India, Saudi Arabia to sign 10 pacts

India, Saudi Arabia to sign 10 pacts

NDTV Correspondent, Sunday February 28, 2010, New Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on a 3-day visit to Saudi Arabia and was received by the entire Saudi cabinet on Saturday.

Dr Manmohan Singh is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Saudi Arabia in 28 years.

India and Saudi Arabia will sign ten pacts including Extradition Treaty, Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners and Agreement on setting up Joint Investment Fund.

PM and King Abdullah will also hold talks on cooperation in various areas includingsecurity and defence.

PM Singh Goes to Wahabi Homeland for Help Against Wahabi/Deobandi Terrorism

https://i0.wp.com/www.indianembassy.org.sa/Images/slide3.jpg

Saudis roll out red carpet to Manmohan

Vinay Kumar

Three-day visit aimed at reinvigorating ties with oil-rich kingdom

RIYADH: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here on Saturday on his first visit to the oil-rich kingdom, setting for himself a vast agenda of discussions with the Saudi leadership over the next two days.

In a departure from normal protocol norms, the Saudi Arabian leadership rolled out the red carpet to the Prime Minister as he was received at the royal terminal of the King Khalid International Airport by Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the first Deputy Prime Minister and Defence and Civil Aviation Minister.

In a rare gesture, the entire Cabinet — including Riyadh Governor Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mohammad bin Ayaf and Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz — was at the airport to receive Dr. Singh and his official delegation. The nearly 40-km route from the airport to the city centre was lined with Indian and Saudi Arabian flags.

A formal reception to the Prime Minister will be accorded on Sunday.

Dr. Singh’s three-day visit puts an end to the lull in India-Saudi Arabia ties and is aimed at reinvigorating relations. He is only the third Indian Prime Minister to have paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, after Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 and Indira Gandhi in 1982.

The visit comes four years after the historic visit to India of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi in 2006. At that time, the two countries signed the Delhi Declaration, which constitutes a blueprint for bilateral cooperation in the future.

“The Gulf region is an area of vital importance for India’s security and prosperity. India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have enjoyed special relations based on several millennia of civilisational and cultural linkages and people-to-people exchanges. The Kingdom is India’s largest and most reliable supplier of our energy needs from the region. Saudi Arabia is home to an Indian community numbering about 1.8 million,” the Prime Minister said in a statement prior to his departure for Riyadh.

Dr. Singh said both India and Saudi Arabia had much to gain by cooperating with each other in combating extremism and terrorism. He will discuss with the Saudi leadership the situation in Afghanistan and other regional issues of mutual interest.

Pointing out that trade and investment linkages have grown though they remain much below the potential of the two economies, Dr. Singh said these ties must be broad-based. “There is great scope for opening new frontiers of cooperation in the areas of security, defence, science and technology, space, human resource development and knowledge-based industries,” he said.

The Prime Minister will address members of the influential Majlis Al-Shura, as well as the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, besides senior officials, are part of Dr. Singh’s delegation.

Hakeemullah’s new video–from the “other side”?

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Video of Hakimullah Mehsud leaves fate unclear

Associated Press
Dera Ismail Khan

The Pakistani Taliban released a video of their militant chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, but his taped comments fail to prove he survived a US missile strike earlier this year.

US and Pakistani officials have become increasingly confident that the brash militant commander died of wounds from a drone-fired missile in mid-January, but the Pakistani Taliban have denied he was killed.

At the same time, the militants have said they felt no responsibility to definitively prove he’s alive.

The 43-minute undated video, obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday, shows a healthy Mehsud in white traditional Pakistani dress answering questions from an interviewer sitting off-screen. Another man, wearing a mask, holds a microphone up to Mehsud.

Mehsud extols the virtues of waging holy war in Afghanistan and Pakistan and warns U.S. forces not to enter Pakistan’s tribal belt, a lawless stretch of territory along the Afghan border where his and several other militant networks are based.

“If they make the mistake of entering the Pakistani tribal areas, they will open a new chapter of their destruction in history which may surpass their defeat in Vietnam,” Mehsud says in the video.

He also asserts that the US is considering negotiating with the Taliban because it faces defeat in Afghanistan.

Mehsud insists the Pakistani army’s offensive against his network in the South Waziristan tribal region has strengthened the militancy. The army says the operation has destroyed much of the group’s infrastructure and put its leaders on the run.

Mehsud never mentions the US missile campaign, but does warn viewers against “media propaganda.”

A Taliban associate gave the video to an AP reporter in the North Waziristan tribal region, where the US wants Pakistan to stage another military operation.

The area is home mostly to militant networks focused on the war in Afghanistan, unlike the Pakistani Taliban, which have staged attacks across Pakistan.

Mehsud is believed to be at least partly responsible for a suicide attack on an eastern Afghanistan CIA base that killed seven agency employees in late December.

For several weeks after that attack, the US dramatically escalated its missile strikes in the Pakistani tribal belt, with him apparently in its sights.

The Pakistani Taliban also denied the death of Mehsud’s predecessor, who was killed by a US missile strike in August, until they chose his successor weeks later. The same dynamic may be at work now.

Killing Shias is not jihad

Killing Shias is not jihad

Posted by Raza Rumi

This is an old article – When the state kills – authored by Pakistan’s eminent intellectual Khaled Ahmed. It remains relevant for what is happening today – the carnage in Karachi and targetted killing of the Shia minority is a cause for concern for  Pakistanis who want the country to become a plural, tolerant and progressive society for all its citizens irrespective of their faith, caste or creed.

PTH strongly condemns the Karachi incidents and will continue to raise voice against extremism and sectarianism.

Leader of the anti-Shia religious party Sipah Sahaba, Maulana Azam Tariq, has been released after being honourably acquitted of all charges of terrorism. He was picked up after he went and met Maulana Akram Awan in Chakwal earlier in the year after the latter had threatened to overthrow General Musharraf and impose Shariat on Islamabad. Maulana Tariq had thereafter announced that his party will also forcibly impose principles of Sharia in selected cities of the country. While he was in jail facing trial, his party had warned the government of dire consequences. In the interim, there was a spate of shia killings in Karachi, mainly targeting doctors and other prominent personalities. Workers of Sipah Sahaba had started offering arrests to pressure the government into releasing their leader.
Lashkar and Sipah linkage:After being acquitted of charges of terrorism, Maulana Azam Tariq has once again publicly dissociated himself from the terrorist activities of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and called on it to give up violence. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, run by terrorist Riaz Basra, is dedicated to Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of Sipah Sahaba. (Jhangvi’s anti-shia tapes are famous.) When the Lashkar activist who killed the Iranian diplomat Sadiq Ganji in Lahore in 1990 was about to be hanged Maulana Azam Tariq, instead of dissociating himself from the terrorist, actually led a campaign for the remission of his sentence and even offered diyat (blood money) to Iran. Another splinter of Sipah, Jaish-e-Muhammed, also reveres late Maulana Haq Nawaz jhangvi. In fact its leader Masood Azhar first wanted to name his militia Lashkar-e-Muhammad but was advised by his ‘handlers’ to avoid the association with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The sectarian Jaish was given territory near Balakot for guerrilla training for incursions into Kashmir, which makes the state party to the sectarian mess in Pakistan. It is expected that after the release of Maulana Azam Tariq the killings of doctors and prominent citizens of Karachi will taper off. This is not the first time the state has made a deal with him.

That the state is involved in Shia killings in Karachi has been reported in the press in Pakistan. That there is a strong Deobandi-Sipah presence in Karachi with links with MQM Haqiqi, courtesy intelligence agencies, has also been noted. This makes Maulana Azam Tariq the most powerful man from Karachi to Gilgit. Indeed there are cities where his writ runs stronger than that of the state. A French scholar who is writing his biography and lived in his house in Jhang for a time observed that Maulana Azam Tariq’s day normally began by giving orders to the city’s administration. His orders have been equally effective when he was in jail. He is in fact the most powerful man of the Deobandi jehad organised by the state and is definitely more powerful than the chief executive of Pakistan on a given day on the basis of his ability to make things happen.

State officers who kill Shias:The press is careful in reporting the sectarian truth in Karachi but some signs of a desperate kind of courage have come to light after the heart-rending murders of the Shia doctors in the city. Amjad Bashir Siddiqi wrote in The News (5 August 2001): ‘These sectarian organisations, with enormous money in their pockets, spend it without any limits to free terrorists or to bail them out, and more importantly, to ingress into the administration. Recently, money was spent to free a terrorist from the custody of CIA, who, three days later assassinated the chief of Sunni Tehreek, Saleem Qadiri. Lately, they are also trying to wriggle free another activist of their party now on death row and are ready to spend as much money as needed to ensure that Mansur, convicted for the killing of seven members of three families in PECHS back in 1993, gets bail’.

The article goes on to describe how the Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar, whose entry was banned in Sindh because of the wave of sectarian terrorism, was stopped at Karachi airport and was asked to go back. Azhar phoned someone and the ban was immediately lifted to allow him to enter Karachi, after which he had a meeting with home secretary, Sindh. Azhar also later went to Ghotki in violation of the ban and was ignored by the local SDM there who was probably himself anti-Shia. The officer was pulled up, but later still, when Maulana Azhar tried to enter Sukkur and was stopped by the district administration it was pulled up this time for not giving him unhampered passage to anywhere in the city. The article adds: ‘Another serious problem has been the criminalisation of the jehadi elements, some of whom have been involved in sectarian killings. Recently, commissioner Karachi Shafiqur Rehman Khwaja gave Rs 200,000 to the prime suspect of Saleem Qadri’s murder, Arshad Polka, as compensation money for being a victim of terrorism. Polka had died during the attack on the Sunni Tehreek leader.’ The article goes on to link the state machinery with sectarian killers. Officers aligned to sectarian killers do two things: they get the criminals released in case they are caught after the act, and they see to it that caught terrorists are not allowed to be linked to the jehadi militias. The state is in fact the killer of the Shia in Pakistan.

ISI and Shia killings:Monthly Newsline (June 2001) actually wrote that the intelligence agencies were ‘in’ with the sectarian terrorists: ‘The official quoted above has no hesitation in accusing the ISI of orchestrating such (Shia) murders through the militants of sectarian parties, adding that Sipah Sahaba terrorists are trained by the agency. The Sipah Sahaba are supported by the MQM Haqiqi Group. Sources reveal that Sipah Sahaba’s (sic!) Riaz Basra has been spotted in the company of a colonel who has also given him shelter in his house. Similarly, when three members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were picked up by the police, another colonel, who identified himself as their PRO, requested that they be released forthwith’. It should be noted that Riaz Basra has been described by the magazine as a Sipah activist! Karachi has killed 450 people in cases of sectarian violence since General Musharraf took over the government in October 1999. Lately the killing is one-sided because the Sunni-Deobandi combine is simply too strong to be countered by the Shia organisations.

The shia-sunni conflict is as old as Islam itself in the Indian subcontinent, but it was effectively marginalised by a secular British raj which treated it as a law-and-order issue. After 1947, the policy was continued and the worst sectarian riots were defined by the state as no more than public disorder which the executive handled as violation of the CRPC, the legal code of criminal procedure. The clergy involved in the conflict gradually became tired as the citizens mixed and intermarried across the sect boundaries. The breakdown of the secular state under General Zia’s martial law brought the shia-sunni differences to centre-stage.

General Zia versus the Shias:General Zia took over the populist slogan of Nizam-e-Mustafa and imposed ’shariah’ on Pakistan. It really meant the imposition of the Sunni Hanafi ‘fiqh’ or jurisprudence followed by the majority population from which the shias were excluded. The two early laws under ’shariah’ that he enforced failed miserably: the first, abolition of ‘riba’, failed because of the inability of the Islamic scholars to reinterpret Islam for modern conditions; the second, ‘zakat’, failed because the shia jurisprudence, called ‘Fiqha-e-Jaafaria’, had a conflicting interpretation of zakat. In 1980, an unprecedented procession of shias, led by Mufti Jaafar Hussain, laid siege to Islamabad and forced General Zia to exempt the shia community from the deduction of zakat. The concept of sunni ‘ushr’ (poor-due on land) is also rejected by shia jurisprudence.

It appears that, when the anti-shia movement started in Jhang in the 1980s, General Zia not only ignored it but saw it as his balancing act against the rebellious shia community. This was worsened by Imam Khomeini’s criticism of General Zia. The rise of Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in the stronghold of big shia landlords in Punjab changed the sectarian scene in Pakistan. There is evidence that General Zia was warned of Jhangvi’s anti-shia and anti-Iran movement, but he ignored the warning and allowed it to blossom into a full-fledged religious party called Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba of Pakistan (ASSP). In small towns, the old shia-sunni debate restarted with the fury that had become dampened in the past. The tracts which carried this debate were scurrilous in the extreme and helped the clerics to whip up passions. Meanwhile, in 1986, General Zia allowed a ‘purge’ of Turi shias in the divided city of Parachinar (capital of Kurram Agency on the border with Afghanistan) at the hands of the sunni Afghan mujahideen in conjunction with the local sunni population.

Pakistan versus the Turis of Parachinar:Parachinar was the launching-pad of the Mujahideen attacks into Afghanistan and the Turis were not cooperative. Tehrike-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqha-e-Jaafaria had come into being during the dispute over zakat in 1980. When the Parachinar massacre occurred, it was led by a Turi leader, Allama Arif-ul-Hussaini. Allama Hussaini was murdered in Peshawar in August 1988, for which the Turis held General Zia responsible. That was also the year of General Zia’s death (within a fortnight of Hussaini’s murder) in an air-crash in Bahawalpur, and for a time there was rumour of shia involvement in his assassination although no solid evidence supporting this speculation was ever uncovered. The NWFP governor General Fazle Haq, whom the Turis accused of complicity in the murder of Allama Hussaini, was ambushed and killed in 1991. (Mehram Ali, the shia terrorist who blew up the Sipah leader Maulana Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi at the sessions court in Lahore, was trained in Parachinar).

In 1989, the Afghan mujahideen government-in-exile came into being in Peshawar after the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan. At the behest of Saudi Arabia, the exiled shia mujahideen of Iran were not included in this government. The Saudis, according to author Barnett R.Rubin in The Search for Peace in Afghanistan (page 103) paid over 23 million dollars a week during the 519-member session of the Mujahideen ’shura’ as bribe for it. In 1990, Maulana Jhangvi was murdered at the climax of his anti-Iran and anti-shia campaign of extreme insult and denigration. The same year, as if in retaliation, an activist of Sipah-e-Sahaba shot the Iranian consul Sadiq Ganji dead in Lahore. The tit-for-tat killings were thus started. Maulana Isar-ul-Qasimi, chief of the Sipah, was gunned down in 1991.

Since then, the state of Pakistan has had to answer for the killing of more Iranians in Pakistan. Another consular officer was gunned down in Multan and a number of Iranian air force trainees were ambushed in Rawalpindi on inside information received by the killers, thus making the army not uninvolved in the sectarian mayhem. Most commentators in Pakistan are scared of telling the truth. Most inter-sectarian dialogue is fake since its great facade of speech-making is nothing but divine-sounding hogwash. Almost all Muslim clerics lie when it comes to sectarian deaths

Source: The Friday Times, Aug 31-Sep 06, 2001 | Vol. XIII, No. 27 issue

Indian weapons in Swat OR ISI strategy to demonize civilian government? – by Anas Abbas

Indian weapons in Swat OR ISI strategy to demonize civilian government? – by Anas Abbas

One of the main aims of Pakistan Army and its pro Taliban media sympathizers is to launch campaigns against the civilian government structure in order to justify its controversial interference.

The strategy employed here to achieve this objective by the army and its media agents is to present a picture in the Pakistani public that the army is doing all it can to take actions against certain contentious issues in Pakistan but it’s the civilian government that is acting as an impediment in its quest.

For example: Refer to this brief video where ISPR (ISI’s Public Relations) is giving this statement in the press conference that the Pakistan army has captured Indian weapons in Swat and all necessary proof regarding India’s complicity has been send to the civilian government (Foreign Office) and now it’s the government’s job to take this with India.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qfH9BZ6ifo (ISPR Claim about Indian Weapons)

In other words the ISPR that represents Pakistan army is giving this impression that the military has fully done its job of collecting evidence against India and now it’s the turn of the civilian government to raise this issue with India.

Statements like these then are heavily exploited by army’s media agents (Zaid Hamid and Ahmed Qureshi in particular) to further justify their claim that the present civilian government is not taking these issues with India and hence is working with the CIA and RAW and the only way to bring stability in Pakistan and to fight Indian interference is to willingly accept an army rule.

Thus the army works collectively with its media propagandists to indoctrinate the common public with the popular view that the only choice left for them in these circumstances is army rule.

The question is that how the Pakistan Army is reaching this conclusion that the weapons captured in swat were Indian made?

Are the weapons really Indian made or is it just a propaganda tactic against the civilian government?

Why would India give its own, locally made weapons to these terrorists when it is well aware of the threat this will pose to its secret endeavour of destabilizing Pakistan?

The first rule for any covert operation is to make sure that that the operation remains clandestine. CIA has been an expert in covert operations and one good example of its successful operation was in 1980’s during afghan jihad when the mujahedeen who fought the Russians were supplied with Israeli weapons by the Americans.

Americans wanted to give the appearance that mujhadeen were using Russian made weapons. U.S Congressman Charlie Wilson together with Mossad agent Zvi Rafiah brokered a deal between the then Pakistani president Zia-ul-haq and Israeli government to help supply Russian made weapons that Israel had captured from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon to Afghanistan.

So why would India supply its locally made weapons to insurgents in Pakistan? Why would it not use Chinese or Pakistani made weapons?

Below is the link of Ahmed Qureshi’s website with a picture that is found on forums, blogs and websites that promotes the above mentioned “Indian made” weapons theory.

http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=708

http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/indian-weapons-in-swat-fata/

The above picture is showing weapons purportedly captured by Pakistani army in Swat. According to Zaid Hamid, Ahmed Qureshi and other conspiracy theorists, the weapon in the picture is an Indian made gun called Vickers-Berthier, hence it proves that India is secretly supplying weapons to the Pakistani Taliban in order to destabilize Pakistan.

Here is the text accompanying the above picture in Ahmed Qureshi’s website:

“A number of the Indian army standard issue Vickers-Berthier (VB) light machine gun, manufactured in India, have been found by the Pakistani military in the hands of the terrorists in Swat. This LMG has a 30-round box magazine and a bipod stand, and is sometimes mistaken for the Bren. Apart from India, it was only sold to a few Baltic and South American states”

Rebuttal of this theory:

The Vicker – Berthier is a machine gun manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited “a British engineering conglomerate”. It was adopted by the British Indian Army and its production line was established at the Ishapore Rifle Factory in India, and still remains in reserve use for the Indian army. (http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg82-e.htm)

But the real question is, is the above picture really showing a Vicker – Berthier?

The image below shows a Vicker-Berthier from a reliable Vickers Armstrongs website

Please refer to these links for references about Vicker – Berthier:

http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/ (Click Links on the left-hand side and subsequently click “Light Machine Guns” under General Weapon information heading)

http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg82-e.htm

Clearly the original Vicker – Berthier as shown above differs in structure from the one shown on Ahmed Qureshi’s website. (Notice the difference between buttstocks).

The gun which Ahmed Qureshi falsely calls the Vicker is actually a Russian PK machine gun or another variant called PKM.

Below are two images of Russian PK Machine guns. The Second image is showing this gun loaded with 100-round belt in the attached box.

Please refer to these links for all the information related to PK Machine gun.

http://warfare.ru/?lang=&catid=276&linkid=2200 (From Russain Arms Database)

http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg07-e.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_machine_gun

http://www.armscontrol.ru/atmtc/Arms_systems/Land/Small_Arms/smarms.htm (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology – Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies)

Now let’s expose this propaganda of Pakistani conspiracy theorists further.

Below is a picture of former Afghan Taleban commander (Soviet Afghan war veteran) Mullah Dadullah. He was killed by US forces in fighting in 2007.

Source=Video interview of Dadullah by as-Sahab in 2006

Notice the gun above. It’s the Russian PK machine gun that has been a standard weapon for the Taliban along with the infamous Russian AK – 47. There are also dozens of videos on YouTube of afghan Taliban fighters clearly showing them with Russian PK Machine guns. (Please type Dadullah in YouTube search box and watch the videos for confirmation)

Now let’s look at some of the weapons captured by the coalition forces in Afghanistan and analyse the weapons used in recent attacks by Afghan Taliban on the Afghan Government officials, American, British and NATO troops.

Refer to these links below and notice that all weapons were PK machine guns:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1225370/British-soldiers-murdered-Afghanistan-Taliban-assassin.html (British Soldiers killed by Taliban Assassin)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8055247.stm (Karzai’s Brother Attacked)

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2009/02/12/marines-taliban-and-tactics-techniques-and-procedures/

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/06/26/monitor/entry4212617.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody (Taliban, Al Qaeda attacking British Troops)

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=67464&d=25&m=7&y=2005 (PK Machine guns Captured from Afghan Taliban)

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c2254a,4565c25f5a5,469f5b661e,0.html

(PK Machine guns Captured from Afghan Taliban)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6178044/British-officer-wins-two-gallantry-awards-for-fending-off-Taliban-attack-with-bayonet.html

(British Officer Attacked)

PK Machine gun is one of the most common weapons in Afghanistan which is not only used by the Afghan Taliban but used also by the Afghan police and their national army. These guns are available in large supply in Afghanistan mainly because the Russian army left behind large caches of Russian made weapons in after the war in 1980s.  Another reason is the drug trade between the Russian gangs and Taliban where the gangs buy cheaper drugs from Afghanistan and pay for it with guns instead of money. Please refer to a report on drug for guns trade with Taliban in the link below:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/drugs-for-guns-how-the-afghan-heroin-trade-is-fuelling-the-taliban-insurgency-817230.html

This is exactly reminiscent of how the diamond for guns trade works to finance the African warlords in Africa.

Now for the final nail in the coffin of this conspiracy theory:

The Russian PK machine gun, which Pakistan Army (through Ahmed Qureshi and Zaid Hamid) claims is an Indian made Vicker, was captured by Israel from a Palestinian owned freighter in 2002. Here is the link

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/paship.html

Now even if we grant the crazy claim of Qureshi and Hamid that these weapons are indeed Indian made Vickers (as ridiculous as this is) we are faced with this puzzle: if Indian made weapons, Vickers, are found in the hands of Taliban which hence incriminates India of involvement in Pakistan, then by the same logic India is also supporting the Muslim, Palestinian militia against Israel and the Afghan Taliban, both of whom Pakistan glorifies as freedom fighters.

But this does not sound so ludicrously insane since Ahmed Qureshi’s sources are none other than the ever so reliable Brass Tacks which is ostensibly a security think tank founded by army’s main media representative Zaid Hamid. Sources obtained by Zaid Hamid are as reliable as the sources that claim seeing the Loch Ness monster.

Here is the video link below where he is telling us about his sources of information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmNGpClflbQ

This is hilarious comedy material. He claims he has spies all over the world feeding him information through thousands of emails daily. Seriously, are we just supposed to take his word on this? He sounds like a megalomaniac freak.

Recently Pakistan army expressed its “serious concerns” on Kerry Lugar bill by holding 122 Corps Commanders Conference at General Headquarters.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/army-top-brass-examines-us-aid-bill-05-sal-01

On similar lines, why Pakistan army is not in a position to hold an emergency meeting (at least) to protest against these so called indian made weapons?

The answer is simple:

They cannot protest against this because its just a propaganda tactic only to demonize the civilian government and also to blame India for all the violence  in Pakistan rather than the militants it had once harbored for achieving its strategic depth policy.

Source: Visit AA@Counter Terrorism, Imperialism, Extremism and Bigotry

The Non-Story of Sunni On Sunni Violence Following Afghan Taliban Arrest

[In Pakistani news you can always smell a rat whenever news stories carry vague descriptions of violent events, like the following story of an alleged “sectarian encounter” in Faisalbad.  The news describes an “encounter,” a non-event, that carries no names and identifies no organized groups or the names of the terrorists involved.  On further research, it is revealed that it is NOT a “sectarian” confrontation, because the rivals are from the same sect–Sunni Berelvis and members of the banned Sunni terrorist group, Sipah e-Sahaba.  The write-up makes it appear that Shia processioners were the targets, but in fact, it was Sipah Sahaba and Taliban firing upon fellow Sunnis of the Berelvi faith, which Sipah and Taliban consider to be apostate infidels.


Further digging reveals that the site of the ongoing confrontation is also the location where Taliban commander Mullah Abdus Salam was captured, leading to the conclusion that the violence is pay-back for potential spies who helped in his capture.  [SEE second story]   The militants nabbed in that arrest and the ones which followed had grenades and maps of Imambargahs in Faisalabad, suggesting that Sipah and the Taliban were planning strikes upon Shias.

The whole deception is unravelled by the final article below, from Let Us Build Pakistan, Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba’s attack on Eid Milad-un-Nabi rallies: This is not sectarianism; this is terrorism.]

Firing at Eid-e-Milad un Nabi procession in Faisalabad

Upadated on: 27 Feb 10 06:37 PM
Staff Report

FAISALABAD: At least three people have been injured when terrorists opened fire on Eid-e-Milad un Nabi procession near Gol Masjid in Ghulam Muhammadabad area on Saturday.

Meanwhile, angry mob set on fire Ghulam Muhammadabad police station and pelted stones at passing-by vehicles. Angry public also set ablaze dozens of vehicles.

Clashes among different groups are also reported, injuring five children.

The police carried out baton-charge to control the situation. While attempts have been made to arrest the culrpits.

Khatib of Gol Masjid and 4-member delegation of ulema have also been arrested. Moreover, arms and ammunition have been recovered from the residence of the Khatib.

Commissioner, DCO and RPO have started talks with ulema and protesters.

On the other hand, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan’s [“Barelvi” ] President Sahabzada Fazal Kareem has given a strike call in Faisalabad tomorrow. SAMAA

Two alleged terrorists killed in Faisalabad ‘encounter’

FAISALABAD: Two alleged terrorists, Dr Muhammad Umar Kundi of Layyah and Muhammad Adil alias Muavia, were killed in an encounter near the Hazara Hotel, adjacent to canal irrigation offices here on Friday while two of their accomplices, Ehsanullah and Muhammad Ali Khan (brothers) were arrested.

Umar Kundi was a student of the Punjab Medical College and had been doing house job in Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, sometime back. The accused are reportedly involved in the Rawalpindi and Lahore bomb blasts and active supporters of Mullah Omar.

They were also allegedly involved in many terrorism cases. The police have recovered eight hand-grenades, four pistols from their car when searched after the encounter and maps of Imambargahs in Faisalabad were also recovered from the car.

It is reported that the special squad detailed for surveillance of the suspect terrorists continued watching the house of terrorists on Canal Road on January 26 and at last arrested four suspects from their house on January 28, including one Mullah Abdus Salam, who was on the list of top 10 wanted Taliban commanders.

During interrogation, Mullah Abdus Salam reportedly disclosed the names of four alleged terrorists, who were intercepted by the police while two of them were killed in an encounter. According to another report received here, the law-enforcing agencies also conducted a raid on Jamia Madrassa Salfia in Satiana on Friday and nabbed three persons, Maulana Attique, Shabbir Ahmed and Muhammad Rafique. Sources said they were shifted to some unidentified location for interrogation.

Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba’s attack on Eid Milad-un-Nabi rallies: This is not sectarianism; this is terrorism.


Rescuers stand near a child injured by a firing, at a local hospital in Dera Ismail, Pakistan on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010. According to police official unidentified gunmen opened fire on a procession celebrate anniversary of the birth of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.(AP photo/Ishtiaq Mehsud)

I know that Pakistani media as well as most of Pakistani bloggers have either ignored or censored these two news items. But the LUBP will not.

The 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal is celebrated by Muslims in Pakistan as the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (peace by upon him and his progeny). In particular, Sunni Barelvi Muslims organize large public meetings and rallies on that day in the memory of the Prophet.

It is however a known fact that certain Muslim sects (e.g. Wahhabi and Deobandi) term such ceremonies of the Eid Mila-un-Nabi as shirk (polytheism) and biddat (innovation in religion).

Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation and practice of religion as long as it does not lead to violence or hate speech. However, the situation gets ugly when some extremist element within one sect try to superimpose their interpretation of Islam and Quran on other sects through the use of violence.

This is exactly what happened in D.I. Khan and Faisalabad on the most sacred day of the birthday of the Prophet, when extremist Deobandis and Wahhabis belonging to Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba attacked peaceful public rallies of Barelvi Muslims. Scores of Barelvi Muslims were killed or injured in these two separate (but ideologically interconnected) incidents.

The question is, why are these news items being censored or misrepresented in Pakistani media?

Here is a plain answer. The pro-Taliban (extremist Deobandi-Wahhabi) lobby, funded and supported by Saudi Arabia (through the ISI and mullahs) is extremely influential in Pakistani media. The pro-Taliban jihadi and sectarian youth serve to act as a proxy army for the ISI’s operations in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Hence, they would not allow an exposure of the real face of their evil ideology and its proponents to the Pakistani nation, the majority of whom follow a peaceful Barelvi, Sufi tradition of Islam. Therefore, they are misrepresenting the horrible incidents of D.I.Khan and Faisalabad as sectarian violence.

It is not sectarian violence. It is not a fight between Deobandis and Barelvis. It is a fight between extremism and multiculturalism. It is a fight between tolerance and intolerance. It is a fight between the followers of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mullah Omar.

It is not sectarianism. It is terrorism. The state must use its full force to protect peaceful Barelvis (and other vulnerable groups) from violence by well trained and well equipped terrorists of Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba.

Here are a couple of news reports:

Sydney Morning Herald

Sectarian clashes kill seven in Pakistan
February 28, 2010

Pakistani authorities slapped a curfew on a restive northwestern district on Sunday after clashes and gun fights left at least seven people dead at a religious procession, officials said.

Sectarian violence erupted on Saturday in the town of Paharpur in Dera Ismail Khan district, as hundreds of Muslims rallied to celebrate Eid Milad-un-Nabi, which marks Prophet Mohammed’s birthday.

Gunmen opened fire on a parade by the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims, killing one person on the spot and prompting the angry crowd to retaliate by attacking a seminary of the local Deobandi Sunni sect.

“Seven people were killed and 38 others have been injured in these incidents. All the dead are Sunni, there are some Shi’ites among the injured,” district police chief Gul Afzal Afridi told AFP.

Dera Ismail Khan district has in the past been troubled by unrest between followers of the Sunni [Deobandi] and Shi’ite branches of Islam, but clashes between Sunni factions are relatively rare.

An official in the hospital Dera Ismail Khan hospital confirmed the death toll and said that the 38 people wounded were still being treated.

Authorities early on Sunday ordered people to remain in their houses night and day in the main city, also called Dera Ismail Khan, and other parts of the district including Paharpur town. Security forces patrolled the streets.

“We have arrested more than 20 suspects and are carrying out more raids. There is a curfew in the main city and some of the outskirts,” Afridi said.

Afridi had refused to comment on Saturday on who might be responsible for the initial shooting, saying the area was troubled by both sectarian unrest and attacks by Islamist militant groups.

Shi’ites account for about 20 per cent of Pakistan’s Sunni-dominated population. The two communities usually coexist peacefully, but more than 4000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence since the late 1980s.

Attacks by Islamist extremists, meanwhile, have killed more than 3000 people since July 2007. Most attacks are blamed on the Pakistani Taliban. Source: SMH

AFP

Also Saturday, at least one person died and several others were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a procession in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, said Dr. Qutbuddin Khan, who works at a local hospital.

The participants, later, attacked a mosque, said police official Bashar Khan, adding that it triggered a clash between Barelvi and Deobandi Sunni sects, killing three more people. Some 26 more suffered wounds, he said.

Khan said troops imposed a curfew in the area. He added it was not clear who had attacked the procession.

The procession was marking Mulid an-Nabi, the anniversary of the birth of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Source: AFP

Dawn’s report on the Faislabad attack

By M. Irfan Mughal and Mohammad Saleem
28 Feb, 2010


Pakistani protesters riot after gunmen opened fire on a religious procession marking Mulid an-Nabi in Faisalabad, Pakistan on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010. – AP

FAISALABAD: Six people were injured on Sunday and more than two dozen have been taken into custody in the past 24 hours following clashes in Faisalabad.

Three people were injured in incidents of firing in Ghulam Muhammadabad area of Faisalabad and three motorcycles were set ablaze this morning.

Given the situation, the DCO of Faisalabad said that Section 144 has been imposed in the city. Later, RPO Faisalabad Muhammad Tahir, Commissioner Tahir Hussain, DCO Saeed Iqbal and SSP Operations Sarfaraz Falki held a meeting with the representatives of various religious organisations to restore normalcy in the area.

Despite being in Faisalabad, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Home Secretary Nadeem Hassan Asif did not attend the meeting.

On Saturday, protestors set ablaze a police station and dozens of vehicles in the area following a clash between two groups, during an Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession.

The clash erupted after one of the groups opened fire on an Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession, leaving three people injured. Police had arrested around 15 people including the Khateeb of Goal Masjid, Zahid Mehmood Qasmi, on the charges of instigating people for rioting. Source: Dawn

The News

Clash enters 2nd day; section-144 imposed in Faisalabad
Updated at: 1305 PST, Sunday, February 28, 2010
FAISALABAD: Two warring factions once again Sunday entered clashes in Faisalabad, Geo News reported Sunday.

According to the initial reports, the exchange of fire between the two groups is in progress in Usmanabad area on Millat Road here.

Also, the infuriated people are going on rampage in the area.

Heavy contingents of police have been called in the area in view of tense situation in the area.

Also, the Section-144 has been imposed in the city. Source: The News

Does Hekmatyar Hand In Kabul Bombing Implicate ISI?

NEW DELHI: While India may not want to straightaway point a finger at Pakistan for Friday’s Kabul attacks, which came a day after the resumption of dialogue between the two countries, there are indications that the suicide attacks could have been carried out at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI.

Highly placed government officials confirmed to TOI that India’s external intelligence wing, RAW, had repeatedly warned the government about meetings between the Taliban and ISI officials since September last year aiming to attack Indian interests in Kabul.

The attack on a hotel used by Indians also came as the new US led surge saw the Afghan flag being planted in Marjah where the troops have wrested aTaliban stronghold. It is seen as part of the Taliban desire to show that they can strike anywhere in the heart of Kabul but also meshes with ISI’s objective to “evict” Indian presence from Afghanistan.

The bombing does complicate matters for India as it has just begun an engagement with Pakistan that cannot be abruptly called off. It has again showed up a lack of options while dealing with Pakistan when US pressure seems the only effective instrument. Given the lack of pressure points between talks and hostilities, New Delhi will not find it easy to toughen its position.

The first of the intelligence inputs came in September 2009 from RAW which said that officials from ISI’s joint intelligence (north) wing had discussed plans to carry out attacks against Indian aid workers in Kabul with the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar group. Of all the Taliban insurgent groups, Hekmatyar heads the smallest one but is well known for being ISI’s most trustworthy ally in the region. His Hizb-e-Islami group is fighting alongside the Taliban against the US-led forces.

“Since then, almost every month there had been credible information about meetings which ISI officials had with the Hekmatyar and Haqqani factions of Taliban to discuss the modus operandi for the attacks. It’s only natural for Indian security agencies to believe that these meetings could have culminated in Friday’s attacks,” said a source, adding that New Delhi was still waiting for a report from the Afghan government on the identity of the attackers.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks but their spokesperson did not specify which faction was responsible. According to sources, the input from RAW suggested that most of these meetings to target India were held with the Hekmatyar group. The same ISI officials are said to have had such meetings with the Haqqani faction which too is known for being strongly backed by Pakistan.

The inputs said that officials from ISI’s joint intelligence (north) and joint intelligence (miscellaneous) wings were present in these meetings. While joint intelligence (north) is responsible for ISI’s operations in Afghanistan and Kashmir, the miscellaneous wing is known to carry out disruptive activities in foreign countries, mainly India. In fact, the infamous Karachi Project, which was confirmed by the home ministry earlier, is said to be the brainchild of joint intelligence (miscellaneous) wing.

Indian officials are also closely looking at the possibility of an army officer, Samir Ali, having played a role in the blasts. Ali is one of the army officers who have been named by India in the dossier provided to Pakistan on February 25. While it’s not yet confirmed whether Ali is a serving officer or has retired, he is known to carry out operations for ISI. “Even if he has retired from the army, as per the information we have, he is certainly working for ISI and his focus is India,” said an official, adding that Ali is wanted in 26/11 and was also one of David Headley’s handlers.

Pak will have to fight war if India doesn’t talk, says Hafiz Saeed

Pak will have to fight war if India doesn’t talk, says Hafiz Saeed

Notwithstanding the recent Indo-Pak foreign secretary-level meeting for which India [ Images ] took initiative, Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed has said Pakistan will have to ‘fight a war at all costs’ if New Delhi [ Images ] is not prepared to hold talks.

“India wants war… If India is not prepared to hold talks, Pakistan will have to fight a war at all costs,” Saeed said in an interview to a news channel.

Asked about India’s accusations about his involvement in planning and carrying out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Saeed replied, “Let India prove it in any court, I will be ready to accept everything.”

To another question on whether people should go to Kashmir [ Images ] for ‘jihad’ against India, he said there was ‘no doubt’ in his mind that this should be done.

He also said he had no doubt that the Pakistan government is ‘cowardly.’

Saeed’s comments came days after the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan held talks in New Delhi on February 25, the first official parleys between the two sides since the Mumbai attacks.

Though there was no breakthrough in the talks, the world community welcomed the development in the hope that it would lead to normalisation of ties between the two countries.

The JuD chief’s face was not shown during the interview and he was filmed over his shoulder from the back. He said he did not wish to be filmed as it was not allowed by ‘Shariah’ or Islamic law.

Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Tayiba, was placed under house arrest in Lahore [ Images ] in December 2008 after the JuD was declared a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks [ Images ].

He was freed after about six months on the orders of the Lahore high court.

The Pakistan government challenged his release in the Supreme Court, but no hearing has been held in the matter for several months after the case was adjourned for various reasons.

Several members of the LeT — including its operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a former aide of Saeed — are currently being tried by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi for their alleged role in planning and facilitating the Mumbai attacks.

This case too has been affected by controversy and delays.

Earthquake jolts Pakistan

Earthquake jolts Pakistan

Islamabad, Feb 28 : An earthquake rocked parts of Pakistan, including capital Islamabad, early Sunday morning, a media report said.

According to met office, the tremors rattled upper and lower Dir, Swat, Bunir, Hangu, Malakand, Nowshera, Attock and Peshawar. The quake measured 6.2 on the Richter Scale.
The epicenter of the quake was somewhere in Afghanistan beneath Hindu Kush’s mountainous region, Geo TV reported.
No loss of life or property was reported. People came out of their homes reciting verses from the Quran.

Bangladesh arrests Pakistan militant suspect

Bangladesh arrests Pakistan militant suspect

Bangladesh has arrested a suspected Pakistani militant and four of its own nationals who planned to carry out attacks in the country. – (File Photo)

DHAKA: Bangladesh has arrested a suspected Pakistani militant and four of its own nationals who planned to carry out attacks in the country, a spokesman for the elite force that made the arrests said on Sunday.

Commander Mohammad Sohel of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said the five, aged between 26 and 30, were members of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based militant group blamed for terrorist attacks in India.

“They were picked up from a market in the capital Dhaka. The Pakistani citizen and four Bangladeshis have admitted of being the members of Jaish-e-Mohammad and they were planning attacks in the country,” he said.

One of the four Bangladeshis has served ten years in prison in India, he added.

In November three Pakistani men were arrested in Dhaka on suspicion of plotting to attack US and Indian targets in the Bangladeshi capital.

Bangladesh has not witnessed any major attacks by militants since 2005, when a series of bombings shook the world’s fourth largest mainly Muslim country.

Since then, the RAB has arrested hundreds of members of militant outfits.

At least six top militants have been executed and scores more sentenced to life terms. – AFP

Terrorism Is the Problem

[There seems to be complete agreement between the two prime ministers, that terrorism is the biggest problem for both countries.  Now if both countries could only agree to call-off those who are within their sphere of influence.]

Terrorism biggest problem for Pakistan: PM

OKARA: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said terrorists are defiling the face of Islam, adding terrorism and militancy are absolutely alien to Islam, Geo News reported Sunday.

Addressing the ceremony of Urs of Baba Karmanwal here, he said the biggest problem afflicting Pakistan is terrorism.

India ready to discuss all issues with Pakistan: Singh

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India was ready to discuss all issues with Pakistan in an atmosphere free of terrorism.

In an interview with Saudi journalists prior to his departure to Saudi Arabia, Singh said there was no alternative to dialogue for resolving the issues that divide us.

“There is no change in our position. We seek a peaceful and normal relationship with Pakistan. We should be good neighbours. In that quest, we have consistently sought to engage those in Pakistan who are ready to work with us,” he said.

Today the primary issue is terrorism, he said when asked India’s position on resumption of talks with Pakistan.

To a query as to how the Kashmir issue could be solved once and for all, Singh said “Jammu and Kashmir and its people have suffered repeatedly at the hands of alleged terrorism from across the border.”

This has militated against the will of the people of the State, who have time and again voted in large numbers in democratic elections to unambiguously reject violence,” he claimed.

However, he said we are ready to discuss all issues with them in an atmosphere free from terrorism.

“Extremism and terrorism are major threats not only to India, but also to Pakistan, and all its other neighbours,” he said while responding to a question.

When asked about India’s partnership with the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia and collective measures with Saarc states and Gulf states to combat terrorism, Singh said the Saarc Council of Ministers Meeting in February 2009 issued a Ministerial Declaration on Cooperation in Combating Terrorism.

“Terrorism remains the single biggest threat to peace, stability and to our progress. Global efforts are needed to defend the values of pluralism, peaceful co-existence and the rule of law. All the member countries of the GCC share India’s concerns relating to extremism and terrorism,” he said.

When asked about India’s intention to conclude a defence pact with the Kingdom, Singh said India did not have a defence agreement with Saudi Arabia.

1997 DoD Briefing On Creation Of Earthquakes Electromagnetically

1997 DoD Briefing: ‘Others’ can set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely using electromagnetic waves

–By Lori Price,

www.legitgov.org 28 Feb 2010

DoD News Briefing

Presenter: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen April 28, 1997 8:45 AM EDT

DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen

Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week’s scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B’nai Brith.

A: Well, it points out the nature of the threat. It turned out to be a false threat under the circumstances. But as we’ve learned in the intelligence community, we had something called — and we have James Woolsey here [*puke*] to perhaps even address this question about phantom moles. The mere fear that there is a mole within an agency can set off a chain reaction and a hunt for that particular mole which can paralyze the agency for weeks and months and years even, in a search. The same thing is true about just the false scare of a threat of using some kind of a chemical weapon or a biological one. There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus [OMG! Who would do such a thing?], and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratoriestrying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others[LOL] are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.’

Just switch ‘yours,’ ‘others’ and ‘they’ with ‘U.S.,’ ‘U.S.’ and ‘U.S.’ This was in 1997. Imagine, after eight years of George W. Bush turbo-funding these lunatics — what they can do now. Oh, BTW. See, also, the list of dead scientists.

The most fascinating might be the Harvard scientist, Dr. Don C Wiley, ‘one of the foremost infectious disease researchers’ in the United States, who ‘got dizzy’ and his car fell off a bridge in Memphis, TN.

The bridge where his car was found is only a five-minute drive away and in the wrong direction from where he was staying, leaving authorities with a four-hour, unexplained gap until his vehicle was found. Now Memphis police are exploring several theories involving suicide, robbery and murder.

That’s just a ‘we-know-we’re-f*cking-with-you-and-there’s-not-a-thing-you-can-do-about-it’ assassination that any detective on ‘Law & Order: Criminal Intent’ could wrap up in the first half-hour of the episode.

High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program 27 Feb 2010 The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance purposes (such as missile detection). The HAARP program operates a major Arctic facility, known as the HAARP Research Station, on an Air Force owned site near Gakona, Alaska. The most outstanding instrument at the HAARP Station is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a high power transmitter facility operating in the high frequency range. The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere… As of 2008, HAARP had incurred around $250 million in tax-funded construction and operating costs.

Click here for full DoD News Transcript.
Credit to Samantha G. on Faceboook for unearthing this briefing.

Permanent URL for this article: http://legitgov.org/DoD_1997_set_off_earthquakes_280210.html

Cognitively Infiltrating Cass Sunstein

re:  Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups

Sent January 15th, 2010

To csunstei@law.harvard.edu ,   avermeule@law.harvard.edu

Dear Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule,

As the world’s best-known Muslim “conspiracy theorist,” forced out of the University of Wisconsin in a McCarythist purge for sharing the Muslim-majority viewpoint on 9/11, I would love to expand the cognitive diversity of my radio show by having one or both of you as guests.

Current openings include Saturday 2/6 (and subsequent Saturdays) 7-8 pm ET, and Tuesday 2/9 (and subsequent Tuesdays) noon-1 pm ET.

My audience of elite “conspiracy theorists” (what I do is “Alex Jones for intellectuals”) would be very interested in your views, which I suspect are not quite as nefarious as they have been portrayed in the alternative media.

Thank you for considering this, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kevin

Dr. Kevin Barrett
http://www.truthjihad.com
Author, Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters

* * *

[NO REPLY]

* * *

Sent February 27th, 2010

Dear Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule,

I cannot understand why you have failed to respond to my invitation to cognitively infiltrate my radio show. If you were sincere in calling for the “cognitive infiltration” of the 9/11 truth movement, why not take me up on my offer? Barrie Zwicker has accurately observed that I am a “radical informational democrat” and my shows have no taboos, so you would be free to inject as much cognitive diversity as you like.

Quoting Daniel Tencer’s Raw Story article:

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine” those groups.

Chat rooms, online social networks, and real-space groups are all wonderful…but what about radio shows? I’m beginning to really feel left out! I know you must be incredibly busy posting stuff on Facebook under aliases like “9/11 Truth Nazi” and “Elvis Did 9/11,” but hey, radio shows are important, too!

If you continue to refuse to cognitively infiltrate my radio show, I will be forced to conclude that your activities are indeed nefarious–specifically, that you are part of an elite conspiracy to undermine alternative radio by pretending to ignore it.  In fact, I’ll bet you intentionally left alternative radio off your list of targets as a psychological warfare tactic to make people like me, Jack Blood, Alex Jones, Joyce Riley, Jeff Rense, Mike Rivero, Cheri Roberts, Dave Von Kleist, Mark Glenn, and other pro-9/11-truth radio hosts feel insignificant.

If I am wrong about this, please contact me IMMEDIATELY so we can schedule an infiltration date.

Yours in cognitive diversity,

Kevin Barrett

Dr. Kevin Barrett
http://www.truthjihad.com
Author, Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters

BNP protests against missing people

BNP protests against missing people

BNP Chief Akthar Mengal with Habib Jalib Baloch, the Central Secretary General of BNP. – APP (File Photo)

QUETTA: Balochistan National Party staged a protest demonstration outside Quetta Press Club against continued missing of Baloch political workers on Sunday.

The BNP workers gathered outside the press club chanted slogans against the government for its failure to recover missing persons. Habib Jalib Baloch, the Central Secretary General of BNP led the protestors.

In his speech, he lashed out at intelligence agenices and accused them of picking up political workers in Balochistan. Baloch stated that intelligence agencies were the main reason behind the worsening law and order situation in Balochistan.

Indian Democracy and the Fight Against Insecticide In Food

“Far from the certainty one associates with science, doubt seems to be the key leitmotif of Bt seeds. To start with the basics: Bt — bacillus thuringiensis — is a soil bacterium that produces insecticidal proteins. Around the 1980s, Monsanto developed and patented a technology that enabled this gene to be injected into seeds — turning the plant into a kind of living pesticide. It appears that the moment a target pest eats the plant, it dies. No one though has yet fully ascertained what happens to humans who eat it. Dr Samir Brahmachari, a proponent of GM foods and director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, rightly asserts that there is no human receptor for the Bt gene; he believes this is proof that Bt foods are perfectly safe for human consumption. Other scientists, however, say that sufficient tests have not been done to ascertain in what other ways the Bt gene can react — alchemise — within the human body. After all, living organisms have an uncanny way of mutating along unpredictable lines. The key point is, though all of this suggests some kind of scientific precision, Bt technology is far from precise and the resultant crop is, in many senses, an inherently unstable and unknowable organism. (See box: Bt FAQs)”

The Gene Gun At Your Head

image HOW CAN A LOWLY VEGETABLE BE AN ISSUE OF NATIONAL SECURITY? IS THERE A FOREIGN HAND IN YOUR BELLY? SHOMA CHAUDHURY LAYS BARE THE COMPLEX STORY OF Bt BRINJAL AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOU

image

Illustration: ANAND NAOREM

IMAGINE THE lowly brinjal you have always known turning into a sci-fi gizmo — with an uncharted potency for good and evil. Imagine a food turned into a pesticide — and you will have a measure of the essential uncertainty around Bt brinjal.

When Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced his indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal on February 9, he halted a juggernaut that could have swept India to a point of no return. His decision has earned everyone a precious window of pause — a time to reevaluate, reconsider, retest. Most of all, time first for everyone to familiarise themselves with what is at stake.

Conversations about science and agriculture are usually conducted outside public discourse. Most urban Indians, in fact, consider talk of farmers and vegetables a bore. If someone told you Bt brinjal is an issue of national security, chances are you’d laugh. But it is true. There are also people who speak of desi brinjal as a sort of modern day Mangal Pandey and the struggle to protect it a kind of 21st century Indian War of Independence. While this might seem hyperbole, it helps establish the scale of what is involved in the Bt brinjal debate in India. That debate, in fact, extends into every aspect of our lives: our personal health, our environment, our food prices, our bioheritage, our economic security, our national sovereignty. Our entire future. To not be aware and involved is to sign up as the proverbial lab rat.

DID YOU KNOW?

WHAT IS Bt BRINJAL?
Bt brinjal is a geneticallymodified variety of brinjal into which a gene from a bacteria has been inserted, allowing it to produce a toxin harmful to pests

WHAT’S THE BIG FUSS?
The toxin may be poisonous not just to pests, but to anything that eats it. Unknown ecological consequences may threaten native varieties of the vegetable. It may also hand the reigns of Indian agriculture over to a handful of multinational compaines

ARE THOSE AGAINST Bt ANTI-SCIENCE?
GM opponents include many genetic engineering specialists — some of whom pioneered the technology. Their concerns lie in what they claim is a callous attitude that brushes aside health, environmental and economic issues

WILL I GET CANCER IF I EAT GM FOOD?
We don’t know. Unintended effects of Bt brinjal include processes that can catalyse cancer. The bio-safety report on which the government based its approval has been widely panned by top international scientists

The need to expand public involvement in this debate has become more urgent because, though Jairam Ramesh called his moratorium “indefinite”, the window of time he earned might be slammed shut sooner than he or anyone else imagined. Since his announcement, sections of the media and political establishment have been running a dogged campaign to isolate him and whisk the debate away from what they call “public noise” into the inscrutable world of pure science — a euphemism for single-window clearances. When Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan told the Indian Express, “Slogan shouting and protests should not cloud scientific vision in the country,” he could have been mouthing the thwarted exasperation of the entire pro-Bt lobby.

Just a cursory glance at the monetary stakes involved would explain some of the frustration. As the 8th largest seed market in the world, India has a $ 1 billion per year seed industry, currently occupied by the unorganised and public sector — waiting to be corporatised. According to a Business Standard report, the corporate seed industry is growing at 15 percent annually; and 85 percent of India’s seed market still remains to be penetrated. Just the Bt cotton seed industry accounts for Rs 2,000 crore annually. Bt brinjal was only the outrider. Ranged behind it is an army of Bt crops waiting for the regulatory drawbridge to be lifted: rice, tomato, potato, wheat, okra. The list runs to 41. One billion Indian stomachs to be corporatised and Jairam Ramesh had put a spoke in it. Industry could not have been happy.

In this session of Parliament, the Department of Biotechnology — which comes under the science ministry and whose stated objective is to promote GM crops and so has an inherent conflict of interest — will be putting up an ominous piece of legislation: the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill 2009 (NBRAI, 2009). This draft Bill, which is still marked “secret”, is full of undemocratic and draconian clauses. First, it proposes to take away power from the current, flawed but broad-based committee under the environment ministry and hand approval of GM crops over to a committee of three technical experts under the science ministry — not only making them vulnerable to manipulation, but turning an ethical, environmental, economic and health issue into a purely technological one.

PRITHVIRAJ CHAVAN’S
letter to the health minister allaying public fears over Bt brinjal was later found to be excerpted from the biotech industry’s promotional materials

THE BOLLWORM
that plagued cotton has not disappeared. Bt cotton was supposed to eliminate it, but they seem to have become resistant. This defeats the claim that Bt reduces pesticide use

Not just this, instead of enhancing transparency and information disclosure, the NBRAI seeks to protect corporates with legal cover for retaining Confidential Commercial Information. (It is revealing that Greenpeace had to fight a 30-month RTI battle with the Department of Biotechnology to release the Bt brinjal bio-safety dossier submitted by Mahyco, the company that has developed the crop in India in conjunction with American seed giant, Monsanto. The department claimed sharing the dossier would compromise Mahyco’s commercial interests! It was finally made public by a Supreme Court order.)

The bill also turns the federal nature of India on its head and proposes to take away the constitutional authority state governments have over agriculture and health and give the technical committee overriding power. (The fact that 10 state governments across political parties refused to allow the entry of Bt brinjal might cast light on this clause.) Apart from many other disturbing provisions ( see box: Wrong Bill for Wrong Reasons), most shockingly, Section 63 of the NBRAI Bill proposes imprisonment and fine for anyone who “without evidence or scientific record misleads the public about safety of GM crops”. That could put all activists and journalists in jail for merely asking questions.

imageThe technical review had little scientific rigour, no credible methodology, no objective analysis

DR S PARASURAMAN, Director, TISS, Mumbai

Why this desperation to bulldoze Bt crops onto India? If these crops are for the public good, why this fear of debate? Why this need to muzzle? Why this hesitation to convince? Before one probes these questions about Bt brinjal, at a much more elemental level, if the pro-Bt lobby succeeds in yanking this debate away from the public domain, nothing would be more disastrous for the country. Whether one agrees with him or not, the way in which Jairam Ramesh went about making his decision on Bt brinjal can only be applauded as a high note for Indian democracy. Knowing the many issues riding on it, when the committee currently empowered to approve GM crops — the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) — cleared it for commercial release on October 14, 2009, he uploaded the report on his ministry website and invited independent feedback till December 31, 2009. Following this, in an unprecedented move, he consulted over 8,000 people (scientists, agriculture experts, farmers’ organisations, consumer groups and NGOs) — “public noise” — through seven public consultations across the country. Finally, on February 9, 2010, soon after he announced his moratorium, in a superbly transparent and well-written document, he tabulated all the reasons for his decision and uploaded it on the ministry website, along with all the feedback he had received, for public scrutiny.

THE WAY JAIRAM RAMESH HELD PUBLIC MEETINGS TO DEBATE Bt BRINJAL IS A HIGH NOTE FOR DEMOCRACY

But for this transparency, the cloudy story of Bt brinjal would never have come to light. Dr S Parasuraman, director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, was part of the original expert committee (EC 1) set up to evaluate Bt brinjal, as well as part of a special Technical Review Committee. When EC 1 was disbanded and EC 2 was set up, he was not invited to be on it. Given his experience with EC 1, he says it was only to be expected.

Bt BRINJAL will be one of the first geneticallymodified food crops in the world to be directly ingested, instead of being processed or fed to cattle

INDIA IS the land of origin of the brinjal, with over 2,400 varieties. It is even used in ayurveda and unani medicine. With an annual yield of 8 million tonnes, there is no crisis in production

His account is just the tip. “I was constantly surprised at the way meetings of the Technical Review Committee were conducted,” says he. “Our job was to read all the reports produced by Mahyco and the institutions associated with them. I read through 5,000 pages of documents and produced my own report in response. As far as I know, I was the only one to put my observations down in writing. I was appalled at the lack of scientific rigour in these reports. There was no credible methodology, no objective analysis; 99 percent of the reports produced from various institutes were the result of research programmes funded by Mahyco. There was no independent thought or inquiry informing the research. At every meeting, there was a level of complacency the scientists brought in — almost as if they had not grasped the consequences of the introduction of a Bt food crop. Giving approval was their moot point.”

image

LIFE OR DEATH To risk, or not to risk? That is the key debate in allowing Bt brinjal
Photo: SHAILENDRA PANDEY

Parasuraman’s statements as an insider echo the highly disturbing findings of a group of eminent Indians and 18 international scientists. On February 8, they wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress head Sonia Gandhi to draw attention to a letter written by Prithviraj Chavan in July 2009, while he was a Minister of State in the prime minister’s office, in response to a letter from then Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, addressed directly to the PM in February 2009.

imageWhen a food like Bt brinjal is introduced, the regulatory mechanism has to be above suspicion

ABHIJIT SEN, Member, Planning Commission

In his letter to the PM, Ramadoss had raised questions about the potential health impact of GM foods. Chavan’s reply — written almost five months later — assured Ramadoss that “the various issues raised in your letter have been examined carefully and by applying the best scientific evidence available today”. However, in an exposé that has far-reaching implications — and pretty much sums up the problem with the GM food debate — these civil society members and international scientists have now revealed that much of Chavan’s letter was excerpted directly from promotional materials of the agricultural biotechnology industry, in particular the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) — “an organisation that at best can be described as pseudo-scientific, funded primarily by Monsanto and other biotechnology multinational companies and whose purpose is to promote and facilitate the commercial introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops in the developing world.”

FOR THIRTY years consumers were persuaded to use transfats like Dalda. Now we are told it’s highly toxic for the heart. Sure enough, heart attacks are visibly more prevalent in India

LABELLING Bt brinjal in order to distinguish it from ordinary brinjal is a near-impossible logistical exercise in India

These scientists then go on to rebut Chavan’s claims paragraph by paragraph, citing authoritative references, hoping to “bring out the true facts of GM crops” to enable an informed discussion on their “unique risks to food security, farming systems and bio-safety impacts which are ultimately irreversible.” Finally, they urge the prime minister, “for the sake of the safety of the Indian people, and the welfare of Indian farmers, to readdress the official position on GM crops.” (Read full text)

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 09, Dated March 06, 2010
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6

Powerful earthquake strikes off Japan island of Okinawa

Powerful earthquake strikes off Japan island of Okinawa

BBC map

A powerful earthquake has struck in the Pacific Ocean, about 80km (50 miles) off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

A tsunami warning was initially issued, but later lifted. There are no reports of major damage or casualties.

The Japan Meteorological Agency gave the strength as 6.9 while the US Geological Survey put it at 7.3.

Japan is often hit by earthquakes. In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.

The latest tremor occurred at 0531 on Saturday (2031 GMT on Friday).

BBC News website reader Ivan Brackin, who lives on Yoron Island, said it was the biggest quake he had felt in his 40 years in Japan but there had been no visible effects in his area.

"We’re 30 yards [metres] from the sea and no sign of a tsunami," he said.

"I woke up to violent shudders that lasted about six seconds then a pause followed by a couple of sharp jumps. Jumpers are the most dangerous so that sent me under the desk."

US Arms Fuelling the Fire That Threatens the World

U.S. Sells Arms to South Asian Rivals

Washington Increases Weapons Transfers to India and Pakistan to Maintain Neutrality, Aid Industry

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN And AMOL SHARMA

The Obama administration is sharply expanding American weapons transfers to both India and Pakistan, longtime rivals about to sit down for peace talks Thursday.

The U.S. has sought to remain neutral in the thorny relationship between the nuclear-armed neighbors. But Washington hasn’t been shy about pursuing weapons deals in the region, which officials say will lead to closer ties with each country while creating new opportunities for American defense firms.

[INDEFa-cht]

The U.S. has made billions of dollars in weapons deals with India, which is in the midst of a five-year, $50 billion push to modernize its military.

At the same time, American military aid to Pakistan stands to nearly double next year, allowing Islamabad to acquire more U.S.-made helicopters, night-vision goggles and other military equipment. The aid has made it easier for Pakistan to ramp up its fight against militants on the Afghan border, as the U.S. tries to convince Islamabad that its biggest security threat is within the country, not in India.

During a late January trip to Islamabad, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. would for the first time give Pakistan a dozen surveillance drones, a longstanding Pakistani request.

But India and Pakistan have each been irked when the U.S. made big-ticket weapons sales or transfers to the other. India lobbied against recent U.S. legislation giving Pakistan billions of dollars in new nonmilitary aid; the measure passed. A top Pakistani diplomat warned last week that a two-year-old civilian nuclear deal between the U.S. and India could threaten Pakistan’s national security by making it easier for India to covertly build more nuclear weapons.

Washington’s relationships with the two nations are very different. India, which is wealthier and larger than its neighbor, pays for weapons purchases with its own funds. Pakistan, by contrast, uses American grants to fund most of its arms purchases. A new U.S. counterinsurgency assistance fund for Pakistan is slated to increase from $700 million in fiscal year 2010 to $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2011.

“We do straight commercial deals with India, while Pakistan effectively uses the money we give them to buy our equipment,” said a U.S. official who works with the two countries. “But we think that’s ultimately in our national interest because it makes the Pakistanis more capable of dealing with their homegrown terrorists.”

India is one of the largest buyers of foreign-made munitions, with a long shopping list which includes warships, fighter jets, tanks and other weapons. Its defense budget is $30 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, a 70% increase from five years ago. The country is preparing its military to deal with multiple potential threats, including conflict with Pakistan. Tensions have recently flared between India and China over territorial claims along their border. China defeated India in a short war in 1962.

“For 2010 and 2011, India could well be the most important market in the world for defense contractors looking to make foreign military sales,” said Tom Captain, the vice chairman of Deloitte LLP’s aerospace and defense practice.

Russia has been India’s main source of military hardware for decades, supplying about 70% of equipment now in use. Moscow is working to keep that position, with talks ongoing to sell India 29 MiG-29K carrier-borne jet fighters, according to an Indian Defense Ministry spokesman.

The Obama administration is trying to persuade New Delhi to buy American jet fighters instead, a shift White House officials say would lead to closer military and political relations between India and the U.S. It would also be a bonanza for U.S. defense contractors, and has dispatched senior officials such as Mr. Gates to New Delhi to deliver the message that Washington hopes India will choose American defense firms for major purchases in the years ahead.

Shortly after a late January visit by Mr. Gates—on the same tour that took him to Islamabad—In late January, the administration signed off on India’s request to purchase 145 U.S.-made howitzers, a $647 million deal.Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Mr. Gates’s visit didn’t affect the substance or timing of the howitzer purchase.

That came days after India formally expressed its intent to purchase 10 cargo transport aircraft from Boeing Co. in a deal analysts say could be worth more than $2 billion. Last year, India spent $2.1 billion on eight Boeing long-range Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft for the Indian navy.

Still in the pipeline is India’s planned $10 billion purchase of 126 multirole combat aircraft for its air force. U.S. firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. are vying with Russia and European companies for that deal, which would be a near-record foreign sale for the firms. An agreement last summer allowing the U.S. to monitor the end-use of arms it sells to India is expected to facilitate such deals.

“That’s the biggest deal in the world right now,” said Mr. Captain. “If it goes to an American firm, that would be the final nail in the coffin in terms of India shifting its allegiance from Russia to the U.S.”

Successive U.S. administrations have worked hard to build closer military, economic and commercial ties with India. In its final days in office, the Bush administration signed a civilian nuclear pact with India which has cleared the way for American firms to build two nuclear plants in India in deals worth billions of dollars.

The Obama administration, which sees India as a valuable counterweight to China, is negotiating new export control and communications security agreements with New Delhi that would make it easier for American firms to sell more arms and high-technology equipment to India.

There have also been symbolic U.S. efforts to build warmer ties with India. When President Barack Obama threw his first state dinner recently, it was held in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Arvind Kadyan, a researcher at India’s nonprofit Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, said India was likely to continue to do big deals with Russia.

“That situation can’t change overnight, because we have such a long association with them,” Mr. Kadyan said.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com and Amol Sharma atamol.sharma@wsj.com

The Reality of It All

The Reality of It All

renrivers1 (AOL)

We as a nation have lost sight of the realities. What was, what was suppose to be, and what is, are not the same. We are fighting wars in places we have no place being, and giving billions of dollars in aid to countries that are becoming rich, while our country becomes poor.

We have lost sight of what America was supposed to be. We can’t heal the world, while our own country lays dying in sickness and poverty, nor should we be expected to. At the same time, we shouldn’t be trying to influence the whole world with our political and religious beliefs.

I quit the church because they kept wanting money for the “missions, and building fund,” while they were letting people in our own community who were disabled and down on their luck suffer. My grandmother always said, “Clean up your own backyard, before you start trying to clean up others,” and I am a firm believer in that.

As an American citizen, and a Vietnam veteran I am ashamed at what our country has become over the last century. All of this talk about a world economy, and the New World Order is going to be our down fall. We have allowed the left wing-liberals, and the right-wing fascist, to take over our government. Americans puts more money in other countries through government aid, and “Sunday School donations,” than can be imagined, while the suffering in our own cities and villages never ends. We have allowed foreign powers, and illegal immigrants to come into our country and steal our very soul, and break our own economy. All of this as part of our desire to dominate the world through politics and religion, Sure I sympathize with the plight of people in other countries, but I believe that we have an obligation and a responsibility to take care of our own citizen first and foremost.

We have become a country that is on the one hand afraid of our own shadow; i.e the “war on terror,” and on the other, a fascist regime set on an attempt at world domination. In the process we are becoming a third world country, and a welfare state.

We have allowed what were once American driven companies to become world power conglomerations, who have take good jobs, that were once America’s life’s force, and allowed them to be sent overseas with no penalty, and at the expense of the American citizenry. We have allowed them in their greed to form monopolies and conglomerations that that make a few men and women wealthy beyond reason in the name of capitalism, and in the process we have become no better off than our forefathers who were ruled by feudalism, where a few rich elite held sway over the masses. We have allowed our leaders to send our children and grandchildren into foreign lands to fight, and for some to die while others become hopelessly maimed, not for prevailing threats against our life, liberty, or happiness, but for the enrichment of greedy millionaires, billionaires, and the multinational conglomerations they own. We have invaded sovereign nations, influenced elections, and overthrown freely elected governments at the expense of millions of lives, all perpetrated by lies and deceit, for the benefit of nothing but greedy capitalist who desire to control the world and make peasants of all of us, while they become rich and maintain powers no man deserves.

Are there solutions to these problems? Yes, there are, but it’s going to take a whole new revolution and mindset to ever do it. Why is it so unreasonable to believe that there should not be limits on the amount of wealth that any one individual or family should be allowed to accumulate? Why is it unreasonable to believe that companies and corporations should be limited on the amount of holding they can have? I am not advocating that the government should own and control everything as in communism, instead I believe that there should be equal and fair limitations set to insure that there is a fair and equal distribution of wealth in this country. I mean how many homes and cars can and do one family use and deserve? Why should one family be allowed to own ten homes across the world, while another American can’t even afford to own one?

I am afraid that our forefathers and we have been sold a “pig-in-the-poke.” Even our constitution was set-up and written by wealthy men, who were not willing to part with the wealth that they had accumulated at the expense of slaves, poor tradesman, and theft from the Native Americans. Many may be surprised to know that at the end of the Revolutionary War, George Washington was the richest man in America, and that men like John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were all millionaires by todays standards. When they wrote all about freedom and liberty, it was about their freedom and liberty. Freedom and justice for all was a blatant lie. They never freed the slaves, they never gave the poor who didn’t own property, and had fought alongside them in the war the right to vote, they never gave women equal rights, and they never made the Native Americans equal partners in the new venture we now call the United States of America. Only George Washington in later years was willing to free his slaves. They didn’t, because they knew if they did, that they would have to relinquish part of the power and wealth that they had accumulated by their crooked dealings and at the expense of everyone they had trampled on, stole from and held in slavery.

My friends and fellow Americans you have been sold a cheap facsimile, of what could have been a great nation, and received no more than a “pig-in-the-poke” in return. Everyone owes it to their children, and their coming generations to educate themselves to what really is, and what really has been in this country, and what lies have been told, and realize what fools we have been made out to be. We as Americans owe it to ourselves and our generations to stand, and fight by whatever means are necessary to insure that what has happened is no longer allowed to continue. We must put it all on the line, and realize that in order for our country to be ever be truly great, all men and women must be able to live in a country, devoid of petty prejudice’s, with respect and dignity and a true possibility to live in prosperity and freedom unabated with the shackles that now bind us. Then and only then can we rest assured that our children and their generations will have a future that is filled with hope and justice for all.

171 Reasons Why the Army Is In Balochistan

MARTYR’S GALLERY

Police is basically a risky job and police officer has to handle brutal and mindless violence. We are proud that Balochistan Police has always kept dictum of duty before self. The entire nation and the Police department is proud of departed brave and gallant Shaheeds. Martyrs gallery is a humble attempt to pay a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to make our world safe and peaceful.
LIST OF MARTYRED POLICE PERSONNEL
CAPITAL CITY POLICE QUETTA
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. IP Manzoor Hussain 06-07-1985
2. HC/1248 Muhammad Younas 06-07-1985
3. C1293 Fateh Sher 06-07-1985
4. C/873 Yar Muhmmad 06-07-1985
5. C/598 Abdul Karim 25-05-1987
6. SI Najeeb Ullah 21-09-1987
7. HC/1157 Maqbool Hussain 23-01-1989
8. C/290 Khair Muhammad 30-01-1989
9. HC/875Muhammad pervaiz 21-09-1989
10. C/725 Shah Muhammad 07-12-1993
11. C/1802 Karamatullah 08-04-1994
12. C/1200 Shabir Husaain 13-08-1994
13. C/86 Ali Akbar 22-11-1994
14. C/704 Fazal ur Reham 15-09-1995
15. HC/84 Abdul Rashid
16. C/573 Muhammad Anwar 22-11-1995
17. C/2052 Band Ali 1995
18. C/124 Nida Muhammad 17-09-1996
19. C/1717 Nemat Ullah 17-09-1996
20. C/1713 Kheyal Khan 27-09-1996
21. C/2125 Muhammad Iqbal 27-09-1996
22. HC/616 Karamat Husssain 12-01-1997
23. IP Abdul Qadir 04-04-1997
24. C/1667 Muhammad Hashim 04-04-1997
25. C/1831 Abdul Majeed 17-10-1998
26. C/2088 Doctor Khan 06-11-1999
27. C/877 Allah Noor 10-11-1999
28. C/909 Khalil Ahmed 07-01-2000
29. SI Noor Muhammad 03-09-2000
30. HC/2394 Jamil Ahmed 01-11-2002
31. C/2683 Abdul Rahim 01-11-2002
32. C/1687 Mluhammad Akbar 22-11-2000
33. C/578 Faiz Muhammad
34. C/2152 Inayat-ur-Rehman
35. HC/286 Bashir Ahmed 02-01-2003
36. ASI Ch: Ishtiaq Hussain 19-05-2003
37. HC/885 Muhammad Azam 19-05-2003
38. C/2551 Abid Hussain 08-06-2003
39. HC/1418 Muhammad Anwar 06-11-1999
40. RC/1058 Muhmmad Ali 08-06-2003
41. RC/2729 Abdul Hussain 08-06-2003
42. RC/1301 Sajjad Hussain 08-06-2003
43. RC/989 Abbas Ali 08-06-2003
44. RC/1218 Pervaiz Ali 08-06-2003
45. RC/801 Ghulam Abbas 08-06-2003
46. RC/83 Muhammad Baqir 08-06-2003
47. RC/2660 Muhammad Nabi 08-06-2003
48. RC/2542 Muhammad Jawad 08-06-2003
49. RC/1005 Ghulam Hussain 08-06-2003
50. ASI Zawar Hussain 04-07-2003
51. C/1825 Muhammad Hussain 04-07-2003
52. C/1905 Nisar Hussain Shah 02-03-2004
53. HC/2638 Muhammad Younas 24-09-2004
54. HC/533 Mazhar Hussain 25-09-2004
55. C/1359 Saeed Ahmed 06-09-2005
56. C/3314 Muhammad Safdar 08-11-2005
57. C/2458 Zafar Iqbal 10-01-2006
58. ASI Fateh Khan 20-04-2006
59. C/3316 Haq Nawaz 27-08-2006
60. DSP Muhammad Khalid Gramkani 07-09-2006
61. C/224 Shabbir Abbasi 02-11-2006
QUETTA TRAFFIC
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
62. C/2159 Muhammad Yousaf 02-11-2006
63. HC/975 Nazar Hayat 02-11-2006
PISHIN DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. C/247 Muhammad Riaz 06-07-1985
2. C/739 Muhammad Aslam 06-07-1985
3. C/890 Ghulam Ghous 06-07-1985
4. HC/441 Muhammad Riaz 06-07-1985
5. C/1056 Wali Muhmmad 12-03-1986
6. C/1536 Khuda Bakhsh 12-03-1986
7. C/1190 Walayat Ali 03-04-1986
8. C/661 Muhammad Jalal 12-05-1986
9. HC/126 Muhammad Sahulat 03-03-1988
10. C/999 Muhammad Bashir 28-05-1988
11. C/1517 Muhammad Ashraf 28-02-1991
12. HC/19 Muhammad Jaffar 06-01-1994
13. HC/92 Khan Badshsh 04-02-2001
14. HC/885 Muhammad Azam 19-05-2003
15. C/381 Muhammad Afzal 19-05-2003
16. C/56 Allah Nawaz 20-04-2006
17. C/894 Jamal-ud-Din 18-05-2006
JAFFARABAD DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1.
2. SI Allah Bakhsh 09-07-1980
3. C/72 Dillawar Khan 08-12-1981
4. C/89 Ghulam Sarwar 08-12-1981
5. C/183 Abdul Rahim 08-12-1981
6. HC/267 Rehmatullah 08-12-1981
7. C/474 Hakim Ali 09-03-1982
8. SI Abdul Manan 17-09-1982
9. C/732 Ashiq Hussain Shah 03-07-1986
10. C396 Munir Ahmed 18-12-1987
11. SI Gul Namali 28-12-1989
12. HC/1984 Muhammad Ashraf 19-05-1990
13. HC/948 Muhammad Rashid 20-09-1991
14. C/313 Manzoor Hussain 15-05-1992
15. HC/849 M.Nawaz 22-03-1993
16. IP Malik Muhammad Ali 23-04-1999
17. C/1136 Hazor khan 29-12-1999
18. SI Muhammad Aslam 29-09-2000
19. C/924 Hamid Ali 09-12-2001
20. C/516 IkramUllah 09-12-2001
21. C/160 Nawab Khan 09-06-2003
22. C/398 Muhammal Suleman 09-06-2003
23. HC/965 Abdul Sattar 19-08-2003
24. HC/573 Haro Khan 19-10-2003
25. C/937 Rahim Bakhsh 19-10-2003
26. C/407 Naurang Khan 24-10-2003
27. C/1251 Samandar Khan 24-10-2003
28. SI Ghazi Khan 04-04-2003
29. C/1074 Liaquat Ali 11-05-2006
SIBI REGION/DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. ASI Sardar Muhammad 23-04-1999
2. C/492 Ghulam Muhammad 31-08-1999
3. DIGP Abdul Aziz Bullo 09-06-2003
NASIRABAD DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. C/245 Dost Ali 25-04-2001
2. Hc/398 Muhammad Sulaman 09-06-2003
3. C/794 Rahim Dad 11-03-2006
4. HC/742 Feroz Khan 07-05-2006
5. C/285 Naseebullah 11-05-2006
6. C/402 Bagan Khan 11-05-2006
7. C/35 Ali Sher 11-05-2006
8. SI Liaquat Ali 15-05-2006
LORALAI DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. c/226 Saifullah 21-06-2001
2. C/12 Surat Khan 09-05-2004
LASBELA DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. C/379 Jan Muhammad 17-04-1998
2. C/384 Ghulam Hassan 17-05-2005
3. IP/SHO Muhammad Hayat 03-06-2006
4. ASI Dad Khuda 14-02-2007
ATF QUETTA
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. Si Muhammad Shabir 17-05-2001
2. C/1542 Farooq Ahmed 17-05-2001
3. ASI Zaka Ullah 06-11-2001
4. HC/2357 Muhammad Javed 06-11-2004
5. C/2357 Musa Jan 02-08-2004
KHUZDAR
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. C/424 Jamil Ahmed 24-08-2004
KECH DISTRICT
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. SI Manzoor Ahmed 14-07-2004
2. HC/1 Gul Muhammad 14-07-2004
CHAGAI
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. HC/202 Nazar Muhammad 11-05-2006
GWADAR
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. C/72 Eid Muhammad 23-05-1999
2. C/64 Basand Khan 23-05-1999
3. C/393 Ghulam Hussain 11-05-2000
4. C/370 Muhammad Iqbal 01-11-2006
5. C/381 Abdul Wahid 01-11-2006
BC QUETTA
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. IP Abdul Rehman 05-09-1974
2. SI Muhammad 05-09-1974
3. ASI Din Muhammad 05-09-1974
4. ASI Sharif Muhammad 05-09-1974
5. HC/1627 Abdullah 05-09-1974
6. NK 1386 Muhammad Bakhsh 05-09-1974
7. NK 1693 Muhammad Azeem 05-09-1974
8. NK 1673 Saleh Muhammad 05-09-1974
9. C/688 Abdul Ghafoor 05-09-1974
10. C/365 Rehmatullah 05-09-1974
11. C/812 Mohim Khan 05-09-1974
12. C/1149 Lal Muhammad 05-09-1974
13. C/400 Abdul Khaliq 05-09-1974
14. C/381 Abdul Rehman 05-09-1974
15. C/406 Abdul Khaliq 05-09-1974
16. NK/1727 Muhammad Yousaf 05-09-1974
17. C/1837 Ghulam Jan 05-09-1974
18. C/595 Nazir Ahmed 10-07-1985
19. C/1609 Ghulam Rasool 10-07-1992
20. C/696 Nazar Muhammad 19-02-1993
21. C/2499 Javed Akaram 23-02-1993
22. C/1921 Obidullah 24-05-1995
23. C/2968 Aurganzaib 06-10-1995
24. C/2832 Ahmed Khan 05-12-1995
25. C/292 Sher Muhammad 24-11-1996
26. C/2617 Ali Hassan 28-11-1996
27. C/2802 Mukhtar Hussain 03-07-1997
28. C/3338 Ghulam Rasool 09-03-1999
29. C/5721 Mehrullah 14-12-2005
TELE QUETTA
No. Name & Rank of Martyred Date of Martyred
1. RC/147 Zakir Hussain 08-06-2003

361 Reasons Why There Must Be An Anti-Mullah “Jundullah”

[8 of them were named Rigi.]

The Conscious civilized world must stop the Iranian Regime from extra judicial hanging of innocent oppressed Baloch People in Iranian Occupied
Balochistan. Thousand Baloch youths have been hanged in Public by Iranian Mullah.

List of Young Baloch Men  hanged/killed  by Iranian Regime in 2004-2009

ليست بزبان فارسي , اينجا را بزنيد

اسامي تعدادي از اعدام و کشته شدگان بلوچ توسط نيروهاي انتظامي رژيم جمهوري اسلامي ايران.

Amnesty International: Human Rights Abuses against the Baluchi Minority in Iran…click here

Place Hanged/Killed Name Date
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Masoud Ghamshadzahi 20090725
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Ayub Rigi 20090725
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Manucher Shahbakhsh 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Hasan Shahuzahi 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolrazaq Rashidi 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Yaqub Ghamshadzahi 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolbaset Shaihaki 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Edris Noutizahi 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdoqeyas Didan Naroui 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdosaboor Rakhshan 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Asadullah Wafaee 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolhahaleq Mirbalouchzahi 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Tareq Abadiyan 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Yahya Rigi 20090714
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Khalil Ahmad Rigi 20090714
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20090707
Karaj Hanged Khodabakhsh Rigi 20090704
Karaj Hanged Najibullah Gorgij 20090704
Karaj Hanged Jamshid Haleqdadi 20090704
Qum Hanged Mohamad- Kh 20090701
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Ahmad Dastgoshadeh  Naroi 20090620
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Esmail Qaderi 20090620
Khash Killed Haji Hozoor Bakhsh Shahnawazi 20090608
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdol Hamid Rigi 20090606
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Reza Qalandarzahi 20090606
Zahedan Killed Abdolbasir Mosazahi 20090605
Zahedan-Bam Killed 4 , unknown 20090605
Kerman Hanged 1-5 persons 20090603
Zahedan Killed Saeed Hashomzahi 20090603
Zahedan Killed 10 , unknown 20090531-20090606
Zahedan Hanged Haji Noutizahi 20090508
Zahedan Hanged Qolamrasool Shahuzai 20090508
Zahedan Hanged Zabiullah Naroei 20090508
Khash Killed One , unknown 20090525
Prison of Iranshahr Hanged Abdol Qafour – K 20090522
Zabol Killed One , unknown 20090522
Zahedan Killed One , unknown 20090515
Hajiabad/Zahedan Killed Allah Nezar Shahbakhsh 20090513
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Reza Qoli – S 20090508
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohammad Mehdi -Kh 20090508
Balochistan Killed 3 , unknown 20090505
Taybad Hanged 8 , unknown 20090502
Khash Hanged Abdolbari Norzahi 20090429
Balochistan/Kerman Killed 4 , unknown 20090420
Zamuran/Balochistan/Pakistan Killed Bibi Moluk 20090414
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Normohamad Ismailzahi 20090310
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mojib Rahman Kord 20090310
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Babak Kord 20090310
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Joma Khan Hossseini 20090310
On the border/Balochistan Killed 6 , unknown 20090308
Iranshahr Killed Behzad – Sh 20090305
Prison of Zahedan Hanged 1 , unknown 20090303
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Molawi Khalil Bahramzahi 20090303
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Salahudin Zardkohi 20090303
Mirjaweh Killed 4 , unknown 20090302
Esfahan Hanged Omid 20090221
Taybad Killed 9 , unknown 20090203
Taybad Killed 10 , unknown 20090131
Taybad Killed 6 , unknown 20090121
Taybad Killed 2 , unknown 200901-?
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Bohadoor Naroi 20090103
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Jalal Akbar Joma Aloshi(Jalal Shirani) 20090103
Nikshahr Hanged Abdolrahman Balochzahi 20081228
Khash Killed Jalal Rigi 20081225
Zabol Hanged Faiz Ahmad Naroi 20081223
Balochistan Killed One , unkonwn 20081220
Prison of Sarakhs Hanged Mohamad Amin Berahui 20081213
Taybad Killed 4 , unknown 20081210
Prison of Zahedan Hanged P – D 20081206
Prison of Zahedan Hanged M – M 20081206
Prison of Zahedan Hanged A – R 20081206
Prison of Zahedan Tortured to death Mohamad  Berahui 20081202
Mirjaweh Killed One , unknown 20081202
Prison of Zahedan Hanged A – N 20081129
Prison of Zahedan Hanged H – F 20081129
Taybad Killed 15 , unknown 20081126
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Hossein Nohtani 20081124
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdullah Dahmardeh 20081124
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohamad  Berahui 20081124
Mirjaweh Killed 4 , unknown 20081118
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Nazir Ahmad Nasiri 20081110
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Jamali Bolizadeh 20081110
Balochistan Killed 10 , unkbown 20081108
Balochistan Killed 5 , unknown 20081103
Prison of Zahedan Hanged E – M 20081027
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Kh – N 20081027
Jask Killed Shahmorad 200810-?
Iranshahr Killed 2 , unknown 20081026
Rodbar/Kerman Hanged One , unknown 20081022
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Watan – Y 20081021
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Salim 20081021
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Zahor – Sh 20081021
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Anwar – D 20081021
Zabol Killed Akbar Sancholi 20081016
Zahedan /Pir Soran Killed Ahmad Wafaee 20081013
Zahedan /Pir Soran Killed Nader Rigi 20081013
Zahedan /Pir Soran Killed Nser Shahbakhsh 20081013
Zahedan /Pir Soran Killed Allah Nezar Kebdani 20081013
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Shahram Aywani 20081013
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Ramazan Rafiee 20081013
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Sasan Dogushkani 20081013
Kottgan/Zamuran/Pakistan Killed Mulla Salim Sorkizahi 20081010
Balochistan Killed About 38 ,unknown Last 2 months
Zahedan/Sapid sang Killed Abdullah Shahbakhsh 2008.10.06
Zahedan/Sapid sang Killed Hamid Shahbakhsh 2008.10.06
Nikshahr Killed One , unknown 2008.09.26
Zahedan Killed One , unknown 2008.09.18
Iranshahr Killed Mohamad Hossein Borr 2008.08.24
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Habibullah Pirwali 20080826
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Hossein Ali Shahraki 20080826
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mojtaba Mozafari 20080826
Sarbaz/Iranshahr Killed Sharif Sarkoeri 20080824
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Bahram  N 20080820
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Hassan Sadeqpoor 20080813
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Golmohamad Salehzahi 20080811
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Rahim baranzahi 20080811
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Lalmohamad Zainadini 20080811
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Asadullah Eshaghzahi 20080811
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Yaghub Mehrnehad 20080804
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolnaser Tahri Sadr 20080804
Zahedan Killed One , unknown 20080804
Zahedan Hanged Hadi Amri son of Hamid 20080729
Tehran-Evin Hanged Abdolreza Shahbakhsh 20080727
Tehran-Evin Hanged Sohrab Kamalzahi 20080727
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20080724
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20080724
Zahedan Killed One , unknown 20080721
Iranshahr Killed Three , unknown 20080720
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20080719
Zahedan Killed One , unknown 20080708
Prison of Chabehar Hanged Mohamad Zareh 20080706
Balochistan Killed Three,Unknown 20080628
Zahedan Killed Abdosamad Shahbax 20080620
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Alireza Berahui 20080616
Prison of Chabehar Hanged Yunes Rahmandost 20080615
Prison of Chabehar Hanged Mohamad Hussein Noorzai 20080615
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20080611
Khash-Paskoh Killed Khodad Shohlibor 20080607
Balochistan Killed 7 unknown 20080601
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mousa Narouei 20080531
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Kabali Cheraghi 20080531
Balochistan Killed 9 unknown 20080527
Balochistan Killed 2 unknown 20080519
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20080518
Balochistan Killed Farhad Shanbehzai 20080515
Balochistan Killed 4 unknown 20080515
Balochistan Killed One , unknown 20080426
Balochistan Killed 4 , unknown 20080422
Prison of ESfehan Tortured to death Morad Borokzahi 20080417
Daman Killed Shirbakhsh Sohrabzahi 20080412
Zahedan Disapeared and killed Two girls from Hasshomzahi tribe 20080411
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Molawi Abdolqodus Mollazahi 20080409
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Molawi Mohamad Yousuf Sohrabi 20080409
Balochistan/Kerman Killed One , unknown 20080406
Sarbaz Killed One , unknown 20080401
Balochistan/Kerman Killed Three,Unknown 20080330
Pishin Killed Three , unknown 20080328
Zahedan Tortured to death Three women from Rigi tribe 20080323
Khash(Gohar Kouh) Killed Alam Khan Shahbax 20080218
Khash(Gohar Kouh) Killed One , known 20080218
Zahedan/Kerman Killed Ahmad Shahbax 20080216
Kerman/Zahedan Killed One , known 20080212
Sarawan Hanged Mohamad Aslam Mobarakzahi 20080131
Balochistan Killed 14 , unknown 200801
Balochistan Killed Son of Molawi Abdolrahman Chabhari 20080112
Giroft Killed 5 , unknown 20080105
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolghayum Shahgi 20080102
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Babudin Karbalaei 20080102
Balochistan/Kerman Killed Two , unknown 20080102
Zahedan Hanged Mehdi Rigi Jawan 20071231
Zahedan Hanged Naser Hadieh Sasoli 20071231
Balochistan Killed Three , unknown 20071226
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Ezat Sarani 20071226
Prison of Zahedan Hanged 16 , unknown 20071226
Zahedan Killed One unknown 20071224
Prison of Iranshahr Hanged Yaqoub Setodeh 20071218
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Khodadad Shahbax 20071217
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohamadreza Saleh 20071217
Iranshahr Killed 12, unknown 20071213
Balochistan/Bam Killed Khodadad Naroei 20071204
Qum Hanged Ataullah Polzahi 20071202
Prison of Zahedan Hanged One, unkonwn 20071202
Iranshahr Killed Bakhshok Shohlibor 20071125
Balochistan Killed Three,unknown 20071124
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Shamsodin Darvakh Gorgij 20071124
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mahmudshah Pashtoon 20071124
Saravan Killed Two ,unkonwn 20071113
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Rostam sepahi 20071115
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Nader Klabali 20071111
Balochistan Killed ??-unknown 20071107
Iranshahr Hanged Abdolmajid  A 20071031
Prison of Iranshahr Hanged Ismail Barani Piranwand 20071030
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Joma Gamshadzai 20071030
Jakigwar_Sarbaz Killed One , unknown 20071030
Mahan Hanged Two ,unknown 20071028
Iranshahr Hanged Ali Khashi 3/3/86
Yazd Hanged Three unknown 20071027
Prison of Zahedan Hanged A.M 20071025
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Z.Gh. 20071025
Prison of Zahedan Hanged A.M 20071025
Birjand Hanged Five , unknown 20071022
Birjand Killed Two , unkonwn 20071019
Zahedan Hanged A. 20071016
Iranshahr Hanged Two, “Ostadi” in aftername 20071009
Balochistan Killed Six , unknown 20071002
Dashtyari-Chabhar Killed One , unkonwn 20070929
Mahan Hanged Mohamad Bamari 20070912
Mahan Hanged Omar Bamari 20070912
Zahedan Killed Abdolshakor sh. known as Shakori 20070909
Sarbaz Killed One , unkonwn 20070910
Shiraz Hanged Gazawo Mahmudzahi 20070905
Shiraz Hanged Alireza Berahuei 20070905
Khash-Zahedan Killed Two , unknown 20070904
Mirjaweh_Rek Malek” Killed Morad Gamshadzahi 20070828
Iranshahr Hanged Two , unknown 20070824
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Shkrollah Kordi Tamandani 20070821
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Hossein Chobi Ali 20070821
Koh Sepit-Sarawan Killed Two man from Gamshadzahi tribe 20070821
Jakigwar_Chabhar Killed Rezaei Nohani 20070817
Sarbaz Killed Mola Shahbax Derakhshan 20070817
Zahedan Killed Two unknown, 20070809
Zahedan Killed Abdoghani Shahbax 20070809
Zahedan Killed Nasrollah Shahbax 20070809
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Sanaullah Mirbalochzahi 20070808
Pirson of Iranshahr Hanged Abdosamad Kachkosh 20070806
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolaziz Esmailzahi 20070806
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdoljamal Shahbax 20070806
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Aliakbar Shahbax 20070806
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Halim Shahbax 20070801
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Noormohamad Esmailzahi 20070801
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdolmalek Shahbax 20070726
Ewin-Tehran Hanged Sarwar Sarani 20070722
Ewin-Tehran Hanged Hamiullah Totazahi 20070722
Pir Soran-Zahedan Killed Four , unknown 20070720
Zabol Hanged Naeim Molaei 20070720
Zahedan Hanged Golmohamad Kanbarzahi 20070709
Mirjaweh Zahedan Killed-The police fired on their cars 18 , unknown 20070708
Zahedan Killed by unknown people One from Rigi tribe 20070707
Nikshahr Killed Three , unknown 20070703
Balochistan Killed Two ,unkonwn 20070703
Karaj Hanged Two killed 20070613
Zahedan Tortured to death Wahid Mirbalochzahi 23 20070613
Balochistan Killed Two,unkonwn 20070609
Zahedan Killed One , unkonwn 20070607
Zahedan Killed Two,unkonwn 20070604
Birjand Hanged Four,unkonwn 20070528
Zahedan Hanged Saeed Kanbarzahi  17 20070527
Bam-Zahedan Killed One , unkonwn 20070526
Balochistan Killed One , unkonwn 20070526
Iranshahr Hanged A. Kh. 20070521
Sarawan Hanged ‌ Abdolhaqh Askani 20070520
Balochistan Killed Six, unkonwn 20070519
Bandar Abbas Hanged Parviz Jedi 20070516
Bandar Abbas Hanged Abdolrahman 20070516
Zahedan Killed Roya Sarani 12 20070516
Bandar Abbas Hanged One , unkonwn 1386.01.24
Mashad Hanged Fifteen, unkonwn 20070514
Balochistan Killed Two , unkonwn 1386.01.24
Sarbaz Killed Five , unkonwn 2007.05.05
Zahedan Hanged Zaman Bamari 2007.05.01
Balochistan Killed Four,unkonwn 1386.1.6
Nikshahr Killed Three , unkonwn 2007.04.19
Totan Killed by “Mersad” Aziz Dorzadeh 18،04،2007
Totan Killed by “Mersad” Sirus Shirani 21 18,04,2007
Balochistan Killed by “Mersad” Six , unkonwn 17،04،2007
Zahedan Hanged Two , unkonwn 15،03،2007
Zabol Killed Two , unkonwn 14،03،2007
Zahedan Hanged Nazir Shanbehzahi 14،03،2007
Zahedan Hanged Nasroollah Shanbehzahi 19،02،2007
Zahedan Hanged Ahmad Sarir 20070315
Zahedan Hanged Toraj Seyahkamari 22-10-1385
Sarawan Killed Bashir H 20070130
Zahedan Hanged Ali B. 10-01-2007
Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Sh. 10-01-2007
Iranshahr Killed Abdolwahed Royan 2006.07
Iranshahr Hanged Khodamorad Lashkarzadeh 2006.06
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Abdol Ali baloch 2006.09
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Shahmohamad Barakzahi 2006.09
Zabol Hanged Gholam Kokan 2006.09
Zahedan Hanged Nader Rigi 2006.09
Prison of Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Shibok 2006.09
Iranshahr Hanged Ali Karimi 2006.09(۸۵/۰۷/۰۶)
Sarawan Hanged Amanullah 30-01-2006
Rafsenjan Hanged Shahmir  A 20061230
Rafsenjan Hanged Gholam   A 20061230
Rafsenjan Hanged Noorahmad  G 20061230
Zahedan Hanged Pordel D. 25.12.2006
Zahedan Hanged Yusof H. 25,12,2006
Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Shahbax 24,12,2006
Zahedan Hanged Changiz Narooei 24,12,2006
Zahedan Hanged Ali Baqheri 24,12,2006
Balochistan Killed Two , unkonwn 24,12,2006
Iranshahr Killed Noormohamad Ahorani 20061106
Zahedan Hanged Abdolmamalek Faqirdadi 20060815
Zahedan Hanged Shidel Shaihakirad 20060815
Zabol Hanged Hamid Reza Saber 20060815
Darzin Hanged Najib Karzahi 200608
Zabol Hanged Mehdi Zahri 20060713
Zabol Hanged Hoshang Keyani 20060713
Zabol Hanged Jalaludin Jamali 20060713
Zabol Hanged Abdol Rahman Safarzahi 20060713
Zahedan Hanged Majid Rigi 20060713
Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Poor Shahbax 2004
Dalgan Killed Two , unkonwn 1385.12.7
Sarawan Killed Three,unknown 29,07,1385
Khuramabad Hanged Karimbakhsh Narooei 29,05,1385
Zahedan Hanged Masoud Narooei 01،03،1385
Zahedan Hanged Abdolwaheed 01،03،1385
Zahedan Hanged Abdol Hamid Narooei 09،03،1385
Iranshahr Hanged Ali Arbabi 18،03،1385
Zahedan Hanged Abdollah Shahbax 20،03،1385
Pir Souran Killed Eshagh Rigi 24.03.1385
Zahedan Hanged Two , unkonwn 05،08،1385
Zahedan Hanged Saeed 07،08،1385
Iranshahr Killed One , unkonwn 06,1386
Sarawan Killed Gholamreza Rigi 06,1386
Zahedan Hanged Naser 07،04،1385
Dalgan The police exploded their house The members of one family 17،04،1385
Iranshahr Hanged Lalbax Sabki 17،04،1385
Balochistan Killed Qader 30،03،1385
Zahedan Hanged Two , unknown 25,03,1385
Iranshahr Hanged Farshid Bamari , known as Mirzok 2006.07.
Balochistan The police exploded their house Satar Dorazahi 2006
Balochistan The police exploded their house Adam Dorazahi 2006
Balochistan The police exploded their house Dorazahi 2006
Zahedan Hanged Abdoha,id Espandaki 30،10،2006
Zahedan Hanged Ahmad Dahmardeh 30،10،2006
Zahedan Hanged Behzad Narooei 30،10،2006
Zahedan Hanged Kahrazahi 2006
Iranshahr Hanged Mohamad Qayomi 05،11،2006
Iranshahr Hanged Najibollah Qayomi 05،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Behzad 06،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Mohamad Amin 06،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Abdollah 06،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Mohsen 06،11،2005
Zahedan Hanged Majeed 06،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Nader 06،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Hadi Daryakash Narooei 2006
Khash Killed Cherag Gamshahzahi 2006
Zahedan Hanged Azizullah Najariyan 2006
Zahedan Hanged Mohebali Gholamian 2006
Iranshahr Killed Medi Sabaki 22،11،2006
Iranshahr Killed Eisa Sabaki 22،11،2006
Zahedan Hanged Morad Gholi 02،12،2006
Zahedan Hanged Jamshid Shaikhi 02،12،2006
Iranshahr Killed Lalmohamad 20060718
Zahedan Killed Abdollah Notizahi  15 2006.02.01
Zahedan Killed Rohullah Notizahi  16 2006.02.01
Zahedan Killed Masoud Shahbax  18 2006.02.01
Iranshahr Hanged Bamari 20060105
Iranshahr Hanged Hoshang Bamari 2005.08
Iranshahr Killed Yusuf Bayegan
Balochistan Killed Molabax Derakhshan
Iranshahr Hanged Shokat Borhanzahi
Iranshahr Hanged Shahnezar narooei
Iranshahr Hanged Lalbax Borhanzahi
Iranshahr Hanged Shirali Khodayari
Iranshahr Hanged Emambax Damoni
Iranshahr Hanged Hamid Mirbalochzahi
Daman Hanged Nader Azargon
Iranshahr The police exploded their house Reza Qaderi
Lashar Killed Kamran Narooei
Iranshahr Killed Mohamadyosef Roin
Iranshahr Killed Nader Sholibor
Zahedan Hanged Yusof Shahbax 1383
Iranshahr Poisoned Saeed Pahlawani 1383
Iranshahr Killed Mosusa Poranoosh 1383
Iranshahr Poisoned Osman Rahmani Zardkohi 1383

Thanks to our reporters Mr. “S.S.” , Mr. Mehdi , Mr.”A . B.” and other friends who have helped us to create this list!

The page is created by Radio Balochi FM

Click here to see the list of Baloch youths who hanged/killed before 2004

CIA Eliminates Hakeemullah’s Mentor, Lashkar e-Jhangvi Chief

Officials: Taliban leader killed by missile strike

Photo: Qari Zafar

By ROHAN SULLIVAN

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 25, 2010; 1:39 PM

ISLAMABAD — A Taliban commander wanted in the deadly 2006 bombing of the U.S. consulate in Karachi was killed in a suspected CIA missile strike in northwest Pakistan, officials said Thursday – the latest blow in a crackdown on militants in the region.

Mohammed Qari Zafar was among at least 13 people killed Wednesday when three missiles slammed into a compound and a vehicle in the Dargah Mandi area of the North Waziristan tribal region on the border withAfghanistan, two Pakistani intelligence officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

It was the latest strike in an intensified U.S. campaign to take out Taliban and al-Qaida leaders believed to be sheltering in the lawless border region with missiles fired from unmanned drone aircraft. At the same time, Pakistani intelligence forces have cracked down on Afghan Taliban in the country, arresting more than a dozen top leaders in the past few weeks.

The increased pressure on the Taliban in Pakistan comes as U.S.-led forces are fighting their biggest offensive of the eight-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan in what Western official are hoping will be a turning point in the conflict.

Zafar, a senior member of the banned al-Qaida-linked militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is one of Pakistan’s and Washington’s most wanted men.

The U.S. government alleges Zafar was a key figure the March 2006 suicide car bombing of the U.S. consulate in the commercial metropolis of Karachi that killed U.S. diplomat David Foy and three Pakistanis, and has posted a $5 million dollar reward for information leading to his capture. He is also suspected in Pakistan of being involved in the September 2008 truck bomb blast at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed 54 people.

Senior Karachi police official Mazhar Mishwani said Qari Zafar was among his force’s most wanted terrorists for his role in the consulate attack.

"If the man killed is the same Qari Zafar, it is a very big success," Mishwani said.

Nazirullah Khan, a local government official in Parachinar, near North Waziristan, confirmed Wednesday’s suspected missile strike and said it killed 13 people, including three Taliban commanders. Khan said he did not the identities of those killed.

Earlier Thursday, Pakistani officials said that nearly 15 senior and midlevel Taliban figures have been arrested in the country in recent weeks. The top prize has been Afghan Taliban No. 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and information he has provided to interrogators has led to the detention of some other leaders, the officials said.

Baradar’s arrest has been hailed by U.S. officials and analysts as a major blow to the Taliban in Afghanistan, though they caution that the group has rebounded from the death or detention of previous leaders.

Opinion is divided, however, on whether the crackdown on Afghan Taliban in Pakistan signals that the country’s government and powerful intelligence forces are adopting a harder line against the militants, who have long enjoyed relative sanctuary in Pakistan. Some experts say the arrests may be linked to Pakistani attempts to influence possible conciliation talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Regi’s arrest: A tug of war

[A very credible assessment of the new Pakistani/Afghan paradigm.  The Taliban arrest and subsequent denial of extradition by Lahore High Court is just another act in ongoing drama called “war on terror.”  Rigi’s arrest is quid pro quo for Predator killing of Mohammed Haqqani–the US kills one of Pakistan’s assets and Pakistan eliminates an American asset inside Iran.]

Regi’s arrest: A tug of war



Written by Miran Gichki // Saturday, 27 February 2010 08:53
miran

The Iranian Interior Ministry announced on Feb 23, 2010, that Abdolmalek Regi, the rebel leader of the Peoples Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), operating from the province of Sistan-va-Balochistan, was arrested while onboard a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan. On the same day, New York Times, while quoting an Aljazeera report, said Regi was arrested a week back from Pakistan and then handed over to Iran. NY Times identified the rebel group as “fighting on behalf of Sunni Muslims from the Baluchi Ethnic group in Iran and Pakistan”.

The arrest comes as a major blow to the Iranian Peoples Resistance Movement, formerly known as the Jundullah, a group which has been alleged by Iran to have the support of the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and having links to Al Qaeda. The American investigative journalist, Seymore Hersh, while writing for the New Yorker, has said that as far back as 2006 the CIA has been running its covert operations inside Iran. Whatever the truth of these claims, it seems that the Baloch resistance movement has received a major setback in the Iranian occupied Balochistan.

Let us assume, for arguments sake, that the Baloch resistance movement in Iran was being supported by the US and Pakistan and try to connect a few dots together to make sense of it all. It would be imprudent, however, to see this development in isolation to the gamut of regional issues in South Asia, and specifically Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A major development in the region was reported by the New York Times about the willingness of the Pakistani Army to play a major role in negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.

It was the first time that Pakistan has publicly declared its keen intent to act as an arbiter in negotiations with the Taliban, though it has been a long term/strategic goal for Islamabad. If the White House pursues this policy, Pakistan will be the sole winner in the nine-year war in Afghanistan. It has long been reported that the aim of Pakistan was to maintain ties with the Afghan Taliban while pretending to help the United States against them and getting billions of dollars in aid. The paper also reported the influence the Pakistani Army and its intelligence agencies have on the Haqqani network which is believed to be operating from inside Pakistan and has been responsible for deadly attacks against the US and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.

On February 15, NY Times reported that a joint CIA-ISI raid in Pakistan’s bustling city of Karachi led to the capture of one of the top Afghan Taliban leaders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader. The news made one wonder if Pakistan had finally turned against the Afghan-Taliban, which it has long been accused of covertly supporting. The NY Times piece quoted former CIA official Bruce Riedel, who currently is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East at Brookings Institution, as saying that the development is a possible sea change in Pakistani behaviour.

The same newspaper a few days later reported that Barader’s arrest came as a lucky incident and not necessarily a new resolve by the Pakistani military to go after the Afghan Taliban. According to new details on the report, the Pakistani intelligence agencies did not know who they were going after. It was after a CIA tip-off that the Pakistani intelligence got hold of Barader, not knowing who they had captured. The paper also reported the marred relations the CIA and the ISI have been tugged in with reports about ISI’s support to the Afghan Taliban. It further quoted Riedel as saying that the limiting of the CIA officials to interrogate the prisoner shows the fear the Pakistani Intelligence services have if Barader discloses the ISI-Taliban nexus.

On February 16, the NY Times reported that the Pakistani military was frenzied by US attempts with negotiations or direct talks with Mullah Barader sidelining Pakistan. It quoted a Pakistani intelligence officer saying that they held strongly that the US was in touch with Barader or his close allies. A paragraph from the news report read: “On the one hand, the Americans don’t want us to negotiate directly with the Taliban, but then we hear that they are doing it themselves without telling us,” the official said in an interview. “You don’t treat your partners like this.”

Reading between the lines, one might speculate that the arrest came as strained relations between the CIA and ISI on the issue of reconciliation with the Taliban elements and Pakistani attempts to forestall those talks if they had been taking place. Pakistani intelligence wing was apparently unhappy with the US because they had rode roughshod over them, ruling out a key role for Pakistan to play in the reconciliation process with the Taliban.

It was reported on Aljazeera that Baradar’s arrest came as a US-Pakistan joint intelligence mission. In an interview with the former ISI chief and Taliban sympathizer, General (retd) Hamid Gul, the uneasiness of the some major circles about such a joint operation was evident, who termed it unusual and unprecedented. The words of the former ISI chief raise concern about the intent of Pakistan in the war on terror. If the Pakistanis are truly aligned with the US in this war, why should a joint CIA-ISI operation be seen on those lines?
Later, Aljazeera reported that the high-profile Taliban arrest by Pakistan might have come as a manoeuvre to assert its position in negotiation and reconciliation efforts planned by Washington.

Shockingly enough, another news which might have surprised political pundits was about the death of Mohammad Haqqani, the brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, by a US drone strike inside the Pakistani tribal regions. The ‘Haqqani network’ has been responsible for suicide bombings and attacks on US and Nato forces plus the recent attack on the CIA base in Khost which left 6 CIA officials dead. It was also reported that the Pakistanis were reluctant to go after the Haqqani group as they viewed them as assets. This may be seen as a blow to the Pakistani efforts for reconciliation in the near future with the influence they have on the Haqqani network.
Connecting these dots together, one does not have to think too hard, and infer that there is a tit for tat between the CIA and ISI over the reconciliation process in the wake of Operation Moshtarak.

The author’s analysis on the recent developments in Afghanistan-Pakistan seems to be a possible tug of war the CIA and ISI are getting involved in. A chronological view of the events seems to support the assumption that the Pakistanis arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader to mar US efforts in direct talks with Barader or his cohorts. As noted earlier, the Pakistani military has not been happy with the development and the move seems to show the US who is in control on ground. The killing of Mohammad Haqqani on the other hand, by a US drone strike seems to be a response to the Pakistani act of defiance and foiling its effort to use the Haqqani group as a tool for its influence in Afghanistan.

Coming back to where I started, if the claims by Iran about US support to the group are true, then surely there is more than the effectiveness of Vezarat-e Ettela’at va Amniat-e Keshvar (VEVAK) in the arrest of Regi. Aljazeera reported that Regi was arrested in Persian Gulf waters while he was travelling in a plane via Pakistan to an Arab country (name not disclosed). It said his plane was ordered to land in Iran while flying over the country. If these reports are true, then Iran had more than credible information about the presence of Regi on the plane, which caused Iran to break international aviation norms and force the plane to land in Iran.

If this development is part of the result of the tensions between CIA and ISI, Regi’s arrest might as well be a response to the killing of ISI’s trusted allies, the Haqqani Taliban. This is yet to be ascertained.

8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile

8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile

Posted: 27 February 2010 1457 hrs


A quake reading on a seismograph.

WASHINGTON: A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean off the coast of central Chile early Saturday and US authorities warned it could generate a tsunami.

The epicenter of the tremor, which hit at 3:34 am local time (0634 GMT), was 100 kilometers (60 miles) north northwest of the Chilean town of Chillan, the US Geological Survey said.

It was 105 kilometers (65 miles) west southwest of Chile’s city of Talca and 115 kilometers (70 miles) north northeast of Concepcion, it said.

The Chilean capital of Santiago is 325 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of the epicenter.

The quake was at a depth of 35 kilometers (21.7 miles), the survey said in its latest bulletin.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The survey had initially put the magnitude of the tremor at 8.5 but later adjusted it to 8.8. The location of the epicenter was also slightly corrected.

The US Pacific Tsunami warning center issued a tsunami warning for Chile and Peru, and a tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica.

It said it was not yet known if a tsunami had been caused but “an earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines within hours.”

The center warned authorities to take “appropriate action”.

The quake magnitude reading is based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale which is used by US seismologists and measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

No US/Pakistan Nuke Deal Is Planned

US says no to nuclear power plant to Pak

Press Trust Of India

The US has categorically told Pakistan that it would not get any atomic power plant or civilian nuclear deal on the lines of the one signed with India.

“The United States is working closely with Pakistan to help meet its growing needs. Nuclear power is not currently part of our discussions,” a senior Administration official told PTI.

Leaders of Pakistan, who have been pitching hard for a nuclear power plant, have been told about in recently.

The senior Administration official, preferring anonymity, said the US has also told Pakistan that there is no way that they can get a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one the Obama Administration has signed with India.

The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is specific to India only and there is no thinking going on in the administration to create a template for it, the official said.

Moreover, given the past experiences that the US had with Pakistan on nuclear proliferation issue and the episode of disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan accused of transferring sensitive technologies abroad, the official said both the top American lawmakers and those in the US Government have serious concerns about the safety of Pakistani nuclear weapons.

Under these circumstances, it is quite difficult to consider “that (nuclear power)” option for Pakistan, the officials pointed out.

Message to Taliban: Seek “Reconciliation,” Get Arrested

Pakistan’s decisive action to aid Afghan conciliation: US

By Anwar Iqbal
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. -File Photo

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ‘decisive’ action against the Taliban is already showing results, says the US State Department, adding that such measures would encourage militants to seek reconciliation.

“This is expressly the kind of decisive action that we sought in our strategy from the outset, and that has been the basis upon which we have worked with Afghanistan, worked with Pakistan,” said the department’s spokesman P.J. Crowley.

Talking to reporters at the State Department on Thursday evening, Crowley, however, warned that it was too early to declare victory.

There has been a positive response in the US to Pakistani military and intelligence operations over the last several weeks that resulted in the capture of some key Taliban leaders, including the group’s military chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Crowley said that Pakistani actions were linked to a joint strategy for dealing with militants, which began with the recognition that they were an adversary of the United States as well as Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

“But as to what conclusions those who are associated with political violence will draw from this, that is expressly why we have included in our strategy the concept of reintegrating those who are currently engaged in the fight,” he added.

To join this reintegration process, the militants will first have to lay down their arms, disassociate themselves from Al Qaeda and accept the Afghan constitution or the rule of law in Pakistan, he said.

Responding to a question about a possible reconciliation with the Taliban leadership, the spokesman said the US and its allies were “not too far down that road at this point”.

Such decisions, he added, would ultimately be made by the Afghan leadership on their side, the Pakistani leadership on their side. “But certainly, I think we are encouraged by the broad trends that show the results of Pakistan’s decisive action.”

Crowley claimed that in southern Afghanistan, where the US was conducting a major military operation, the militants were already showing interest in the reintegration process.

“We’re now moving ahead with being able to bring more civilians into that region and demonstrate to the Afghan people that there are clear benefits to them in the immediate term and the long run.”

Knesset criminalises the commemoration of the “Nakba”

Knesset criminalises the commemoration of the “Nakba”

Middle East Monitor

nakba_2.jpg
February 25, 2010

A new law in Israel makes it a crime to commemorate what Palestinians call the “Nakba”, the “catastrophe” of their dispossession by the creation of the Zionist state in 1948. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, has passed “The Nakba Draft Law” after just one reading. Penalties will be imposed on anyone showing signs of sadness and mourning within the (undefined) borders of Israel on 15 May; Palestinians remember on that day the creation of the refugee crisis that remains after 62 years.

Hebrew radio reported this week that the law is intended to stop people mourning on what is Israeli Independence Day; commemorative acts are, it is claimed, tantamount to “denying the Jewish character of Israel [and] insulting the symbols of the state”. The radio noted that the fines might amount up to three times the expenditure of commemorative programmes.

According to one commentator, it is ironic that this law has been passed at a time when Israel is complaining about attempts to “de-legitimise” the Zionist state. Here is an example of Israel’s own “de-legitimisation” of the Palestinians, their land and their culture, he said.

Pakistan court stops deportation of top Taleban leader

Pakistan court stops deportation of top Taleban leader

By DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR

Published: Feb 26, 2010 9:03 PM Updated: Feb 26, 2010 9:03 PM

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court blocked on Friday the possible deportation of a top Afghan Taleban leader recently detained in the country, a lawyer said.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, second only to the Taleban supreme chief Mullah Omar, was seized by Pakistani and American intelligence agents in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi earlier this month.

Islamabad confirmed the capture of Baradar, which was followed by reports about the arrest of more Taleban figures, including two “shadow governors” for the Afghan provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan.

“The Lahore High Court decreed on Friday that none of the detainees should be handed over to any foreign country,” said Tariq Asad, a lawyer for civil rights activist Khalid Khwaja who petitioned the court to stop the deportation of the Taleban members.

The order came a day after the Afghan presidential palace said in a statement that the Pakistani government had agreed “to extradite Mullah Baradar and other Taleban in their custody.” No names other than Baradar’s were mentioned in the statement.

Pakistani and Afghan interior ministers as well as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller discussed the possible handing-over of Baradar in a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday.

However, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik was quoted by the media as saying that the authorities would first see if the Taleban leader was needed to be tried locally for any violation of the country’s laws.

The petition by Khwaja, a former employee of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, contained the names of four other Taleban leaders — Mullah Abdul Salam, Mullah Mir Mohammad, Mullah Abdul Kabir and Ameer Muawiyia.

The court said on Friday that none of the men should be deported, and fixed the next hearing for March 15. The government was asked to provide information about the arrests.

Analysts have said that the detentions signaled a change in Islamabad’s stance. Pakistan had long been blamed for protecting the Taleban leadership believed to be hiding inside its southern territory, with a so-called council based in the city of Quetta.

The United States has placed Pakistan at the heart of its strategy to tackle the growing Taleban insurgency, and the recent arrests come as foreign troops are in the midst of a major offensive in Afghanistan.

Indian Doctors Were Taliban’s Target, Says Karzai

9 Indians among 17 dead as Taliban bombers attack Kabul

AGENCIES, Feb 26, 2010, 06.17pm IST

KABUL: Nine Indians have died in a terror attack in Kabul as per preliminary information provided by Afghan government officials, External Affairs minister S M Krishna said. Taliban bombers equipped with suicide vests and automatic rifles attacked a hotel and a guesthouse in central Kabul on Friday.

Insurgents struck in the heart of the Afghan capital Friday with suicide attackers and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens, police said.

A series of explosions occurred at the City Centre shopping complex and the Safi Landmark hotel, about 300 metre from the interior ministry, said Abdul Ghafar Sayedzadar, a senior police official.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai said were aimed at Indians working in Kabul.

The four-hour assault began about 6.30 am with a car bombing that leveled a residential hotel used by Indian doctors. A series of explosions and gunbattles left blood and debris in the rain-slickened streets and underscored the militants’ ability to strike in the heavily defended capital even as NATO marshals its forces against them in the volatile south.

Dr. Subodh Sanjivpaul of India said he was holed up in his bathroom for three hours inside one of the small hotels where he lived with other Indians.

“Today’s suicide attack took place in our residential complex,” Sanjivpaul said at a military hospital where his wounded foot was bandaged. “When I was coming out, I found two or three dead bodies. When firing was going on, the first car bomb exploded and the roof came on my head.”

The Kabul attacks came two weeks into a major offensive against the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, where thousands of US, Afghan and NATO soldiers are battling to drive insurgents out. The British government said one of its soldiers was killed Friday by an explosion while on a foot patrol — the 14th international service member to die in the operation.

In recent weeks, more than two dozen senior and midlevel Taliban figures have been detained in Pakistan, suggesting the attack in the capital could be a way for the militants to show the insurgency remains potent.

In a statement, Karzai condemned Friday’s assault as a “terrorist attack against Indian citizens” who were helping the Afghan people. He said it would not affect relations between India and Afghanistan.

Indian officials also condemned the attack. “We are shocked at the inhuman attack on innocent lives,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.

“Our ties are strong and deep (with Afghanistan) and will remain so. We are very clear that the forces of terrorism will not succeed and we will take every measure to defeat the forces of terror,” he said in New Delhi.

Three police were killed in the attacks, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said, adding that at least 38 people were wounded, six of them police.

Kabul Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahman told reporters that the attacks began when a car bomb exploded outside the Arya Guesthouse where Indian doctors, who treat Afghan children in the area, were living.

The blast leveled the building, also known as the Hamid Guesthouse. After the car bombing, a suicide attacker detonated his vest of explosives outside the demolished building.

Two other attackers then entered a second hotel known as Park Residence. Police surrounded the building. One of them holed himself up in a room and then blew himself up, killing three police officers and wounding six others. The other attacker was shot dead by police. The Italian diplomat who died had been assisting the police.

“From beginning of the operation, he was in contact with our units and gave us tips and even information regarding the terrorists’ position, which was quite helpful for us,” Rahman said, adding that the tips helped police rescue four other Italians from the scene.

“He was killed by the terrorists who realized that he was passing information to police forces,” Rahman said. “He was in a room right behind the attackers and he could see where they were and what they are doing.”

The scene was chaotic. A body of a man wearing a red shirt was lying near a burned-out vehicle in the rubble. The remains of another man laid in a gully near the epicenter of the blasts. Policemen ran down the streets carrying the injured.

Witnesses said one explosion created a crater about three feet (one meter) wide in front of the Arya Guesthouse; the windows of the nearby luxury Safi Landmark Hotel were blown out.

“I saw foreigners were crying and shouting,” said Najibullah, a 25-year-old worker at the high-rise Safi hotel who ran out into the rain-slickened street in just his underwear when he heard the first explosion.

Najibullah, whose face and hands were covered in blood, said he saw two suicide bombers at the site. “It was a very bad situation inside,” he said. “God helped me, otherwise I would be dead. I saw one suicide bomber blowing himself up.”

The streets, littered with glass and debris, were mostly empty because it was the first day of the Afghan weekend and a major Muslim holiday to mark the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Afghan police, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, crouched behind traffic barriers with guns ready as a light rain fell and shots sounded from multiple sides.

Police escorted a middle-aged woman in pink pajamas out of the area. She wore a brown sweater, but no shoes, and her socks sopped up water as she walked down the street in a daze. “I haven’t seen … where are my …?” she said, speaking only in sentence fragments.

Jack Barton, an Australian aid worker, said he was awakened by a large blast that blew in the windows of the hotel where he was staying and filled the room with dust.

“There was very intense street fighting outside the guesthouse compound. It happened very close by. After an hour, it slowly drifted away,” he said.

The Canadian Embassy and the US government issued statements denouncing the attacks.

“The United States remains firmly committed to working side-by-side with the Afghan government and people, as well as our international partners, to deliver security and a better future to Afghanistan,” The US Embassy said.

It was the first attack in the Afghan capital since Jan. 18, when teams of suicide bombers and gunmen targeted government buildings, leaving 12 dead, including seven attackers. On Dec. 15, a suicide car bomber hit near a hotel frequented by foreigners, killing eight people.

That followed an October attack on a small residential hotel that housed a number of U.N. election workers. Gunmen with suicide vests stormed the building, killing five U.N. staff.

India is among the largest economic donors to Afghanistan apart from countries that have sent troops to the NATO-led mission. India is seeking regional allies and access to oil- and gas-rich central Asia.

The Indian Embassy in Kabul has suffered two major attacks, the most recent on Oct. 8 when a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle at an embassy security barrier, killing 17 people. In July 2008, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle at the gates of the embassy, killing more than 60 people.

India’s growing role here is strongly opposed by Pakistan, which wants a friendly government without ties to its archrival, and by the Taliban because of Indian links to rival ethnic communities here. Many of the Islamic extremist groups in the region have been fighting the Indians for years in Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir.

Also Friday, German lawmakers approved a plan to send up to 850 extra troops to Afghanistan, increasing the maximum number of German troops serving there to 5,350 from 4,500 — a boost to NATO’s multinational force, a week after the Dutch government collapsed over a plan to keep the Netherlands’ 2,000-strong contingent from going home this year.

“… no denying the fact that NATO-Pakistan ties are fast assuming a strategic character for Tehran …”

“… no denying the fact that NATO-Pakistan ties are fast assuming a strategic character for Tehran …”

“….. However, Rigi’s capture has wider ramifications going well beyond the stuff of high drama. For one thing, the Iranian public was dazzled by the intelligence operation and it has provided a morale boost at a critical juncture when the West is besieging Iran over its nuclear program and the political class in Tehran is more polarized than at any time in the three decades of the Islamic Republic.
Ironically, the Iranian performance stands out in sharp contrast with the fallout from the Israeli intelligence operation in Dubai in the UAE to assassinate prominent Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19. (See Dubai hit exposes Hamas’ weaknesses, Asia Times Online, February 23) Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar made this clear when he said, “Such an operation by the Islamic Republic’s security forces indicates that the country’s intelligence and security have the upper hand in the region.”
No doubt, Iranian public opinion will identify with this mood of self-confidence, no matter the political persuasions of various factions at this current juncture as regards the ruling establishment.
In turn, that would have implications for the United States-Iran standoff. But that is only one aspect. The fact is that Tehran has put Washington on the back foot at a critical juncture. Rigi is bound to spill the beans – he may already have begun – and much is going to surface about the covert activities by the US forces based in Afghanistan to subvert Iran by hobnobbing with Jundallah, which, incidentally, is also known to have links with al-Qaeda.
Rigi apparently had a meeting with his US mentors in an American base just a day before his journey to the UAE. It seems he was traveling with a fake Afghan passport provided by the Americans….
The American doublespeak on terrorism comes out all too starkly. The big question is whether Pakistan played a helpful role in Rigi’s capture. Iranian officials flatly insist that Rigi’s capture was “fully carried out” by Iranian agencies, including its “management, operation and planning” and the credit goes “solely to our country’s security and task forces”….
But Persian is a highly nuanced language. What is significant is that while Iranian officials have unhesitatingly pointed their finger at the US as Rigi’s top mentor, there has not been a single reference direct or implied about Pakistan that could be construed as critical or unfriendly. This must be noted as on several occasions in recent months Iranian officials publicly expressed their anguish that Pakistani intelligence was involved with Jundallah in one way or another, and that Islamabad was not doing enough to live up to its claims of being a friendly neighbor.
Tehran repeatedly passed on intelligence and urged Islamabad to extradite Rigi…… On balance, Islamabad seems to have implied that it did cooperate with Tehran on Rigi’s capture. The Pakistani ambassador in Tehran, Mohammad Baksh Abbasi, took the unusual step of “underlining Islamabad’s support” for Rigi’s arrest. Abbasi held a press conference to affirm, “Rigi’s arrest showed that there is no place for Iran’s enemies in Pakistan.”…..
If there was a Pakistani role in Rigi’s capture there would be deep implications for regional security. Most certainly, Islamabad could claim reciprocal “goodwill” from Iran, such as accommodating its own interests in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Iranian officials have made it clear that Tehran is not indebted to anyone, including Pakistan.
Tehran remains deeply concerned about the US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s role in it. In the Iranian estimation, the US strategy aims at consolidating a long-term North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence in Afghanistan and CentralAsia. Equally, Pakistan’s growing ties with NATO as the alliance’s South Asian “pillar” have not escaped Iranian attention. There is no denying the fact that NATO-Pakistan ties are fast assuming a strategic character and have exceeded the immediate requirements of practical cooperation in Afghanistan.
Tehran is equally apprehensive that the US’s long-term strategy is to become the “umpire” or arbiter of Asian security involving four major powers neighboring Afghanistan – Iran, India, Russia and China – by exploiting the contradictions in the region. Tehran estimates that Pakistan is collaborating with this and is in many ways becoming a beneficiary of it.
Therefore, Tehran will follow a two-track policy on the Jundallah-Pakistan nexus. On the one hand, it would like to persuade Islamabad at all available levels to be cooperative in curbing the activities of terrorist elements operating out of Pakistani soil. However, Tehran cannot be naive enough to imagine that the Jundallah terrorists are “non-state actors” based in Pakistan and Afghanistan over whom the security establishment in Islamabad has no control.
Tehran would prefer not to harp on about that sensitive aspect and will instead cajole and persuade the Pakistani intelligence and military to be cooperative in countering terrorism directed against Iran from Pakistani soil.
The Rigi episode brings out the complexity of Iran-Pakistan relations in the fight against terrorism. The bottom line is that Iran’s interests in Afghanistan are far too fundamental to be bartered away under any circumstances.”

Govt to launch 58 Balochistan projects

Govt to launch 58 Balochistan projects

PDF Print E-mail
News updates
Written by our correspondent // Sunday, 21 February 2010 04:49
Gwadar_-_Balochistan_-_Pakistan_6ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) of Pakistan’s Planning Commission is likely to take up 58 Balochistan/Higher Education Commission (HEC) projects worth Rs79.444 bn with Rs29.655 bn as foreign exchange component (FEC).

The CDWP meeting on Balochistan and Higher Education Commission (HEC) is schedule to be held on Feb 22, followed by another CDWP meeting on Feb 23 for development schemes across the country. Acting Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr Ashfaq Ahmad will chair the meeting. The meeting on February 22 will consider Balochistan’s and HEC’s national importance projects in different fields.

Balochistan Assessment – 2010

Balochistan Assessment – 2010

The strategic and resource-rich Balochistan province continues to remain on the periphery of Pakistan’s projects and perceptions. With both the “dialogue with those who are up in the mountains” and the counter-insurgency (CI) operations failing, the Baloch insurrection persists. Worse, subversion from theTalibanAl Qaeda in the north of the province has added to the region’s complexities.

There has, however, been some reduction in violence during 2009. At least 268 persons, including 148 civilians and 83 Security Force (SF) personnel, have died in the current year (till November 20) according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP). Significantly, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of insurgents killed, an indication that CI operations are not yielding results.

Annual Fatalities in Balochistan, 2006-2009

Year
Civilians
SF Personnel
Militant
Total
Injured
Incidents
2009*
148
83
37
268
491
349
2008
130
111
107
348
383
397
2007
124
27
94
245
NA
NA
2006
226
82
142
450
NA
772
Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal
* Data till November 20, 2009

Despite the reduced levels of violence, the insurgency continues to simmer, with a steady stream of bomb and rocket attacks on gas pipelines, railway tracks, power transmission lines, bridges, and communications infrastructure, as well as on military establishments and Government facilities. While there have been at least 126 bomb blasts and grenade explosions across the province in 2009 [data till November 20 (Source: SATP)], there have also been rocket attacks (numbers for which are not available currently) targeting state installations reported almost on a daily basis in the province. Baloch insurgents have also targeted Government officials and politicians. On October 25, 2009, for instance, the Balochistan Education Minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan was shot dead near his house in Quetta. The Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination. The BLUF spokesman, Shahiq Baloch, said the Minister, born to Punjabi settlers, was killed due to his anti-Baloch policies, and to “avenge the state-sponsored murders of Baloch nationalist leaders Ghulam Muhammad, Sher Muhammad and Lala Munir in Turbat in Balochistan some time ago.” Earlier, on August 6, 2009, the Minister for Excise and Taxation, Sardarzada Rustam Khan Jamali, was shot dead in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, which has a significant Baloch population. Though the Police subsequently managed to arrest a key suspect, who is an alleged member of a car lifting gang, investigators are still unclear about the motive behind the mysterious killing, and there is suspicion of Baloch involvement. On October 18, 2009, a grenade was hurled into the house of the Information Minister Younas Mullazai in Quetta, but the Minister was not in at that time and no loss of life or injury was reported. Rahimullah Yusufzai notes,

There have been other targeted killings in the province, along with frequent acts of sabotage against government installations, infrastructure and utility services. A new trend in this campaign is the blowing up of properties of pro-government tribal elders. Frontier Corps soldiers and policemen are attacked and the settlers, the ones whose parents and grandparents came from other provinces to settle in Balochistan, are now a major target of Baloch separatists.

Muhammad Ejaz Khan similarly reported in The News on October 18, 2009, that Balochistan had seen a sharp increase in incidents of targeted killing, especially since 2003. According to a senior official of the provincial Government, there have been two principal kinds of targeted killings – the sectarian and those backed by insurgent or separatist groups. In most reported incidents, the targets were found to have been shot in the head by highly trained shooters. Most of the victims of these targeted killings have been Shias and Punjabis (generally referred to as settlers). In Quetta and other Baloch-dominated areas of the province, Punjabi barbers and labourers have also been routinely targeted. Dr. Farrukh, the Superintendent of Police in Quetta, disclosed that the Police had arrested four high-profile killers and blamed the outlawed Sunni outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), for the targeted killing incidents. The Hazara community in Quetta claims that over 270 of its people have been killed over the past six years.

Currently, there are at least six active insurgent groups in Balochistan: the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the Baloch Republican Army, the Baloch People’s Liberation Front, the Popular Front for Armed Resistance, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and BLUF. BLUF, according to Rahimullah Yusufzai, appears more aggressive and violent even than BLA and BLF. In February 2009, BLUF cadres abducted American John Solecki, who headed the UNHCR mission in Balochistan, but freed him unharmed after “much effort, and probably a deal.” The kidnapping signaled the “arrival of the BLUF as the most radical of the three Baloch separatist groups even though it isn’t clear if these are separate or overlapping factions operating under different names.” In addition, young Baloch separatists “forming part of the Diaspora and living in Kabul, Kandahar, Dubai, London, Brussels and Geneva, are now often calling the shots in Balochistan and setting the agenda.”

The insurgents retain capabilities to carry out acts of sabotage on a daily basis across the province. Acts of violence are, importantly, not restricted to a few areas but are occurring in practically all the 26 Districts, including the provincial capital Quetta. Quetta continues to witness substantial militant activity, both from the Islamist extremists and the Baloch nationalists. There were 73 militancy-related incidents in Quetta during 2009 (till November 15) as against 81 in 2008; 72 in 2007; 75 in 2006; 61 in 2005; 51 in 2004; and 32 in 2003.

While the low-intensity nationalist insurgency continues, there is a far more insidious movement of subversion being orchestrated by the Taliban-al Qaeda combine in the northern part of the province. The Baloch insurgency, in fact, plays out in the sidelines of greater theatre of violence, as Islamist militants in the north orchestrate attacks on both sides of the Afghan border in their areas of domination. According to General Stanley McChrystal, the US Commander in Afghanistan, Taliban militants in Balochistan, known as the ‘Quetta Shura’, operate openly from the provincial capital, conducting attacks inside both Balochistan and Afghanistan. On September 29, 2009, The Washington Post quoted US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, as saying that “In the past, we focused on al Qaeda because they were a threat to us. The Quetta Shura mattered less to us because we had no troops in the region… Now our troops are there on the other side of the border, and the Quetta Shura is high on Washington’s list.” Other US officials claim that virtually all of the Afghan Taliban’s strategic decisions are made by the Quetta Shura, Dawn reported on September 30, 2009. Decisions flow from the group “to Taliban field commanders, who in turn make tactical decisions that support the Shura’s strategic direction,” one such official told the US media. The Washington Post report claims that Pakistani officials have allowed the Taliban movement to regroup in the Quetta area because they view it as a strategic asset rather than a domestic threat. The US Consul General in Karachi, Stephen Fakan, told reporters on October 21, 2009 that a Waziristan-like situation might develop in Balochistan if “necessary action” is not taken against the Taliban in Quetta. According to him, “They have their existence in Quetta and the Government of Pakistan should root them out from here.”

Even as the American apprehension about the top leadership of Taliban hiding in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan were being articulated, there has also been some talk about the Barack Obama administration planning to broaden the scope of its drone attacks to include Quetta and other parts of Balochistan. Interestingly, a Washington Times report now suggests that Mullah Omar, chief of the Afghan Taliban who heads the Quetta Shura, may have been shifted by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan external intelligence agency, to safer environs in Karachi, to protect him from the possibility of a US drone strike.

Meanwhile, the Taliban-al Qaeda combine continues to try and disrupt the supply line for NATO Forces in Afghanistan passing through Balochistan. In 2009, there have been at least 12 attacks in Balochistan on oil tankers and trucks ferrying NATO supplies to Afghanistan. These have occurred in the Lakorain area on the National Highway in Khuzdar District, near the Chaman border crossing, Chaman town, Kalat, Pishin District, Western Bypass in Quetta, Wadh in Khuzdar District, on the RCD Highway in Khuzdar, Bolan and in the Chhoto area of Mastung District. Among these was also the first-ever suicide attack in a Baloch-populated area. On June 30, four persons were killed and 11 injured when a bomber targeted a hotel in Kalat in an apparent bid at disrupting supplies to the NATO forces in Afghanistan. The bomber detonated his explosives inside a hotel in the Sorab area of the District, 250 kilometers southeast of Quetta. Most of the victims were reportedly Baloch tribesmen. Witnesses said the suicide bomber, dressed in white traditional clothes, parked his explosives-laden vehicle outside the hotel on the Quetta-Karachi RCD Highway, and then went into the hotel.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Government, after coming to power at Islamabad in 2008, made some politically correct statements of intent on providing a ‘healing touch’ to Balochistan. However, all of this has remained mere rhetoric and the political process has failed to take off. Making it more difficult for Islamabad to launch an acceptable political process is the inability to find any allies among the nationalist elements in the province. Worse, the PPP regime has now been associated with the custodial killing of at least four prominent Baloch leaders. The mutilated bodies of Ghulam Mohammed Baloch, President of the Baloch National Movement, his deputy Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammed Baloch, Deputy Secretary General of Balochistan Republican Party, were found on a mountain river bed in Pidrak near Turbat on April 8, 2009. Later the body of Baloch National Front Joint Secretary Rasul Bakhsh Mengal, who was abducted on August 23, 2009 from Uthal in Lasbela District, with marks of torture, was found hanging from a tree.

The Federal Government is currently attempting to develop a ‘consensual’ Balochistan package, which would purportedly address the province’s political, social and economic problems. The package, namedAghaze Huqooq-i-Balochistan, reportedly contains three parts, including constitutional, administrative and economic measures. At this point in time, it remains unclear what measures are being suggested to achieve a consensus and, more importantly, get all the stakeholders on board. The past trajectory in Balochistan, however, indicates that packages, essentially financial in nature, have achieved little. Predictably, the latest package seems to have run into rough weather even before its contours have been defined. The Balochistan National Party (BNP), one of the leading political parties in the province, has termed the package a bribe, given to halt their movement, and has consequently demanded the withdrawal of the ongoing military action in the province and the release of missing persons as a confidence-building measure. BNP Secretary, General Habib Jalib Baloch, told The Nation on November 18 that such packages had also been announced in the past, but these always backfired and remained sterile. Abdur Rauf Mengal, a former parliamentarian from the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) stated, further, “We have no faith in the Government’s sincerity.” On November 17, 2009, he asserted, “Our problems include the military operation, which is ongoing regardless of the Government’s denial; then there are the countless missing persons; massive displacement due to the military operation; and fake cases against and the extrajudicial killings of Baloch nationalist leaders.”

Hectic efforts have been underway for some time now to bringing the Baloch rebels to the negotiating table. None of these has, however, had the desired impact in Balochistan as far as Islamabad is concerned. With the ‘peace process’ ignoring the fundamental issues that have sustained the insurgency, and Islamabad focusing only on the suppression of the insurgency, violence continues to be an everyday reality in the Province. The basic issues, which include control over resources, equal authority, and autonomy, are yet to be addressed. There is also the issue of endemic neglect and backwardness. Balochistan has the weakest long-term growth performance of all provinces in the country, according to a World Bank study. The Balochistan Economic Report 2009, which accounted for statistics from 1972-73 to 2005-06, said the province’s economy expanded by 2.7 times in Balochistan, 3.6 times in the NWFP and Sindh and four times in Punjab. Balochistan also has the worst social indicators, scoring the lowest on 10 key variables – education, literacy, health, water and sanitation – for 2006-07. The World Bank study noted that illiteracy is high in Balochistan (approximately 60 per cent) and primary school enrolment is low. The Report only confirms the long-standing disparities between Balochistan and the other provinces, especially Punjab, and underlines the deep disconnect between Balochistan and the rest of the country, as also the resentment of the Baloch.

Clearly, a lasting solution to the long-standing Baloch rebellion looks highly unlikely in the proximate future. Indeed, there could be a rising danger from the augmenting presence of the Taliban-Al Qaeda combine in Balochistan.

A letter to George Orwell

A letter to George Orwell

PDF Print E-mail
Opinion
Written by Zahid Abdullah // Monday, 22 February 2010 15:29
orwellThe tale begins: once there was a bird farm, self-ruled and independent. The farm finally fell into the hands of some mediocre and one day, the neighbouring bull farm owners fished in the troubled water and occupied the bird farm. To plunder its resources, the farm was kept in darkness.

The bulls gradually cemented their rule throughout the farm. The chicken, followed by the nightingale, were the first to rally behind the bulls. They were then followed by the crow. The nightingale was always ready to sing the bulls’ national song. However, some birds preferred to sit silently on the fence and wait.

The immediate resistance faced by the bull was from the houbara bustard. However, it was crushed swiftly. The houbara bustard was jailed in a special wooden cage in the darkest dungeon. Some other birds who supported the resistance with the word of the mouth were granted general amnesty. Later, a relief package was also announced for them. So far, four revolts from the birds have been successfully crushed with “wood and horn”. Now the bulls are facing the fifth insurgency, more powerful and long-lived than its predecessors.

The bulls have extended their rule to every nook and corner of the farm. They have earned the loyalty of many birds with the help of their sophisticated colonial institutions. These institutions include The Horned Services, The Missionary, the National Positive and Loyal Propaganda, the Grain and Wheat Department and the Department of Eyes and Ears.

The Department of Horned Bull for the Protection of Bird (HBPB) is responsible for maintaining law and order in the farm. It always keeps an eye on foreign elements who want to destablise the farm. Birds have no representation in the department because of their low heights. The dissident birds are very critical of this institution and consider it as a source of oppression and occupation.

The Missionary preaches animal brotherhood. Its main purpose is to assimilate the birds into a broader animal identity. It’s particularly against bird nationalism and rather promotes animal nationalism. However, the dissident birds see it as an instrument to eliminate the birds’ identity.
The Institution of Positive and Loyal Propaganda (which was largely kept secret from the birds) oversees the sources of communication radio, television, newspaper, special pamphlets, mosque sermons, textbooks, and writings on the farm walls. This institution is doing the “noblest job” of hiring scholars who promote the “freedom of expression, communication and hence the spirit of democracy” (the noblest invention of the time). Thus, the Missionaries have great extent of control over this department. The birds believe this scheme is a “tool of suppression and occupation”.

The Department of Grain and Food supervises the “equal distribution” of food within the farm. The heads of this department are bulls. They set the department’s policies. In this organisation, the duty of the birds is to implement the policies set by the bulls in letter and spirit. The Missionary birds distribute the grain and wheat among “the purist section of the society, particularly chickens, nightingales, and crows.” Nightingales praise the purity of the bulls in their sermons, calling them the farm’s savior.

The Department of Eyes and Ears is considered the backbone of the Bull Rule. With an extended network across the farm, it keeps vigilance over dissident birds, especially the revolting houbara bustards and eagles. It enlists names of “miscreants” with the help of chickens and nightingales.

After gathering information, they provide the lists to the Horned Bull that take hard and swift “security measures” to suppress and root out the slightest signs of dissents within the farm. This act has led to bird disappearances, imprisonments and murders without trial. This department has recruited nightingales and chickens in an unprecedented number to curb the recent wave of resistance that has engulfed the farm.

The fifth rebellion (the birds call it the fifth war of liberation) has brought great concerns in the camp of the bull and their allied birds. The bulls’ reaction to this revolt has been on the strategy of wiping out the leadership of the “miscreants” and bringing the chickens and the nightingales into the forefront by portraying them as the “true” leaders of the birds.

The eagles, houbara bustards and other dissident birds have become more powerful after the launch of the fifth war of liberation. Their demand for the national rights of the birds has become so popular that even the birds allied with the bulls are now demanding some rights for their fellow creatures. Nightingales are calling for representation in services and limited control over farms production. Other peaceful birds demand that the bird farm should remain in the “holy land of the Bull” but be in charge of its own affairs.

However, the rebelling birds demand a complete independence of the farm. They believe that only violence can lead to the liberation of their farm.

Now, this ongoing war seems to be a decisive one. The birds would have to either give in to defeat or victory.

The Path Forward In Balochistan

All demands of Balochistan acceptable: Zardari



By Muhammad Ejaz Khan
QUETTA: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that all the demands of the people of Balochistan were acceptable to the government.
“There is not even a single demand which is unacceptable to us,” he said while addressing the 5th draw of the Waseela-e-Haq programme here on Thursday. He also met different delegations at the Governor House.
“I have good knowledge of the problems of Balochistan. I need some time to solve these problems,” he said. “We know that some estranged people have no faith in our promises, so we have decided to do some practical work before going for a dialogue.”
Zardari arrived in the city on a two-day visit on Thursday. Extraordinary security measures were adopted during the president’s visit. Additional deployment of security personnel was made to avert any untoward incident.
Zardari urged the Baloch leaders not to resort to violence for their rights. “I am here to give you the rights and develop the province.” He went on to say: “We know there is a feeling of sadness in Balochistan. The people here do not sob, and prefer to pick up guns.”
Zardari said he wanted to develop a Pakistan where Balochistan would be the hub of progress and development. “The history will recall that a soldier of Bhutto came here and pledged to make Balochistan the centre of world’s attention.”
He sought the help of all the political parties to resolve the issues of the province. “There might not be any immediate relief, but over a period of time, you will witness significant change in your lives,” he added.
“We have the same love, respect and regard for the people of Balochistan as we have for the people of other parts of the country.” The president said more National Highway Authority projects would be initiated to improve the communication network in the province.
Earlier, Zardari performed the fifth draw of the Waseela-e-Haq Programme, under which successful families would get loans of Rs 300,000 to start their own businesses. He also distributed cheques among women hailing from different parts of the province. Compensation cheques were given to those women whose close relatives were injured or died in acts of terror or natural calamities.
Meanwhile, PPP Balochistan President Senator Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani and other provincial leaders of the party staged a walkout after PPP workers were denied entry into the Governor House to meet the president and attend the PPP provincial council meeting.
After an hour’s break, Lashkari again approached the Governor House, seeking entry of the PPP council members, but again they were refused on the ground that the function was over and the president had moved to the CM Secretariat for the provincial cabinet meeting.
Earlier, addressing a high-level meeting at the Governor House, Zardari issued directives to the concerned authorities to ensure timely completion of development projects in the province. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, Federal Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Khan Kakar, Federal Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira, Federal Minister for Postal Services Mir Israrullah Zehri, Chairman BISP. Farzana Raja were present during the meeting.
APP adds: Talking to the Balochistan cabinet members, Zardari said the federal government was working to introduce a constitutional package in March which would ensure rights to provinces. “Balochistan has a specific strategic importance which cannot be ignored.”

Gold and Gun colonisation policies are being adopted in Balochistan: BSO-Azaad

karachi: BSO (azaad) Secretary General Zahid Baloch while commenting on Zardari’s visit to Balochistan has said that all the colonising powers around the world adopted Gold and Gun policies to crush the freedom movements of oppressed Nations and Pakistani authoritarian rulers are also using same policy in Balochistan. He said that Mr Jinnah had occupied Balochland with the help of army and Gold and Gun trick. Since the illegal and forced occupation of Balochistan all consecutive Pakistani regimes followed the foot-prints of their predecessors and adopted the same policies time and again. General Musharraf’s Gun policy (might is right) has failed in Balochistan that is why the PPP government are using carrot and stick (Gun and Gold) policy in order to weaken the Baloch peoples’ struggle for Independence. He made it clear that some so called Sardars and Nawabs might have price tags attached to themselves but true patriot and revolutionary Baloch will never be bought.
Pakistan should learn from the world’s colonial powers who had failed to defeat the freedom movement of occupied nations because the truth always wins, Baloch National struggle is also based on facts and truth that is why Pakistan or any other colonial powers cannot finish the freedom movement of Balochistan. He said Pakistan is deceiving people by saying that Baloch struggle is being supported by foreign powers, if there are any foreign powers involved in Balochistan then Pakistan should end diplomatic relations with those powers. “Such non-political accusations cannot weaken Baloch struggle either” he vowed.
“Zardari on his visit to Balochistan alleged that Kafir (Infidels) are helping Baloch people whereas Pakistan itself has relations China, America and other non-Islamic states, this confirms the hypocritical attitude of Pakistani rulers” He charged.
Meanwhile, separately, Salam Sabir Baloch the information secretary of BSO-azaad said that word “MERIT” was first widely used by British colonial power to strengthen their occupation and to undervalue the ideological capabilities and the standard of mental abilities of People (their opponents) of sub-continent, and since then “Merit” has become sign of slavery and symbol of colonial system.
Sabir Baloch said that those who had refused to be loyal to the British colonial rules they were rejected and called ignorant backward people. Based on same colonial mind-set Baloch students are victims of racial discrimination of Pakistani chauvinist authorities’ and they are undermining the enlightening capabilities of Baloch youth.
Those people who are demanding admission in Balochistan’s educational institutes on merit are the creation of occupying and colonial powers. Baloch people’s increasing support for Balochistan’s freedom seeking forces is making these people desirous and uncomfortable that is why they are trying to mentally disperse the Baloch young generation. “All those who are trying to put hurdles in the way of Baloch youth are committing unforgivable crimes. Baloch youth know their enemies and the local agents (working for enemy). The Baloch youth fully capable of dealing with them (agents) accordingly” Warned Salaam Sabir Baloch.
Courtesy: Daily Tawar

The Fear of Nightfall and of Obama’s Secret Prisons

The Fear of Nightfall and of Obama’s Secret Prisons

Anand Gopal reports on the American counterterrorism (COIN) program. For many Afghans, especially in the south of their country where the Taliban is strong, nightfall finds them far more fearful of the Americans, says Anand Gopal.

One quiet, wintry night last year in the eastern Afghan town of Khost, a young government employee named Ismatullah simply vanished. He had last been seen in the town’s bazaar with a group of friends. Family members scoured Khost’s dust-doused streets for days. Village elders contacted Taliban commanders in the area who were wont to kidnap government workers, but they had never heard of the young man. Even the governor got involved, ordering his police to round up nettlesome criminal gangs that sometimes preyed on young bazaar-goers for ransom.

But the hunt turned up nothing. Spring and summer came and went with no sign of Ismatullah. Then one day, long after the police and village elders had abandoned their search, a courier delivered a neat, handwritten note on Red Cross stationary to the family. In it, Ismatullah informed them that he was in Bagram, an American prison more than 200 miles away. U.S. forces had picked him up while he was on his way home from the bazaar, the terse letter stated, and he didn’t know when he would be freed.

Sometime in the last few years, Pashtun villagers in Afghanistan’s rugged heartland began to lose faith in the American project. Many of them can point to the precise moment of this transformation, and it usually took place in the dead of the night, when most of the country was fast asleep. In the secretive U.S. detentions process, suspects are usually nabbed in the darkness and then sent to one of a number of detention areas on military bases, often on the slightest suspicion and without the knowledge of their families.

This process has become even more feared and hated in Afghanistan than coalition airstrikes. The night raids and detentions, little known or understood outside of these Pashtun villages, are slowly turning Afghans against the very forces they greeted as liberators just a few years ago.

One Dark Night in November

It was November 19, 2009, at 3:15 am. A loud blast awoke the villagers of a leafy neighborhood outside Ghazni city, a town of ancient provenance in the country’s south. A team of U.S. soldiers burst through the front gate of the home of Majidullah Qarar, the spokesman for the Minister of Agriculture. Qarar was in Kabul at the time, but his relatives were home, four of whom were sleeping in the family’s one-room guesthouse. One of them, Hamidullah, who sold carrots at the local bazaar, ran towards the door of the guesthouse. He was immediately shot, but managed to crawl back inside, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Then Azim, a baker, darted towards his injured cousin. He, too, was shot and crumpled to the floor. The fallen men cried out to the two relatives remaining in the room, but they — both children — refused to move, glued to their beds in silent horror.

The foreign soldiers, most of them tattooed and bearded, then went on to the main compound. They threw clothes on the floor, smashed dinner plates, and forced open closets. Finally, they found the man they were looking for: Habib-ur-Rahman, a computer programmer and government employee. Rahman was responsible for converting Microsoft Windows from English to the local Pashto language so that government offices could use the software. He had spent time in Kuwait, and the Afghan translator accompanying the soldiers said they were acting on a tip that Rahman was a member of al-Qaeda.

They took the barefoot Rahman and a cousin of his to a helicopter some distance away and transported them to a small American base in a neighboring province for interrogation. After two days, U.S. forces released Rahman’s cousin. But Rahman has not been seen or heard from since.

“We’ve called his phone, but it doesn’t answer,” says his cousin Qarar, the spokesman for the agriculture minister. Using his powerful connections, Qarar enlisted local police, parliamentarians, the governor, and even the agriculture minister himself in the search for his cousin, but they turned up nothing. Government officials who independently investigated the scene in the aftermath of the raid and corroborated the claims of the family also pressed for an answer as to why two of Qarar’s family members were killed. American forces issued a statement saying that the dead were “enemy militants [that] demonstrated hostile intent.”

Weeks after the raid, the family remains bitter. “Everyone in the area knew we were a family that worked for the government,” Qarar says. “Rahman couldn’t even leave the city because if the Taliban caught him in the countryside they would have killed him.”

Beyond the question of Rahman’s guilt or innocence, however, it’s how he was taken that has left such a residue of hate and anger among his family. “Did they have to kill my cousins? Did they have to destroy our house?” Qarar asks. “They knew where Rahman worked. Couldn’t they have at least tried to come with a warrant in the daytime? We would have forced Rahman to comply.”

“I used to go on TV and argue that people should support this government and the foreigners,” he adds. “But I was wrong. Why should anyone do so? I don’t care if I get fired for saying it, but that’s the truth.”

The Dogs of War

Night raids are only the first step in the American detention process in Afghanistan. Suspects are usually sent to one of a series of prisons on U.S. military bases around the country. There are officially nine such jails, called Field Detention Sites in military parlance. They are small holding areas, often just a clutch of cells divided by plywood, and are mainly used for prisoner interrogation.

In the early years of the war, these were but way stations for those en route to Bagram prison, a facility with a notorious reputation for abusive behavior. As a spotlight of international attention fell on Bagram in recent years, wardens there cleaned up their act and the mistreatment of prisoners began to shift to the little-noticed Field Detention Sites.

Of the 24 former detainees interviewed for this story, 17 claim to have been abused at or en route to these sites. Doctors, government officials, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, a body tasked with investigating abuse claims, corroborate 12 of these claims.

One of these former detainees is Noor Agha Sher Khan, who used to be a police officer in Gardez, a mud-caked town in the eastern part of the country. According to Sher Khan, U.S. forces detained him in a night raid in 2003 and brought him to a Field Detention Site at a nearby U.S. base. “They interrogated me the whole night,” he recalls, “but I had nothing to tell them.” Sher Khan worked for a police commander whom U.S. forces had detained on suspicion of having ties to the insurgency. He had occasionally acted as a driver for this commander, which made him suspicious in American eyes.

The interrogators blindfolded him, taped his mouth shut, and chained him to the ceiling, he alleges. Occasionally they unleashed a dog, which repeatedly bit him. At one point, they removed the blindfold and forced him to kneel on a long wooden bar. “They tied my hands to a pulley [above] and pushed me back and forth as the bar rolled across my shins. I screamed and screamed.” They then pushed him to the ground and forced him to swallow 12 bottles worth of water. “Two people held my mouth open and they poured water down my throat until my stomach was full and I became unconscious. It was as if someone had inflated me.” he says. After he was roused from his torpor, he vomited the water uncontrollably.

This continued for a number of days; sometimes he was hung upside down from the ceiling, and other times blindfolded for extended periods. Eventually, he was sent on to Bagram where the torture ceased. Four months later, he was quietly released, with a letter of apology from U.S. authorities for wrongfully imprisoning him.

An investigation of Sher Khan’s case by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and an independent doctor found that he had wounds consistent with the abusive treatment he alleges. U.S. forces have declined to comment on the specifics of his case, but a spokesman said that some soldiers involved in detentions in this part of the country had been given unspecified “administrative punishments.” He added that “all detainees are treated humanely,” except for isolated cases.

The Disappeared

Some of those taken to the Field Detention Sites never make it to Bagram, but instead are simply released after authorities deem them to be innocuous. Even then, some allege abuse. Such was the case with Hajji Ehsanullah, snatched one winter night in 2008 from his home in the southern province of Zabul. He was taken to a detention site in Khost Province, some 200 miles away. He returned home 13 days later, his skin scarred by dog bites and with memory difficulties that, according to his doctor, resulted from a blow to the head. U.S. forces had dropped him off at a gas station in Khost after three days of interrogation. It took him ten more days to find his way home.

Others taken to these sites never end up in Bagram for an entirely different reason. In the hardscrabble villages of the Pashtun south, where rumors grow more abundantly than the most bountiful crop, locals whisper tales of people who were captured and executed. Most have no evidence. But occasionally, a body turns up. Such was the case at a detention site on an American military base in Helmand province, where in 2003 a U.S. military coroner wrote in the autopsy report of a detainee who died in U.S. custody (later made available through the Freedom of Information Act): “Death caused by the multiple blunt force injuries to the lower torso and legs complicated by rhabdomyolysis (release of toxic byproducts into the system due to destruction of muscle). Manner of death is homicide.”

In the dust-swept province of Khost one day this past December, U.S. forces launched a night raid on the village of Motai, killing six people and capturing nine, according to nearly a dozen local government authorities and witnesses. Two days later, the bodies of two of those detained — plastic cuffs binding their hands — were found more than a mile from the largest U.S. base in the area. A U.S. military spokesman denies any involvement in the deaths and declines to comment on the details of the raid. Local Afghan officials and tribal elders, however, steadfastly maintain that the two were killed while in U.S. custody. American authorities released four other villagers in subsequent days. The fate of the three remaining captives is unknown.

The matter might be cleared up if the U.S. military were less secretive about its detention process. But secrecy has been the order of the day. The nine Field Detention Sites are enveloped in a blanket of official secrecy, but at least the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations are aware of them. There may, however, be others whose existences on the scores of military bases that dot the country have not been disclosed. One example, according to former detainees, is the detention facility at Rish Khor, an Afghan army base that sits atop a mountain overlooking the capital, Kabul.

One night last year, U.S. forces raided Zaiwalat, a tiny village that fits snugly into the mountains of Wardak Province, a few dozen miles west of Kabul, and netted nine locals. They brought the captives to Rish Khor and interrogated them for three days. “They kept us in a container,” recalls Rehmatullah Muhammad, one of the nine. “It was made of steel. We were handcuffed for three days continuously. We barely slept those days.” The plain-clothed interrogators accused Rehmatullah and the others of giving food and shelter to the Taliban. The suspects were then sent on to Bagram and released after four months. (A number of former detainees said they were interrogated by plainclothed officials, but they did not know if these officials belonged to the military, the CIA, or private contractors.)

Afghan human rights campaigners worry that U.S. forces may be using secret detention sites like Rish Khor to carry out interrogations away from prying eyes. The U.S. military, however, denies even having knowledge of the facility.

The Black Jail

Much less secret is the final stop for most captives: the Bagram Internment Facility. These days ominously dubbed “Obama’s Guantánamo,” Bagram nonetheless offers the best conditions for captives during the entire detention process.

Its modern life as a prison began in 2002, when small numbers of detainees from throughout Asia were incarcerated there on the first leg of an odyssey that would eventually bring them to the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In the years since, however, it has become the main destination for those caught within Afghanistan as part of the growing war there. By 2009, the inmate population had swelled to more than 700. Housed in a windowless old Soviet hangar, the prison consists of two rows of serried cage-like cells bathed continuously in white light. Guards walk along a platform that runs across the mesh-tops of the pens, an easy position from which to supervise the prisoners below.

Regular, even infamous, abuse in the style of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison marked Bagram’s early years. Abdullah Mujahed, for example, was apprehended in the village of Kar Marchi in the eastern province of Paktia in 2003. Mujahed was a Tajik militia commander who had led an armed uprising against the Taliban in their waning days, but U.S. forces accused him of having ties to the insurgency. “In Bagram, we were handcuffed, blindfolded, and had our feet chained for days,” he recalls. “They didn’t allow us to sleep at all for 13 days and nights.” A guard would strike his legs every time he dozed off. Daily, he could hear the screams of tortured inmates and the unmistakable sound of shackles dragging across the floor.

Then, one day, a team of soldiers dragged him to an aircraft, but refused to tell him where he was going. Eventually he landed at another prison, where the air felt thick and wet. As he walked through the row of cages, inmates began to shout, “This is Guantánamo! You are in Guantánamo!” He would learn there that he was accused of leading the Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (which in reality was led by another person who had the same name and who died in 2006). The U.S. eventually released him and returned him to Afghanistan.

Former Bagram detainees allege that they were regularly beaten, subjected to blaring music 24 hours a day, prevented from sleeping, stripped naked, and forced to assume what interrogators term “stress positions.” The nadir came in late 2002 when interrogators beat two inmates to death.

The U.S. Special Forces also run a second, secret prison somewhere on Bagram Air Base that the Red Cross still does not have access to. Used primarily for interrogations, it is so feared by prisoners that they have dubbed it the “Black Jail.”

One day two years ago, U.S. forces came to get Noor Muhammad, outside of the town of Kajaki in the southern province of Helmand. Muhammad, a physician, was running a clinic that served all comers — including the Taliban. The soldiers raided his clinic and his home, killing five people (including two patients) and detaining both his father and him. The next day, villagers found the handcuffed corpse of Muhammad’s father, apparently dead from a gunshot.

The soldiers took Muhammad to the Black Jail. “It was a tiny, narrow corridor, with lots of cells on both sides and a big steel gate and bright lights. We didn’t know when it was night and when it was day.” He was held in a concrete, windowless room, in complete solitary confinement. Soldiers regularly dragged him by his neck, and refused him food and water. They accused him of providing medical care to the insurgents, to which he replied, “I am a doctor. It’s my duty to provide care to every human being who comes to my clinic, whether they are Taliban or from the government.”

Eventually, Muhammad was released, but he has since closed his clinic and left his home village. “I am scared of the Americans and the Taliban,” he says. “I’m happy my father is dead, so he doesn’t have to experience this hell.”

Afraid of the Dark

Unlike the Black Jail, U.S. officials have, in the last two years, moved to reform the main prison at Bagram. Torture there has stopped, and American prison officials now boast that the typical inmate gains 15 pounds while in custody. Sometime in the early months of this year, officials plan to open a dazzling new prison — that will eventually replace Bagram — with huge, airy cells, the latest medical equipment, and rooms for vocational training. The Bagram prison itself will be handed over to the Afghans in the coming year, although the rest of the detention process will remain in U.S. hands.

But human rights advocates say that concerns about the detention process still remain. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that inmates at Guantánamo cannot be stripped of their right to habeas corpus, but stopped short of making the same argument for Bagram. (U.S. officials say that Bagram is in the midst of a war zone and therefore U.S. domestic civil rights legislation does not apply.) Unlike Guantánamo, inmates there do not have access to a lawyer. Most say they have no idea why they have been detained. Inmates do now appear before a review panel every six months, which is intended to reassess their detention, but their ability to ask questions about their situation is limited. “I was only allowed to answer yes or no and not explain anything at my hearing,” says Rehmatullah Muhammad.

Nonetheless, the improvement in Bagram’s conditions begs the question: Can the U.S. fight a cleaner war? This is what Afghan war commander General Stanley McChrystal promised this summer: fewer civilian casualties, fewer of the feared house raids, and a more transparent detention process.

The American troops that operate under NATO command have begun to enforce stricter rules of engagement: They may now officially hold detainees for only 96 hours before transferring them to the Afghan authorities or freeing them, and Afghan forces must take the lead in house searches. American soldiers, when questioned, bristle at these restrictions — and have ways of circumventing them. “Sometimes we detain people, then, when the 96 hours are up, we transfer them to the Afghans,” says one U.S. Marine, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “They rough them up a bit for us and then send them back to us for another 96 hours. This keeps going until we get what we want.”

A simpler way of dancing around the rules is to call in the U.S. Special Operations Forces — the Navy SEALS, Green Berets, and others — which are not under NATO command and so are not bound by the stricter rules of engagement. These elite troops are behind most of the night raids and detentions in the search for “high-value suspects.” U.S. military officials say in interviews that the new restrictions have not affected the number of raids and detentions at all. The actual change, however, is more subtle: The detention process has shifted almost entirely to areas and actors that can best avoid public scrutiny: Special Operations Forces and small field prisons.

The shift signals a deeper reality of war, American soldiers say: You can’t fight guerrillas without invasive raids and detentions, any more than you could fight them without bullets. Through the eyes of a U.S. soldier, Afghanistan is a scary place. The men are bearded and turbaned. They pray incessantly. In most of the country, women are barred from leaving the house. Many Afghans own a Kalashnikov. “You can’t trust anyone,” says Rodrigo Arias, a Marine based in the northeastern province of Kunar. “I’ve nearly been killed in ambushes but the villagers don’t tell us anything. But they usually know something.”

An officer who has worked in the Field Detention Sites says that it takes dozens of raids to turn up a useful suspect. “Sometimes you’ve got to bust down doors. Sometimes you’ve got to twist arms. You have to cast a wide net, but when you get the right person it makes all the difference.”

For Arias, it’s a matter of survival. “I want to go home in one piece. If that means rounding people up, then round them up.” To question this, he says, is to question whether the war itself is worth fighting. “That’s not my job. The people in Washington can figure that out.”

If night raids and detentions are an unavoidable part of modern counterinsurgency warfare, then so is the resentment they breed. “We were all happy when the Americans first came. We thought they would bring peace and stability,” says former detainee Rehmatullah. “But now most people in my village want them to leave.” A year after Rehmatullah was released, his nephew was taken. Two months later, some other villagers were grabbed.

It has become a predictable pattern: Taliban forces ambush American convoys as they pass through the village, and then retreat into the thick fruit orchards that cover the area. The Americans then return at night to pick up suspects. In the last two years, 16 people have been taken and 10 killed in night raids in this single village of about 300, according to villagers. In the same period, they say, the insurgents killed one local and did not take anyone hostage.

The people of this village therefore have begun to fear the night raids more than the Taliban. There are now nights when Rehmatullah’s children hear the distant thrum of a helicopter and rush into his room. He consoles them, but admits he needs solace himself. “I know I should be too old for it,” he says, “but this war has made me afraid of the dark.” [The research for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.]

Anand Gopal has reported in Afghanistan for the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal and Tomdispatch.com. He is currently working on a book about the Afghan war.

The Fear of Nightfall and of Obama’s Secret Prisons

EU: Goods made at Jewish settlements are not Israeli

Fruit and veg

Israeli goods made in the West Bank will not benefit from trade privileges

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Israeli goods made in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot be considered Israeli.

This means goods made by Israelis or Jews in the West Bank cannot benefit from a trade deal giving Israel preferential access to EU markets.

EU import duties on Israeli goods from the settlements may now be imposed, making them less competitive.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The EU has agreements with both Israel and the Palestinians that end customs duties.

Israeli companies based around settlements manufacture a host of products including confectionery, wine, cosmetics and computer equipment.

Some of the companies employ Palestinian workers, who are restricted from working in Israel.

Palestinians have long argued that Israeli goods made in settlements should not receive trade privileges, as settlements are not part of Israel.

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have also regularly protested that European supermarkets stock goods with Israeli labels on farm products from the West Bank.

German dispute

The ruling on Thursday by the EU court in Luxembourg stems from a case brought by the German drinks company Brita.

It imports products from an Israeli company based in Mishor Adumin in the West Bank and was refused preferential trade treatment by the German customs authorities.

On appeal, a German court asked the European Court of Justice for its decision.

European Court of Justice rulings are binding on member states. The decision reflects what has been the general policy of the EU on the issue.

In December the UK government said that food labels would distinguish between goods from Palestinians in the occupied territories and produce from Israeli settlements.

Israel has yet to formally comment on the court ruling.

“The European Union takes the view that products obtained in locations which have been placed under Israeli administration since 1967 do not qualify for the preferential treatment provided for under [the EC-Israel Agreement],” the judges said.

“As it is, despite a specific request from the German authorities, the Israeli authorities did not reply to the question whether the products had been manufactured in Israeli-occupied settlements in Palestinian territory.

“The Court notes in this respect that, under the EC-Israel Agreement, the Israeli authorities are obliged to provide sufficient information to enable the real origin of products to be determined.”

Compassion VS. Antichrists

Compassion VS. Antichrists

eileen fleming

William Blake wrote, “Imagination is Evidence of the Divine” and I agree totally, but must add that genuine Compassion is a Manifestation of The Divine.

All of the Koran’s 114 chapters except one begins with the phrase “Allah [which is Arabic for God] is merciful and compassionate.”

A true Muslim recognizes the brotherhood of man and will respect and treat even a non-Muslim as a brother.

A true Muslims understand that compassion and charity, is serving God.

The Koran states, “No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”
Learn More Here:

COMPASSION is Manifestation of The Divine

The cult of ‘Christian’ Zionism is what the concept of the Anti-Christ is all about.

This heretical theology of Premellenial Dispensation worships a god of Armageddon and not the God of love, forgiveness and compassion that Jesus/AKA The Prince of Peace modeled even while being nailed to a cross.

The Left Behind series of fiction is the epitome of what millennium of theologians have always understood to be what the term anti-Christ is truly about.

The term “Antichrist” only appears five times in the Bible, but a cult not based on sound theology has created an urban legend that seeks Armageddon.

The term “Antichrist” never appears in John’s Revelation or Daniel, two disparate works of literature written three centuries apart and under very different circumstances, yet the Left Behinder’s weave them together.

The small texts that mention the “Antichrist” were written to attack the Gnostic understanding of who Christ was. A Gnostic relies on intuition and not on dogma and doctrine. Gnostic’s were most certainly free spirits and most all of the writings we have about Gnostics, have been the attacks upon them. That all changed when the Nag Hamadi Library was translated and published, for what had been deemed heretical by those in power in the fourth century can now be read in most every language.

Biblical scholars today agree that many books of the Bible were written by others in the name of an apostle, for the quickest way to gain credibility is to trade on another’s reputation. We may never know if the author who coined the term “Antichrist” was actually the apostle John who wrote I John and 2 John-the only sources where the term appears.

John also say’s much more: “Dear Children, as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many have come.”- I John 2:18

“This is how we know who the children of God are not: anyone who does not do right; nor anyone who does not love his brother.”-I John 3:10

“If anyone has material possessions and see’s his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Let us love with actions and in truth.”-I John 3:17

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out all fear because fear has to do with punishment [and God is love].”-1 John 4:18

The theology promoted in the Left Behind fiction is a theology based on fear and punishment. These misinformed Christians worship a punitive father as God. They do not have eyes to see that nature is God’s primary temple, and war the greatest abomination.  (read HERE)

Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery

Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery

by Stephen Lendman

In its mission statement, the National Labor Committee (NLC) highlights the problem stating:

“Transnational corporations (TNCs) now roam the world to find the cheapest and most vulnerable workers.” They’re mostly young women in poor countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Haiti, and many others working up to 14 or more hours a day for sub-poverty wages under horrific conditions.

Because TNCs are unaccountable, a dehumanized global workforce is ruthlessly exploited, denied their civil liberties, a living wage, and the right to work in dignity in healthy safe environments. NLC conducts “popular campaigns based on (its) original research to promote worker rights and pressure companies to end human and labor abuses. (It) views worker rights in the global economy as indivisible and inalienable human rights and (believes) now is the time to secure them for all on the planet.”

Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

“(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

Article 24 states:

“Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”

Definition of a Sweatshop

The term has been around since the 19th century.

Definitions vary but essentially refer to workplaces where employees work for poor pay, few or no benefits, in unsafe, unfavorable, harsh, and/or hazardous environments, are treated inhumanely by employers, and are prevented from organizing for redress.

The term itself refers to the technique of “sweating” the maximum profit from each worker, a practice that thrived in the late 19th century.

Webster calls them “A shop or factory in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions.”

According to the group Sweatshop Watch:

“A sweatshop is a workplace that violates the law and where workers are subject to:

— extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or long hours;

— poor working conditions, such as health and safety hazards;

— arbitrary discipline, such as verbal or physical abuse, or

— fear and intimidation when they speak out, organize, or attempt to form a union.”

It’s mainly a women’s rights issue as 90% of the workforce is female, between the ages of 15 – 25. But it’s also an environmental one as the global economy exacts a huge price through air pollution, ozone layer depletion, acid rain, ocean and fresh water contamination, and an overtaxed ecosystem producing unhealthy, unsafe living conditions globally.

According to the US Department of Labor, a sweatshop is a place of employment that violates two or more federal or state labor laws governing wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation or industry regulation.

To understand the practice, it’s essential to view it in a broader globalization context. In their book titled, “Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy, Dean Baker, Robert Pollin and Gerald Epstein present the opinions of 36 prominent economists, asking:

Does globalization cause inequality? Instability? Unemployment? Environmental degradation? Or is it an engine of prosperity and wealth for the vast majority of people everywhere? They conclude that it can work for good or ill depending on how much control governments, corporations, and individuals exert, but also say:

“….most discussions of globalization hold that the power of nation-states to influence economic activity is eroding as economies become more integrated, while the power of private businesses and market forces is correspondingly rising.”

In other words, the dog that once wagged the tail now is the tail, the result of eroded state sovereignty and powerful private institutions, producing a race to the bottom conducive to exploiting labor – most prominently in poor countries but also in developed ones.  (read HERE)

Unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans could expire Sunday

Unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans could expire Sunday

Without federal extension, 27,000 in Wisconsin would lose checks

By John Schmid of the Journal Sentinel

Nearly 1.2 million unemployed Americans – including 27,000 in Wisconsin – face an imminent cutoff of government unemployment checks if Congress cannot pass emergency legislation to extend federal benefits before funding expires Sunday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) pushed this week for Senate passage of a stopgap 30-day extension of jobless benefits, which also includes a 30-day extension of a federal COBRA health insurance subsidy for the jobless. But as of late Thursday, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) objected to each attempt to bring the issue to a Senate floor vote, balking that the measure would further inflate the nation’s debt.

The Housepassed a 30-day extension Thursday.

Reid’s 11th-hour actions, however, cut excruciatingly close to the deadline. According to the National Employment Law Project, a research and advocacy group, the ranks of unemployed losing eligibility for unemployment compensation will rise sharply and continuously if Congress decides against an extension. By June, 127,100 Wisconsin residents will see their unemployment insurance phased out if Congress doesn’t act. Nationally, the number swells to 5 million by June, the group calculates.

Behind the legislative frenzy are legions of long-term unemployed.

The economic downturn purged 8.4 million net U.S. jobs since it began in December 2007. By last September, the average duration of unemployment surpassed six months for the first time since the government began tracking that data in 1948 and has continued to rise each month since, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Figures released Thursday show why the employment problem remains worrisome. First-time claims for unemployment benefits rose 22,000 in the most recent week to a seasonally adjusted 496,000, the Labor Department reported. Analysts had expected the figure to decline.

Using the Obama administration’s job-creation projections, it would take five or six years before the nation reaches the same level of employment that existed in 2007, before the downturn, said Robert Scott, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-supported nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

The gap between job-seekers and available full-time jobs has reached 25-to-1 in Milwaukee’s inner city and 19-to-1 in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties, the Employment and Training Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said.

“Long-term unemployment is unlikely to loosen its grip on our economy anytime soon,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.

Reid calls his proposal for a 30-day extension a short-term fix. A spokeswoman for the senator said he wants to use the monthlong period as political breathing space to legislate a full-year extension of the unemployment insurance and health insurance subsidy.

Before the recession, Wisconsin and many other states mandated that eligible unemployed can receive 26 weeks of unemployment insurance under a state program funded by employer contributions.

The severity of the downturn, however, prompted Congress to add federally funded extensions in a succession of piecemeal steps, starting in June 2008. The effect was to layer tiers of benefits that run for a total of 99 weeks in many states, meaning an unemployed person can move into a new federally funded tier once they exhaust the previous one.

Until last month, Wisconsin qualified for 99 weeks but fell back to 93 weeks after the state fell below an 8.5% three-month rolling average unemployment rate, which was the federal threshold for the final tier of benefits that ran for six weeks.

Either way, the duration of unemployment benefits is unprecedented. While Congress had added benefit extensions in past recessions, they have never run longer than 65 weeks until this recession.

If Congress doesn’t act by Sunday, benefits end for each person after they exhaust their current tier. An unemployed person receiving their 26-week allotment of state compensation will not be able to transfer to federal extensions; anyone in any of the tiers of federal extension cannot move to the next tier of extension.

Some warned that the inability to get a vote before Sunday could cause delays in issuing checks as state agencies struggle to de-program and then re-program an already complicated system.

“Even if there’s a one-day delay next week, and Congress approves the extension by early next week, it’s already too late and there will be a disruption in checks that could impact nearly 30,000 Wisconsinites,” said Judy Conti, a lobbyist in Washington for the National Employment Law Project.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Reid’s plans for a 12-month extension through the end of December will cost $100 billion. The 30-day extension alone will cost $7 billion.

Congress already is dealing with sticker shock for Washington’s unprecedented spending on programs to stimulate the economy.

Starting a year ago, Congress added a COBRA health insurance subsidy for the jobless. It pays 65% of COBRA costs for eligible employees who were laid off between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009. Reid wants to extend that subsidy for all of 2010 as well.

***

Benefit extensions

In non-recessionary times, eligible Wisconsinites can receive up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance under a state program funded by employer contributions. Responding to the 2008-’09 downturn, however, Congress added an incremental series of emergency extensions that bring the total to 99 weeks in many states:

July 2008: Congress adds 13 weeks of federally funded unemployment insurance, called Tier 1, for those who exhaust their state limit.

November 2008: Congress enacted a second extension of 13 weeks (Tier 2) to those who exhaust Tier 1. It also added seven weeks to Tier 1, bringing it to 20 weeks.

February 2009: Congress extended funding for Tier 1 and Tier 2 through the end of December 2009; it added $25 to each unemployment check.

June: The Wisconsin Legislature activates a program called “extended benefits” that added another 13 weeks; in addition, it created a new provision called “high extended benefits” that tacked on seven more weeks.

November: Congress creates Tier 3 for 13 weeks and Tier 4 for another six; it also added an additional week to Tier 2.

December: Because none of the federal extensions was funded beyond Dec. 31, Congress rolled them over until the end of February.

January: Wisconsin no longer qualifies for Tier 4 because its average unemployment rate fell below the 8.5% threshold. Maximum eligibility for Wisconsin residents is reduced from 99 weeks to 93 weeks.

Turkey Frees Officers as Tensions Rise

Turkey Frees Officers as Tensions Rise

President, pledging a constitutional resolution to standoff with military, releases pair arrested in coup-plot sweep

By MARC CHAMPION

ISTANBUL—President Abdullah Gül of Turkey sought to assuage fears of political instability Thursday, pledging that a growing confrontation with the country’s military would be resolved within the constitution.

Mr. Gül issued his statement after a rare three-hour, three-way meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and army chief Ilker Basbug. Hours later, the two most senior of some 50 military officers detained Monday on charges of plotting a coup—a former chief of the air force and of the navy—were released without charge.

TURKARM

ReutersFreed former Air Force chief Fyrtyna, with police escort Thursday, had been arrested in an alleged coup plot.

But it was far from clear that the meeting would resolve tensions. Eight current and former officers were formally charged Thursday with having plotted a coup in 2003, and have been jailed pending trial. That brought the total charged to date to 20, including five admirals and three generals.

The arrests and lack of retaliation from Turkey’s once-untouchable military have underlined just how dramatically the country has changed in recent years, analysts say. As recently as 1997, the army helped to push a government out of power—for the fourth time since 1960. Criminal charges were pursued in military, not civilian courts. Now, for the first time, an elected government and civilian prosecutors appear to have the upper hand.

But Monday’s arrests also underscored the deepening power struggle between the Islamic leaning Justice and Development party, or AKP, and the traditional secular elite, above all the military, which has long seen itself as the guardian of Turkey’s secular order. A similar battle is being fought out within the judiciary, a body that is charged with defending Turkey’s secular constitution and that has become starkly split between pro- and anti-government justices and prosecutors.

The government has said repeatedly that it wants to redraw the country’s constitution, drafted after a military coup in the 1980s.

Rumors continued to swirl through Turkey’s media Thursday that the country’s courts were preparing a case to ban the AKP for overstepping its constitutional powers, a move that would sharply escalate political tensions and likely trigger early elections.

Chief of the General Staff Gen. Basbug, who appeared grim-faced in television footage of Thursday’s meeting, earlier this week described the move against the military as “serious.”

The alleged coup plot, known as Sledgehammer, included operations to blow up crowded mosques in Istanbul and to shoot down a Turkish aircraft over Greek waters to create a state of emergency. No coup attempt materialized. The military has said the alleged plan was part of an annual war-gaming seminar.

The arrests and their aftermath have gripped the attention of a nation in which the military remains the most trusted institution. In deeply polarized Turkey, supporters of the pro-Islamic AKP say the crackdown is needed to end military interference in Turkish democracy. Opponents fear the government is attempting to undermine modern Turkey’s secular foundations.

Citigroup said Thursday it was downgrading Turkish stocks to neutral from overweight in light of increased political risk triggered by the arrests. Istanbul’s XU100 index fell 1.85% Thursday, dropping with markets world-wide.

Many analysts continue to believe a full-blown political crisis will be averted, if only because any effort to ban the AKP would likely boost its flagging opinion poll ratings at a time when elections could be called at any moment. Elections must be held by the middle of next year, but could be called earlier. A case to ban the AKP in 2007 helped it to a sweeping victory in snap elections.

The way the Sledgehammer arrests were handled—in particular the dramatic dawn raids in which active and former generals and admirals were seized—has raised suspicions of political motivation, says Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul based analyst. Mr. Jenkins last year wrote a skeptical and within Turkey controversial study of the much wider case known as Ergenekon, in which more than 200 defendants, including military officers are accused of crimes from assassinations to coups.

The dawn arrests “make it look like a demonstration of strength, after the government took quite a serious blow,” said Mr. Jenkins. He was referring to an incident last week, when courts stripped four special prosecutors of their powers after arresting a fellow prosecutor as an Ergenekon conspirator.

Many television news and press accounts of the latest coup allegations have treated the coup threat as current, failing to note that the alleged plans were drawn up seven years ago and that no coup materialized.

Yet hardliners in the military who might have backed a coup attempt were marginalized around the time of the alleged Sledgehammer plot, making any attempt to seize power by force today highly unlikely, said Mr. Jenkins.

The government has distanced itself from any perception that is driving the arrests, insisting that the case is entirely a matter for the judiciary.

Turkey’s armed forces have long considered themselves guardians of the country’s aggressively secular traditions, introduced by the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Excerpts from some 5,000 documents and other records a newspaper provided to prosecutors in January purport to show generals venting their hatred for the AKP’s Islamic leanings.

The AKP came to power in 2002, shortly before the 2003 seminar.

Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com

India has handed over three dossiers to Pak: Rao

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Nirupama Rao after talks with Salman …“, posted with vodpod

India has handed over three dossiers to Pak: Rao

Feb 25 2010, 05.36pm IST

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan resumed official level dialogue after 14 months, but what started out as a promising engagement in the morning descended into acrimony after Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir rebuffed India’s demand for action against Lashkar leader Hafiz Saeed.Bashir dismissed what sources called here a strong Indian dossier on Hafiz Saeed as “literature, not evidence”, seriously endangering the future of the engagement.India on Thursday asked for 33 terrorists — Pakistani nationals as well as Indian fugitives, including two serving Pakistan army officers, Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali — to be handed over, giving three dossiers to Bashir. Pakistan foreign secretary, however, seemed to make light of India’s insistence on action against 26/11 masterminds, saying that Pakistan did not want to be sermoned on terrorism.

Apart from the fact that the two countries are talking to each other again, the differences between them remained as wide as ever. The Indian side said 85% of the talk time was taken up by terrorism, while the Pakistani side said the talks discussed Kashmir “extensively”. It also insisted on raising the issue of alleged Indian interference in Balochistan and sharing of Indus waters. Bashir pressed for resumption of the composite dialogue process and said several times that talks shouldn’t remain hostage to any “one issue”.

The clear dissonance does not augur well for any meaningful engagement. While Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao took an expansive view of the talks saying India had gone in with an “open mind”, describing them as “constructive and candid”, Bashir, while conceding that the talks were “useful” shot out, “we don’t like being sermoned on terrorism”.

Government sources later said, while India was not “lecturing”, Pakistan had to move on terror for the relationship to move forward. The Indian side also raised the issue of the beheading of two Sikhs by Taliban in west Pakistan.

As expected, India focused on terrorism and Pakistan on Kashmir. That India was prepared for. However, Bashir’s subsequent belligerence put an entirely different complexion on things, leaving the Indian government furious.

Having weathered criticism in India about restarting dialogue with Pakistan at this time, Bashir’s public contention that Pakistan was “not desperate” for a dialogue may make it difficult for the UPA government to sell increased engagement. However, sources said India had initiated talks at a time of its own choosing and would pursue it in its national interest.

High level sources said, in September 2009, when the foreign secretaries last met in NewYork, Pakistan was insistent on a dialogue. But in the subsequent months, with Pakistan’s increased “utility” to the US’s war in Afghanistan, Islamabad now seems to believe that it does not really need to bend over backwards to accommodate Indian concerns. That, said sources, became very clear in the grandstanding by the Pakistani delegation after the talks.

While the composite dialogue is still a while away, India will watch out for the actions that Pakistan takes in the weeks to come. India handed over three dossiers to Pakistan — one of these deals with individuals involved in the Mumbai attacks; the two others comprise information on HuJI and Brigade 313 commander Ilyas Kashmiri, one of David Headley’s handlers, as well as Khalistan elements currently based in Pakistan.

LeT chief Hafiz Saeed came in for specific discussion, and Rao referred to the February 5 rallies by Saeed “which openly incited terrorist violence against India…. It was emphasized that India could not but take a serious note of such actions”. Pakistan said their laws did not allow for prosecution for such speeches, but Rao maintained that Saeed could have been booked under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism act.

India is particularly angry with Bashir’s formulation of the information on Saeed as “literature” which does not have any legal basis. “We got a brief paper from India on Saeed but it was more of literature than evidence. JuD is listed under the UN 1267 Al Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee and its assets remain frozen,” said Bashir. Indian sources later said the dossier was “not brief” and definitely constituted evidence. Clearly, the road ahead on India-Pakistan ties is more rocky than India imagined.
Asked if Pakistan can treat Saeed’s public threats to launch more 26/11-type attacks as evidence against him, Bashir merely said that he didn’t have the legal background required to answer it.

The two sides were clearly not on the same page when it came to describing the core issue for the talks. Rao, while briefing reporters, tried to play down the Kashmir issue. “The issue came up briefly, along expected lines. We reiterated our national position on the issue,” said Rao.

This, however, was brushed aside by Bashir later when he clearly expressed reservationsover what Rao had said. “It remains the core issue and we drew India’s attention to that. One cannot be dismissive of this issue,” he said, adding that Pakistan will continue to politically and morally support the “movement” in the state.

Apart from terror, India raised the issue of infiltration and ceasefire violations. Pakistan took up Balochistan with India and conveyed concerns over what he claimed was information that India was trying to fuel trouble in the region. Rao, however, said the Indian side had told Pakistan that New Delhi had no intention to interfere in any other country’s affairs. Pakistan also raised the Sir Creek, Siachen and water issues.

There was no announcement of any meeting in the near future with Rao only stating that Bashir had told her that he would like her to visit Pakistan. “In line with our graduated and step by step approach, our aims were modest; we had a useful discussion, during which I spelt out forthrightly our concerns on terrorism emanating from Pakistan against India,” said Rao.

India also called upon Pakistan to investigate the claim made by a hitherto unknown organization, Lashkar-e-Toiba Al Alami and a separate claim by Ilyas Kashmiri’s owning responsibility for the recent Pune blast. Additional information on terrorist activities against India emanating from Pakistan was also handed over to the Pakistani side for investigation and appropriate action.

India has handed over three dossiers to Pak: Rao

India has handed over three dossiers to Pak: Rao

Feb 25 2010, 05.36pm IST
NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan resumed official level dialogue after 14 months, but what started out as a promising engagement in the morning descended into acrimony after Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir rebuffed India’s demand for action against Lashkar leader Hafiz Saeed.Bashir dismissed what sources called here a strong Indian dossier on Hafiz Saeed as “literature, not evidence”, seriously endangering the future of the engagement.India on Thursday asked for 33 terrorists — Pakistani nationals as well as Indian fugitives, including two serving Pakistan army officers, Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali — to be handed over, giving three dossiers to Bashir. Pakistan foreign secretary, however, seemed to make light of India’s insistence on action against 26/11 masterminds, saying that Pakistan did not want to be sermoned on terrorism.

Apart from the fact that the two countries are talking to each other again, the differences between them remained as wide as ever. The Indian side said 85% of the talk time was taken up by terrorism, while the Pakistani side said the talks discussed Kashmir “extensively”. It also insisted on raising the issue of alleged Indian interference in Balochistan and sharing of Indus waters. Bashir pressed for resumption of the composite dialogue process and said several times that talks shouldn’t remain hostage to any “one issue”.

The clear dissonance does not augur well for any meaningful engagement. While Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao took an expansive view of the talks saying India had gone in with an “open mind”, describing them as “constructive and candid”, Bashir, while conceding that the talks were “useful” shot out, “we don’t like being sermoned on terrorism”.

Government sources later said, while India was not “lecturing”, Pakistan had to move on terror for the relationship to move forward. The Indian side also raised the issue of the beheading of two Sikhs by Taliban in west Pakistan.

As expected, India focused on terrorism and Pakistan on Kashmir. That India was prepared for. However, Bashir’s subsequent belligerence put an entirely different complexion on things, leaving the Indian government furious.

Having weathered criticism in India about restarting dialogue with Pakistan at this time, Bashir’s public contention that Pakistan was “not desperate” for a dialogue may make it difficult for the UPA government to sell increased engagement. However, sources said India had initiated talks at a time of its own choosing and would pursue it in its national interest.

High level sources said, in September 2009, when the foreign secretaries last met in NewYork, Pakistan was insistent on a dialogue. But in the subsequent months, with Pakistan’s increased “utility” to the US’s war in Afghanistan, Islamabad now seems to believe that it does not really need to bend over backwards to accommodate Indian concerns. That, said sources, became very clear in the grandstanding by the Pakistani delegation after the talks.

While the composite dialogue is still a while away, India will watch out for the actions that Pakistan takes in the weeks to come. India handed over three dossiers to Pakistan — one of these deals with individuals involved in the Mumbai attacks; the two others comprise information on HuJI and Brigade 313 commander Ilyas Kashmiri, one of David Headley’s handlers, as well as Khalistan elements currently based in Pakistan.

LeT chief Hafiz Saeed came in for specific discussion, and Rao referred to the February 5 rallies by Saeed “which openly incited terrorist violence against India…. It was emphasized that India could not but take a serious note of such actions”. Pakistan said their laws did not allow for prosecution for such speeches, but Rao maintained that Saeed could have been booked under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism act.

India is particularly angry with Bashir’s formulation of the information on Saeed as “literature” which does not have any legal basis. “We got a brief paper from India on Saeed but it was more of literature than evidence. JuD is listed under the UN 1267 Al Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee and its assets remain frozen,” said Bashir. Indian sources later said the dossier was “not brief” and definitely constituted evidence. Clearly, the road ahead on India-Pakistan ties is more rocky than India imagined.
Asked if Pakistan can treat Saeed’s public threats to launch more 26/11-type attacks as evidence against him, Bashir merely said that he didn’t have the legal background required to answer it.

The two sides were clearly not on the same page when it came to describing the core issue for the talks. Rao, while briefing reporters, tried to play down the Kashmir issue. “The issue came up briefly, along expected lines. We reiterated our national position on the issue,” said Rao.

This, however, was brushed aside by Bashir later when he clearly expressed reservationsover what Rao had said. “It remains the core issue and we drew India’s attention to that. One cannot be dismissive of this issue,” he said, adding that Pakistan will continue to politically and morally support the “movement” in the state.

Apart from terror, India raised the issue of infiltration and ceasefire violations. Pakistan took up Balochistan with India and conveyed concerns over what he claimed was information that India was trying to fuel trouble in the region. Rao, however, said the Indian side had told Pakistan that New Delhi had no intention to interfere in any other country’s affairs. Pakistan also raised the Sir Creek, Siachen and water issues.

There was no announcement of any meeting in the near future with Rao only stating that Bashir had told her that he would like her to visit Pakistan. “In line with our graduated and step by step approach, our aims were modest; we had a useful discussion, during which I spelt out forthrightly our concerns on terrorism emanating from Pakistan against India,” said Rao.

India also called upon Pakistan to investigate the claim made by a hitherto unknown organization, Lashkar-e-Toiba Al Alami and a separate claim by Ilyas Kashmiri’s owning responsibility for the recent Pune blast. Additional information on terrorist activities against India emanating from Pakistan was also handed over to the Pakistani side for investigation and appropriate action.

More Theories About Pakistan’s New Afghan Paradigm

[SEE: Pakistan Continues Its Belated Taliban Clean-Up. What Have They Been Waiting For?]

Pak crackdown on Taliban with eye on Af role?

TNN, Feb 20, 2010, 01.52am IST

NEW DELHI: The alacrity with which Pakistan has acted against the Taliban in the past few weeks, leading to the arrest of Mullah Omar’s number two Mullah Abdul Baradar among several others, has left many wondering if this is just a ploy by Islamabad to assert its position as a key player in the ongoing negotiations led by Saudi Arabia for reconciliation and reintegration in Afghanistan. Baradar was arrested from Karachi in a joint Pakistan-US operation after a tip-off from the CIA about his location. Baradar was acknowledged as one of the key negotiators for Taliban and it remains to be seen how his arrest impacts the negotiations.

According to leading experts on Afghanistan, Baradar had not just drifted away from Pakistan but was also inclined to negotiating independently for reconciliation which might have offended Islamabad.

Well known Afghan expert Ahmed Rashid believes that Baradar’s arrest is meant to send a strong message to the Taliban as well as the US. “If there’s going to be any talks or dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban, Pakistan will have to be the main broker or mediator… you know, ‘don’t go into talks without telling us, because we (the Pakistanis) are the key players here’,” Rashid was quoted as saying by a news channel.

According to eminent security experts like K Subrahmanyam and B Raman, however, Pakistan had acted against the Taliban only under immense pressure from the US and that India could afford to wait and watch for now. ‘‘I think it’s more a case of Obama asserting himself. If Pakistan acts against somebody like Baradar, the question of negotiating does not arise at all. The best thing for India would be to wait and watch because we don’t know if Pakistan is really serious or is just playing another game,’’ said Subrahmanyam.

According to Raman, Pakistan was forced to arrest Baradar by the US because of the spate of attacks on coalition forces’ convoys in the Karachi region and that India could benefit if the Afghan Taliban, as a result of Baradar’s arrest, starts to target the Pakistani army. ‘‘As we know, the entire shura of Taliban has shifted from Quetta to Karachi leading to the port city’s radicalisation. Baradar had to be arrested under US pressure because of the deterioration in the situation in Karachi. Afghan Taliban has so far never targeted the Pakistan army but if they do, it will benefit India,’’ said Raman.

C.I.A. and Pakistan Work Together, but Do So Warily

C.I.A. and Pakistan Work Together, but Do So Warily

By MARK MAZZETTI and JANE PERLEZ

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Inside a secret detention center in an industrial pocket of the Pakistani capital called I/9, teams of Pakistani and American spies have kept a watchful eye on a senior Talibanleader captured last month. With the other eye, they watch each other.

Pakistan Press Information Department, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, left, with Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director of Pakistan’s intelligence service.

The C.I.A. and its Pakistani counterpart, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, have a long and often tormented relationship. And even now, they are moving warily toward conflicting goals, with each maneuvering to protect its influence after the shooting stops in Afghanistan.

Yet interviews in recent days show how they are working together on tactical operations, and how far the C.I.A. has extended its extraordinary secret war beyond the mountainous tribal belt and deep into Pakistan’s sprawling cities.

Beyond the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, C.I.A. operatives working with the ISI have carried out dozens of raids throughout Pakistan over the past year, working from bases in the cities of Quetta, Peshawar and elsewhere, according to Pakistani security officials.

The raids often come after electronic intercepts by American spy satellites, or tips from Pakistani informants — and the spies from the two countries then sometimes drive in the same car to pick up their quarry. Sometimes the teams go on lengthy reconnaissance missions, with the ISI operatives packing sunscreen and neon glow sticks that allow them to identify their positions at night.

Successful missions sometimes end with American and Pakistani spies toasting one another with Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky, a gift from the C.I.A.

The C.I.A.’s drone campaign in Pakistan is well known, which is striking given that this is a covert war. But these on-the-ground activities have been shrouded in secrecy because the Pakistani government has feared the public backlash against the close relationship with the Americans.

In strengthening ties to the ISI, the C.I.A. is aligning itself with a shadowy institution that meddles in domestic politics and has a history of ties to violent militant groups in the region. A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment for this article.

Officials in Washington and Islamabad agree that the relationship between the two spy services has steadily improved since the low point of the summer of 2008, when the C.I.A.’s deputy director traveled to Pakistan to confront ISI officials with communications intercepts indicating that the ISI was complicit in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The spy agencies have built trust in part through age-old tactics of espionage: killing or capturing each other’s enemies. A turning point came last August, when a C.I.A. missilekilled the militant leader Baitullah Mehsud as he lay on the roof of his compound in South Waziristan, his wife beside him massaging his back.

Mr. Mehsud for more than a year had been responsible for a wave of terror attacks in Pakistani cities, and many inside the ISI were puzzled as to why the United States had not sought to kill him. Some even suspected he was an American, or Indian, agent.

The drone attack on Mr. Mehsud is part of a joint war against militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where C.I.A. drones pound militants from the air as Pakistani troops fight them on the ground.

And yet for two spy agencies with a long history of mistrust, the accommodation extends only so far. For instance, when it comes to the endgame in Afghanistan, where Pakistan hopes to play a significant role as a power broker, interviews with Pakistani and American intelligence officials in Islamabad and Washington reveal that the interests of the two sides remain far apart.

Even as the ISI breaks up a number of Taliban cells, officials in Islamabad, Washington and Kabul hint that the ISI’s goal seems to be to weaken the Taliban just enough to bring them to the negotiating table, but leaving them strong enough to represent Pakistani interests in a future Afghan government.

This contrasts sharply with the American goal of battering the Taliban and strengthening Kabul’s central government and security forces, even if American officials also recognize that political reconciliation with elements of the Taliban is likely to be part of any ultimate settlement.

Tensions in the relationship surfaced in the days immediately after Mullah Baradar’s arrest, when the ISI refused to allow C.I.A. officers to interrogate the Taliban leader. Americans have since been given access to the detention center. On Wednesday, Pakistani and Afghan officials meeting in Islamabad said that a deal was being worked out to transfer Mullah Baradar to Afghan custody, which could allow the Americans unrestrained access to him.

Besides Mullah Baradar, several Taliban shadow governors and other senior leaders have been arrested inside Pakistan in recent weeks.

A top American military officer in Afghanistan on Wednesday suggested that with the arrests, the ISI could be trying to accelerate the timetable for a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

“I don’t know if they’re pushing anyone to the table, but they are certainly preparing the meal,” the officer said.

In the three decades since the C.I.A. and the ISI teamed up to funnel weapons to Afghan militias fighting the Soviets, the two spy services have soldiered though a co-dependent, yet suspicious relationship. C.I.A. officers in Islamabad rely on the Pakistani spy service for its network of informants. But they are wary of the ISI’s longstanding ties to militants like the Taliban, which Pakistani spies have seen as a necessary ally to blunt archrival India’s influence in Afghanistan.

The ISI gets millions of dollars in United States aid from its American counterpart (which allowed the Pakistan spy service to develop a counterterrorism division), yet is suspicious that the Americans and the Indians might be playing their own “double game” against Pakistan.

In Islamabad, officials are nervous about the intensification of the C.I.A.’s drone campaign in North Waziristan against the network run by Sirajuddin Haqqani, whom the ISI for years has used as a force to carry out missions in Afghanistan that serve Pakistani interests.

C.I.A. officials believe that Mr. Haqqani’s group played a role in the killing of seven Americans in Khost, Afghanistan, in late December, and since then have carried out more than a dozen drone strikes in the Haqqani network’s enclave in North Waziristan.

The ISI, an institution feared by most Pakistanis, is used to getting its way. It meddles in domestic politics and in recent months has been suspected by Western embassies in Islamabad of planting anti-American stories in Pakistani newspapers.

It has also been criticized in reports by international human rights organizations of using brutal interrogation tactics against its prisoners, though the same could certainly be said of the C.I.A. in the period of 2002 to 2004. The annual human rights report of the State Department in 2007 said “there were persistent reports that security forces, including intelligence services, tortured and abused persons.”

The head of the Pakistani military, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said in a recent briefing that it was doubtful that a centralized government would work in post-conflict Afghanistan, making it more important for Pakistan to continue to influence the Taliban in the years to come.

As a result there remains a belief among American intelligence officials that Pakistan will never completely abandon the Taliban, and officials both in Washington and Kabul admit that they are almost completely in the dark about Pakistan’s long-term strategy regarding the Taliban.

“We have a better level of cooperation,” said one top American official who met recently in Islamabad with General Kayani. “How far that goes, I can’t tell yet. We’ll know soon whether this is cooperation, or a stonewall and kind of rope a dope.”

Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting.

Balochistan, other issues were discussed: Indian foreign secretary

Balochistan, other issues were discussed: Indian foreign secretary

[IST]

New Delhi, Feb. 25 (ANI): Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Thursday replied in the affirmative when asked whether the issue of Balochistan figured in her talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir.

Briefing media persons here after the talks here, Ms. Rao said: "Balochistan and other bilateral issues were discussed."

When probed further about Islamabad’s charge of Indian interference in Balochistan, Ms. Rao said: "Pakistan raised certain other issues and we responded appropriately, reiterating our national position on these issues."
Pakistan has repeatedly maintained that India has been fomenting unrest in Balochistan. India has rejected this charge and asked Islamabad to supply it with proof of its involvement.
Rao made it clear that New Delhi has not received any dossier from Islamabad on India’s perceived role in Balochistan.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir had said that both Balochistan and Kashmir would be on his agenda for Thursday’s talks.
Bashir made these remarks shortly before leaving his hotel for the talks venue.
Bashir was leading a 13-member delegation in the talks to be held with Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.
He said he had come to New Delhi with the hope of taking talks with India on key bilateral issues, including Kashmir and Balochistan, forward.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit told ANI and other media that Islamabad will be discussing Kashmir in the talks as it saw the issue as being a core one.
During his stay, Bashir is also scheduled to call on External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and the National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon. (ANI)

The Global Reach of the Judeo-Russian Mafia

The Global Reach of the Judeo-Russian Mafia

Its been about 10 years since the Jerusalem Post admitted that the Israeli underworld had been taken over by Russian-Jewish mob bosses. But it remains the case despite official Mossad condemnations, that little has been done to interfere with the drug and slave trade the Russian-Jewish bosses have brought to Israel. Recently, even Amnesty International has slammed Israel for refusing to do much about the Jewish mob’s white slave traffic worldwide, based in Israel. Several years ago, Amnesty wrote this:

The Israeli government has failed to take adequate measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish human rights abuses committed against trafficked women. In general, trafficked women are effectively treated as criminals by the various Israeli agencies with whom they come in contact, rather than as victims of human rights abuses. This is so even though many of them have been subjected to human rights abuses such as enslavement or torture, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse, by traffickers, pimps or others involved in Israel’s sex industry. . . .Trafficking of women to Israel is not illegal. (AI, “Israel’s Sex Industry” 2000.)

Making matters more complex, the Jewish mafia is deep into gun running, and the Islamic “terrorist groups” in the Middle East and Central Asia are their best customers. Given this, one would think that the IDF would have taken a bite out of their operations, but, to the contrary, the Jewish mob continues to function out of Israel with little interference.

Israeli estimates place the investment of the Jewish bosses in the Israeli economy at about $20 billion US dollars since the late 1970s. This might speak a little to the refusal of Israeli law enforcement to do anything about this. Further, the boss’ financing of the Chechen rebels throughout the 1990s protected the western owned pipelines the Russian government had its eye on. Significantly, mafia bosses have been involved in running less expensive weapons to the Georgian government, a government who harbors drug gangs throughout its mountainous and only semi-accessible Panskii Gorge.

According to the respected Stratfor.com research and intelligence organization, the Israeli government estimates that roughly 10% of all Jewish immigration to Israel is criminal, yet, little is done to stem this tide other than pious denunciations. Even more, the Israeli government has admitted that mafia money went to finance much of Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign for the Prime Ministership in 1996.

Back in 1995, the then-head of the FBI Louis Freeh claimed that the Russian-Jewish mafia was the “greatest threat the American security” in the world, though, several days later, he was forced to retract his statements according to the BBC. The Israelis might have several good reasons for not only harboring, but encouraging mafia activity within its borders.

First, the substantial Jewish investment in the global arms trade permits Israel to support rebel groups worldwide through mafia channels that otherwise would be credited to Israeli government policy. For example, Russian-Jewish mafia figures are financing the Darfur separatists in Sudan (though the agency of Ukrainian-Jewish boss Viktor Bout), and the Colombian communist FARC rebels through the agency of the greatest boss of them all, the Israeli Simon Mogilevich, who bought the Hungarian anti-aircraft factories in the early 1990s, as well as a chunk of the famous Sukhoi combat jet firm in Russia. Such red-handed deals with as Miami-based Ludwig “Tarzan” Fainberg’s attempt to supply the Cali cartel with Russian submarines some time ago might suggest a heavy hand in global arms sales.

The fact that the Israeli underworld could finance some of Georgia’s arms supplies permitted the Israeli’s plausible denial once the shooting started last Summer. Further more, the mob, in suppling weapons and even training to Central Asian Islamic groups might permit the Israeli’s a modicum of control over these groups. The Mossad itself admitted in the early 1990s that Mogilevich was deep within the IDF and the Israeli state, and by 1994, this master murderer and gangster was able to get an internationally recognized licence to sell and buy weapons on the open market. Apparently, Mogilevich was (and is) very important to the IDF as a subsidiary arms supplier.

As far as Israel itself is concerned, there are now hundreds of (legal) brothels in Israel featuring Slavic girls that, according to Fainberg, go for about $10,000 to $15,000 a piece. They are bought and sold by Russian-Jewish mafia figures and sent to Israel, America and Britain to work. As of this writing, no substantial effort from Tel Aviv has sought to stem this tide.

“Tarzan” Fainberg’s drug, weapons and slave trade with Tel Aviv, Kiev and St. Petersburg, in recent years, began using the comparatively free US-Canadian border for his transactions, financing the relatively new Toronto marijuana and cocaine fad. He was recently arrested by Canadian police and, without explanation, deported to Israel where he will continue his operations without interference. He apparently travels from Miami to Tel Aviv unhindered, and he brags that he has “ties” with the American FBI.

Hence, the Russian Jewish mafia is a “smoking gun” case linking American intelligence to international drugs and slavery, along with the Israeli government. At the same time, it also links these entities to the “Arab terror” groups operating throughout the world, who are the Israeli mafia’s top arms clients. In other words, it is not out of the question that the mafia ties the entire Anglo-Israeli complex together, linking the sexual revolution, pornography, weapons, slaves and drugs together with the apparent cooperation of the American FBI and the Israeli police services.

Since the ever-struggling Israeli economy has received investments by mob figures of a substantial percentage of GDP, it is unlikely that such figures will be brought to justice in any more than a symbolic way.

Hence, as of this writing, at least two of the big three Israeli-Russian crime figures have their base in Israel, the famed Sergei Mikhailov (who the media claims is not Jewish, but had no trouble gaining and keeping Israeli citizenship) and Ludwig “Tarzan” Fainberg. Mogilevich prefers the relative calm of Hungary, but also retains Israeli citizenship.

THE CITY OF LONDON and THE FABIAN SOCIETY: HISTORY and CURRENT PLANS

THE CITY OF LONDON & THE FABIAN SOCIETY: HISTORY & CURRENT PLANS

Source: JOHN CHRISTIAN scribd.com

“We are at present working discreetly, but with all our might, to wrest this mysterious force called sovereignty out of the clutches of the local national states of the world. And all the time we are denying with our lips what we are doing with our hands.” Arnold Toynbee

A—The Basis of Local Government
B—City of London Corporation
C—The Beginning of Socialism in London
D—Fabian Society
E—Fabian Society “Five Year Plan”
F—Fabian Society Privatization of the World
G—Communist “Sustainable Development”
H—World Conservation Bank
I—Communist “SmartGrowth”
J—Pauperization of Pensioners and the Middle Class

A—THE BASIS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The modern system of local and regional government can be directly traced back to Babylon, when in King Nebuchadnezzar’s time (605-562 B.C.), the city was divided up into ten distinct regions or districts ruled by princes, under whom were mayoral governors, captains, judges, treasurers, councillors and sheriffs. In modern times the system of local government that we have throughout the world is derived exclusively from the City of London Corporation.

B—CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION

The City of London Corporation is a Masonic, private, independent, sovereign state occupying approximately one square mile within the heart of the greater London area inside the old Roman walls of London.

It either directly or indirectly, controls all mayors, councils, regional councils, multi- national and trans-national banks, corporations, judicial systems (through Old Bailey, Temple Bar and the Royal Courts of Justice in London), the IMF, World Bank, Vatican Bank (through N. M. Rothschild & Sons London Italian subsidiary Torlonia), European Central Bank, United States Federal Reserve (which is privately owned and secretly controlled by eight British- controlled shareholding banks), the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland (which is also British-controlled and oversees all of the Reserve Banks around the world including our own) and last but not least, the communist European Union and communist United Nations Organization.

The supreme ruler of the City is the Lord Mayor who is elected once a year and lives in the Mansion House. The City has a resident population of about 5,000 that rises to about two million during the week when people surge in and out each day to work.

The financial centre of the world, it is often termed the ‘wealthiest square mile on earth. ‘The full title of the Square Mile’s governing body is the ‘Mayor, Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council Assembled.’


Photo: The Lord Mayor 2006

The Court of leadership consists of the Lord Mayor, 25 Aldermen and 130 Common Councilmen.

All of the giant, largely Jewish international banks and corporations in the City of London that control the world are members of one or another of the Twelve Great Livery Companies domiciled in Guildhall (or the Hall of the City of London Corporation).

As the result of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between the sovereign and the City merchants and bankers made many hundreds of years ago, the Lord Mayor is officially head of the Corporation and is allowed to operate independently of the sovereign. However, the wealth of the world held in the Corporation ultimately is the Sovereign’s, because, should the gentleman’s agreement break down, the sovereign has the power to “rescind” the Corporation’s independence.

The Queen sometimes refers to the Corporation as “The Firm.”

While ostensibly the power of the monarchy appears to be diminishing as the Queen voluntarily gives her Commonwealth countries their independence and they become republics chartered to the United Nations, and she actively works toward abolishing the sovereignty of Britain as the UK is broken up and divided into regions of the European Union her City of London Corporation multi-national banks and corporations are quietly taking over the world.

Photo: A statue of a heraldic dragon tops the present-day Temple Bar marker in front of the Royal Courts of Justice.

In ancient times the City marshals and sheriffs were employed to ensure that all the “council” rates and taxes were paid to the City on behalf of the king.

After the conquest of William the Conqueror in 1066, who first brought the Jewish bankers to London from France, the Jews developed written credit agreements for the king, (in French called “mort-gages” mort ‘death’gage ‘bond’) and it was the marshal’s and sheriff’s jobs to ensure that all the interest payments of these “deathbonds” were paid to the Jews on behalf of the king.

During the reign of Richard I (the Lionheart) after the serious downturn in the economy as the result of the cost and tax impositions of the Crusades, (read “Blondel’s Song” by David Boyle to understand how 25% of the wealth of England was required in standard Silver Ingots to free Richard the Lionheart from not Saladdin but the Holy Roman Emperor!”) Many farmers, business people and peasants had defaulted on their “mort-gages” throughout England.

As the result, the Jews promptly commenced seizing the commoner’s property for not paying the interest, rates and taxes to the City and King.

Subsequently, a rapid increase in hate against the “King’s Jews” was initiated. This led to the massacre of Jews at York in 1190. New York in America was later named by British Jewish immigrant bankers in memory of the event.

For 100 years the commoner’s hate against the “King’s Jews” fermented until 1290, when, under pressure from the people, Edward III finally suspended the Mayoralty and reluctantly banished all Jews from his kingdom when 16,000 left England and didn’t begin to return until around the reign of Elizabeth I 1558-1603) when the enormous power of the City really began to accelerate with the opening of the world’s first stock exchange in London and has continued unabated to the present day.

While there have been rare occasions when the Lord Mayor and Commalty of the City, as a result of their colossal wealth and power have been able to subtly out-manoeuvre the monarch, as to their cost, Richard II, Charles I and James II were to learn to their fate generally speaking this has been the exception rather than the rule.

Ultimately, whoever successfully rules must have the “will” of the people. Historically, in the City many although certainly not all monarchs, have ruled with the “will” of their subjects.

But rarely, if ever, have the bankers, rich barons or knights been respected in this position.

More often than not they’ve been consistently hated.

Even when monarchs have done a poor job, provided they have still had the “will” of the people, the wealthy bankers’ position has been extremely “perilous” to say the least.

After forty years of misrule by Henry III, the Lord Mayor, Thomas Fitzthomas (1261- 1264) and the Aldermen defied the king.

On this particular occasion the Lord Mayor ended up being thrown into the Tower where he died.

Henry III vetoed nine Mayors in his long reign, and jailed another who died in prison.

On one occasion the threat to the Lord Mayor’s massive wealth and power has not come directly from the monarch, but from the people themselves.

Mayor Nicholas Brembre (1383-1385) had been a king’s man during the peasant’s revolt, and was knighted by Richard II for curbing the ambitions of his uncle, John of Gaunt.

But Brembre had few friends among the common people having deposed the popular Mayor Adam Stable, and when he re-imposed the hated Poll Tax which had caused the revolt, the mob turned on him.

He was given a mockery of a trial and was then hanged, drawn and quartered. Understandably, therefore, from the time of Richard II most of the “Lord Mayors” in the City of London and others in the realm became very “cautious” and “hesitant” about any proposal which could be seen as an “unreasonable demand” to levy rates or taxes for the City and king.

However, today these events have all but been forgotten. From the time of William the Conqueror in 1066 up to the time of the Reformation the City of London Corporation was Roman Catholic.

(The modern global “company” and “corporate” business system that we know today grew out of the old Roman Catholic dioceses in England which were the world’s first “corporations”).

During the reigns of Henry VIII (1491-1547) and Elizabeth I (1558-1603) when the Church of England, knights and barons took over the assets of the Catholic Church in England, the City then became Protestant.

Gradually, as the people of England apostatized and turned away from the Protestant King James Bible and Christianity in general, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, in the late 1800’s the City and Monarchy became rabidly Socialist.

C—THE BEGINNING OF SOCIALISM IN LONDON

The religion of Socialism is based primarily on the teachings of the pagan Greek philosopher and writer Plato, and especially his book The Republic, in which 400 years before the time of Christ he dreamed of a “World Republic” headed not by a president, but by a royal “world philosopher king” or “prince” like himself of course!).

Both Karl Marx and Hitler were great students of Plato. It is only inevitable that the planned reformed United Nations and EU will one day be headed by this “Philosopher Prince”.

Socialism officially first began in 1880 in London when H. M. Hyndman founded the Rose Street Club which was dedicated to the destruction of Christianity in England.
In 1884 the group changed its name and came to be called the Social Democratic Federation.

Its early members deceptively called themselves “Christian Socialists”. Later the group’s membership included the Jew, Karl Marx’s daughter, Eleanor Marx
and her husband Professor Aveling. Behind the scenes the group was largely controlled by Engels, Karl Marx’s partner.

Because Hyndman would not obey the orders of Engels, Eleanor Marx and her husband split off with William Morris the poet and others and started an opposition group which they called the Socialist League.

On January 4, 1884, members and past members of the Social Democratic Federation, the Socialist League and others founded the Fabian Society.

D—FABIAN SOCIETY

The first meeting of the Fabian Society was held at the home of Mr. E. R. Pease, a member of the London Stock Exchange.

Two of the leading members were George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb.

Other early members were Eleanor Marx, theosophist and occultist Annie Besant, and author H. G. Wells.

The name of the society was suggested by the Spiritualist, Frank Podmore, who named it after the brilliant, elderly, third century Roman general, censor and consul, Quintus Fabius (Maximus Verrucosus 303-203 BC) who was made a dictator in 221-217 BC and, with his small band of fighting guerrillas and superior cunning, successfully defended Rome by defeating Hannibal’s much bigger and mighty Carthaginian army through “gradualism” and “terrorism” during the time of the second Punic War.

Initially he kept to the hills and cunningly hampered the enemy’s progress by cutting off their food and supply lines with “delaying tactics” until Rome could assemble enough men to defend the city successfully.

During the war, his slow, “gradual,” delaying tactics were greatly disapproved of by his soldiers and the civilians and earned him the name of ‘Cunctator’ the ‘Delayer.’
But later, after the triumph, his skill and wisdom was highly appreciated. He died in his 100th year in 203 BC.

The only difference between Fabian Socialism and Communism is that Communists take your house by directly sending in the “secret police” to knock your front door down Fabian Socialists do it much more subtly and cleverly by “gradually” taking your individual rights away, by “gradually” increasing property taxes and rates, and finally, when you can’t pay them, they send in their regional “council tax inspectors” to take your house away but the end result is the same.

British PM Tony Blair and President George Bush Junior’s globalist “war on terror” is a classic Fabian Socialist strategy.

The philosophy of the Fabian Society was written in 1887 and included the statement: “The Fabian Society acknowledges the principal tenet of Marxism the abolition of private property etc.” (Of course this does not apply to the elect oligarchy at the top who end up owning the lot!).

Fabian Socialism is a “mixture” of Fascism, Nazism, Marxism and Communism all bundled together.

However, it is much more deadly because it is much more clever and subtle. Sidney and Beatrice Webb published a book of 1143 pages in defense of Bolshevism. It was entitled Soviet Communism: A New Civilization.

In April 1952 the Webbs were exposed before a US Senate Committee on the judiciary when Soviet Colonel I. M. Bogolepov, a former Red Army officer stated that the entire text had been prepared by himself in the Soviet Foreign Office. Appropriately, the defiant coat of arms of the Fabian Society (commissioned by author/playwright co-founder George Bernard Shaw) today (now archived) is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Until recently it also appeared on the Fabian glass window (now removed) in the Beatrice Webb House at Dorking, Surrey. Today the Fabian Society is among other things the intellectual wing of the British Labour Party.

Before Tony Blair became British Prime Minister in May 1997, he was Chairman of the Fabian Society.

Since the 1997 British general election there have been around 200 Fabian MP’s in the House of Commons, some of whom have formed almost entire Labour Cabinets including Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Jack Straw, David Blunkett, Peter Hain, Patricia Hewitt, John Reid, Ruth Kelly, Alan Milburn and Clare Short.

Headed by Tony Blair, Fabians now dominate the entire British government.

They are resident in all parties and sit on all important select committees, commissions and organizations allied to the government.

A good web-site on the subject is: www.lindsayjenkins.com/

The Fabian Society literally controls the European Union. German-born Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston since 1997, and member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, was one of two House of Commons’ Representatives on the European Convention and a member of the Presidium of the Convention on the Future of Europe.

The Presidium was the drafting body that created the draft Constitution for Europe. In her book, The Making of Europe’s Constitution, published in December 2003 by the Fabian Society, p. 20-21, Gisela writes: “In the early months, the Presidium members would meet in a small room in the Justus Lipsius Building some fifteen minute walk from the European Parliament.

Attendance was limited to the thirteen members, the Secretary General Sir John Kerr, his deputy and the press officer. Sir John Kerr, a former Permanent Secretary of the British Foreign Office, conducted the proceedings inside the Presidium and in the plenary sessions of the Convention with deft diplomatic skill as might be expected from someone who John Major called ‘Machiavelli’ in his autobiography.

The best description of his talents I heard was: ‘When Kerr comes up to you and asks for the time, you wonder why me and why now?’

On several occasions, we would retreat to the Val Duchess a small palace used by the Belgian foreign minister. It was at one of the dinners at Val Duchess that the skeleton of the draft constitution was given to members of the presidium in sealed brown envelopes the weekend before the public presentation.

We were not allowed to take the documents away with us.

Just precisely who drafted the skeleton, and when, is still unclear to me, but I gather much of the work was done by Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Sir John Kerr over the summer.

There was little time for informed discussion, and even less scope for changes to be made.”

There is another important idea, a method more than a principle which becomes closely associated with Fabianism.

Sydney Webb called it ‘permeation.’ Today it would be called ‘consensus.’ Webb put it this way. Most reformers think that all they have to do in a political democracy is to obtain a majority. This is a profound mistake.

What has to be changed is not only the vote that is cast, but also the mental climate in which Parliament and Government both live and work.

That I find to be an accurate description of the approach I and my colleagues have tried to bring to the affairs of the nation in our first term of office.”

In the last century, members of the British Fabian Society dynastic banking families in the City of London financed the Communist takeover of Russia.

Trotsky in his biography refers to some of the loans from these British financiers going back as far as 1907.

By 1917 the major subsidies and funding for the Bolshevik Revolution were co- ordinated and arranged by Sir George Buchanan and Lord Alfred Milner.

E—FABIAN SOCIETY “FIVE YEAR PLAN”

The British plan to take over the world and bring in a “New World Order” began with the teachings of John Ruskin and Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University.

Rhodes in one of his wills in 1877 left his vast fortune to Lord Nathan Rothschild as trustee to set up the Rhodes Scholarship Program at Oxford to indoctrinate promising young graduates for the purpose, and also establish a secret society for leading business and banking leaders around the world who would work for the City to bring in their Socialist world government.

Rothschild appointed Lord Alfred Milner to implement the plan. At first the society was called Milner’s Kindergarten, then in 1909 it came to be called The RoundTable. It was to work closely with the London School of Economics founded in 1894 by
Fabian Socialist leader Sidney Webb (Lord Passfield).

Today former Rhodes Scholars (such as Bill Clinton), Fabian Business RoundTable members, and graduates from the London School of Economics (the primary Fabian Socialist training school in the world) dominate the global banking, business and political systems in every country.

The British Fabian Society plan to takeover the world by the City of London financial community was first published in a book entitled “All These Things” by a New Zealand author and journalist, A. N. Field.

The book was first published in 1936 by Omni Publications in the United States (and censored in New Zealand). The document, called “Freedom and Planning” was secretly circulated in 1932 by the inner councils of the members of the Political Economic Plan, otherwise known as “P.E.P.” in London.

The then chairman of the organization was a City of London Jew, Israel Moses Sieff, who was the reputed author of the plan.

The headquarters of P.E.P. were at 16 Queen Anne’s Gate, London.

Mr Sieff was also chairman and financier of Marks and Spencer’s’ chain stores and vice-president of the British Zionist Society.

Similar to the experiment carried out in the in the USSR, the whole world would eventually be transferred into a Communist “United Nations” World Soviet Socialist Republic, where each country would be “regionalized” and ruled through “Regional Councils” through a United Nations dictatorship called a “Parliamentary Assembly” which would be just another name for a Soviet “Central Committee” and all independent, sovereign, national governments would be totally abolished.

Centred around City of London Jewry’s international financiers in the Bank of England subsidiary, the Bankers Industrial Development Company, the essence of the document “Freedom and Planning” was (and still is) to gradually “Sovietize” the world based on their “Five Year Plan” inaugurated in Moscow in 1927-28 in the Soviet Union.

Basically the plan involved the subtle transfer of the entire productive capacity of each country throughout the world into a series of great “State-owned” departments, which would then be “corporatized”, then “privatized” to City of London Corporation International banks and corporations which they control.

Individual property ownership would be severely restricted, with most of the land, sea, fisheries, rivers, lakes, ports, railways, communications, media, roads, electricity, energy, food, water, waste management, housing, farms, commercial property, schools, hospitals, police, social welfare, Inland Revenue etc. transferred into statutory corporations, companies or land trusts which indirectly would be owned by City of London banks.

The “peasants” would still be allowed to own their own clothes, and small assets like furniture, cars and boats etc., but the main assets of each country would be owned by their multi-national corporations and banks.

In essence the City of London Corporation would become the “One World Earth Corporation” and would privately own the world.

Similar to the experiment carried out in the in the USSR, the whole world would eventually be transferred into a Communist “United Nations” World Soviet Socialist Republic, where each country would be “regionalized” and ruled through “Regional Councils” through a United Nations dictatorship called a “Parliamentary Assembly” which would be just another name for a Soviet “Central Committee” and all independent, sovereign, national governments would be totally abolished.

F—FABIAN SOCIETY PRIVATIZATION OF THE WORLD

As the result of the P.E.P. Plan originally formulated in 1932, right now every country’s “State assets” (owned in trust by the State on behalf of the people) are being frantically “privatized” by City of London-controlled banks and corporations primarily under the directions of two leading Fabian Socialist writers Sir Roger Douglas and John Redwood.

Sir Roger Douglas’s book “Unfinished Business” and John Redwood’s book “Public Enterprise in Crisis” are the primary handbooks being used by central and local government finance ministers and officers all around the world to sell off each nation’s “family silver” and State assets with the more “sensitive” public assets being transferred into Fascist-type Public-Private Partnerships (PPP’s) which are designed to make the public masses and peasantry “think” that they have some degree of control when in reality they have none as the real ownership of the assets are held by the City of London banks and corporations who fund them.

Until relatively recently, John Redwood was head of N. M. Rothschild & Sons London global Overseas Privatization Unit that is coordinating the entire global privatization process.

Sir Roger has been contracted as a consultant by City of London Banks, the World Bank and others to advise on national privatization programs as well.

Fabian Society “Regionalization” of the World through UN and EU Control of Regional and City Councils.

All of the countries in the world currently are being “regionalized”.

Presently, for example, the whole of the United States is being “regionalized” and the EU Committee of the Regions, based in Brussels, is “regionalizing” every country in the European Union.

As the result of this radical “regionalization” process, Britain has now already been effectively abolished, having been divided up into 9 separate regions of the EU, plus Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This cunning process, which is being “gradually” implemented to destroy the power of the central national government in each country, is commonly referred to as “Devolution” by the Queen and Fabian Society.

Unlike the rest of the autonomous regions in the UK which, like most of the other regions in the EU that have become virtually powerless through their representation in the European Parliament which is now only a “talking shop”, the City of London Corporation as a separate region by itself within the Union now rules it.

This is because all of the Commissioners are appointed (not elected) to the European Commission by City of London-controlled business leaders and bankers in their respective countries.

Right now throughout the UK all city councils and regional councils are dramatically increasing their rate demand on their constituent’s properties, while at the same time they are quickly expanding their debt levels for unaffordable capital works programs via loans from City of London banks which policies are deliberately intended to prepare for the councils’ “privatization” whilst transferring the local government in each country to “regional councils” which ultimately will become or be controlled by “Regional Parliamentary Assemblies,” identical to the old structure in the former Soviet Union which first regionalized then abolished the national governments before they set up their republican socialist police state.

G—COMMUNIST “SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”

In 1992 at the “communist” United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, co-chaired by former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev and N. M. Rothschild-London agent Canadian billionaire Maurice Strong, the UN unveiled a radical environmental philosophical agenda which “inverted” the traditional values reflected in the Bible, Magna Carta and US Constitution (which put man under God at the head of his creation and dominion i.e. a man’s rights were to have superiority over those of animals, fish, plants, trees and forests etc.)

At the Earth Summit in Rio, an old pagan concept was introduced which “inverted” all of our existing, constitutional, democratic, personal and property rights and values espoused by Christianity and transferred them to the environment and the religion of mother-earth Gaia worship.

In this religion, a tree becomes more valuable than a human being. A rare bird more valuable than a hospital. This United Nations program of action unveiled in Rio was called Agenda 21. It is 300 pages long and is very complex.

Primarily it is designed to be implemented with other radical UN documents such as the Global Biodiversity Assessment (1100 pages), promoted by the UN Conference on Human Settlements, Habitat II.

The first Habitat conference was held in 1974 and specifically identified private property ownership as a threat to the peace and equality of the environment.
It proposed to revolutionize the development of the land and cities of each country under strict “Soviet-style” environmental guidelines, called “Sustainable Development.”

The UN’s communist secret agenda through “environmentalism” and “sustainable development” is very cunning and has deceived a lot of well-meaning people.
Most people genuinely want to protect the environment and ensure that the earth’s resources are “sustainable” for future generations there is no doubt.

But the communist goal of “sustainable development” and “environmentalism” has absolutely nothing to do with protecting the environment or sustainability it is all about abolition of property rights, and ultimately, collectivization of housing and farms under corporate State control.

Under this system, farmers and property owner’s rights would be effectively extinguished and overridden by strict Environmental and Sustainable Development resource consents and laws.

They would be told where they could farm, what “sustainable” land they could “develop,” (sustainable development) what trees they could plant or cut down, what fertilizer if any they could apply, and they would need “consents” and licenses for everything under the sun.

City dwellers would be in the same dire predicament, and have their homes confiscated, or they’d be severely fined, if they cut down a heritage tree, washed their car, boat or dishes using detergent, or used the privatized corporation’s water when they shouldn’t, especially if they were nabbed under their friendly “Neighbourhood Watch Scheme,” which scheme, incidentally, was first implemented in the Soviet Union.

Socialism is very subtle.

The penalty for cutting a tree down without the appropriate government consent would become worse than murder.

Not only would you have to license your dog, to own a dog you would have to be licensed too.

Farmers would need to be licensed to operate their collectivized farms, spray weeds, care for cattle and drive their tractors under new Soviet-styled “health and safety” laws.

All tradesmen and professional workers would have to be accredited and licensed, as would all Christian pastors and churches, and any other persons or institutions that could be likely to criticize their Soviet bosses.

All potential young parents would need to have a license to have children, and if there was any family genetic weakness of some sort in their state-controlled doctor’s medical records, no license would be given.

In the end you would need a license or permit to take your boat on a lake, take your kid fishing off a wharf, or travel between towns or cities.
In other words full-blown Marxism.

The United Nations policy of “Sustainable Development” introduced in 1992 at the UNCED at Rio de Janeiro, and implemented through Habitat II and the UN World Commission on Environment and Development is taken directly from the USSR Constitution, chapter 2, article 18, which reads:

“In the interests of the present and future generations, the necessary steps are taken in the USSR to protect and make scientific, rational use of the land and its mineral and water resources, and the plant and animal kingdoms to preserve the purity of air and water, ensure reproduction of natural wealth, and improve the human environment.”

Not only was N. M. Rothschild agent, Maurice Strong, Secretary-General of the UN 1992 Rio Earth Summit, he personally worked with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint three of his own Earth Charter Commissioners to the 12-man advisory panel of the Johannesburg Summit.

H—WORLD CONSERVATION BANK

In September 1987, the 4th World Wilderness Congress was held in Denver, Colorado, USA, which established the World Conservation Bank.

The congress was setup by none other than London’s (late) Baron Edmond de Rothschild, chairman of Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild, Geneva, Switzerland, and one of the trustees of the International Wilderness Foundation that sponsored the conference.

Approximately 1500 of the world’s most powerful bankers and leaders attended the congress, which was chaired by Rothschild agent and Canadian multi billionaire, Maurice Strong.

At the congress, Edmond de Rothschild designated eminent financier I. Michael Sweatman to be the first president of the World Conservation Bank. Sweatman wrote the forward of the banks charter.

Leading insiders of the biggest banks and UN agencies in the world were present, including Maurice Strong “Mr Sustainable,” David Rockefeller head of the ChaseManhattan Bank “Mr Development” and Mr David Ruckleshaus head of the UN Environmental Protection Agency “Mr Environment” of course!

The World Conservation Bank is destined to become the final World Bank and the “de-coupling mechanism” for City of London parent banks to take over the assets of every country of the world.

The essence of their secret plan is this: After an orchestrated period of global financial chaos triggered by a major war in the Middle East or man-made state of emergency or natural disaster, in which most of the world’s banks will be deliberately collapsed in the process, (wiping everybody’s savings out in the crash), key City of London banking parent creditors, are going to take over all the “mort-gages” (death-bonds) and assets of the world, and transfer them to the World Conservation Bank.

The plan is very esoteric and cunning, and very difficult for most to understand. Already most government treasury departments are preparing for such an event.
As part of the preparation for this momentous event, all of the world’s individual currencies are to be merged into two or three major currency groups, two of which are the euro and US dollar.

Finally, these currencies are to be replaced with the World Conservation Bank’s new electronic global currency, the “Earth Dollar.”

This new currency is deceptively to be issued against the collateral of 34 percent of the Earth’s surface that is presently being transferred into huge UN Heritage Parks and Conservation areas in every country across the globe, under the crafty deception “Sustainable Development.”

In short, the biggest banking conspiracy and deception ever to face mankind!

George W. Hunt, (95 Camino Basque, Boulder, Colorado 80302, U.S.A.), a US businessman, attended the congress and produced a video about it exposing their wicked and incredibly deceptive plans. On his video he plays excerpts of key speeches recorded at the congress.

One such speech was made by David Lang, a leading US financier and close personal friend and business partner of Maurice Strong, who said: “When the auditor finally gets his hands into the balance sheet, I suggest therefore that this be sold not through a democratic process. That would take too long and devour far too much of the funds to educate the cannon fodder unfortunately which populates the earth. We have to take an almost elitist program that we can see beyond our swollen bellies and look to the future in time frames and in results which are not easily understood or which can be, with intellectual honesty, be reduced down to some sort of simplistic definition.”

“CANNON-FODDER!” this is what these leading, arrogant, banking conspirators of the UN “Sustainable Development,” “SmartGrowth,” and World Conservation policies think of the world general population.

THESE are the wicked men that all the millions and millions of naïve local/central government politicians and business leaders throughout the world are now following.

I—COMMUNIST “SMARTGROWTH”

The main business facilitators and organizations of the UN Sustainable Development policies in the Asia-Pacific Region are the Pacific Rim Institute of Sustainable Management, the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Melbourne-based Sustainable Investment Research Group (SIRIS).

Equity in this group, SIRIS, coincidentally, is held by IOOF Funds Management and broking house JBWere that provide research for N.M. Rothschild & Sons’ Ethical Share Trust based in London.

The 1995 session the United Nations General Assembly passed a number of rules. Rule 61, 62 and 63 gave local government, civil organizations and private citizens the right to participate directly in the development and implementation of these documents. Directed by the IMF, World Bank, UN, and Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, the philosophy of “sustainable development” basically says that there are too many people on planet earth and there are not enough resources to go around.

What we need to do is urgently reduce the population, preserve, conserve, and “ration” the remaining resources and that the United Nations is the only body that can do it.

The World Bank already has a huge statistical database on countries and individuals what they produce and what resources they consume, water, energy, food, raw materials, heat, waste, health, social services etc.

If the net figure is a plus, they are considered to be good productive world citizens. If it is a negative, they are in line for liquidation. These are all basically the same old Socialist/Communist ideas as the “Marxist/Leninist” philosophy and “planned economy” that permeated the old Soviet Union.

In 1992 at Rio, another key “Soviet-styled” strategy proposed by the Agenda 21 Programme of Action from the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) was “SmartGrowth.”

This agenda can be found in a UN companion book called “Global Biodiversity Assessment” published by Cambridge University Press.

It proposes to model all the cities of the world on the Israel Moses Seif P.E.P plan, and the “planned” economic system of development used by Lenin and Stalin under the old Communist Soviet system of local government. The UN “SmartGrowth” legislation in the United States was first passed in the State of Maryland in March 1997. Since then, it has been gradually introduced by city and district councils all around the worl. Of course, rarely if ever will you hear of the policy coming from a foul brood of UN international bankers. While virtually all of the general public are oblivious of this fact, usually individual councils will be happy to credit themselves as authors of the plans.

J—PAUPERIZATION OF PENSIONERS AND THE MIDDLE CLASS

Just as there is a “close relationship” between the remuneration rises of leading local body politicians with the overall level of council rate-rise demand, so there is a “close relationship” between the level of council rate-rise impositions and the financial status of people living in each council ward or constituency. The Fabian bankers already “own” the properties held by ratepayers with a “mort-gage” on them.

This includes all private homes, farms, businesses and commercial property, local and central government debt. All young people with student loans and welfare beneficiary groups also come under this category. By and large central bankers believe this group is not a worry as they are already under their strict control and firmly in their grip through welfare dependency or mort-gage “death-bond” fealty. But the one group that Fabian Socialists hate the most are the “freehold” property-owners. Hence, this group, more often than not, is the “middle class” that is predominantly comprised of middle-aged citizens and more particularly pensioners who are generally the most asset-rich.

As a result of this phenomenon, all global residential property taxation and ratepayer tax policies are now being subtly targeted against these particular groups to confiscate all their properties. Essentially the Fabian City of London banks envisage this to be achieved through a variety of measures.

India/Pakistan Talks Begin and End

[How much progress could have been made in 5 hours?  That was not much time to talk about peace, but probably plenty of time to make threats or ultimatums.  Let us hope that the next phase will show some promise to the war-weary world, which hungers for a few years of peace.]

Indo-Pak foreign secretary talks begin

Updated at: 1045 PST, Thursday, February 25, 2010 

NEW DELHI: The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan met Thursday in New Delhi for the first official talks between the rivals since the 2008 Mumbai attacks which derailed their peace dialogue.
The Pakistani delegation, comprising eight members, is headed by Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir.
Earlier, talking to media before the commencement of talks, Salman Bashir said all longstanding issues including Kashmir Row, Terrorism, Water Distribution, Insurgency in Balochistan and others will come under discussion.
He said terrorism is an international menace, which needs to be encountered at all levels.
The spokesman to Foreign Office Abdul Basit, on the occasion, said no agenda has been set for the talks therefore every issues will be discussed.
He said we are going to hold talks with a positive approach, adding that Pakistan has shown seriousness in taking concrete actions against accused of Mumbai attacks.
Later, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao shook hands with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir at a former princely palace in the centre of the Indian capital.
"I welcome the foreign secretary of Pakistan Salman Bashir to New Delhi this morning and I look forward to our talks," Rao told reporters.
India broke off a slow-moving peace process with Pakistan after the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, which left 166 people dead. New Delhi blamed militants based in Pakistan.
Bashir said he looked forward "to a very good, constructive engagement".

 

Pak- India foreign secretary talks conclude

Updated at: 1400 PST, Thursday, February 25, 2010 

NEW DELHI: A meeting of the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan has concluded here on Thursday.
Sources said Pakistan has focused on Kashmir issue along with issues of terrorism, Balochistan and water in the delegation level talks held at the Hyderabad House here.
India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao raised the issue of terrorism and urged to speed up the action against those involved in Mumbai attacks. India also handed over more evidences to Pakistani delegation.
The Pakistani delegation comprised Afrasiab, director-general of the South Asia division and a former deputy high commissioner to India, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit and other senior officials.
Earlier, one-on-one meeting was held between Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao at the historic Hyderabad House.
Talking to media before the commencement of talks, Salman Bashir said all longstanding issues including Kashmir, terrorism, water distribution; insurgency in Balochistan and others will come under discussion.
He said terrorism is an international menace, which needs to be encountered at all levels.
The spokesman to Foreign Office Abdul Basit, on the occasion, said no agenda has been set for the talks therefore every issues will be discussed.
He said we are going to hold talks with a positive approach, adding that Pakistan has shown seriousness in taking concrete actions against accused of Mumbai attacks.
The Pakistani delegation will also call on National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, a former foreign secretary and a former Indian envoy to Islamabad, on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, the Pakistanis will call on External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna before heading back to Islamabad.
The Pakistani delegation comprised Afrasiab, director-general of the South Asia division and a former deputy high commissioner to India, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit and other senior officials.

Syria Resents Hariri’s Remarks, Demands Explanation which Prompted Saudi Intervention

In the Spotlight

Syria Resents Hariri’s Remarks, Demands Explanation which Prompted Saudi Intervention

A new crisis loomed between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad after recent remarks made by Hariri in which he compared Lebanese-Syrian relations with those that prevailed during Saddam Hussein’s era between Iraq and Kuwait.

A new crisis loomed between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad after recent remarks made by Hariri in which he compared Lebanese-Syrian relations with those that prevailed during Saddam Hussein’s era between Iraq and Kuwait.
Hariri said Syria had rejected diplomatic ties with Lebanon.

“Syrian behavior was similar to the one that existed between Iraq and Kuwait when former President Saddam Hussein refused to recognize Kuwait,” Hariri said in a recent interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Syria has reportedly expressed dismay about Hariri’s remarks.

Damascus’ criticism indicated the start of a confidence crisis, the first since Hariri’s visit to Syria last Dec. 19 ties frozen after the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

Syria has had strained ties with both France and the United States since Hariri’s assassination in a massive Beirut car bombing.

Lebanon accused Syria of orchestrating the attack, one of a string targeting its critics in Lebanon.

Syria repeatedly denied the charge but two months later withdrew its troops from Lebanon, ending three decades of domination of its small neighbor.

Damascus is seeking clarification from Hariri which considered his remarks “insult” to both Lebanon and Syria.

The daily As-Safir on Thursday quoted well-informed Lebanese sources as saying that what has been expressed by the Syrian press came a day after a telephone conversation between Assad and Hariri in which the Syrian president admonished Hariri for his “verbal expressions that do not help to create a new atmosphere in relations between the two countries.”

The sources said high-level contacts between Saudi Arabia and Syria have recently been undertaken in this regard.

They said Riyadh was in the picture of Hariri’s decision to visit Syria for a second time before end of February.

However, no follow-up efforts have been taken by the Lebanese side in this regard for unknown reasons, As-Safir said.

The Syrian newspaper Al-Watan had quoted high-ranking Syrian sources as expressing dismay about Hariri’s remarks published in Corriere della Sera last Sunday.

The Syrian sources said that history and facts reveal that the late President Hafez al-Assad recognized Lebanon since the seventies, “but no one in Lebanon requested diplomatic relations with Syria in a formal or an informal way.”

They said the first to demand diplomatic ties between the two countries was Bashar Assad during a 2005 meeting of the Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council that was attended by the then President Emile Lahoud, Speaker Nabih Berri and former PM Omar Karami.

Combating the Disinformation, Psyops, and Cover-ups of the US Military

[SEE: U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS PART I U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS PART II ; U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS PART III]

Combating the Disinformation, Psyops, and Cover-ups of the US Military

A Scrape in the Teflon US Military Propaganda: Interview with Captain Eric H. May

by Kim Petersen and B.J. Sabri

February 24, 2010

Few people have heard of the Battle of Baghdad. They might remember Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq’s information minister, warning of a surprise awaiting U.S. troops if they attacked Saddam International Airport. Later, al-Sahhaf claimed that the Iraqi Republican Guard had slaughtered U.S. troops and was in control of the entire airport. His claims, according to one intelligence officer, were true, but were countered by a US military-media campaign of evasions and distortions which switched the subject from the airport to Private Jessica Lynch and ridiculed al-Sahhaf as “Baghdad Bob.”

What came to be called the Battle of Baghdad Cover-Up (BOBCUP), was an illegal deception of the American people, as well as a desecration of the military men who had fought and died only to be pushed into the memory hole by Big Brother Bush. Captain Eric H. May, a former U.S. Army intelligence and public affairs officer, responded by investigating and confirming BOBCUP, which he reported to an Army Inspector General and to a corporate media that were both cowed and complicit. Realizing that the entire US establishment was dedicated to waging a criminal global war and erecting an oppressive homeland state, Capt. May honored his military oath “to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” He formed and assumed command of a cyber intelligence group, which he named Ghost Troop to honor the unacknowledged ghosts from the Battle of Baghdad. Before long the unit swelled to several hundred members, including veterans of all services, as well as a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and a U.S. ambassador.

Initially, Ghost Troop’s mission was to penetrate the propaganda of the corporate media, government, and military; and to provide essential information being withheld to the American people. Shortly after the Madrid bombing of 3/11, 2004, Capt. May and his chief officers determined that Madrid had been a “false flag” terrorist act carried out by the pro-war Spanish government in an attempt to turn the war weary Spanish people into hawks. They reasoned that the 9/11 attacks, which achieved the same purpose in the USA, were also false flag terrorism. Finally, they agreed that the U.S. government was routinely telling the public that there “was going to be another 9/11″ because it meant to administer it. With grim humor, Ghost Troop began to refer to this future false flag as “9/11-2B.” Using their military and media savvy to frustrate the 9/11-2B false flag became their second mission, and consumed most of their efforts.

Those who know Capt. May well consider his unique mission of conscience to be the stuff of legend. The Lone Star Iconoclast in Central Texas has long demanded that Congress investigate his uncanny ability to warn the Internet about false flag dangers: he has forecast petrochemical refinery explosions in Southeast Texas, each of which may have been a foiled terror attack, six times. He exposed a US WMD team that had infiltrated the Texas City refinery area in February 2006. Publisher W. Leon Smith credits him with saving the Republic by his leadership of Ghost Troop to prevent 9/11-2B.1

There is a growing movement in the 9/11 “truth” and patriot movements to press for Congress to award him the nation’s highest military honor. Shortly after the publication of the Iconoclast editorial, Dr. James H. Fetzer, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and a close collaborator and friend of the captain’s gave voice to many with his glowing accolade: “This is a completely brilliant and fully justified recommendation, which I wholeheartedly support. I have not admired anyone during my life as much as I have Captain May. He is a superb analyst and remarkable human being.”

Capt. May was a vibrant, fit man — a martial arts expert — when he began to lead Ghost Troop. He was constantly under threat from the military, the FBI and various national police and intelligence agencies. He was mysteriously stricken with ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, subsequent to his dissidence. Despite the advanced condition of the disease, Capt. May, now a paralyzed disabled veteran, was good enough to partake in the following interview.2

*****Kim Petersen: I first became acquainted with you when you responded toDissident Voice pulling an article on damning revelations about US military atrocities in Iraq made by a purported Army Ranger, Jesse Macbeth. However, Iraq Veterans Against the War disavowed backing Macbeth, and the veracity of Mr. Macbeth’s claims of service in the US Army were questioned. Lacking substantiation of Mr. Macbeth’s claims DV pulled the article. Other media outlets followed suit. You decried this as Arab a “hideous failure of American journalism.” Do you see still Macbeth as a victim of “swiftboating”?

Captain May: In a word, yes. Jesse Macbeth is a perfect example of a crucial dissident voice who had both courage and a vital message. An Arab-American radio show host, Dr. Hesham Tillawi of Arab Voices asked me to review the Macbeth tape just before the swiftboat attacks began, and it seemed absolutely credible to me, a veteran of four decades of military service. Macbeth was specific in terminology, tactics and training. He was also specific about Middle East geography, lifestyle, habits and attitude. There had already been two local Arizona mainstream media stories about him — neither previously challenged — as a war veteran. He had already been drawing benefits from the Veterans Administration without difficulty, meaning that the military considered him much more than a training washout, the story with which they later attacked him.

When Iraq Veterans Against the War failed to support him, it was because an IVAW administrator, Amanda Braxton, a lifelong civilian, had been buffaloed by the best swiftboating attack since the presidential election of 2004. It was led by men whose records in special operations, propaganda and Republican war rallying made them seem more like mercenaries than media. When I interviewed Braxton, and she admitted that she had been frightened into turning on Macbeth. Further, she mentioned that his IVAW cohorts had never doubted that he was a war veteran. This was the best evidence of all that he was on the level.

Given my familiarity with the military system, I made calls all the way to the top level of the Army requesting confirmation from the official record supporting swiftboater claims that Macbeth had never seen the war — and found that the Army was trying to dodge any comment about him. Yes, Macbeth was swiftboated because his message was that we were using SS-style tactics against Middle Eastern Muslims — something the Middle East is well aware of. The alternative media chickened out on a crucial story, allowing the mainstream media and political establishment to cover it up. I wrote an article about it before moving on to other critical stories:

Updating a War Crime Witness: Jesse Macbeth,” Ghost Troop Archive, June 2006.

KP: I had heard about the Battle of Baghdad at Tehran’s airport from my colleague BJ Sabri, where reportedly US troops had suffered many losses, but you are the first person I know to have reported about it online. You wrote that it was kept from public consciousness, “hidden under the distraction story of Private Jessica Lynch.” The Battle of Baghdad still has not emerged into public consciousness. Why do you think this is so?

Capt.: In Ghost Troop, we never left the cover-up unchallenged. In early April of 2007, as the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Baghdad approached, The Lone Star Iconoclast published an interview with me updating my research on the cover-up. A few days later Al Jazeera published an interview with Iraqi General Al-Rawi, who had commanded Saddam’s forces at the airport. A few weeks later the U.S. Congress held hearings about media and military failure to report the truth from Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the cases of Pvt. Jessica Lynch and Cpl. Pat Tillman. I believe that Ghost Troop and theIconoclast gave Al Jazeera and Congress the encouragement they needed to do as much as they did. I believe that the continuing cover-up by the mainstream and alternative media goes far to demonstrate that they are in large part controlled by the same pro-war establishment that has orchestrated everything from 9/11 to the present to turn the American dream of security into the Muslim nightmare of invasion.

BJ Sabri: There were many published emails that you wrote where you defend the right for information and to find out the truth, at least about the Battle of Baghdad; now, if that is the case, and since you were a material witness to history, and since many accounts confirm that the United States used a neutron bomb to the end the battle that cost the US military dearly, I ask you a very precise question: Did the United States use such a neutron bomb in Iraq?

Capt.: When the Battle of Baghdad occurred, I was at home in Texas, my active duty military days behind me, watching events on CNN. At that point I knew that something catastrophic had happened in Saddam International Airport, but I had no idea that it was something nuclear. Over the next couple of years I received many reports from both Arab and Western witnesses that we had used a neutron warhead. It wasn’t until I reached the anti-war Camp Casey outside George W. Bush’s Texas headquarters in Crawford in 2005 that I spoke with numerous witnesses together. They included Army and Marine veterans of the Battle of Baghdad, Arab witnesses and journalists. All their accounts, taken together, convinced me that the neutron warhead was employed. Gen. Al-Rawi confirmed the nuke in his Al Jazeera interview:

US accused of using neutron bombs,” Al Jazeera, 4/9/2007.

BJ: You say, “War is just homicide on a national scale.” Homicide against whom: U.S. military personnel, who are the aggressors or the Iraq nation — military, and civilians — who were attacked without casus belli? Still, homicide sounds ordinary in these circumstances, why not use a precise term such aspremeditated mass murder, in which both aggressors and aggressed suffered unnecessary death? In addition, whether homicide or mass murder, it seems that the criminals who planned and carried it out will go unpunished? Does this mean the United States government and military are above the law?

Capt.: I realize that my phrase “war is just homicide on a national scale” is cold-blooded, but it is a professional military man’s first premise in understanding or discussing the phenomenon. I accept your objection that I don’t offer human judgments as to who is involved in self-defense and in aggression, with its implication that such judgments must be made. I’ve been forthright elsewhere in my moral evaluation of the “Global War on Terror,” admitting that we Americans have been duped into war crime, and calling for punishment of our leaders:

Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld: Geneva Conventions now, Nuremberg Principles later,” Al Jazeerah, 7/3/2006.

BJ: In your email, you write, “I am pleased to see that the anti-war is joining the infowar …” You sound like an anti-war activist. Are you really an anti-war military man? If you are anti-war, why did you take part in such war that you may have been privy to as being based on pretexts?

Capt.: I was no longer a serving soldier at the time of 9/11 or the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. For the most part I accepted the official propaganda. It wasn’t until realizing the cover-up of the Battle of Baghdad that I became interested in analyzing the wars or the policies behind them. I was never an anti-war military man until after I examined the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East.

My comrade in the antiwar, former Marine Corps Major William B. Fox, wrote a well researched article about my intellectual and ethical awakening:

Captain Courageous and the Quicksand War,” The Lone Star Iconoclast, 3/26/2008.

BJ: I read somewhere in the wealth of information you provided, how you imagined George W. Bush should articulate his message to the nation about the course of war. Because you put words in his mouth, you, nevertheless, injected your personal feelings about the imperialist wars “by American definition, patriotic.” What do you think now about the endless wars of what many experts contend is a Zionist-controlled United States government?

Capt.: You are referring to “Cavalrymen and Cowards,” which was a philippic I directed at Bush shortly after the Battle of Baghdad cover-up. At that point I still had no judgment about whether or not the war in Iraq was legal or illegal. I was chiding him for not having enough guts to admit facts. It’s likely that Bush himself read my words, since I interviewed with his team about becoming his speechwriter before he became president, when he was still the governor of Texas and we shared some acquaintances.

As far as those experts who consider the United States to be Gollum, mindlessly carrying out proxy wars for Zionists, at this stage of my development I would call myself one of them. Until we awaken as a nation to Israel’s machinations and manipulations against our own interests, we are in great danger ourselves, and represent a great danger to the rest of the world.

KP: Nine-11 provided a pretext for the so-called War on Terror, and Ghost Troop has been vigilant in defending against another 9-11. Does an Obama government affect the need for such vigilance?

Capt.: Not in the least. In his first year in office, Obama has demonstrated conclusively that he is a puppet for the war cabal. He needs another 9/11-style event to re-energize the dictatorial Homeland and the imperial Global War, which are nothing more than euphemisms for “Vaterland” and “World War.”

In Ghost Troop we use an operational codename for this required next 9/11: We call it “9/11-2B” — the 9/11 that the establishment assures us is going “to be.” Just this month Obama’s intelligence officials were projecting 9/11-2B in 3 to 6 months. The way we look at it, that means this puppet president wants to set up such an attack before the Congressional elections of next fall. His recent emphasis on beefing up our cyber security is an indicator that 9/11-2B will entail an attack on the Internet, the sole remaining free media, and the greatest impediment to totalitarian rule of the United States.

BJ: Going back to the issue of how you think should George W. Bush articulate his message to the nation. You stated in your article “Philippic contra George W. Bush” that he should say, “We will not rest until the mission for which they gave their lives is accomplished. We will not stop until we have vanquished tyranny and terror abroad, and brought our heroes home. That will be our tribute to the fallen. God Bless America, Garry Owen, and goodnight.” To me, you kept George Bush’s essence, but just embellished the rhetoric. Can you explain?

Now, you put words in his mouth (meaning that you, in turn, articulated your own political vision and projected it into Bush’s mind). Since you injected personal feelings about U.S. imperialist war in Iraq “by America’s definition: patriotic,” what do you think now about the endless wars?

Capt.: In the philippic against Bush I attacked him as a lying coward, and to drive the point home I wrote the words that I would have written for him had I been his speechwriter at the time of the Battle of Baghdad — which I nearly was. I was writing rhetoric, putting the best face on the facts as I then believed them to be. Please bear in mind that I was writing a historic document here by slamming the most powerful man on earth at a time when he had shown himself to be tyrannical and murderous. People who write philippics — which can only earn the name “philippic” when published to a murderous tyrant — have good reason to worry that the bold act will cost them their lives, and I believe it nearly cost me mine. A couple of days after I wrote it, political dissidents in the U.S. and UK began to be assassinated, which was the topic of a recently published article about them and me:

Captain Courageous Witnessed: Dr. Kelly Assassinated!,” Al Jazeerah, 12/10/2009.

BJ: Do you really think that these wars are about tyranny and terror? In wider sense, do you think it is about time that the American people stop following what their rulers incite them to do in the names of causes that actually do not exit except on a propagandistic level?

Capt.: I do think that these wars are about tyranny and terror: the tyranny and terror emerging from the efforts of Western psychopaths who have taken over the reins of power. They intend to do far worse deeds than they have done. The only way we can stop them is by doing what you suggest: awakening the American people to the perils of being misled by perfidious leaders and an evil establishment. I am proud to be, like you, among the dissident voices engaged in this historic struggle, in which we have transformed the Internet into the printing press of the New American Revolution.

  1. Captain Eric H. May Deserves Congressional Medal of Honor,” The Lone Star Iconoclast, 2 February 2010. []
  2. Introduction with assistance of Capt. May. []

Kim Petersen is co-editor of Dissident Voice. B. J. Sabri is an Iraqi-American antiwar activist. They can be reached at: Petersen_sabri@yahoo.com.

:: Article nr. 63613 sent on 25-feb-2010 02:35 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=63613

Link: dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/combating-the-disinformation-propaganda-and-cover-ups
-of-the-military-industrial-complex/

NATO admits that slaughtering in cold blood 8 afghan children was a “mistake”

NATO admits that slaughtering in cold blood 8 afghan children was a “mistake”

Jerome Starkey

February 24, 2010

Nato admits that deaths of 8 boys were a mistake

by Jerome Starkey, Kabul

night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Timesinvestigation has found.

Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.

At the time, Nato claimed that the assault force was targeting a “known insurgent group responsible for a series of violent attacks”. Officials said that the victims were involved in making and smuggling improvised explosive devices. But Western sources close to the case now agree that the victims were all aged 12 to 18 and were not involved in insurgent activity.

Nato sources say that the raid should never have been authorised. “Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack,” an official in Kabul told The Times. “We don’t now believe that we busted a major ring.”

When reports of the raid first surfaced eight weeks ago, The Times contacted the police chief in Kunar province and then the boys’ head-master and uncle, Rahman Jan Ehsas.

Two men whose children and other relatives were killed agreed to come to Kabul to describe the incident. They provided pictures of their dead sons, a sketched map of the compound and copies of the compensation claim forms signed by local officials detailing their sons’ names, relatives and positions at school. Their story was supported by Western military sources.

Farooq Abdul Ajan, who lost two sons, two brothers, three nephews and a cousin in the raid, said that the soldiers had had no idea whom they were killing. Afghan investigators, local officials and MPs from the province all maintain that the boys were innocent.

Nato’s statement, issued four days after the event, said that troops were attacked “from several buildings” as they entered the village. Yesterday it said that “ultimately, we did determine this to be a civilian casualty incident”.

Anger is growing over civilian casualties. General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander, has warned that Nato risks “strategic defeat” by causing civilian deaths. The Independent Human Rights Commission said that more than 63 civilians had died in the past two weeks, including 27 killed when US special forces ordered an airstrike on a convoy of minibuses in the central Daikundi province. Nato recently introduced a new tactical directive to limit the use of night raids, the coalition’s chief legal adviser, Colonel Richard Gross, said. “General McChrystal realised that this was one of the areas where we had to change the way we do business, or else we would not win this war,” he said.

Exactly who carried out the Narang raid is unclear. Colonel Gross said that US forces were present but did not lead the operation. Nato insists that the troops were not part of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). US forces based in Kunar denied any knowledge of the raid.

Senior Western officers have hinted that the “trigger pullers” were Afghan; the Afghan Defence Ministry said its troops were not involved. Mohammed Afzal, Narang’s district police chief, insisted that US special forces were involved.Assadullah Wafa, who led an Afghan investigation into the incident, said that relatives would get $2,000 compensation for each person killed.  (More HERE)

Ex-cop pleads guilty to Katrina coverup

By Cheryl Gerber, AP

Dr. Romell Madison, left, Lance Madison and Jackie Madison Brown talk to attorney Mary Howell in New Orleans on Wednesday after Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to conspiring with fellow NOPD officers to obstruct justice by covering up a police-involved shooting that killed their brother, Ronald Madison, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Ex-cop pleads guilty to Katrina coverup

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS — A retired New Orleans police lieutenant pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to cover up a deadly police-involved shooting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The plea in U.S. District Court by Michael Lohman, 42, is part of an investigation by federal agents into several police shootings of civilians in the chaotic days immediately following Katrina. Lohman faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing May 26.

Seven officers were charged with murder or attempted murder in the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings, six days after Katrina made landfall and then battered the region. The charges were later dismissed.

The incident happened when a group of police and other law enforcement officers in a large Budget rental truck confronted six people crossing the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans, according to a police report.

Police fired at several of the people, killing Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, and James Brissette, 19, the report said. The officers claimed they were fired at first, although surviving witnesses dispute that claim and say police opened fire on unarmed people.

According to federal documents unsealed Wednesday, Lohman arrived after the shooting and encouraged the supervising officers to falsify their stories to “make it appear as if the civilians who were shot on the bridge had shot first at officers.” He also approved the planting of a gun at the scene to justify the shootings, according to the documents.

On Sunday, survivors of the Danziger Bridge incident, their families and lawyers applauded the guilty plea and said they hoped more will follow.

“The fact that you have an officer who supervised these officers admitting he conspired to cover up — it doesn’t get much better than that for vindication,” said Gary Bizal, attorney for Jose Holmes, who was shot several times in the stomach during the shooting. Holmes was initially charged with shooting at officers but those charges were later dropped, Bizal said.

The case is part of a wider probe that could bring more convictions, according to prosecutors. The FBI has confirmed its investigators are looking into at least three separate incidents where police shot eight people, killing four of them and badly injuring several others. Over the past 1½ years, federal investigators have summoned dozens of New Orleans police officers to testify before federal grand juries and seized police records.

Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for eastern Louisiana, said Lohman is expected to cooperate with investigators and federal agents will continue with all the investigations.

“We will forge ahead,” he said. “Our evidence is strong.”

Federal investigators also are looking into the shooting death of Henry Glover, whose remains were found inside an abandoned, incinerated car in Algiers, La., and Matthew McDonald, a drifter from Connecticut who was shot and killed by police in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans five days after the storm, the FBI said.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Katrina autopsy: Police shot mentally disabled man in back

By James Polk, Drew Griffin and Kate Albright-Hanna
CNN

Tuesday, May 23, 2006;

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — Autopsy results obtained by CNN show a mentally disabled man was shot in the back when he was killed by New Orleans police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

This contradicts testimony by a police sergeant that the victim had turned toward officers and was reaching into his waistband when shot.

“Clearly he was shot from behind,” said famed New York pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who examined the body for the family’s lawyer. (Watch where the man died and details of the autopsy — 5:04)

A prosecutor said the case will go before a grand jury soon and acknowledged the investigation includes the possibility of police wrong-doing.

Ronald Madison, 40, was mentally disabled and lived at home with his mother. He had no criminal record. He was shot when police responded to a report of gunfire on a bridge over the flooded Industrial Canal on Sunday, September 4, six days after Katrina hit New Orleans last year.

It was a week of dire flooding, rampant looting, death by drowning. Police were strained, beset by suicides and desertion. Four people were killed in confrontations with police that weekend alone.

Madison’s older brother, Lance, said he and Ronald were walking across the Danziger bridge toward another brother’s dental office when teen-agers ran up behind him and opened fire that Sunday morning.

By his account, he and Ronald were running away toward the crest of the bridge when a police team, responding to the report of gunshots, arrived in a rental truck and opened fire on people on the bridge.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley told CNN, “Several of the people were shot and two were killed by our officers in a running gun battle… Most police shoot-outs last somewhere between six and twelve seconds, and it’s over with. This was a running gun battle that went on several minutes.”

One teen-ager, still unidentified, was killed near the base of the bridge. Another was critically wounded. Three other people with them were also shot and were hospitalized.

Lance Madison said a policeman pointed a rifle at Ronald and shot him as the two of them were running up the bridge. Lance said he helped carry his wounded brother to a motel on the other side of the canal and left him there as Lance kept running to seek help.

The Police Department said in a press release last fall that Ronald Madison, whom it called a second unidentified gunman, “was confronted by a New Orleans Police Officer. The suspect reached into his waist and turned toward the officer who fired one shot fatally wounding him.”

Testifying in a preliminary hearing last fall, Police Sgt. Arthur Kaufman said much the same thing: “One subject turned, reached in his waistband, turned on the officers.”

Autopsy results, made available to CNN by a source involved in the investigation, directly contradict that police account.

The findings list five separate gunshot wounds in Ronald Madison’s back. Three went through the body and exited in front. There were two other wounds in his right shoulder. None of the shots entered his body from the front.

CNN had sued the coroner of Orleans Parish to try to get official access to the autopsy report. At a court hearing on that lawsuit in New Orleans a week ago, the coroner, Dr. Frank Minyard, verified the handwritten autopsy report obtained elsewhere by CNN was indeed prepared in his office by a pathologist on his staff who listed the wounds in the victim’s right back.

Under cross-examination by a CNN lawyer, Dr. Minyard testified those five wounds in the back “were entrance wounds, yes.”

Dr. Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police, met with CNN in New York City two weeks ago to discuss his own observations when he examined Ronald Madison’s body for the family lawyer last fall. Asked if Ronald could have been facing the police when shot, Dr. Baden said, “Absolutely not.”

No weapon was found on or near Ronald Madison’s body.

Assistant District Attorney Dustin Davis, testifying in the same court hearing on the CNN lawsuit, said a grand jury has been assigned to investigate the Danziger Bridge shootings. However, the grand jury has not yet met on the case because the New Orleans Police Department has yet to complete its final report, eight months after those deaths.

The CNN attorney asked Davis, “What you are investigating in that case is whether any of the police officers may be indicted for homicide, is that correct?”

Davis answered, “That’s partially correct. We are also looking at Mr. Madison’s involvement in the incident.”

Lance Madison was arrested on the other side of the bridge where his brother was killed and was accused of shooting at the police officers in the gun battle. He, too, had no weapon when taken into custody. He was released from jail after six months because the District Attorney’s office had not initiated any prosecution, although the investigation remains pending.

Sgt. Kaufman testified at the bail hearing for Lance Madison last fall that another policeman saw Lance throw a gun into the Industrial Canal as he was going over the bridge. Lance Madison denies that. He told CNN correspondent Drew Griffin, “I had no gun, at all.” Asked if Ronald had a gun, Lance answered, “No, he didn’t.”

In a CNN interview earlier this month, Griffin told Police Chief Warren Riley, “We understand Ronald Madison was shot in the back five times.”

Riley said, “Those are things I can’t comment on and no one can comment on until the investigation is concluded.”

Griffin asked Riley if he was concerned about his officers’ actions and Riley replied, “Certainly, we do not condone our officers overreacting, even in the most chaotic time,” but he went on, “We don’t know that they overreacted. From the radio transmission, it sounds like their lives were in danger.”

Riley turned down a request by CNN to interview the officers who were involved.

A 25-year career employee at Federal Express, Lance Madison has no criminal record.

At the end of the CNN interview, Riley conceded the two Madison brothers may not have been connected with the other people on the bridge that day.

“I don’t know if those young men were innocent or not. I really don’t know if they were with that group or not,” Riley said. “I really don’t know.”

The US won’t support British claims on the Falklands sovereignty

The US won’t support British claims on the Falklands sovereignty

falklands

Washington refused to support British claims on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands yesterday while the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and the UN.

Despite the close military alliance that Britain has with the United States, the Obama administration is determined not to be involved in the issue. It has also refused to support Britain’s claim that oil exploration around the islands not be sanctioned by international law, saying the dispute is strictly a bilateral issue.

Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana made a request to the General Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, to intervene in the dispute, a move that Britain strongly opposed.

“We have requested the general secretary that within the framwork of the framework of their good offices, to stress to the UK he need to abstain from further unilateral acts,” Taiana told reporters after the meeting with Ban.

Taiana said that “the UK oil exploration in the Falkland Islands, is a unilateral act in a long chain of likewise events, which we believe are illegal and contrary to international law, which calls not perform acts that would aggravate the situation.”

The chancellor said he had told Ban about “the need to comply with the requests  of the UN’s various resolutions and the Committee’s on decolonization in relation to the need to sit down and negotiate with Argentina about the sovereignty dispute over the islands. “

Upon leaving the meeting Taiana said Argentina is willing to dialogue and to comply with a UN mandate but that Britain rejected these requests.

An UN aide acknowledged, however, that Ki-moon would not be able to mediate in the opposition from Great Britain.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant, Britain’s Ambassador to the UN, said: “As British ministers have made clear, the UK has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands . . . We are also clear that the Falkland Islands Government is entitled to develop a hydrocarbons industry within its waters, and we support this legitimate business in Falklands’ territory.”

Senior US officials insisted that Washington’s position on the Falklands was one of longstanding neutrality. This is in stark contrast to the public backing and vital intelligence offered by President Reagan to Margaret Thatcher once she had made the decision to recover the islands by force in 1982.

“We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but our position remains one of neutrality,” a State Department spokesman told The Times. “The US recognises de facto UK administration of the islands but takes no position on the sovereignty claims of either party.”

Kevin Casas-Zamora, a Brookings Institution analyst and former vice-president of Costa Rica, said that President Reagan’s support for Britain in 1982 “irked a lot of people in Latin America”.

The Obama Administration “is trying to split the difference as much as it can because it knows that coming round to the British position would again create a lot of ill will in the region”, he said.

British officials in Washington said that they were comfortable with the US response to the dispute, but indicated that any American support for mediated negotiations would not be well received. It was “up to the islanders whether they want mediation or not”, one official said.

Britain has boosted the islands’ defences since the conflict, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, said last night. “We have built a massive runway. We have emplaced forces on the ground, we have sophisticated early warning systems. It is a different package. To compare the way we dealt with the issues in 1982 with today is nonsense,” he said.

Some of these information was taken from http://www.timesonline.co.uk

Site of Kent State tragedy now officially a part of U.S. history

Site of Kent State tragedy now officially a part of U.S. history

Wednesday,  February 24, 2010 2:51 AM
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen clashed with student demonstrators atop Blanket Hill on the Kent State University campus. The guardsmen fired at the students below them, killing four and wounding nine. Vigils have been held annually on the site.

FILE PHOTO
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen clashed with student demonstrators atop Blanket Hill on the Kent State University campus. The guardsmen fired at the students below them, killing four and wounding nine. Vigils have been held annually on the site.
Map

Nearly 40 years after a volley of 60 shots fired by Ohio National Guardsmen killed four students during a campus protest at Kent State University, the site has been named to the prestigious National Register of Historic Places.

The May 4, 1970, campus shootings site was added to the National Register even though it did not meet the criteria that events being recognized had to have happened at least 50 years ago.

“It was something those students deserved,” said Mark Seeman, a Kent State anthropology professor who helped write the 150-page application. “Now, this place will be recognized by the government of the U.S. as a place where history important to this nation took place.”

Jerry M. Lewis, 73, a Kent professor emeritus who was there in 1970, said what took place that day “was a very crucial event, not only of the Vietnam era, but the student-activism experience.”

The 17.24-acre site near E. Main and S. Lincoln streets, incorporating the Commons, Blanket Hill and the Southern Terrace, was nominated in December by the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Advisory Board.

Among the site’s endorsers: Gov. Ted Strickland. One of his predecessors, Gov. James A. Rhodes, ordered the Ohio National Guard troops to Kent State to quell student protests that he feared were getting out of hand.

On that day in 1970, “Kent State University was placed in an international spotlight after a student protest against the Vietnam War and the presence of the Ohio National Guard on campus ended in tragedy when the Guard shot and killed four and wounded nine Kent State students,” the Ohio Historical Society said.

That set off “the largest student strike in U.S. history, increased recruitment for the movement against the Vietnam War and affected public opinion about the war, created a legal precedent established by the trials subsequent to the shootings and for the symbolic status the event has attained as a result of a government confronting protesting citizens with unreasonable deadly force,” the society said.

Reacting to the shootings, President Richard M. Nixon said they “should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.”

Historical Society officials have not received word on the status of four other nominated sites, including the Logan Historic District, a collection of more than 200 historic buildings in Logan.

ajohnson@dispatch.com


Striking Greeks fight back against austerity plan

Striking Greeks fight back against austerity plan

Thousands take to streets as hostility against EU mounts and German pressure prompts ‘Nazi’ tirade by deputy prime minister

Greek riot police clash with protesters in AthensGreek riot police clash with protesters in Athens, where demonstrations against debt-relief measures were marked with sporadic violence. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Tens of thousands of striking Greek workers took to the streets today, some throwing stones at police, in a defiant show of protest against austerity measures aimed at averting the debt-plagued country’s economic collapse.

Riot police responded with teargas when, in sporadic bursts, masked youths charged them in Athens city centre. The violence coincided with a general strike that shut down public services and closed off Greece to the outside world.

For trade unions the mass show of force was a warning shot to a government struggling to satisfy its eurozone partners with policies deemed vital for the nation’s fiscal health while appeasing angry workers at home.

“This is the red line,” said Nikos Goulas, head of a union that represents 20,000 workers at Athens international airport. “Greece is not Ireland. If the government does not back down there will be huge unrest,” he added, holding a banner that proclaimed: “As much as you terrorise us, these measures won’t pass.”

The protests came against a backdrop of mounting Greek hostility towards the EU, with particular venom reserved for Germany, which has pressed for harder measures to be forced on Athens.

Greece’s political elite has been outraged and hurt by hard-hitting German media coverage of the debt crisis. The cover of a German magazine, Focus, which showed the Venus de Milo making a less than complimentary finger gesture under the headline “Swindlers in the eurozone” has triggered widespread fury.

In an extraordinary tirade, the deputy prime minister, Theodore Pangalos, said Germany had no right to judge Greek finances after wreaking havoc on the economy during the four years that the country was under Nazi occupation in the second world war. Worse still, he said, Germany had failed to make adequate compensation.

“They took away the Greek gold that was at the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back. This is an issue that has to be faced sometime,” he told the BBC.

“I don’t think they have to give back the money necessarily but they have at least to say thanks. And they shouldn’t complain so much about stealing and not being very specific about economic dealings.”

Pangalos, a former foreign minister who is widely seen as a father figure to the more mild-mannered Greek prime minister George Papandreou, said Greek public finances might never have reached such dire straits had the EU not had such weak leadership.

Italy, he added, had done much more to mask the true extent of its public debt and deficit than Greece when it entered the EU. “The quality of leadership in the union is very, very poor indeed,” he said.

today, as the diplomatic row intensified amid growing demands that George Papandreou’s Socialist government step up claims for war reparations, Berlin hit back with a tart reminder that Greece had received 115m deutschmarks in compensation by 1960.

“I must reject these accusations,” said Andreas Peschke, a spokesman at the German foreign ministry. Greece, he said, had also received around €33bn in aid from Germany “both bilaterally and in the context of the EU”.

“A discussion about the past is not helpful to solve the problems … facing us in Europe today.”

Athens has barely three weeks to prove to its EU partners that the spending cuts and tax rises it has announced are working. With the euroseverely undermined by the country’s debt crisis, the government has announced an ambitious cost-cutting programme to reduce the public deficit from 12.7% of GDP to just under the permissible EU level of 3% by 2012.

This week, as an EU monitoring team visited Athens to examine the progress being made, finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou hinted at further measures, saying the government “will do whatever is needed” to solve the crisis.

But if Greek workers have their way such targets may be out of reach. For low- and middle-income earners, the policies, which include a public sector wage freeze, a rise in pensionable age and higher taxes, will be particularly painful.

“I already have to make do with €345 a month,” said Kostantinos Doganis, a pensioner participating in the strike, the first mass walkout in Greece since the Socialists assumed power last October.

“These measures have not yet been passed. Once we start to feel their effect in our pockets there will be a downpour of protests, a social explosion in this country.”

Protests In Balochistan Against The Massacre Of Baloch In Karachi

Protests In Balochistan Against The Massacre Of Baloch In Karachi

2010,01,10

Quetta/Karachi: Baloch political parties and student Organisations have strongly protested against the ongoing attacks on Baloch people in Karachi.

Quetta/Karachi:

Baloch political parties and student Organisations have strongly protested against the ongoing attacks on Baloch people in Karachi. The leading Baloch student Organisation BSO (azaad) and other parties organised protest rallies and demonstration almost all over Balochistan including Karachi, Hub, Khuzdar, Kalat, Punjgur, Turbat, Pasni,Ormara, Jeavni, Mastung and Quetta. The angry protester chanted slogans against PPP and MQM and held banners inscribed against these two parties who they believed are behind the Baloch massacre in Karachi Baloch populated areas. The protesters said that the police and Rangers were giving full protection to MQM armed terrorists whereas Baloch villages were being attacked even by the Rangers and the Police.

There are also reports that a Baloch young man has been killed in custody and the police threw his body in Gadren area of Karachi. Most Baloch political parties are of the view that PPP and MQM are equally responsible for the “what is described as genocide” of the Baloch residents in Karachi.

BalochWarna has learned from Karachi based Baloch (now living abroad) that yesterday another five Baloch have been killed including a mother of three kids (who was sitting at her home when the alleged MQM armed men attacked her house). The source was angry toward Baloch “what he described as so called” nationalists parties and said that they are playing role of silent spectators on the carnage of Baloch in Karachi. He said that Baloch parties although given calls to protest against the Baloch genocide in Karachi but they were not united, every party wants to protest on different days and score political goals while trying to be sympathetic to the Baloch of Karachi.

Balochi News.com weblog has also expressed anger toward Baloch leadership saying “that some very influential Baloch leaders have protected MQM and provided them resources when they (MQM) were under attack by previous Pakistani government”. The weblog alleged that is why today there is no strong reaction from some top leaders of Balochistan. Emphasizing on “Sardarzada” the balochinews.com wrote that many of the Sardarzadas still have strong personal affiliations with top MQM leadership.

Open in new windowQUETTA PROTEST: A large number of activists of Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad) took out a protest rally and staged a demonstration at Manan Chowk to protest against the killing of Baloch in Karachi allegedly by MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement).

Protest rally led by BSO Shahal Zone President Shahzaib Baloch started from Quetta Press Club and after marching through different parts of the city culminated into demonstration at Manan Chowk.

Participants of rally were carrying placards and banners inscribed with different slogans such as “Down with MQM” and “Stop genocide of Baloch people”.

They were also shouting slogans urging for immediate arrest of culprits involved in the killing of Balochs in Karachi. Addressing on the occasion, Shahzaib Baloch strongly condemned murder of unarmed Baloch in Karachi, alleging that members of MQM were behind all these killings.

He said that through well knit plan genocide of Balochs were continued not only in Balochistan but also in Karachi. He alleged that around 30 innocent Balochs had been shot dead during two days and government had failed to provide them protection from the alleged terrorists of MQM.

He demanded that the culprits involved in this carnage should be brought to justice and MQM should be declared as a terrorist party.

Later on, protestors torched MQM’s flag and effigy of Altaf Hussain.

Open in new windowBNP (Mengal) activists have taken out a rally in Hub Balochistan against the target killing of innocent Baloch in different Baloch populated areas in Karachi. The BNP activists also demanded the immediate arrest of culprits involved this in the attacks against Baloch villages. They were holding placards which read; “Stop the genocide of Baloch people” “MQM stop terrorism” etc

Meanwhile BA (Baloch Bar) announced a judicial boycott of courts in Balochistan on 11th January 2010 whereas other Baloch political parties have announced further protests in coming days.

Open in new windowRALLY IN LYARI: Residents of Lyari, a constituency dominated by the Pakistan People’s Party, took out a rally against the Sindh government and criticized PPP leadership over the law and order situation.

Baloch nationalist organisations from Lyari staged a protest against Sindh Government and took out a rally from Baghdadi area and moved forward across the Lyari including Atth Chock, Mira Naka, Chakiwara, Dohbi Gath.

Participants of the rally chanted slogans against Sindh Government and PPP while alleged that law enforcers were targeting and arresting the innocent Baloch people of Lyari on the directives of Governor House.

It has been learnt that exchange fire between the participants of rally and law enforcement agencies also took place in which some six to seven people sustained injuries and were rushed to the hospital while enraged crowed cordoned off the Baghdadi police station where police detained some 53 innocent Baloch citizens.

Courtesy: Dawn, Balochhal, dailytawar, and Balochinews.com

Publisher: mhd

Source: Quetta/Karachi: Baloch political parties and student Organisations have strongly protested against the ongoing attacks on Baloch people in Karachi.

Baloch Activist Killed in Karachi by MQM Goons

Baloch Activist Killed in Karachi by MQM Goons

The Baloch in Karachi are the vanguard force of liberalism and secularism and the cementing force which unite all the indigenous forces in Karachi are being marginalised in Karachi by MQM and Muhjir Gujrati Land Mafia.

While PPP and MQM were singing the accord in Abu Dubai, the Goons of MQM were aiming their guns to the Baloch Population in Karachi. The whole PPP leader ship is in silent to save the accord between MQM and PPP, while the cheap blood of Baloch and other indegenous people in Karachi is being shed criminally.

Nisar Baloch is not the only one, two weeks ago, another Baloch activist Hasan Baloch was found dead mysteriously in the washroom of Karachi Central Jail, Police said he committed suicide. Zahid Baloch, the next door neighbour of Nisar Baloch, the leader of BNP was also killed last year under the same circumstances. Last year also, the same mafia killed Rasool Buksh Baloch in Malir Karachi who was the main voice against the land encrochment in Malir. Following report is from Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission reveals unbelievable details about the land mafia in Karachi.

Read and ReflectImtiaz Baloch


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-222-2009
November 9, 2009

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: Human rights defender names his alleged murderers shortly before his death; government fails to provide protection

Mr. Nisar Baloch, aged 46, was shot dead on November 7, by motorbike riders. Police have refused to mention the names of the murderers in the First Investigation Report (FIR), owing to the fact that the accused persons belong to ruling political party, MQM, which has a background of target killings. On November 6, the day before his murder, Nisar Baloch addressed members of the press at a press conference and clearly stated that the City¡¦s Nazim (mayor) Mr. Mustafa Kamal, as well as the Town Nazim of the SITE town, had the intention to murder him. He stated further that he would be murdered the next day by the aforementioned people and by activists of the MQM Altaf Hussain group. He blamed the party in ruling alliance for their encroachment onto the land of Gutter Baghicha, an amenity plot of 1017 acres.

His death is the second incident in the victimization of housing rights defenders in the past five years in Karachi. During both incidents, the MQM was in power. The son of Baseer Naveed, radio broadcaster and leader of the resistance movement against the construction of the Lyari Express, was abducted on November 8 2004 and his body was found with torture marks on the wall of Naveed¡¦s radio station, two days after his abduction. Nisar Baloch was another activist in the movement against the construction of the Lyari Expressway, through which more than 300,000 people were supposed to be displaced.

Mr. Nisar Baloch was a well-known figure who worked against the grabbing of amenity plots by the government and other such powerful people. The land of Gutter Baghicha, a park, was declared to be an amenity plot in 1972. However, when the MQM took control of the city¡¦s mayorship in the early 1990s, parts of the Gutter Baghicha were illegally allotted to officers of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). The local people of trans-Lyari resisted, and refused to allow the KMC to encroach upon the park. The Karachi NGO Alliance, (through which Mr. Nisar Baloch was running the people¡¦s movement against the grabbing of this parkland) got a stay order from the Sindh High Court against construction in this park. However, the MQM, which has remained in power since 1989, (whether the ruling government was civilian or military,) did not respect the court¡¦s order. The details of other land-grabbing incidents by the MQM can be read about below:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/16-ardeshir-cowasjee-i-own-karachi-and-can-sell-it-ii-759-hs-05
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/16-ardeshir-cowasjee-i-own-karachi-and-can-sell-it-3-159-hs-06
http://dawnnews.tv/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/ardeshir-cowasjee-i-own-karachi-and-can-sell-it-4-ts-03
Clearly, the values which uphold law and order in this country have deteriorated to a state of abjection. When a man says in a press conference that he will be killed the following day by the mayors of Karachi and the SITE town, and the police fail to provide protection to him because of the political pressure they are under, it is clear that the situation is deplorable. Even the journalists present at the press conference did not take Baloch¡¦s apprehensions seriously, and did not give coverage of his concerns to the public. Furthermore, the police at the Soldier Bazar Police Station, in whose jurisdiction this murder occurred, have refused to put the name of murderer on the FIR. This is illegal, and clearly indicates that the police have become sub-servants to the cadres of ruling parties.

Housing and resettlement policies in Pakistan are unclear and ambiguous, leaving room for manipulation by those in ruling political parties, and the opportunity to grab land and convert it into commercial plots. About half of Pakistan¡¦s population lives in slum communities, and often in a state of squalor. Judicial negligence, combined with the inaction and ineffectiveness of the courts in dealing with the housing needs of the people and matters of land-grabbing, has benefited the land-grabber tremendously.

The government of Sindh should act immediately to arrest the culprits on these murder charges including, Mr. Mustafa Kamal, City Nazim and Mr. Izhar Uddin, Town Nazim of SITE town, (the name of the latter was stated by Mr. Nisar Baloch during his press conference, one day before his death,) and the high officials of the Karachi Police, including the Chief Police Officer and Station Head Officer (SHO) of the Soldier Bazar Police Station. A thorough inquiry should be conducted into the extra-judicial killing of Nisar Baloch.
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Posted on 2009-11-09
Back to [AHRC Statements 2009]

Shades of intolerance

Shades of intolerance

By I.A. Rehman
Whatever the causes of deviation from the tradition of tolerance, the process needs to be reversed: I.A. Rehman.—Photo by Reuters
Whatever the causes of deviation from the tradition of tolerance, the process needs to be reversed: I.A. Rehman.—Photo by Reuters

Public complaints received by the judiciary, government functionaries and human rights organisations reveal an alarming decline in the moral values observed by our society.

In particular we are witnessing new forms of intolerance and there is little evidence of any effort to deal with this deadly social disease.

The other day an organisation calling itself the Baloch Students Action Committee (BSAC), Punjab, set up by Baloch students studying at different institutions in the province, held a press conference at which they made extremely grave allegations against a students’ body.

According to the Baloch students’ spokesmen, five of them studying at the Government Technical College, Sahiwal, were attacked one night in January this year. All five students received serious injuries.

The matter was reported to the police but no action was taken by them. The attackers were reported to be angry at the victims’ refusal to join the organisation supported by them.

Further, the BSAC said, a series of attempts were made on the lives of Baloch students at the Multan Technical College during the current month. Pistols were used in one of the attacks and ten students are alleged to have been seriously injured as a result.

The Baloch students withdrew themselves from the institution and returned to Balochistan. They are said to have briefed the media in Quetta and met some parliamentarians but they received no satisfaction.

Baloch students at Faisalabad Technical College also were attacked and seven of them received injuries.

It is possible the facts are not exactly what the BSAC has presented but the authorities cannot possibly ignore the explosive nature of the matter. The youth in Balochistan are already in an angry mood and reports of any maltreatment of Baloch students in Punjab are bound to alienate them further.

The public in Balochistan could interpret attacks on their students in Punjab as attempts to punish the Baloch community for demanding their political and economic rights.

Unfortunately, there is another dangerous aspect of the matter. The targeted killing of non-locals in Balochistan — many of them settlers from Punjab — is no secret.

Some young persons in Balochistan have accepted responsibility for these killings and they could treat attacks on Baloch students in Punjab as acts of retaliation.

The danger that this may start a vicious cycle of violence must not be ignored. Apart from the loss of life and limb that young persons from both sides are likely to suffer, the task of persuading the people of Balochistan to end their alienation from the federation will become harder.

The presence of students from Balochistan in educational institutions in other provinces offers the host federating units a good opportunity to promote national cohesion through these young guests.

For success in this direction the authorities of the institutions concerned will be required to pay extra attention to these students’ academic and extracurricular needs. The basic issue they have to deal with is intolerance.

Some days ago a nurse found two newborn babies at a garbage dump outside a large hospital in a Punjab town. She picked up the babies and took them to a few childless couples belonging to her Christian community.

When some conservative Muslim clerics heard of this matter they promptly issued an edict that the infants were Muslim and as such they could not be offered to non-Muslims for adoption. The nurse who probably saved the luckless newborns from death found herself in conflict with the law of adoption.

What should be done to her will be decided by a court and nothing should be done that might affect the course of law. But is it impossible to take note of the conduct of the fatwa producers?

How could they determine that the babies were born to a Muslim mother? And if the religion of their parents had somehow been ascertained, what did the self-appointed custodians of the Muslim community’s interests think of the members of their flock whose cruelty to two new lives was manifest?

Was any attempt made to inquire whether the babies had been abandoned out of fear of the clerics, assuming that they had been born out of wedlock, or whether the parents were too poor to bring them up?

Every year scores of unwanted babies are left at hospitals and offices of social welfare organisations. They are discreetly given over to foster parents.

One has never heard of the mullahs’ interference in these matters on the basis of belief, except for that dreadful incident of the stoning to death of an abandoned newborn in Karachi some years ago. This incident is another example of the community’s growing intolerance of the other.

The Sindhi people are legitimately proud of their tradition of tolerance. Their capacity for observing interfaith harmony can be seen in the ordinary villagers’ deference to one another’s beliefs.

Even today, after all the havoc caused by communalised politics over almost a century, one can find shrines where people belonging to different religious groups come in search of peace and deliverance.

But one cannot say how long this tradition will survive for the conservative preachers of hate and conflict seem to be enlarging their operations.

One of their latest campaigns is the demand that the remains of a non-Muslim girl, reportedly belonging to a gypsy tribe, be exhumed and thrown away because they cannot be allowed to pollute the sacred soil of the graveyard.

It is said that the non-Muslim girl had been buried in the Muslim graveyard in accordance with a centuries-old practice.

However, the standard-bearers of the new brand of militant Islam cannot be expected to respect what they denounce as heathen. This matter too is reported to be in court and no comment can be made on the merits of the case.

One should like to ask the Sindh government and also the federal government whether they will wait for matters to be decided in courts — if they can ever be decided in this manner. Do they realise their duty to take stock of the various manifestations of intolerance?

Do they have any plans to curb the monster of intolerance by promoting an adequately strong social force capable of building a tolerant society?

To say that the rise of militant groups who slaughter innocent people has had an adverse effect on the clerics is merely stating the obvious.

Whatever the causes of deviation from the tradition of tolerance, the process needs to be checked and reversed. Otherwise our society will not be able to survive the heavy dose of intolerance it is receiving.