‘Babri demolition planned 10 months in advance’

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Sunday, January 30, 2005

New Delhi, January 31: In a claim that tears apart the stand of Sangh Parivar, a book authored by a former top Intelligence Bureau (IB) official says that Babri Masjid demolition was planned 10 months in advance by top leaders of RSS, BJP and VHP and raises questions over the way the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, had handled the issue.

It also blames certain close aides of former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi, for his Government’s failures on various fronts, including in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, while detailing how Rashtrapati Bhavan was bugged by the PMO when Giani Zail Singh occupied it and how Rajiv paid money to ensure the electoral defeat of his Home Minister Buta Singh.

A compilation of several sensational claims by former IB Joint Director Maloy Krishna Dhar, in his book ‘Open Secrets-India’s Intelligence Unveiled’ alleges that the Mandal agitation of 1990 was “inspired, guided and funded” by the Congress under Rajiv Gandhi to topple the Government of V P Singh.

Touching on Babri Masjid demolition, the author writes “Around February 1992, soon after the flop ‘Ekta Yatra’ of Murli Manohar Joshi, I was directed to arrange technical coverage of a key meeting of the BJP/Sangh Parivar. The meeting was to be attended by Lal Krishna Advani, M M Joshi, Rajju Bhaiya (then RSS chief), K S Sudarshan, Vijaya Raje Scindia, H S Sheshadri, Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharati and Champat Rai etc,” the author says.

Unfazed by questions whether he was worried that the book may cause problems because he was disclosing confidential matters, Dhar told PTI “I have written it after a lot of thinking and consideration.”

About possible court cases against him, he said “let’s see. Now I have written it. But I don’t apprehend any legal problems.”

The “audio and videotape” contents of the meeting “proved beyond doubt that the high priests of hatred had helped the Sangh Parivar to adopt a strident Hindutva programme soon after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

“The Rajiv interlude had sent them to political oblivion but the lessons learnt during the JP movement and anti-Rajiv campaign had convinced the Parivar leaders that the right moment of history had arrived for the Hindu forces to make a determined bid for political power,” he writes in the book.

The book says that the February meeting “proved beyond doubt that they (RSS, BJP, VHP) had drawn up the blueprint of the Hindutva assault in the coming months and choreographed the ‘pralaya nritya’ (dance of destruction) at Ayodhya in December 1992.”

“The RSS, BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal leaders present in the meeting amply agreed to work in a well-orchestrated manner,” the sleuth says.

RSS, BJP and VHP have been maintaining that the demolition was a result of impromptu action by some angry kar sevaks and that the top leadership had tried to stop them.

Pointing out that the tapes were personally handed by him to his boss, Dhar says “I have no doubt that he had shared the chilling contents with the Prime Minister (Rao) and the Home Minister (S B Chavan).”

“But the man at the helm of affairs of Indira Congress was an indecisive person. He had regained some jest for life and had started dreaming of short-circuiting the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty… He dithered. And L.K. Advani and his colleagues crossed the ramparts of history and generated passion that demolished an insignificant mosque…,” he remarks.

Referring to the the December 5,1992 meeting of RSS, VHP, BJP and Shiv Sena leaders, including Advani and M M Joshi, the author says “There was silent resoluteness and agreement that Ayodhya offered a unique opportunity to take the Hindutva wave to the peak for deriving political benefit. The iron was hot and this was the time to hit.”

Dhar, who outlines how he merged with the huge crowds of ‘kar sevaks’ pretending to be a journalist and got the proceedings shot on December 6,1992, says that vandalism was committed by activists of the Shiv Sena while Sangh Parivar leaders indulged in “irresponsible rhetoric”.

“L K Advani had spat fire from the pulpit but he failed to control the flames. Taped videos substantiated that he was progenitor of the tsunami effect that he failed to control at the vital moment of destiny,” says the sleuth claiming to have made a videotape and 70 still snaps.

“Much later, soon after the NDA Government assumed office in Delhi and the BJP top guns were summoned by the Liberhan Commission to depose before it, I was twice summoned by L.K. Advani,” Dhar reveals.

He says Advani wanted to know details of the videotape and “demanded that I should produce it as a piece of evidence.

“I simply did not have any copy of the tape with me. The only copy was consigned to the ‘archives’ of the IB, somewhere outside Delhi. I gave a verbal account of the event and requested him to obtain the tape from the Director IB.”

Dhar says he was unsure whether or not the Director IB “obliged” Advani. “The then Director had established a close rapport with certain officials of the PMO and I was told that he was advised by them to not produce the tape that could take Advani off the hook… Advani was still considered a powerful contender for the office of the Prime Minister.”

On the anti-Mandal agitation, the former IB official says that it was “far from a spontaneous response” against reservation for the backward castes.

“It was inspired, guided and funded by the Indira Congress and was handled by the Indira Congress trouble-shooters,” he says, claiming that a large amount of money was spent on the agitation which came from the “dark chambers of the Indira Congress Party.”

India court splits mosque site between religions

[Why would Indian courts create an Indian equivalent of Jerusalem’s divided and constantly fought over Temple Mount, in Ayodhya?  Over 2,000 Muslims died in street battles after insane mobs of Hindu rioters tore the Babri Mosque to the ground in 1992.  How many more lives will this decision cost?  This decision, in the current political environment, is very dangerous, perhaps being the spark that will ignite religious war on the sub-continent between nuclear-armed combatants.]

Babri Mosque, before being torn down by Hindu rioters in 1992.

A model of a proposed Ram temple, which Hindus want to build on the site of the demolished Babri Mosque, is pictured in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya September 30, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

A Hindu priest shouts slogans as he celebrates after hearing the first reports of a court ruling in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya September 30, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

Sadhus or Hindu holymen hug each other to celebrate after hearing the first reports of a court ruling in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya September 30, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

Hindu priests shout slogans as they celebrate after hearing the first reports of a court ruling in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya September 30, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

By Alka Pande

LUCKNOW, India | Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:45am EDT

(Reuters) – An Indian court ruled on Thursday that the site of a demolished mosque would be split between Hindus and Muslims, dousing immediate fears of a violent backlash in one of the country’s most religiously divisive cases.

The Uttar Pradesh court also ruled Hindus will be allowed to keep a makeshift temple that was built over the demolished central mosque dome, sparking celebrations by priests who dipped in a nearby river chanting “The temple is now ours.”

The 1992 demolition of the 16th century mosque in northern India by Hindu mobs triggered some of India’s worst riots that killed about 2,000 people. More than 200,000 police fanned out in India on Thursday to guard against any communal violence.

If the ruling soothes tensions, it would be a boost for the ruling Congress party, a left-of-center group with secular roots, that does not want to upset either voter bloc. Major political parties had called for calm.

The verdict came only days before Sunday’s opening of theCommonwealth Games in New Delhi, with the government wanting to project an image of stability and modernity to the world.

“Nobody has won. Nobody has lost,” Yashwant Sinha, a leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharat Janata Party, told local television. “Let’s not look at this as a victory for anyone.”

Muslims did appear the biggest losers. But Muslim organizations were measured in their response, careful not to inflame public tensions in a country where they account for only 13 percent of the 1.2 billion plus population.

There were no immediate reports of violence after the ruling.

“It was a very sensible judgment and the court has tried to balance the parties,” said Anil Verma, a political analyst. “Apportioning one-third to the Muslims means they have not completely lost.”

Commentators said the verdict was unlikely to spark widespread riots that hit the financial capital Mumbai and other cities in 1992. There is little electoral headway to be made in egging on religious riots in post-economic reform India.

The 2-1 majority verdict gave two-thirds of the key parts of the disputed land to Hindus — one third each to two different Hindu groups — and one third to Muslims.

Hindu inhabitants of Ayodhya town — under a security lockdown for a week — lit candles and lamps outside their homes.

MUSLIM DISAPPOINTMENT

Many Muslim organizations expressed some disappointment but called for reconciliation, resting hopes in an appeal by Muslim lawyers to the Supreme Court in New Delhi.

“The judgment can begin a process of reconciliation,” Kamal Farooqi, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said.

Malik sees global plot to destabilise Pakistan

[The Minister of Interior is absolutely right, it is time for a moment of  “Glasnost” in Pakistan, an opening-up or revealing to the Pakistani people and to the world just exactly what is really going on in Balochistan.  If the government of Pakistan is serious about clarifying the situation for its citizens, it will be taking the only possible defensive action against the unfolding international conspiracy.  If the smokescreen which hides the actions of the destabilizing intelligence agencies is not blown away, the perpetrators will continue to dismember Pakistan while hiding behind the smoke.  A lot of very powerful people are counting on Pakistan dying quietly; you cannot let that happen.  If the government comes clean and confronts the real killers, then it will find that the people are on their side.  Law and order will be less of a problem if people can count on the law to protect them, not harass and kill them.]

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Interior, Senator A. Rehman Malik talking to the media persons outside Parliament House. APP

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday said in the Senate that Pakistan was being destabilized under a well-planned international conspiracy because it was an Islamic state and a nuclear power.

Winding up the debate on the law and order situation in the Senate, with particular reference to Karachi, the minister said foreign intelligence agencies trained the Pakistanis and used them for attacks in Pakistan and abroad to advance their agenda. “They also try to pit one sect against another in the country,” he said.

On the last day of discussion on the Karachi situation, the minister had to face strong criticism from the opposition senators, particularly from Professor Khurshid Ahmad and Sajid Mir, who said that the government itself was facilitating foreign hands as they referred to issuance of visas to nationals of a third country in Dubai.

During his speech, Rehman Malik also claimed that the law and order situation was improving with reduction in incidents of target killings in Karachi and Quetta.

He said a decision was taken to take action in six police stations of Quetta, which were no-go areas and as a result 103 proclaimed offenders, 97 target killers and 60 absconders were arrested and since then there had been no incident of target killing in Quetta city.

The minister offered that a fact-finding mission should be sent to determine whether the FC was in any way involved in the Panjgur incident. He said he was also ready for a judicial inquiry or inquiry within the Senate.

The interior minister said the poor law and order situation in Karachi was mainly because of political polarization and the government, including the president and the prime minister, were trying to resolve it. He said there were also other factors of unrest and violent incidents in the city like economic pressure, drug and land mafia.

Rehman Malik said he never talked about initiation of a Swat and Malakand-like operation in Balochistan. About the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he said the province was a frontline region in the war on terror and suffered heavily both in terms of life and property. He, however, said the situation had improved as a consequence of the operations launched by the Army and law enforcing agencies and now life had returned to normal in the troubled areas.

The interior minister said the government was following the 3-D policy, which was working well. He said the government was pursuing the policy of reconciliation but it could not talk to those who trampled the Islamic teachings by indulging in acts of terrorism.

He said it was the duty of the government to protect life and property of citizens but it was the nation’s collective responsibility to sit together and formulate an effective strategy. He said he was ready to give an in-camera briefing to parliament so that the members might have an idea what actually was happening.

About issuance of visas to nationals of a third country in Dubai, the minister said the visas were issued within rules. “How the visas can be refused when there was nothing wrong with passports and applicants themselves,” he asked.

Professor Khurshid said that Pakistan government should find ways to come out of the war on terror as it had resulted in insecurity and deterioration of the law and order situation in the country. He regretted that incidents of target killings were continuing in Karachi despite assurances from the interior minister. “The government is not alive and sensitive to the law and order situation, particularly in Karachi and Balochistan,” the JI senator observed. He said culprits were receiving patronage from politicians.

Professor Khurshid said all was not good with the lower judiciary and the masses were not getting speedy justice from there. “The improvement in the working of the Supreme Court and high courts should also trickle down to the lower judiciary,” he said.

Senator Sajid Mir of the PML-N said the statements of rulers about improvement in the law and order situation and their assurances in this connection were baseless.

He said the government itself was facilitating enemies of the country and in this connection he referred to the issuance of visas to nationals of a third country in Dubai. “Such an attitude and presence of foreign agents in the country will deteriorate the law and order situation,” he said.

He observed that incidents of terrorism in the country could not be controlled till the time the US forces and Indians were present in Afghanistan.

Maulana Abdul Rasheed asked the interior minister to apprise the House of the actual reasons behind the acts of terrorism and target killings.

NNI adds: Rehman Malik said that violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity by any country would not be allowed and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani would raise the issue with the US.

Talking to the media outside the Parliament House, Rehman Malik said that Pakistan registered a protest with the US, Nato and Afghanistan over transgression of its territory. He said that an investigation was underway and a report in this regard would be made public soon.

Earlier, Malik told the National Assembly that Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s brother had appealed in US Supreme Court against his sister’s 86-year conviction. He said the US did not fulfill legalities of the case. He also asserted that the concerned lawyers did not defend the case as was expected from them.

Talking about his meeting with Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, the minister said Dr Aafia’s family was not seeking any assistance from the government. However, he confirmed the family was being provided all kinds of legal and monetary assistance.

100,000 Miles of Gas Lines Over Fifty Years Old

natural gas, pipelines are constructed of carbon steel

 

 

Hobsonian Choice for Delhi: Kashmir or UNSC seat?

Rupee News

The Obama “Kashmir trip” is being planned in Washington–and it sends shivers up the spine of Delhi analysts. Political Scientists around the world are analyzing every word spoken by President Obama.

This has not been a good month for India. The fiasco in Afghanistan, the debacle of the Delhi Games, the Ayodhya verdict and now the UN report disparaging. Not good news for Shining India. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is ready to publish a report describing the brutal human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The strongly-worded report will diligently take an inventory of all the events that took place in the Indian Occupied Kashmir valley after June 11. The report will prolifically describe the atrocities committed by Indian security forces from June to September. The panicked Indian side is holding secret talks with the top UN hierarchy and will try to convince them not to publish the strongly worded report. “Hundreds of cases of murders, assaults, and torture on youth, women and children are going to be reported sometime any sooner”. The Chinese are pushing the UN to publish the report as soon as possible.

There is copious information available on the UN, Kashmir and Obama’s agenda for it. Most of the Obama policy is based on the writings and agenda of one Bruce Riedel who seems to have found the Alladin’s Lamp in resolving all problems of South Asia.

For the U.S., reducing and resolving the India-Pakistan Cold War before it goes hot is critical to stability in South Asia, isolating the jihadi extremists and preventing a war in South Asia that could go nuclear. Riedel

The Times of India places a lot of emphasis on Bruce Riedel because it suts the Delhi solutions. Bob Woodward’s book, “Obama’s Wars” also has excerpts that discusses Kashmir as central issue which would resolve Afghanistan.

Mr Riedel seems to think that he can impose his agenda on Pakistan and India and eliminate all the tensions in South Asia. Mr. Riedel’s solution to Kashmir goes something like this.

1) The LOC is made the permanent border between Pakistan and India.

2) The border between Azad Kashmir and Indian Occupied Kashmir is made a soft border.

3) The Legislature of Indian Occupied Kashmir and Azad Kashmir meet on a periodic basis to resolve arts and craft issues.

Mr. Riedel seems to think that this is a solution. Obvioulsy he is not aware of the ground realities in Kashmir or in Pakistan–or in India for that matter. The Kashmiri Intifada doesn’t want the status quo sprinkled with M&Ms called “Fake Azadi Made in USA”. The Kashmiris want a real solution–they want the withdrawal of Indiai troops and they want accession with Pakistan.

Despite the threats and drone bombings, the ground realities in Afghanistan spell defeat and humiliation. Naveeta Kapoor eloquently describes is as follows “The recent spate of Kinetic activities indicate growing restless of America in resolving Af Pak or should we say Pak Af.There is one consistent message emanating from the “surge” about the Afghanistan conflict: it will be won or lost in the corridors of Islamabad and not the ravines of Waziristan.”

Various analysts have described the situation in Afghanistan–from desperate to hopeless. “A Proliferation of sticks now”, says that until Islamabad decides to end the conflict on terms favorable to it in Afghanistan: the end is nowhere in sight.

The Indian obsession with trying to force itself to a party in Kabul doesn’t fit into the Obama Strategy for Afghanistan. Delhi knows that Islamabad holds the cards in Afghanistan and in a classic quid pro quo is holding the US to resolve Kashmir–per UN resolutions.

Obama is still drinking the Musharraf coolaid which says that “that neither Pakistan nor India would be better off if the United States walked out of Afghanistan”.  The Obama Administration seems to think that perpetual war in Afghanistan is somehow good for Pakistan and India. The fact is that in Delhi’s mind staying in Afghanistan is good for Delhi but not good for Islamabad. In a classic Zero-Sum mentality India seems to think that bleeding Pakistan is good for India. Pakistan faces the spillover from Afghanistan. Delhi faces the backlash from Kashmir and Afghanistan but is unable to recognize the blowback.

American’s seem to know which buttons make India tick. Mention “Superpower” and they will do whatever you want. Condaleeza Rice promised to anoint Bahrat as a Superpower and the Indian establishment went ga ga. The Obama Administration knows that a little bit of ego massage goes a long way in Delhi. He will hold a carrot for Delhi on his trip to Delhi. “Go for a Kashmir solution and help bring stability to the region for a ticket to UN Security Council membership and fulfilling your big power aspirations”.  Obama wants to impress on Delhi that what is good for India should also be good for Pakistan. Obama wants India to stop destabilizing Pakistan in Balochistan. In real terms it means an end to the Indian passport for Brahmandagh Bugti and a curtailment of the Indian “diplomatic staff” in Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama will hold the UNSC carrot for Delhi and a “resolution of Kashmir” reward for Pakistan.  A bad solution on Kashmir with neither mollify Islamabad nor assuage the Kashmiris. India is not convinced that a stable Pakistan is in its best interests. The Indian Military Industrial Complex is obsessed with Pakistan and a triumphalist media’s wet dream is the break up of Pakistan. The Kashmiri intifada has Delhi on its wits end. A Kashmir package was summarily rejected by the Pro-Pakistan Kashmir leadership which is running the show in Kashmir. The new generations of Kashmiris want no part of India and make no bones about loudly proclaiming that they are not Indian.

Obama is  obviously desperate and at this point in time pressurised by the looming deadline of the 2012 elections. Another major issue is the Pakistani elections in 2013 which are poised to either return Nawaz Sharif or a conglomeration of parties that may not be as compliant to the US as the current government.

India’s  Hobsons choice is as it has always been–resolving Kashmir, building peace in South Asia or  perpetual hostility with China and Pakistan. India has always been on the wrong side of history. It chose Kashmir over peace in 1948, and has been making the wrong choice ever since. A UNSC seat for India may make it pause. As always, it will take the seat, dilly-dally on a solution,  delay the talks on Kashmir.

Obama’s sales job would be to sell “Kashmir” as a win-win for India–else Delhi will think that it is “conceded irretrievable ground to Pakistan”. India will try to extract its pound of flesh by brining up “Terror” and other issues. However there is a danger to this line of argument because in actuality it strengthens the Obama argument which focuses on resolving Kashmir.

Master Plan against Crimes Prepared: Balochistan Police Chief

[SEE: Malik sees global plot to destabilise Pakistan]

The Baloch Hal News

QUETTA: Inspector General Balochistan Malik Muhammad Iqbal has unveiled that a master plan had been finalized to control crimes in the province.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, he mentioned that a number of criminals had been busted who were involved in kidnapping for ransom.

He pledged that decision had been taken to take strict action against criminal networks involved in rising crimes particularly kidnapping for ransom.

He observed that steps were being taken to change police culture in order to bring citizens and police together.

He opined that alone police could not end crimes until masses extended collaboration to them. He said that plain clothes policemen had been deployed in sensitive areas of Quetta city besides increasing police patrolling on main arteries of the city.

Iran Announces Delay in Startup of Its Nuclear Reactor Following Cyber Attack

Iran Announces Delay in Startup of Its Nuclear Reactor Following Cyber Attack, But Denies Any Link

Iran’s nuclear chief said Wednesday that the “enemies” of Iran had failed in their attempts to harm Iran’s nuclear facilities through the use of a powerful new computer virus.

Thursday, September 30, 2010
By Patrick Goodenough

The Bushehr nuclear power plant (Photo: Atomic Energy Organization of Iran)

(CNSNews.com) – Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor will not generate power before early 2011, about two months later than previously reported, the country’s nuclear chief has announced.

Ali Akbar Salehi gave no reason for the delay, but said Wednesday that the “enemies” of Iran had failed in attempts to harm the nuclear facilities through the use of a powerful new computer virus, which targets software that controls infrastructure.

He said the virus, known as Stuxnet, had infected some staff laptop computers at the Bushehr plant but not its main computer system.

When the transfer of fuel to the Russian-built reactor took place in August, the nuclear agency said the plant would begin producing electricity within two or three months.

Iranian officials acknowledged earlier this week that Stuxnet had affected sites throughout Iran, but did not identify them. On Sunday, Bushehr project manager Mahmoud Jafari told Iranian media the plant’s computer system had not been damaged.

Reports about Stuxnet’s emergence sparked feverish industry and media speculation that the virus may have been designed, possibly by a foreign government, specifically to target Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Ralph Langner, a German computer security researcher, analyzed Stuxnet as a sophisticated and directed attack.

“This was assembled by a highly qualified team of experts, involving some with specific control system expertise,” he wrote earlier. “This is not some hacker sitting in the basement of his parents’ house. To me, it seems that the resources needed to stage this attack point to a nation state.”

“It’s like nothing we’ve seen before – both in what it does, and how it came to exist,” says computer security firm Symantec. “It is the first computer virus to be able to wreak havoc in the physical world. It is sophisticated, well-funded, and there are not many groups that could pull this kind of threat off.”

Some 60 percent of Stuxnet hits have been in Iran, but systems in other countries, including India and Indonesia, have also been affected. In fact, Symantec reported back in July that in the early days of the attack India and Indonesia were most heavily hit, with Iran coming in at third place, some way behind.

Still, the Iran theory has garnered significant attention.

Iranian IT and Communications Minister Reza Taghipour told the IRNA news agency Wednesday that Iran expected the U.S. and other “enemies” to try to target it with cyber warfare, but that Iranian systems were “impenetrable.”

Iran insists that all of its nuclear activity is peaceful, but the U.S. and allied governments suspect it is developing a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of the civilian program.

In a move designed to dispel concerns that Iran may try to separate plutonium, which could be used in a weapons program, Russia has undertaken to supply fuel for the reactor on condition that Iran ships the spent fuel back to Russia.

But despite the assertion by Western governments that this would remove the justification for enriching uranium at home, Iran says it will continue with enrichment as it plans to build another 20 nuclear power plants in the future.

Another concern about Bushehr is that the required “cooling” period before which the irradiated fuel can be returned to Russia could provide the Iranians with the time and opportunity to separate plutonium covertly, despite international supervision.

The standoff between the West and Iran over its nuclear programs has dragged on since 2003.

Last week, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany (P5+1) announced a new push to work towards a negotiated solution that “restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Following a meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday, the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Iran to return to the talks.

Tehran recently announced its readiness to resume talks, but said any negotiation must be conducted within the framework of an agreement brokered by Turkey and Brazil last May, under which Iran would send some of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing.

The U.S. and other critics said the agreement did not resolve key unresolved questions about Iran’s intentions.

Austerity Cuts Forcing Anarchy Into Spanish Streets

General strike in Spain sparks travel chaos, clashes

A demonstrator prepares to throw a stone into a store in central Barcelona

MADRID – Pickets clashed with police, airlines cancelled flights and commuters battled transport chaos Wednesday as Spanish unions staged a general strike against tough labour reforms and spending cuts.

Tens of thousands also took to the streets in major cities in evening protests over the government measures, aimed at slashing unemployment which has soared to more than 20 percent and reviving the battered economy.

“This clamour, this expression of democracy, of freedom… cannot pass unnoticed by the government, which must react,” the head of the CCOO union, Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, said at the march in the capital.

But the government downplayed the impact of the stoppage, Spain’s first general strike since 2002.

“The strike has had an uneven following and a limited effect,” Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho told a news conference.

The government has vowed there will be no reversal of the labour reforms, which cut Spain’s high cost of firing workers and gives companies more flexibility to reduce working hours and staff levels in economic downturns.

The reforms, which were backed by the International Monetary Fund, received final approval from parliament on September 9.

Unions are also fighting steep spending cuts, including an average state employee salary reduction of five percent, and plans to gradually raise the retirement age to 67 from 65.

The strike comes as financial markets are on the lookout for signs of a popular backlash that could derail the government’s reform plans, seen as key for reviving the economy and fending off a Greek-style debt crisis.

Around 20 people were injured in scuffles involving pickets and police outside factories around the country, and more than 60 people were arrested, Spanish media said.

Three police officers were hurt in confrontations with pickets outside a factory of the European aerospace group EADS in the Madrid suburb of Getafe, the government said.

In Madrid, frustrated commuters walked to and from work or waited at bus stops or at metro stations, rubbish was left uncollected and thousands of union leaflets urging workers to stay at home littered the streets.

In Barcelona, Spain’s second largest city, the city’s taxi drivers’ union said that 90 percent of its members observed the stoppage, but reported some clashes between pickets and non-striking drivers at the airport.

Unions hailed the strike as a success.

“I think that there will be few people who doubt the reach of the strike,” Toxo told a news conference.

Hundreds of thousands of people, many waving red and white union flags, took part in about 100 street demonstrations across the country. The largest were staged in Madrid and Barcelona.

One demonstrator in the Spanish capital, Maria Jose, 50, said the government “can’t lash out at those who are the least responsible for the crisis”.

The UGT had earlier said more than 70 percent of workers observed the stoppage.

The government did not give an overall participation figure.

But Corbacho said that among government departments, 7.5 percent of workers stayed home, in public companies 23.8 percent and 21 percent in the transport sector.

But he said participation was “very variable” with almost 100 percent observing the strike in the automaking sector and just 3.0 pecent in hotels and catering.

The unions struck a deal last week with the government to ensure minimum services for the day. It provided for a minimum of 20-40 percent of international flights and 10 percent within the Spanish peninsula.

It allowed 20 percent of high speed trains and 25 percent of district trains. But no regional or long-distance trains were guaranteed.

Corbacho said minimum services were operating at “98 percent”.

Spain slumped into recession in late 2008 as the global meltdown accelerated the collapse of its once-booming property sector. It only emerged in the first quarter of this year with tepid growth of 0.1 percent.

IMF Mandated 15% Service Tax to be Met By Organized Civil Disobedience

[It is really hitting the fan in the homeland of our most loyal ally.  Pakistan’s leaders allowed American leaders to create the current conditions, but it is the Pakistani people who are being forced to pay the price for the crimes of the leaders.]

Civil disobedience if new taxes levied: Imran

PTI Chairman Khan held a press conference on Wednesday. – Photo by AP (File)

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) has decided to protest levy of new taxes and plans a civil disobedience movement if the government goes ahead with the taxation plan.

“In the first phase, we’ll protest the government’s bid to introduce new taxes and convert this protest drive into a civil disobedience movement if the rulers do not defer their plans,” PTI Chairman Imran Khan told a press conference on Wednesday.

He demanded that before burdening the masses through new taxation, the government must make public the assets of the ruling classes and the amount of taxes they paid.

He said power consumers were also being made to pay more as even the public sector institutions were steeling power.

He said according to a Pepco report, against 2.8 million sold air-conditioners, owners of only 185,000 air-conditioners were paying bill.

He said Pepco unearthed 400,000 illegal connections, but no action was taken.

He said the judiciary would lose its credibility if it failed to hold accountable the beneficiaries of now defunct National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

The PTI chief said Pakistan was the only country whose leadership’s assets were stashed in foreign banks.

He said mid-term polls were the only option to avert the crisis, adding that his suggestion was a democratic one.

He said the mid-term polls should have been held the day the NRO was declared null and void.

About the immunity the head of state enjoys, he said going by the logic of the PPP meant that all criminals should join a race to occupy the presidency so that all their crimes were pardoned.

About joining the alliance Pir Saheb Pagaro is busy forging these days, he said he would consider the option only if the PML-Functional chief put forth an alliance capable of bringing about a change in the country.

He said forces of status quo would continue to dominate the national scene until a change in the system. He, however, was optimistic that the recent flooding would wash away with it the incumbent system too.

“Early this morning, a coalition force observed what they believed was a group of insurgents attempting to fire mortars,”

[They are not even claiming that they were in “hot pursuit” with this latest aggression.  If Pakistan’s generals will not defend the country, then it will be left to ordinary citizens to band together to defend themselves.]

Nato investigating Pakistan cross-border attack

“The team reported they did not cross into Pakistan airspace and believed the insurgent location was on the Afghan side of the border.” After being informed by Pakistan military officials that their border forces had been hit, ISAF said it was working with the Pakistanis “to ascertain if the two events are linked”. – Photo by AP.

KABUL: Nato said Thursday it was investigating claims by Pakistani security officials that three of their soldiers were killed in a cross-border attack by coalition helicopters based in Afghanistan.

“Early this morning, a coalition force observed what they believed was a group of insurgents attempting to fire mortars at a coalition base in the border area of Dand Patan district, Paktiya province,” Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in statement to AFP.

“A coalition air weapons team was called for fire support and engaged the insurgents,” it said.

“The team reported they did not cross into Pakistan airspace and believed the insurgent location was on the Afghan side of the border.” After being informed by Pakistan military officials that their border forces had been hit, ISAF said it was working with the Pakistanis “to ascertain if the two events are linked”.

“The matter remains under investigation,” it said.

Pakistani security officials said the incident took place in Mandati Kandaw village northwest of Parachinar, the main town of Kurram district close to the Afghan border in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt. – AFP

Kayani stonewalling Washington’s call for decisive action against terrorists in NWA: Obama aides

Kayani stonewalling Washington’s call for decisive action against terrorists in NWA: Obama aides

WASHINGON, Sep 29 (Online): Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, long considered a close ally by America, is now thought by President Barack Obama’s aides to be stonewalling Washington’s call for decisive action against terrorists’ safe havens in the country’s turbulent tribal belt.

Top Obama administration officials say that Kayani has refused to adhere to any of the four demands of the US conveyed to him during a trip made by top aides in May this year just after a failed bomb plot at Times Square in New York by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad.

The apparent American misgivings on Kayani, considered to be the power centre in Pakistan, has grown so much that Bruce Riedel, a top former CIA official and one of the architects of America’s AF-Pak policy told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of US Staff Admiral Mike Mullen recently not to trust him (Kayani).

However, Mullen went ahead to build a person-to-person relationship and had faith in the commitment shown by the Pakistan army chief, said a new book ’Obama’s war’ by Bob Woodward, noted investigative journalist.

At a White House meeting on March 11, attended by National Security Advisor General (rtd.) James Jones, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Mullen, Riedel urged Mullen not to trust Kayani. “I have known every head of ISI since the mid-1980s,”Riedel is quoted as saying.

“Kayani is either not in control of his organisation or he is not telling the truth. The US should see the obvious and connect the dots. The Pakistanis are lying,” he said. Addressing Mullen, he said, “you have met Kayani some dozen times, you know him better than anyone else. The book also draws on crucial visits undertaken by CIA chief Leon Panetta and Jones to Islamabad to convey Obama’s warning that US would have no other option but to respond if Pakistan did not take decisive action against terrorists and their safe havens. The book says that after meeting Zardari, Panetta and Jones met Kayani to tell the Pakistani army chief that the clock was now starting on all the four requests made by Obama. But Kayani would not budge very much.

He had other concerns. “I’ll be the first to admit, I’m India centric,” he said, according to the book. Woodward wrote that Jones and Panetta left feeling they had made only baby steps. “How can you fight a war and safe havens across the border? Panetta asked in frustration. The latest intelligence showed trucks crossing the border that were full of Taliban combatants with all kinds of weapons packed in the back. They were being waved through into Afghanistan to kill Americans at checkpoints controlled by the Pakistanis. It’s a crazy kind of war,” Panetta said. The book says that Riedel bluntly told the President and his team that they should not rely on Admiral Mullen’s conversations with General Kayani. “As at best, it would be half the story,” Woodward said.

Americans should concentrate on clean-shaved Pakistani Generals

Comment on: “‘We need to make clear . . . the cancer is in Pakistan’ -By Bob Woodward”

Fazal ur Rehman Afridi

Americans know, who is the de facto government and who is supporting these bloody Talibans, fighting and killing Americans and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Civilian government has nothing to do with foreign affairs and Security policy of Pakistan.
So, Americans should not be hypocritical. Pakistani Military Establishment is responsible for all this mess. If Americans are interested in clearing this mess, they should talk to Military rather than embarrassing the poor civilian government and politicians who are just like puppets in the hand of Pakistan Army.
Before going after the bearded-Taliban, Americans should concentrate on clean-shaved Pakistani Generals, who are the real Taliban and God-fathers of the bearded-Talibans.

Another Day, Another NATO Invasion of Pakistani Territory–Continuing Aggression

Nato shelling kills 3; hurts 3 FC men

Updated at: 0800 PST,  Thursday, September 30, 2010 PESHAWAR: Nato choppers have yet another time encroached Pakistani airspace by launching fresh shelling in Kurrum Agency, Thursday morning, Geo News reported. According to preliminary reports, at least three FC men lost their lives and as many sustained injuries in Nato-backed air strikes. FC officials confirmed that Nato helicopters launched bombing in Mand-To-Kandao area, located in Kurrum district on Pak-Afghan border, resulting in killing three security men and injuring as many. Witnesses told mediamen that choppers flew back to Afghanistan after air raids. It may be mentioned; Nato and ISAF copters killed nearly 6 civilians and over 11 were injured in an air strike occurred in Matah Sangarh area last week. Government protested with Nato against encroaching Pakistani airspace following the killing of 30 civilians. “It was an unprovoked attack that took place early Thursday morning. NATO helicopters entered our airspace and targeted a paramilitary checkpost killing three soldiers and wounding three others,” a senior security official told media. There was no immediate comment from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, where more than 152,000 US and NATO troops are fighting a nine-year Taliban insurgency. Pakistani security officials said the incident took place in Mandati Kandaw village northwest of Parachinar, the main town of Kurram district close to Afghan border in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt. “NATO helicopters intruded up to five kilometres (three miles) into Pakistan’s airspace,” the Pakistani security official said. Another Pakistani security official confirmed the attack and said security forces had taken “suitable measures to respond to such acts of aggression, which will be known to people very soon.” This is the fourth such attack in a few days. Pakistan on Monday denounced cross-border air strikes by NATO helicopters pursuing militants as a violation of its sovereignty after ISAF said it killed more than 30 rebels on Friday. The Pentagon said Tuesday the recent cross-border strikes were marked by “communication breakdowns,” as allied officers were not able to contact their Pakistani counterparts about the operation until afterwards. Procedures call for ISAF forces to contact Pakistani officers if coalition troops must cross the border, either before or during an operation. ISAF said that the helicopters went after insurgents in Pakistan on Friday after an Afghan security forces’ outpost in Khost province came under attack. ISAF said two helicopters returned to the border area on Saturday and killed several more. Pakistani security officials then said that five people were killed and two wounded by NATO cross-border fire from Afghanistan that hit Matta Sanga town close to the border early Monday.

Pakistan Stops NATO Supplies Entering Afghanistan

Pakistan on Thursday blocked NATO supply convoys from entering Afghanistan after officials blamed cross-border NATO fire for 3 Pakistani soldiers’ deaths, officials said.

“We have suspended NATO supply trucks for the time being due to security reasons,” an official in Pakistan’s Frontier Corps paramilitary unit told AFP in the northwestern city of Peshawar on condition of anonymity.

Two officials at the Torkham border crossing in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber district and a US diplomat confirmed that NATO convoys were not being allowed to cross Thursday.

Khyber is on the main NATO supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where more than 152,000 US and NATO forces are fighting a Taliban insurgency.

The suspension came shortly after Pakistani security officials accused NATO forces based in Afghanistan of killing three Pakistani soldiers in the fourth cross-border attack this week.

Pakistan has condemned cross-border air strikes by NATO helicopters pursuing militants into its territory. NATO said Thursday it was investigating Thursday’s incident, but has said previously it has the right to self-defense.(AFP)

By Helping America, Pakistan Kills Itself

[Het Parool, The Netherlands]

The Nation, Pakistan

“Given the growing murder of Pakistanis by U.S. and NATO forces, don’t Pakistan citizens have a right to ask what our military is doing? … If a citizen is guilty of militancy he should be punished according to the law – not simply be made a sitting duck for foreign forces.”

Pakistan – The Nation – Original Article (English)

As so many have said, if the Pakistani state doesn’t delink from America’s misguided “War on Terror”, the Americans would eventually shift the center of gravity of its war from Afghanistan and move militarily into Pakistan. But now, that is precisely what’s happening. For quite sometime, the U.S. has been carrying out drone attacks and killing thousands of innocent Pakistani citizens – perhaps in the process, killing a few militants as well.

Meanwhile, as revelations and warnings in the Pakistani media have been making for some time, covert U.S. operatives and Special Forces have spread across Pakistan. Now the United States has begun the next phase of its agenda targeting Pakistan: attacks by aerial gunships across the Afghan border into Pakistan. On Friday, NATO admitted that two helicopter gunships entered Pakistan killing 30 people – euphemistically called “suspected militants” – just as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has been penalized for being a “suspected terrorist”!

Since the government of Pakistan has, to its eternal shame, kept silent on this new military targeting of Pakistani citizens, NATO has become emboldened and on Monday two more helicopter gunships entered Pakistani territory and killed a few more citizens – so far the tally is five killed in Kurram Agency. And alongside this upping of the military ante, U.S. drone attacks continue – and with their frequency rising quickly, especially since Obama came to power. Almost every day, there are reports of 10 or more people killed by these unmanned drones – as if Pakistani lives are worth nothing. As far as Pakistan’s rulers are concerned, perhaps the U.S. is right about this, since President Zardari is said to have told the CIA chief that collateral damage from drones isn’t an issue that bothers him!

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

Given the growing murder of Pakistanis by U.S. and NATO forces, don’t Pakistan citizens have a right to ask what our military is doing? After all, our defense forces are meant to protect our borders and Pakistani citizens from external military threats. Yet not only are they unable or unwilling to do so in the case of NATO helicopter gunships, they are actually complicit in U.S. drone attacks – if the statements of U.S. government officials are to be believed.

This is truly contemptible and brings into question the purpose of the military and the defense budget. If the Pakistan military aids in the killing of citizens – no matter how misguided or militant some may be – then who can Pakistanis seek for security and protection? After all, if a citizen is guilty of militancy he should be punished according to the law – not simply be made a sitting duck for foreign forces. It’s time the Pakistani nation demands of its state that it provide protection and not be a party to such murder.

UN Fact-Finding Mission Says Israelis “Executed” US Citizen Furkan Dogan

Monday 27 September 2010

by: Gareth Porter, t r u t h o u t | Report

Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was aboard the Mavi Marmara when he was killed by Israeli commandos. (Photo: freegazaorg; Edited:Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.

The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.

The report says Dogan had apparently been “lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time” before being shot in his face.

The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is “tattooing around the wound in his face,” indicating that the shot was “delivered at point blank range.”  The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that “the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back.”

Based on both “forensic and firearm evidence,” the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan’s killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 “can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions.” (See Report [.pdf] Page 38, Section 170)

The report confirmed what the Obama administration already knew from the autopsy report on Dogan, but the administration has remained silent about the killing of Dogan, which could be an extremely difficult political problem for the administration in its relations with Israel.

The Turkish government gave the autopsy report on Dogan to the US Embassy in July and it was then passed on to the Department of Justice, according to a US government source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the administration’s policy of silence on the matter. The source said the purpose of obtaining the report was to determine whether an investigation of the killing by the Justice Department (DOJ) was appropriate.

Asked by this writer whether the DOJ had received the autopsy report on Dogan, DOJ spokesperson Laura Sweeney refused to comment.

The administration has not volunteered any comment on the fact-finding mission report and was not asked to do so by any news organization.  In response to a query from Truthout, a State Department official, who could not speak on the record, read a statement that did not explicitly acknowledge  the report’s conclusion about the Israeli executions.

The statement said the fact-finding mission’s report’s “tone and conclusions are unbalanced.” It went on to state, “We urge that this report not be used for actions that could disrupt direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine that are now underway or actions that would make it not possible for Israel and Turkey to move beyond the recent strains in their traditional strong relationship.”

Although the report’s revelations and conclusions about the killing of Dogan and the five other victims were widely reported in the Turkish media last week, not a single story on the report has appeared in US news media.

The administration has made it clear through its inaction and its explicit public posture that it has no intention of pressing the issue of the murder of a US citizen in cold blood by Israeli commandos.

On June 13, two weeks after the Mavi Marmara attack, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a statement saying that Israel “should be allowed to undertake an investigation into events that involve its national security” and that Israel’s military justice system “meets international standards and is capable of conducting a serious and credible investigation.”

Another passenger whom forensic evidence shows was killed execution-style, according to the OHCHR report, is Ibrahim Bilgen, a 60-year-old Turkish citizen. Bilgen is believed by forensics experts to have been shot initially from the helicopter above the Mavi Marmara and then shot in the side of the head while lying seriously wounded.

The fact-finding mission was given forensic evidence that, after the initial shot in chest from above, Bilgen was shot in the head with a “soft baton round at such close proximity that an entire bean bag and its wadding penetrated the skull and lodged in the chest from above,” the mission concluded.

“Soft baton rounds” are supposed to be fired for nonlethal purposes at a distance and aimed only at the stomach, but are lethal when fired at the head, especially from close range.

The forensic evidence cited by the fact-finding mission on the killing of Dogan and five other passengers came from both the autopsy reports and pathology reports done by forensic personnel in Turkey and from interviews with those who wrote the reports. Experts in forensic pathology and firearms assisted the mission in interpreting that forensic evidence.

The account, provided by the OHCHR of the events on board the Mavi Marmara on its way to help break the economic siege of Gaza May 31 of this year, refutes the version of events aggressively pushed by the Israeli military and supports the testimony of passengers on board.

The report suggests that, from the beginning, Israeli policy viewed the Gaza flotilla as an opportunity to use lethal force against pro-Hamas activists. It quotes testimony by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak before the Israeli government’s Turkel Committee that specific orders were given by the Israeli government “to continue intelligence tracking of the flotilla organizers with an emphasis on the possibility that amongst the passengers in the flotilla there were terror elements who would attempt to harm Israeli forces.”

The idea that the passenger list would be seeded with terrorists determined to attack Israeli defense forces appears to have been a ploy to justify treating the operation as likely to require the use of military force against the passengers.

When details of the Israeli plan to forcibly take over the ships in the flotilla were published in the Israeli press on May 30, the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara realized that the Israelis might use deadly force against them. Some leaders of the IHH (the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid), which had purchased the ships for the mission, were advocating defending the boat against the Israeli boarding attempt, whereas other passengers advocated nonviolence only.

That led to efforts to create improvised weapons from railings and other equipment on the Mavi Marmara. However, the commission concluded that there was no evidence of any firearms having being taken aboard the ship, as charged by Israel.

The report notes that the Israeli military never communicated a request by radio to inspect the cargo on board any of the ships, apparently contradicting the official justification given by the Israeli government for the military attack on the Mavi Marmara and other ships of preventing any military contraband from reaching Gaza.

According to the OHCHR report, Israeli Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi testified to the Turkel Committee August 11 that the initial rules of engagement for the operation prohibited live fire except in life-threatening situations, but that that they were later modified to target protesters “deemed to be violent” in response to the resistance by passengers.

That decision apparently followed the passengers’ successful repulsion of an Israeli effort to board the ship from Zodiac boats.

The report confirms that, from the beginning of the operation, passengers were fired on by helicopters flying above the Mavi Marmara to drop commandos on the deck.

Contrary to Israeli claims that one or more Israeli troops were wounded by firearms, the report says no medical evidence of a gunshot wound to an Israeli soldier was found.

The OHCHR report confirms accounts from passengers on the Mavi Marmara that defenders subdued roughly ten Israeli commandos, took their weapons from them and threw them in the sea, except for one weapon hidden as evidence. The Israeli soldiers were briefly sequestered below and some were treated for wounds before being released by the defenders.

The OHCHR fact-finding mission will certainly be the most objective, thorough and in-depth inquiry into the events on board the Mavi Marmara and other ships in the flotilla of the four that have been announced.

The fact-finding mission was chaired by Judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, Q.C., retired judge of the International Criminal Court and former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago, and included Sir Desmond de Silva, Q.C. of the United Kingdom, former chief prosecutor of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and Ms. Mary Shanthi Dairiam of Malaysia, founding member of the board of directors of the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific.

The mission interviewed 112 eyewitnesses to the Israeli attack in London, Geneva, Istanbul and Amman, Jordan. The Israeli government refused to cooperate with the fact-finding mission by making personnel involved in both planning and carrying out the attack available to be interviewed.

The Turkish governments announced its own investigation of the Israeli attack on August 10. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the formation of a “Panel of Inquiry” on August 2, but its mandate was much more narrowly defined. It was given the mission to “receive and review the reports of the national investigations with the view to recommending ways of avoiding similar incidents in the future.”

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Threat of Islamic extremism in Central Asia is often exaggerated, says analyst

News analysis by Martin Sieff

Islamic extremism is rarely the root of trouble in Central Asia

WASHINGTON, DC – Tuesday, September 28, 2010 – The following is the third and final piece in our series examining religion in Central Asia.

The role of extreme or revolutionary Islamic movements in Central Asian affairs is usually exaggerated  by Western pundits.  In fact, the most serious internal threats to peace, stability and security in Central Asian nations have usually had other causes that are directly rooted in economic or clan conflicts.

Extreme Islamist movements have tried, so far with a remarkable lack of success, to take advantage of these other causes. And whenever conditions of economic hardship or conventional political conflict have been lacking, extreme Islamism has been able to make no progress at all.

Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been rocked by serious internal violence in recent years. In each case, there have been widespread suspicions and accusations that extreme Islamist movements instigated the violence, but on closer investigation, their role was found to be peripheral.

There is no indication that extreme Islamist movements, most notably Hizb ut-Tahrir, were responsible for wave of anti-Uzbek rioting in the southern Kyrgyzstan cities of Osh and Jalalabad from June 11 to June 14 this year. At least 370 people were killed in the clashes and the full death toll may have been as high as 3,000. Some 400,0000 people, most of them ethnic Uzbeks, fled their homes, of whom 100,000 temporarily found refuge in neighboring Uzbekistan.

Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva said shortly after the clashes that her government had evidence that the clan and supporters of ousted Kyrygz President Kurmanbek Bakiev instigated the riots on the night of June 10-11. While evidence is still patchy, this still seems to be the most likely explanation for how the violence there began. Bakiev and his supporters were certainly capable of courting more radical Islamist elements. But no evidence has emerged that hard-line Islamist groups planned the violence or supplied weapons before or during the riots.

In fact, the timing of the violence supports the assessment that President Otunbayeva made publicly at the time: She said her government had evidence that the Bakiev clan specifically wanted to stir up riots or inter-communal violence in early June to discredit the planned June 27 referendum that was to be held on a new and more democratic constitution for the landlocked and resource-poor nation.

In fact, the referendum went ahead and the new constitution was approved with a 90 percent approval rate and a 70 percent turnout of eligible voters.

Similarly, when the Uzbek city of Andijan was rocked by violent protests in 2005, there were widespread accusations and suspicions that Hizb ut-Tahrir was behind it. Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders fiercely rejected the claim and the pattern of evidence supports their contention.

Andijan in Uzbekistan in 2005, like Osh and Jalalabad in Kyrgyzstan in June this year, was an economically impoverished city  Osh and Jalalabad had been destabilized earlier this year by the popular revolution that overthrew President Bakiev in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on April 7. Similarly, Andijan was affected in 2005 by the overthrow of Bakiev’s predecessor, President Askar Akayev, in Kyrgyzstan.

The Uzbek government of tough, experienced old President Islam Karimov certainly acted at the time as if the protests in Andijan were motivated by democratic, U.S.-backed forces rather than by Islamist ones. Karimov lost no time in expelling the U.S, Air Force from its use of the Karshi-Khanabad, or “K-2,” air base which was being used to fly supplies to U.S. and NATO forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Again, the pattern of developments was that the protests were caused, not by pro-Islamist movements and sentiments, but by pro-Western, pro-democratic ones. At least 600 to 700 people were killed when the Uzbek security forces repressed the riots. An Uzbek security forces defector some years later claimed the real death toll was more than double that – around 1,500.

The violence currently shaking Tajikistan appears to be far more Islamist in nature than either of the previous two cases. But here too, the real picture is more complex.

As many as 100,000 people were killed and 1.2 million made homeless in a terrible civil war in Tajikistan from 1992 to 1997, in which Russian military forces of insignificant numbers supported the established government of President Emomali Rahmon, who remains in power to this day. Tajikistan has a population of only 7.3 million.

But the same local, economic and tribal forces that operated in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also have been operating in Tajikistan.  Both the 1992 civil war and the new outbreak of violence that has erupted there over the past month took place in the same mountainous areas around the Rasht Valley area. Tajikistan was torn apart by feuds and vendettas between rival clans. Islamist movements and teachings certainly played a role, but only because the political and tribal fault lines were there in the first place.

Kazakhstan too has a large degree of clan or tribal identity shaping its domestic politics. But the general standard of living and longer-term economic prospects under President Nursultan Nazarbayev remain high. And the Kazakh clans, unlike the Tajik ones in particular, have a long and successful tradition of mediating their rivalries and interests peacefully and through negotiation and compromise.

Extreme Islamist violence should therefore be seen not as a major driving force or independent threat to the stability and survival of the governments of Central Asia. Instead, it seems to be a symptom that appears when economic policy fails and when the local political processes fail to produce peaceful means to mediate and resolve conflicts and grievances.

This relatively optimistic picture could certainly change in the future, particularly in Tajikistan. But it has held true for almost 20 years since the nations of the region became independent, and in general they have prospered and survived far better than most Western pundits thought they would.

14 Islamist Militants Killed In Russia’s Dagestan

(RTTNews) – Police have killed 14 Islamist militants in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus region of Dagestan, local media reported quoting the National Anti-terrorist Committee.

Russia’s anti-terrorist special forces launched separate special operations on Wednesday morning on the outskirts of the cities of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk.

Tipped by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), its forces surrounded the militants in their hideouts, and killed 14 of them in hours long firefight. Regional and federal police forces also supported the FSB troops in the operation.

The national anti-terrorist agency vowed to intensify its operations targeting the insurgents in the restive North Caucasus region.

A sharp upswing in lawlessness and separatist violence in Muslim-dominated autonomous Republics in the North Caucasus – Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia – is undermining Kremlin’s control of its southern flank.

Several people, including ministers and top government officials, were killed in attacks by armed militants in recent years.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

Chechen/Dagestan Operations Follow Snatch and Kill Policies Used In Balochistan

Seven persons were kidnapped in a special operation in Chechnya, rights defenders say

Sep 28 2010, 22:00

The statement of the HRC “Memorial” says that on September 24, 2010, agents of local law enforcement bodies kidnapped seven residents of Davydenko village, Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya.

According to eyewitnesses, on September 24, at about 5:00 a.m. over 100 employees of law enforcement bodies in 20 cars drove into Davydenko and split into several groups. Almost simultaneously they kidnapped five persons: Rasul Khalimovich Madaev, born in 1985, Isa Saidtselimovich Khabaev, born in 1986, his brother Moussa Saidtselimovich Khabaev, born in 1992, Rakhman Imranovich Maltsagov, born in 1985, and Mahmoud Rashidovich Salikhov, born in 1980 (invalid from childhood).

According to the “Memorial“, everywhere power agents acted under the same scenario – they broke into the house, and without presenting themselves took the man away. Relatives were not informed about where the detained person would be delivered, but they were promised that he would be released after checking documents or asked a few questions.

On September 24, at 6:00 p.m. power agents released Madaev, Moussa Khabaev, Salikhov and Rakhman Maltsagov. At 9:00 p.m. they released Aslan Khabaev and Abdullah Maltsagov. Adam Yusupov and Isa Khabaev were also kept at the Achkhoi-Martan ROVD, but they were not released. Isa Khbaev’s sister could see him; according to her story, he was in terrible condition: with signs of torture on his body.

On September 25, at about 9:00 p.m., power agents again took away Rasul Madaev and Abdullah Maltsagov.

In the morning on September 26, 2010, relatives of the kidnapped persons gathered about the Achkhoi-Martan ROVD. They stood there for the whole day, but nobody from the ROVD bosses went out to talk to them. Their lawyer was not let in.

On the same day, relatives of the detainees addressed, with the help of the employee of the HRC “Memorial“, the Investigatory Department (ID) for Chechnya of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutors Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation, the Achkhoi-Martan Inter-District Investigatory Division of the ID for Chechnya of the ICPO, the prosecutor’s office of the Achkhoi-Martan District and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Chechen Republic. They filed applications on illegal actions of the Achkhoi-Martan ROVD to all these instances.

They were told at the Inter-District Investigatory Division that the cases of Yusupov and Khabaev had arrived to them. The men were charged under Article 208 (organization of an illegal armed formation or participation in it) and Article 317 (encroachment on the life of a law enforcer) of the Criminal Code. Parents of all the detainees have hired advocates. As of September 27, the advocate was admitted only to Adam Yusupov. On that very day relatives were admitted to see Maltsagov and Madaev.

The Taliban is NOT an expression of Pushtun Nationalism

– By Qudsia Siddiqee

One of the biggest lies that have been spun by our establishment, which is the arbiter of our national narrative, is that the Taliban are an expression of “Pushtun Nationalism”.  This lie has been repeated ad infinitum by reactionary politicians and Taliban apologists like Imran Khan and  biased academics like Tariq Ali and Rasul Baksh Rais.

The rich and diverse culture of the Pushtuns extends back to several millennia.  The cultural and anthropological influence of the Pushtuns extends from Iran to Bangladesh and even a cultural metropolis like Calcutta can boast of hosting Pushtuns and their way of life.  From Rehman Baba to Khushal Khan Khattak, poetry and moderate religious views have been a cornerstone of Pushtunwali.  The land of the Pushtuns is the land of Lord Gautum Buddha.  Even in Bollywood, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor are the sons of Peshawar and Shahrukh Khan is atleast a nephew of the same city.

In the socio-political domain, Pushtuns have proven their valour on the battle field and have also shown the rest of South Asia that when it comes to non-violent resistance, the Pushtuns are second to none.  Today, nothing comes closer to describing the political beliefs of Pushtuns than the political ideology of literacy and non-violence of the Frontier Gandhi, the late Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Bacha Khan. Electorally, the Pushtuns on both sides of the Durand Line have always voted for secular, nationalist, center-left parties like the ANP in Pakistan.  Even the Pushtun vote for JUI is not predicated on Islamism but on a secular nationalism.  In this regard, in the seventies, the JUI was ostrasiced by Islamofascist parties like Jamaat Islami and the leadership of JUI under Mufti Mahmood was tagged as socialist deviants!

Then why is it that today, the establishment in Pakistan always views the Pushtuns and Taliban as two interchangeable entities?  This is because for the establishment, the Pushtun, like the rest of the country, simply serves as a laboratory for experimenting with violent Salafism in order to perpetuate an Oligarchic hold on power.  Since the time of Zia, the establishment has used State machinery to infuse the body politic with a virulent ideology that deculturalizes them and erodes an individual’s multiples identities of faith, ethnicity and regional influences.  In this regard, the establishment wants to squash the prospects of a pluralistic society and violently enforce a harsh, monolithic and artificial narrative whose genesis is based on the warped neurosis of Partition. It is the reaction of the dominant groups in Pakistan, the Punjabis and migrants, to the horrors of partition that shapes the national ideology of Pakistan: a “binery” vision that sees Pakistan as the “Un-India” and as a catidal of Islam where the country exists to serve the Jihadi adventures of assorted military dictators!

It is this false narrative which is the dominant discourse.  Therefore, the aspirations of ethnic nationalist minorities like the Sindhis, Balochis, Seriakis and Pushtuns and religious and sectarian minorities like the Brehlvis, Shias and Hindus are an anathema to this supremacist narrative that subsequently views these minorities as lesser Pakistanis!

Today, the establishment prefers to falsely project the Taliban as Pushtun militancy.  The fact that the secular and moderate Pushtun leadership and intelligentsia have taken a brave stance AGAINST the Taliban exposes this false narrative.  This exposure is dangerous on different levels.  The fact that the Pushtuns are a pacifist group that seeks to claim a genuine, proportional and fair stake in the country via a democratic setup is a big blow to those who wish to choke democracy and maintain an autocratic hold on power.

Similarly, the Taliban is a multi-ethnic force which is supported by extremist elements from not just Pakistan but violent Salafist mercenaries from all over the globe. From the East, the Uighirs are a substantial part of this force. It includes Tajiks and Uzbeks from Central Asia and Arabs from all over the Gulf. It even includes the odd Northern European and Bangladeshi.  In Pakistan, volunteers from violent Wahabi sectarian organizations are an equal, if not a greater part of the Taliban.  These sectarian organizations have their main headquarters in Punjab and their regional headquarters in Karachi, primarily in areas that are dominated by the ethno-mafiasos, the MQM.  Much of the financing for these Jihadi sectarian affiliates of the Taliban comes from the prosperous and recently radicalized Memon and Dehliwalla business communities.

These facts again puncture the dominant narrative that posits the Pushtuns as synonymous with the Taliban. It also dents the image of the MQM which wants to portray itself as a secular force for achieving its own dubious aims.  Internationally, because its leader chooses to reside in another country, and locally, so that it can continue to target the Pushtuns and not give them any stake in Karachi, where the latter are nearly a third of the population today.

In Pakistan, the political forces like the PPP and ANP that threaten the establishment are simply not tolerated. The PPP has been hounded by the press and by an Islamist judiciary.  Both parties have had their leaders and activists attacked and killed by the Taliban.  Today, it is not ANP which is taking out a rally for the Taliban heroine Aafia Siddiqui; that honour ironically rests with the MQM which claims to be anti-Taliban but dances to the whims of a Pro-Taliban military establishment.

The establishment cannot tolerate anything that exposes a carefully crafted narrative that aims to continuously fool people, both locally and internationally.  The Pushtuns have bravely opposed, not supported, the Taliban and have lost several of their elected leaders and representatives.  Their tribal leaders have been massacred by the Taliban after they were promised support by the establishment and then abandoned to the Taliban militias.  The Pushtuns, many of whom are under virtual siege by the Taliban/Al Qaeeda, welcome the drone attacks that have killed important Jihadi establishment assets.  Today, the worst enemy of the Taliban is the Pushtun who exposes them and the worse enemy of the Pushtuns is the Taliban who cannot bear to see them live and prosper.

Source: Pakteahouse

A Decision on Pakistan’s Future Has Been Made In Washington

[Woodward’s book highlights the urgency of the problem which Pakistan now faces. Like it or not, Pakistan’s place in America’s plans has changed because of perceived support to the Taliban and intransigence in solving the problem. Obama has obviously made a decision about the matter and the recent cross-border attack is an early indication of this. The Pakistani people understand the nature of the problem and helping them correct what they see should be the American motivation–but it’s not. This is still all about the pipeline wars.

I have been warning of an impending “Special Forces war” coming to Pakistan in the near future, for a long time. I don’t want to say, “I told you so,” but to motivate Pakistanis to become a vocal voice in their government’s affairs. This is the only chance you have to alter the course of events by opposing the violence that is in your immediate future. Stand together to change Pakistan’s place in the terror war. You might look to the antiwar policies being promoted by Turkmenistan to see a possible change of direction.]

‘We need to make clear . . . the cancer is in Pakistan’ -By Bob Woodward

President Obama dispatched his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta to Pakistan for a series of urgent, secret meetings on May 19, 2010.

Less than three weeks earlier, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen born in Pakistan had tried to blow up an SUV in New York City’s Times Square. The crude bomb – which a Pakistan-based terrorist group had taught him to make – smoked but did not explode. Only luck had prevented a catastrophe.

“We’re living on borrowed time,” Jones told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at the first meeting in Islamabad. “We consider the Times Square attempt a successful plot because neither the American nor the Pakistani intelligence agencies could intercept or stop it.”

Jones thought that Pakistan – a U.S. ally with an a la carte approach of going after some terrorist groups and supporting others – was playing Russian roulette. The chamber had turned out to be empty the past several times, but Jones thought it was only a matter of time before there was a round in it.

Fears about Pakistan had been driving President Obama’s national security team for more than a year. Obama had said toward the start of his fall 2009 Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review that the more pressing U.S. interests were really in Pakistan, a nuclear power with a fragile civilian government, a dominant military and an intelligence service that sponsored terrorist groups.

Not only did al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban operate from safe havens within Pakistan, but – as U.S. intelligence officials had repeatedly warned Obama – terrorist groups were recruiting Westerners whose passports would allow them to move freely in Europe and North America.

Safe havens would no longer be tolerated, Obama had decided. “We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan,” he declared during an Oval Office meeting on Nov. 25, 2009, near the end of the strategy review. The reason to create a secure, self-governing Afghanistan, he said, was “so the cancer doesn’t spread there.”

Jones and Panetta had gone to Pakistan to tell Zardari that Obama wanted four things to help prevent a terrorist attack on U.S. soil: full intelligence sharing, more reliable cooperation on counterterrorism, faster approval of visas for U.S. personnel traveling to Pakistan and, despite past refusals, access to airline passenger data.

If, God forbid, the SUV had blown up in Times Square, Jones told Zardari, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Should a future attempt be successful, Obama would be forced to do things that Pakistan would not like. “No one will be able to stop the response and consequences,” the security adviser said. “This is not a threat, just a statement of political fact.”

Jones did not give specifics about what he meant. The Obama administration had a “retribution” plan, one of the most sensitive and secretive of all military contingencies. The plan called for bombing about 150 identified terrorist camps in a brutal, punishing attack inside Pakistan.

Wait a second, Zardari responded. If we have a strategic partnership, why in the face of a crisis like the one you’re describing would we not draw closer together rather than have this divide us?

Zardari believed that he had already done a great deal to accommodate his strategic partner, at some political risk. He had allowed CIA drones to strike al-Qaeda and other terrorist camps in parts of Pakistan, prompting a public outcry about violations of Pakistani sovereignty. He had told CIA officials privately in late 2008 that any innocent deaths from the strikes were the cost of doing business against senior al-Qaeda leaders. “Kill the seniors,” Zardari had said. “Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”

“You can do something that costs you no money,” Jones said. “It may be politically difficult, but it’s the right thing to do if you really have the future of your country in mind. And that is to reject all forms of terrorism as a viable instrument of national policy inside your borders.”

“We rejected it,” Zardari responded.

Jones and Panetta had heard such declarations before. But whatever Pakistan was doing with the many terrorist groups operating inside its borders, it wasn’t good or effective enough. For the past year, that country’s main priority was taking on its homegrown branch of the Taliban, a network known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP.

Panetta pulled out a “link chart,” developed from FBI interviews and other intelligence, that showed how TTP had assisted the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad.

“Look, this is it,” Panetta told Zardari. “This is the network. Leads back here.” He traced it out with his finger. “And we’re continuing to pick up intelligence streams that indicate TTP is going to conduct other attacks in the United States.”

This was a matter of solid intelligence, Panetta said, not speculation.

Jones and Panetta then turned to the disturbing intelligence about Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group behind the horrific 2008 Mumbai attacks that had killed 175, including six Americans.

Pakistani authorities are holding the commander of the Mumbai attacks, Jones said, but he is not being adequately interrogated and “he continues to direct LeT operations from his detention center.” Intelligence shows that Lashkar-e-Taiba is threatening attacks in the United States and that the possibility “is rising each day.”

Zardari didn’t seem to get it.

“Mr. President,” said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was also at the meeting, “This is what they are saying. . . . They’re saying that if, in fact, there is a successful attack in the United States, they will take steps to deal with that here, and that we have a responsibility to now cooperate with the United States.”

“If something like that happens,” Zardari said defensively, “it doesn’t mean that somehow we’re suddenly bad people or something. We’re still partners.”

Afterward, the Americans met privately with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, chief of the Pakistani army and the most powerful figure in the country.

Although Kayani had graduated from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., he was a product of the Pakistani military system – nearly 40 years of staring east to the threat posed by India, its adversary in several wars since both countries were established in 1947.

This was part of a Pakistani officer’s DNA. It was hard, perhaps impossible, for a Pakistani general to put down his binoculars, turn his head over his shoulder and look west to Afghanistan.

Jones told Kayani that the clock was starting now on Obama’s four requests. Obama wanted a progress report in 30 days, Jones said.

Kayani would not budge much. He had other concerns. “I’ll be the first to admit, I’m India-centric,” he said.

Panetta laid out a series of additional requests for CIA operations. Obama had approved these operations during an October 2009 session of the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review.

The CIA director had come to believe that the Predator and other unmanned aerial vehicles were the most precise weapons in the history of warfare. He wanted to use them more often.

Pakistan allowed Predator drone flights in specified geographic areas called “boxes.” Because the Pakistanis had massive numbers of ground troops in the south, they would not allow a box in that area.

“We need to have that box,” Panetta said. “We need to be able to conduct our operations.”

Kayani said he would see that they had some access.

The United States needed some kind of ground forces to eliminate the safe havens, Panetta concluded. The CIA had its own forces, a 3,000-man secret army of Afghans known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams. Some of these pursuit teams were now conducting cross-border operations in Pakistan.

“We can’t do this without some boots on the ground,” Panetta said. “They could be Pakistani boots or they can be our boots, but we got to have some boots on the ground.”

Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the National Security Council coordinator for Afghanistan and Pakistan, also traveled with Jones and Panetta to Pakistan. He supervised the writing of a three-page trip report to the president that Jones signed.

It contained a pessimistic summary, noting first the gap between the civilian and military authority in Pakistan. The United States was getting nowhere fast with these guys. They were talking with Zardari, who could deliver nothing. Kayani had the power to deliver, but he refused to do much. Nobody could tell him otherwise. The bottom line was depressing: This had been a charade.

Jones said he was once again alarmed that success in Afghanistan was tied to what the Pakistanis would or would not do. As he saw it, the United States could not “win” in Afghanistan as long as the Pakistani safe havens remained. It was a “cancer” on the plan the president had announced at the end of 2009.

Second, the report said the Pakistanis did not have the same sense of urgency as the Americans. There were regular terrorist strikes in Pakistan, so they could not understand the traumatic impact of a single, small attack on the U.S. homeland.

The Pakistanis were making another mistake by applying that same logic to India, in Jones’s view. If Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the Mumbai attacks, struck there again, India would not be able to show the kind of restraint that it had then. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had barely survived Mumbai politically, would have to respond.

The options for Obama would be significantly narrowed in the aftermath of an attack originating out of Pakistan. Before such an attack, however, he had more options, especially if Pakistan made good on his four requests.

After the Jones-Panetta trip, Pakistan’s cooperation on visa requests did improve. When I interviewed Obama two months after the failed Times Square bombing, he highlighted Pakistan’s recent counterterrorism efforts. “They also ramped up their cooperation in a way that over the last 18 months has hunkered down al-Qaeda in a way that is significant,” he said.

“But still not enough,” I interjected.

“Well, exactly,” Obama said.

Joshua Boak and Evelyn Duffy contributed to this report.

Source: The Washington post

Why We Fight–the original war propaganda film

One of six-part series. This one on fascism. These films were also used by the Army to “recondition” traumatized vets and “inadequate soldiers.”

https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/human-nature-is-the-enemy-of-the-state/

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Why We Fight–the original war propaganda film, posted with vodpod

“We must always obey the law, and not only when you have the balls”.

“The state module …” or officials – are people too!

Russian to English translation

“The state module …” or officials – are people too!
“We must always obey the law, and not only when you have the balls”. Vladimir Putin

Then hot, then cold, then laughter, then tears – a reaction to the vocabulary of officials at everyone. Someone expression politicians outraged to the depths of the soul, and someone dedicates a vivid phrase of the book … For example, not so long ago, the most vivid expression of all of us loved Putin were immortalized in the book – a book bright witty, so to speak.

Always a serious and balanced prime minister is sometimes not averse to disturb the public the next utterance. What to say: “It is time to cease from one year to just chew snot” or “must always obey the law, and not only when caught in one place.” His remarks Putin has created a brand – a such a card, a corporate collection of words and intonations, making policy, of course, recognizable.

However, not always the Prime Minister can “calm” verbal flow and stop in time, not saying too much … His most famous gaffe concerned about the statements of President Victor Yushchenko. Putin, commenting on the victory of Yushchenko’s election, spoke thus: “… The only thing we expect that surrounded Mr Yushchenko will not people who build their political ambitions on anti-Russian, Zionist slogans on and so on ….” Of anti-Russian slogans understandable, but where Putin saw the Zionists surrounded by Yushchenko? Press office of President of the Russian Federation has worked pretty quickly, and on his official website was posted a correction. “Zionist” were replaced by “anti-Semitic.”

No less striking character in political circles is Vladimir Zhirinovsky … Speaking in the literal sense, the same language with the people, he easily convinces others that they were right. His thoughts about the Russian situation is understandable political scientists and journalists. Language Zhirinovsky copes with the principal – who communicates the information necessary. A concomitant to this process “error” can be attributed to the “worker-peasant” origins, or simply on the sincerity of people’s servants.

In the category of the most striking include the following statements of Vladimir Zhirinovsky:

– Naked women – these are the places of rest, where rest the Europeans. ”

– “You will all have to shake ass.”

– “He will say today, but tomorrow it will be hanged. He is pure, young, full of strength and energy. We have chosen a virgin! (About Kiriyenko).

– “The parliament are many prominent women: Hakamada, Panfilov, Starovoitova … They are strong, are in good age, and, if pregnant until March, it would be the best present Duma. And then sit around …”

– “I love such journalists as John Reed: make a report – he died – was buried.”

– “We need to make sure that was a lot of housing that was a lot of cars, yacht clubs, and youth to learn, to get married – a lot of times married. Though every year! Each new year to meet with his new wife, a new apartment, in a new suit and a new car! ”

Not uncommon in his speech, in addition to words with strong emotional coloring, officials use a “consonant” words … In other words, are stipulated.

In 2007, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, quite the reservation that is called by Freud. Live at the “First Channel”, said: “This United Russia majority allows us to create a State modulo … er … the Duma.”

Boris Gryzlov, answering the question of ensuring equality of parties in the press, including in private, so caveat: “Unfortunately (!), We can not introduce censorship of private media sector.”

In general reservations which do not harm the state’s policy, are worthy of existence.Without them, would be a policy was too boring! But if such statements are repeated regularly and become the property of satirists, you should think over his speech: read more books – develop logic, crossword puzzles – to build thinking, well, with the diction does not interfere with work, so reservations with dulyami “not happen again .. .

death by hot potato–Russian Mafia In USA

death by hot potato

San Diego

Great location. On the Pacific Ocean. Home to a US Naval Base. Next to the Mexican border.

Another great location for organized crime.

1996: Russian Mafia Invades California, by Wayne Lutton

Russian gangsters – many of whom entered the United States as “refugees” — have spread their influence beyond the East Coast and are becoming a major criminal presence in California, according to State Attorney General Dan Lungren….The California Attorney General’s Office report notes thatduring the 1970s and 1980s, under the guise of the Russian-Jewish refugee program, “the KGB emptied their prisons of hard-core criminals, much like Cuban dictator Fidel Castro did during the Mariel boatlift of 1980.” The 1989 Lautenberg Amendment expanded refugee admissions from the Soviet Union to up to 50,000 per year. This was followed, in 1991, by provisions for legal immigration from the now independent states of the former USSR. Dubbed by Russian criminals as “the big store,” the United States is now home to criminal gangs from all 15 republics. Since the mid-1970s, the hub of Russian organized crime in the U.S. has been the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, New York, known as “Little Odessa.” From this center of emigre activity, they have spread their operations throughout greater New York, to Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, and Seattle.California is particularly vulnerable to Russian organized crime because only New York state has a larger population of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. These new crime groups have been identified in major California cities, includingLos Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and San Diego. They maintain ties to criminal organizations back in Russia and are forging working agreements with other Latin American and Asian syndicates.

Frank Lautenberg is a Jewish Democratic Senator from New Jersey. The Lautenberg Amendment made special provisions to allow Jewish and Evangelical refugees to resettle in the US from the former Soviet Union, because Congress declared these groups “persecuted.” The refugees don’t need to show actual persecution to avail themselves of the special privileges. For more background, see this link.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Lautenberg Amendment, celebrating the fact that over 440,000 “refugees” have resettled in the United States from the FSU and elsewhere as a result of this legislation, which Congress renews each year.

By 2000, the “Russian” mafia had already been well established across the United States.

COINCIDENCE?

May 2000, Go West, Young Comrade: The Russian Mob in America, by John William Touhy

According to the FBI, there are over 200 Russian mobs operating in American, in at least 17 cities in 14 states. At least four of those groups operate in California alone, with interests in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, and San Diego. These groups have linked with Russian organizations in New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, and Oregon to form an enormous criminal syndicate.

But officials were not too worried because supposedly the “Russian” mafia was not that organized. Famous last words.

Although, the government is quick to point out, and US authorities agree, that only about 300 of those gangs have some sort identifiable structure. However, some Russian mob experts argue that the government is wrong, that the Russian-based mobs, are, in fact, very organized, and only appear to have no structure, a tool they use to minimize contact within the organization for security purposes and to throw investigators off their trail.
Lose or not, the structure of these organizations on both sides of the Atlantic remains basically the same. Each group is led by a boss, called a “pa khan,” who controls four criminal groups, or cells within the organization, although, like the American Mafia, the Pakhan has only minimal contact with the men under him. Instead, he uses an intermediary called a “brigadier.” In turn, the brigadier is watched over by two spies to ensure loyalty and to make sure he doesn’t get too much power within the organization.

So the cells report to a brigadier, who reports to the Pakhan, who has spies on the brigadier. At least that’s how it supposedly worked in 2000. The street criminal normally does not know who his boss is.

Some people know today that all the top “Russian” mobsters have Israeli passports. However, the FBI has known this for a long time.

In general, Friedman writes, state and federal law enforcement agencies were loath to go after Russian mobsters, instead devoting their energies to bagging Italian wiseguys, a traditional route to promotion. And because the Russian mob was mostly Jewish, it was a political hot potato, especially in the New York area, where the vast majority of refugees were being resettled by Jewish welfare  agencies.

As for the FBI, which has the resources and the legal authority to investigate the Russian mob, Friedman says that were it not for the bureau’s “own sluggishness in addressing the problem, the Russian mob in  the United States would never have become as powerful as it is today.”  It wasn’t until 1994 that the bureau set up a special force to deal with Russian organized crime. By then, Friedman says, there were some five  thousand “hard-core Russian criminals” in the New York region. Yet the FBI’s spokesman in New York, Joe Valiquette, told Friedman, “The Russian Mafia has the lowest priority on the criminal pecking order.”

To be clear, the article says that by 1994: 1) there were already some five thousand hard-core Russian criminals in New York; 2) and this mafia was the lowest priority on the FBI’s pecking order; 3) because the fed and state agencies feared to go after them; 4) because the Russian mob is mostly Jewish.

So it was a “hot potato.” So nobody touched it.

Recently, Jonathan Winer, a former senior United States government official, provided a rare view of how federal authorities bungled a major investigation into the Russian money laundering involving the Bank of New York. Winer was deputy assistant secretary of state for international law  enforcement; his job was to find ways to work with other nations to curtail money laundering and international crime. After Friedman’s book was published, Winer told a congressional committee that he was first alerted  to the Bank of New York’s large-scale money-laundering operation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in March 1999. When he learned more, six months later, it was still not from anyone in the United States  government, but from British officials, who were keeping an eye on Mogilevich.From the British, Winer learned that in eight thousand transactions during eighteen months $4.2 billion had been moved through a suspicious account at the bank-an average of one wire transfer every five minutes, twenty-four  hours a day. But this was not enough to make anyone suspicious, apparently. The transactions were handled by a small company called Benex, which turned  out to be the creation of an officer at the Bank of New York, Lucy Edwards, and her husband, Peter Berlin.

Nothing happened to Lucy Edwards and Peter Berlin, or the Bank of New York.

Unlike the latter scandals involving Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom and Tyco,not a single one of BoNY’s top echelon has been indicted or convicted. Even the scandal’s “superstars”, Lucy Edwards and her husband Peter Berlin, who pleaded guilty to money laundering, immigration fraud and other grave federal crimes in February of 2000 have never been sentenced and never spent any time in prison.

The scandal revealed Washington’s “dangerous reluctance to confront international criminal networks.”

No shit. That was ten years ago.

Also ten years ago, the Jerusalem Post admitted that the Israeli underworld had been taken over by Russian-Jewish mob bosses.

“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.

Natalia Estemirova Killed One Day After Meeting With Chechen Authorities

Gannushkina: on the eve of her death Natalia Estemirova discussed extrajudicial executions with Chechen authorities

Aug 04 2009, 18:00

Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the public charitable organization for helping refugees and forced migrants “Civil Assistance” and the head of the network “Migration and Law” of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial“, who worked with the employee of the Chechen office of the HRC “Memorial” Natalia Estemirova on the last day of her life said that they discussed the issue of extrajudicial executions and punishments that take place in Chechnya with officials of power agencies of the republic.

According to her story, the point was the murder of Ramzan Albekov, who was shot dead in the eyes of witnesses for his alleged help to militants; while his relatives were ordered to say that Ramzan had died of a heart attack. “Natasha openly asserted, unlike the relatives, that it was an execution, not a heart attack. She named the unit engaged in that execution – it was the TMD – Territorial Militia Division,” Ms Gannushkina said to the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

Natalia also said about burnt down houses of militants’ relatives: when one of brothers goes to the mountains, and the other remains, power agents burn down the houses of both brothers in the eyes of their small children.

“Natasha also said that the methods of fighting against militants in Chechnya become tougher. For example, that power agents force relatives to execute each other, not to let the blood feud get outside one clan. She said that militants’ relatives are deprived of pensions,” said Gannushkina and added that the parties in their conversation were Public Prosecutor of Chechnya Mikhail Savchin, deputy chair of the Investigatory Committee for Chechnya and deputy interior minister of Chechnya.

According to her story, the authorities were offered to cooperate with human rights activists in investigating these crimes; however, this idea was not unequivocally supported by power officials. “Natasha’s next day was full of appointments to the last minute. She had an arrangement to meet the chairman of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Russian Prosecutor’s Office) for Chechnya to discuss these issues,” said Svetlana Gannushkina and added that after a series of meetings, on July 15 Natalia Estemirova should have left for Stavropol together with an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), where the database on missing people is kept.

The aim of the trip was to check the possibility of joint work and technical match of the database of human rights activists with MIA’s databases.

See earlier reports: “Natalia Estemirova’s Last Interview to Caucasian Knot,” “After Estemirova’s murder, there were several more kidnappings in Chechnya,” “Sokiryanskaya: Chechen authorities try defeating militants by cutting them off their social support,” “Khazbiev: Batyr Albakov was killed in Ingushetia for the sake of statistics.”

Author: Dmitry Florin; Source: CK correspondent

Russia: Halt Punitive Attacks in Chechnya

Human Rights Watch

Extrajudicial Killing

Human Rights Watch also documented the extrajudicial killing of Abusubyan (Rizvan) Albekov, on July 7 in the village of Akhinchu-Borzoi in Kurchaloi district.

A local police officer named Ilyas came to Albekov’s home in Akhinchu-Borzoi on July 6. Relatives told Human Rights Watch that when he did not find Albekov at home, Ilyas asked Albekov’s daughter where he was and requested his cell phone number, which she provided. When Albekov did not return home in the evening, his worried relatives tried to reach him on his cell phone, but neither of his two cell phone numbers was working.

Several sources told Human Rights Watch that Kurchaloi district police personnel put up a roadblock that evening in the village of Dzhigurty and stopped Albekov and his 17-year-old son, Adis, when they drove through the village on their way home.

At about 1 a.m. on July 7, two cars drove through Akhinchu-Borzoi, circled the village and the law-enforcement officers in the cars rounded up about four young men. Several villagers, one of whom spoke with one of the young men, said that the drivers of the cars threw Albekov, who appeared to have been severely beaten, out of the car in front of the young men.

They asked Albekov, “Did you give a sheep to the rebels?” He shook his head and started begging incoherently for the release of his son. The drivers of the cars then shot Albekov and one said, “This is what’s going to happen to anyone who helps the rebels!” Then they left, and the young men fled.

Later that day, a family member contacted the Kurchaloi district prosecutor’s office, which sent officials to examine the body and question family members before the ritual washing and burial of the body. The next day, Albekov’s family was threatened by Kurchaloi law-enforcement officers into signing a statement that Albekov had died of a stroke. The officers told the family that Adis would be also killed and all the relatives would suffer if they complained to any authorities or non-governmental agencies. The fate and whereabouts of Adis Albekov remains unknown.

“Reports of how Albekov was killed describe a cold-blooded extrajudicial execution,” said Lokshina. “There needs to be a thorough and impartial investigation to bring those responsible to justice. Given the routine failure by Chechen authorities to hold perpetrators of crimes such as these accountable, the federal office of the prosecutor general should oversee the investigation.”

Albekov’s brother, Vakhazhi, was killed in October 2000 by a landmine in Chechnya. A third brother, Ramzan Albekov, filed a case against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 2008 that Russia had violated his brother’s right to life.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN:

• Русский

Facts About Kh-55 Cruise Missile Sale to Iran and China

[SEE: Obama and the Intelligence Cabal ] Bypassing the National Missile Defence System – The Cruise Missile Proliferation Problem Technical Report APA-TR-2007-0708

by Dr Carlo Kopp, SMAIAA, MIEEE, PEng First published in Asia Pacific Defence Reporter,  2005 Revised, expanded and updated, July 2007 Text, Line Art © 2005, 2007 Carlo Kopp

Raduga Kh-55SM Kent with conformal fuel tanks. China illegally acquired samples from the Ukraine to permit the development of  a cloned variant for the PLA. This weapon is also a candidate for new production Badgers (RuMOD). Regional Precision Guided Munitions [Click for more …] S-300 SAM System Analysis [Click for more …] Video Footage Supplement [Click for more …] Introduction A series of media reports in June last year centred on the issue of the DPRK acquiring cruise missile technology from Russia via Iran. The Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun, claiming ruling party and government agency sources, alleged that Iran had supplied the Kh-55 / AS-15 Kent to the DPRK for the purpose of reverse engineering. The Sankei Shimbun quoted a Defence Ministry source claiming ‘They [Iran and DPRK] are linked by a network beneath the surface regarding the development of weapons of mass destruction.’ The sorry saga of the proliferation of the Soviet era Kh-55 missile is a case study in how the post Soviet apparatus of state in former Soviet republics has been unable to contain leakages of sensitive technologies. Rumours that China and Iran had acquired examples of the Kh-55SM missile from the Ukraine had been circulating for some years, but without any robust data to validate these claims. This all changed with the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine and the collapse of the regime of pro-Russian president Leonid Kuchma, earlier accused of selling long range ESM systems to Saddam Hussein prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Hrihory Omelchenko, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on organised crime and corruption, sent an open letter this January to the new Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, in which he reported that government officials loyal to the former regime had actively obstructed investigations into the illegal export of the Kh-55SM missile to China and Iran. The affair occupied considerable bandwidth in the Ukrainian and Russian media earlier this year. According to multiple sources, the illegal transaction was initiated in 2000, when two Russians, O.H. Orlov and E.V. Shelenko, both associated with the Progress export company, produced a false Rosvooruzheniye arms export agency contract document for the supply of twenty Kh-55SM missiles. This contract was provided to UkrSpetzExport, a Ukrainian equipment exporter. The two Russians were aided by the head of the Ukrainian Ukrazviazakaz company, Vladimir Evdokimov, a reservist in Ukrainian intelligence. Omelchenko’s letter claimed ‘These cruise missiles were hidden on military depots of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry under the control of [the Defense Ministry] and under documentation signed by senior officials of the ministry, saying they were in fact designated as destroyed.’ A chain of front companies was used to cover the transaction, with six Kh-55SM missiles claimed to have been flown to China in April, 2000, and another six to Iran in June 2001. The deal included a KNO-120 ground support system for testing, initialising and programming the missiles. The destination of the remaining eight rounds was not disclosed. Iran is alleged to have paid US$49.5 million for the missiles, with Orlov and Shelenko earning US$600,000 for their efforts. Russian and Ukrainian media also allege that an Australian national was part of the transaction. This transaction comes as no surprise to analysts familiar with contemporary Russian arms exports. US based analyst Dr Alexander Nemets disclosed some years ago that China was operating two parallel campaigns to acquire Russian weapons technology. One involved legal acquisitions via Rosoboronexport (formerly Rosvooruzheniye), the other not so legal acquisitions via the black market. Iran’s connections with the DPRK are also widely documented, and the export of DPRK ballistic missile technology to Iran provided a technological foundation for Iran’s developing IRBM manufacturing infrastructure. Iran invested considerable effort in circumventing Western embargoes on exporting military technology, especially to maintain the large inventory of US aircraft and other equipment supplied during the reign of the Pahlavi regime. The significance of the Soviet era Kh-55SM should not be underestimated. This is the most capable strategic cruise missile in service globally, other than the US AGM-86B ALCM and BGM-109B Tomahawk. It is the backbone of the Russian air launched nuclear deterrent, equipping the Tu-95MS Bear H and Tu-160 Blackjack A bombers. MKU-5-6 rotary launcher (RuMoD). Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack A launching a Kh-55SM (RuMoD). Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear H ‘raketonosets’ cruise missile carrier (US DoD). The Design and Capabilities of the Kh-55 Kent The Kh-55 family of cruise missiles owes its origins to a series of internal studies at the Raduga OKB during the early 1970s. Raduga were unsuccessful initially in convincing the Soviet leadership of the value of their concept, but this changed as public knowledge of the US Air Launched Cruise Missile program became better known in the Soviet Union. Russian sources claim that Raduga’s early work on these weapons was opposed by many Russian experts who were deeply sceptical of the viability of such a complex new weapon. The Kh-55 family of weapons most closely resemble the early US BGM-109 Tomahawk in concept, using a cylindrical fuselage with pop out planar wings, unfolding tail control surfaces, and a ventral turbofan engine, with guidance provided by a TERrain COntour Matching (TERCOM) aided inertial navigation system. The most visible difference between the Tomahawk and Kh-55 families of missiles is the engine installation. The Tomahawk’s Williams F107-WR100 engine is embedded in the tail and uses a ventral inlet duct and tailcone exhaust. The Kh-55’s Omsk AMKB TVD-50 two spool turbofan is mounted in a nacelle which is stowed in the aft fuselage and deploys via a ventral door on a pylon after launch. The TVD-50 is a critical piece of technology in the Kh-55 as it is a compact and fuel efficient turbofan in the thrust and size class required to power cruise missiles, standoff missiles and UAVs. The cited thrust rating is 400 to 500 kp (880 to 1,000 lbf), with a dry mass of 95 kg (210 lb), a Specific Fuel Consumption of 0.65, a length of 0.85 m (33.5 in) and diameter of 0.33 m (13 in). The Tomahawk uses a four surface tail control assembly with anhedral on the stabilators, whereas the Kh-55 uses only three larger surfaces, with more pronounced anhedral. The largely symmetrical aft fuselage of the Tomahawk differs from the more pronounced sculpting of the Kh-55 aft fuselage. The cylindrical fuselage configuration is essentially the same for both designs. The Tomahawk has a 21 in diameter, the Kh-55 a 20.5 in diameter, the Tomahawk weighed 2,700 lb at launch, the Kh-55 2,870 lb. The later blocks of the Tomahawk have a chined ‘Beluga’ nose to reduce radar signature, the Kh-55 retains an ogival/spherical nose. The baseline guidance package on both missiles is designed around a digital computer running Kalman filter and TERCOM software, with an onboard memory storing a digital map, coupled to a radar altimeter for terrain profiling and a low drift inertial unit. Tomahawks later acquired an optical Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator and GPS – the Soviet had DSMAC technology but it has never been disclosed whether this was added to the Kh-55 series. The cited designation for the Kh-55 guidance package is the Sprut and BSU-55. Like the Tomahawk, the Kh-55 spawned a range of derivatives, unlike the Tomahawk the Kh-55 became the dominant air launched weapon. The first generation of Kh-55s appeared in three configurations, entering service in 1984. The ‘Izdeliye 120’ Kh-55 / AS-15A was air launched from the Tu-95MS using a MKU-6-5 rotary launcher and external pylons, the RKV-500A / SS-N-21 Sampson was tube launched from the Type 671 Victor, Type 945 Sierra and Type 971 Akula submarines, and the RK-55 / SSC-X-4 Slingshot tube launched from a MAZ-543M (MAZ-7310) 8×8 TEL, carrying six rounds. The air launched Kh-55 was followed by the improved ‘Izdeliye 124’ Kh-55OK, which was supplanted in production by the most capable ‘Izdeliye 125’ Kh-55SM / AS-15B subtype in 1987. The aim of the Kh-55SM design was to further extend the striking range of the basic missile, cited at 1,350 NMI (2,500 km). This was achieved by adding a pair of conformal fuselage fuel tanks, which increased launch weight to 3,750 lb (1,700 kg), but increased cruise range to 1,620 NMI (3,000 km) with a 200 kT warhead fitted. The naval variant of the Kh-55SM was designated the RKV-500B. A conventional derivative of the Kh-55, designated the Kh-555, was recently announced. A lightweight shorter ranging derivative weapon, the Kh-65, has been actively marketed since the 1990s. For all intents and purposes, the late model Kh-55SM is a heavier and longer ranging equivalent to the BGM-109B Tomahawk, with performance closest to the AGM-86B ALCM. The Proliferation Problem The Kh-55SM is an attractive target for reverse engineering, as the design is implemented suing 1970s Soviet technology. As such the electronics in the guidance system can be readily reversed engineered using commercial components, and the structure and engine use commodity materials technologies. While many nations have the engineering capability to design an airframe in the class of the Kh-55 and Tomahawk, developing and integrating the guidance package and engine is much more demanding. The low density electronics technology in the Kh-55SM is a case in point. Built using first generation Soviet embedded computers, the hardware is simple enough to copy directly and the software, coded in assembly language as was customary during that period, could be downloaded with no difficulty. Publicly available software tools such as reverse assemblers could be adapted with little effort to reconstitute the original source code for the missile navigation and guidance package, and ground support equipment. Unlike contemporary US weapons which use complex anti-tamper techniques in the software and integrated hardware, the Kh-55 predates this model by a generation. Once the party performing the reverse engineering has reconstituted the original software, and cloned the original hardware, the reverse engineered Kh-55 can be launched on its own evolutionary path as a derivative design. This means additional navigation sensors to feed the Kalman filter, and a range of possible improvements to the missile’s trajectory and navigation algorithms. In Third World economies with low labour costs, series production costs are not the issue they are in the developed world. The only components in the design which could present difficulties for a new player are the engine turbine and combustors, which require some skill in metallurgical techniques to achieve viable durability in a four hour flight profile. There is little doubt that China has the capability to wholly reverse engineer the Kh-55SM. Some Western analysts have argued that China’s acquisition of these weapons makes no sense, as China is designing its own Tomahawk class weapons. This is not a robust argument for several reasons. The first is that China has in recent decades nearly always run parallel development programs, using wholly indigenous and licenced or reverse engineered foreign technology. More than often the foreign design has displaced the indigenous design. The second reason is because the integration and testing of cruise missiles is very expensive, and remains so globally, due to the complexity of such weapons. While an indigenous design may have working components, the system may not function adequately as a whole. Reverse engineering the internals of the Kh-55, or parts thereof, makes for a viable shortcut to save time and money. The third reason is the simple expedient of time to production. Any indigenous weapon will require many years of cyclic design evolution and flight testing to achieve credible reliability for operational use. Cloning a bulletproof and proven foreign design avoids this pain. Photographs of Pakistan’s new Babur cruise missile, recently revealed, bear considerable similarity to the baseline Kh-55. We should not be surprised to learn at a future date that it is a licenced variant of a Chinese clone of the Kh-55. Pakistan’s licence manufacture of other evolved but earlier cloned Russian hardware, such as MANPADS, supplied via China, makes for a good precedent. To date indigenous Chinese cruise missiles have not matched the range performance of the Kh-55 series, this itself being a good incentive to reverse engineer the Russian design. Iran’s capacity to indigenously reverse engineer the Kh-55 is open to question. To date much of Iran’s experience has been confined to component reverse engineering, rather than complete systems engineering. The Shahab 3 series are licenced DPRK designed No Dongs, similar to the Pakistani Ghauri II design. There is a large gap between reverse engineering individual components, or licence assembling proven designs, in comparison with tearing down a design and re-engineering it from the ground up. The same could not be said for the DPRK, which has proven quite competent at evolving Russian IRBM designs, and designing and manufacturing often complex guidance and propulsion components. The Sankei Shimbun claims by Japanese sources should thus be taken seriously. Given the well documented earlier collaboration between Iran and the DPRK on IRBM development and production, an analogous play using reverse engineered Kh-55s is entirely credible. Iran has oil derived funds and the DPRK has integration expertise. Neither of the these nations has good access to alternative sources. 3M14E Sizzler  SLCM (Novator) Undesignated PLA cruise missile, possibly a DH-10 prototype. Launch of a ‘Tomahawk-like’ PLA-N cruise missile, believed to be the YJ-62. The Strategic Perspective Until recently Iran, the DPRK and China have relied primarily on ballistic missile technology to provide strategic striking power, with the former two yet to have the capability to produce compact nuclear warheads suitable for such applications. The emerging US National Missile Defence system, and parallel effort to develop theatre missile defence capabilities, will blunt if not nullify any offensive advantage offered by ballistic weapons. While ballistic weapons offer short flight times, they achieve this at the expense of easy detection at launch via boost phase heat emissions, and easy detection in midcourse and terminal flight, due to the radar signature of the warheads and ionisation trails during re-entry. As a result ballistic weapons provide little if any surprise effect in combat. As the US effort in BMD capabilities matures, smaller users of ballistic missiles will be confronted with the reality that most if not all of their missiles will be intercepted if launched, and any launches will be detected within seconds by early warning satellites, inviting immediate nuclear retaliation. Cruise missiles present a viable means of bypassing the US NMD and TMD systems, once deployed. With very low heat and radar signatures, cruise missile launches are difficult to detect, and the weapons remain difficult to detect and track throughout their low flying cruise profiles. Unless an Airborne Early Warning & Control asset is on station, the missiles may elude detection until they hit their targets. The idea of using cruise missiles to bypass the NMD program is hardly new. In 2002 Russian analyst Alexander Mozgovoi, writing for Rosvooruzheniye house journal Military Parade, argued this case persuasively: ‘Low-visibility and low-flying cruise missiles can foil the U.S. efforts to develop the NMD’. Another consideration is the cost of maintaining a warstock, and the capacity to deploy it covertly. Ballistic missiles are expensive in terms of exotic materials, propellants and component technologies designed to operate in a high vibration, rapid temperature change, high G environment. Cruise missiles can be built using 1970s aircraft technology. The size of IRBMs limits the number which can be carried to a single round on a TEL, and a large one at that. A single TEL can deploy four to six cruise missiles each of similar range and throw weight to the single IRBM carried by an equivalent TEL. Cruise missiles are easily adapted for air launch, ship launch and submarine launch environments, the latter including torpedo tubes, vertical launch tubes, and slanted launch tubes. There can be little doubt that cruise missiles will become the weapon of choice for nations intent on challenging US global power.

Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear H (US DoD).

Imagery Sources: US DoD, RuMoD, Author, PLA-N Line Artwork: © 2005, 2007 Carlo Kopp Technical Report APA-TR-2007-0708

Russian Behavioral Modification Technique–Semantic Hypno-Suggestion

[This is the science behind the Pentagon’s loyalty assessing program, now in use on Afghan policemen.  It is surely used to recondition American soldiers who have developed behavioral problems such as PTSD while in the terror war, as well.]

Psycho–Sounding

Today Psycho-Sounding is the most precise tool for analyzing human psychological activity. Traditional observation methods used for mind research are lacking in efficiency mainly due to the fact that in the chain between the researcher and a subject’s memory is the mind of the researcher, which inevitably affects or colors the results.

Deliberate falsification, unintended modification of the results or even complete rejection of the examination accompany virtually all the techniques – except for the procedures carried out in a specifically altered conscious state. This deficiency, unfortunately, is inherent even in current methods. Thanks to the appearance of objective means of psychological activity measurement, researchers can now have an instrument whose accuracy improves constantly.

Everything began in 1926, when A.R.Luria, a Russian scientist, commenced studying the unconscious reactions of the criminals when replying to the questions and simultaneously pressing the special pneumatic rubber bulb. The person under the test subject was not able to completely to control the time and character of his pressing, which made it possible to draw certain conclusions. By the way, this is the very principle on which the polygraph operation is based.

Several decades later, when computers arrived, Dr. Igor Smirnov raised psychological research technology to a new level of quality. Psycho-Sounding makes it possible to overcome the primary “censor” of human mind – its psychological protection mechanisms, which ‘turn on’ each time a person consciously responds to researchers’ questions. This is similar to a situation where a doctor examines the patient with an acute abdominal pain (so-called acute abdomen). In such cases palpation of the abdominal wall may provide information about the wall’s condition only, not about the condition of internal organs, because at this time, due to the pain inside it, a specific protection from external influence is operative. The same takes place in human mind.

Psycho-Sounding makes it possible to use unconscious reactions and stimuli for psychosemantic studies. How can this be accomplished more efficiently? We will tell you..

Psychocorrection

Psychocorrection, as you might have read on the main page, means controlling human condition and behaviour. We have developed the following methods of psychocorrection:

• acoustical and audiopsychocorrection – coded words and whole phrases are put into an audio stream to be listened by the patient;
• videopsychocorrection – coded images, subject images and words are put into a video stream to be watched by the patient;
• intensive psychocorrection – carried out in a condition of altered conscious, where the desired result can be reached by using both images and words, including uncoded ones.

From the above list, audiopsychocorrection is the most available and convenient method – it is used not only for therapeutic purposes but also for psychological prophylactic, de-stressing and relaxation.

The essence of all these methods consists in influencing the unconscious through semantic stimuli – images, words and key signs. We have already mentioned that the human unconscious can be addressed using common language, which is, however, coded in a specific way. Here, we are talking not about a language or dialect that the person speaks, but the language used by the person inside him- or her self, which is not known and not understandable for anyone even for the closest people. As everyone knows: the same word pronounced with different intonations or in different contexts has very different meanings. Orders, even in conditions of totalitarianism, military service or a sect, are interpreted differently by different people. Therefore, the fundamental principle consists in which words are selected for composing the ‘plot of suggestion’, the direction or guidance administered, and how they are pronounced. However, it sometimes happens that suddenly some verbal formula fits, like a key, virtually to any person. On the basis of these universal psychocorrecting plots were composed audiocassettes and disks, which we offer for sale.

So, for the message to be “received” and functional, it is necessary, first of all, to carry out a detailed analysis of the individual. If the technology is engaged at random, the patient’s situation can be made irreversibly worse and, at the same time, the method itself can be discredited.

In unconscious psychocorrection, no prohibited commands or suggestions are used. It is essential to find the word (or image) that will destroy pathological complexes in mind and unhealthy behavior motivations. It is extremely complex. It requires not only knowledge but also inspiration and, if you wish, talent. The ‘plot of suggestion’ composed from the words and images found in the analytical phase of treatment should be, firstly, brief, and secondly, should contain maximum information value, and, thirdly, should cause a chain of sophisticated associations. Most important, it should agree with the patient’s innermost and deeply held principles.

First, the specialist determines those areas of mind that can be influenced with maximum efficiency. Then, the specialist forms the idea of influence, and after that the most difficult step – the specialist has to state the idea within 4-7 seconds using those specific symbols, which are close and understandable to the unconscious of the particular patient. For further information about each method of psycocorrection please refer to the other pages of this section.

Estemirova’s Killers Allegedly Found in Russia

Found in Russia

Investigative Committee said that the name of the killer known human rights activist Estemirova

Chairman of the Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor Alexander Bastrykin said Tuesday that his department staff know the name of singer murder human rights activist Estemirova, which occurred in July last year. The public name was not called, but notes that this man is alive and in Russia.

Statement on the investigation into the murder of human rights activist Estemirova made by the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor (CSP), the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin at a meeting with a delegation from the international organization “Committee to Protect Journalists.

“We are convinced of his guilt, it is supported by objective evidence”

“CSP jointly with the Interior Ministry made considerable progress on this criminal case. Known artist, we know his name. We are convinced of his guilt, it is supported by objective evidence,   – Quoted him as saying , RIA Novosti .Russia’s chief investigator said that his officers had information that the killer is alive and in one of the regions of Russia. His whereabouts are known, the search is conducted singer murder. “I hope soon we make the arrest,   – Added the chairman of the UPC.

Recall that the killer Estemirova human rights defender “is defined and precise set, July 15, 2010, the anniversary of her death,declared himself president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. He stressed that the “investigation is underway.” “In such cases, is never fast results, if not grabbed by the arm,   – Medvedev said, adding that now conducts investigations aimed “to establish not only a performer who is already wanted by police, but also the customer of this heinous crime.”

Sources in the police’s Southern Federal District in February this year declared that the killer Estemirova known, but then the official confirmation of the information is not forthcoming.According to the newspaper VIEW, well-known Chechen human rights activist Estemirova was killed on July 15 last year.

Criminals attacked a woman in the morning, as soon as she left the house. Estemirova planted in a white VAZ-2107 and taken to an unknown destination. A few hours later her body with multiple gunshot wounds found 100 meters from the federal highway “Kavkaz”, near the village of Gazi-Yurt in the Nazran district of Ingushetia.

Ingush prosecutor’s office into the killing was a criminal case under Art. 105 and 222 of the Criminal Code (“Murder” and “Illicit trafficking in weapons and ammunition”). In this case, and joined what was brought into the abduction of Estemirova: by subsections “a”, “in” Part 2 of Art.126 of the Criminal Code.

Law enforcement agencies consider four versions of the murder Estemirova: the first is related to its social activities, on which insisted colleagues killed. The second   – This is a provocation leading gangs to discredit the leadership of both of the Federation (Chechnya and Ingushetia) and law enforcement agencies.”Version number three   – A robbery and robbery. The woman got on the international line, grants, foreign currency funds for the execution of certain orders,   – Said former Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev.

And in fourth place was a home version that the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, the employee who was Estemirova considered absurd.

Is Putin’s Russia Invoking Stalin’s Ghost or Exorcising It?

Stalin’s methods revived

WRITTEN BY DMITRY BABICH

Suppressing Discussion of Barsenkov and Vdovin’s Provocative “Ethnically-Colored” Textbook May Not Be the Answer to Educating Future Generations

No other book in Russia’s post-Soviet history spurred as much controversy as the “Russian History from 1917 to 2009” textbook by Alexander Barsenkov and Alexander Vdovin. This textbook, meant for the students of the country’s best higher education institution – the Lomonosov Moscow State University– was accused of anti-Semitism and practically banned. This was done by members of the Public Chamber – that very same consulting-inspective establishment that was founded during Vladimir Putin’s first term as president and is often accused of being “toothless.”

During a meeting of the Public Chamber’s Commission on Interethnic Relations in early September, the Dean of the university’s History Department Sergey Karpov denied having anything to do with the textbook and assured that the book “has a print-run of 2,000 copies and has been pushed to the sidelines of our field of education.” Soon after the Public Chamber commission’s meeting, the academic board of the history faculty gave the textbook a red light, acknowledging that “the text of the manual contains factual material of questionable authenticity.”

So what exactly offended the Public Chamber so much? Barsenkov’s and Vdovin’s textbook is characterized by a fundamentally new, ethnically-colored view of Russia in the 20th century. Russians are used to a black-and-white assessment of the Soviet period: we are either convinced that almost everything in this period was terrible and we should reject this heritage (the so-called liberal stance), or we are told that in the Soviet Union everything was great besides some minor shortcomings, and thus the Soviet Union or some of its elements should be reestablished in their previous form (the position of the communists and their allies). Both sides brandish a well-known collection of facts, statistics and quotes.

In this case, the authors cite a myriad of horrifying, monstrously cruel acts of the Soviet regime, both notorious and new…and pass almost no moral judgment. And then they establish how many of the victims of these crimes were Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, etc. But most often primarily Jews – Barsenkov and Vdovin carefully examine their share among the repressed, the honored, the appointed and the dismissed. And every time it turns out that too few Jews were repressed (percentage-wise), too few were fired and many where left in places they already occupied. Many more Russians were repressed and discharged.

The fact that Russians were the most often killed, imprisoned, fired and debased is true. Having chosen the Russian people to be its main weapon, the Bolshevist regime treated this “guard” like cattle, obviously counting on the humble obedience and passivity of those whom the leader of this regime, Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin), called “the most outstanding nation of all the nations that make up the Soviet Union.” The authors never tire of citing the toast to the “leader” made at a reception on May 24, 1945, as the highest appraisal of the Russian nation. But against the backdrop of the facts that the authors supply in the textbook (3.778 million repressed on political charges with documentation, of them 786,000 sentenced to execution, the “Godless five-year plans,” the destruction of churches and other elements of old Russian culture), this toast sounds like obvious mockery. However, the authors for some reason fail to derive this conclusion from their own text.

The danger of the textbook lies in the fact that next to the questionable percentages of Jews and Russians victimized in Stalin’s crimes, there are credible facts. In this sense, Barsenkov’s and Vdovin’s textbook is a mirror reflection of today’s society. The facts are no longer banned, they are available in a number of books and articles and it is possible to see the originals of many documents in the archives. But the moral compass is off and there is no longer the ability to evaluate these facts humanely.

For example, the authors describe the anti-cosmopolitan campaign that was underway in the Soviet Union in the late 1940s. They talk about the destruction of works by Soviet geneticists, about how the physicists Lev Landau, Yakov Zeldovich, Yuliy Khariton almost ended up stabbed in the back. They write that a collection of articles aimed against them and titled “Against Idealism in Contemporary Physics” was ready for dissemination. At that time, the Soviet atomic bomb didn’t exist. So from a patriotic and a human point of view, the authors should have been outraged by this campaign. But the authors write: “The campaign against cosmopolitanism was directed not only against the United States’ aspirations to global hegemony under new slogans, but also against new projects that arose there, aimed at destroying Soviet patriotism and at replacing it with ‘universal values.’ In the Soviet Union this was viewed as the creation of a united front against the Soviet Union and the countries of the new democracy, as preparation for war.” So thus it turns out that the campaign against cosmopolitanism wasn’t so bad. And the mighty chief of Stalin’s special services Lavrenty Beria shouldn’t have saved the Jewish physicists from death. The only justification for what he did is: without these Jews, the Soviet Union wouldn’t have had an atomic bomb.

So how does a moral compass veer off? Not in a Soviet manner, but in the spirit of the new post-Soviet era, based on the “us and them” principle. The authors refuse to approach any one of the Soviet regime’s crimes from the “perspective of the humankind” which was widespread in the late Soviet Union. When evaluating any crime, Barsenkov and Vdovin first look at what “ethnicity” was victimized. Not ours? Fine. And they readily repeat the low tricks of Stalin’s press without the necessary commentary. Here is the tale of the massacre of the Jewish Antifascist Committee in the late 1940s to the early 1950s:

“The persecution of the committee went into an active stage with the death (January 1948) of its leader Solomon Mikhoels, who was suspected of trying to use Stalin’s daughter Svetlana and her husband Grigory Morozov for the selfish interests of the Jews…Mikhoels was exposed as a ‘Jewish nationalist’ and a disseminator of ‘libelous opinions about the members of the government.’ The decision was taken to terminate the activities of the committee in September of 1948 after Israeli envoy Golda Meerson (Meir)’s visit to Moscow. This happened after a number of meetings that were arranged for the envoy of the newly formed state of Israel. The willingness of many Soviet Jews to move to their historic homeland or to join Israel in its war against the Arabs was especially suspicious. All this was viewed as betrayal of the socialist Fatherland. Stalin also didn’t like the friendship that Meir established with the wife of Vyacheslav Molotov, Polina Zhemchuzhina.”

And now, let’s lay out all of the above in terms of “so-called universal human values.” The great actor Solomon Mikhoels was murdered by the Chekists – they had him “accidentally” run over by a truck. And then they accused the dead man of fighting for the “selfish interests of the Jews.” Along the way they ruined the life of Stalin’s daughter by arresting her husband. Those same special services eavesdropped on the Israeli envoy’s conversations with “free” Soviet citizens. They listened in and then reported back to Stalin. The latter, based on this information, didn’t hesitate to send the wife of his closest ally Vyacheslav Molotov, who for more than ten years headed the Soviet Union’s government, to a concentration camp. This was the official version of the story in Russia starting with Mikhail Gorbachev’s time. But Barsenkov and Vdovin are looking for “a new approach.”

The authors have a signature trick – they summarize any horrific episode (often with no commentary at all) with a quote from Stalin or Molotov, and the unsuspecting reader perceives the phrase as something of an “original truth.” At the same time, for some reason the authors prefer to use the vocabulary of the repressions’ actual organizers. The chapter about the pre-war repressions is called “Dealing blows to the potential of the fifth column.” Just a reminder – the “fifth column” was a term used by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco for his agents in Madrid, which his army entered in four columns. Alongside the story of the “column’s” fate, Molotov thus justifies repression against the aviation engineer Andrey Tupolev (arrested in 1937, but soon set free) and other victims of pre-war cleansing: “They didn’t support us…An open enemy is easy to understand. But cases like Tupolev’s are more complicated. He’s from that breed of the intelligentsia, which the Soviet state really needs, but who deep down inside are against it. And, even with the intelligentsia’s personal connections, they performed dangerous and corrupting work – and even if they didn’t, that was their goal.”

“Molotov was right in his own way,” the authors conclude. What do they mean by “in his own way?” An attempt to control not just a person’s outward behavior, but also the contents of their soul is not just a violation of the person’s rights; it is an attack on God’s prerogative. In the Bible, such plans were ascribed to the Devil. Molotov set a similar task for himself, and, in a way, he completed it. And, according to the authors, he was right — in his own way.

The new textbook has also acquired a following. A number of “patriotic” fiction writers and other cultural figures have intervened on Barsenkov’s and Vdovin’s behalf. But the head of the Public Chamber’s Commission on Interethnic Relations and the Freedom of Conscience Nikolay Svanidze immediately announced at the commission’s meeting that he has no intention of turning the ethnicity issue into a subject for discussion. According to him, the issue at stake is the guilt of two professors – the authors of the textbook, and not their viewpoints. This approach spurred a wave of discontent in the blogosphere and among some social groups. Svanidze was accused of trying to counter nationalism with “Stalin’s methods.”

Meanwhile, why not discuss the authors’ viewpoints? An “ethnically colored” history textbook was bound to appear at some point, and it is now clear which direction this school of historiography will take if it is allowed to prosper. The gigantic amount of work the authors did to find “ethnically colored” statements (which they seem to agree with) makes their textbook look like a true anthology of the most evil and stupidest words ever spoken or written on the one sixth of the earth’s dry land that the Soviet Union was proud to occupy. If Barsenkov and Vdovin hoped to glorify Russia and Russians with their book, then I am afraid it is going to have the opposite effect. If this is Russia’s history, then it is the most ruthless and negative history, far outstripping the books by Richard Pipes and Zbigniew Bzhezinsky, who are notorious for their “love” of Russia. By quoting statements regarding the “nationalities question” without condemning them, the authors disclose that exact aspect of the Soviet period that has nothing to do with accomplishments, but with baseness and idiocy.

Here Stalin deals with the issue of linguistics. Academician Viktor Vinogradov, who is helping him, discovers a mistake in the text prepared for publication in the Pravda newspaper: instead of the “Kursk-Moscow dialect,” Stalin wrote “Kursko-Oryol,” after the Battle of Kursk known in Russian as Kursk-Oryol Arc – an operation in World War II in which the Soviet forces deterred the German’s attempt to counterattack in 1943. Vinogradov suggests Stalin’s aide Alexander Poskrebyshev correct the mistake, but the latter roughly replies: “If Comrade Stalin wrote about the Kursk-Oryol dialect, then this is where the Russian language will now take its root.”

The authors of the textbook expose Stalin most profoundly when they try to applaud him. Here’s a quote from Stalin’s official speech, which Barsenkov and Vdovin went to the trouble of quoting twice in the book: “The last Soviet citizen, free of the chains of capital, stands a head taller than any foreign high-placed bureaucrat, who bears the burden of capitalist slavery on his shoulders.”

It is now clear where this old Soviet joke comes from: “How is a Soviet dwarf different from an American dwarf? The Soviet one is always a head taller.” Such attempts to compare heights with the Americans naturally bear no relation to true patriotism. But they help to trace the roots of our society’s nationalistic drift. This drift manifested itself back in the years of Leonid Brezhnev’s rule, but its roots date back to the 1940s, to the half-forgotten statements of that era, which the authors dug up in their original form.

The Public Chamber’s meeting chaired by Svanidze called for decisive action. To pay attention, to take note, to implement measures…But Svanidze himself reasonably noted that it is too late to educate Barsenkov and Vdovin – two professors with a Ph.D. in history. In their case, the disease has progressed too far. But to give the young immunity from it is a task that cannot be achieved with injunctions.

Vatican Press Helps Stoke Rumors of “Al-CIA-da” in Tajikistan

[Whoever is writing this stuff for the Pope is trying to scare the West into taking drastic military action in Central Asia.  Claims about “al Qaida” and “Chechens” involved in the local conflict are pure B.S.  The attempt to scare Western audiences that American inaction will increase terrorism ignores the historical record which confirms that US terror war policy multiplies terrorism wherever it is followed.  It causes the radicalization of locals and motivates individuals to commit their own terror attacks in defense of terror war victims.  SEE: Faisal Shahzad: Who is the terror suspect behind the Times Square car bomb?]

Risk of civil war in Tajikistan raises concerns in US, Russia and China

Widespread dissatisfaction, especially in remote regions, favours alignment of local groups with radical Muslims. In Rasht Valley, rebels attack government troops. World powers vie for influence in the Central Asian nation, but another civil war looms on the horizon.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The army’s defeat by rebels in the Rasht Valley on 19 September has laid bare Tajikistan’s fragility and the weakness of its president. Above all, it has shaken public confidence in the government and its policies. This raises questions about US and NATO strategy of establishing partnerships in the region and stabilising the situation in Afghanistan.

Official sources report that on 19 September a Tajik military column was attacked in the Komarob Gorge, Rasht Valley. Some 28 soldiers were killed and another 25 were injured. The attackers were led by Alovuddin Davlatov (aka Ali Bedak), a former field commander during the civil war of the nineties, and included Islamic radicals and local clans marginalised by the government in recent years.

Such a union is very dangerous because these groups are in control of a large area of the Rasht Valley, and have significant following in the local population. Since the end of the civil war in 1997, the valley has largely been a no-go area for the government and a transit route for narcotics.

Stung by the attack, the army mounted a counteroffensive on 22-24 September, claiming eight dead among the rebels.

For a long time, the Rasht Valley has been a safe haven for anti-government forces. However, in May 2009, the army moved into the area (with perhaps 2,000 troops) and since then clashes have followed on a regular basis with dozens of dead and arrests, including Ali Bedak’s brother, a prominent leader in the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

Now, civil war veterans who refused to accept the 1997 peace agreement are tempted to join local leaders, al-Qaeda-connected radical Islamists and Chechen rebels against the government.

An escalation of the armed conflict is a major threat to the army, which might not be able to control the situation, the more so considering that the government of President Rahmon must cope with a worsening economic crisis and a growing number of hungry people as well as accusations that it is excessively authoritarian. All this encourages the development of a radical Muslim opposition.

The country’s international position does not help either since it borders Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, both of which have their own domestic troubles, and has bad relations with Uzbekistan and a very difficult relationship with Russia.

Under the circumstances, problems in remote parts of the Rasht Valley could explode and engulf the whole country in another civil war.

Both the United States and NATO have logistical bases in Tajikistan and in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, which serve as transits point to Afghanistan. Growing instability would threaten their strategy of using these bases as safe havens and resupply centres for their forces in Afghanistan.

Washington offered to set up an anti-terrorist training centre in the country to increase US presence and ensure greater stability. Russia is opposed in order to maintain its privileged relations with the former Soviet republic and remain the paramount power in former Soviet Central Asia.

Moreover, Russia but also Tajikistan as well as the other Central Asian nations and China, are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). For Moscow, closer military co-operation in SCO is a priority.

The country’s growing instability and the weakening of Tajikistan’s pro-western President Rahmon could help Moscow strengthen its role as guarantor of stability, and justify a greater Russian military presence at the expense of NATO and the United States.

However, a number of observers are sceptical about Russia’s capacity since it has failed so far to contain, let alone beat, Islamic radicalism within its own borders. Instead, a weaker Tajik government could open the way for a military victory by local groups, with unpredictable results for the entire region.

Updating and Reprogramming the Human Mind

Eliminate Anxiety by Reprogramming the Mind

WEBWIRE

A current study by the University of Montreal is investigating the link between punishment and the development of anxiety disorders in children. Researchers explain that harsh parenting may alter the child’s biochemistry and cause permanent physical changes in the brain and psychological problems.

But Mind Coach David Kynan is proving conventional beliefs about psychology wrong. The results he’s getting in treating anxiety are making some people rethink their approach to mental health.

“I really don’t have any anxiety anymore. I wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. It’s like a switch has been flipped in my mind” says Kirk, one of David’s latest clients”My behaviour, my mood and even my outlook on life has changed”

In fact, many of Kynan’s clients testify to rapid changes, rapid turnaround and the resolution of seemingly unsolvable problems.

Kynan’s explanation defies the traditional view: “We are told that conditions like anxiety are biochemical, that they are hard-wired and that the solution is medication. In reality problems like anxiety are learned, and they can be unlearned”

Using a synthesis of various methods, Kynan helps clients take back control of their mind and emotions. He says that what he offers is not therapy, but rather, “an active and dynamic process that helps people update their mental software” He is convinced that people can reprogram their minds to overcome even the most difficult of psychological problems.

“Psychology has always focused on why someone has a problem. I look at how it works” says Kynan. “Every problem has a structure and works as a system. When we find what the building blocks of the experience are, then we can rearrange the pieces”

According to Kynan, in conditions like anxiety and panic, people confuse problems with symptoms. Anxiety is the symptom of a problem, whereas the cause is hidden behind the scenes in the mind. Struggles to resolve the symptom without uncovering the real problem will inevitably fail. “I help them uncover the mental template hidden beneath the surface that is keeping the problem in place and update it”

Through his most popular presentation, “The Instruction Manual for the Mind”, Kynan teaches groups of rapt listeners, individuals and corporate staff alike, how the mind works and how to beat our most common problems.

His methodology is based on a model of psychology called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), a system born in the 1970’s in Santa Cruz, California as a synthesis of the most effective approaches to therapy. NLP was the subject of a feature article in the Montreal Gazette in 2008.

Kynan has synthesized the thinking of NLP with other methods and created his own approach to rapid change. A type of “Sherlocke Holmes of the mind” Kynan’s work sparked the interest of the Canadian Human Rights Commission where he was invited to speak, as well as such companies as Ericcson and Sunlife Financial.

Through his blog entitled, “The Instruction Manual for the Mind” Kynan shares his insights on the secrets to change: http://www.MindworksCoaching.net/blog

More information about David’s methods can be found at www.MindworksCoaching.net

Former US Ambassador to India Stirring-up Sh*t in Mumbai

[Robert Blackwill is working hard to create his vision of a divided Afghanistan solution and an anti-Pakistan offensive of some kind (SEE: Robert Blackwill’s ‘Plan B’ is Recipe for New Civil War In Afghanistan).]

US’s decade-long Pakistan strategy has failed, says Robert Blackwill

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times

Mumbai

The US’s strategy towards Pakistan over the past decade, which involves providing it economic and military help in a bid to influence its behaviour, has failed, said Robert Blackwill, a former U.S. ambassador to India, on Monday. For that reason, this is a very good time for the US to reconsider its strategy towards Pakistan, he said, during a talk titled ‘Does India have a grand strategy?’ in south Mumbai. India should evolve a sophisticated alternative for the U.S. instead of merely offering it “bumper-sticker advice” that it should just “give Pakistan an ultimatum.”

Indeed, while India had strategies to deal with most of its vital national interests, such as bringing the masses out of poverty and dealing with internal security threats, it did not have a grand strategy to “diminish the terrorist threat emanating from Pakistan,” he said.

Blackwill defined a “grand strategy” as “the art of pursuing national goals in way that improves a nation’s ability to shape and cope with the conditions of an ever-changing international environment.”

“Pakistan has used terrorism as an instrument of policy against India for twenty years to try to press India into flexibility over Kashmir,” said Blackwill, a long-standing pro-India diplomat.

“An objective observer would say that this has not succeeded. Yet cross-border terrorist infiltration continues from Pakistan… It remains to be seen whether this twenty-year display of extraordinary restraint by India is going to continue.”

In contrast with its strategy towards Pakistan, India does have grand strategies towards the U.S. and China, he said. India’s decade-long, two-pronged grand strategy towards the US is to develop ever-closer ties while maintaining ITS freedom of action in the global arena.

“It’s working, despite the challenges,” he said, adding that disagreements over the future of Afghanistan, how to deal with China and outsourcing were just blips in an otherwise ever-deepening relationship. With respect to China, India tries to promote a positive, long-term relationship with Beijing, while hedging against a less than positive response, he said.

But both New Delhi and Washington are struggling over almost 18 months to develop a more aggressive set of policies in response to China’s various actions. For India, there was undoubtedly a “negative trend” in China’s treatment of border issues and Kashmir, he said.

Hundreds protest FBI raids on anti-war activists

By STEVE KARNOWSKI (AP) – 9 hours ago

MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of protesters gathered outside FBI offices in Minneapolis and Chicago on Monday, bearing signs and shouting chants condemning the agency’s recent searches of homes and offices of anti-war activists in both cities.

About 150 people protested in Minneapolis, with signs reading: “Stop FBI harassment. Opposing war is not a crime.” Roughly 120 people marched in Chicago, chanting, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! FBI raids have got to go!”

Search warrants had indicated investigators were looking for connections between the activists and radical groups in Colombia and the Middle East. Activists interviewed by The Associated Press scoffed at the suggestion that they might have provided material support to terrorism, and denied contributing money to terrorists.

One of the homes searched was that of Jess Sundin of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee. She told protesters that she knows of 13 people who have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago next month.

Sundin and two other Minnesotans who were searched — Mick Kelly, and Meredith Aby — acknowledged in interviews Monday that they’ve had ties to activist groups and have traveled in the Middle East and-or Colombia. But they all denied contributing any money to terrorist groups.

“We have provided no material support,” Kelly said. “I can’t stress that long enough or loud enough, and honestly I don’t believe that’s why we’re facing this scrutiny.”

The FBI had searched five homes of anti-war activists in Minneapolis on Friday, plus the offices of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee. They also searched two homes of activists in Chicago. Agents confiscated computers, cell phones, large amounts of papers and financial records, the subjects and their attorneys said.

Agents were seeking “evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism,” the FBI said. Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice declined on Monday to discuss what agents were looking for, citing an “ongoing criminal investigation.” There have been no arrests.

Search warrants and subpoenas indicate authorities are looking for connections between the activists and groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Hezbollah. The U.S. government considers those groups to be terrorist organizations.

Among the speakers in Chicago were two activists whose home was raided, Joe Iosbaker and his wife, Stephanie Weiner.

“We will not be intimidated,” Iosbaker told the crowd, with people cheering in response.

Iosbaker told the crowd FBI agents had gone through everything in their home, including their music collection and their sons’ school notebooks. He said the agents also found more than 20 boxes containing family papers and mementos dating back decades.

“What they learned is that we are packrats,” he said, laughing.

All of these searched in Minnesota were involved in organizing a mass anti-war march at the start of the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

The subpoena delivered to Kelly ordered him to produce records he might have relating to the Middle East and Colombia, along with “all records of any payment provided directly or indirectly to Hatem Abudayyeh.”

The searches in Chicago also targeted Abudayyeh, a Palestinian-American and executive director of the Arab American Action Network, which has been fighting anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment following the Sept. 11 attacks. Abudayyeh’s attorney, Jim Fennerty, said agents took a laptop and any documents containing the word “Palestine” during Friday’s search.

Fennerty said Abudayyeh doesn’t have ties to terrorist groups. Abudayyeh has not responded to multiple requests for comment; voicemail boxes for his cell and work phones were full on Monday. Fennerty said Abudayyeh is with his hospitalized mother.

Sundin said Monday she met FARC rebels when she visited Colombia in 2000, but noted that the Colombian government was holding peace talks at the time with the rebels, who held public forums where she met them. She said she has had no contacts with FARC since.

Kelly and Sundin acknowledged they’re active in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a group named in several warrants that openly supports FARC and PFLP and shares their Marxist ideologies. Two groups use the name after a 1999 split. They said their Freedom Road is a small group, but that they weren’t sure how many supporters it has. Kelly edits its newspaper.

An anti-war activist in Durham, N.C., also said his home was searched Friday. Kosta Harlan said FBI agents tried to question him about an ongoing terrorism investigation, but he refused to answer questions. He would not say what the agents asked.

Associated Press Writers Michael Tarm and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

Balochistan in dire need

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Balochistan in dire need , posted with vodpod

Holbrooke Looking for Reinforcements From Bangladesh

AFP/File – Bangladeshi Army soldiers stand guard near an army vehicle in Dhaka in April, 2010.

US seeks Bangladesh troops for Afghanistan: Dhaka

DHAKA (AFP) – The United States has urged Bangladesh to sendcombat troops to Afghanistan to help the multinational effort bring stability to the war-torn country, Dhaka’s foreign ministry said Sunday.

The request was made during meetings in New York between Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and the United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke.

Holbrooke said the US needed the “help of friends like Bangladesh” to ensure security in Afghanistan, according to a government statement released in Dhaka.

“He sought for any kind of help like deploying combat troops, providing economic and development assistance or giving training among the law enforcement agencies,” it said.

Moni said the government would consider the request.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh is a major contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world, but has no troops in Afghanistan.

Talibans ‘warn Bangladesh’ Tue, Sep 28th, 2010 12:13 pm BdST

Dhaka, Sept 28 (bdnews24.com)—The Afghan Talibans have warned Bangladesh against deployment of its army to assist the coalition forces fighting them in Afghanistan. The Times of India, citing the international news agency AFP, on Tuesday ran a report where it said that the Talibans implored the Bangladesh government to reject a US request for sending troops to the war-ravaged south Asian country. The request, which is yet to be accepted by Dhaka, was made by US envoy Richard Holbrooke during his talks in New York with Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni. The Talibans responded by posting messages in Arabic and Pashto on its website while Jihadist forums called on Dhaka to spurn the US request, the US monitoring service SITE said. bdnews24.com/adk/ec/1212h.

Petraeus Threatens To Do To Pakistan Just What I Have Been Saying

[The last time US forces did this was on September 3, 2008. Circumstances were much different then, considering that the invading helicopters were met by Pakistani machine gun fire.  Nothing this time, demonstrating the total Pak Army surrender to US demands. ]

Dismantle militant web in tribal areas or face action: Petraeus to Pak

A top US military commander has issued veiled warnings to the Pakistan Army brass that America could launch ground operations in tribal areas, if Islamabad refused to dismantle the militant network in North Waziristan.

The warning by Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General David H Petraeus, the ‘New York Times’ said, was evidence of the growing frustration of US officials who believe that Pakistanis are unlikely to launch a military operation in the area, suspected by Western intelligence to be a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives.

“Petraeus wants to turn up the heat on the safe havens,” a senior official was quoted as saying, and this was the reason that US forces had sharply stepped up drone strikes in the area.

“He has pointed out to the Pakistanis that they could do more.”

The official said the drone operations had also been intensified to preempt a possible terrorist attack in several European countries. US and European intelligence agencies are evaluating the intelligence data of a possible al-Qaeda or Taliban attack on the European mainland.

As part of its covert war in the region, the CIA has launched 20 drone attacks in the last 24 days, killing more than 100 Taliban and foreign militants. The strikes have been mainly targeted to hit the Haqqani network, which the Americans believe is based in the area.

“There are some pretty notable threat streams,” one US military official, was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.

Beyond the CIA drone strikes, the war in the region is escalating in other ways. American military gunships have launched three strikes into Pakistan that military officials estimate killed more than 50 people suspected of being members of the Haqqani network, which is responsible for the spate of deadly attacks against American troops.

Such air strikes by the US and NATO military forces remain rare, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has defended them saying that Western Pakistan is becoming one of the most dangerous parts of the world.

The NYT said the strikes point to a new willingness by military officials to expand the boundaries of the campaign against the Taliban and Haqqani network, while American “surge” forces are in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have angrily criticised the helicopter attacks saying that NATO’s mandate in Afghanistan does not extend across the border into Pakistan.

The NYT said that special operations Commanders have also been updating plans for cross-border raids, which would require approval from President Obama.

For now, official said it remains unlikely that the US would make good on such threats to send America troops over the border, given the blowback inside Pakistan, an ally.

But, the NYT said that could change, if Pakistan based militants were successful in carrying out terrorists attacks on American soil.

Baloch Liberation Front Threatens Revenge for Iranian/Pakisani Joint Actions

Baloch Liberation Front claimed responsibility of attack on Pakistan forces

Baloch Liberation Front Warns to expand its actions in western Iranian Occupied Balochistan if Iran doesn’t stop collaborating with Pakistan: Translated by Archen Baloch 27/9/10 Occupied Balochistan: (NNI) Speaking through a satellite telephone from an undisclosed place, Baloch liberation Front’s spokesperson Mir Doda told NNI that its defense force have carry out an attack on Navy camp of Pakistani occupying forces on 25-09-2010 in Turbat, in which heavy casualties have been inflicted upon them. Mir Doda also affirmed the report that BLF has also carry out an attack on a local Pakistani mole, Khair Mohamd s/o Babul, who have been passing on information about Baloch Sarmachars (freedom fighter) to Pakistani enemy forces in Kharan. He also warned that BLF would be forced to expand its actions in Western Balochistan if Iran did not stop carrying out further joint military operations with Pakistan within the border of Pakistani occupied Eastern Balochistan. He said at present their actions were limited within Pakistani Occupied Eastern Balochistan. He condemned the brutal violence of Pakistani forces against Baloch Women, elders and children in Beseema Mastung. Mir Doda also paid rich tribute to the martyrdom of Ali Sher Advocate who had been killed by Pakistanis military in illegal detention, he said that they would welcome such unbridled Genocides. He pledged that they would avenge the murder of their all leaders. The Punjabis and its mercenary Pashtun forces should now be prepared for receiving the death bodies of their illegal forces on Baloch soil. We would not relent until Balochistan is liberated. The state sponsored target killings have enormously increased the morale of Baloch nation and Sarmachars (freedom Fighters) to new heights.

How the Drug War Undermines the War on Terror

How the Drug War Undermines the War on Terror.pdf

Pakistan’s True Messiah to Save American Mission?

Pervez Musharraf to return from exile in Britain as ‘saviour’ of Pakistan

Pakistan’s former military leader, Pervez Musharraf, tells Colin Freeman why his country needs him again – and why British troops must stay the course in Afghanistan

Pervez Musharraf has no shortage of ideas on how to fight extremists and pacify both his homeland and neighbouring Afghanistan Photo: GEOFF PUGH

For the last two years he has earned a lucrative living on the global lecture circuit, enlightening select audiences on what it was like to have a ringside seat in the war on terror.

As the military ruler of Pakistan in the turbulent period after 9/11, former president Pervez Musharraf has no shortage of ideas on how to fight extremists and pacify both his homeland and neighbouring Afghanistan.

Now the former general is about put his theories to the test – quitting his comfortable retirement pad in London, where he has lived since stepping down in 2008, and returning to Pakistan to launch his own political party. The All Pakistan Muslim League will have its opening manifesto launch in London on Friday, aiming for nothing less than to “change the political culture” of his home nation, where last month’s devastating floods have added to already crippling problems with terrorism and weak government.

Indeed, given the scale of the challenges he now plans to grapple with, it is perhaps no surprise to learn that the public speaking firm to which Mr Musharraf is signed with, the elite Harry Walker agency, also has anti-poverty campaigner Bono, climate change guru Al Gore and several other stars of the “how-to-save-the-world” school of motivational speaking on its books.

“I am very comfortable travelling around the world on lectures, but I am going into politics for the greater cause of Pakistan,” Mr Musharraf told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview last week.

“The people have reached the end of their hopes, and I want to try to rekindle their faith in both themselves and Pakistan itself. It would be better to try and fail rather than not to try at all.”

The former special forces soldier was also vocal on the military challenges in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying that the escalating bodycount of British, US and other Nato soldiers should be no excuse for an early pull-out. US-led plans to start drawing down troops by the middle of next year would, he warned, lead to the region becoming a “nexus for terrorists” all over the Muslim world.

“I am not trying to portray a domesday scenario unnecessarily, but the implications would be very serious for Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of world,” he said. “It would encourage and strengthen the Taliban and al-Qaeda, giving them a country to fall back on. Quitting cannot be time related, it has to be effect related.”

In a blunt comment on what he called “bring the boys home” sentiment in Britain, he added that soldiers should not sign up for military service if they did not expect to face combat.

“I don’t understand why there is this issue when an army suffers casualties. Of course you try to keep them to a minimum, and I offer my deep condolences to the family of any soldier is killed, but I would also ask their parents: ‘Why was it that they joined the army? All voluntary armies face occasions where they have to maybe fight for their country and sacrifice their lives.”

Mr Musharraf, 67, was speaking at his flat off London’s Edgware Road, where he lives in a smart three-bedroom apartment in London’s Arab district. Handy for the smart restaurants of nearby Mayfair, where he and his wife are regular faces, it is also close to reminders of the turbulence in his homeland.

Nearby Edgware Road tube station was among those hit by the July 7 bombers, carried by British-born Pakistani radicals, while last week, a few miles away in Edgware itself, Imran Farooq, the exiled leader of Pakistan’s MQM party, was murdered in what may have been a turf war linked to events in Karachi.

Mr Musharraf, who receives occasional Scotland Yard protection himself, declined to speculate on the motive for the killing, but said: “It is terrible that such an assassination could happen in a place like London.”

His self-rebranding as his homeland’s civilian saviour is in marked contrast to how his political career began in 1999, when he became the latest in a long line of Pakistani military leaders to seize power from a civilian government seen as incompetent and corrupt.

As the title of his recent biography In the Line of Fire suggests, he then came under huge US pressure to clamp down on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the wake of 9-11, much to the fury of religious hardliners in his own country. His star faded further as he clung to power for a further seven years, culminating in calls from political rivals for him to face criminal charges when he finally stepped down.

Since then, though, his reputation has recovered somewhat, not least because the civilian administration of President Ali Asif Zardari, who was elected in late 2008, is seen to have done little better. Widespread public anger at his government’s lacklustre response to the floods, which have left 12 million in need of emergency food aid, could well prove a filip to Mr Musharraf’s new party.

While he declined to comment on Mr Zardari’s performance, Mr Musharraf said: “There is a hell of a lot of disappointment among the people over the way the flood relief was tackled.”

He added: “What is required is unity of thought and action between three elements; the political forces, the army and the bureaucracy. They need an individual who can get them to think and act alike.”

Whether Mr Musharraf will find politics as easy in civilian clothes remains to be seen though. His fledgling party may struggle against the more established political groupings like Mr Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, which has enjoyed a mass following for several decades. He is, however, looking forward to one advantage that he lacked during his previous stints in power – legitimacy.

“Personally I never saw myself as a dictator, even though people called me that, but now when I come back I will be a politician on normal terms. I am also a born optimist, which helps. We have everything going in Pakistan – the failure is only of leadership, not the people.”

Tajikistan; We Are Coming

Next U.S. destabilization target: Tajikistan

By Wayne Madsen

After establishing destabilization programs in Pakistan and Iran, the CIA, with the help of MOSSAD, has embarked on a major program to carry out false flag terrorist attacks in Tajikistan with the goal of bringing that country firmly into the American orbit. WMR’s intelligence sources in Asia report the move by Washington and Tel Aviv to consolidate control over Tajikistan is aimed at eliminating Tajikistan as a potential ally of Iran in any military showdown between the West and Iran. Tajikistan, with its Pamiri Shi’a Muslim minority and Tajik-Persian-speaking population, is a country where Iran enjoys widespread popular support.Tajikistan, which lies to the north of Afghanistan, also hosts a U.S., French, and Indian military presence.

Washington would also like to wean Tajikistan away from membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which unites China, Russia, and central Asian republics against the West as a de facto counterpart to NATO.

Just as with their playbook in Pakistan and Iran, the CIA and MOSSAD are conducting terrorist attacks in Tajikistan, which suffered a bloody civil war in the 1990s between forces loyal to President Emomali Rakhmon and Muslim insurgents, that are being blamed on two groups said to be affilated with “Al Qaeda,” the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Hizb ut-Tahrir. On September 19, the IMU was said to have claimed responsibility for an attack on a Tajik army unit in eastern Tajikistan that resulted in the deaths of 23 Tajik military personnel. The attacks bear some similarities to MOSSAD-initiated attacks on Turkish military units in that country that are subsequently blamed on Kurdish guerrillas.

WMR previously reported on links between the IMU and the CIA. Abdufattoh Ahmadis, the IMU spokesman who claimed responsibility for the attack on the Tajik military forces, curiously chose to send his videotape to Radio Liberty’s studio in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital. Radio Liberty, once run by the CIA, is now largely influenced by George Soros’s Open Society Institute.

Last February, Baluchi Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi was reportedly scheduled to meet with Tajik Islamic extremists on the CIA’s payroll in Manas, Kyrgyzstan to coordinate anti-Iranian terrorist activities between Jundullah and Tajik Islamic militants in Iran. Jundullah had carried out a number of terrorist attacks in western Iran from its bases in Pakistan. Rigi’s flight to Kyrgyzstan was intercepted by Iranian forces who captured Rigi, put him on trial for terrorism, and eventually executed him.

The United States is seeking the same military basing rights in Tajikistan as enjoyed by India at its base in Ayni. However, when news that Tajikistan had negotiated a deal for a base in Tajikistan, Rakhmon backtracked. Tajikistan is now being faced with an “Al Qaeda”-directed destabilization campaign. The most recent attack on Tajik military forces took place on the A372 highway in the mountainous region of Pamir, home to Tajikistan’s pro-Iranian Shi’a minority, and which links Tajikistan to the restive Ferghana Valley of Kyrgyzstan, where the CIA and MOSSAD provide military aid to Islamic insurgents on their payroll who also provide assistance to anti-Chinese Uighur separatists in the neighboring Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region.

The covert U.S. and Israeli operations in Central Asia are being coordinated by the U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan/Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke was due to meet with Rigi in Manas but the meeting never took place because of the Iranian capture of Rigi, who, under torture, provided details of the U.S. and Israeli operations aimed at destabilizing the entire Central Asian region to apply pressure on both China and Russia.

Recently active ”Al Qaeda” franchises, Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have been blamed for terrorist attacks in Yemen and French interests in Noreth Africa, respectively. In fact, both groups, fronts for the CIA and MOSSAD, like the IMU in central Asia, are being used to justify the pro-Israel, anti-Muslim, and expansionistic foreign and military policies of Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Madsen is a regular contributor on Russia Today. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. Madsen has taken on Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity on their television shows.  He has been invited to testifty as a witness before the US House of Representatives, the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government.

As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He subsequently worked for the National Security Agency, the Naval Data Automation Command, Department of State, RCA Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation.

Madsen is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Association for Intelligence Officers (AFIO), and the National Press Club.

The Kremlin is considering equipping the military functions to fight drug cartels

[Russian Air Force practiced aerial elimination of drug field and lab sources in Afghanistan, during recent SCO “Peace Mission 2010” exercises is Kazakhstan, in preparation for possible military counter-narcotics missions in Afghanistan.  If Russian military forces (including air force) actually join with Western forces in Afghanistan then the game will be over; the Taliban will have no place left to hide.]

Mukhin

Viktor Ivanov intends to win the drug barons with the help of the army.
The presidential administration is preparing a draft presidential decree, Dmitry Medvedev, the inclusion of the State anti-drug committee (SAC) representative of the military. Apparently, this representative will be Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov. It is the army leadership’s intention to entrust the function of combating organized armed groups engaged in drug trafficking from Afghanistan through neighboring CIS countries in Russia and Europe. A General Staff will manage this process. Such information is provided “NG” a Kremlin source.

“It’s a paradox: in the current SAC presents almost all the ministries down to sports and recreation, but officials of the Defense Ministry is not there – shared their opinions with” NG “officer of the Federal Service for Drug Control (FSKN), who asked not to be name. – Although the experience of many countries in Latin America and Southern Europe is well-armed army and navy to help police fight gangs of drug cartels. ”

As the source stressed, “Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the Federal Drug Control Service does not have special forces capable to deal with major organized narkobandami, and here have a role to play Army and Navy. The officer referred to the chairman’s statement HOOK, director of the Federal Service for Drug Control Viktor Ivanov, who last Friday said the need to “form a counter-narcotics forces in the Defense Ministry in order to use the facilities of the military authorities in opposition to large-scale drug trafficking.” According to Ivanov, is due to the fact that “drug criminals are increasingly using firearms, including automatic and grenade launchers.” Military units could serve as analytic functions and power, the head of Federal Drug Control Service.

Viktor Ivanov is not the first time in favor of bringing the army to fight organized drug crime. As you know, at the end of June this year he called for the emergence in southern Kyrgyzstan Russia’s new military base to combat drug trafficking. And now the Ministry of Defense leadership is already in talks on this issue with the Kyrgyz side. True, the powers and functions of a Russian military facility, which is scheduled to deploy to Kyrgyzstan, will be broader. Although it is likely that Russian troops would be ready to fight with organized narkobandami.

Defense Ministry official reaction to the initiatives of the head of Federal Drug Control Service to bring the army for anti-drug fight has not yet been reported. However, in the expert community there is a consensus that the leadership of the Defense Ministry will not object to providing him with such additional powers. Even more than that – one of the officers Glavkomata Air Force in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta did not rule out that “if a political decision is Air Force is ready to fight against poppy cultivation and its processing factories in opium and heroin in Afghanistan.” According to him, such training and combat missions already practiced. Among them was done on working out ended last Saturday in Kazakhstan anti-terror exercises SCO “Peace Mission 2010”, which went together with my colleagues on the SCO, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

According to Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, the initiative of Viktor Ivanov on bringing troops to fight organized drug crime “very relevant”.He was confident that the Russian army could play an important role in strengthening the state border of Russia with other CIS countries. This is even more significant, “since NATO troops do not pay enough attention to the fight against drugs in Afghanistan.” Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, who has long headed the Defense Ministry General Directorate of International Military Cooperation, also believes that the involvement of the military department in the fight against drug cartels – “a reasonable and essential phenomenon.” According to him, the army will deal with here is quite specific cases related to the strengthening of state security. Especially in the Joint Staff, he believes, is capable and effective intelligence structures, which can also make a significant contribution to the fight against drug trafficking.

09.27.2010 / Vladimir Mukhin

Source – The Independent Newspaper

Breaking Israel’s Stranglehold over American Foreign Policy

The Truth Will Set U.S. Free:

If Israel’s stranglehold over U.S. foreign policy is to be broken, Americans will need to be informed about the harm that Washington’s unconditional support for the Jewish state is doing to American interests, say leading analysts of U.S.-Israeli relations.

According to John J. Mearsheimer, co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, “The only plausible way to weaken the lobby’s influence on U.S. foreign policy is for prominent policymakers and opinion-makers to speak openly about the damage the special relationship is doing to the American national interest.”

“Plenty of people in the United States, especially inside the Beltway, know that Israel is an albatross around America’s neck,” says Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. “But they are afraid to stand up and say that for fear that the lobby will attack them and damage their careers.”

“Hopefully, some of them will develop a backbone,” he adds.

Philip Giraldi, executive director of the Council for the National Interest, believes that Tel Aviv’s stranglehold over Washington can be broken “only by directly challenging the power of the Israel lobby and the false narrative about how it is of value to the United States.”

Giraldi, a contributing editor to The American Conservative, says that “it must be done from the bottom up as Israel cannot be challenged in the mainstream media, Congress, and in the White House.”

“The American people must learn that Israel is and always has been a strategic liability that has done immense damage to the United States and its worldwide interests,” concludes the former CIA officer.

If there is to be an end to Israel’s decades-long “sway over Congress and intimidating presidents,” says Jeffrey Blankfort, a prominent Jewish American critic of Israel and its American lobby, “it will require appeals and actions beginning on a local level that inform the American people not so much about what Israel has done to the Palestinians but what its unregistered agents in the U.S., euphemistically described as ‘lobbyists,’ have done to destroy what little is left of American democracy and the attendant costs in flesh and blood, as well as its tax dollars.”

A long-time pro-Palestinian activist noted for his trenchant critique of Noam Chomsky, Blankfort attributes the failure of such efforts to get off the ground to “the continued unwillingness of the leading figures of the Palestinian solidarity movement in the U.S. to acknowledge the invidious power of the Zionist Lobby,” who, following Chomsky’s anti-imperialist analysis, prefer to “place the primary responsibility for Israel’s crimes and U.S. Middle East policies at Washington’s doorstep.”

“So the first steps,” Blankfort suggests, “may be to publicly challenge these figures while at the same time moving past them and addressing the American people directly.”

No American President will ever have enough latitude to resolve the conflict in Palestine “unless and until enough Americans are informed enough to make their democracy work,” according to Alan Hart, former Middle East Chief Correspondent for Britain’s Independent Television News.

“In other words,” explains Hart, who was also a BBC Panorama presenter specializing in the Middle East, “if President Obama or any of his successors is ever going to be free to confront and defeat the Zionist lobby’s stooges in Congress and the mainstream media, there has got to be created a constituency of understanding about why it is not in America’s own best interests to go on supporting Zionism’s monster child right or wrong.”

The essence of the problem, Hart argues in the three-volume American edition of his book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, is that “Americans have been conditioned, brainwashed, to believe a version of history, Zionism’s version, which is a pack of propaganda lies.”

Jeff Gates, former counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, believes that “transparency, accountability and better design” are required to break Israel’s hold on American foreign policy.

“At present, the American public is ignorant of Israel’s all-pervasive influence. Its control includes the media-enabled deployment of fixed intelligence to induce this nation to war for Greater Israel,” says Gates, author of Guilt By Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War.

“We will know that accountability is underway when we see federal grand juries convened to consider charges against Israel’s agents, assets and sayanim (volunteers). When a jury brings in the first verdict for treason, Americans will know that the rule of law is being restored. We will know that a solution is within sight when the many appendages of its lobby are required to register as foreign agents.”

Maidhc Ó Cathail is a widely published writer based in Japan.

Escalation of Drone Attacks Coincides With Kandahar Offensive–No Coincidence

[American airborne terror bombings are having the desired effect for the desired reasons, to provoke violence which will justify an outright invasion of Pakistan by American/NATO Special Forces troops, accompanied by intensive air support.  This is criminal aggression of the first order and the world sits idly by, doing nothing, except drooling over the possibility of getting in on the American gravy train as pay-off for their silence.  If it doesn’t make you sick, it should.] Repeated U.S. drone strikes could spark another round of terrorist attacks in Pakistan

English.news.cn

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — At least nine people were killed and another two injured in three U.S. drone strikes launched on Sunday evening in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of North Waziristan, reported local media.

According to the reports, the U.S. drones launched three strikes at different targets in Miranshah, North Waziristan, a place bordering Afghanistan, which is believed to be one of the strongholds of militants in Pakistan.

During the first strike, the U.S. drones fired three missiles at a house located at the Datta Khel Road in Miranshah, killing at least four people and injuring two others.

In the second strike, six to seven U.S. drones seen hovering over Miranshah fired five missiles at a target at the Tarmano Road in the area, killing at least three people.

In the third strike, the U.S. drones fired one missile at another target in the Miranshah, killing at least two people.

The third strike launched by U.S. drones on Sunday evening counts for the eighth of its kind over the past week. Starting from last Sunday, the U.S. drones have apparently stepped up its strike against the militants hiding in Pakistan’s northwest tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan. So far over 40 people including some important militant leaders have reportedly been killed in the strikes since last Sunday.

The so-called precision strikes of the U.S. drones against militants have also mistakenly killed many other innocent people. There are reports saying that the death ratio of militants killed against civilians in such strikes stands at about 1 against 25, leading to a strong anti-American sentiment in the country.

Local watchers believe that the repeated U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, plus the recent sentencing of a Pakistani female scientist named Aafia Siddiqui to 86-year imprisonment by a US court over terrorism charges, could lead to another round of fierce terrorist attacks in the country.

On Saturday night three NATO oil tankers were attacked by Taliban in Pakistan and Pakistan Talibans have threatened to continue attacks on NATO convoys supplying goods to the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan through the land route of Pakistan unless Aafia Siddiqui, a female Pakistani scientist recently sentenced to 86-year imprisonment by a US court, is released and returned to Pakistan.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Reports from Turkish Weekly That PKK Leaving Turkey

[If this report is correct, then it will probably mean that the PKK will substantially increase its strength in Northern Iraq, just in time for the battle for permanent partition of the country really heats-up.]

PKK Militants Leaving Turkey

Militants of the terrorist organization PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) are promptly leaving the territory of Turkey, the Turkish newspaper Taraf wrote.

According to the newspaper, the leader of the organization, Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in Imrali island prison, ordered the militants to leave the areas, where a probability of clashes with Turkish troops is high, CNN Turk reported.

Commenting on this report, President Abdullah Gul said on Sunday that Turkey would not allow any terrorist group to operate on its soil.

“If they have understood this, it is a good development,” – Gul said.

Indian Press Carries Rumor of Pakistani Taliban (TTP) Plans for Hit on Gen. Kayani

[Consider this report to be pure disinformation to quell recent reports of Kayani meeting with Taliban, including Haqqanis.  Believe it only if it comes to pass, successfully.] Kayani, corps commanders on Pak Taliban’s hit list: Intelligence agencies

2010-09-27 15:20:00

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is planning to target Pakistan Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani and corps commanders, intelligence agencies have warned. The warning about attacks on the high profile officials came after they received details of a Taliban meeting held in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. According to The Nation, the participants at the meeting discussed the arrangements for future terrorist activities and decided to launch an effective terrorist operation to eliminate the pro-American elements in the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments. The intelligence report also pointed out that planning of the recent terrorist attacks, including the attack on the American Consulate in Peshawar, had been the part of the said meeting. “It has been further learnt that it was also decided in this meeting to target Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and corps commanders close to him in the near future” the report mentioned. (ANI)

Russia and China sign series of energy agreements

The presidents of Russia and China toast the signing of a series of deals on energy co-operation

China and Russia have signed a series of agreements to boost energy co-operation during a ceremony to open an oil pipeline between the countries.

Leaders of the two nations agreed deals on gas supplies, energy efficiency, renewable energy and nuclear power.

President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting China, where he and President Hu Jintao opened a pipeline that will supply Russian oil under a 20-year deal.

Both sides hailed the move as a “new era” in co-operation.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told reporters in Beijing that Russia was in talks with China on plans to supply natural gas from 2015.

“Russia is ready to meet China’s full demand in gas”, said Mr Sechin.

However, while it is thought that the two sides have agreed terms on the volume of gas to be supplied, they have not agreed a price.

‘Milestone’

In August, Russia opened its section of a 625-mile (1,000km) oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to China.

The pipe connects Russian oil fields with Daqing, a major oil production base in northeastern China.

“Both sides believe that the current strategic partnership between China and Russia stands at a new starting point,” President Hu said.

“The smooth completion of the pipeline project is a model of the two countries’ mutually beneficial win-win cooperation and a milestone for Sino-Russian energy co-operation.”

The Crisis of Consciousness

Featured Columnist – Meditations Martin LeFevre

There’s a lot of talk these days about a “revolution in consciousness.” The vast portion of it is just that—talk.

It simply isn’t true to say “we’re in the middle of a revolution in consciousness.” But does the verbiage indicate that a genuine change is occurring in man’s consciousness? No, not at this point.

A revolution in consciousness refers to a radically different way of perceiving and thinking about nature and the world, not the knowledge neuroscientists are gaining into the mechanics of mental processes. It’s brainless to equate a revolution in consciousness with brain research.

Much more importantly, the darkening and delimiting of man’s consciousness is increasing exponentially. That’s primarily because the fundamental assumption at the core of what we think of as consciousness—the center as self—not only remains unchallenged, but is idolized.

As the crisis of consciousness intensifies, some commentators are reviving the old Freudian division of the conscious and unconscious minds. That old idea certainly won’t provide a light at the end of the infinitely regressing tunnel.

The unconscious level is no more important or intelligent than the conscious mind. It’s largely the storehouse of unexperienced experiences and unfelt emotions. In other words, the unconscious is the repository of unexamined conditioning. And psychological conditioning is never intelligent.

The unconscious level is the active dimension of the past. Without self-knowing, people act out of it, and become conduits for the growing darkness of collective consciousness.

Dispensing with the silly distinction between the conscious and unconscious levels, and without creating another duality, we need to make a sharp distinction between two orders of consciousness. Only then can we give any clear and coherent meaning to a revolution in consciousness.

There is the consciousness we generally experience, based on thought and memory. But with the ending of that consciousness, even momentarily, there is another consciousness, which flows from awareness and insight.

In other words, the brain dominated by thought generates the consciousness we know. But there is another kind of consciousness altogether, which awakens in the brain (and is infinitely greater than thought-consciousness) when thought falls essentially silent.

Most of us, most of the time, have a partial consciousness based on thought, which blocks and precludes true consciousness. Moreover, that partial consciousness, which once contained the richness of myth and tradition, is devolving dangerously in humankind.

What reverses the movement of darkness within man, individually and collectively, and awakens the consciousness of the cosmos in the human being?

There is no method, but I find that the negation of memory and experience in the act of undivided, unwilled attention in the mirror of nature creates a profound shift in consciousness.

The action of spontaneous, undirected attention quiets and cleanses the brain, temporarily at least, of its useless, accumulated content, allowing the mind to fall silent and participate in the consciousness of the cosmos.

To my mind, that is the true meaning of meditation, which entails the ending of thought. For millennia people have tried every trick and technique to achieve a deeply quiet mind, but these are also devices and products of thought. The silence they produce is a specious one, a form of self-hypnosis.

Is the endarkenment of consciousness inevitable with the evolution of sentient species? Apparently, since thought-consciousness accumulates harmful content over the centuries, eventually producing the crisis of consciousness we see in man today. It’s a process exactly the opposite of Teilhard de Chardin’s progressive evolution toward an ‘Omega Point.’

Can the dark matter of thought-consciousness ignite, allowing true consciousness to emerge? What would an actual revolution in consciousness (which again, has nothing to do with scientific knowledge or the conditioning of the unconscious) look like?

There have been two great creative explosions since the beginning of civilization. They produced the previous differences in consciousness between the East and West.

The Greek explosion was primarily intellectual and materialistic, emphasizing the rational mind of the West, at the expense of the emotional and spiritual dimension in the human being.

The other creative explosion occurred in India at the time of the Buddha, and was deeply inward, spiritual, and affective in nature. It is, as far as I know, the only precedent for the revolution in consciousness essential to the survival and flowering of humanity.

This is perhaps why Buddhism has such appeal in the deracinated West. But as Buddhism became an encrusted tradition as well, it slowly lost its insight and perfume. Besides, tradition itself is dead, and has become a tremendous impediment to psychological revolution.

Humankind is in the thrall of thought-consciousness. Is the increasing pressure of man’s fragmentation of the earth and humanity using ‘higher thought’ driving us toward a true revolution in consciousness?

Martin LeFevre

martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net

Anti-War Activists to Protest Against FBI

Area activists protest outside FBI headquarters following raids on Chicago homes

By JENEL NELS

A group of anti-war activists opposed to recent FBI searches at homes in Chicago and Minneapolis have planned a two-daydemonstration outside Chicago FBI headquarters in response to the searches.

“The investigation and the raids are completely baseless. There is nothing criminal about organizing against the war and in solidarity with oppressed people in Colombia, in Palestine, in Iraq and in Afghanistan,” said Maureen Murphy of the Palestine Solidarity Group in Chicago.

Last Friday the FBI searched eight addresses in Chicago andMinneapolis. Warrants suggest the agents were searching for links between the anti-war activists and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East.

“We view these raids as an attack on our entire movement,” said Murphy.

Joe Iosbaker and his wife, Stephanie Weiner, both of Chicago, said the government targeted them because of their outspoken voice against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They both denied any wrongdoing.

An attorney for Iosbaker and Weiner believes a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a free-speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups opened the door to the recent raids.

The FBI says it is not a free speech issue but predicated on “criminal violations.” The agency says it collected 30 boxes of evidence in its raid at the Logan Square couple’s home.

The protests are planned for Monday and Tuesday.

Minneapolis Peace Activists Condemn FBI Raids

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Minneapolis Peace Activists Condemn FBI Raids, posted with vodpod

Laying the Groundwork for the US Invasion of Pakistan

[According to Afghanistan war logs: Al-Qaida alleged to be involved in rocket smuggling, most of the rockets distributed within the “al Qaida” network were 107 mm Norinco rockets (China), Artillery rockets , which have a maximum range of 8,500 meters= 5.28 miles.   If this is the type of rocket observed firing upon the outpost, which is eight miles from the border, then the rockets were not fired from Pakistan, yet it provided sufficient excuse to penetrate deeper into Pakistani space.  What we are seeing is the laying of groundwork to justify a full-scale invasion of Pakistan under the lie of “self-defense.”]

US copters kill 30 inside Pakistan

By Anwar Iqbal

Isaf confirmed that the helicopters struck at the Haqqani Network fighters in Pakistan on Sunday. – Photo by REUTERS (File)

WASHINGTON: US attack helicopters have killed more than 30 people inside Pakistan, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Sunday.

US military sources say that all 30 – killed during a hot pursuit on Friday – were Haqqani Network fighters.

The militants, the sources said, had attacked Combat Outpost Narizah, an Afghan base eight miles from the Pakistani border in Tani district of Khost.

US forces repelled the attack and pursued the militants to their post just across the border in North Waziristan.

“An air weapons team in the area observed the enemy fire, and following Inter-national Security Assistance Force rules of engagement, crossed into the area of enemy fire,” the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release.

“The Isaf aircraft then engaged, killing more than 30 insurgents.”

Isaf confirmed that the helicopters struck at the Haqqani Network fighters in Pakistan.

The attack helicopters launched their attack “after following the proper rules of engagement under inherent right of self-defence,” Master Sergeant Matthew Summers, a public affairs official, told reporters.

On Saturday, Isaf launched a second attack against the Haqqani Network, after taking fire in the border area. “Several additional insurgents” were killed in that attack.

The assault on Combat Outpost Narizah is the sixth against outposts in eastern Afghanistan since the end of August.

The US claims that the Haqqani Network is based near Miramshah in North Waziristan, and has close ties to Al Qaeda and other Pakistani and Central Asian militant groups.

US officials say that Isaf forces are permitted to pursue Taliban forces across the border if they are engaged in fighting or are under attack.

They said that US and Pakistani military commanders have agreed to a set of rules for hot pursuit, which says that US forces must be engaged with the Taliban or Al Qaeda as they cross into Pakistan.

US forces, however, not penetrate more than six miles into Pakistani territory.

But they can go deeper inside Pakistan if they identify the location of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahri, or Mullah Omar.

Pakistan denies having such an agreement while US officials refuse to offer on the record comments on this issue.

Iran cyber attack like a spy novel

Berlin – The report about a cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear programme by the computer worm Stuxnet reads like a chapter from a modern spy novel.

The sophisticated, complicated computer virus has targeted, of all places, controversial nuclear facilities in Iran, a country that the United States has described as a state sponsor of terrorism.

But Stuxnet is not fiction – rather, it’s a worrisome reality.

Security experts have known for months about the vulnerabilities to Stuxnet of computerised control equipment that manage oil pipelines, electric utilities and nuclear plants – particularly software and equipment from Germany’s high tech Siemens.

As early as July, Siemens made virus-scanning software available to its clients after learning of the bug, according to The New York Times.

Siemens said the malware appeared designed to extract data from industrial companies using Siemens software, and had been detected during a routine update of its software with a German industrial client.

On Saturday, Iran confirmed that its industrial computer system had become a victim of cyber-terrorism and that numerous computers were infected with Stuxnet. An IT official of Iran’s mines and metals ministry told the Mehr news agency that 30 000 computers belonging to industrial units made by Siemens had been infected.

Best malware ever

While officials did not mention Iran’s nuclear plants – which include the power plant in Bushehr and the enrichment facility in Natanz – the ISNA news agency reported that the Iranian Atomic Organisation had held a seminar in recent days to improve defences against Stuxnet.

“Stuxnet is the most refined piece of malware ever discovered,” said Alan Bently, vice president of the US security firm Lumension.

“The worm is significant because mischief or financial reward wasn’t its purpose. It was aimed right at the heart of a critical infrastructure,” he said.

Stuxnet was first publicly identified in July, by Belarussian and German security experts, sources and media reports say. It accessed mainly Siemens control equipment by using four critical flaws in Microsoft Windows.

The flaws were identified by German security expert Ralph Langner with a team that identified Siemens as the special target. In early August, Microsoft issued an emergency patch to correct the flaw.

Windows is used by up to 80% of the world’s computers.

Langner spoke of the “hacker of the decade.” On a blog, he offered possible reasons for an attack aimed at Iran. He claimed the virus was developed by insiders who wanted to sabotage such facilities, and noted it was no accident that Iran has had technical problems with its plants in recent weeks.

Digital warfare

Further alarm was raised when it was discovered that the Bushehr facility was using an un-licensed version of Siemens’ special industrial control software.

To make matters worse, it was not properly configured.

“I have never seen anything like that, not even in the smallest cookie plant,” an appalled Langner said, after seeing evidence of the violations in a press photo of a Bushehr central control monitor screen that registered a clear systems error.

Frank Rieger of the Chaos Computer Club, a German-based organisation of hackers, proclaimed: “The first strike of digital warfare has been made.”

Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemein newspaper, he claimed that Stuxnet had sabotaged Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme.

Another expert, author Arne Schoenbohm, says such a scenario is quite possible: “Cyberspace has become the fifth military battlefield, after land, air, water and space.”

Not individual hackers

There’s little surprise that internet rumours speculate that Israel or the US government was behind the attack. There were charges that the US was testing its newly-organised cyber warfare command at the Pentagon.

Derek Reveron, a professor of national security and expert in information technology at the US Naval War College, refuted such speculation in a broadcast interview on Saturday.

He acknowledged that Stuxnet’s sophistication invited such speculation. But he noted that government is way behind the specialised private sphere, upon which it draws for expertise.

He said Stuxnet has spread around the US, to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan, and has prompted inter-governmental co-operation in defeating it.

“The worst scenario would give hackers the ability to control a system where they could impact regulation… and cause physical destruction of a plant,” he told broadcaster Al Jazeera.

“That’s why governments around the world are coming together.”

But experts from Symantec and other security firms believe that individual hackers would never have been able to develop such a sophisticated virus. Given the amount of resources and know-how that would go into developing such malware, there must be a government or at least a state-sponsored private firm behind the attacks, they said.

– SAPA

Iran Kills “Main Elements” behind Bomb Attack

2010-09-27 07:50:52     Xinhua      Web Editor: Xu Leiying

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps of Iran (IRGC) announced on Sunday that Iranian forces have killed main elements behind the recent terrorist bomb attack in Iran’s northwestern city of Mahabad, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. “Combatants of Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada headquarters of the IRGC Ground Force managed to kill the main and key elements behind the recent terrorist attack in Mahabad in a successful operation,” Commander of IRGC Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour was quoted as saying. But Pakpour did not give any further details on the place and date of the operation or the number of deaths and possible casualties, said the Fars report. Iranian officials had earlier vowed to punish those responsible for the deadly attack, which killed 12 people and injured dozens more in Mahabad in Iran’s northwestern province of West Azarbaijan last Wednesday. The Iranian armed forces staged military parades throughout the country last Wednesday to mark the start of the Week of Defense, commemorating Iranian sacrifices during the eight-year Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s.

The Haunting of Our Pakistani Friends In This, Their Greatest Hour of Need

msnbc

Related storyFloods ravage Pakistan – How to help

A father places his hand on his 7 year old son, Abrar, who is suffering from typhoid, at a camp for flood victims in Nowshera, on Sept. 15. The floods are Pakistan’s worst-ever natural disaster in terms of damage, with at least 6 million people forced from their homes and 20 million people affected. The disaster has killed more than 1,750 people, and aid agencies have warned that millions are at risk of death if emergency food and shelter are not quickly provided.(Fayaz Aziz / Reuters)

Stranded flood victims scramble for food rations, dropped by Pakistan Army soldiers from a helicopter on Sept. 13, near the village of Goza in Dadu district in Sindh province. Since the flooding began over six weeks prior, new devastation continues across the Sindh province as flood waters continue to rise and overcome new villages. The country’s agricultural heartland has been devastated, with rice, corn and wheat crops destroyed. The army and aid organizations are struggling to cope with the scope and scale of the disaster that has left over a third of the country under water. (Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

A young child rests in a hammock at an overhead bridge next to a flood relief camp in Sukkur, in Sindh province on Aug. 28. Flood waters threatened to engulf two towns in southern Pakistan, a month after the disaster began. (Athar Hussain / Reuters)

Pakistani villagers affected by the floods line up for food at a releif camp in Sukkar on Aug. 27. (Pedro Ugarte / AFP – Getty Images)

Marooned flood victims looking to escape grab the side bars of a hovering Army helicopter which arrived to distribute food supplies in the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province, Aug. 7. Pakistanis desperate to get out of flooded villages threw themselves at helicopters on as more heavy rain was expected. (Adrees Latif / Reuters)

Muhammad Munawar prays at the grave of his slain son, 17-year-old medical student Waleed, on July 14 in Chenab Nagar. Waleed was murdered in the May Lahore attacks on the Ahmadi mosques while talking to his parents on his cellphone during the attack. Waleed had lost both his grandfathers in the 1980s in killings that were deemed to be religiously motivated against Ahmadis. The Pakistani Ahmadis, who define themselves as Muslim but could face years in prison if they openly declare or practice their faith, have suffered persecution and discrimination for decades. In May 2010, 93 people were killed and over 100 injured in attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore. (Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images)

A family laughs while watching acrobats perform at the Jan Baz circus in Islamabad on July 21. The circus, along with a summer festival, goes until July 25 at the Pothohair Village in the nation’s capital. (Adrees Latif / Reuters)

TAPI Pipeline Seeking Corporate Connection

Pact on pvt role in TAPI pipeline

RAJEEV JAYASWAL,ET BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have agreed to rope in a global energy major to execute and manage a $7.6-billion natural gas pipeline running their land, brightening the prospect of a steady flow of gas from central Asia to energy-hungry South Asia.

The decision was taken after Afghanistan assured to secure the pipeline through the Taliban heartland and Pakistan in-principle agreed to do so in its territory, two senior officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The private partner will be inducted through an international bidding by the four countries, jointly referred to as TAPI.

“TAPI nations have agreed that in the case of a single bid, the (single) bidder will be awarded the project,” an official said.

The pipeline will start from the Dauletabad gas field in southeast Turkmenistan and after 145 km stretch in the country enter Afghanistan. After traversing 735 km in Afghanistan and 800 km in Pakistan, the pipeline will cross into India. The 1,680 km pipeline will have a capacity to transport 90 mmscmd (million standard cubic metres a day) gas. Asian Development Bank (ADB), the development partner of the TAPI project, had estimated its cost at $3.3 billion about 10 years ago.

The decision to induct a private partner was taken at the TAPI steering committee meeting of energy ministers of the four nations on September 20 at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan’s capital.

American and Russian energy companies are interested to invest in the project, the officials said. Induction of an energy giant in the consortium is expected to expedite the project and help minimise transportation risks through volatile Afghan and Pakistan regions.

Minister of state for petroleum & natural gas Jitin Prasada, who represented India in the meeting, confirmed the development but declined to comment on specific details.

“The pipeline is significant for India’s energy security but its success will depend on keeping minimum transit fee and setting up institutional mechanism to address security issues. We are working towards that,” Mr Prasada told ET after his visit to Ashgabat.

Pakistan will present an institutional framework for securing the pipeline in its territory at the 7th technical working group meeting, the officials said. The meeting date is not yet fixed, they said.

The Afghanistan government has already guaranteed the security of the pipeline by burying it underground and paying local communities to guard it.

Turkmenistan wants to sign the deal by December this year at a proposed head of states meeting and aims to complete the pipeline by 2014, the officials said. Gas accounts for 57% of Turkmenistan’s total exports followed by oil (26%), the reason it wants the pipeline to start quickly.

At the meeting Turkmenistan offered confirmed 90 mmscmd gas supply to the three nations from its Osman-Yolten reserve, certified to have between 4.25 trillion cubic meters (tcm) and 13 tcm gas.

Gaffney Cline and Associates (GCA), a British audit firm, in its audit report of October 2008 puts proven reserves of natural gas in Turkmenistan at more than 7 tcm.

The possible gas reserves could be as high as 24.6 tcm.

India is expected to get about 38 mmscmd gas, the same as Pakistan. Balance gas will go to Afghanistan.

New Internet Wiretaps Reflect Sovietized “Democracy” of Barack Obama

[When the following is considered with this, FBI Raiding Antiwar Activists in Terror Investigation, a pattern is seen, that of a government desperate to win a victory in the American homeland which it cannot hope to win on the real battlefields in Asia.  America’s terror war has always been about expanding its arena of complete control into the “Third World,” but more specifically, into the former USSR.  In the process, US leaders have failed and endangered every alliance because of our military gambit.

Critics of this failed policy must be silenced, hence the FBI raids, as well as the expanded Internet wiretaps.  There is no need for this new Internet policy, since the practice is probably commonplace already.  The new policy will legitimize the process so that it can be greatly expanded right down to local sheriffs and probably anyone who can claim a “national security” excuse.  Obama is following Putin/Medvedev’s Russian model of “Sovereign Democracy” to remove the pesky aspects of First Amendment rights from American soil.]

‘N.Y. Times’: U.S. seeks to ease Internet wiretaps

WASHINGTON (AP) — Broad new regulations being drafted by the Obama administration would make it easier for law enforcement and national security officials to eavesdrop on Internet and e-mail communications like social networking websites and BlackBerries, The New York Times reported Monday.

The newspaper said the White House plans to submit a bill next year that would require all online services that enable communications to be technically equipped to comply with a wiretap order. That would include providers of encrypted e-mail, such as BlackBerry, networking sites like Facebook and direct communication services like Skype.

Federal law enforcement and national security officials say new the regulations are needed because terrorists and criminals are increasingly giving up their phones to communicate online.

“We’re talking about lawfully authorized intercepts,” said FBI lawyer Valerie E. Caproni. “We’re not talking about expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.”

The White House plans to submit the proposed legislation to Congress next year.

The new regulations would raise new questions about protecting people’s privacy while balancing national security concerns.

James Dempsey, the vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the new regulations would have “huge implications.”

“They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function,” he told the Times.

The Times said the Obama proposal would likely include several requires:

— Any service that provides encrypted messages must be capable of unscrambling them.

— Any foreign communications providers that do business in the U.S. would have to have an office in the United States that’s capable of providing intercepts.

— Softward developers of peer-to-peer communications services would be required to redesign their products to allow interception.

The Times said that some privacy and technology advocates say the regulations would create weaknesses in the technology that hackers could more easily exploit.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Was Pak. Minister Def. Jatoi Warning Off Military Operation?

Jatoi: A True Friend of Balochistan

Acting like a typical military dictator, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has removed minister of state for defense production Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, from his position over speaking against the country’s military and the judiciary. The prime minister has reminded the entire nation that we still live in the age of ‘controlled democracy’ where “personal opinion” on core “sensitive issues” may prove to be very costly. The removal of the minister also implicitly demonstrates the ruling PPP’s displeasure for people like Jatoi who sympathize with the Baloch masses. It seems the PPP, which has a history of butchering the Balochs in 1970s, is left only with space for belligerent leaders like Rehman Malik.

What Jatoi said in Balochistan during his visit to the residence of late Nawab Akbar Bugti is in fact the shared feeling of all Balochs. These were not his personal views but the ‘collective views’ of the Balochs who feel the heat of a military operation in a new but more dangerous form. Never before did the Balochs receive the dead bodies of so many top lawyers, writers and political activists as they are experiencing at the moment.

The situation in Balochistan today is much worse than what it was during the military rule of Pervez Musharraf. The operation has been urbanized. The FC has made life miserable for the masses by expanding its network across the province. Opposition parties have vanished after the creation of anti-nationalist outfits that threaten to target political gatherings and democratic activities. The missing persons’ dead bodies are being recovered in highly humiliating conditions. How is the removal of a state minister going to restore order in Balochistan or regain the confidence of Balochs in the government? Party big guns in the PPP may silence Jatoi by employing various pressure tactics but how is the PPP government going to silence the whole enraged Baloch population that has even deeper and more provocative views than the sacked minister of state?

It is no secrete that the then army chief General Pervez Musharraf declared a war against the Balochs on the television: ” It is not the ’70s,” he said, ” we will hit you in a way that you won’t know what hit you from where.”  If the military did not kill Nawab Bugti then who else did it? Pervez Musharraf has never been apologetic about the military operation he carried out in Balochistan. Similarly, the army officers were congratulating each other when the former Baloch governor and chief minister was killed. They only stopped hiding their delighted faces once Bugti’s killing backfired. There was extraordinary condemnation from all over the country and abroad over the killing of a seventy-nine year old political guru. The killing was also followed by unprecedented violence, protest rallies and an irreversible sense of alienation among the Baloch youth.

There is genuine anger among the Balochs against the country’s judiciary which betrayed them after the historic lawyers’ movement. The only notion that kept on fueling the lawyers’ movement was the oft-repeated issue of the ‘missing persons’. The supporters of the sacked and now reinstated Chief Justice of Pakistan kept on insisting that the chief justice had been removed from his position because of his proactive interest in the cases of the ‘disappeared people’. In addition, they assured the masses that all the missing persons would return home once Justice Ifthakar Chaudhary was restored as the top judge of the country.

The Balochs feel no change in their lives even after the exit of Pervez Musharraf and restoration of Justice Chaudhary. The sons of Nawab Bugti, Jamil and Talal Bugti, have separately registered cases against Pervez Musharraf and some of his top aides. These cases have not made any headway inside the courts as the judiciary has become an equal partner in the crimes against the Balochs.

One can easily understand the pressure the civilian government is currently facing both from the military as well as the judiciary, a new player in the country’s highly polarized polity. Provocative remarks by cabinet members may jeopardize the very existence of the democratic government. But removing a minister who spoke in support of the Baloch masses will only send a negative message to the people of Balochistan. They would assume that the government favors the “holy cows” against the destitute Balochs.

Why was Rehman Malik not removed when he threatened  to use the danda against Baloch people?

Raisani must be kidding

If historians and journalists were waiting for a haunting quote from Balochistan’s chief minister, here it comes. Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, the chief minister, astounded everyone in Khuzdar during a press-talk by saying that most of the missing persons had “deliberately gone underground to malign the country’s intelligence agencies”. If former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf’s infamous quote, “it is not the 70s that you will hit and run…We will hit you in a way that you don’t know what hit you”, has become one of the most widely quoted statements of a man who devastated Balochistan, one can assertively predict that this statement of Chief Minister Raisani will go down in the history as the most disgraceful proclamation ever made by a Baloch chief minister.

The chief minister repeated what was once said by former dictator General Pervez Musharraf and subsequently by Rehman Malik, the current interior minister, that the missing persons had willingly gone abroad. Gone abroad? For what? He said the elements responsible for target killings were also responsible for hiding their associates and then showing them as “disappeared people”. In his words, the missing persons have deliberately gone underground and now the issue is being raised to embarrass the country’s intelligence agencies. Raisani, the fist chief minister in the history of Balochistan to be elected unopposed, is of the view that it is unreasonable on the part of the missing persons’ families to hold the agencies responsible for the whole mess.

Expectedly, a very emotional reaction has come from the families of the missing persons in response to the chief minister’s statement. If the government cannot deliver justice to the families of the missing persons due to its inefficiency and powerlessness to check the influence of the secrete services then it should not at least hurt the sentiments of the mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and sons of the missing persons. Once living a dignified and peaceful life inside their homes, these Baloch mothers are seen languishing from one press club to the other while holding the photographs of their beloved ones. Politics is one thing but no one, including the chief minister, has the right to insult human feelings to give a coverup to his government’s inefficiencies.

Government stance on the issue of disappeared people has varied from time to time due to its very ‘sensitive’ nature. No county in the world has such a high number of missing persons as Pakistan. Majority of them belong to Balochistan. When civil society organizations raised the issue very vocally, the government of Pervez Musharraf refuted such reports and said there were no missing persons. When pressure mounted after the family members of the missing persons coordinated with each other and organized themselves, they emerged as a loud and powerful voice. Amana Masood Janjuha in the Punjab and the family members of Ali Asghar Bangulzai in Balochistan must be applauded for pioneering the movement for the recovery of missing persons.

When the cat was out of the bag during Musharraf government, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Ifthakar Mohammad Chaudhary took suo moto notice of several missing persons’ cases. It was in fact a very selective process of dispensing justice because no Baloch gained relief out of the initiatives taken by the CJP. Yet, the CJP was sacked by Musharraf on the issue of missing persons which manifested the omnipotence of the forces that are masterminding these cases of disappearance.

At another stage, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, confirmed with the media in Turbat (Balochistan) that some four thousand people were missing in Balochistan. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also quoted these figures in its comprehensive fact-finding report on Balochistan.

Inaction led to frustration. The Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) kidnapped an American national, who was heading the Quetta office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in February this year solely to press the government of Pakistan to release around 1400 missing or detained Baloch persons and some 141 women allegedly kept in the custody of security forces. That episode also failed to yield any positive results in the case of missing persons.

Worst still, the Chief Justice of Pakistan has completely kept quit on the Baloch missing persons issue after his reinstatement on the prestigious post. Despite belonging to Balochistan, Chaudhary has disappointed the family members of the missing Balochs. Even some key members of the judicial movement that led to the restoration of the deposed chief justice now say they squandered their energies at a wrong place. The movement did not worth it, they say, because it failed to bring justice to Balochistan.

Raisani’s current statement –about missing persons having deliberately gone underground to miligan the intelligence agencies –sounds ridiculous given the fact that Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, who belongs to the same party of the Balochistan Chief Minister, issued a verified list of 992 missing Baloch persons this month. Does Raisani have an answer to the families of at least these 992 missing persons? Why would these people go underground as most of them belong to the families that live below poverty line? The missing persons’ list includes people from lower professions such as students, shopkeepers, tailor masters, clersk, paramedics etc.

Besides being the chief minister of Balochistan, Raisani is a reputed tribal chief in Balochistan. Thus, people want to share their sorrows with them with the hope that the latter can play a role to resolve their problems. He should apologize to the aging mothers of the missing persons for deeply hurting their sentiments as these aggrieved mothers now prepare to sit on a hunger strike in front of Quetta Press Club from December 30th amid freezing temperature of Quetta.

Courtasy : TheBalochHaal.Com http://thebalochhal.com/2009/12/editorial-raisani-must-be-kidding/

Uzbekistan Selling “Navoi” Free Industrial-Economic Zone to the World

The Concept of the FIEZ

“Navoi” Free Industrial-Economic Zone

Navoi region in Uzbekistan with developed industrial production, skilled manpower and rich raw material resources, as well as occupying a strategic location in the central part of the country has all for creation of a huge regional manufacturing complex and industrial center on its territory.

In an effort to increase production potential, acceleration of introducing of innovative technologies and developing of the new kinds of essential products demanded on the world market, leadership of the Republic of Uzbekistan made a decision of establishing the first in the country free industrial-economic zone in Navoi city, the administrative center of the region.

The factor of beneficial location of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the crossroads of trade routes between the huge regional markets of South-East Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Commonwealth of Independent States played a considerable role in making this decision.

The existing favorable conditions for establishment of international transportation and logistics Center on the base of Navoi Airport is an important prerequisite for organizing the new competitiveness products here with the possibility of immediate transportation of finished goods to the ultimate consumers in Europe and Asia.

The Concept of the FIEZThe Concept of the Free Industrial-Economic Zone on the base of Navoi airport grounds the forming the innovation-industrial, transport-logistical, social and recreational complex in 3 stages with mastering about 500 hectares of free area on each of them.

The establishing industrial complex FIEZ with the total area of 564 hectares provides for organizing of manufacture of competitive products in the foreign markets on the base of local raw material resources.

Available raw material potential allows to produce a wide range of finished goods, first of all textiles, sewing and leather-shoe goods, foodstuff, chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical output, building materials, as well as electro-technical, telecommunications and machine-building products (photo).

At the same time the preference will be given to the power efficient and green field manufacture and inculcation of innovative technologies and automatization of manufacturing process.

The territory of production complex is expected to be located on the area of 380 hectares near Navoi city. According to the developed lay-out of build over for placing industrial enterprises the territory of FIEZ will be divided into 21 clusters with the area of 6.5 to 25 ha, which allow to create enterprises of various output and scales during the first stage.

At the same time, the organizational measures undertaken now will allow to start the implementation of 20-40 investment projects in the current year, and in the upcoming 2010 to bring the number of implementing projects up to 100-120.

The Terms of Operation

The terms of operation of “Navoi” FIEZ will amount 30 years with the possibility of further extension for additional period. During this period special customs, fiscal and tax regimes, a simplified procedure for entry, stay and departure as well as obtaining of permits to carry out the labor activity by non-resident citizens of Uzbekistan will have an effect.

Legislative and Institutional Conditions

For the effective implementation of the concept of FIEZ in Navoi in Uzbekistan a large-scale work to develop appropriate legislative and institutional conditions for the functioning of FIEZ has been done and now is under process.

The legal basis of operating “Navoi” FIEZ in Uzbekistan is determined by the Regulation on the Free Industrial-Economic Zone “Navoi” adopted in January 2009. According to the Regulation the coordination and operational management of the FIEZ will be implemented by the Administrative Board consisted of representatives of governmental authorities and Directorate of the Zone.

Administrative Board of “Navoi” FIEZ by consideration with the Cabinet of Ministers can select as a Management body the internationally recognized managing company in order to transfer it rights of managing with FIEZ on contract basis.

FIEZ “Navoi” will have an independent budget, formed due to profits from providing of services and other receipts in accordance with national legislation, and also parts of receipts from land lease, buildings and infrastructure facilities. Within the range of budget, the FIEZ Development Fund for the development of infrastructure and increasing the efficiency of operating of the Zone can be created.

Preferences and Incentives

The Government of Uzbekistan has provided unprecedented favorable incentives and preferences for registered enterprises within the FIEZ.

Registered businesses will be exempted from land tax, property, profit, social infrastructure development taxes as well as unified tax payment (for small businesses), compulsory contributions to the Republican Road Fund and Republican School Fund from 7 to 15 years depending on the size of volume of invested foreign direct investment in the amount:

– from 3 to 10 million euros – for 7 years;

– from 10 to 30 million euros – for 10 years. Over the next 5 years the rates of profit and unified taxes payment shall be fixed at 50% level below current rates;

– more than 30 million euros – for 15 years. Over the next 10 years the rates of profit and unified taxes payment shall be fixed at 50% level below current rates.

Also, registered enterprises are exempted from paying customs duties (excluding charges for customs clearance) for equipment, raw materials and components imported for production of export goods for the full existing term of the FIEZ. For raw materials and components, imported for manufacturing of goods to be sold in the Uzbekistan market, customs duties are levied at the rate of 50 percent of the existing rates (excluding charges for customs clearance) with prolonging their payment terms up to 180 days.

Registered business entities will be provided with land parcels under a lease.

Registered companies will be able to exercise payments within the FIEZ in foreign currency, to pay in hard currency for supply of goods, works and services from other business entities – residents of Uzbekistan, and use convenient terms and forms of payment for exported and imported goods.

International Multimodal Logistic Hub

Development of transport logistic complex inseparably linked with implementation of plans for creation of international logistic centre on the base of Navoi International Airport.

Nowadays Navoi International Airport has a certificate of ICAO CAT II Runway, 4,000m X 45m with ILS, Radar and Lighting. In addition to, airport was equipped with the latest navigation equipment of producer Thales, France and Ground handling equipment supporting B747-400F operation. Moreover, airport can handle B747-400, AN-24, TU-154 as it has line maintenance for handling. Fuel capacity is 370,000 Gal. with 24 tanks .

The existing transport-transit potential of Uzbekistan, favorable conditions for using the opportunities of international transit and broad participation in international systems of transport communications open the prospects for creation of international logistic centre on the base of Navoi airport as transcontinental transport dispatch network, connecting East and South-East Asia with Europe, the Middle East and CIS countries.

The first steps in this direction have been done in August 2008, when a big South-Korean “Korean Air” air company started regular cargo flights on the route Seoul – Milano – Seoul with 6 intermediate landings in a week in Navoi city. At the same time regular flights of National Air company of Uzbekistan and Moskoviya Russian air company on the route Navoi – Tashkent – Moscow are being continued.

Beside air communication, Navoi has high transit potential of land transportation.

The developed transport communication network, integrated into the international transport system and which is the key challenge in communication system of Central Asia and CIS countries run via the city. International transport corridors lie in immediate proximity to Navoi airport: railway “Afghanistan – Central Asia – Europe” and automobile road “E-40” of international significance which links Beijing with Paris.

Currently construction of railway passing-track, connecting the city with the following railway trunks are being carried out:

– In the north-west direction – Uchkuduk – Nukus – Volgograd with the next exit via Russia to the European countries;

– In the east direction – Samarqand – Tashkent – Dustik with the next exit to China and South-East Asia;

– In the south direction – Bukhara – Turkmenistan – Bandar-Abbas with the further exit to the Middle East countries and the Persian Gulf.

In addition, with launching of Guzar – Baysun – Kumkurgan railroad in 2007, new railroad connection to Navoi city airport will provide direct access in the southern direction to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

In order to organize a complete reference system of distribution of goods in the region of Central Asia by land transport, as well as redistribution of the flow of goods by aircrafts in directions north – south and west – east, warehouses for storage and handling of goods, container floor will be constructed, the railway and road access ways will be summed up, the loading and unloading equipment will be purchased on the territory of Navoi airport.

To date, the construction of storage terminal of future transport and logistics center has been started.

Social and Recreational Conditions

The social recreational complex being created at the moment will allow to provide the staff of FIEZ with favorable working conditions, lifestyle and rest. For these purposes a land plot of 100 hectares on the bank of Zarafshan river flowing near the city of Navoi has been allotted. Here a construction of public buildings is expected with the assistance of “Korean Air” company ( photo)

At the end of 2008 in close proximity to the airport “Navoi” on 4-star hotel with 60 rooms has been put into operation. At present, the possibility of hand over of the hotel under the management of internationally recognized companies, conducting the hotel complexes is under study (photo).

In order to create favorable conditions of recreational rest for staff and workers of enterprises, a construction of a golf club and other sport and recreational facilities on an artificial lake Navoi is being planned in the area of the Zarafshan river basin (photo).

It should be noted that the city Navoi is highly attractive in terms of development of the tourism industry, due to proximity to major tourist centers of Uzbekistan and Central Asia – Bukhara and Samarqand, in which the unique historical monuments of world significance are located. The historic centers of these cities, which are over 2500 years old, are included to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Works Have Been Already Started

Along with forming the favorable conditions on legislative level a large scale construction works are being carried out on communications supply, creation of the proper engineering infrastructure, labor security for and vital functions of the staff in Navoi.

Works on construction of two-kilometer extent four-banded automobile road from an International highway “E-40” and three-kilometer branch line from the main railway of international significance have been already started.

Distance from FIEZ “Navoi” to the nearest infrastructure : – freight terminal of Navoi airport – 4 km, – railway – 4.5 km (Navoi-Uchkuduk-Nukus railway), – highway “E-40” – 2 km, – electric power substation – 0.8 km, – water distribution unit – 0.3 km, – gas distribution unit – 0.4 km.

Within the FIEZ territory railways by a general extent of 1,5 km and automobile road by a general extent of 26 km with step by step access to the manufacturing area will be laid out as well.Free industrial-economical zone “Navoi” will open up for You unlimited investment possibilities of the Republic of Uzbekistan, allow to use advantages of special tax, custom and currency regimes and to increase the competitiveness of Your business.

Crowing About America’s “Successful” Militarized Diplomacy In Central Asia

U.S. AIMS TO EXPAND ITS PRESENCE IN UZBEKISTAN

By Erkin Akhmadov (07/21/2010 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Recent developments in Central Asia seem to have affected relations between the U.S. and Uzbekistan positively. These relations have not been characterized as cooperative during the past several years. However, either due to the unstable security situation in the region following the bloody clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan or the increasing role of Uzbekistan in providing logistical assistance for U.S. operations in Afghanistan, an increased U.S. presence in Uzbekistan now seems viable.

The dialogue between Tashkent and Washington was renewed last year, when leaders of the two states signed a plan of action for strengthening bilateral cooperation for the year 2010.

Several visits of high-ranking U.S. officials to Uzbekistan took place in the end of June. Among those were the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric Schwartz, the Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, and the Assistant Secretary of State forDemocracy, Human Rights and Labor, Michael Posner. It should also be noted that Barack Obama recently nominated George Krol, who currently holds the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs to the post of U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan. Many experts consider this nomination as signaling a special role for Uzbekistan in U.S. foreign affairs.

During a business-forum in Washington DC last week, where Uzbekistan participated, Robert Blake reported that the U.S. invests US$ 500 million in Uzbekistan and that these investments may potentially be increased. It is already known that in 2010-2011, the U.S. will invest in a number of projects within the framework of the program “Provision in the name of progress”. In total, the program amounts to 2,411 billion Uzbek Soms (approximately US$ 1.5 million). The projects within this program will be implemented within areas such as water industry, hydrometeorology, veterinary science, healthcare, social protection and support for small businesses.

At the same forum, Uzbekistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., Ilhom Nematov, and its Deputy Minister of External Economic Relations and Trade, Shavkat Tulyaganov, proposed that the U.S. invest in the Free Industrial Economic Zone “Navoi”, which is currently the main logistic base for delivering goods to Afghanistan.

In fact, the U.S. has been interested in this project for a long time already. The current U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Richard Norland, suggests that the “Navoi” base will in the future transform into a transcontinental transportation-expeditionary air cargo hub, which would connect the Far East, South-East Asia, South Asia and Europe.

Furthermore, it seems that the U.S. plans to expand its presence in Central Asia, and specifically in Uzbekistan. The Federal Business Opportunities website reports that the U.S. Department of Defense plans to establish a number of military bases in Afghanistan and in the states of Central Asia. More specifically, the construction of an operational military base is planned fifty kilometers away from the Afghan-Uzbek border, which would include an operations centre, a strategic operations centre, a training centre, a material-technical provision centre, warehouses, living facilities, etc. In addition, the U.S. plans to build border check points and training bases in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan where U.S. military personnel would provide training for local defense forces.

Aleksey Malashenko of the Carnegie Moscow Center states that this type of cooperation is mutually beneficial for Uzbekistan and the U.S. He thinks that in light of the instability in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, where the U.S. operates from the Manas airbase, additional U.S. military bases in the region would ensure the continuity of U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Thus, a U.S. base in Uzbekistan would not become an alternative to Manas, but rather be part of the new U.S. strategy to have bases at numerous locations.

During the business forum, Blake mentioned the increasing role Uzbekistan currently plays in transferring U.S. cargo to Afghanistan. Thus, he stated that “Uzbekistan is already vitally important in the realization of international efforts in fighting militant extremists in Afghanistan”. Uzbek authorities have not yet officially responded to the U.S. messages. However, it seems that in light of the current security situation in the region and increased U.S. investments in Uzbekistan, a positive outcome is more than possible.

S. Korean President Lee Uses Remodel Contract To Finagle American Return To Uzbekistan

President Lee will seek Uzbek base for U.S. forces “우즈벡 공항 기지 미군이 쓸 수 있게 MB가 도와달라” February 10, 2010

In an unusual move, President Lee Myung-bak will act as an emissary for the United States when he meets with Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov tomorrow. The United States is seeking to use Navoi International Airport as a supply base for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and “President Lee has said he would bring up the issue of the U.S. military base during his summit meeting with President Karimov,” according to a Blue House source. Uzbekistan had allowed the U.S. military to set up an air base in 2001, but relations between the two countries have been strained since 2005 after the United States condemned Uzbek troops’ violent crackdown on what the government called an antigovernment demonstration. After that Karimov, who has been in power since 1991, has been reluctant to open the airport to U.S. troops, citing fear of becoming a target of terrorist strikes. Another U.S. supply base, Pakistan, has paid a high price in lives and property lost to repeated Taliban attacks. In a similar vein, Kyrgyzstan had threatened to close off a U.S. air base there, but has since reversed its stance. The United States needs a strategic supply base, and has looked to Lee for assistance because of his close ties with Karimov and the bonds formed by Korean Air’s role in modernizing the Navoi airport. Sources said Washington has used a high-level diplomatic channel since early last year to ask Lee to deliver its message. “During President Lee’s visit to Uzbekistan last May, he was busy discussing pressing issues between our two countries,” a Blue House source said. “The United States had been quiet after Kyrgyzstan reversed the decision to close the U.S. base there. But President Lee maintains he will bring up the issue [of the Navoi base] once he gets a chance to do so.” Blue House insiders are not optimistic that Lee’s words alone will carry enough weight to resolve the base issue. Nonetheless, they said Lee would do his part by delivering the message of an ally. Lee first met Karimov while he was mayor of Seoul in 2006, and the Uzbek president attended Lee’s inauguration in 2008. During Lee’s visit to Uzbekistan last year, Karimov was a constant shadow by his side, prompting journalists from both countries to quip that Lee was being stalked. Karimov is scheduled to arrive in Seoul today and hold the summit with Lee tomorrow. Karimov’s three-day visit, which includes meetings with Prime Minister Chung Un-chan, Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, is his sixth trip to Korea. By Seo Seung-wook [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]