10, a similar statement by the secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) followed, endorsing the steps taken by Beijing “within the framework of law” to bring “calm and restore normal life” in Xinjiang following clashes between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese. The SCO statement reiterated the resolve to “further deepen practical cooperation in the filed of fighting against terrorism, separatism, extremism and transnational organized crime for the sake of [safeguarding] regional security and stability”.
Again, China has underscored that the regional security of Central Asia and South Asia is closely intertwined. Commenting on the SCO statement, the People’s Daily said it “demonstrated that the SCO member states understood well that the situation in Xinjiang bears closely on that of the entire surrounding region … Some Central Asian countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan also fell victim to these evil forces … The evil forces have also crossed the border to spread violence and terrorism by setting up training camps. Links have been discovered between these forces and the recent riot in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang. The fight against these evil forces will greatly benefit all Central and South Asian countries as evidence has shown that the ‘three evil forces’ are detrimental not only to Xinjiang but also to the whole region.”
Significantly, in another commentary, the People’s Daily launched a blistering attack on US policies in fanning unrest in Xinjiang. “To the Chinese people, it is nothing new that the US tacitly or openly fans the winds of resentment against China … the US indiscriminately embraces all those forces hostile to China … Perhaps, it is a customary practice for the US to adopt the double-standard when weighing its interests against others. Or, perhaps, it has some ulterior motive behind to ensure its supreme position will not be challenged or altered by splitting to weaken others … Since the end of the 1980s, the US has never moderated its intention to stoke so-called ‘China issues’ … This time, in their efforts to fan feuding between Han and Uighur Chinese by harboring and propping up separatist forces, the US is jumping out again to be the third party that would, for the secret hope, benefit from the tussle.”
There is no need, therefore, to second-guess that China supported the Russian initiative to call a quadrilateral regional security summit meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday, which was attended by the presidents of Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Russian move poses a geopolitical challenge to the US, which has been monopolizing conflict-resolution in Afghanistan; keeping Russia out of the Hindu Kush; attempting to splinter the SCO-driven Sino-Russian convergence over regional security in Central Asia; stepping up diplomatic and political efforts to erode Russia’s ties with Central Asian states; and expanding its influence and presence in Pakistan and steadily brining that country into the fold of NATO’s partnership program.
The tempo of the regional security summit in Dushanbe was set by Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon when he told his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at a meeting on Wednesday that he expected to work closely with Pakistan to prevent the rise of instability in Central Asia. “We do share similar and close positions on these issues and our countries should have taken coordinated actions aimed against this antagonistic phenomenon,” Rakhmon said.
Conceivably, China will also use its influence on Pakistan to nudge it in the direction of regional cooperation rather than passively subserve the US’s regional policies. Zardari’s initial remarks at Dushanbe, though, have been non-committal. He blandly responded to Rakhmon, “We will stand together against the challenges of this century.”
Moscow tabled as an agenda item for the Dushanbe summit a proposal for regional cooperation that involves selling electricity from Tajikistan’s Sangtudinskaya hydroelectric power plant (in which Russia has invested $500 million and holds a controlling 75% equity) to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ironically, the idea was originally an American brainwave aimed at bolstering the US’s “Great Central Asia” strategy that hoped to draw the region out of the Russian and Chinese orbit of influence.
Russia draws a Maginot Line
Equally, it is all but certain that while China is not a member of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Beijing will draw satisfaction that Moscow is building up the alliance’s presence in Central Asia as a counterweight to NATO. After the unrest in Xinjiang, Beijing has a direct interest in the Russian idea of creating an anti-terrorist center in Kyrgyzstan and advancing the CSTO’s rapid-reaction force (Collective Operational Reaction Forces) in Central Asia.
No doubt, the outcome of the CSTO summit meeting in the resort town of Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan this weekend will be keenly watched in Beijing. On the eve of this summit, an aide to the Russian president revealed in Moscow on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached in principle about the opening of a Russian base in Osh under the CSTO banner. A Kremlin source also told the Russian newspaper Gazeta that the summit meeting would discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
Viewed against this backdrop, the joint Russian-Chinese military exercises, dubbed “Peace Mission 2009”, held on July 22-26, cannot be regarded as a mere repetition of two such exercises held in 2005 and 2007. True, all three exercises have been held under the framework of the SCO, but this year’s has been in actuality a bilateral Russian-Chinese effort with other member states represented as “observers”.
Major General Qian Lihua of the Chinese Ministry of Defense claimed that the drills were of “profound significance” when the forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism are “rampant nowadays”. He said that apart from strengthening regional security and stability, the exercises also symbolized the “high-level strategic and mutual trust” between China and Russia and became a “powerful move” for the two countries to strengthen “pragmatic cooperation” in the field of defense.
Taking stock of the military-to-military cooperation between China and Russia, Qian said:
First, high-level exchanges have become frequent. It has become a routine for the two nations to arrange an exchange between defense ministers or chiefs of general staff at least once a year. Frequent exchanges between defense departments and high-level military visits have effectively driven the smooth development of bilateral military relations between China and Russia.
Second, strategic consultation has become a routine mechanism. Since 1997, the militaries of China and Russia established a mechanism to hold annual consultations between the two sides’ leadership at the level of deputy chief of the general staff. So far, 12 rounds of strategic consultation have been held, which has promoted mutual trust and friendly cooperation.
Third, exchanges between professional groups and teams have become pragmatic. The militaries of China and Russia have conducted pragmatic exchanges and cooperation in many forces and corps including communications, engineering and mapping.
Qian anticipated that with the Peace Mission 2009, the “strategic mutual trust and the pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries will enter a new stage”.
China’s concern is palpable in the face of the rise in militant Islamist activities in Central Asia. “The terrorists are quietly trying to take cover in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan … They’ve lived in Afghanistan for a long time,” as Tajik Interior Minister Abdurakhim Kakhkharov put it recently. The Rasht Valley in the Pamir Mountains where the terrorists are gathering is only “trekking distance” from the Afghan (and Chinese) border.
There are reports of famous Tajik Islamist commander Mullo Abdullo having returned from Afghanistan and Pakistan with his followers after nearly a decade and that he is trying to recruit militants in the Rasht Valley. From various accounts, militant elements from Russia’s North Caucasus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang are linking up.
To quote the Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, “The Afghanistan situation is affecting not only Kyrgyzstan but Central Asia as a whole. People have come here to carry out acts of terror.” Bakiyev added ominously, “There are still forces out there that we do not know about, who are here and who are ready to indulge in illegal activities. They have one aim: to destabilize Central Asia.” Yet, NATO has pleaded helplessness in stopping the movement of the Taliban in the direction of the Tajik border.
Thus, the million-dollar question is whether the current unrest is a mere distant echo or is tantamount to a replay of the US efforts to fund and equip mujahideen fighters and to promote militant Islam as a geopolitical tool in Soviet Central Asia in the 1980s. That is why Biden’s remarks harking back to Reaganism will be taken very seriously in Moscow and Beijing – that the Russian economy is a wreck, Russia’s geography is ridden with a range of weaknesses that are withering, and the US should not underestimate its hand. China’s bold move in Moldova shows that it may have begun regarding the post-Soviet space as its own “near abroad”.
End of Chimerica?
The point is, there is a hefty economic angle to the maneuverings. The US’s Eurasia energy envoy Richard Morningstar bluntly admitted at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing two weeks ago that China’s success in gaining access to Caspian and Central Asia energy reserves threatened the US’s geopolitical interests.
Interestingly, the renewed spurt of unrest in Central Asia (including Xinjiang) – which Russian intelligence has been anticipating since end-2008 – is taking place along the route of the 7,000-kilometer gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and leading to Xinjiang that is expected to be commissioned by year-end. No doubt, the pipeline signifies a historic turning point in the geopolitics of the entire region.
Well-known economic historian Niall Ferguson has compared “Chinmerica” – the thesis that China and America have effectively fused to become a single economy – to “a marriage on the rocks”.
Ferguson anticipates, in the context of the Group of Two “strategic dialogue” between the US and China that took place in Washington this week, that a point will be reached when instead of continuing with the “unhappy marriage”, China may decide to “got it alone … to buy them global power in their own right”.
Factors influencing this are US saving rates soaring upwards and US imports from China significantly reducing; the Chinese feeling they have had enough of US government bonds, with the specter of the price of US Treasury bonds falling or the purchasing power of the dollar falling (or both) – either way China stands to lose.
Ferguson sees that China may have already begun doing this and its campaign to buy foreign assets (such as in Moldova), its tentative movement toward a consumer society, its growing embrace of the special drawing rights idea of a basket of currencies to replace the dollar – all these are signs of an impending “Chinmerica divorce”. But what does it entail for world politics? Ferguson says:
Imagine a new Cold War but one in which the two superpowers are economically the same size, which was never true in the old Cold War because the USSR was always a lot poorer than the USA.
Or, if you prefer an older analogy, imagine a rerun of the Anglo-German antagonism of the early 1900s, with America in the role of Britain and China in the role of imperial Germany. This is a better analogy because it captures the fact that a high level of economic integration does not necessarily prevent the growth of strategic rivalry and ultimately conflict.
We are a long way from outright warfare, of course. These things build quite slowly. But the geopolitical tectonic plates are moving, and moving fast. The end of Chimerica is causing India and the United States to become more closely aligned. It’s creating an opportunity for Moscow to forge closer links to Beijing.
Surely, a major difference will be that while this month’s solar eclipse is not expected to be surpassed until June 2132, there are no such certainties in the shifty world of big-power politics, especially the tricky triangular relationship involving the US, Russia and China. But one thing is certain. Like in the case of the solar eclipse that was gazed at from all conceivable corners of the Earth, the shift in the geopolitical tectonic plates and the resultant realignment of the co-relation of forces across Eurasia will be watched with keen interest by countries as diverse as India and Brazil, Iran and North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, Syria and Sudan.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
Young Boys Rescued from Pakistani Taliban Brainwashing Program
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Israeli warplanes enter north Lebanese airspace: report
www.chinaview.cn  2009-07-29 05:38:51 |
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BEIRUT, July 28 (Xinhua) — Six Israeli warplanes made their way right up to the north of Lebanon on Tuesday, in a serious violation of Lebanon’s airspace, the official National News Agency(NNA) reported.
The Lebanese warplanes conducted circular flights over Hasbayya, West Bekaa, Iklim Tefah and Marjeioun, according to the report.
It is rare for Israeli warplanes to enter northern Lebanese airspace, although Lebanon repeatedly accuses Israeli warplanes of violating its airspace on a daily basis.
The Lebanese army announced its readiness on that front, saying it has placed its troops on alert to face up any Israeli action, local media said. UN peacekeepers also were in a state of alert.
The flight of Israeli warplanes coincided with the movement of four Israeli tanks towards a recently built Israeli observation post in Kfarshouba hills with a 100-meter distance to Hassan gate.
Also during the day, representatives from the Lebanese army, the Israeli army, and the UN Interim Forces in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) held a meeting in the Lebanese town of Naqoura to discuss the breaches of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
UN resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day devastating war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, prohibits weapons smuggling to Hezbollah and forbids the group from engaging in military activities in south Lebanon.
Israeli officials have recently expressed apprehension over events in southern Lebanon which Israel claims suggest that Hezbollah is seeking to provoke another round of conflict.
On Monday, Israeli officials said they believe Hezbollah will try to escalate the tension on the border by organizing civilian demonstrations and protests in the Har Dov region along Israel’s border with Lebanon, as it did about a week ago, as part of an effort to launch a popular uprising against Israel.
The 2006 ceasefire installs a 13,300-member UN peacekeeping force along Lebanon’s border with Israel to assist the Lebanese army and prevent any hostile actions between Hezbollah and Israel.
Jewish fundamentalists storm al-Aqsa Mosque
Jewish fundamentalists storm al-Aqsa Mosque
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:40:39 GMT
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Israeli soldiers in the al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard.
More than 200 Jewish extremists have reportedly entered al-Aqsa Mosque, positioning themselves inside the holy site, allegedly to perform religious rituals.
According to a statement released by the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, the incursion was “significant”. The foundation has called on Muslims, Arabs and all Palestinians to take action in support of the mosque. The attack comes amidst Tisha B’Av, also known as “The Ninth of Av” — a Jewish fasting day in commemoration of the destruction of the two Temples. The occasion falls on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, which usually coincides with late July or mid-August. The First Temple was built by King Solomon and was considered the most sacred site in ancient Judaism. It was destroyed when the Babylonians pillaged Jerusalem (al-Quds) in 586 BCE. According to Jewish accounts, the construction of the Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE on the site of the First Temple but was destroyed during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The destruction of the two Temples allegedly took place on the same day — the ninth of Av — but about 656 years apart. The storming of al-Aqsa Mosque — a holy site in the eyes of many Muslims — has drawn anti-Israeli condemnation. Abdel Qader resigned from his post last month after he censured the acting Palestinian Authority for neglecting al-Quds. He says the Salam Fayyad government refuses to uphold its commitments to the city, which is undergoing a difficult period. According to Abdel Qader, the Palestinian Finance Ministry “contributes nothing to the effort to keep the residents on their land.” |
[Al-Aqsa Mosque
{next door to Dome of the Rock}
After completion of the Dome of the Rock, construction began at the site of the original timber mosque built in the time of ‘Umar. A vast congregational mosque rose up, accommodating more than five thousand worshippers. Originally commissioned by ‘Abdul Malik ibn Marwan, it was apparently completed by his son Al-Walid in 705AD.
Al-Aqsa Mosque from the west
The building became known as Masjid al-Aqsa, Al-Aqsa Mosque, although in reality the whole area of the Noble Sanctuary is considered Al-Aqsa Mosque, the entire precincts inviolable according to Islamic law. Every Friday prayer, the Al-Aqsa Mosque building overflows, with thousands of worshippers who must make their prayers outside in the courtyards of the vast open expanse of the Noble Sanctuary.
Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Dome of the Rock While the Dome of the Rock was constructed as a mosque to commemorate the Prophet’s Night Journey, the building known as Al-Aqsa Mosque became a centre of worship and learning, attracting great teachers from all over the world.]
Israeli tanks, bulldozers roll into Gaza
Israeli tanks, bulldozers roll into Gaza
Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:24:36 GMT
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The Israeli army has launched another cross border attack on the Gaza Strip, opening fire on villagers’ homes south of the impoverished sliver.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled hundreds of meters deep into the strip on Wednesday and flattened cultivated fields in Al Qararra town in southern Gaza.
According to witnesses several Palestinian homes were damaged in the attack but there were no reports of casualties. Four tanks and two bulldozers conducted the attack.
Palestinian sources say the invading Israeli troops were forced to retreat after they faced resistance from Palestinian fighters.
Iranian MP: MKO might move to Pakistan
Iranian MP: MKO might move to Pakistan
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:16:21 GMT
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MKO members inside the Camp Ashraf
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An Iranian lawmaker says following the Iraqi crackdown on the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), its remaining members could be moved to Pakistan.
Iraqi security forces took control of the MKO’s training base at Camp Ashraf, about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad on Tuesday, detaining dozens of terrorists.
Seyyed Hossein Naqavi, a member of Iran’s Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy told Mehr news agency that the move by the Iraqi government would open a new chapter in Tehran-Baghdad ties.
He noted that the MKO has been in talks with Abdolmalek Rigi, the head of the Jundullah terrorist gang operating in southeastern Iran around the Pakistani border, saying that the talks seemed to be aimed at paving the way for the deployment of MKO members in Pakistan.
“Considering the fact that the EU has lifted the MKO from its terror list, there is also a chance for the terrorist group to be stationed in a European country,” he added.
Nevertheless, Naqavi stressed that the deployment of the MKO to an EU country is highly unlikely, because the group needs to be located on Iran’s doorsteps to carry out its plots against the country.
The Iranian lawmaker added that the Pakistani government does not have full control over all parts of its territory and this could let the MKO to resume its activity in Pakistan.
The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its top leadership and members fled the country in the 1980s after carrying out a murderous campaign of assassinations and bombings inside the country.
The group is especially notorious in Iran because they allied with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq.
Pak at its craziest, says India has links with Taliban
ANI
Islamabad, July 30: Pakistan has reportedly handed over evidence of India’s involvement in providing aid to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud to the United States and NATO.
Sources said during the US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke’s recent visit to Islamabad, top military and political leaders gave certain documented and video tape evidence to him.
They said evidence of New Delhi’s involvement in aiding Mehsud were also provided to US commander of
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, Lt. General Stanley McChrystal.
Sources said that Pakistan had provided enough evidence to prove ‘India’s covert links with Baitullah Mehsud and provision of aid to him through Indian consulate in Afghanistan.’
Pakistan’s political and military leadership also urged Holbrooke to discuss the issue with India saying Mehsud did not have the resources to counter the military’s extensive offensive against him, Onlinenews.com reports.
Pak refuses to hand over Dawood: Krishna
Pak refuses to hand over Dawood: Krishna |
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Krishna said that whatever evidence and dossier is given, Pakistan’s refrain is that it is not enough and cannot be proven in the court of law.
PM on perilous path for Pak’s advantage: BJP
He said Pakistan has denied presence of dreaded criminals like Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Chota Shakeel and Lakhbir
Singh who are among the Indian nationals in the list.
“For Pakistani nationals, Pakistan has pointed to lack of extradition treaty and lack of evidence,” he said. “We have made 11 futile attempts with Pakistan to conclude an extradition treaty,” he said.
Dossier admits Pak nationals’ role in terror attack: PM
Pakistan has not responded “positively to our proposals to conclude an extradition treaty,” he said.
“We have been impressing upon Pakistan that it is in the interest of both countries that we enter into a treaty of extradition,” Krishna said. “The Government is endeavouring to persuade Pakistan to develop a cooperative relationship with India.”
10,000 Chinese Rioters ‘Go Missing’ Overnight
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10,000 Chinese Rioters ‘Go Missing’ Overnight
Nearly 10,000 Uighurs involved in deadly riots in China went missing in one night, exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer has said.
Rebiya Kadeer in Tokyo
Members of the Muslim ethnic group attacked Han Chinese in the Xinjiang region’s capital of Urumqi on July 5.
The rioting erupted after police tried to break up a protest against fatal assaults on Uighur workers at a factory in south China.
Han Chinese in Urumqi launched revenge attacks later that week.
“The nearly 10,000 (Uighur) people who were at the protest, they disappeared from Urumqi in one night,” Ms Kadeer told a news conference in Tokyo, Japan.
During the riots“If they are dead, where are their bodies? If they are detained, where are they?”
She called on the international community to send an independent investigative team to Urumqi to uncover details of what had taken place.
The official death toll from the riots stands at 197, most of whom were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China’s 1.3 billion population.
Almost all the others were Uighurs, a Muslim people native to Xinjiang and culturally tied to Central Asia and Turkey.
More than 1,000 people were detained in the immediate aftermath of the riots, and over 200 more in recent days, state media said. None has been publicly charged.
China has accused Ms Kadeer, who lives in exile in Washington, of triggering the riots and of spreading misinformation.
It pointed out that pictures she said were taken in Urumqi actually came from an unrelated incident in another part of the country.
Ms Kadeer, who rejects the Chinese accusations, said she thought the death toll was much higher after learning that there was random gunfire one night when electricity in the city was shut down.
Beijing does not want to lose its grip on Xinjiang.
The vast territory borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China’s largest natural gas-producing region.
Gen. Beg (retired) Heaps Praise On Taliban Fighters
[If the American administration were to take the following as the opinion of Pakistan’s generals today, then it would find justification for all of its worst plans for AF/PAK. After singing the praises of what Pakistan has wrought in Afghanistan, America could resign itself to the position that Pakistan is the state sponsor of the Taliban, making it a legitimate military strategy for turning Pakistan into the next Iraq.]
“The Divine Intervention in the form of Global Islamic Resistance, grew from the soil of Pakistan and Afghanistan”
“Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam“
By General Retd Mirza Aslam Beg
During the last 30 years, external aggression, counter-aggression and induced conflicts, have kept our region in a state of turmoil, creating global impact which are no less than the impact created by World War II. For example, Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Eight Years War of Liberation, leading to Soviet withdrawal and its break-up; the Eight Years Iran-Iraq war; the Ten years Afghan civil war; the 1991 Gulf War; Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001; Invasion of Iraq in 2003, Israeli war on Lebanon in 2005, and 2008 war on Gaza, and the on-going brutal war in Afghanistan, are the cataclysmic events, which have changed the course of history.
In these 30 years of conflict more than 70,00,000 thousand Muslims have been killed, thus defining a clear line between “the oppressors and the oppressed,” inviting ‘Divine Intervention’ on behalf of the oppressed. There are two recent examples of Divine Intervention: Hitler, drunk with power, and obsessed with the notion of Lebensraum, struck, and disturbed world peace. The oppressed, formed ‘a coalition’, to defeat the evil. Within a period of 15 years, the Germans and their allies were defeated and decimated. Similarly, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Americans struck the Muslim World, to establish their global primacy and pre-eminence. The Divine Intervention in the form of Global Islamic Resistance, grew from the soil of Pakistan and Afghanistan and within a period of 15 years, it has curbed the ambitions of the oppressors. [The expression “global Islamic resistance” is widely accepted as another name for “al Qaida,” another is “world Islamic Front.”]
The Islamic Resistance grew from the Pak-Afghan soil, along the Durand Line. The Pashtuns provided the hardcore of resistance and “Jehadis from 70 countries of the world joined them, whose only objective was and, is freedom” – freedom of Afghanistan, freedom of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Kashmir. They do not believe in establishing Islamic rule over other countries. They were not involved in 9/11 act of terror either, nor in any terror act elsewhere. Al-Qaeda having a different identity, targets the ‘oppressors’ outside the zone of conflict. As a result of this conflict the ‘Pashtun power’ has emerged and extends from Pakistan to the Hindukush mountains. The former US Security Advisor, David Kilkullen, terms it as “the greatest threat to American interests in the region,” and wants it to be eliminated. Similarly the Shia Power has emerged from Iran to Iraq to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and the US plans to pitch it against the ‘Pakhtun power’, and also against the Sunni Muslim States of the Gulf region, whom, the Americans have already sold US$120b worth of military hardware, to fight the Shia power/Iran.
The unipolar world order now is Tri-polar, because the Global Islamic Resistance has been able to curb the US ambitions of “global primacy and pre-eminence”, while Russia and China form the third force. Thus, it is the Global Islamic Resistance which is determining the contours of the emerging world order.
There are terrorists, no doubt, like Al-Qaeda and many other splinter groups, growing out of the freedom movements. Such terrorists, we also have in Pakistan, who call themselves Taliban, just to raise their status, whereas they are not Taliban. They are our angry tribals from Waziristan, Swat, Dir and Bajaur, joined by criminal gangs of the poverty-stricken border regions of Pakistan, against whom, Pakistan military is now engaged to establish the writ of the government, In fact, the occupation forces in Afghanistan by design have been able to ‘reverse the war on Pakistan’.
The ‘geo-political balance’ of the region has been altered with the induction of India and EU into Afghanistan, which USA now considers part of South Asia and under the hegemony of India. [With India firmly in its grasp, the US doesn’t really need Pakistan anymore, now does it?] India, in collusion with the occupation forces in Afghanistan, has been able to establish a vast spy network operating against all the neighbours, particularly Pakistan, Iran and China. Thus the cause of all the trouble in the region, and “the Mother of All Evil” is the occupation of Afghanistan, by the foreign forces.
The occupation forces are facing tough resistance, which is stronger, more organised and better armed than the resistance the Soviets had to face, during the 80’s. The resistance now calls itself the ‘Shadow Army’ [Here the general is deliberately trying to throw sand into our eyes, by confusing the Taliban with the alleged “al Qaida” group by that same name described here.] organised into several divisions, and each division consists of a number of Lashkars. The ‘Shadow Army’ comprises, the old mujahideen who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan; the Afghan Taliban, mostly born under the shadow of war; veterans from Iraq; old and new volunteers from several countries of the world and the 005 Brigade of Al-Qaeda. It’s a formidable force, undertaking large size operations, inflicting over 250 casualties on the occupation forces, in a period of two months. The next few months are crucial. The military adventure is thus failing and saner voices are getting louder and clearer, telling Obama and their allies to change their strategy in Afghanistan:
“The troops are tired and the American people are pretty tired of war in Afghanistan,” said Gates. “Situation in Afghanistan has got progressively worse, and the Taliban has got much better, much more violent and much more organised….The Afghan people are much more uncertain now, about their future, ” said Admiral Mullen. “Is Afghanistan destined to follow Vietnam, as another graveyard for US Empire,” questioned Martin and R Hertzberg. “Obama’s Petraeus – McChrystal policies, in Afghanistan, are a fundamental strategic error…” maintained Chomsky. “We are loosing in Afghanistan. US-NATO led coalition faces defeat, and our young men are dying out there,” said Paddy Ashdown. The one thing we cannot do is, to go on as we are, led by events. History is littered with the graves of the soldiers who died obeying the call,” stated Hamilton. “Obama cannot manage an inherently doomed premise. Colonialism is dead. Occupiers will never enjoy peace in Afghanistan,” claimed Ted Rall.
Obama, therefore suggests: “All of us want an effective exit strategy from Afghanistan” – the crucible of terror, the graveyard of invaders.
The economic melt-down, and the shame of defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaves only one hopeless course open to US, as William Pfaff rightly suggests: “The US has become war-addicted. War has become part of the national identity, as well as the national economy, which turns out more weapons and more military high technology than the rest of the world combined. The growing opinion in Europe is that Afghanistan is the US’s new Vietnam. The truth is that it is worse than Vietnam. In Vietnam, the US had a clearly identified enemy, supported by a responsible Communist state in North Vietnam with its government in Hanoi. [In Afghanistan, the US has a clearly defined enemy, supported by a “friendly” government with its head in Islamabad.] The US had a theory about what it was doing suppressing the insurrection in the South, and bombing North Vietnam until the government stopped the war. All of this was, in principle, possible. However, the US acted on a nonsensical theory about the world ‘going Communist’ if the US didn’t win, just as today the US has an even more nonsensical theory about radical Islam conquering Muslim Asia and all of Europe and then attacking the US, if Washington fails. In that respect it’s a war of ideas which the US has no theory about how to ‘win’.”
America is on the wrong side of history, which is imperceptibly changing towards a global order based on the quintessential values of respect for diversity and renunciation of war. On the contrary, China is one country, which is peacefully engaging itself with all the nations, honouring their sovereignty and building paradigm of peaceful co-existence. India and EU unfortunately have opted to be on the other side of the divide. The Americans together with their allies, therefore, need to develop a pragmatic AfPak Strategy, and to establish “a more ordered world at a time of great instability. The world powers have to provide space at the top tables for nations, that do not share our culture, our history, our world view and even our values.” – Ashdown. [At least the general sounded like a peace-loving “democrat” {he believes in democracy} at the end.]
The writer is former COAS
E-mail: friendsfoundation@live.co.uk
Pak did not provide evidence on India’s role in Balochistan: Holbrooke
Pak did not provide evidence on India’s role in Balochistan: Holbrooke
US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke on Thursday said that Pakistani leaders brought up the issue of India’s alleged involvement in Balochistan, but did not give any credible evidence to support their claim. “I would be misleading, if I said it didn’t come up,” Holbrooke told State Department Press Corps when asked to comment on the meetings he had with Pakistani leaders during his last week’s visit to that country. Asked if Pakistan has provided him with any “credible evidence of India’s involvement in Balochistan”, he said: “The narrow answer to your question is no.” However, he did not elaborate any further. He also reiterated that Kashmir is outside his ability to discuss. Responding to questions, Holbrooke said there is no difference with India on the issue of Pakistan and Afghanistan. “You know, India was the first country in the world I was ever aware of. I have a very special feeling for it. And if there’s a rift, you have to ask the Indians. I didn’t see any rift,” the US envoy said.
Pakistan’s Sado-Masochistic Ritual In FATA
[The Pakistani people are stuck between leaders who support these bands of merciless killers and other leaders who are determined to eliminate the militants altogether. How is it that one group never wins-out over the other? In the previous “wars” against the militants, did the battles reach an unacceptable threshhold of violence beyond which the Generals refused to pass, or was there a fear of imminent defeat which moved the Army to strike the faulty peace deals? Or were each of the battles stopped because of prior arrangements with the militants (Mehsud) that ended the fighting before they “became too serious,” much like the alleged practice of sado-masochists, who supposedly prearrange a “safety word” that the masochist can shout to the sadist, to prevent someone from getting seriously damaged? Have Mehsud and the ISI been staging a sado-masochistic ritual in FATA for the sake of leering American eyes?]
Another dud deal?
Reports and comment in the foreign media are increasingly talking of the possibility of a deal being explored – or even done — between the army and Baitullah Mehsud. The BBC, the Daily Telegraph, the Washington Post and the New York Times have in the last week carried reports alluding to the failure to capture Baitullah Mehsud, and it is not possible to dismiss these reports out-of-hand as mere idle gossip. The Telegraph is going so far as to claim that the delay in launching the all-out operation against Mehsud is to allow a deal to be made. The report says that the government wants him to promise that he will not attack government personnel and assets in the future – a promise that would rank alongside a solemn undertaking by all crocodiles never to eat another wildebeest. Military claims to have ‘corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan’ by blocking the four principal points of entry are unverifiable, and we have no idea if, or to what extent, Mehsud and his allies are being ‘softened up’ by the air force and artillery as is claimed by military spokespersons. What is clear is that a month after the go-ahead for an operation in the Waziristans there is very little sign of movement, and every single one of the men on the government’s ‘most wanted’ list remains at large despite considerable prices on their heads.
We would have thought that by now, with Sufi Mohammad once again behind bars after having been detained in Peshawar, that the self-evident madness of doing deals with extremists would have become a powerful influence over governmental decision-making. Every deal made with them in the past has collapsed, including those with Mehsud, as their true motives become evident once the deal is implemented. These men want nothing more or less than the whole of Pakistan to be under the cloak of darkness that they spread around them. They will unashamedly bomb and butcher and terrorise their way to power if they possibly can and have the ability to bring fear into the lives of people far from their primary area of operation. They are willing to brainwash children into becoming suicide bombers. They will intimidate local police forces, close down markets for women and barber shops for men, decide what style of clothing is appropriate for men and women alike and consign women to a place beyond the pale. The operation to defeat Mehsud in the Waziristans is called Rah-e-Nijat or Path to Deliverance. The military accepts that it is going to be a tougher fight than the one they have yet to finish in Swat, and ‘deliverance’ may be a long time coming. It is perhaps worth remembering that all the previous operations against the Taliban in Pakistan have ended in a peace deal which they have negotiated from a position of strength, and they still have powerful supporters in the establishment and the military. Either we beat Mehsud or he beats us. There is no middle ground – and no deal, either.
“Responsibility to Protect” is Warmed-Over Imperialism
“Responsibility to Protect” is Warmed-Over Imperialism
Submitted by Glen Ford
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordClick the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
“R2P” is the latest American device to justify military aggression and regime-change in the developing world. “The doctrine is a warmed-over version of so-called ‘humanitarian’ military intervention – another excuse for big powers to make war on weaker nations.” The doctrine is “reminiscent of the term ‘protectorate’ – a legalism for a country that is run as a virtual colony of one of the big powers.”
“Responsibility to Protect” is Warmed-Over Imperialism
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“R2P allows Washington to act unilaterally whenever it decides that military intervention is in the best interest of humanity.”
The United Nations last week began what will become a protracted debate over the doctrine “Responsibility to Protect,” or R2P. The doctrine is a warmed-over version of so-called “humanitarian” military intervention – another excuse for big powers to make war on weaker nations. Its primary champion in the Obama administration is UN ambassador Susan Rice, who would use the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine to justify U.S. military action in Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. One important opponent of R2P is Rev. Miguel D’Escoto, of Nicaragua, president of the UN General Assembly.
“Responsibility to Protect” is reminiscent of the term “protectorate” – a legalism for a country that is run as a virtual colony of one of the big powers. That’s how the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, took the colony of South West Africa away from the defeated Germans, after World War One, and gave it to white-ruled South Africa, under whom it would remain until emerging as the independent Republic of Namibia, in 1990.
A “protectorate” is what the British and French established in much of the Middle East on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, also after World War One, so they could “protect” the oil and ports and other resources of the region from the people who lived there. Palestine was a British protectorate, but that didn’t protect the Arab majority from the Zionists, who stole the land in 1948.
Haiti is now a de facto “protectorate” of the United Nations, which fronts for the United States, France and Canada. In fact, the new version of protectorates – philosophically buttressed by the doctrine “Responsibility to Protect” – was refined specifically to deny Haitians sovereignty over their own country after the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 2004.
“Africa has turned decisively against the notion of ‘Responsibility to Protect.’”
UN General Assembly president D’Escoto rejects the doctrine of protectorates, under the guise of R2P. His country, Nicaragua, was viewed, like all of Central America, as a protectorate of the United States. The U.S. once considered Nicaragua as a dumping ground for freed Black American slaves, and in the 1980s funded Contra terrorists and mined Nicaraguan harbors in defiance of the World Court, which was unable to provide protection from the Americans.
Africa has turned decisively against the notion of “Responsibility to Protect,” as it has witnessed the lopsided protectionist “justice” of an International Criminal Court that indicts only Africans, but does nothing to protect Africa from U.S. and European neocolonialism.
Among those participating in the UN debate on R2P, is Noam Chomksy, who describes the doctrine as “humanitarian imperialism.” That certainly is what it would amount to in the hands of the United States. Susan Rice’s version of R2P allows Washington to act unilaterally whenever it decides that military intervention is in the best interest of humanity. In practice, that’s no different than the Bush doctrine, or all the other previous American doctrines that have justified regime change at Washington’s political whim.
What the planet really needs protection from, is the United States, which remains, as Dr. Martin Luther King said more than 40 years ago, “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.”
Troops to Help Battle (Administer Vaccine?) Inflated Flu Threat
Military Poised to Help FEMA Battle Swine Flu Outbreak
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to set vaccination priorities for certain groups Wednesday during a meeting in Atlanta as the Pentagon prepares to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency tackle a potential outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall.
FOXNews.com
The Pentagon is preparing to make troops available if necessary to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency tackle a potential outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, FOX News has confirmed.
This comes as a government panel recommends certain groups be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, including pregnant women, health care workers and children six months and older.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel also said those first vaccinated should include parents and other caregivers of infants; non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions, and young adults ages 19 to 24. The panel, whose recommendations typically are adopted by federal health officials, voted to set vaccination priorities for those groups Wednesday during a meeting in Atlanta.
Obama administration officials told Congress that H1N1 vaccinations won’t be available for several months.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is preparing to sign an order authorizing the military to set up five regional teams to deal with the potential outbreak of H1N1 influenza if FEMA requests help.
A senior U.S. defense official told FOX News that the plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the FEMA. No final decision has been reached on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it likely would include personnel from all branches of the military.
It is not known how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.
In the event of a major outbreak, civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts, the official said. The military, as it would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.
As a first step, military leaders have asked Gates to authorize planning for the potential assistance.
Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said.
FOX News’ Jennifer Griffin, Brian Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hizb ut-Tahrir: CIA Creation?
[This writer is Senior Editor for John Birch Society site. Research reveals that the following article pushes the exact opposite of the truth, pure Hegelian Dialectic, that this group is CIA.]
Hizb ut-Tahrir: KGB-FSB Connection?
| Written by William F. Jasper |
As reported in yesterday’s posting, the Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir al Islami (The Islamic Liberation Party, hereafter designated by the abbreviation HT), held a recruiting conference in Chicago on Sunday July 19. The title and theme of the conference was “The Fall of Capitalism, the Rise of Islam.”
Apart from the fact that HT has adopted much of the Marxist-Leninist lexicon and dialectically synthesized an Islamo-Leninist ideology and rhetoric, there is good reason to assume that, at least in the Central Asia “republics” of the former Soviet Union, HT has been co-opted by the security services (successors of the renamed KGB) or was created outright as a “false flag” operation to provide controlled opposition.
Unlike the Baltic States and other European states that were clamoring for independence from the Soviet Union, the rulers of the Central Asian states (Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) of the USSR were reluctant to shed their Soviet skin, and even since “independence” have stayed closely tied to the Kremlin. Like all totalitarian regimes — Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria — they remain, essentially, black boxes, largely impervious to outside investigation. Their geographic isolation greatly enhances the efficiency of their security services in controlling what information (or disinformation) gets out, which outsiders get in, and what they will be allowed to see and hear.
Uzbekistan seems to be the main area where terrorist activities are attributed to HT and other groups connected to it, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). As mentioned in yesterday’s posting, scholar/lobbyist Zeyno Baran has been one of the principal conveyor belts of the charges that the Tashkent bombings of 1999, the Tashkent and Bukhara bombings of 2004, and the Andijan Massacre of 2005 were the work of Islamic terrorists (HT and IMU) and provide ample reason to support the regime of Stalinist stalwart Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan.
Bush administration officials, such as Elizabeth Jones, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, made similar arguments, as for instance, in her testimony before Congress.
Another analyst, David Storobin similarly concluded that the Karimov regime was under heavy assault from terrorists, which was a major crisis blocking political reform in that country. He wrote:
Because of the terror network that has been established by the Taliban, Saudis, Egyptian and Palestinian fundamentalists, as well as others in Uzbekistan, the government cannot move towards democratic liberalization. Rather than building up its political institutions and economic system, Uzbekistan is stuck trying to fight terrorist organizations, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — and any other Islamist terrorist organization that chooses to set up bases in the country.
Perhaps the most influential lobbyist for the Central Asian regimes, though, is Professor S. Frederick Starr of the Central Asia Caucasus Institute (CACI) at Johns Hopkins University. For his slavish support of dictator Islam Karimov, Dr. Starr has earned the title of “Professor of Repression.” He can be counted on faithfully to toe the party line, sing the praises of Karimov and his fellow dictators in the region, and defend the most brutal practices as necessary measures against the threat of “Islamic extremism.”
However, many independent scholars and analysts refused to overlook the evidence and suspicious circumstances pointing to the likelihood that these “terrorist attacks” were actually “provocations” by the SNB, the Uzbek KGB.
Nozima Kamalova, for example, a Central Asia specialist at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, noted in a 2007 study for the Center, “The War on Terror and Its Implications for Human Rights in Uzbekistan”:
With what appears to be a staged bombing, the Uzbek government may have wished to demonstrate to its American allies that terrorism exists in Uzbekistan and that there is a need for additional funding and support under the guise of a campaign against terrorism.
Likewise, Central Eurasia scholar Sarah Kendzior (Washington University in St. Louis) challenges Baran and others who accept at face value the propaganda spoon-fed to them by the professional SNB propagandists in Tashkent. Her study, “Inventing Akromiya: The Role of Uzbek Propagandists in the Andijon Massacre,” provides sobering reflection on the alarming degree to which Western governments, academics, and journalists have been willing to turn blind eyes toward evidence that they are being manipulated by the Uzbek regime.
In addition to these scholarly works, there is the testimony of former SNB agent Major Ikrom Yakubov, who says President Karimov personally ordered “false flag” provocations such as the Andijon Massacre (Uzbekistan’s Tiananmen Square), the Tashkent/Bukhara bombings, and the murder of UN coordinator Richard Conroy, a British citizen. Yakubov, who defected to Britain last September, adds to considerable evidence compiled by journalists, human rights activists, and exiles, as well as the charges of former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray.
Murray, who is now rector of the University of Dundee and is campaigning this year for election to Parliament, was forced to step down from his diplomatic post for exposing Karimov’s widespread practices of torture and murder — and even more for exposing the complicity of the United States and Britain in those crimes.
In his book, Murder in Samarkand, Murray writes about his own personal inspection of the Tashkent bombing sites shortly after the explosions. “I reported that back to London — that I suspected these were ‘false flag’ bombing operations carried out by the Uzbek government in order to justify their clampdown and demonize the opposition,” says Murray. “What [Yakubov] is saying appears to back up the physical evidence which I personally witnessed on the ground. I think his information does appear to stand up.”
Yakubov, who was involved in SNB provocations, says that many of the men cited as terrorists by the Uzbek government are actually “false flag” creations of the SNB. Radio Free Europe reports:
In a related charge, Yakubov says the regime itself has propped up many alleged extremist groups and their leaders, including Tahir Yuldash, the purported IMU leader, and Akram Yuldash, the alleged spiritual leader of Akramia, the group Uzbek authorities blamed for sparking the unrest in Andijon.
“Akram Yuldash, Tahir Yuldash — these are specially created men by SNB,” Yakubov says. “IMU also [was] created by SNB, according to the order of Karimov. Tahir Yuldash has a very close contact with Karimov, and Tahir Yuldash [carries out] the orders of Karimov.”
Yakubov adds that he has seen classified papers addressed to Karimov stating that Yuldash himself killed Juma Namangani, his predecessor as IMU leader, in order to take sole leadership of the organization.
It should come as no surprise that the SNB would carry out a series of bombing provocations. It served several important purposes, not the least of which was to bolster appeals for Western aid. Of course, it also provided Karimov with a “national security” cover to justify tighter police-state crackdowns on his own people. In all of this the Uzbek SNB was merely putting into practice what it had learned from its big brother, the Russian KGB/FSB. In fact, the “terrorist” bombings in Tashkent and Bukhara were carbon copies of the FSB’s false flag “terrorist” bombing campaign in Russia that was blamed on Chechen Islamists. The main purposes of that series of provocations were: 1) to justify, and win public support for, a new Russian invasion and occupation of Chechnya, and; 2) to cast Vladimir Putin (former head of the FSB), then virtually unknown, as a strong, decisive leader, and to propel him into the presidency.
It is sad testimony to the frightening degree of control exercised over our own media that so few Americans are even aware of the huge body of evidence — much of it even from establishment media sources — substantiating the charges that the Russian FSB, not the Chechens, were behind the September 1999 apartment bombings in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk that killed nearly 300 people and injured hundreds more. The government-controlled Russian media fanned the flames of hysteria. Outrage and calls for revenge against Chechnya soon followed. Putin, responding to “the people’s will,” launched a new wave of savage destruction upon the hapless people of Chechnya.
Here are a few of the many sources concerning the FSB hand behind the “Chechen Terror” bombings in Russia:
Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror by Alexander Litvinenko, the FSB colonel who defected to the West in 2001 and began exposing the totalitarian and criminalist nature of the new KGB/FSB-dominated Putin regime. This included revelations concerning the false flag “Chechen terror” bombings. He paid for this “treason” with his life; he was publicly (and very dramatically) executed by polonium poisoning in London in 2006. The evidence points to the FSB and then-President Putin as the executioners.
The Assassination of Russia is a video documentary produced by former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was once part of the Yeltsin power structure and now is in exile in Britain. This video presents excellent testimony and compelling evidence supporting the charges that the 1999 “Chechen Terror” bombings in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, and the attempted bombing in Ryazan were the work of Russia’s FSB:
“THE FIFTH BOMB: DID PUTIN’S SECRET POLICE BOMB MOSCOW IN A DEADLY BLACK OPERATION?” by John Sweeney reporter for The Observer (UK), November 24, 2000. Focusing on the failed Ryazan bombing, this article is especially important for presenting the close-up photographs taken by the Russian bomb squad of the detonator of the bomb that was deactivated before it could explode in the Ryazan apartment building. The photographs show, say experts, a detonator that is distinctively FSB in signature.
Fears of Bombing Turn to Doubts for Some in Russia by Maura Reynolds, Russian correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2000. This was one of the earliest investigative pieces by American reporters to question the generally accepted story put out by the Putin regime blaming the Chechens.
“Russia ‘planned Chechen war before bombings’ : Former Prime Minister reveals invasion of republic was prepared months in advance of terrorist attacks” by Patrick Cockburn, Moscow correspondent of the British newspaper, The Independent, January 29, 2000. Among the important bombshells dropped by Cockburn in this article:
1) Jan Blomgren, Moscow correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dogbladet, had reported on June 6, 1999 that according to his sources in the Kremlin one option being considered by the Russian government was “terror bombings in Moscow which could be blamed on the Chechens.” This was four months before the first bomb went off.
2) Sergei Stepashin, the former Interior Minister and Prime Minister, had openly stated in recent interviews with Russian media that he had been involved in top-level government plans for the invasion of Chechnya in March of 1999. This contradicted the official Russian line that the Russian invasion was purely a response to the terror bombings of September.
3) That top Russian officials Alexander Voloshin and Anton Surikov held a secret meeting in France in July 1999 with Shamil Basayev, a Chechen warlord who was the public face of “Islamic terrorism” in Russia. The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate Basayev’s “Chechen” invasion of neighboring Dagestan, to provide Putin with another reason for attacking Chechnya. Basayev had long been suspected of working for Russia’s KGB/FSB and/or Russia’s military intelligence, the GRU.
“The Shadow of Ryazan:_Is Putin’s government legitimate?” by David Satter, National Review, April 30, 2002. This provides a good overview of the evidence available up to that time of the Russian government’s planning and execution of the terrorist bombings.
“The Smashing of Chechnya” by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed of Media Monitors Network provides a detailed report on the Russian war against Chechnya and an extensive bibliography of links to many stories dealing with the terror bombings in Russia as provocations by the FSB.
The Humanitarian Crisis in Pakistan
[Which is the greater crime against humanity, creating a humanitarian crisis within your own country by forcing millions of innocents out of their homes, in order to reap billions of dollars in aid, or extorting another country to do this to its own citizens for promised aid or under threats of force?]
The Humanitarian Crisis in Pakistan
Eric P. Schwartz
Assistant Secretary
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Washington, DC
July 29, 2009
Last week, I visited Pakistan with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to assess the humanitarian crisis and the response of the Pakistani government and international community. I am grateful for this opportunity to share with you my perspectives on the humanitarian situation and to consider what more we and others can do to ameliorate the suffering of those displaced from their homes, as well as to create conditions for their return and the sustainable recovery of their communities.
Let me first acknowledge those on the ground who have responded so generously and effectively to this huge humanitarian challenge. Most of the more than two million internally displaced persons found refuge in homes of thousands of Pakistani families. Humanitarian workers from Pakistan and around the world are working tirelessly under difficult, and often dangerous, conditions to save lives. They have our admiration and our gratitude.
On the other side are extremists who bomb mosques and markets, destroy schools, murder teachers because they allow girls in classrooms, and kill aid workers. When extremists bombed the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar in June, UNICEF Pakistan Chief of Education, Peseveranda So; UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) employee Aleksandar Vorkapic; and three members of a UN Population Fund implementation team were among the 18 people killed; many other UN humanitarian workers were wounded, at least one seriously. This month at the Kacha Gari camp for displaced persons, gunmen killed a Pakistani employee of UNHCR, Mr. Zill-e-Usman, and Mr. Allauddin, a guard employed by the Office of the Commissioner for Afghan Refugees, an agency of the Pakistani government. Another UNHCR staff member and another guard were wounded. Mr. Usman had worked for UNCHR for 25 years. He left behind a wife and four children. He was one of three UNHCR employees killed in Pakistan this year.
Allow me now to offer background on the humanitarian crisis, describe and assess the current situation – including the U.S. and international response – and present my view of the near term challenges.
Background
In response to the widespread abuses and lawlessness of the Pakistani Taliban, the government launched a military campaign in late April to break the Taliban’s hold on Buner, and soon thereafter, Swat in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Within a few weeks, the fighting caused about one and a half million people to flee. They joined more than half a million others who had fled fighting in the summer and fall of 2008 between the military and Pakistani Taliban in Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Lower Dir. By mid-June, more than two million displaced persons, or approximately 300,000 families, were living within an arc of 100 miles north and east of Peshawar.
In June, the displacement reached a plateau of more than two million people. About 15 percent were living in official camps; 85 percent were living in host communities: with families, in rental housing, or public buildings. Displaced persons have used nearly 4,000 schools as shelters.
People in both camps and host communities endured and continue to experience crowded conditions, lack of privacy, and often, poor sanitation and shortages of safe drinking water. Supplies of essential medicines and numbers of medical personnel, particularly female medical personnel, are insufficient. The main health problems are gastro-intestinal disorders, respiratory infections, and skin diseases. Camp management, which includes the NWFP government, UNHCR, and the Pakistani Red Crescent Society among others, keeps the camps in good order. While camps tend to be better served than host communities, there have been no major outbreaks of disease or instances of widespread hunger among the many displaced persons living within or outside the camps.
Humanitarian Response Structure
The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) of the NWFP government is responsible for overall coordination of relief activities. At the federal level, a Special Support Group (SSG), under the leadership of Lt. General Nadeem Ahmed, assists the NWFP government and coordinates operationally with international organizations and NGOs.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) ensures coordination and information-sharing among the various service providers through the mechanism of the UN cluster system. This system organizes UN agencies, NGOs, and government agencies into thematic groups (camp coordination and management; emergency shelter and non-food items; water, sanitation and hygiene; food security; health; protection; education; logistics; agriculture; and early recovery) to address needs in particular sectors more coherently and effectively. A representative from the appropriate government department and from a UN agency co-chair each cluster. The World Food Program (WFP), which leads the logistics cluster for the UN, manages most of the 36 humanitarian hubs to deliver supplies. UN agencies are operating from Peshawar with a reduced presence in the aftermath of the bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel on June 9
Afghan Refugees
The current humanitarian crisis in the NWFP is not the only challenge of displacement in the region. Some 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees live in Pakistan, in addition to up to 500,000 unregistered Afghans. Most of them have lived in Pakistan for more than 20 years; many were born there. Like the displaced Pakistanis in the NWFP, they are principally ethnic Pashtuns, although they live in separate camps or communities throughout NWFP and in eastern Baluchistan.
UNHCR protects and assists Afghan refugees in Pakistan in cooperation with the Pakistani government and with NGOs funded directly by donors, including the United States. One effect of the fighting has been the temporary suspension of UNHCR’s program of voluntary repatriation from Peshawar because of the security risks. While more than 275,000 Afghans were repatriated from Pakistan in 2008, the number so far this year has been only 44,000. UNHCR’s Afghanistan repatriation and reintegration program is still able to receive those willing to return, but we remain concerned that recent events in Pakistan have disrupted returns at a key point in Afghanistan’s own reconstruction. We look forward to seeing the resumption of the repatriation program in NWFP when security permits.
New Phase
Pakistan’s internal displacement crisis has now entered a new phase in two respects. First, as the military retakes territory from militants, people are returning to their home districts in large numbers. As is typical in cases of large and ongoing population movements, estimates have a margin of uncertainty. The government reports that, in all, well over 700,000 displaced persons have returned home to the FATA Agencies and NWFP. Also according to the government, some 100,000 people have returned to Bajaur Agency in the FATA; limited areas within the region remain unsafe and are still producing displacement. More than 300,000 people – about two thirds of the district’s population – have returned to Buner.
Earlier this month, the government announced the completion of its offensive in Swat. On July 13, Pakistani authorities launched an operation to provide transport, security and, with the assistance of humanitarian organizations, essential supplies to returnees. The operation began with camp populations and then expanded to assist displaced people in host communities. Two camps in Mardan district have closed as their inhabitants returned home. At least 300,000 people have returned to the more secure, less damaged areas of Lower Swat. The vast majority of returnees have traveled in private vehicles rather than in government-provided transport. The government has stated that it plans to complete its operation of assisted returns by the third week in August.
U.S. government personnel have conducted assessments in Buner District and report light to moderate damage, although police stations and some schools have suffered severe damage. Electricity and telecommunications are largely restored, but the water supply infrastructure requires repair.
Early reports indicate that damage to infrastructure in Swat is more severe than in Buner, although varied by location. USAID teams that entered Swat on July 16 observed little damage south of Mingora, but heavier destruction in the city itself, home to more than 200,000 people, particularly to buildings targeted or occupied by the Taliban. Areas north of Mingora are inaccessible and insecure.
Uncertainty about security, basic services, and prospects for restoring their incomes are deterring some people from returning home. Humanitarian agencies report that some individual family members are making trips to gather information for a decision on whether to bring their families back. This is typical in such situations – we call them “go and see visits.” Another factor slowing returns is that many families are waiting to receive their $300 debit card from the government. As of July 25, the Pakistani government had distributed about 220,000 debit cards to eligible families. The Pakistani government is allocating $100 million to fund this program. The military has committed to staying in the Malakand Division, which includes Swat, Buner, and Lower Dir, for 12 months to provide security.
On July 11, the Provincial Relief Commissioner, on behalf of the Chief Secretary of the NWFP, and a representative of UNHCR, on behalf of the humanitarian community, signed an official statement that sets out a policy framework for returns. The core of the return policy framework is that the return of displaced persons should be voluntary, informed, dignified, safe and sustainable, which we strongly endorse. During my visit, government officials told me they are committed to act in accordance with these principles. I discussed with officials reports that some displaced persons may have felt undue pressure to return (for example, as a result of the reduction or elimination of services in some camps), and this issue will remain an important part of our bilateral dialogue. However, it is encouraging that the Pakistani authorities have made clear their willingness to take seriously and investigate concerns about the repatriation process and other issues affecting displaced persons.
A second development is the increase in displacement from South Waziristan and neighboring areas of the FATA. Sporadic fighting on the ground and air attacks in South Waziristan, Kurram, Orakzai, and Bannu have displaced about 60,000 people, and this number will increase with the expected main offensive against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group headed by Baitullah Mehsud. Although international humanitarian organizations are prepositioning supplies in Bhakkar in nearby Punjab, they have no direct access to Tank and D.I. Khan, the areas receiving most of the displaced people. Pakistani authorities are responsible for registering them and providing assistance. The authorities do not intend to establish camps, and we believe that the displaced have no interest in going to camps. They are staying with host families, in second homes, in rented accommodations, or in schools.
Assessment
Nearly three months into this humanitarian crisis, one can draw some conclusions about the response and the situation more broadly. First, the initial conditions presented huge challenges: a large and rapidly developing displacement in an area of heavy fighting between the Pakistani military and well-armed groups, as well as several deadly terrorist attacks beyond the area of military of operations. Many of the affected areas, while rural, were densely populated. The outflow of people represented one of the heaviest displacements in recent history.
Second, Pakistani authorities, assisted by humanitarian organizations, responded rapidly and effectively to the emerging crisis. The NWFP government established an Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and declared that it would devote its entire development budget for 2009 for humanitarian relief. The federal government established the Special Support Group (SSG) and appointed Lt. General Nadeem Ahmad, who managed the relief effort for the 2005 earthquake, to head the operations of the Group and oversee on-the-ground coordination between the government and international humanitarian organizations.
At the request of the Pakistani government, the UN issued an emergency appeal for $542 million some three weeks after the Swat offensive began. International agencies such as UNHCR, the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Pakistani and international NGOs, set up camps, activated the humanitarian cluster system, helped the Pakistani government register displaced people, and distributed food and emergency supplies. It was helpful that several of these organizations already had a presence and emergency response capability in the area because of their participation in the relief effort for the Bajaur displacement in 2008, the earthquake in 2005, and their continuing support for Afghan refugees.
Third, in spite of massive displacement in one of the poorer areas of Pakistan, the humanitarian response has been effective in preventing dire outcomes, while providing shelter, protection, and critical medical attention to hundreds of thousands of people. There has been neither widespread hunger nor outbreak of epidemic disease. This is due in great part to the hospitality and generosity of the many ordinary Pakistani citizens who took in not only relatives but often complete strangers and shared what they had. But it is also due to a rapid response by humanitarian organizations – both international and Pakistani.
Fourth, despite its success, the humanitarian response lacks sufficient funding. As of July 27, the UN Appeal of $542 million was only 38 percent funded, at $203 million. Donors have also contributed $104 million to the government of Pakistan and to organizations outside of the UN Appeal. To date, the U.S. government has provided more than half of the total humanitarian assistance to Pakistan. Although we can take satisfaction in our support for the Pakistani people, other governments need to do more.
Fifth, the Taliban’s atrocities have turned many Pakistani citizens against them. A public opinion poll[1] conducted in May revealed that 81 percent of those surveyed considered the Taliban a critical threat to the vital interests of Pakistan, compared with 34 percent in September 2007. Asked whom they supported in the Swat conflict, 70 percent preferred the government compared to five percent for the Taliban. Where fighting raged in the NWFP, nearly every day we read in the Pakistani press of villagers and tribal militias turning against Taliban militants. In May, the government convened an All-Parties Conference that resulted in a declaration supporting military action against insurgents and extremists and condemning violent extremism and challenges to the state’s authority in any part of Pakistan
Further, following press reports in May that charities with links to extremist groups, such as Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), were engaged in some IDP camps in NWFP, we raised this issue with the Government of Pakistan, which agreed to address it. We understand that in general terms, the GOP, through its security presence, is monitoring this kind of activity in camps and other IDP settings, and that due to government pressure specifically, FIF was made to restrict its activities with IDPs in the camps. The Pakistani government’s response to the crisis, including its close work with humanitarian organizations, has been an important factor in its ability to maintain public support for a strong response to the Taliban insurgency.
Humanitarian Assistance from the United States
In this crisis, the Administration, its agencies, and Congress have acted in concert to generate the resources and deliver them effectively to the people of Pakistan. The substantial U.S. response demonstrates our solidarity with the Pakistani people and support for the Pakistani government in these trying times. Early on, USAID deployed a DART team to assess conditions and recommend where to direct emergency assistance. By the time that the UN had issued its Appeal in May, Secretary Clinton had developed and announced a $110 million U.S. assistance package, nearly all of which was disbursed within a few weeks. The Secretary, Ambassador Holbrooke, and our embassies around the world urged other
governments to meet the humanitarian challenge with additional resources. USAID, USDA, DOD, and my Bureau at the State Department have all mobilized to deliver vital assistance to our partners on the ground on a timely basis – shelter, protection, food, medical supplies and services, electric generators, and transport and logistics support.
Following Ambassador Holbrooke’s visit to Pakistan in early June, the President requested an additional $200 million in emergency assistance, and Congress passed a Supplemental appropriation shortly thereafter. Those funds are now beginning to flow. I thank you for appropriating these additional funds. Congressional support has been critical to our assistance efforts. We applaud the Senate’s passage by unanimous consent of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act (S.962), which authorizes $1.5 billion per year in non-military assistance for five years. Final passage of this legislation will be a powerful demonstration of our long-term commitment to helping the Pakistani people and reinforce our desire for a long-term partnership based on common interests.
Since May, the U.S. has pledged more than $320 million in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan to meet the needs of conflict-affected people. Last week in Islamabad, Ambassador Holbrooke outlined how we will spend $165 million of funds available (most from the FY 2009 Supplemental appropriation) to meet ongoing needs of displaced persons in camps and host communities, and also to address needs as people return to build their homes and communities.
The bureau I head, Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), has committed nearly $60 million for humanitarian relief efforts this fiscal year, $25 million of which has already been provided to humanitarian organizations and $35 million of which Ambassador Holbrooke announced last week in Pakistan. We are currently in the process of providing these new funds to our principal partners in Pakistan – UNHCR and the ICRC. Within the UN system for this emergency, UNHCR has lead responsibility for protection, camp coordination and management, emergency shelter, and provision of non-food items (which include blankets, cooking sets, mosquito nets and jerry cans) to people in camps and host communities
Protecting vulnerable populations is a global priority for PRM. In Pakistan, UNHCR’s protection function includes assisting the government to register displaced people and helping people with special needs, particularly the elderly, women, and children. UNHCR has set up child protection committees in camps to protect children from violence and abuse, and has reunited separated children with their parents.
Since the Bajaur crisis in August 2008, ICRC has provided assistance in insecure areas where most other providers, including UN agencies, have been unable to operate. ICRC was the first humanitarian organization to enter Swat in areas where fighting was still underway. In cooperation with its national partner, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), ICRC provides medical assistance, food, and other emergency assistance to people in camps, host communities and, where possible, people trapped by fighting. They also administer several camps, trace missing family members, and reunite families. The Department of State is proud to support UNHCR and ICRC on behalf of the American people.
Looking Ahead
Let me close by identifying the main challenges for the humanitarian effort over the next few months.
First, the humanitarian response is underfunded; other donor governments must do more to help. While about 700,000 people have returned home, there are still approximately 1.5 million displaced people. And we should not forget that Pakistan is still generously hosting 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees. Even with substantial returns of displaced persons, current operations require additional resources, and donors should support early recovery in areas of return. The long-term reconstruction needs are greater and will require coordinated and sustained engagement from international donors.
Second, the new and principal challenge is to create conditions to support voluntary and durable returns. These conditions include re-establishing security, utilities, and civil administration, providing food, and restoring livelihoods. The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that many returnees will need food assistance for six to 12 months to compensate for lost crops and income. While many people will continue to rely on food and other consumable relief supplies, resources will have to shift progressively to support interventions that restore normal daily life. In this respect, UNHCR is assisting Pakistani authorities by funding transportation for voluntary returns and supplying non-food items for returnees. It plans to provide protection and advocacy through an information and referral service for returnees.
The ICRC is helping 217,000 people in 31,000 households restore their livelihoods by distributing seeds and tools for the next planting season. USAID is providing assistance for debris removal, medical and agricultural programs, repair of infrastructure, and cash-for-work programs. These efforts at early recovery are absolutely essential, and you will hear more on this from my colleague Jon Brause.
Third, relief organizations must be prepared to meet the needs of those displaced persons who may not be able to return home promptly – especially as the monsoon season is beginning. Humanitarian organizations estimate that perhaps 30 to 50 percent of those displaced will not be able to return home before the onset of winter, and will need continuing assistance.
Fourth, the government and the humanitarian community must prepare for displacement from South Waziristan and possibly neighboring areas. This displacement may reach 150,000 people or more once full-scale military operations get underway. The relief effort will require a different supply chain from that established for NWFP. Humanitarian organizations have begun to pre-position supplies in Punjab, but the military has not authorized the set-up of delivery points closer to the areas of displacement. We will work with the Pakistani authorities and international assistance providers to promote ease of assistance to these populations.
Finally, the longer term task of rebuilding infrastructure must begin now. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank are preparing an assessment of damages that should be available at the beginning of September. Pakistan will need substantial support from donors to rebuild. Timely reconstruction is critical to ensuring our humanitarian, development, and security objectives.
It is clear that the people and government of Pakistan and their partners around the world have accomplished much. But much remains to be done. The Administration is committed to sustaining and strengthening our efforts to support recovery and development in Pakistan.
I welcome your questions.
[1]Ramsay, et al, Pakistani Public Opinion on the Swat Conflict, Afghanistan and the US, July 1, 2009, http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
Hillary Clinton threatens to cut spy links with UK over ‘torture’
Hillary Clinton threatens to cut spy links with UK over ‘torture’
By Dan Newling
Hillary Clinton has threatened to end intelligence sharing with Britain if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed.
Letters from the U.S. Secretary of State and the CIA to the Government warn they will cease co-operation with British counterparts if two judges release details about Mr Mohamed’s alleged torture.
Human rights campaigners yesterday claimed the threat – which could put British lives at risk – was merely a ‘ smokescreen’, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted it was serious.
Hillary Clinton has threatened to end intelligence sharing with Britain if the High Court publishes its findings on what happened to Binyam Mohamed
As if to reiterate the matter last night Mrs Clinton, speaking in Washington, said intelligence sharing was ‘critically important’ to Britain and the U.S.
The details of the threat were revealed yesterday during a long-running – and increasingly bitter – court battle between the Foreign Secretary and former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mr Mohamed.
At the centre of the affair are seven paragraphs of a court judgment which Mr Mohamed claims prove that British agents colluded in the torture he endured after being arrested in 2002.
He has repeatedly claimed that British agents were complicit in his torture after he was arrested in Pakistan.
Lawyers for Mr Miliband told Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones that the threat by America had been assessed as having a ‘high-risk threshold’.
Yesterday, Lord Justice Thomas pointed out that the paragraphs in themselves did not pose any threat to national security.
He said: ‘So the U.S. has taken the position that this is so serious that it is prepared to reassess its relationship with the UK and put lives at risk?’
Mr Miliband’s legal team said both Mrs Clinton and the CIA had written to him to insist the information remain secret.
‘Wriggle room’: Lawyers for David Miliband argued the US’s threat to restrict intelligence co-operation was ‘high risk’By publicly acknowledging the threat to U.S./UK intelligence sharing arrangements, Mrs Clinton has ‘ridden to the rescue’ of Mr Miliband, human rights activists said.
They claimed that by ‘hiding behind’ the U.S. threat, Mr Miliband was able to continue concealing the ‘ugly truth’ about British involvement in torture abroad.
Mr Mohamed has claimed British intelligence agents knew about – and were complicit in – his torture in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Morocco.
The contentious seven paragraphs are a summary of 42 CIA documents, which are said to confirm his claims.
While in detention, Mr Mohamed says he was hung up by straps, beaten and had his genitals mutilated with a scalpel to make him confess to a ‘dirty bomb’ plot.
Karen Steyn, appearing for the Foreign Secretary, said Mrs Clinton and the CIA had written official letters warning that under the new Obama administration, the U.S. would review its intelligence sharing agreement with the UK if the court releases the information.
Mrs Steyn went on to say that disclosure of the seven paragraphs ‘could reasonably be expected to cause considerable damage to the national security of the UK’.
The only reason Mr Miliband opposes the disclosure of the seven paragraphs, she told the court, was to protect the national security and international relations of the UK.
However, Guy Vassall-Adams, representing the various media groups who are backing Mr Mohamed’s battle to publish the information, argued that the Foreign Office’s stance did not pass the ‘common sense test’.
He said it was highly unrealistic to suggest that the publication of seven paragraphs would cause the U.S. authorities to be so ‘upset and shocked’ that they might refuse to share vital intelligence with the UK in the future.
Mr Vassall-Adams said such a situation was ‘unthinkable’ in the light of the historical alliance between the two nations.
In previous hearings the judges have expressed frustration at not being allowed to release the information.
Both judges yesterday seemed unwilling to rely on Mrs Steyn’s representations of Mr Miliband’s opinion.
Lord Justice Thomas insisted a transcript of the hearing be sent to Mr Miliband so that there was ‘no wriggle room’.
Ethiopian-born Mr Mohamed came to the UK as a 16-year-old asylum seeker and lived here for seven years. Shortly after September 11, 2001, he was picked up by the American secret service in Pakistan.
Accused of being a terrorist, he was held for six and a half years in U.S. custody.
Mr Miliband has repeatedly insisted Britain ‘abhors’ torture and never orders or condones it. Speaking after talks with Mrs Clinton yesterday, he said not disclosing allies’ intelligence was a ‘fundamental principle’.
Mrs Clinton added: ‘The issue of intelligence sharing is one which is critically important to our two countries and we both have a stake in ensuring that it continues to the fullest extent possible.’
Another “Islamist” Bombing Case Made By Anonymous Notes and Discredited Witnesses
[SEE: JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBS: WESTERN MEDIA STORY COLLAPSES?]
Manchester United targeted by Jakarta hotel bombers
Anne Barrowclough
(AFP/Getty)
Noordin Mohammed Top
CIA Director Wm. Casey’s Anti-Soviet Terrorists Continue to Serve US Interests
FEATURE-Tensions stir Islamist underground in Central Asia
* Concerns over new violence in volatile C. Asian valley
* Islamist activity may be spill-over from Afghanistan
* Radical group seeks Islamic state
By Maria Golovnina
OSH, Kyrgyzstan, July 29 (Reuters) – Sipping tea in a dim, smoke-filled teahouse in the Kyrgyz city of Osh, Rakhmatillo Ibragimov says the goal of his life is to restore Islamic rule in former Soviet Central Asia.
“They call us terrorists. That’s because they are afraid of us,” he says with a bashful smile that contrasts with the sharpness of his words. “The more they oppress us the stronger we become. We don’t want bloodshed. We want justice.”
A member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an outlawed Islamist group, he says ideas such as his are beginning to catch on in his native city of Osh in the Ferghana valley — a cauldron of ethnic and tribal tension in the heart of Central Asia.
Its dusty skyline pierced by the occasional minaret, Osh has long been synonymous with a post-Soviet rise of radical Islamism in a largely agrarian, cotton-growing region shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
But intense fighting in Afghanistan and rioting involving Muslim Uighurs in China to the east have put a new spin on old threats in an impoverished region lying at the centre of a geopolitical tug of war between Russia and the United States.
With its treacherous mountainous terrain and complicated patchwork of clan alliances, Kyrgyzstan is of particular worry, and memories are still fresh of violent clashes between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz near Osh in 1990 that killed hundreds of people.
Once again the region is buzzing with talk of unrest.
In the border town of Karasu, a scattering of white-washed huts divided between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan by a small canal, residents said that growing frustration with poverty and unemployment have fuelled interest in radical forms of Islam.
“There are a lot of rumours and everyone is worried. They say some sort of war is coming,” said Yusuf who sells pottery at a local bazaar, a maze of meandering lanes teeming with people, horses and police officers.
“You see many more women in headscarves these days, many more men going to Friday prayers. This town used to be much more secular,” he added, as another vendor, clad in long robes, knelt down nearby to perform prayers behind a curtain.
Local governments have accused groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir of of stoking unrest and vowed to crack down on their operations.
Underlining global worries with stability in Central Asia, leaders of Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan are to meet in Tajikistan this week. Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev was due in Kyrgyzstan to attend a Moscow-backed security summit.
Europe also cannot be indifferent. Instability is of concern to potential gas trading partners there who seek to ease their dependence on Russian gas by forging closer ties with key regional producers such as Uzbekistan or Turkmeinstan.
TALIBAN OR HOMEGROWN?
Security experts say some Taliban fighters of Central Asia origin, stirred by increased fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, may be seeping back into the region seeking safe haven among its high mountain passes and remote valleys.
A string of gun battles between security forces and gangs of armed attackers, which have killed about 20 militants across the region in past months, has reinforced these worries.
“My gut feeling is that this is happening,” said Paul Quinn-Judge, head of the International Crisis Group in Central Asia. “If you look at those (attacks), it does seem to indicate that there is an activation of Jihadist guerilla movements. I would be however more inclined to connect this to the movement of the Taliban in the direction of the Tajik border.”
Diplomats said the unrest could be a distant echo of U.S. efforts to fund Mujahideen fighters and promote Islam in Central Asia during the Soviet invasion of Aghanistan in the 1980s — a policy that could now be beginning to backfire in this region.
“This is a perfect place for all sorts of (militants) to hide, rest or regroup,” said one Western diplomat in the region. “It does not matter whether it’s homegrown or if they are coming from Afghanistan. Either way it’s a very worrying trend.”
Ibragimov, who asked Reuters to use his pseudonym for fear of persecution, said Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of Liberation, employed only peaceful methods to achieve its primary goal of establishing a worldwide caliphate — a theocratic Muslim state.
Keeping his voice down, he said membership was on the rise but refused to say how many people Hizb ut-Tahrir had in Central Asia or what their short-term plan was. That, he said, was a secret.
He denied any link to the Taliban but said some people were inspired by their cause. “We respect the Taliban because they are Muslim, they are our brothers but we don’t support their methods,” he said.
KARASU
In the divided town of Karasu, guards on the Uzbek side looked visibly stirred as a Reuters crew approached the border from the Kyrgyz side. Some shook fists and their muffled shouts could be heard from across the river.
Security here has been tight since May when Uzbekistan blamed Islamist rebels for attacks in the nearby Uzbek town of Khanabad, saying the militants had come from Kyrgyzstan.
A military helicopter rumbled overhead and the main check point was closed for any cross-border trade – a security measure Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan say is necessary to fight terrorism but which has caused deep frustration among local traders.
“No one knows what will happen next. It’s people like us who are suffering,” said Ilkhom who works at a local market.
Speaking in the white-stoned interior of as-Sarakhsi mosque in Karasu, Imam Rashod Kamalov said the authorities used the Islamist threat as an excuse to crack down on political dissent.
His father, Muhammadrafik Kamalov, served as imam at the mosque in the Kyrgyz section of Karasu for 20 years before he was shot dead by security forces in a special operation in 2006.
An ethnic Uzbek, he was accused of aiding anti-government rebels — a charge his supporters deny. The authorities still view this mosque with suspicion and sometimes carry out raids.
“No one knows whom they will get next time. It just shows how paranoid, how afraid the authorities are,” said Rashod, rows of Arabic language theology books lined in shelves behind him.
Rashod said the crackdown had only radicalised the people and made them more inclined to follow groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan which is headed by Tahir Yuldashev, a rebel leader bent on toppling Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
“When my father was killed, a lot of people offered help,” he said. “If I were like Yuldashev, I could have gathered a band of my own, a terrorist group, and marched against the government.
“But I decided not to do it. My faith doesn’t allow me.” (For a FACTBOX on recent attacks, click on [nLT472379] (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Pakistan urged to step up Central Asia security ties
Pakistan urged to step up Central Asia security ties
More needed to be done to maintain stability in the region, Tajik president told president Zardari.—Photo by APP
DUSHANBE: Tajikistan’s leader urged visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday to work more closely together to prevent the rise of instability in Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region north of Afghanistan.
Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were both in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on the eve of a regional security summit also due to be attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Regional powers are concerned that intense fighting in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s attacks on Taliban strongholds may disturb a fragile peace in nearby Central Asia.
Addressing Zardari, Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon said more needed to be done to maintain stability in the region.
‘The two sides have also emphasised principal positions on fighting against terrorism and extremism,’ Rakhmon told reporters after talks with Zardari.
‘We do share similar and close positions on these issues and our countries should have taken coordinated actions aimed against this antagonistic phenomenon,’ he added, without elaborating.
Speaking alongside Rakhmon at the presidential palace in Dushanbe, Zardari avoided specifics.
‘We will stand together against the challenges of this century,’ he said. ‘… we are looking forward to strengthen our cooperation’.
Fears about stability have been reinforced in recent months as troops in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan engaged in a string of shootouts across the region with gangs identified by the authorities as rebels.
As Zardari and Rakhmon spoke, a Tajik source told Reuters state forces had shot dead a suspected rebel accused by the authorities of spearheading an armed insurgency on the country’s border with Afghanistan.
Karzai was due to meet Rakhmon later in the day. The trend in Central Asia is of particular worry to the United States which uses the region as a key transit point for supplies headed for its troops fighting in Afghanistan.—Reuters
Iraqi Forces Pounding Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK) Supporters
Islamic militancy in Bangladesh shows new signs of life
Islamic militancy in Bangladesh shows new signs of life
Despite crackdowns, terrorist groups are showing a persistence and resilience that worries authorities.
By David MonteroThey are the usual signs of a ticking militancy time bomb: wanted regional terrorists absconding in a sprawling metropolis. Dozens of hidden arms caches seized by police. Underground cells that change names, regroup, and plan attacks.
It sounds like wartorn Afghanistan or Pakistan. Possibly even Indonesia or the Philippines. But these developments are unfolding off the well-scrutinized jihadi path – in Bangladesh.
Militancy in Bangladesh is not of a scale or tone with Pakistan or Afghanistan. But it has shown a frightening persistence in recent years: in 2006, police and paramilitary forces systematically targeted and took down the top terrorist organization, Jamat’ul Mujahideen Bangladesh, or JMB. Seven of JMB’s leaders were hung in 2007. It was hoped that would end the problem, but local media reported recently that the group has merely changed its name to Islam-O-Muslim. Disturbing links to militant groups in Pakistan and India, meanwhile, continue to emerge.
Animesh Roul, executive director of the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict in New Delhi, India, fretted recently about Bangladesh’s reemerging militancy in the Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor:
“After a relatively long period of calm, Islamist militancy in Bangladesh is showing new signs of life, even in the face of continuous crackdowns on terrorist infrastructure and activity by counterterrorism forces in the country….
One estimate suggested there were about 12,000 cadres actively operating in the country, mostly madrassa (Islamic seminary) teachers, students and clerics of mosques…. In April of this year, Bangladesh intelligence agencies declared that the Islamist terrorist groups are reorganizing with the aim of making a deadly comeback.
Bangladesh’s teeming cities and rugged countryside have proven an unlikely safe haven for some of the jihadi world’s most hardened operatives. Recently, Bangladeshi police in Dhaka arrested an Afghan war veteran with ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistani terrorist organization held responsible for the Mumbai attacks last November, as The Daily Star, an English-language newspaper in Bangladesh, reports:
Indian national Mufti Obaidullah, who is one of the most wanted by the Indian law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has been placed on a seven-day remand for interrogation….
“He was arrested from the capital, and was taking preparations for a jihad by organising Bangladeshi mujahids with directives from Ameer Reza, a leader of Kashmir based Laskar-e-Taiyeba, who is an Indian national now staying in Pakistan,” the [Dhaka Metropolitan Police] commissioner said.
What is alarming is not just that Mr. Obaidullah was caught in Bangladesh – but whom he was talking to before his arrest, according to The Times of India:
Mufti Obaidullah, a terrorist posing as a teacher since 1995, sent SMS messages … to his Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) boss and spoke to him daily using six different cellphones, Bangladesh authorities say.
He knew “quite well”, the chief of the Indian branch of the LeT, Ameer Reza, chief of Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF).
The Christian Science Monitor reported in June that Bangladesh was becoming a hideout for South Asia’s terrorists: Bangladeshi police in June uncovered a plot that used Bangladesh to funnel thousands of weapons to an Indian separatist group. The police also arrested an operative working for notorious South Asian terrorist Daud Ibrahim, who is alleged to have ties to Al Qaeeda. The operative disclosed that 150 of Mr. Ibrahim’s operatives are stationed in Bangladesh.
Israel Slams UNIFIL Commander for Meeting with Hizbullah
Israel Slams Graziano for Meeting with Hizbullah which Reportedly is Avoiding all-out War
Graziano on Monday stressed the importance of maintaining a “good relationship” with south Lebanon residents. His remarks came in a statement issued by UNIFIL following a meeting at the municipality of Tibnin that was also attended by representatives of the Lebanese army as well as MPs Ali Bazzi and Hassan Fadlallah.
The meeting came two weeks after an alleged Hizbullah ammunition cache exploded in Khirbet Selm.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli defense officials as saying that Graziano scheduled to complete his term as UNIFIL commander by the end of the year and was hoping to secure a top post in the United Nations.
To do this, the officials told the Israeli daily that Graziano was hoping to keep a lid on the tense situation in Lebanon at least until the end of his term.
“UNIFIL should focus on cracking down on Hizbullah instead of meeting with representatives of the terrorist organization,” an Israeli defense official said, noting that the Jewish state was working to “sharpen” UNIFIL’s mandate to allow the force to sweep villages without coordinating with the Lebanese army beforehand.
The Jerusalem Post also said Israeli army officials believe that Hizbullah is not interested in a new war with Israel, but is still doing its utmost to launch an attack against a Jewish or Israeli site abroad to avenge the 2008 assassination of Hizbullah military chief Imad Mughniyeh.
“Hizbullah wants to strike us, but is concerned what our response will be if a synagogue or an embassy is attacked somewhere overseas,” a defense official told the newspaper. “It is concerned that such an attack would lead to an all-out war, which is something it will want to avoid.”
Qandhar: Terror central exporting murder to Pakistan, Iran & China
Qandhar: Terror central exporting murder to Pakistan, Iran & China
Posted on July 29, 2009 by Moin Ansari
Qandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of 250,000. It used to be on of the most important trading cities in the landlocked country. It did have an international airport and has road connections to all major cities in Afghanista–Kabul, Herat. It can also be connected to the Pakistani city of Quetta and has links to the Central Asian republics. At the time of its glory Qandahar and hills yielded the best grapes in the world. It still exports opium.
It seems like eons agon, but in the sixties Qandahar in the middle of nowhere was a cool place to visit – hashish, hookas, hippies and hash pipes. We traveled from Europe to Pakistan in the late sixties by car. On the war we met thousands of European hippies headed out to the Eastern frontiers. The Europeans came for the fun, frolic and, for the simple bazaars of Qandhar, where they could buy what no European supermarket could offer them. They came for the exotic mosques (like the Mosque of the sacred Cloak) in the city which included ancient relics–containing the cloak worn by the Prophet Mohammed.
That was several decades ago. Today Qandhar is known as terror central in the world.
Qandhar was founded by Alexander the Great two thousand five hundred years ago. The word Qandhar (or the Americanized Kandhar) is a corruption of Alexander or Sikandar, as he is known in these part.
Qandahar has been fought over by the Persians, the Turks, and the Mongols. The British occupied the city breifly in 1839 (to lose it in 1842). It again occupied it it 187, but lost it again in 1881.
The Cold war was fought right here in Qandhar. All through the 80s, which the West enjoyed peace and prosperity, Pakistan and Afghanistan were in the middle of the Cold War’s fiercest hot battles. Eventually when the Rohrabakcker sponsopred, and CIA trained Taliban prevailed in 1994, they were welcomed enthusiastically in the city of grapes and hashish.
Qandhar was the first city to be attacked by the Americans in 2nd Afghan war. Today the city is on the Bharati trail of terror that extends from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and then rears its ugly head in Pakistani Baluchistan, Iranian Sistan-Balauchistan. RAW assists Junduallah from this terror base, and supports the TTP terrorists from this city.
RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] is settling scores with the ISI in Afghanistan and perhaps Baluchistan. Aqil Shah: Foreign Policy Magazine. March 2009
There is a terror network in Afghanistan. Many analysts have provided robust proof of the Bharati involvement in Afghanistan. Penury stricken Delhi didn’t spend about a Billion Dollars in Afghanistan so that the investment would eliminate the slums of Mumbai or feed the Dalits. India spent the money in Afghanistan so that it could build a base of operations against Pakistan. One of the prime directives of the RAW was to destabilize Pakistan. Asif Haroon Raja sheds light on the developments in Afghanistan and RAWs machinations in Kabul. It is run by Delhi. Officially there are only 4 Consulates and 13 “Information Centers“. But each fake “Consulate” has “Consular offices“, and each “Information center” has “Sub-sections” and “Desks”. In addition the Indian companies that are working in Afghanistan allow the Indian RAW agencies open access to the facilities and the offices. Anatomy of Indian Intelligence Services and Alliances.
We have substantiated our views via several independent sources.
I think it would be a mistake to completely disregard Pakistan’s regional perceptions due to doubts about Indian competence in executing covert operations. That misses the point entirely. And I think it is unfair to dismiss the notion that Pakistan’s apprehensions about Afghanistan stem in part from its security competition with India. Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan. Kabul has encouraged India to engage in provocative activities such as using the Border Roads Organization to build sensitive parts of the Ring Road and use the Indo-Tibetan police force for security. It is also building schools on a sensitive part of the border in Kunar–across from Bajaur. Kabul’s motivations for encouraging these activities are as obvious as India’s interest in engaging in them. Christine Fair: Foreign Policy Magazine. March 2009
The “Consulates” train agents, and then send them across the border to sabotage and create general mayhem among the population. The purpose of these operations is the same as it always has been. RAW used similar facilities to bomb Pakistani cities in the 80s. It is now using the same bases for similar bloody acts of sabotage. RAW activities in varous countries in South Asia. Nepal view: RAW’s Machination In South Asia.
History is on the side of the skeptics in Afghanistan, where from Alexander the Great to the Soviets, all foreign invaders have eventually been repelledBy Richard Halloran Tuesday, Oct 14, 2008, Page 9
Some try to proclaim the the Afghan resistance is a monolith movement called “Taliban”. It is actually 38 separate movements led by a large spectrum of anti-occupation forces which also include some remnant of the old Taliban. It is ironic that the taliban created by the USA, recognized by the Saudis, the UAE and the Pakistanis were initially created by the CIA (see Congressman Rohrabakers statements on this site).
Indian Consulates in Afghansitan training terrorists and sending them to Pakistan to blow up pipelines in BaluchistanIndian diplomats and RAW officials with the help of Northern Alliance have significant ingress in the Afghan ministry of tribal affairs. They are exploiting the ministry to conduct covert activities against Islamabad and creating rifts between the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Indian agents are instrumental in arranging meetings of tribal elders and Afghans with dual nationalities with Indian consulate officials in Jalalabad and assisting them in recruiting agents from Pakistan’s tribal areas for activities prejudicial to Pakistan’s interests. India’s new colony by Furzana Shaheen
Nepal view: RAW’s Machination In South Asia. Here is Hamid Mir’s current column in The News shedding light on the role of Qandhar in the terror activities in Pakistan.
I remember that many Indian journalists were shocked after reading the joint statement. They started asking me that why Balochistan is mentioned in the statement? In fact many of them were not aware like many common Indians that what is going on in Balochistan. Within a few hours I started receiving calls from many Indian TV channels that what evidence was shown by Pakistan to Manmohan Singh about the alleged Indian involvement in Balochistan? In fact the Pakistani prime minister did mention Balochistan to Manmohan Singh but he never handed over any dossier to his Indian counterpart.
The situation in Balochistan came under detailed discussion during the first meeting of the foreign secretaries in the evening of July 14 in Sharm el-Sheikh which took place two days before the meeting of Manmohan and Yousaf Raza Gilani. Pakistani foreign secretary Salman Bashir told Shiv Shankar Menon that India must delink the talks from terrorism otherwise Pakistan will be forced to produce at least “three Indian Ajmal Kasab’s” in front of international media who were directly or indirectly part of the terrorist activities in Balochistan and Pakistan will easily establish that Indian consulate in Afghan city of Kandhar is actually a control room of all the terrorist activities organised by the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army.
Salman Bashir told Indian foreign secretary that both Pakistan and India cannot afford a blame game right now. If Pakistan will come out with evidence that Indians are responsible for attacking Chinese engineers in the Gwadar port city it may damage Indian credibility on one side but it will also spread more anti-India feelings in Pakistan and extremist forces will be the ultimate beneficiaries.
Pakistan is […]e against the Indian involvement in Balochistan insurgency in a very careful, well-calculated and “limited manner.” Recently a prominent US magazine Foreign Affairs (March 2009) published the report of a roundtable discussion on the causes of instability in Pakistan. Christine Fair of RAND Corporation clearly said in that discussion that “having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Balochistan.”
Central Asia tajikistan Pakistan with RAW trail of terrorThis allegation came from a very credible American scholar who recently visited Indian consulate in Zahedan. Now where is Zahedan? It is the capital of Iranian province Sistan-o-Balochistan bordering Pakistan. More than two million Balochis live in the Iranian side of Balochistan. Iran is building a big port of Chabahar in the same area with the active help of India. Top Iranian leaders have alleged many times that American CIA is supporting Iranian Balochis to destabilise the Islamic Republic. Famous American journalist Seymour Hersh admitted in July 2008 that Bush administration gave million of dollars to a separatist Iranian group “Jandallah” which is responsible for violence in Iranian part of Baluchistan. Balochistan and India, Wednesday, July 29, 2009, Hamid Mir
Senior US diplomat William Burns gave Indian officials a terse and cryptic directive on Thursday. ”Shut down Indian Consulates in Afghanistan, reduce presence in Kabul and stop sending mercenaries across the Durand Line.” This message was supplemented with a letter from President Barack Obama to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The message in the letter was the same. India has few options now. It can accept the US diktat or it can defy it. If Delhi defies American warnings and polite talk, then NATO and ISAF will stop providing the necessary security to the nest of spies and saboteurs known as “Consulates”. Rupee News broke the news about the letter from Presidetn Barack Obama before Indian agencies began reporting the frank and blunt message.
A US diplomat has handed India a letter from US President Barack Obama about US-Indian ties that also touched on efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan, US officials said Wednesday. Envoy Richard Holbrooke, briefing reporters on his own visit to Pakistan and Gulf Arab states last week, said US diplomat William Burns delivered the letter after arriving in Delhi overnight Tuesday but declined to divulge its contents. “This administration believes that what happens in Afghanistan and Pakistan is of vital interest to our national security, and … that India is a country that we must keep in closest consultation with,” Holbrooke said. Holbrooke added that Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, is carrying a private presidential letter “that I would have carried if I had the time to go to Delhi on this trip but I couldn’t do it.” Obama letter handed to India amid consultations on Pak. The Nation
Shutting down the Consulates is not enough. The Bharati base in Tajikistan also has to be shut down.
Tajikistan map Indian base-Indian Consulates-dens of InequityWashington has publicly and privately asked Delhi to improve relations with Islamabad so that the Pakistani armed forces can concentrate on the Western borders. At this critical juncture when a US surge is going to place additional pressure on Durand Line, the Obama Administration wants Delhi to help ease the tensions and reduce the level of rhetoric. In a highly unusual step the American Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan has handed over a letter from President Obama to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It has already been established that the meeting was about Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is widely understood in diplomatic circles that the US wants India to back off on its so called demands. The blunt message came after the U S Treasury secretary visited China and came back with Beijing’s displeasure at the continued Indian support for the TTP in Swat.
United News of India quoted unnamed sources as saying that the US had asked India to ‘close or prune down’ its consulate in Jalalabad in Afghanistan following allegations by Pakistan that it was ‘creating trouble’ in the border areas of NWFP and Balochistan.
UNI said Pakistan had alleged that the Indian consulates in Jalalabad and Kandahar were ‘fomenting trouble’ in NWFP and Balochistan bordering Afghanistan by providing financial and material support to fugitives in the two border provinces. The sources said besides asking India to resume talks with Pakistan, the US was also trying to convey to Indian authorities its views on closing or pruning the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad.... Dawn
Delhi has to tone down its rhetoric on terror. Islamabad and the world knows who is behind the TTP in Swat. If Delhi wants peace with Pakistan, it has to pull back in Afghanistan and Swat. It has to make major territorial concessions in Kashmir and the border areas. Once the border disputes have been resolved, the sky is the limit in cooperation with Pakistan. Sir Creek and Siachin have to solved and resolved quickly. Once Kashmir is resolved in accordance with the UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people, the Pakistan government will find to problem in helping Bharat gain trans-national travel through Pakistan. However this has to be on a mutual basis which would allow Pakistani truck to reach Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Bharat must live up to the letter and the spirit of the Indus Water treaty and begin treating Pakistanis are friends rather than enemies.
NEW DELHI: Senior US diplomat William Burns gave Indian officials a wish-list on Thursday that aims to revive India-Pakistan peace talks, assures New Delhi of its vital role in Washington’s strategy in the region, and retrieves the hope for Kashmiri people to shape their own destiny.
Local reports quoted unnamed sources as saying that the visiting US Under-Secretary of State also asked his interlocutors to trim India’s consulate in Jalalabad, which Pakistan sees as a distraction in the military campaign against Muslim extremists on the Afghan border. Dawn
There are many types of peace. It is obvious that India has neither the capacity nor the wherewithal to impose peace of the sort that exists between the Native Americans and the US government. India is not Israel and Pakistan is not the Gaza strip. If Israel with all its might could not force an unequal peace on unequal partners (Syria, Palestinians and Lebanon) it is also very obvious that Delhi cannot impose peace on Pakistan the same way. Bharat could not break up Lanka and make it Kowtow to Bharat. It cannot force Pakistan. It has to woo Pakistanis if she wants peace on her Western borders.
There is much in common between India and Pakistan, but there is much that separates the countries. Mere cultural affinity and anathema to religion cannot wish the differences away. Bharat must recognize that Pakistanis do not see Delhi as the perfect model to emulate on anything. Therefore Delhi must stop wishing for a Pakistan in its own image. There are many routes to success, and Pakistanis admire the Chinese a lot more than they admire Indians.
Here We Go Again, Heads Up, Lebanon!
U.N. Warns Against Deteriorating Security Situation in South
The warning was made by Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, during a Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
Taranco urged both the Israeli and Lebanese sides to “end” their violations of Security Council Resolution 1701 which halted a 34-day war between the Jewish state and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006.
In Lebanon, he said, investigations into violations of Resolution 1701 in south Lebanon were ongoing, while Israeli air violations took place almost daily.
Taranco said that in meetings with Lebanese and Israeli officials and political leaders in the past week, Michael Williams, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, had stressed the gravity of violations of Resolution 1701.
“To defuse the situation, the Special Coordinator had also visited Israel, where he had raised the question about the newly erected watchtower in Kfarshouba and requested its removal,” Taranco added.
Gabriela Shalev of Israel read an excerpt from a letter appearing in al-Mustaqbal on 16 July on the explosion of the arms depot in Khirbet Selm. Written by residents of the town, the letter addressed President Michel Suleiman and the leaders of Hizbullah. A line from the letter stated: “If you, as you claim, tie your activity with the religion and with Allah, then you must empty the residential areas of weaponry and ammunition, and of all else that threatens our lives.”
She said the explosion had demonstrated that Hizbullah, together with its two sponsors, who were members of the United Nations, continued to operate south of the Litani River in overt violation of Resolution 1701.
“It had demonstrated the volatile reality on the ground and that there were challenges to the implementation of resolution 1701, including an un-enforced arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border and the presence of Hizbullah on the ground,” Shalev said.
She said Hizbullah threatened Israel, Lebanon and the wider region, while continuing to build its military infrastructure north and south of the Litani River.
“Hizbullah’s repeated breaches of the Council’s demands indicated the danger posed by Iran,” she believed. “From southern Lebanon to Gaza, the arming, training and financing of terrorists bore the same certificate of origin: Tehran. Moreover, Iran continued to pursue the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, which was a clear threat to peace and security.
“Israel called on the Council to act urgently and effectively to end the Iranian nuclear threat and stem Iran’s terrorist interference. The Council must consider more effective ways to impose its arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border, strengthen UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces and establish clear benchmarks to disarm and dismantle Hizbullah,” Shalev added.
U.N. Warns Against Deteriorating Security Situation in South
The United Nations has warned against the deteriorating security situation in south Lebanon in view of the Kfarshouba and Khirbet Selm incidents which “represent a threat to stability in the region.”
The warning was made by Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, during a Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
The United Nations has warned against the deteriorating security situation in south Lebanon in view of the Kfarshouba and Khirbet Selm incidents which “represent a threat to stability in the region.” The warning was made by Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, during a Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
Taranco urged both the Israeli and Lebanese sides to “end” their violations of Security Council Resolution 1701 which halted a 34-day war between the Jewish state and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006.
In Lebanon, he said, investigations into violations of Resolution 1701 in south Lebanon were ongoing, while Israeli air violations took place almost daily.
Taranco said that in meetings with Lebanese and Israeli officials and political leaders in the past week, Michael Williams, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, had stressed the gravity of violations of Resolution 1701.
“To defuse the situation, the Special Coordinator had also visited Israel, where he had raised the question about the newly erected watchtower in Kfarshouba and requested its removal,” Taranco added.
Gabriela Shalev of Israel read an excerpt from a letter appearing in al-Mustaqbal on 16 July on the explosion of the arms depot in Khirbet Selm. Written by residents of the town, the letter addressed President Michel Suleiman and the leaders of Hizbullah. A line from the letter stated: “If you, as you claim, tie your activity with the religion and with Allah, then you must empty the residential areas of weaponry and ammunition, and of all else that threatens our lives.”
She said the explosion had demonstrated that Hizbullah, together with its two sponsors, who were members of the United Nations, continued to operate south of the Litani River in overt violation of Resolution 1701.
“It had demonstrated the volatile reality on the ground and that there were challenges to the implementation of resolution 1701, including an un-enforced arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border and the presence of Hizbullah on the ground,” Shalev said.
She said Hizbullah threatened Israel, Lebanon and the wider region, while continuing to build its military infrastructure north and south of the Litani River.
“Hizbullah’s repeated breaches of the Council’s demands indicated the danger posed by Iran,” she believed. “From southern Lebanon to Gaza, the arming, training and financing of terrorists bore the same certificate of origin: Tehran. Moreover, Iran continued to pursue the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, which was a clear threat to peace and security. “Israel called on the Council to act urgently and effectively to end the Iranian nuclear threat and stem Iran’s terrorist interference. The Council must consider more effective ways to impose its arms embargo along the Lebanon-Syria border, strengthen UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces and establish clear benchmarks to disarm and dismantle Hizbullah,” Shalev added.
Joint-exercise of Iran and Russia in Caspian
Joint-exercise of Iran and Russia
Iranian state television announced a joint-exercise in the Caspian Sea on 28-29 July.
Russia and Iran will hold a joint-military exercise in the Caspian Sea, around Enzeli Harbor of Iran, on 28-29 July, according to the Iranian state television. 30 vessels and 2 helicopters are reported to join the exercise.
The exercise “Regional Collaboration for a Secure and Clean Caspian” aims at improving security and maritime in the Caspian Sea.
Iranian TV says the exercise will be carried out in accordance with international agreements which stipulate prevention of sea pollution.
Our Beautiful, Mystical Existence
As Above, So Below
Iraqis Clean-out US Terror Surrogates’ Camp
Iraqi Forces Attack MEK Camp North of Baghdad
Jason Ditz
Iraqi forces launched an attack on Camp Ashraf, belonging to the Iranian militant group the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) sparking clashes with the exiles in the camp. The Iraqi government denied that the troops used any violence during the raid, and Defense Ministry official Maj. Gen. Mohammad al-Askari said that since the incident occurred on sovereign Iraqi territory, nothing they did could constitute “storming of the area.”
Yet videos released by the camp’s inhabitants told a different story, showing the forces beating people with batons. The MEK says that 300 people were wounded and at least four killed in the clashes. They claim US forces witnessed the entire event but did not intervene.
Officially recognized as a Foreign Terror Organization by the US State Department, the militant Socialist faction launched a string of terrorist attacks against US interests in the 1970s, later fighting against the post-revolution Iranian government. The group fled to Iraq in the 1980’s, and remained a close ally of Saddam Hussein’s until the 2003 US invasion.
After the invasion, the group quickly surrendered to the US, and were declared “protected persons” under the Geneva Convention. Since then the group has been funneling documents accusing Iran of working on a nuclear weapon to the US, and has been publicly endorsed by top US officials. Despite having managed to get off the list of terrorist organizations in Britain and the EU however, the group remains so labeled in the US.
Camp Ashraf, the group’s base of operations, was transferred to Iraqi government control on January 1, after getting assurances from the Iraqi government that the group would be treated “humanely.” With the group still working hard to undermine the Iranian government so closely aligned with the Maliki Administration, however, it was likely only a matter of time before Iraq decided to act unilaterally.
Baitullah Mehsud Is An ISI Puppet
‘Pakistan in covert talks with Baitullah’
LAHORE: The military has delayed a full-scale ground operation in South Waziristan Agency against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud as the two sides have covertly reached an understanding, the Telegraph claimed on Tuesday. A report in the UK daily said details are still not known, but the military had deliberately delayed launching the attacks against Baitullah after “having corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan”. Around six brigades of troops have blocked the four main arteries into Baitullah’s territory, which thousands have fled for fear of missile strikes by US drones. Citing a senior official, the paper reported that authorities want Baitullah to announce that he would not attack the government in the future. The official said it would not be a “total surrender”, but a guarantee on Baitullah’s part that he would not indulge in anti-state activities in the future. The effort was underway because the military is engaged on several fronts and does not want a full-blown operation in Waziristan. The claims have not been verified independently, the Telegraph reported, but said the delay was sure to anger the United States. The military has denied such reports and said it wanted to surround the Taliban and then use air power and artillery to “soften them up”. The army has struck several peace deals with Baitullah in the past, but all have collapsed.
‘Pakistan in covert talks with Baitullah’
LAHORE: The military has delayed a full-scale ground operation in South Waziristan Agency against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud as the two sides have covertly reached an understanding, the Telegraph claimed on Tuesday. A report in the UK daily said details are still not known, but the military had deliberately delayed launching the attacks against Baitullah after “having corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan”. Around six brigades of troops have blocked the four main arteries into Baitullah’s territory, which thousands have fled for fear of missile strikes by US drones. Citing a senior official, the paper reported that authorities want Baitullah to announce that he would not attack the government in the future. The official said it would not be a “total surrender”, but a guarantee on Baitullah’s part that he would not indulge in anti-state activities in the future. The effort was underway because the military is engaged on several fronts and does not want a full-blown operation in Waziristan. The claims have not been verified independently, the Telegraph reported, but said the delay was sure to anger the United States. The military has denied such reports and said it wanted to surround the Taliban and then use air power and artillery to “soften them up”. The army has struck several peace deals with Baitullah in the past, but all have collapsed.
On the Right of Resistance
On the Right of Resistance
Ramzi Kysia
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27 Luglio 2009
We live in an era defined by its brutality. Our challenge is whether to accept this – or to take the risks necessary to transform our world commons in beloved community. (read here) |
N.J. Congressman Calls for Next Church Committee Investigation of CIA Criminal Activities
[Maybe it’s time to start writing our congressmen again?]
Holt Calls for Next Church Committee on CIA
Congressman Calls for Broad Inquiry Into Intelligence Agency
By Spencer Ackerman 7/27/09 6:00 AM
Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) (rushholt.com)After years of examining CIA operations of dubious legality, an important member of the House intelligence committee is exploring an option that many in the intelligence community view with apprehension: a comprehensive investigation of all intelligence-community operations over years and perhaps even decades. The model is the famous Church and Pike committees of the 1970s, which exposed widespread CIA lawlessness; created the modern legal and congressional oversight structures for intelligence; and cleaved the history of the CIA into before- and after- periods.
Illustration by: Matt MahurinRep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), a progressive who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chairs a special oversight panel that helps write the intelligence budget, has been increasingly comfortable talking about a new “Church committee.” He floated the idea in an interview with TWI on July 14, again to the Newark Star-Ledger the next day, and even attempted to discuss the Church committee’s precedents for congressional oversight with Lou Dobbs on CNN on July 20.
“I’d like to see something on the scope of the Church committee,” Holt told TWI in a Friday phone interview. The congressman said that it had been a “few decades” since Congress took a comprehensive inquiry into the intelligence community’s impact on “the relationship between the individual and her or his government, as well as the role that the U.S. plays in other countries around the world, outside of declared military activities.”
Holt said he did not have a concrete proposal prepared for the creation of such an investigation, and was at the stage of seeing what colleagues and members of the intelligence community made of such a move. “There’s agreement with the idea,” he said. “An awful lot of people have not really thought about how many unanswered questions there are or unresolved issues there are out there about how we do intelligence in the United States.”
He declined to name any members of congress with whom he has discussed such an investigation, but said they were members of the House intelligence committee and the oversight panel he chairs. “Are we close to commissioning a study in the way I’m conceiving it? No, not yet,” he said. A House Republican aide, who requested anonymity, was unaware of Holt’s early feelers, raising questions about whether Holt’s envisioned inquiry would have Republican support. And a spokesman for Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), the House intelligence committee chairman, did not return a request for comment.
Many in the intelligence world and on the right view the committee investigations led by Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Rep. Otis Pike (D-N.Y.) as representing an apex of progressive congressional attempts to geld the intelligence community. Empaneled in response to a New York Times article by Seymour Hersh in 1974 reporting widespread surveillance of U.S. citizens, the investigations unearthed other abuses, such as repeated CIA assassination attempts on foreign heads of state. It resulted in the passage of laws like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to prevent warrantless domestic surveillance and the creation of standing committees in Congress to oversee intelligence activities. Some conservatives view the investigations as an example of congressional overreach. “I think they undermined our capabilities in some respects,” former Vice President Dick Cheney told his biographer, Stephen F. Hayes.
Holt said that he is “not talking about upsetting the applecart, I’m talking about analyzing the full applecart” of intelligence activities. He rejects the idea that such a comprehensive investigation necessarily entails eroding U.S. intelligence capabilities. “Is giving your kid a test in school an inhibition on his free learning?” Hold said. “Sure, there are some people who are happy to let intelligence agencies go about their business unexamined. But I think most people when they think about it will say that you will get better intelligence if the intelligence agencies don’t operate in an unexamined fashion.”
But over the past several years, the intelligence committees and official commissions have peered into intelligence matters repeatedly. In 2002 and 2003, an unprecedented joint House-Senate intelligence committee investigation looked into intelligence work on al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks, work that the 9/11 Commission took as a point of departure. A panel created by the Bush administration examined intelligence work on weapons of mass destruction. The Senate intelligence committee, from 2004 to 2007, undertook a multi-tiered look at intelligence failures preceding the invasion of Iraq. At the moment, the Senate intelligence committee is conducting a study into the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after 9/11, and the House intelligence committee on which Holt serves is examining recent revelations of a shuttered CIA program believed to be tied to strengthening assassinations capabilities.
Holt said that such inquiries still left a host of unexamined activities. “There’s a lot to look at, [and] not just who told what to whom, or the treatment of detainees or [renditions], or interrogation, or domestic surveillance or national security letters or on and on and on,” he said. “Church looked at everything since the OSS,” referring to the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II-era predecessor of the CIA. “The recommendations of the Church committee, in large part, have been eroded, ignored or violated since then. The world situation has evolved, and the technologies, methodology and organizations of the intelligence community have evolved, [and] also the look back then, in a sense, has been forgotten by some.”
Representatives from the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not return messages seeking comment.
Steven Aftergood, an intelligence policy analyst with the Federation of American Scientists, said that in some respects it was surprising that no one had proposed a Church committee-like investigation. “It’s the shoe that has not dropped yet,” Aftergood said. “The Church committee was established following a series of revelations of disturbing intelligence community activities. To a remarkable extent the series of events precipitating the Church committee has been replicated in recent months and years. The famous December 1974 Seymour Hersh front-page story in The New York Times talking about domestic surveillance [presaged] the December 2005 [James Risen and Eric Lichtblau] story in The New York Times about domestic surveillance.”
Aftergood said that a new Church committee was “overdue,” and disputed the characterization of the 1970s congressional investigations as weakening U.S. intelligence. “While to some people in the intelligence business the name of Frank Church is a dirty word, it’s also true that the structures that emerged from the Church committee benefited intelligence by introducing stability and predictability into intelligence policy,” Aftergood said. “The idea that this was a disaster or an assault on intelligence is shortsighted to the point of misunderstanding. The Church committee yielded the framework that the U.S. intelligence community needed to grow and to regain at least in some measure the confidence of the public and the rest of the government.”
Along those lines, Holt said that he’s heard representatives of the intelligence community say, in “breathtaking honesty and self-awareness,” that a thorough investigation might enable them to better do their jobs. “In a representative democracy, there is a very important role for the legislative branch to help the CIA and the intelligence community determine and understand their proper role and give them the tools and the latitude to carry out” lawful intelligence activities.
Flare-Up In Turkmen-Azerbaijani Dispute Latest Nabucco Challenge
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Flare-Up In Turkmen-Azerbaijani Dispute Latest Nabucco Challenge
Journal of Turkish Weekly (JTW)
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The unexpected and sudden renewal of the Turkmen-Azerbaijani dispute over three hydrocarbon fields in the middle of the Caspian Sea is the latest setback to the European Union’s Nabucco gas-pipeline project.
An argument over ownership of the Caspian fields had soured Turkmen-Azerbaijani relations for more than a decade. But over the last two years, representatives of the two countries — prodded by EU and U.S. officials — had been meeting regularly, reviving hopes that Nabucco could be realized. Those hopes took a hit on July 24 when Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov cited a report from Deputy Foreign Minister Toyly Komekov during a cabinet meeting. Berdymukhammedov said the report showed that the impasse over the demarcation of the Caspian seabed between the two countries has remained unresolved “due to Azerbaijan’s specific position. The main reason behind this situation is that there are mineral deposits located exactly in the disputed areas of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan claims ownership of these deposits, including the deposit known as Promezhutochnoyee during the Soviet era and which we now call our Serdar deposit.”Berdymukhammedov went on to mention the Omar and Osman fields, which he said Azerbaijan is already exploring but which, he claimed, “belong to us.” The Turkmen president expressed regret that 16 bilateral meetings had not resolved the issue and then instructed Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov to take the issue to “the International Court of Arbitration.” More Gas Needed That could present a major obstacle to the European Union’s Nabucco plans. The proposed 3,300-kilometer pipeline starts at Georgia’s western border and then heads toward Europe via Turkey. Nabucco wants to include Central Asian gas in the pipeline, particularly gas from Turkmenistan, which has one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas. For some 15 years now the plan was to construct a “trans-Caspian” pipeline along the Caspian seabed from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, where it would be join a pipeline leading to Georgia’s western border. But the dispute between Ashgabat and Baku over ownership of the three Caspian fields made construction of this pipeline impossible. The recent warming of ties between the two countries, including a visit by Berdymukhammedov to Baku last year, raised hopes the pipeline could finally be built. On state television on July 25, Deputy Foreign Minister Xalaf Xalafov indicated Azerbaijan was prepared to have a court decide on the ownership issue. “We believe that we are ready to defend Azerbaijan’s position and rights on all levels,” Xalafov said. Ilham Shaban, an Azerbaijan-based energy expert and the editor of the “Turan Energy” daily newsletter, tells RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service that after years of this dispute, a court ruling may be the most “civilized” means of ending the stalemate. “And to take this matter before a court is a natural step and we also hope the court will render a fair verdict,” Shaban says. Shaban adds that a resolution of the ownership question could then pave the way for dramatic improvement in Turkmen-Azerbaijani ties, which in turn opens up the way for projects like Nabucco. Nabucco foresees that the lion’s share of the proposed 31 billion cubic meters of gas for the pipeline would come from Turkmenistan. “I feel that this court will render a decision that will bring our countries even closer together if Ashgabat and Baku will observe and accept the decision of the International Arbitration Court,” he says. Shaban concedes that if the two countries do not show flexibility and maintain the rigid posturing that has marred bilateral ties for so long, the court case could drag on for years and endanger the construction of the trans-Caspian pipeline and also Nabucco. Guvanch Geraev and Marat Rakhimov of RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service contributed to this report By Bruce Pannier |
Tuesday, 28 July 2009 |
Russia Anti-Corruption Activist Violenty Attacked
Russia Anti-Corruption Activist Violenty Attacked
Albert Pchelintsev, 38, is the head of group which which investigates corruption by officials working in the local government of Khimki.
A man attacks an opposition demonstrator during a protest against the current government`s leadership and policies in central Moscow January 31, 2009.
A Russian anti-corruption activist was attacked by a group of men who shot him in the mouth with a stun gun at the weekend, an opposition coalition said on Monday.Albert Pchelintsev, 38, is the head of “Against Corruption, Lies and Dishonour”, a group which which investigates corruption by officials working in the local government of Khimki, a town just outside Moscow’s city limits.
The Other Russia, a coalition of opposition groups run by Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, said on its website http://www.kasparov.ru that Pchelintsev was in hospital in a “moderately serious” condition.
A band of up to five men attacked Pchelintsev as he was leaving a train and shouted: “You won’t be able to speak out now for a long time,” an environmental organisation for the Moscow region reported on its site http://www.ecmo.ru, citing witnesses.
The assailants were still at large, it added.
Saturday’s attack comes less than two weeks after Chechen human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was killed, triggering worldwide outrage, and several days after the body of activist Andrei Kulagin was found in a sand pit in north-west Russia.
The Other Russia’s website said Pchelintsev had been receiving threats “for some time” since he openly spoke out against Khimki Mayor Vladimir Strelchenko, and added that rights activists in the region regularly suffer attacks.
Last November Mikhail Beketov, the editor of an investigative newspaper in Khimki, was savagely beaten, resulting in the amputation of his leg and fingers.
Reporting the incident, Russian popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets printed a photograph of Pchelintsev sitting beside a picture of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev, cultivating an image as a liberal, has pledged to increase openness in society and reduce graft and lawlessness, though critics say there have been very few substantial changes so far.
US Is Voice of Reason In Pakistan? (DISINFORMATION)
Reports claim that the delay in launching a military offensive in South Waziristan would annoy Pakistan’s US allies. But Holbrooke’s statement that US is not pushing Islamabad to launch another offensive contradicts this claim. – File photo
WASHINGTON: Pakistan should first create a secure environment for the refugees to return home before launching an operation against Baitullah Mehsud and his militants, says US special envoy Richard Holbrooke.
The US envoy made this statement in an interview to The Washington Post, published on Monday when other media outlets claimed that Pakistan was engaged in secret talks with the reclusive Taliban leader.
The report claimed that Pakistan had planned a major military offensive against Mehsud but delayed it because of these secret talks.
Mr Holbrooke, however, indicated no such links. Instead, he made it clear that the United States did not expect Pakistan to launch another major military offensive while it was still struggling with the refugee problem.
‘Baitullah Mehsud is a dreadful man, and his elimination is an imperative. However, the first imperative is to secure the areas the refugees are going back into,’ said Mr Holbrooke.
Although Mr Holbrooke said it could be beneficial to have simultaneous offensives — the US Marines on the Afghan side and the Pakistani army in Fata — the greater concern is unfinished business elsewhere. ‘Why would I push them to start an offensive when they have two million people they have to protect first?’ the US envoy said.
The Pakistan army also denied any negotiations with Mehsud, saying that it wanted to surround the militants and use air power and artillery to ‘soften them up’.
The operation is a ‘punitive measure’, said Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, head of the army’s public relations wing.
At least six brigades of Pakistani troops have blocked the four main arteries into Mehsud’s fiefdom in South Waziristan, media reports said.
Pakistani aircraft, along with unmanned American planes, have attacked Mehsud’s territory in recent weeks. Soldiers have deployed into neighbouring North Waziristan and have imposed an economic blockade, trying to withhold food and supplies from the Taliban, a US defence official in Washington told the Post.
The blockade and US strikes have forced thousands of Mehsud’s men to flee the area.
Meanwhile, media outlets claiming secret talks between Islamabad and Mehsud said they still had no details. They supported their claim by arguing that Pakistan had delayed a planned operation against Mehsud after having corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan.
The Pakistani government, the reports said, had a one-point agenda: stop attacking government targets. This would not be a total surrender, but a guarantee that Baitullah Mehsud would not indulge in any anti-state activity in future, the media quoted unidentified Pakistani officials as saying.
The delay in launching a military offensive in South Waziristan would annoy Pakistan’s US allies, the reports claimed.
Ambassador Holbrooke’s statement that Washington understood Islamabad’s position and was not pushing Pakistan to launch yet another offensive, however, contradicted this claim.
The Post also quoted Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit as saying that while they were focussed on the refugees, they did not want to rush into opening new fronts against the Taliban.
‘We would not like to do anything haphazardly. If you open so many fronts at the same time, then the danger is you will not achieve success on any front. So we would like to move with utmost circumspection,’ said Mr Basit. The tribal areas are ‘a different ballgame and we need to understand how difficult it is’.
‘US wants IDPs settled before action in Waziristan’
// 
// 
Reports claim that the delay in launching a military offensive in South Waziristan would annoy Pakistan’s US allies. But Holbrooke’s statement that US is not pushing Islamabad to launch another offensive contradicts this claim. – File photo
WASHINGTON: Pakistan should first create a secure environment for the refugees to return home before launching an operation against Baitullah Mehsud and his militants, says US special envoy Richard Holbrooke.
The US envoy made this statement in an interview to The Washington Post, published on Monday when other media outlets claimed that Pakistan was engaged in secret talks with the reclusive Taliban leader.
The report claimed that Pakistan had planned a major military offensive against Mehsud but delayed it because of these secret talks.
Mr Holbrooke, however, indicated no such links. Instead, he made it clear that the United States did not expect Pakistan to launch another major military offensive while it was still struggling with the refugee problem.
‘Baitullah Mehsud is a dreadful man, and his elimination is an imperative. However, the first imperative is to secure the areas the refugees are going back into,’ said Mr Holbrooke.
Although Mr Holbrooke said it could be beneficial to have simultaneous offensives — the US Marines on the Afghan side and the Pakistani army in Fata — the greater concern is unfinished business elsewhere. ‘Why would I push them to start an offensive when they have two million people they have to protect first?’ the US envoy said.
The Pakistan army also denied any negotiations with Mehsud, saying that it wanted to surround the militants and use air power and artillery to ‘soften them up’.
The operation is a ‘punitive measure’, said Maj-Gen Athar Abbas, head of the army’s public relations wing.
At least six brigades of Pakistani troops have blocked the four main arteries into Mehsud’s fiefdom in South Waziristan, media reports said.
Pakistani aircraft, along with unmanned American planes, have attacked Mehsud’s territory in recent weeks. Soldiers have deployed into neighbouring North Waziristan and have imposed an economic blockade, trying to withhold food and supplies from the Taliban, a US defence official in Washington told the Post.
The blockade and US strikes have forced thousands of Mehsud’s men to flee the area.
Meanwhile, media outlets claiming secret talks between Islamabad and Mehsud said they still had no details. They supported their claim by arguing that Pakistan had delayed a planned operation against Mehsud after having corralled his stronghold in South Waziristan.
The Pakistani government, the reports said, had a one-point agenda: stop attacking government targets. This would not be a total surrender, but a guarantee that Baitullah Mehsud would not indulge in any anti-state activity in future, the media quoted unidentified Pakistani officials as saying.
The delay in launching a military offensive in South Waziristan would annoy Pakistan’s US allies, the reports claimed.
Ambassador Holbrooke’s statement that Washington understood Islamabad’s position and was not pushing Pakistan to launch yet another offensive, however, contradicted this claim.
The Post also quoted Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit as saying that while they were focussed on the refugees, they did not want to rush into opening new fronts against the Taliban.
‘We would not like to do anything haphazardly. If you open so many fronts at the same time, then the danger is you will not achieve success on any front. So we would like to move with utmost circumspection,’ said Mr Basit. The tribal areas are ‘a different ballgame and we need to understand how difficult it is’.
Lest We Forget the War for African Oil, the Nigerian Struggle
Sectarian riots in Borno, Yobe, Kano
…100 Islamist militants killed
From DESMOND MGBORH, Kano, TIMOTHY OLA, Maiduguri and ABU ONYELEBOCHO, Potiskum
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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Corpses of Islamist militants killed by security agents in Maiduguri on Monday
•Photo: The Sun Publishing |
Security forces on Monday fought gun battles with Islamist militants who staged attacks on police stations, prisons, churches and other government buildings in Borno, Yobe and Kano states, leaving no fewer than 100 dead.
The attacks came on the heels of similar incident in Bauchi, which death toll the acting Inspector General of Police, Mr Ogbonnaya Onovo put at 65, including five police casualties.
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno was thrown into pandemonium on Monday as members of the Mohammed Yusuf Movement (Yusuffiya), Islamic sect in the state made real their threat as they burnt down some police stations, prisons and churches. The Islamist militants also set free inmates of the Maiduguri Maximum Prison, while similar attacks were carried out on a police station and church in Potiskum, Yobe State.
The crisis broke few days after nine of the sectarian members were arrested by the police for being in possession of locally made bombs, explosives, dangerous chemicals and weapons, while one was also killed by a bomb explosion. The leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf had in a well-publicized message recently threatened to stage a show-down with those he tagged enemies of Islam, calling on his followers to prepare for a Jihad.
By Sunday night, some members of the sect members stormed the State Police Headquarters along Kano-Jos Road in Maiduguri and attacked the Mobile Police senior officers quarters beside the headquarters, killing two police officers.
“The militants came in the midnight with dangerous weapons and some substances suspected to be bombs. They caught us unaware because we never thought they could target the training college side. They immediately set some quarters ablaze and most of us ran out of our houses before our colleagues and Operation Flush men came to the scene,” a police officer who witnessed the incident told Daily Sun on condition of anonymity.
Daily Sun gathered that the sect members arrived the quarters around 11.30 pm, shouting Allhu Akbar (God is great) and immediately set nine buildings, six cars and two motorcycles on fire. Two police officers were reportedly killed.
Sources said the men of the state special security task force, Operation Flush and some mobile policemen who came to the scene shortly, engaged the militants in a gun battle, forcing the sect members to beat a retreat.
Those who escaped the police onslaught among the fundamentalists were said to have proceeded to the Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison. By early Monday morning, the prison has been burnt while all the inmates were set free. A prison warden was also killed just as some churches around the railway area in the metropolis were torched by the rampaging sect.
Unconfirmed reports claimed two churches were also burnt in Gamboru-Ngala, a border town in the state.
Over 100 corpses of members of the sect who were reportedly shot security officials police were seen littering the deserted streets of Maiduguri as at the time of filing this report. Movements in and out of the state capital were restricted even as commercial activities were paralyzed. All banks, schools and companies were shut down as combined team of police; state security services (SSS) and army mounted surveillance in the state.
The Commissioner of Police, Christopher Dega and the commandant of the Operation Flush, Col Ben Ahanotu could not be reached as at the time of filing report. Ironically, all the mobile telephone networks were not working fueling speculations that the authorities might have asked the operators to jam their communication devices to prevent the sect members who are scattered across the North from coordinating their operations.
Meanwhile, Governor Ali Sheriff has declared a dusk to dawn curfew from Monday.
A three paragraph statement signed by the Director of Press in the Government House, Zanna Usman Chiroma stated that the curfew, which was declared in all parts of the two local government areas in the Maiduguri metropolis “will take effect from 7p.m to 6a.m daily until the security situation improves.”
The governor advised residents to stay in their homes during the period as no movement would be allowed, assuring all citizens of full protection of lives and property.
He also promised to lift the curfew as soon as the situation was brought under control.
Similarly, the religious upheaval has spilled to Yobe State as attacks in Potiskum in the early hours of Monday morning left at least one policeman and a personnel of the state fire service dead.
Daily Sun gathered that the members numbering over 40 attacked the police station in Potiskum, freed suspects in custody, looted the armoury and then set ablaze the station and the office of the Federal Road Safety Commission adjacent to it.
The attacks were launched, according to sources at the period it was raining catsß and dogs.
Mr. Mohammed Paddah, spokesman of the Yobe State Police Command who confirmed the attack said the State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Abbas had paid a visit to the scenes of the attacks as well as the police armoury.
The police spokesman confirmed the death of the two uniformed men, adding that seven other police officers were injured in the attack. He said some suspects had been arrested and were already being investigated.
He called on members of the public to give vital information on suspects to enable the police nip attacks in the bud.
As at the time of filing this report, Governor Ibrahim Geidam who was said to have gone to a town in Gulani local government area had not made any statement on the attacks.
Also a police station in Wudil town situated on the outskirts of Kano was attacked on Monday.
Police repelled the attack, killing three members of the group and arresting 33 others, Kano police spokesman, Baba Mohammed said. Two police officers were injured in the clashes in the town, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Kano.
“An unspecified number of these extremists attacked the police station at around 4:00a.m and injured two officers but our men repelled them, killed three and apprehended 33 of them,” said Mohammed.
He said the attack was similar to the one staged overnight at a police station in Potiskum in Yobe State.
Police have meantime besieged the Kara neighbourhood of Wudil where the group has a mosque, preparing for an offensive to flush them out.
A Kano resident said police were patrolling the streets of the bustling capital following the attack in the nearby town.
“The situation is still very tense but armed policemen are patrolling the streets and trouble-prone parts of Kano to make sure they put the situation under complete control.”
He suspected the militants were fleeing from Yobe and Bauchi states where they launched attacks on Sunday and Monday.
The latest wave of fighting broke out on Sunday in Bauchi State when police hit back at militants after they attacked a police station at dawn.
The Nigerian Taliban emerged in 2004 when it set up a base dubbed Afghanistan in Kanamma village in Yobe, on the border with Niger, from where it attacked police outposts and killed police officers.
Its membership is mainly drawn from school dropouts. The north of Nigeria is majority Muslim, although large Christian minorities have settled in the main towns, raising tensions between the two groups.
Since 1999 and the return of a civilian regime to Nigeria’s central government, 12 northern states have introduced Islamic Sharia law.
More than 700 people died last November in Jos, capital of Plateau state, when a political feud over a local election degenerated into bloody confrontation between Muslims and Christians.
Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians in Bauchi State killed 14 people in February. A Muslim mob went on the rampage, attacking Christians and burning churches in reprisals over the burning of two mosques, which Muslims blamed on Christians, they said.
One of the Nigerian Taliban leaders, Aminu Tashen-Ilimi, had told newsmen in a 2005 interview that the group intended to lead an armed insurrection and rid society of “immorality” and “infidelity.”
Sectarian riots in Borno, Yobe, Kano
…100 Islamist militants killed
From DESMOND MGBORH, Kano, TIMOTHY OLA, Maiduguri and ABU ONYELEBOCHO, Potiskum
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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Corpses of Islamist militants killed by security agents in Maiduguri on Monday
•Photo: The Sun Publishing |
Security forces on Monday fought gun battles with Islamist militants who staged attacks on police stations, prisons, churches and other government buildings in Borno, Yobe and Kano states, leaving no fewer than 100 dead.
The attacks came on the heels of similar incident in Bauchi, which death toll the acting Inspector General of Police, Mr Ogbonnaya Onovo put at 65, including five police casualties.
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno was thrown into pandemonium on Monday as members of the Mohammed Yusuf Movement (Yusuffiya), Islamic sect in the state made real their threat as they burnt down some police stations, prisons and churches. The Islamist militants also set free inmates of the Maiduguri Maximum Prison, while similar attacks were carried out on a police station and church in Potiskum, Yobe State.
The crisis broke few days after nine of the sectarian members were arrested by the police for being in possession of locally made bombs, explosives, dangerous chemicals and weapons, while one was also killed by a bomb explosion. The leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf had in a well-publicized message recently threatened to stage a show-down with those he tagged enemies of Islam, calling on his followers to prepare for a Jihad.
By Sunday night, some members of the sect members stormed the State Police Headquarters along Kano-Jos Road in Maiduguri and attacked the Mobile Police senior officers quarters beside the headquarters, killing two police officers.
“The militants came in the midnight with dangerous weapons and some substances suspected to be bombs. They caught us unaware because we never thought they could target the training college side. They immediately set some quarters ablaze and most of us ran out of our houses before our colleagues and Operation Flush men came to the scene,” a police officer who witnessed the incident told Daily Sun on condition of anonymity.
Daily Sun gathered that the sect members arrived the quarters around 11.30 pm, shouting Allhu Akbar (God is great) and immediately set nine buildings, six cars and two motorcycles on fire. Two police officers were reportedly killed.
Sources said the men of the state special security task force, Operation Flush and some mobile policemen who came to the scene shortly, engaged the militants in a gun battle, forcing the sect members to beat a retreat.
Those who escaped the police onslaught among the fundamentalists were said to have proceeded to the Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison. By early Monday morning, the prison has been burnt while all the inmates were set free. A prison warden was also killed just as some churches around the railway area in the metropolis were torched by the rampaging sect.
Unconfirmed reports claimed two churches were also burnt in Gamboru-Ngala, a border town in the state.
Over 100 corpses of members of the sect who were reportedly shot security officials police were seen littering the deserted streets of Maiduguri as at the time of filing this report. Movements in and out of the state capital were restricted even as commercial activities were paralyzed. All banks, schools and companies were shut down as combined team of police; state security services (SSS) and army mounted surveillance in the state.
The Commissioner of Police, Christopher Dega and the commandant of the Operation Flush, Col Ben Ahanotu could not be reached as at the time of filing report. Ironically, all the mobile telephone networks were not working fueling speculations that the authorities might have asked the operators to jam their communication devices to prevent the sect members who are scattered across the North from coordinating their operations.
Meanwhile, Governor Ali Sheriff has declared a dusk to dawn curfew from Monday.
A three paragraph statement signed by the Director of Press in the Government House, Zanna Usman Chiroma stated that the curfew, which was declared in all parts of the two local government areas in the Maiduguri metropolis “will take effect from 7p.m to 6a.m daily until the security situation improves.”
The governor advised residents to stay in their homes during the period as no movement would be allowed, assuring all citizens of full protection of lives and property.
He also promised to lift the curfew as soon as the situation was brought under control.
Similarly, the religious upheaval has spilled to Yobe State as attacks in Potiskum in the early hours of Monday morning left at least one policeman and a personnel of the state fire service dead.
Daily Sun gathered that the members numbering over 40 attacked the police station in Potiskum, freed suspects in custody, looted the armoury and then set ablaze the station and the office of the Federal Road Safety Commission adjacent to it.
The attacks were launched, according to sources at the period it was raining catsß and dogs.
Mr. Mohammed Paddah, spokesman of the Yobe State Police Command who confirmed the attack said the State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Abbas had paid a visit to the scenes of the attacks as well as the police armoury.
The police spokesman confirmed the death of the two uniformed men, adding that seven other police officers were injured in the attack. He said some suspects had been arrested and were already being investigated.
He called on members of the public to give vital information on suspects to enable the police nip attacks in the bud.
As at the time of filing this report, Governor Ibrahim Geidam who was said to have gone to a town in Gulani local government area had not made any statement on the attacks.
Also a police station in Wudil town situated on the outskirts of Kano was attacked on Monday.
Police repelled the attack, killing three members of the group and arresting 33 others, Kano police spokesman, Baba Mohammed said. Two police officers were injured in the clashes in the town, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Kano.
“An unspecified number of these extremists attacked the police station at around 4:00a.m and injured two officers but our men repelled them, killed three and apprehended 33 of them,” said Mohammed.
He said the attack was similar to the one staged overnight at a police station in Potiskum in Yobe State.
Police have meantime besieged the Kara neighbourhood of Wudil where the group has a mosque, preparing for an offensive to flush them out.
A Kano resident said police were patrolling the streets of the bustling capital following the attack in the nearby town.
“The situation is still very tense but armed policemen are patrolling the streets and trouble-prone parts of Kano to make sure they put the situation under complete control.”
He suspected the militants were fleeing from Yobe and Bauchi states where they launched attacks on Sunday and Monday.
The latest wave of fighting broke out on Sunday in Bauchi State when police hit back at militants after they attacked a police station at dawn.
The Nigerian Taliban emerged in 2004 when it set up a base dubbed Afghanistan in Kanamma village in Yobe, on the border with Niger, from where it attacked police outposts and killed police officers.
Its membership is mainly drawn from school dropouts. The north of Nigeria is majority Muslim, although large Christian minorities have settled in the main towns, raising tensions between the two groups.
Since 1999 and the return of a civilian regime to Nigeria’s central government, 12 northern states have introduced Islamic Sharia law.
More than 700 people died last November in Jos, capital of Plateau state, when a political feud over a local election degenerated into bloody confrontation between Muslims and Christians.
Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians in Bauchi State killed 14 people in February. A Muslim mob went on the rampage, attacking Christians and burning churches in reprisals over the burning of two mosques, which Muslims blamed on Christians, they said.
One of the Nigerian Taliban leaders, Aminu Tashen-Ilimi, had told newsmen in a 2005 interview that the group intended to lead an armed insurrection and rid society of “immorality” and “infidelity.”
Lebanon: Explosion caused by Israeli arms
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The Lebanese Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the United Nations claming the July 14 explosion in southern Lebanon was cased by ammunition left by the Israeli military. According to the London-based al-Hayat, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry claimed the explosion occurred at an uncompleted structure in a southern Lebanese village that stored arms “left behind by the Israelis.”“Shi’ism in Morocco”
“Shi’ism in Morocco”
By: Yasin ‘Abd al-Salam
It was only in November 2002 that the continued existence of Moroccan Shi’ites came to light through an interview with Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Dris Hani, the spiritual leader of the Moroccan Shi’ites, which appeared in Maroc Hebdo. Now in his mid-thirties, and living peacefully in Sale with his wife and well-to-do family, Dris Hani discovered Shi’ism as a teen and moved to Syria at the age of 18 to study in the Hawzah. Upon his return to Morocco, he felt invested with a mission: to struggle for the recognition and respect of the minority Shi’ite community. In his interview with Maroc Hebdo, he stated that “Morocco was a Shi’ite country;” that Shi’ism was the rule and that Sunnism was the exception. He explained that there was no need to make Morocco a Shi’ite country, because it already was one. He also hoped that the community could create a political party like the Hizbullah, but adapted to Moroccan reality. Due to pressures placed on him by the Moroccan authorities, always eager to ensure national unity through uniformity–Allah, King, and Country, one religion, one language, and one madhhab–he was “requested” to retract his statements. In subsequent interviews, he took back many of the statements which had been attributed to him, even his titled of “Hujjat al-Islam,” made a vow of silence, and then returned to the scene speaking of Islamic ecumenism and the need to unite the Muslim ‘Ummah. In his words, Sunnism and Shi’ism are two complementary currents, and all Muslims, be they Sunni or Shi’i share, the same fundamental beliefs…
With the help of the Saudis, Wahhabi religious schools spread throughout Morocco, extremist literature was distributed to thousands of students, and scholarships were given to study in Saudi-supported universities. Morroco, which in modern times was known for its moderation, was soon confronted with the surrogate prodigal sons of the Saudis: Wahhabi-trained preachers who returned home to spread their theories. These Wahhabi theorists rejected the modern open Malikism of Morocco and denounced Shi’ites as apostates. As a result, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, many Moroccan Shi’ites, men, women, and children, have simply left the country and moved to Iran where they could practice their religion freely…
Despite the fact that Moroccans were forced to embrace Sunni Islam, they always retained many aspects of Shi’ite Islam: the love for the Prophet and his Family; the respect for descendants of the Prophets, known in Morocco as the shurafa; the celebration of ‘Id al-Mawlid, a Shi’ite custom commenced in the country by the Merinides; the common invocations of intercession made to the Prophet and Fatimah; the reverence of saints; the rich Shi’ite-inspired spirituality of the Sufis; and the commemoration of ‘Ashura. In Morocco, these mourning ceremonies are observed mainly by women and children. They were commenced by the Shi’i communities which existed in the country between the 9 th and 12th centuries and were perpetuated by the Sharifs, the descendants of the Prophet. As Hujjat al-Islam Dris Hani explains, “Even countries which claim to be Sunni are in fact Shi’ite, since they all share the same respect for Ahl al-Bayt. It is just a question of their degree of Shi’ism.” As many Moroccans say, “We are Sunnis in practice, but Shi’ites at heart.” (read here)
Morocco’s Shia Identity
| Morocco’s Shia Identity Related to country: Morocco |
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Pre-islamic Moroccan Berber tribes were mostly Jewish with a few minorities of Christians. It was very difficult to impose Islam on these tribes, and the fights took many centuries before Islam was completely settled in this land. Popular culture in Morocco believes that if the tribes were ruled by Cherifs (I mean people from the tree of the Prophet Mohamed a.s) the land would be fertile, as they carry a sort of Baraka (Blessing) wherever they go. These tribes start welcoming Alaouits who were escaping from the Umayyad and the Abbasids and making them the kings of Morocco. The first king of Morocco was Molay Idriss. He is a Hassanit who escaped from the Khilafa of the East and established his kingdom here. Molay Idriss married the daughter of the chief of the Berbers, as a symbol of blood alliance between the two. Since then, all the Moroccan dynasties are from Ali & Fatima, because only an Alaouit can unite the multiple conflictual Moroccan tribes & the incoming Arab tribes fleeing drought and political injustice as well as the Jewish & Arab communities who escaped from Andalusia throughout the centuries. Nowadays, our ruling King Mohammed V is him-self an Alaouit & an offspring of Hassan a.s. And believe it or not, The king still carrys that symbolic charisma of a Cherif.
However, due to the social particularities of Berber tribes and to the mixture that forms the Moroccan society, the Kings of Morocco many centuries ago have chosen to adopt Sunna as religious doctrine instead of Shia. Yet, they have chosen a very clever Sunna doctrine, as they married the doctrine of Malik Bnu Anass to the philosophy of Ashaari and to the Sufism of Junayd. Consequently, Morocco have kept many of its Shia roots and symbols and at the same time satisfied the needs of the street people (Al Jamaa), by adopting a Sunni Maliki Ashaari Junaydi approach of Islam. With my little experience of Moroccan Sufism, and the studies I did on the subject, I may conclude that Sufism in Morocco was developed as a sect which practices secret Shiism with a limited number of adepts, whereas the majority of people continued to practice a Sunni style Islam. After Khomeini’s revolution in Iran in 1979, security measures were taken to stop the spread of such an ideology among young Moroccans in universities and Islamic parties. But in the 1996 Moroccan reformed Constitution, it was mentioned that Morocco is an Islamic country without focusing on the Maliki doctrine as it was the case before. This means that being Shia in Morocco is not against the Constitution, as long as it’s an individual practice not a political stream! Anyway, Moroccan Shia today are a bunch of intellectuals, not more that 50 persons. Most of them received their education in Lebanon or Iraq or were influenced by the writings of the French thinker Henry Corbin or of Khomeini’s Political Islam’s ideology. Moroccan Shia are mostly located in Rabat, Marrakech, Fez and Northern Regions, but they have no spiritual leader (Marji Ataklid). They follow Iraqian or Iranian Spiritual guides most of the time, as I deduced from my discussion with many of them. According to my sources, Moroccan Shia tempted to organise them-selves in a regular theopolitical movement during a meeting in Tanger. However, they had different interests and perspectives about that movement so it failed. But obviously, many members of some new Islamic Parties are Shia like Al Badil Al Hadari, and many educational and cultural associations are funded by Shia in Morocco like Al Ghadir association in Meknes and many others in the North. During the celebration of the sad memory Ashurae in Morocco, we notice the persistence of many ancient symbols taken from both Shia and Jewish traditions. Moroccans fast during Ashurae and they bay dolls and games for children to stop them from crying the death of Hussein a.s. In some regions they even settle places for the ceremony of Azae. These are somehow Shia traditions. Yet, these symbols are mixed with others, borrowed from the Jewish celebration called Haylula, like lighting a big fire in each street and turning around it while playing on some leather instruments and using this fire for black magic. When I saw Moroccan people crying Saddam’s death and accusing Shia in Iraq of being the allies of American forces, I feel a sort of bitterness inside. These people unfortunately ignore everything of their Shia religious identity, and Islamic education in the Moroccan educational system as well as media; don’t help at all in informing them about the subject. But when I see the support Moroccans owe to Hezbollah or Iran, I think that the traces of their Shia past can’t be erased by the wind of Sunna centuries. I still need to clarify one more thing. Moroccan religious identity as I see it today is changing in a tremendous way towards a non-doctrinal sort of Islam. This is due to many reasons like: The huge luck in education, weakness of national media, the chock of modernity and the fragilazing hits it’s experiencing : Extremism, New Sufism trends (Adl Wa Lihsaan & Tarika Boutchichia) and Christian Missionaries… My personal prediction about the future evolution of the Moroccan religious identity is that; if Shia elite can emerge in this sensitive & particular moment of Moroccan history, the Shia doctrine can be resurrected as a major religious identity in Morocco. |
“Smart Power,”
Iran, Bahrain, and the Arabs
Iran, Bahrain, and the Arabs
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Ali Younes
When former Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Akbar Nateq Nori said few weeks ago that Bahrain was Iran’s 14th province, he caused a firestorm of angry protests from almost all of the Arab leaders particularly Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Nateq Nouri, who is also Inspector General in the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, justified his words in context of blaming the former Shah regime for squandering Iranian rights to Bahrain by agreeing to let Britain grant its former protectorate full independence. Nouri’s remarks came while Bahrain is witnessing angry protests from its Shia citizens over the issue of naturalization of Sunni Arabs which the Shia oppose. Bahraini Shia citizens see the naturalization issue as government plot to change the demographic of the country in favor of Sunnis.
The Iranian Mullah was not speaking out of vacuum however. Iranians are very proud nation that was much bigger in its ancient past than the current borders. Iranians take pride in their ancient history and civilization and feel they ought to be respected as a regional powerhouse. One would think that the Islamic leadership of Iran would not have nationalistic claims against a fellow Muslim nation, which is contrary to Islamic teachings of emphasizing the religious bond over nationalistic one. But on the contrary, the mullah rulers of Iran come across as more nationalistic, as in this case, than the former Shah of Iran.
Along those lines, the Iranian nuclear program, for example, is therefore viewed in Iran as a national symbol and an achievement of the nation. The west attempts to curtail Iranian nuclear program are viewed as an insult to the Iranians and part of a larger western conspiracy to undermine the proud Iranian nation. This collective feeling of pride and Iranian nationalism provides a comfortable cushion for the Iranian regime to fall back on when threatened.
For example, the UAE holds that Iran occupies its three strategic Islands of Abu Musa and the two Tunbs while the Islamic republic of Iran fiercely defends its possession of these Islands as part of Iranian territory. Iran also makes a point in emphasizing the “Persian” in the Persian Gulf in order to counter the Arabs who also share that gulf but call it instead the Arabian Gulf. For Iranians, this is not simply a semantic game but rather serious nationalistic issue.
Iran-Arab relations took a downturn when President Barak Obama took office signaling to Iranians and Arabs, depending on their “unclenching of their fists” that the old U.S. militarist approach to international relations particularly on the issue of Iranian nuclear program will no longer be a U.S. policy.
With this realization, Arab governments particularly Egypt and Saudi Arabia, alarmed by the new U.S. approach, opted to raise their rhetoric against Iran utilizing the pretext of the 14th province comments as part of an orchestrated upmanship against Iran.
The new U.S. administration international policy is moving toward what Suzanne Nossel, the former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to U.N. for Management, termed in her 2004 essay in Foreign Affairs, as Smart Power” which is an integrated approach to foreign policy that combines both Soft and Hard power utilizing all aspects of U.S. influence of culture, trade, sports, diplomacy as well as military if needed. Smart Power was also mentioned by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her confirmation hearings as the new U.S. international approach in order to reshape the U.S. image and foreign policy .The U.S. needs to deal with the Iranian nuclear program in a manner different from the Bush administration which studiously ignored it while using threatening rhetoric against it. Obama’s administration needs Iran cooperation on Iraq and Afghanistan two areas of U.S. foreign policy that are key for the administration to show progress and success in order to re-orient the U.S. foreign policy toward more progressive and liberal Internationalist posture that is key to restore America’s image and prestige among nations.
This new approach worries the Arab states, particularly the small Arab Gulf states who think that a potential U.S. deal with Iran over its nuclear program might come at their expense. In exchange of Iran’s relinquishing its nuclear ambitions, which remains a possibility giving Iran’s previous suspension of its nuclear program in 2003 and 2004, and its cooperation on Iraq and Afghanistan, the thinking in the Arab World holds, that Iran will be allowed to dominate the Gulf region .This thinking if materialized will be an ominous development for the Gulf Arab region that with its own restive Shia citizens as in the case of Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia might see their hold on power contested by their own citizens.
Moreover, Gulf Arab countries might see more confidence in Iran’s behavior to interfere in their internal affairs especially after the elimination of Iraq, ironically with their help, as an Arab power imbued with chauvinistic Arab nationalism that stood against equally chauvinistic Iranian nationalism. Facing their new reality, Arab States led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt are scrambling to form a response to Iran’s emerging regional power, but giving the new U.S. policy and in absence of a collective Arab strategy and a vision for the future, that takes into account economic development and democratic change, Arab leaders might find it very hard to contain Iran’s increasing influence.
* Written for AlArabiya.net. Ali Younes is a Washington based writer and a political analyst. He can be reached at ali.younes@charter.net
Morocco cuts off diplomatic relations with Iran
[Iranian meddling in the Arab world will prove to be deadlier than Iran’s interference with the plans of the Western world.]Morocco cuts off diplomatic relations with Iran |
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According to the AP, the ministry accused largely Shiite Iran’s Embassy in Rabat of trying to “alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom” and threaten Morocco’s religious unity. The ministry, in a statement, called Iran’s actions “intolerable interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom.”
The Moroccan press has repeatedly accused the Iranian Embassy of proselytism in recent years. The Iranian ambassador denied the charges as recently as last week.
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) |
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Morocco cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Friday, accusing Tehran of trying to spread Shia Islam in the kingdom. The tensions were mounted by recent Iranian remarks toward Sunni-led Bahrain that have raised hackles in the Arab world, Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said.Morocco court convicts Islamist
Abdelkader Belliraj’s was the figurehead of the Islamist group
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A Moroccan-born Belgian man accused of leading an Islamist militant group and committing six murders in Belgium has been imprisoned for life in Morocco.
Abdelkader Belliraj was also convicted by the court in Sale of arms smuggling and threatening state security.
Belliraj was one of more than 30 people, including six Islamist politicians, arrested in February 2008.
During the trial, his lawyer argued he had made visits to militant groups for Belgium’s intelligence services.
But Mohammed Ziane accepted that his client had been found with weapons originally sent to Islamists in Algeria, and that these had later returned to Morocco.
“We cannot argue with court’s decision but it was only the first stage in this trial and we still have to go to the appeal court,” Mr Ziane said after the verdict on Monday.
“What we expect is that the court will be more fair, take their conditions into consideration and base its verdict on concrete and proven facts,” he added.
Belliraj repeatedly told the court: “I never brought weapons into Morocco and deny making any attempts to overthrow the regime.”
State prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty for Belliraj.
The case divided Morocco with some political parties and human rights groups springing to the defence of the arrested politicians.
No ‘Indian hand’ in Baloch unrest, says Baloch leader-News-VIDEOS-The Times of India
Asks question: why doesn’t Pak. publish its proof of Indian sponsorship of Baloch struggle.Bugti says:”Show it to the world and we will answer the charges.”If it is not the Indian hand destabilizing Pakistan’s provinces, then it must be Pakistan itself causing the unrest for political reasons, or else their friends in the CIA.
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Pak army chief exploits Baloch bungle-News-VIDEOS-The Times of India
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Setting an Example for Us All
[If we all followed this brave little woman’s example and used the courts to stop all of this B.S. that the government is ramming down our throats, we would tie-up the courts and probably send an undeniable signal to our corrupt leaders that, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!” We truly are “mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!!!”]
Private Citizen Petitions Court Against State’s Experimental Nuke
Dear Anti-Nuke Friends and Allies,
Today was a first for me, as I filed in the Baltimore City Circuit Court as a private citizen for the first time in my 50 years. You see, I have a real beef against a pro-nuke decision made by an employee of the State of Maryland.
At court, I petitioned a judge to review the decision made by the Maryland Public Service Commission Hearing Examiner, who approved an application to construct an experimental, BOMB-Plutonium-fueled, double-sized reactor to sit on – and dump into – our already dead and dying Chesapeake Bay.
With no legal experience, I studied cases on the Internet and learned all I needed to know about writing a judicial review. And by no means independently wealthy, I forked over money in court fees that could have instead been spent on a couple of tasty dinners out at The Cheesecake Factory.
Admittedly, filing in court took more than a few hours of my time, and I still have no idea whatsoever whether or not a Baltimore City judge will grant my plea and actually review the State’s decision.
But there is one thing I do know with absolute certainty. I can go to sleep tonight and I will sleep like a baby.
Today, as the official beginning of the second half of my life, (that is, my second 50 years) I came of age and grew up. I did not sulk and moan that others were not joining me in court in, to me, what is a total “no brainer.”
I just went and did the right thing today.
While it’s true I’m a bit more tired and have a few less bucks in my wallet, I feel I’ve invested in something more priceless – and far, far tastier than even a couple of great dinners ending with rich, luscious slices of gourmet fudge brownie cheesecake.
Today my conscience is free and clear. And the inner feeling of knowing “I done good” (regardless of outcome) is far more delicious than anything on the end of a fork… even from The Cheesecake Factory, I swear!
For probably the first time in my life, I did not look around for someone else to try to save the day on my behalf. I decided that since the State was making a decision that is clearly *not* in the best interest of those who live within hundreds of miles of a proposed, experimental, monster-sized, nuke reactor – and certainly not in the best interest of the struggling-for-its-very-survival Chesapeake Bay – I simply could not live with myself if I did not do everything in my power to stop the deadly reactor from being built.
I truly have no idea if any other citizen or organization also filed in Court to try to stop construction of this “reference” [i.e., test] reactor that Electricite de France (owned 85% by the French state) and Constellation Energy have proposed to build and, eventually, run with highly lethal, volatile, surplus BOMB-plutonium fuel in it.
For the first time in my life, I did not make excuses. I did not complain that others were not with me. I did not look around to see what groups in the area were doing – or, more to the point, not doing.
After countless hours of research, I became convinced that the State of Maryland had done wrong by us all… and by “us” I am referring not just to Marylanders
but to all those who breathe the [same] air in this country and who enjoy the Chesapeake Bay and live or vacation down the Atlantic coast.
I write of my experience to encourage each and every one of you to think about taking your own actions against all those paid with our tax monies who are clearly *not* doing the right thing by our people, by our environment, and by all forms of life in America.
We must all take a stand. We can not – and must not – merely sit back and expect our non-profit organizations to do the work for us and take our place in fighting
against the mighty and powerful nuclear industry and all of its helpmeats, enablers, and pushers in positions of power in our government.
Each and every one of who realizes that nuclear power is dangerous, unhealthy and flat out damn expensive, too, must stand up and do the right thing as an individual. The time for action is NOW… before dozens of new experimental nuclear reactors using BOMB-Plutonium in their fuel are approved for construction throughout this unsuspecting nation!
If you do not think you can do this alone, please call me and I will tell you that you can. If I can do this, quite literally anyone can! Please know I did not become active in community or environmental activism until I was in my mid-40s.
Today I learned that the only thing stopping us all from being more effective in fighting back is in having the confidence in ourselves and knowing that we can succeed by taking bold and righteous action.
The children of today and tomorrow and all future generations are depending on us – just regular, ordinary, busy people like you and me to “do the right thing” and go the distance boldly and with the certain conviction that we must be the ones to protect what’s left of our health and the environment.
The actions of every single citizen actually *does* matter because, by speaking up and out? We then effectively give permission and encouragement for others to do the same.
Enough private citizens both can and MUST stop this Nukuler Insurgency being shoved down our throats. True, we will need to fight tooth and nail, but if we don’t all do it? It simply ain’t gonna happen!
We must never, ever forget the Almighty, Formidable Power of One.
You, me, and the next guy and gal are the Mighty Change the world simply must now see.
Thank you for all you do. And thank you even more for committing to “go the distance” even though you may be the only one you know who is doing so!
In the event you are considering taking legal action, my petition to the court is below. But please remember that annotated codes that spell out the specifics of legal actions vary from state to state.
Remember, I’m just an average, middle-aged woman who learned what is going on and decided to stand up and speak out boldly because I finally said, Enough’s Enough! And if you want to do something and you’re trying to get your courage up, call me and we’ll have a nice chat.
Our kids of today and tomorrow need you and me like they have never, ever needed anyone to stand up on their behalf before. This is their air, water, and food sources that are being polluted and contaminated for all eternity.
Like I keep saying, we’ve got to do this for the kids. Because after all, the children of tomorrow have done absolutely nothing to deserve having to grow up in this ever more polluted, ever more contaminated Radiation Nation we’re about to leave behind.
Cathy Garger
(301) 710 – 0405
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CIVIL ACTION No.________ |
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE CITY, MARYLAND
Cathy Garger
Petitioner
FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW OF DECISION ORDER NO. 82741
OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND
16 Saint Paul Street, 16th floor,
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
IN THE CASE OF THE APPLICATION OF UNISTAR
NUCLEAR ENERGY, LLC AND UNISTAR NUCLEAR
OPERATING SERVICES, LLC FOR
A CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE
AND NECESSITY TO CONSTRUCT A POWER PLANT
AT CALVERT CLIFFS IN CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND
CASE 9127
ORDER NO. 82741
INTRODUCTION
The Petitioner, Cathy Garger, states as follows in her Petition for Judicial Review:
(1) This petition for judicial review is filed pursuant to the provisions of Maryland Annotated Code that applies to Public Utility Companies §3–201 (b) which states the petitioner’s ability to “challenge a decision by the Commission to act by order rather than regulation shall seek judicial review of the Commission’s decision within 30 days after the Commission issues a final order in that proceeding.” This petition is timely as it is submitted within 30 days from June 26, 2009, the day the final Order 82741 was rendered.
(2) According to Maryland §3–202, Petitioner Garger has standing to request a judicial review as she is named as a “person in interest” and, as such, is listed on the Service List of Maryland Public Service Commission Case 9127. Furthermore, as stated in §3–201, Petitioner Garger is “A party to a Commission proceeding,” having participated in the Case 9127 Public Hearing on August 19, 2008, as well as having submitted testimony on the matter of the Air Quality Hearing held on March 9, 2009.
Suicide bomber hits Chechen capital
At least five people have been killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a concert hall in the Russian republic of Chechnya, reports say. Four police officers who tried to stop the suicide bomber were killed at the scene in Grozny, the Chechen capital, on Sunday and one other died on the way to hospital, the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted a senior security official as saying. Four more people were taken to the local hospital, one of them in a serious condition, the security source said. Officials said that only a few of the casualties were civilians as the explosion occurred some time before the the performance when spectators were only just starting to arrive. “The suicide bomber triggered his explosive device when he was stopped by policemen outside the Grozny concert hall at a security checkpoint,” a senior city official, told the Reuters news agency. ‘Special operations’ “It is an attempt to make our forces pull back from the area where a special operation is being carried out, an attempt to make us stop working to destroy the rebels,” he said. “We will not stop until we have eliminated all the rebels who target peaceful citizens, the security forces, the military and members of religious orders.” Chechnya had become relatively stabilise after Kadyrov took power in 2007, leading Moscow to declare an end to military operations in the republic in April. But since then there have been a number of bloody attacks. Also Sunday, four suspected separatist fighters were found dead after an explosion in a car in the Nazran district of Ingushetia. On Saturday, Officials said that at least eight suspected separatist fighters were killed by security forces in two separate incidents in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, gave Kadyrov’s Chechen forces free rein to operate against armed groups in the neighbouring republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia after Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the Ingush leader, was badly injured in an assassination attempt on June 22. |
JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBS: WESTERN MEDIA STORY COLLAPSES?
JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBS: WESTERN MEDIA STORY COLLAPSES?
Photo from Antara.
1. In Indonesia, the so called bomber named Achmadi has been released by the police.
After the 17 July 2009 Jakarta hotel bombings, a villager called Achmadi surrendered himself to Indonesia’s police.
According to the mainstream media, Achmadi told the police that Noordin Top had trained him to become a suicide bomber.
Central Java police chief Alex Bambang Riatmodjo claimed that an unexploded bomb had been found at Achmadi’s house.
Now, a national police spokesman has said the information was not true.
The Central Java police chief now says Achmadi is being released.
Jakarta Bombing Investigation Suffers Two Setbacks
It looks as if some of the police in Jakarta are under instructions to tell the truth?
And the evidence concerning humble patsies is being rejected?
2. After the Jakarta hotel bombings, closed circuit television footage from the hotels was shown to the public.
According to John McBeth, at Asia Times, on 27 July 2009, this footage had “clearly been edited by police.”
(What made Jakarta ‘suicide bombers’ tick)
3. The alleged bombers were supposed to have been staying in Room 1808 at the Marriott.
But the occupants of that room were “incapable of flushing the stand-up toilet”.
(What made Jakarta ‘suicide bombers’ tick)
This could suggest that they were simple villagers, acting as patsies, rather than sophisticated terrorists.
4. Reportedly, a master plan for bombings was found after the explosions in Bali in 2005.
Allegedly, this plan was found on the computer of Azahari bin Husin, Noordin’s right-hand man, who was allegedly shot dead during a police raid on his hideout in November 2005
Malay words are found in the plan and “the sentence structure is almost English in nature”.
Could this be the work of an American linked to the CIA?
What made Jakarta suicide bombers tick
~~
Gambling Kids Found Guilty, Lawyer to Appeal
Kopassus, Cilacap and the Jakarta hotel bombs.
THE USE OF PATSIES IN THE JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBINGS?
aangirfan: GENERAL PRABOWO LINKED TO JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBS?
JAKARTA HOTEL BOMBS: WESTERN MEDIA STORY COLLAPSES?
Photo from Antara.
1. In Indonesia, the so called bomber named Achmadi has been released by the police.
After the 17 July 2009 Jakarta hotel bombings, a villager called Achmadi surrendered himself to Indonesia’s police.
According to the mainstream media, Achmadi told the police that Noordin Top had trained him to become a suicide bomber.
Central Java police chief Alex Bambang Riatmodjo claimed that an unexploded bomb had been found at Achmadi’s house.
Now, a national police spokesman has said the information was not true.
The Central Java police chief now says Achmadi is being released.
Jakarta Bombing Investigation Suffers Two Setbacks
It looks as if some of the police in Jakarta are under instructions to tell the truth?
And the evidence concerning humble patsies is being rejected?
2. After the Jakarta hotel bombings, closed circuit television footage from the hotels was shown to the public.
According to John McBeth, at Asia Times, on 27 July 2009, this footage had “clearly been edited by police.”
(What made Jakarta ‘suicide bombers’ tick)
3. The alleged bombers were supposed to have been staying in Room 1808 at the Marriott.
But the occupants of that room were “incapable of flushing the stand-up toilet”.
(What made Jakarta ‘suicide bombers’ tick)
This could suggest that they were simple villagers, acting as patsies, rather than sophisticated terrorists.
4. Reportedly, a master plan for bombings was found after the explosions in Bali in 2005.
Allegedly, this plan was found on the computer of Azahari bin Husin, Noordin’s right-hand man, who was allegedly shot dead during a police raid on his hideout in November 2005
Malay words are found in the plan and “the sentence structure is almost English in nature”.
Could this be the work of an American linked to the CIA?
What made Jakarta suicide bombers tick
~~
Gambling Kids Found Guilty, Lawyer to Appeal
Kopassus, Cilacap and the Jakarta hotel bombs.
World Prepares to Dump the Dollar
World Prepares to Dump the Dollar
July 21, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com
American economists think the world can’t afford to let go of the dollar’s reserve currency status. The world is about to teach them differently. By Robert Morley
What do China, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Germany have in common? These countries most often can’t agree on anything. But they are united in one strange—and ominous—way. They blame the United States for wrecking the global economy. And they think the dollar is the wrecking ball.
One rock-solid, foundational belief underpins almost all economic theory in America: faith in the dollar’s unassailable status as the world’s reserve currency. Foreigners hold so many dollars that they can’t afford to stop buying them, the theory goes. Therefore the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency is sound. But the dollar is now coming under a concentrated attack. Are American economists about to get schooled?
Has a dollar-killer been minted?
Angela Merkel summed up the dollar-skeptic viewpoint last year. “Excessively cheap money in the U.S. was a driver of today’s crisis,” she told the German parliament. And America’s solution—even more cheap money—was just setting the world up for another crisis, she said. It was just a matter of time.
The irony is that America is completely blind to the catastrophe heading its way. As the economic crisis unfolded at the end of last year, investors made a mad rush out of global stock markets and into other assets. The biggest beneficiary of the panic was the one market large enough and liquid enough to handle the trillions of dollars being moved: the U.S. dollar market. This caused the dollar to surge in value.
America grossly misdiagnosed the demand for dollars as a vote of confidence in the U.S. economic system. In fact, it was primarily a case of investors looking for a place they could quickly and easily get their money in—and out.
Now that the initial panic has subsided, the dollar’s international purchasing power has resumed its former downward trajectory. Since the post-crisis high in March, the dollar has fallen by a portfolio-shredding 10 percent.
America’s foreign creditors are again questioning the wisdom of holding so many U.S. dollars. And they’re looking for a way out.
“Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India and China are demanding a greater stake in the management of the global economy and challenging the dollar as the primary denomination for world reserves,” reported Bloomberg about the recent G-8 summit.
But is dumping the dollar just wishful thinking on the part of these nations? Or is there some tangible alternative? Well, how about this: Some think they’ve already minted a dollar-killer.
Russia’s president is pushing to remove the dollar and reinstate some version of a gold standard. Dmitry Medvedev unveiled a newly minted gold bullion coin that he said was a true “symbol of unity,” and “our desire to solve such issues.” It was a test sample of a new supranational currency referred to as the United Future World Currency. Samples were issued to each of the world leaders attending the G-8 summit.
“We are discussing the creation or, to be more correct, the appearance of new reserve currencies,” said Medvedev.
“Debate” about Bretton Woods is flowery code for an attack on the dollar.What is even more surprising is that the dollar assaults have come not only from perennial U.S. antagonists but also from its more democratic allies. At the G-8 summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a complete revamp of the global currency system, saying that the dollar’s supremacy is outdated. “[W]e’ve still got the Bretton Woods system of 1945,” Sarkozy stated on July 9. “Frankly, 60 years afterwards, we’ve got to ask: Shouldn’t a politically multipolar world correspond to an economically multi-currency world?”
Bretton Woods was the historic conference that laid the foundation for a postwar global economy centered on the dollar. “Even if it’s a difficult topic,” Sarkozy said, “There has to be a debate.” “Debate” about Bretton Woods is flowery code for an attack on the dollar.
India too seems to be moving into the anti-dollar camp. Suresh Tendulkar, an economic adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is urging the government to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars. India holds over $250 billion worth.
Such a decision could break the U.S. dollar bond market.But the next blow to the dollar may come as a complete surprise to Washington policymakers. Since World War ii, Japan has been a stalwart dollar supporter and a close collaborator with Federal Reserve monetary policy. That may be about to end. For only the second time in 54 years, the opposition in Japan is close to taking over the government. Japan’s economy, like those of the rest of the world, is in severe contraction, and disgruntled voters are upsetting the balance of power and pushing for radical reforms.
Back in May, Masaharu Nakagawa, the chief finance spokesman for the opposition, told the bbc that he was worried about the future value of the dollar. He said that if his party were elected in the upcoming national elections, Japan would refuse to purchase any more U.S. treasuries unless they were denominated in Japanese yen instead of dollars.
Such a decision could break the U.S. dollar bond market.
Japan is America’s second-most important creditor nation—lending the U.S. billions of dollars each year. If Japan won’t lend unless America pays it back in yen, then China and other major lenders may quickly follow suit. This would eliminate America’s ability to use inflation to cheat on its debt payments. America’s debt burden would soar, interest rates would jump, and national default—Argentina-style—could be staring America in the face within months instead of years.
“America is making a terrible mistake which will result in the greatest fall in all of mankind’s history!” Tim Thompson wrote for the Trumpet in 2000. “As soon as America is no longer a safe place for foreign money, that money will be gone. And once the foreign money is gone, it will leave us with a mountain of debt that we cannot repay.”
What Japan is proposing could be the first steps of a great exodus from the U.S. bond market and consequently the end of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
America’s leaders seem blind to the looming dollar revolt. Global economies are in crisis. Unemployment rolls are soaring. People want answers and solutions. The jobless will demand action, and culpable politicians will look for scapegoats and distractions. The first step, blaming the U.S. and its currency for the global recession, has already begun.
A new global currency—and leveraging it to knock the U.S. down—will be the solution.
The highly trained economic theorists who keep telling us that foreigners can’t afford to stop supporting the U.S. are about to get reeducated at Reality U. •
Maj-Gen Amir Faisal Alavi’s daughter remembers him
Maj-Gen Amir Faisal Alavi’s daughter remembers him
WASHINGTON: The daughter of late SSG commando, Maj-Gen (retd) Amir Faisal Alavi, who is in the US, has sent a letter on her memories of her father. She writes: “I vaguely remember asking my dad when I was five, how old was your dad when he passed away, papa? I remember my dad’s surprised look and laughingly, he said, 61, why?, Ooo, I said, You have a long way to go. I was wrong, so wrong.You went much earlier, papa.
“Born a British national in Kenya, Alavi came to study at Abbottabad Public School, but later his love and zeal for the military prompted him to renounce his British nationality. He wrote to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, asking him to grant him Pakistani nationality so he could join the Army and that is exactly what happened, he got his wish. “My earliest memories are of my dad splendid in his uniform, no nonsense formidable soldier attitude and at the same time he was an easygoing person, very humble, compassionate, but very fearless. He just loved flirting with danger, it was almost as if he thrived on it. He had this amazing energy around him that’s hard to describe, just the word military would bring a sudden change in his behaviour, it would be hard to control his enthusiasm, the energy radiating from him, he drained life source from it.
“He had an amazing unending compassion for people and a heart so large I doubt it ever had walls. All you had to do was ask him and he would give it to you. He told me once, always look after the people below you because that is really what shows what kind of a person you are. He taught me not to judge people based on wealth, caste, their status, colour but judge them on their hearts. His magnanimity astounded me even at people who had hurt him badly. I never understood how he forgave people but he always said to me ‘Leave it to God’. “I still remember his enthusiasm while going on for a Wana operation and me as always complaining, ‘dad you are a general, honestly how many generals themselves go out in an operation?’ He said, ‘You fight from the top, the bottom will follow the top, and if I lead, my soldiers will follow.’
“I remember him putting a hand in his uniform and taking out a small medallion with Sura Yasin on it, saying what’s this?, while me and my sister continued to attach small medallions or Suras and prayers to his uniform. He would always say, ‘I am a soldier, I have no family. And that is what always scared me, my sister and mom to death.’ I remember whenever I was in distress or panic, he would gently admonish me, saying ‘Be brave, You are Faisal Alavi’s daughter, remember who you are,’ but I can be distressed now can’t I, papa, you are there no more, who do I turn to now? “I could write a whole book on my father but a part of me wants to keep those memories to myself because that’s all I have left of him. He is no more; all I have are his memories with me.
“I think it was unfair of fate to give me so little time with you, papa. You were my best friend, my saviour, my superman more than you were my dad and now you left me alone. Every time, I pick up my cell, my fingers automatically dial your number only to realise there is no papa anymore at the other end. “I think the way you went away was cruel, and the people who did it were cowards but knowing you, I can say that is certainly the way you would have wanted to go. I know your only regret is you did not have a weapon to shoot one or two, but papa, if you had one, those cowards would never have come near you. “I don’t think I ever told you this dad, even though it’s a bit late now, I just want you to know how very proud I am to be your daughter, papa. I was truly blessed to have a great soldier like you as a dad. I won’t cry I promise, because I am your daughter but how can I not be sad knowing I won’t hear you, meet you or hug you ever again. I will really miss you, papa, I did not only lose my father, I lost my best friend, my saviour, my superman.
“I promise you, papa I will fulfil every dream of yours. I will be strong, just don’t be mad at me for this moment of weakness, I lost you, let me have a moment of weakness, but I won’t go weak ever papa. I will take care of everything. I just want you to rest in peace papa, you worked a lot its time for you to rest. Amen.”
I LOVE YOU, PAPA
MEHVISH ZAHRA ALAVI
Major-General Faisal Alavi’s Letter to Gen. Kayani
Putting-Off the Moment of Truth in Pakistan
Putting-Off the Moment of Truth in Pakistan
By: Peter Chamberlin
An article in today’s Washington Post (“Pakistani Pledge to Rout Taliban In Tribal Region Is Put on Hold”) reveals that Obama’s Pakistani war plans have become bogged-down in a foggy uncertainty with the certain knowledge that the Pakistanis do not play well with others. They are leagues beyond us in the art of political and military play-acting.
The diabolical genius of the Pakistani game plan can now begin to be seen.
“Why would I push them to start an offensive when they have 2 million people they have to protect first?” Holbrooke said.
Their military actions in Swat and NWFP have flushed of millions of people from their homes, creating this monumental internal catastrophe. By flushing these restless refugees toward the eastern border with India and southward, putting them between the Pakistani Army and the big battlefield of S. Waziristan, a buffer was created between the government and international opinion.
“Baitullah Mehsud is a dreadful man, and his elimination is an imperative. However, the first imperative is to secure the areas the refugees are going back into.”
Washington’s man in Islamabad, Amb. Holbrooke, is obviously frustrated, hamstrung as he is by world opinion, while turning ever so slowly on the spit in the waiting fires of the new world order, searing from the burning pressure to act, before the countdown to Armageddon ends. Can Holbrooke pull-off another snow job for the Empire, like he did in the Balkans? He may be outmatched by Kayani and the rest of the wily generals.
The entire situation is aptly summed-up by a local observer:
“It’s an insane dream to expect anything different from the Pakistani government,” said Ali Wazir, a South Waziristan native and a politician with the secular Awami National Party. “The Taliban are the brainchildren of the Pakistan army for the last 30 years. They are their own people. Could you kill your own brother?”
The militants and the Army have been doing a carefully choreographed dance in the steep mountains of Waziristan for many years; why should they now end their routine, or dance to the American tune? Pakistan has successfully paused the orchestra, while the great American conductor fumbles with his sheet music.
Looking for clues about Pakistani intent in their calculated redirection in their national press, we find a complicated morass of information, telling of a new paradigm being set-up around the tired concept of “good Taliban/bad Taliban.” The new strategy (or should I say, plot?) revolves around the same old players, Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Nazir, with the rearrangement of secondary characters in and around S. Waziristan. The Abdullah Mehsud group of militants who had allied themselves with Baitullah against Nazir, will continue to play a key role in destabilization operations, as they have done since entering Pakistan from Afghanistan. Turkestan Bhittani is now out, and some new guy called “Baba” is in.
The blame for a national epidemic of bombings that have been blamed on Mehsud will be shifted to captured militant leader Shah Abdul Aziz and another militant named, Fidaullah. Aziz is also to receive the blame for ordering the recent wave of kidnappings for ransom, especially that of the murdered Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak.
As the case develops it is likely that Aziz will also take the fall for the kidnapping of Indian film-maker, Satish Anand and the murder of SSG Major General Aamir Faisal Alavi, to counter this India-supplied intelligence which implicated ex-military hitmen. Gen. Alavi was gunned-down after warning British journalist Carey Schofield that he was probably about to be murdered by the Army for reporting fake military operations against the Taliban in S. Waziristan. It is strange to read a timeline of the previous Army operations in S. Waziristan, it reads like the identical script Pakistan is still using today—economic blockade, punishing artillery strikes, tribal sanctions, ending in new deals being made.
The announcement of Aziz’s arrest, and the subsequent word of his being charged with terror bombings and kidnappings which have previously been rumored to have been the handiwork of Mehsud, comes on the heels of another important report from BBC, revealing that Aziz, upon his arrest, was carrying a letter from Mehsud to the Army. Word is, the topic was potential deals. This report also brings word from S. Waziristan that the Army had been reorganizing anti-Taliban groups.
The spy agencies prefer to find puppets who can be all things, in all situations, universal scapegoats whose very existence serves to wrap-up the many loose-ends from ongoing psy-ops in one neat solution. Men like bin Laden, Ramsi Yousef, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi(“al Qaida in Iraq”), Mullah Omar and Mehsud, have all served the purposes the spooks designed them for, to be fall guys for the illegal terrorist actions of the agencies. Now that we can glimpse the emerging picture, we can see the explanation for everything in the new super-ambitious, multi-tasking “Uber-terrorist,” Pakistani militant, Shah Abdul Aziz.
Arrangements have been made for a new paradigm, the next waltz with the militants has been quietly re-written by the Army (or was it done in another back room deal with the CIA?). How will Obama and the other Western leaders take it when the new puzzle is revealed? Will he allow the next dance to go on, or will he send the Predators in to disrupt the orchestra, or worse, will he send in the Special Forces and upend the entire bandstand? Pakistan may have bought itself a little time, but then again, the Zionist timekeepers are calling the shots in the greater Middle East. Netanyahu, the new thoroughly mad conductor will see Iranian blood spilled all over the dance floor very soon, or else, even if Pakistan’s backdoor into Iran does remain closed.
When will we grow tired of all the death and deception that calls itself “democracy” and do the one democratic thing that will put an end to all this? When will the American people take action and become players in this whole sordid game which passes for “government”? When will we get-up off our dead behinds and take the reins of power that lie loosely on the ground before us, just waiting for us to rise-up and fulfill our part of the American bargain?
Everything is the way it is because you refuse to be a good citizen. The scavengers run our government only because we let them.
peterchamberlin@naharnet.com
ThereAreNoSunglasses 