The Iranian Elections – Sure They Stole It…Up Front and Honestly By REZA FIYOUZAT

Flag of Islamic Republic of Iran

The actual results of the 2009 presidential elections in Iran may never be known factually. But the actual tallies of the votes cast may have never had anything to do with anything in the first place.

This does not mean that, in the aftermath of the announcement of the election results, the outrage displayed on the streets by the supporters of the reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, America’s favorite horse in the race, does not indicate real hurt. Those Americans who, to this day, are still bitter about the non-election of Al Gore in the 2000 debacle, can get an idea of the Iranians’ sense of betrayal if they take their outrage at the clearly stolen outcome in 2000 and intensify it by a factor of … oh, about a million.

At least in the American version in 2000, they took their merry time to go through a totally legalistic looking, convoluted process to deny Al Gore his victory at the polls.

In the Iranian version, in contrast, they didn’t bother with realistic looking anything: not realistic final numbers nor a realistic looking process; opposition candidates’ campaigners had limited or no access to major transit points in the ballot boxes’ moves and in the ballot-counting process, and quite honestly, the first-round ‘landslide’ looks particularly unrealistic. They must be in some kind of hurry for something, since a run-off second round would have finalized everything by the last week of June, regardless. But, no; they just took it clean, and took it in the least amount of time possible.

Observers sympathetic with Ahmadinejad will definitely object that surely he had a very solid support base, especially in the rural areas (about 32 per cent of the population) and among the poor and the lower working classes, particularly in smaller cities and towns, and had a respectable enough following even in the big cities; clearly the more numerous classes were on his side. Ahmadinejad’s support base, further, is much more politically active and more positively inspired by Ahmadinejad’s politics, whereas Mousavi supporters were not so much inspired positively by their candidate’s charisma or oratory skills (both entirely lacking) or concrete programs (totally missing), as they were motivated by their dislike for Ahmadinejad.

Stolen or not, these ‘elections’ produced what the officialdom of Iran has decided to present to the world as their spokesperson and part director of the system.

Besides allegations of vote rigging, there are allegations of a coup d’état, as well. Ebrahim Yazdi, a former politician in the first revolutionary interim government, and currently secretary-general of Nehzate Azadi, or Freedom Movement, has declared it a coup, and one can see clearly the reasons for such allegations.

Yet, here too, there is a history to remember; the history of skin-shedding that this theocracy has witnessed. An early coup d’état that took place in the life of the Islamic Republic occurred in June 1981 with the ‘impeachment’ of Banisadr, the first post-revolution president, by the parliament at Khomeini’s instigation; Banisadr went underground and eventually escaped from Iran, and currently lives in France. Later, in April 1982 there was a coup against Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, a close aid to Khomeini during his exile in France, and a foreign minister; he was accused of plotting to kill Khomeini and summarily executed.

There was also a famous coup against Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, one-time designated successor to Grand Ayatollah Khomeini for the position of Supreme Leader. Montazeri had both revolutionary and impeccable religious credentials (as a Grand Ayatollah, which is like a PhD in the field). Given his supremely high qualifications, he was causing constant headaches for the heads of the theocratic setup. In an interview published in Keyhan, “in early 1989, [Montazeri] criticized Khomeini in language that is said to have sealed “his political fate”:
“The denial of people’s rights, injustice and disregard for the revolution’s true values have delivered the most severe blows against the revolution. Before any [post-war] reconstruction, there must first be a political and ideological reconstruction . . . This is something that the people expect of a leader.”
Further, when after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, a vast wave of rushed political executions engulfed Iran’s political prison houses, Montazeri was among the most high-ranking critics of these mass killings. The Wikipedia entry for him explains further:

“Still worse was the publication abroad and broadcast on BBC of [Montazeri’s] letters condemning post-war wave of executions in March [1989]. Montazeri also criticized Khomeini’s fatwa ordering the killing of author Salman Rushdie, saying: “People in the world are getting the idea that our business in Iran is just murdering people.”

By the end of March 1989, Khomeini had heard enough, and declared that Montazeri had ‘resigned’ from his position. Montazeri went off graciously, asking his supporters to not utter a word in his support. Khamenei, at the time a mid-ranking Hojatoleslam (equivalent of an undergrad degree), was speedily promoted in religious ranks to an Ayatollah so as to qualify him for the position of vali-e faqih (guardian jurist), and that’s how the current Supreme Leader Khamenei got to be supreme.

We can conclude, then, that skin shedding, metamorphosis, periodical transformations and adaptations to the perceived conditions in the world are a systemic characteristic of the rulers in the Iranian theocracy.

Obviously, Mr. Mousavi himself had enjoyed the position of recipient-at-the-better-end of past coups; which must help him see one pulled against him. Not that you need prior knowledge, but it may assist in seeing the tragedy. It may be too glib to say, “What swings around can hit you in the face”, so I probably shouldn’t say it.

The true silver lining of this tragedy is for the people of Iran. These ‘elections’ should incontrovertibly demonstrate, to anybody with political eyes to see, that no matter how oppressively anti-democratic an electoral setup, the establishment is still capable of raising people’s hopes for ‘change’ (no matter how miniscule and pathetic), and that it still has the power to fool people and to draw them into a futile act; only to slap them in the face. So, now the people are (hopefully) more likely to put their political hopes in more effective moves in the future.

The disappointment felt by Mousavi supporters cannot be imagined. It is so much more acute than expected, exactly because so little was expected. If, as a homeless person on the side of the street, you ask people to give you a thousand dollars, clearly (as the British say) you’re taking the piss, and you don’t really expect anything to happen. But, if you ask for a single dollar from a person who clearly can afford it, yet they not only not just keep walking, but turn around instead and spit and insult you in your face, then all bets on politeness are off.

Here was Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a man who is as much a figurehead of the regime as any, and here were these people willing to go along with this insult of a ‘choice’ within a highly anti-democratic setup, and yet even the presidency of one of their own could not to be tolerated by the deeply conservative establishment. The Iranian people have been forced, yet again, to admit painfully that they clearly cannot call the theocratic rule over them anything other than an absolute dictatorship.

To have witnessed and tasted the feel of some ‘openness’ in the political atmosphere during the campaign weeks, to have participated in mass debates in the streets, in the squares, to have felt that their votes would really count and that they could force some ‘change’, to have held impromptu rallies and expressed themselves freely in hopes of persuading others, all of which sent them to euphorically high places, and THEN to have had their hopes crushed in a matter of hours after the closing of polling stations, and in such blatant, in your face, take it or stick it fashion … that must be a huge disappointment to bear. No wonder then that street protests were so swift to come about.

How the government handles the aftermath of these elections will be a matter of deep concern for a large number of people for some time to come.

For now, the Iranian establishment has spoken unambiguously for the continuation of the Ahmadinejad presidency. So, welcome to four more years of back and forth on ‘to bomb or not to bomb’, four more years of sanctions, talk of more severe sanctions, and reports of covert ops and infiltrations, four more years of seeing Ahmadinejad palling around with Chavez, waxing philosophical about Bolivarian Socialism and imprisoning socialists at home; four more years of empty promises for the poor, whose socio-economic infrastructure is eroded further and deeper daily as they are handed sacks of potatoes to avert starvation. And, painfully, four more years of absolute and utter lies, spread by the Israelis, the neoconservatives and their liberal colleagues regarding Iran’s ‘threat’.

Reza Fiyouzat can be reached at: rfiyouzat@yahoo.com

Source

  • Ayatollah Khamenei Orders Probe of Contested Iran Election 6/15/2009
  • One Dead as Militia Fire on Mousavi Rally in Tehran 6/15/2009
  • US Govt Responds Cautiously to Iran Fracas 6/15/2009
  • Dennis Ross Being Ousted as Obama Envoy to Iran 6/15/2009
  • Iran Supreme Leader Orders Probe of Election 6/15/2009
  • Big Crowd Turns Out for Pro-Mousavi Rally in Tehran 6/15/2009
  • Crowds Gather for Ahmadinejad Victory Rally 6/14/2009
  • Biden Questions Vote but Sticks to Policy on Iran 6/14/2009
  • Letter From Tehran: The Day After 6/14/2009
  • Ahmadinejad Likens Protests to ‘A Football Match’ 6/14/2009
  • Mousavi Supporters to Rally in Tehran Monday 6/14/2009
  • Mousavi Urges Supporters to Continue Protests 6/14/2009
  • Mousavi Seeks to Overturn Iran Election Result 6/14/2009
  • Iran Puts Curbs on Media After Disputed Election 6/14/2009
  • Real-Time Criticism of CNN’s Iran Coverage 6/14/2009
  • An Emboldened Leader Seals Unity of Iran’s Elite 6/14/2009
  • Foreign Media Say Iran Blocking Coverage of Protests 6/14/2009
  • Poll: Half of Israelis Back Bombing Iran 6/14/2009
  • Police Fire in Air to Disperse Tehran Protesters 6/14/2009
  • Iran Vote Blow to World ‘Oppressors’: Ahmadinejad 6/14/2009
  • Iran Shuts Arab TV Bureau Amid Election Controversy 6/14/2009
  • Most Israelis Could Live With a Nuclear Iran: Poll 6/14/2009
  • Ahmadinejad Brushes Off Iran Election Violence 6/14/2009
  • Landslide or Fraud? the Debate Online Over Iran’s Election Results 6/14/2009
  • Iran Restricts Foreign Media in Wake of Vote, Protests 6/14/2009
  • Amnesty International Cites ‘Shocking’ Beating of Iran Protesters 6/14/2009
  • Poll: Most Israelis Could Live With a Nuclear Iran 6/14/2009
  • The Power Behind Ahmadinejad’s Disputed Win: Ayatullah Khamenei 6/14/2009
  • Ahmadinejad, Rejecting Strife, Hints of Arrests 6/14/2009
  • Police Beat Protesters in Iran After Ahmadinejad Declared Winner 6/13/2009
  • Anger at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Election: ‘We Are Fighting to Get Our Stolen Votes Back’ 6/13/2009
  • Video: Iran Election Results Phony? 6/13/2009
  • Iran Govt Declared Ahmadinejad Winner With 62 Pct 6/13/2009
  • Posted in Empire, Iran | Leave a comment

    Suicide bomber attacks Pakistani hotel U.S. was to buy

    Pearl Continental Peshawar 

     ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A massive truck bomb Tuesday struck the only luxury hotel in Peshawar, a volatile city in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 11 and injuring 70, with several foreign nationals among the victims.

    The Pearl Continental Hotel has been a landmark in the capital of the North West Frontier Province, and it’s frequented by foreigners on business and protected by tight security. Peshawar’s elite also used the hotel as a meeting and dining place, and at least one provincial minister was among the injured.

    McClatchy reported last month that the U.S. government was negotiating to buy the hotel, which would be used to accommodate the city’s American consulate and house U.S. officials working in Peshawar. The talks were said to have been in their final stages.

    The attack, which occurred at 10:40 p.m., is likely the latest in a series of terrorist reprisals for the Pakistani army’s military operation against the Pakistani Taliban under way in the Swat valley.

    A small truck packed with about half a ton of explosives got past the hotel’s security barriers and armed guards and detonated at the side of the hotel, next to the kitchens, demolishing part of the hotel, said provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar. As the truck approached the hotel gates, the terrorists opened fire on the guards. At least three people were reported to have been riding in the vehicle.

    A Russian United Nations employee was among the dead. Among the injured were a German, a Briton and a Nigerian. Around 25 U.N. staff members were staying at the five-star hotel, and several were thought to be among the injured, including a foreigner working for the U.N.’s World Food Program. Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.N. in Islamabad, said that he wasn’t aware of any Americans caught up in the blast.

    The “PC,” as locals called it, a large structure set back from the road in the city center, was the only hotel in Peshawar considered safe enough for foreign nationals, though not secure enough for U.S. and British diplomats, whose embassies had barred them from living there.

    The hotel is in one of Peshawar’s most secure areas, next to the home of the army general who commands the local army corps. Iftikhar denied that there’d been a security failure.

    “If in America, the Twin Towers are not safe, the Pentagon is not safe, in Islamabad, the Marriott (hotel) is not safe, how can anyone say there’s been a security lapse here?” Iftikhar said.

    In September, some 50 people died in a bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, which like the Pearl Continental was owned by Sadruddin Hashwani, a Pakistani tycoon.

    The combined shooting and explosives attack, rather than just a suicide bombing, has become a hallmark for Islamic extremists, who used a similar tactic in the assault on a police and intelligence agency in Lahore last month, which killed 30. The death toll from the Peshawar attack would’ve been much higher had the vehicle struck the front entrance of the hotel.

    “We are at a state of war,” said Bashir Bilour, a senior minister in the North West Frontier Province regional government. “They want to terrorize the government but we will face them (the terrorists). We may have to fight them for many years but we will get rid of them, God willing.”

    A large crater was left at the side of the Pearl Continental. About 30 to 40 cars in the parking lot were destroyed. Blood and dust covered guests and employees who stumbled out of the wreckage amid chaotic scenes.

    Source

    Posted in Pakistan, South Asia | Leave a comment

    Israeli Minister Eyes Sanctions Against US

    Israeli news outlets are reporting the leak of a letter from Israeli cabinet minister Yossi Peled to the rest of the nation’s cabinet, cautioning that the Obama Administration was going to adopt “a more balanced approach to Israel, including intensive pressure to stop building in settlements, remove outposts and advance the formation of a Palestinian state.”

    Israel's Minister Yossi PeledIsrael’s Minister Yossi Peled

    It’s hardly earth-shattering in that respect, the administration has been publicly urging Israel to accept exactly that for weeks now. What is noteworthy is Minister Peled’s proposed strategies to combat this, including sanctions against the United States.

    In particular, Israel would begin shifting military purchases, the bulk of which come from the US, to other nations, and offering influence to other nations willing to get involved in the peace process in a way more in keeping with Israeli interests. Incredibly enough, Peled, a member of the ruling Likud Party, also proposes political actions which seem to amount to an attempt at regime change in the US.

    Peled suggests that the Israeli government become directly involved in next year’s US congressional elections, intervening against Democratic Party candidates in the hopes that the candidates would pressure Obama to adopt a more universally pro-Israel stance.

    A course of action that seems more at home on the websites of conspiracy theorists, the revelation that an Israeli minister, in the ruling Likud Party no less, would come out so explicitly in support of taking measures against the US is nothing short of astonishing. The prospect has reportedly concerned US Jewish leaders, who fear an attempt to meddle so directly in American policy might provoke a backlash.

    Source

    Posted in Disclosure, Zionism | Leave a comment

    The Extremists of Pakistan – Asif Salahuddin

    Pakistan Nukes

    They have no tolerance. They speak, abusively if necessary, and desire little debate in return. They order and demand to be obeyed. They care not of another’s grievance or state of affairs, nor make any effort towards an understanding of such. They choose to remain ignorant of the world around and its realities that impact them. They wish their every whim to be met and every diktat to be followed by all. They are prepared to use violence – brutal, unrelenting and destructive violence – until they get their way.

    Bearded, uneducated, warrior tribes from the North West reaches of Pakistan?
    No. The real extremists of Pakistan are the pseudo-intellectual, liberal elite dining away and making merry in the posh settings of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.

    For it is at their insistence that the might of the Pakistan army has been hurled indiscriminately at an entire civil populace, resulting in its wake the displacement of over 3 million people and the death of thousands. This now stands as the largest unsettlement of humankind caused by man since the Rwandan massacres in Africa fifteen years ago and further bigger than the migration during the Indian partition itself. All because of the US backed lie that a few thousand rag tag group of fighters could capture the capital and hence overrun the country.

    These extremists sitting at the helm of the country have swallowed every instruction and propaganda issued by the Americans and in doing so have taken Pakistan down a path of self obliteration. The entire army now stands pitted against a major ethnic race in Pakistan and this in turn bodes only one outcome for the country – civil war leading to state level disintegration akin to the loss of East Pakistan.

    Such individuals have chosen to completely overlook the fact that a major foreign power has shifted its entire focus on the region after having just meted out the same policy on Iraq where it has succeeded in destabilising the entire state and engulfing the country with ethnic and sectarian flames. They have ignored the fact that the USA has a brutal and dark track record of using its intelligence agencies to ferment such turmoil in countries and that these very agencies have now settled in Pakistan and have been given a free reign to run amok. The CIA and FBI are openly known to have offices in every main city, airport and a thorough presence in the capital Islamabad.

    Such extremists, falling into two overlapping camps, are both drawn from the sitting and opposition political leaders, bureaucrats, elements of the so called ‘civil society’ and serving and retired military leaders. The first group has continued to grip the reins of power in the country and all the perks that come with it; essentially the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the USA for the trough from which only their snouts will gorge out of. The second group is a fanatically secular band that will turn vile the moment the words Islam and society are mixed in the same sentence.

    Together, they have managed to execute quite immaculately the American plan to turn the US’s War on Terror into Pakistan’s War on Terror, since the people of Pakistan have simply refused to back the former.

    But perhaps the biggest shame is that the real intellectual element of our society has gone along with this, or at best is standing idle at the wayside as silent observers, for it has been very easy to accept the mistruths churned out by the extremists.

    The real truth – a lot harder to swallow – is that the US wishes to achieve complete domination in the region. It has to ensure that the planned oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia running through Afghanistan, down to the ports of Pakistan, remain undisturbed. Further it must guarantee that the waterways near the coast of Pakistan are never threatened by any other power and that the control of this vital Middle-Eastern oil artery remains completely under its domain. In doing so the US has concluded that the only real way to implement this is to militarily occupy the region and eventually carve up Pakistan into smaller, weaker and hence more manageable states.

    However, this is something which the Muslim community in the ‘AfPak’ region have declined to play ball with as they simply refuse to be a subjugated people; they demonstrated this with the British over a century ago, they demonstrated this with the Soviets twenty years ago and they are now making this clear to the Americans. As long as these fighters attack the US troops in Afghanistan, and continue to disrupt their main supply line which comes from Pakistan, the US will not be able to achieve its materialistic objectives in the region.

    After repeated drone attacks the US simply cannot stamp out this resistance.
    Nor has it been able to send its own troops across the border to tackle these elements, partly due to the immense anti-American public opinion in Pakistan.
    But what the US has now succeeded in doing is to get the Pakistan army to fight its war.

    But how long will the sincere elements of Pakistan stand by and watch the country being torn apart for a foreign objective under the whims of such extremists? How long will the sincere officers in the Pakistan army continue to act submissively under the orders of their traitor commanders and continue with this utter madness that has gripped the country? They must act now and listen to the voices of reason around them that call them to a new future for our Islamic nation. They must act now otherwise very soon it will be too late and America would have won.

    Posted in Empire, Ideaology, Pakistan, South Asia | Leave a comment

    Full text (&video): Obama’s Cairo address

    http://latuff2.deviantart.com/

    I am honoured to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over 1,000 years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

    “We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world, tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate.

    “The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and co-operation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalisation led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
    Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001, and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view

    Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.

    So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the co-operation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end.

    I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

    I do so recognising that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground.

    As the Holy Quran tells us: “Be conscious of God and speak always the truth.” That is what I will try to do, to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

    Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.

    As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam at places like Al-Azhar University that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed.

    Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

    I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s story. The first nation to recognise my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote: “The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.”

    And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Quran that one of our Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson kept in his personal library.

    So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

    But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: Epluribus unum: “Out of many, one.”

    Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected president. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores – that includes nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average.

    Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the US government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.

    So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity.

    Of course, recognising our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.

    For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

    This is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes subjugating one another to serve their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared.

    That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. Indeed, it suggests the opposite: we must face these tensions squarely. And so in that spirit, let me speak as clearly and plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together.

    The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms.

    In Ankara, I made clear that America is not and never will be at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security.

    Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as president to protect the American people.

    The situation in Afghanistan demonstrates America’s goals, and our need to work together. Over seven years ago, the United States pursued al-Qaeda and the Taliban with broad international support. We did not go by choice, we went because of necessity.

    I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al-Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.

    Make no mistake: We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there. It is agonising for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case.

    That’s why we’re partnering with a coalition of 46 countries. And despite the costs involved, America’s commitment will not weaken. Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists. They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam.

    The Holy Quran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism it is an important part of promoting peace. We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced. And that is why we are providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend upon.

    Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: “I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

    Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future – and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. Iraq’s sovereignty is its own.

    That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. That is why we will honour our agreement with Iraq’s democratically elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all our troops from Iraq by 2012. We will help Iraq train its security forces and develop its economy. But we will support a secure and united Iraq as a partner, and never as a patron.

    And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.

    So America will defend itself respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer.

    The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world.

    America’s strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.

    Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.

    On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians, have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighbouring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations large and small that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.

    For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.

    That is in Israel’s interest, Palestine’s interest, America’s interest, and the world’s interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires. The obligations that the parties have agreed to under the road map are clear. For peace to come, it is time for them and all of us to live up to our responsibilities.

    Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the centre of America’s founding.

    This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It’s a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered. Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build. The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people.

    Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognise past agreements, and recognise Israel’s right to exist.

    At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

    Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.

    Finally, the Arab states must recognise that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems.

    Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognise Israel’s legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.

    America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognise that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognise the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.

    Too many tears have flowed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.

    The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons. This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against US troops and civilians.

    This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran’s leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.

    It will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America’s interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.

    I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America’s commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation – including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.

    The fourth issue that I will address is democracy. I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.

    That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people. Each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.

    There is no straight line to realise this promise. But this much is clear: governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful and secure. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments provided they govern with respect for all their people.

    This last point is important because there are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others. No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.

    The fifth issue that we must address together is religious freedom.

    Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshipped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today.

    People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it is being challenged in many different ways.

    Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of another’s. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And faultlines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.

    Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfil their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfil zakat.

    Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism. Indeed, faith should bring us together. That is why we are forging service projects in America that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah’s interfaith dialogue and Turkey’s leadership in the Alliance of Civilisations. Around the world, we can turn dialogue into interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action whether it is combating malaria in Africa, or providing relief after a natural disaster.

    The sixth issue that I want to address is women’s rights. I know there is debate about this issue. I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.

    Now let me be clear: issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.

    Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity, men and women, to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams.

    Finally, I want to discuss economic development and opportunity. I know that for many, the face of globalisation is contradictory. The internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence. Trade can bring new wealth and opportunities, but also huge disruptions and changing communities. In all nations, including my own, this change can bring fear. Fear that because of modernity we will lose control over our economic choices, our politics, and most importantly our identities – those things we most cherish about our communities, our families, our traditions, and our faith.

    But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradiction between development and tradition. Countries like Japan and South Korea grew their economies while maintaining distinct cultures. The same is true for the astonishing progress within Muslim-majority countries from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.

    This is important because no development strategy can be based only upon what comes out of the ground, nor can it be sustained while young people are out of work. Many Gulf states have enjoyed great wealth as a consequence of oil, and some are beginning to focus it on broader development. But all of us must recognise that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century, and in too many Muslim communities there remains under-investment in these areas. I am emphasising such investments within my country. And while America in the past has focused on oil and gas in this part of the world, we now seek a broader engagement.

    On education, we will expand exchange programmes, and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America; invest in online learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo. On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries. And I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.

    On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs. We will open centres of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programmes that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitise records, clean water, and grow new crops. And today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health. 

    All these things must be done in partnership. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organisations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life.

    The issues that I have described will not be easy to address. But we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek – a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God’s children are respected. Those are mutual interests.

    That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together. I know there are many, Muslim and non-Muslim, who question whether we can forge this new beginning. Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn’t worth the effort that we are fated to disagree, and civilisations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply sceptical that real change can occur. There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country, you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world. All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time.

    The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort, a sustained effort, to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

    It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples a belief that isn’t new; that isn’t black or white or brown; that isn’t Christian, or Muslim or Jew. It’s a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilisation, and that still beats in the heart of billions. It’s a faith in other people, and it’s what brought me here today.

    We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.

    The Holy Quran tells us, “O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.” The Talmud tells us: “The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.”

    The Holy Bible tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth.

    Thank you and may God’s peace be upon you.

    Source

    Part 1

    Part 2

    Alexander Cockburn High Words, Low Truths

    George Galloway Our Convoy to Gaza

    Paul Craig Roberts Obama in Cairo

    Jennifer Loewenstein How Much Really Separates Obama and Netanyahu?

    Franklin Lamb Watching Obama’s Speech in Lebanon

    Posted in Empire, Speeches | 2 Comments

    Pakistan Coverage – Updated 27 Aug.09 (am)

    UPDATES AT THE PAK PAGE CLICK HERE

    PAKISTAN: THE BATTLE WITHIN – Daily Diary from Al Jazeera
    Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3

  • Jets Pound Militant Positions in South Waziristan 8/26/2009
  • Pakistan’s Interior Minister: Only 1 Percent of Balochistan Supports Separatist Movement 8/26/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Seen as Regrouping 8/26/2009
  • 3 Killed in Shooting in Pakistan 8/26/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Admit Leader Mehsud Killed 8/25/2009
  • Series of Raids by Pakistan Police Foil Attacks 8/24/2009
  • Afghan Reporter Shot Dead in Pakistan 8/24/2009
  • Profile: New Pakistani Taliban Leader Zulfiqar Mehsud 8/24/2009
  • Afghan Journalist Shot Dead in Pakistan Ambush 8/24/2009
  • Relatives Accuse Pakistan Forces in Swat Killings 8/24/2009
  • Two Women Among Three Dead in Peshawar Suicide Attack 8/23/2009
  • Suicide Bomb in Pakistani City of Peshawar Kills 3 8/23/2009
  • Is Pakistan’s Taliban Movement on the Way Out? 8/23/2009
  • Pakistan General: Mullah Omar Not in Balochistan 8/23/2009
  • Pakistan Taliban Commander Vows Afghan Fight 8/23/2009
  • Suicide Explosion Hits Northern Pakistan, Casualties Feared 8/22/2009
  • Iranian Border Guards Kill 2 Pakistanis, Says Official 8/22/2009
  • Pakistan: Three Soldiers, Civilian Killed in Swat Blasts 8/22/2009
  • Pakistan: Peshawar Blast Kills Two Ansarul Islam Men 8/22/2009
  • Petition Seeking Trial of Musharraf for Treason Filed in Pakistan Supreme Court 8/22/2009
  • Rocket Attack Kills Two in Balochistan’s Mashkel Area; Rocket Fire Came From Pakistan-Iran Border 8/22/2009
  • Militants Dispatch Suicide Bombers to Avenge Pakistan’s Swat Operations 8/22/2009
  • New Leader of Pakistan’s Taliban Is Named, Though Officials Believe He Is Dead 8/22/2009
  • Pakistan Suicide Bomber Blows Self Up During Raid 8/22/2009
  • Report: Pakistani Taliban Choose New Leader 8/22/2009
  • Pakistan Starts Manufacturing Drones 8/22/2009
  • Pakistan: Mehsud Baitulla’s Relative Could Have Given Him Away 8/22/2009
  • Air Arabia Diverts Sharjah-Peshawar Flights Over Security Concerns 8/22/2009
  • Pakistani Extremists in Punjab Seen as Rising Threat 8/22/2009
  • 2 Pakistan Students Expelled From UK Return Home, Claim Mistreatment 8/22/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Quiz Mehsud Kin Over Snitching 8/22/2009
  • Pakistan: Tribal Elder Shot Dead in Bajaur 8/22/2009
  • Sri Lanka to Train Pakistani Army to Fight Taliban 8/22/2009
  • Officials Say US Missile Kills 12 in NW Pakistan 8/21/2009
  • Kidnapped French Tourist Freed in SW Pakistan 8/21/2009
  • Pakistan Leader Backs China Over Xinjiang 8/21/2009
  • Pakistan Hopes Afghan Vote Will Bring Stability /20/2009
  • US Drone Strikes in Pakistan, at Least 3 Dead 8/20/2009
  • US Drone Strike Kills 12 in North Waziristan 8/20/2009
  • Bomb Wounds 7 Close to Pakistan Capital 8/20/2009
  • Officials Say US Missile Strike Kills 7 in Pakistan 8/20/2009
  • Pakistan PM to Support Resolution Against Musharraf 8/19/2009
  • Expansion of US Embassy Reflects Focus on Pakistan 8/19/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban’s Deputy Head Takes Over Group 8/19/2009
  • Pakistan Vows Foolproof Security in Balochistan 8/19/2009
  • US Envoy Has ‘Useful Dialogue’ With Anti-American Pakistani Leader 8/19/2009
  • Pakistan PM Effectively Rules Out Treason Charges Against Musharraf 8/19/2009
  • Captured Pakistani Taliban Admits Leader Is Dead 8/18/2009
  • Pakistan Offers Cooperation if India Shares Evidence on Terrorism 8/18/2009
  • Pakistan Again Insists Hakimullah Mehsud Is Dead 8/18/2009
  • Afghan Refugees in Pakistan Yearn to Vote 8/18/2009
  • US Presses Pakistan on Taliban 8/18/2009
  • In Pakistan Tribal Belt, Female Reporters Get a Voice 8/18/2009
  • Pakistan PM: US Drone Strikes Fueling Anti-American Sentiment 8/17/2009
  • India PM: Pakistan Terror Groups Planning Attacks 8/17/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Says Bombs a ‘Gift’ for US Envoy 8/17/2009
  • Pakistan Once Gain Seeks US Drone Technology 8/17/2009
  • Drone Attacks Fuelling Anti-Us Feelings, PM Tells Holbrooke 8/17/2009
  • Three Soldiers Among Five Killed in Swat Attack 8/16/2009
  • US Envoy Praises Pakistan Progress Against Taliban 8/16/2009
  • Two Killed in North Waziristan 8/16/2009
  • Intel Reports Warn of Possible Taliban Retaliation Over Baitullah’s ‘Killing’ 8/16/2009
  • Signs of Taliban Rift Hearten Pakistan, US 8/16/2009
  • Bodies of 18 Militants Found in Pakistan’s Swat Valley 8/16/2009
  • US to Pakistan: Talks With India Only After Action on Mumbai Attacks 8/15/2009
  • Behind the Scenes: a Refugee Camp for Pakistani Christians 8/15/2009
  • Suicide Bomber in Pakistan’s Swat Kills 5 8/15/2009
  • US Sees Shift in Pakistan Focus 8/15/2009
  • Video: Lashkar-E-Taiba Holds Anti-India Rally in Pakistan 8/15/2009
  • Pakistan: Eleven Soldiers Injured in Rocket Attack 8/15/2009
  • 19 Killed in Pakistan’s Restive NWFP 8/15/2009
  • Pakistan’s Gilani: ‘Army Has Nothing to Do With Musharraf’s Trial 8/15/2009
  • Pakistan’s Tribal Areas to Get Parliamentary Reps 8/14/2009
  • Pakistan’s Dancing Girls Return to Swat Valley 8/14/2009
  • Pakistani Provincial Chief Blames ‘Foreign Hands’ for Unrest 8/14/2009
  • Pakistan Calls on Islamist Militants to Surrender 8/14/2009
  • Ban on Political Parties Lifted in Pakistan’s Wild Frontier States 8/14/2009
  • Pakistan Lifts Political Ban in Tribal Areas 8/14/2009
  • US Detains Journalist Fleeing Pakistan Threats 8/13/2009
  • Poll: Pakistanis Oppose Taliban, Still Revile US 8/13/2009
  • US Detains Pakistani Reporter for Unknown Reason 8/13/2009
  • Three Security Personnel Killed in Balochistan Attacks 8/13/2009
  • Pakistan Pounds Taliban Commander’s Bases, 12 Die 8/13/2009
  • Pakistan Army Chief: We Are Fighting Terrorism, Not Religion 8/13/2009
  • Poll: Pakistanis Oppose Both US and Taliban 8/13/2009
  • Sectarian Violence Hits Pakistani Town 8/12/2009
  • Militant Clashes Kill at Least 70 in NW Pakistan 8/12/2009
  • Explosion, Gunfire at Pakistan Checkpoint Kill 2 8/12/2009
  • Pakistan, Seen Stalling, Says Wants Nukes Banned 8/12/2009
  • 14 Killed as Rival Militants Clash in South Waziristan 8/12/2009
  • US Sees Signs of Disarray Within Pakistani Taliban 8/12/2009
  • Pakistani Clerics Slain in Somalia 8/12/2009
  • Witnesses: 5 Pakistani Preachers Killed in Somalia 8/12/2009
  • Baloch Leader Forms Council for Independent Balochistan 8/12/2009
  • Pakistan Police Book Former President Musharraf 8/11/2009
  • Pentagon Comfortable With Pakistani Nuclear Safety Measures 8/11/2009
  • At Least 10 Killed as US Drone Strikes South Waziristan 8/11/2009
  • Militants Burn Seven Schools in Buner District 8/11/2009
  • Pro-Musharraf Party Dares Pakistan’s Ruling Party to Charge Musharraf 8/11/2009
  • Pakistan’s Musharraf Faces Exile or Arrest 8/11/2009
  • Terrorists ‘Have Attacked Pakistan Nuclear Sites Three Times’ 8/11/2009
  • Pakistani PM: Army Will Remain in Swat Valley 8/10/2009
  • India: Pakistan’s Army Supporting Kashmir Infiltrators 8/10/2009
  • Baitullah Is Alive Too, Claims Other TTP Leader Who’s Also Supposedly Dead 8/10/2009
  • Security Forces Kill Three Taliban in North Waziristan 8/10/2009
  • Pakistan Taliban Deputy Hakimullah Calls Ap, Wire Service Says 8/10/2009
  • Pakistan’s PM Visits Swat, Vows to Wipe Out Militancy 8/10/2009
  • Pakistan Fears Al-Qaeda May Pick New Taliban Chief 8/10/2009
  • US, Pakistan Increasingly Believe Mehsud Dead 8/9/2009
  • US General: Likelihood of Pakistani Taliban Leader’s Death ’90 Percent’ 8/9/2009
  • Sharif: No Need for Resolution to Charge Musharraf 8/9/2009
  • Pakistan Interior Minister Demands Taliban Prove Leaders Are Alive 8/9/2009
  • Ex-Pakistan President Musharraf Faces New Probe 8/9/2009
  • Poll: US ‘Biggest’ Threat Say Pakistanis 8/9/2009
  • Mehsud’s Aide Says He Is Alive but Ill 8/9/2009
  • Pakistan Taliban Commander Denies Shootout With Rival 8/9/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Death Reports Spur Flurry of Rumors and Denials 8/9/2009
  • Eight Killed in North-Western Pakistan Combat 8/9/2009
  • Pakistan Taliban ‘To Prove’ Baitullah Mehsud Is Alive 8/9/2009
  • Wali-Ur-Rehman, Hakimullah Alive, Claims Foreign News Agency 8/9/2009
  • Is Pakistani Taliban Leader Dead? 8/8/2009
  • Two Pakistan Political Parties Independently Try to Shoot Down Anti-Musharraf Resolution 8/8/2009
  • Militants Say Pakistan’s Mehsud Alive, Deny Report 8/8/2009
  • Pakistan Denies Afghanistan Transit Facilities to Import Oil From India 8/8/2009
  • Pakistan Troops Capture 15 Terror Suspects 8/8/2009
  • Pakistanis Admit Helping in Mehsud Missile Strike 8/8/2009
  • Deadly Gunfire Reported Between Pakistan’s Taliban Rivals 8/8/2009
  • Former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik Murdered 8/8/2009
  • Bomb Near Pakistan School Wounds 6 8/8/2009
  • Pakistan Welcomes Mehsud’s Death but Warns ‘War Not Won’ 8/8/2009
  • Afghan Taliban Say Unhurt by Mehsud Death, Resistance Will Continue 8/8/2009
  • Pakistan’s No. 1 Enemy: Ex-Ally Bent by al-Qaeda 8/7/2009
  • Nine Killed as Rival Groups Clash in Khyber 8/7/2009
  • Pakistan FM Vows to Eventually Reveal Proof of Indian Plot in Balochistan 8/7/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Head’s Death a Blow to Militants 8/7/2009
  • Will Taliban Head’s Death Further Destabilize Pakistan? 8/7/2009
  • Is bin Laden Next on Drones’ Hit List? 8/7/2009
  • Aide Says Pakistani Taliban Leader Killed by US 8/7/2009
  • Strike on Mehsud Could Spur Stronger US-Pakistan Cooperation 8/7/2009
  • Back to School in Pakistan’s Swat Valley 8/7/2009
  • Drone Probably Killed Taliban Leader. Is Pakistan Safer? 8/7/2009
  • Possible Successors to Pakistan’s Taliban Chief 8/7/2009
  • White House: Pakistan Safer if Taliban Chief Dead 8/7/2009
  • Lahore Commissioner Blames Indian Spy Agency for Recent Terror Attacks 8/6/2009
  • Pakistan, US Probe Report of Taliban Chief’s Death 8/6/2009
  • Pakistan: Laws to Be Reviewed Post-Christian Havoc 8/6/2009
  • Police: Pakistani Provincial Minister Shot Dead 8/6/2009
  • Attack on Christians a Further Crisis for Pakistan 8/6/2009
  • Police: Pakistani Provincial Minister Shot Dead 8/6/2009
  • FM: Pakistan Is Not Begging India for Talks 8/6/2009
  • Pakistan Says Indian Evidence Against Saeed Too Weak 8/6/2009
  • 70 Murders, Yet Close to Going Free in Pakistan 8/5/2009
  • Pakistan Prepares for Influx of Taliban 8/5/2009
  • Pakistani Christians Express Anger Over Killings 8/5/2009
  • US Drone Strike Kills Pakistani Taliban Chief’s Wife 8/5/2009
  • Pakistani Christians Express Anger Over Killings 8/5/2009
  • Pakistani Officials Claim NATO Confirmed Weapons Being Smuggled Into Balochistan 8/5/2009
  • A Search for Motives in Attack on Christians 8/4/2009
  • Six Taliban Killed, 17 Held in Swat 8/4/2009
  • Balochistan’s Entire Supreme Court Resigns 8/4/2009
  • Hints of Cooperation Put Leaders of Pakistan and India on the Defensive at Home 8/4/2009
  • Spasm of Religious Violence Leaves Pakistani Christians in Mourning, Frustration 8/3/2009
  • Pakistan Resolution Would Charge Musharraf With ‘High Treason’ 8/3/2009
  • Pakistan Army Majors Arrested for ‘Collaborating with Terrorists’ 8/3/2009
  • Taliban Slick Propaganda Confronts US 8/3/2009
  • Swati Refugees Head Home After Army Scatters the Taliban 8/2/2009

    Schools Open in Pakistan’s Swat Despite Taliban Fear 8/2/2009

    Pakistan Police Lodge Charges Against Cleric 8/2/2009

    Troops Patrol Pakistani City After Riots Kill 8 8/2/2009

    Beneath Calm in Pakistani Valley Lie Signs of New Conflict 8/2/2009

    Pakistan Police Catch al-Qaeda-Linked Group Member 8/1/2009

    Six Christians Burned Alive in Pakistan Riots 8/1/2009

    Delay in Indo-Pak Talks to Benefit Terrorists, Says Pakistan PM 8/1/2009

    Pakistan: Two Security Men Killed in Quetta Attack 8/1/2009

    Pashtun Ethnic Agenda at Heart of Afghan War 8/1/2009

    6 Pakistani Christians Die in Riots With Muslims 8/1/2009

    Pakistan Arrests Suspect in Marriott Hotel Bombing 8/1/2009

    Pakistan: Taliban Kill Militant Commander, Deputy; 10 Kidnapped Soldiers Freed 8/1/2009

    Pakistan: Musharraf Faces Exile in UK After Court Says Emergency Rule Illegal 8/1/2009

    Schools Reopen in Pakistan’s Battle-Scarred Swat 8/1/2009

    Two Bodies Recovered in Pakistan 8/1/2009

    What Are the Implications of Pakistan’s Musharraf Ruling? 8/1/2009

    Pakistan, Where the Mullahs Are the Upper Crust 8/1/2009

    Indian FM: Talks Only Way to Resolve Issues With Pakistan 7/31/2009

    Bin Laden Allies Reject Reports of Son’s Death in Pakistan 7/31/2009

    Pakistani Court Rules Musharraf ‘Emergency Rule’ Illegal 7/31/2009

    Pakistan Court Rules Musharraf’s Emergency Illegal 7/31/2009

    Pakistan Diplomacy Rocks Indian Parliament 7/30/2009

    Pakistan Case Gives Glimpse Into US Terror Suspect 7/30/2009

    Pakistani Court: Musharraf Treason Charge Up to Parliament 7/30/2009

    Pakistani Govt Bars Visitors as Interrogation of Sufi Muhammad Begins 7/30/2009

    Pakistan Children Face Threat to Education: UN 7/30/2009

    Pakistani Villagers Re-Create Anti-Taliban Militia 7/30/2009

    Militants Capture 10 Soldiers in North Waziristan 7/30/2009

    Indian Opposition in Uproar at Policy Towards Pakistan 7/30/2009

    UN Scales Back Operation in Pakistan’s Baluchistan 7/30/2009

    US Unsure on Success of Pakistan’s Swat Offensive 7/29/2009

    Still No Charges Against Sufi Muhammad 7/29/2009

    Bomb Outside Court Kills 2, Wounds 4 in Pakistan 7/29/2009

    Pakistan Unhappy With India’s Nuclear-Powered Sub 7/28/2009

    Officials: Suicide Attack Kills 2 in Pakistan 7/28/2009

    Pakistan in Covert Talks With Militant Chief Mehsud 7/28/2009

    As Violence Hurts Business, Pakistanis Debate US Help 7/28/2009

    Pakistanis Say Taliban Trained Teens as Suicide Bombers 7/28/2009

    Police Officer Is Found Beheaded in Pakistan’s Swat Valley 7/28/2009

  • Pakistani Pledge to Rout Taliban in Tribal Region Is Put on Hold 7/27/2009
  • Pakistani Police Hold 2 in Polish Man’s Beheading 7/26/2009
  • Movement of US, NATO Troops Along Border Worries Waziristan Tribes 7/26/2009
  • Musharraf: I Did Not Do Anything Wrong 7/26/2009
  • Back Home in Pakistan, but Feeling Under Siege 7/26/2009
  • Terror Ties Run Deep in Pakistan, Mumbai Attack Case Shows 7/26/2009
  • Pakistan Arrests Top Cleric Sufi Muhammad for ‘Failure to Denounce Terrorism’ 7/26/2009
  • Panic in North Waziristan Over ‘Huge’ US Build-Up Along Border 7/26/2009
  • Pakistan Arrests Pro-Taliban Cleric Sufi Muhammad 7/26/2009
  • Pakistan: Three Killed in Quetta Target Killings 7/25/2009
  • Indian Book Claims Musharraf Involved in Mumbai Attacks 7/25/2009
  • The Invisible Enemy in Pakistan 7/25/2009
  • Pakistan Police Arrest Former Parliamentarian in Polish Engineer’s Death 7/25/2009
  • Troops Kill 14 Militants in NW Pakistan: Military 7/25/2009
  • Pakistan Court Delays Mumbai Attack Case for Month 7/25/2009
  • Pakistan Journalists Targets in Taliban Insurgency 7/25/2009
  • I Was a Guantánamo Prisoner 7/25/2009
  • Pakistan Stretched Thin for Mehsud Battle 7/25/2009
  • Pakistan Consumed by Violence as Taliban Power Grows 7/24/2009
  • Military: Clashes Kill 21 Militants in NW Pakistan 7/24/2009
  • Musharraf Says He Will Defend Himself in Court 7/24/2009
  • 21 Taliban Killed in Swat, Dir 7/24/2009
  • Pakistan’s South Waziristan Puzzle 7/24/2009
  • Pakistan Interior Minister Claims Proof of Indian, Afghan Involvement in Baloch Separatist Movement 7/24/2009
  • Holbrooke Calls for ‘Odious’ TTP Leader’s Elimination 7/23/2009
  • Mullen: US Doesn’t Invade Sovereign Countries 7/23/2009
  • A Desperate Musharraf May Drag in the Army 7/23/2009
  • Protests in Layyah as Detainee Dies in Pakistani Custody 7/23/2009
  • Bin Laden’s Son ‘Probably Killed’ by US Strike 7/23/2009
  • Eight More Militants Killed in Swat Valley 7/23/2009
  • Pakistan Military Fails to Come to Aid of Local Defenders in Dir 7/23/2009
  • Bin Laden Son Probably Killed in Pakistan Missile Strike, Taliban Leader Lives 7/23/2009
  • US Envoy: Securing Pakistan’s Swat a Top Priority 7/23/2009
  • Kalashnikov Demand Soars With Violence in Pakistan 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan FM: Relations With India to Improve /22/2009
  • Pakistani Army Kills 33 Taliban in Malakand, South Waziristan 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Court Orders Musharraf to Explain Emergency Rule 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Raises Concern Over US Afghan Offensive 7/22/2009
  • 11 Militants Among 18 Killed in Swat 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan’s ‘Mock War’ on Taliban 7/22/2009
  • US Envoy Told: Pakistan Drone Strikes Not Working 7/22/2009
  • 500 Hardcore Militants Captured in Swat, Claims Malik 7/22/2009
  • Pakistani Court Summons Musharraf Over 2007 Chaos 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Fears US Afghan Offensive Will Spill Into Balochistan 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Seeks More US Military Aid 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Jets Kill Mehsud Associates: Official 7/22/2009
  • Waziristan a Tough Nut for Pakistani Forces 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Kills More Than 30 Militants: Officials7/22/2009
  • America’s South Afghan Offensive Worries Pakistan 7/22/2009
  • Pakistan Objects to US Expansion in Afghan War 7/21/2009
  • Captured US Soldier May Be in Pakistan 7/21/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Kill 6 Militants in Northwest 7/21/2009
  • Military: 56 Dead in Clashes in Northwest Pakistan 7/21/2009
  • Swat Valley Reconstruction to Cost Billions, Take Years 7/21/2009
  • Mumbai Gunman Describes Indoctrination in Pakistan 7/21/2009
  • Hillary Rules Out New Junta in Pakistan 7/20/2009
  • Pakistan Troops Kill ‘Around 100′ in Massive Assault Near Swat Valley 7/20/2009
  • Clinton Says 9/11 Ringleaders Are in Pakistan 7/20/2009
  • 20 Dead in Clashes in Troubled Northwest Pakistan 7/20/2009
  • No Let-Up in US Drone War in Pakistan 7/20/2009
  • Clinton Says 9/11 Ringleaders Are in Pakistan 7/20/2009
  • Clinton Warns of Terrorist Syndicate, Urges Pakistan Action 7/19/2009
  • Time to Talk to Taliban: Musharraf 7/19/2009
  • 40,000 Displaced Families Have Returned to Swat Valley 7/19/2009
  • Pakistan Admits Extremists’ Involvement in Mumbai Attacks 7/18/2009
  • India Says Pakistan Still Aiding Kashmir Militants 7/18/2009
  • Pakistan Warplanes, Troops Kill 12 Taliban 7/18/2009
  • Former Pakistan President Musharraf Plays Down Indian Threat 7/18/2009
  • In Pakistan, Skardu Is Suffering Backlash of Taliban Violence 7/18/2009
  • Pakistan Intent on Finding Mumbai Culprits 7/18/2009
  • Clinton Shorts Indian Officials, Snubs Pakistan on Visit 7/18/2009
  • Pakistan Police Are on the Front Line Against Terrorism 7/18/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Kill 9 Militants in Northwest 7/18/2009
  • Pakistan: Taliban Resurface in Parts of Buner District 7/18/2009
  • UN Probe Says ‘No Smoking Guns’ on Benazir Bhutto Killing 7/18/2009
  • Pakistani PM: Talks With India Only Way Out 7/18/2009
  • Pakistani Court Clears Sharif in Hijacking Case 7/17/2009
  • Official: Blasts Hit 2 NATO Tankers in NW Pakistan 7/17/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Kill 6 Militants in Northwest 7/17/2009
  • UN Not to Name Culprits in Bhutto Assassination 7/17/2009
  • Pakistan Govt Unlikely to Contest Sharif Verdict 7/17/2009
  • US Urges India to Back Pakistan Against Militants 7/17/2009
  • Alleged US Missiles Kill 5 in Northwest Pakistan 7/17/2009
  • Text of Joint Statement of Zardari-Sharif Meeting 7/17/2009
  • Pakistani Supreme Court Clears Former PM of ‘Hijacking’ Conviction 7/17/2009
  • Pakistan Opposition Party Leader: Martial Law-Era Decisions Should Also Be Reconsidered 7/17/2009
  • Dancing Girls Fear Return to Swat 7/17/2009
  • NATO Fuel Tankers Attacked in Pakistan 7/17/2009
  • India, Hosting Clinton, Fears Pressure From US to Mend Ties With Pakistan 7/17/2009
  • Pakistan Vows ‘No Compromise’ in South Waziristan Attack 7/16/2009
  • India and Pakistan Agree to Fight Terror Together 7/16/2009
  • Pakistan Promises to Catch India Attackers 7/16/2009
  • US Praises Pakistan Handling of Swat Crisis 7/16/2009
  • Roadside Bomb Kills Three in North Waziristan 7/16/2009
  • India and Pakistan Discuss Resuming Talks 7/16/2009
  • India, Pakistan Agree Terrorism Not Linked to Talks 7/16/2009
  • Mullen Seeks World Support for Pakistan 7/16/2009
  • Text: India, Pakistan Prime Ministers’ Joint Statement 7/16/2009
  • Gunmen Kill UN Worker, Guard in Nw Pakistan 7/16/2009
  • UN Team Digs Into Pakistan’s Bhutto Conspiracy Theories 7/16/2009
  • Troops Kill 13 Taliban in Swat Valley 7/15/2009
  • Gilani Says Peace With India ‘Achievable’ 7/15/2009
  • Video of Mumbai Attacker’s ‘Confession’ 7/15/2009
  • 14 Killed in Clashes in Swat as Refugees Return 7/15/2009
  • Pakistan Sees Momentum in Ties With India 7/15/2009
  • Al-Qaeda No. 2: US Threatens Pakistan’s Destiny 7/15/2009
  • Fears of Swat Operation Spillover in Tajikistan 7/15/2009
  • India, Pakistan PMs to Meet, Mumbai Attacks Cloud Talks 7/15/2009
  • 665 Families Repatriated to Swat, Buner 7/13/2009
  • Six Taliban Killed in Clash With Troops in South Waziristan 7/13/2009
  • Deadly Blast Kills 15 in Central Pakistan 7/13/2009
  • Refugees From Region in Pakistan Trickling Home 7/13/2009
  • Forces Kill 14 Taliban in South Waziristan, Dir 7/12/2009
  • 16 Killed in Karachi in 24 Hours 7/12/2009
  • Mingora Still Looks Like a Ghost City 7/12/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Pound Militant Hide-Outs, Kill 8 7/12/2009
  • Official: Pakistan Can Help Broker US-Taliban Talks 7/11/2009
  • Pakistan Military to Rely on Air Power in Waziristan 7/11/2009
  • Another Insurgency Gains in Pakistan 7/11/2009
  • US Stop Bombing Us: Osama Isn’t Here, Says Pakistan 7/11/2009
  • Pakistan: 26 Militants Arrested in Swat 7/11/2009
  • Fears Abound in Swat’s Main Town 7/11/2009
  • 1 Militant Dead in Shootout in Central Pakistan 7/11/2009
  • US Drone Strike Kills 5 Militants in Pakistan 7/11/2009
  • Pakistan: Mumbai Attacks Trial to Start Next Week 7/11/2009
  • Tribal Region Poses Harsh Test for Pakistan Army 7/11/2009
  • Police: Ambush Kills 5 Police in NW Pakistan 7/11/2009
  • Pakistan: Suicide Bombings Paralyze Peshawar 7/11/2009
  • Gilani Accuses Musharraf of Usurping Provincial Powers 7/10/2009
  • 16 Taliban Killed in Bajaur, Malakand 7/10/2009
  • Clashes Leave at Least 20 Dead in Nw Pakistan 7/10/2009
  • Pakistani Refugees Begin Returning Home 7/10/2009
  • Indian PM Worries Over Slow Pakistan Probe Into Mumbai 7/10/2009
  • Latest US Drone Strike in South Waziristan Brings Weeklong Toll to Over 100 7/10/2009
  • UN: Swat, Malakand Reconstruction to Cost Billions 7/10/2009
  • NATO: Pakistan’s Sovereignty Should Be Respected 7/9/2009
  • Pakistan Says Displaced People Can Return to Swat, but Is It Safe? 7/9/2009
  • Airstrikes in Northwest Pakistan Kill 24 Militants 7/9/2009
  • Militants Attack Security Post in Pakistan; 4 Dead 7/9/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Kill 54 Across FATA 7/9/2009
  • Britain ‘Outsourced’ Torture to Pakistan: MP 7/8/2009
  • 2 Suspected US Missile Attacks Kill 28 in Pakistan 7/8/2009
  • US Drones Back Up Pakistani Military’s Domestic Struggle 7/8/2009
  • Pakistan: Buner’s Displaced Heading Back Home Despite Lingering Dangers 7/8/2009
  • Military Declares Swat Valley Operation ‘Over’ but Troops Will Remain, Continue Operations 7/8/2009
  • Pakistani Army: Militant Leader in Swat Wounded 7/8/2009
  • How Dangerous Is Lashkar-E-Taiba to the West? 7/8/2009
  • Troops Kill Two Taliban in Bajaur 7/8/2009
  • US Drone Strikes Kill at Least 60 in South Waziristan 7/8/2009
  • UK ‘Subcontracted’ Torture of Terrorist Suspect to Pakistan, Ex-Official Reveals 7/8/2009
  • India to Launch Media Campaign Against Pakistan 7/7/2009
  • Pakistan Funding Assam Rebels, Alleges India 7/7/2009
  • Pakistan Govt Appeals Against Release of Suspected Mumbai Attacks Sponsor 7/6/2009
  • 10 Militants Killed in Swat Valley Blitz 7/6/2009
  • ‘Stray Missiles’ Kill Seven Civilians in North Waziristan 7/6/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Pound Taliban on Afghan Border 7/5/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Bomb N. Waziristan, Killing Up to 6 7/5/2009
  • Pakistan: Jets Target N. Waziristan, Up to 6 Die 7/5/2009
  • Pakistani Air Raids Kill Five Near Afghan Border 7/5/2009
  • British FM: Terrorism Real Threat for Pakistan Not India 7/5/2009
  • Pakistan: 26 Militants Killed in Orakzai Blitz 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan Says Technical Fault Caused Helicopter Crash 7/4/2009
  • Attack in Pakistani Garrison City Raises Anxiety About Safety of Nuclear Labs and Staff 7/4/2009
  • Taliban Claims Shooting Down Pakistan Military Helicopter, Killing 26 7/4/2009
  • Islamist Winds Chill Pakistani Artists 7/4/2009
  • Details Emerge on Woman Accused of Al-Qaeda Ties 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan Fears Afghan Offensive to Destabilise Balochistan 7/4/2009
  • British Islamists Plot Against Pakistan 7/4/2009
  • Two More Shot Dead in Pakistan 7/4/2009
  • French Judges Seek Secret Files on 2002 Karachi Attack 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan Forces Torch 14 Shops, 10 Houses of Militants in Swat 7/4/2009
  • Officials Say 16 Killed in Clashes in NW Pakistan 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan: One Killed as Dir Lashkar-Militants Fight Resumes 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan: 15 Lashkar Men, Three Militants Killed in Mohmand 7/4/2009
  • New US Offensive in Southern Afghanistan Puts Pakistani Military on Alert 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan to Share Evidence of Foreign Involvement With Relevant Countries 7/4/2009
  • Pakistan Army Names New Commander for Swat Operation 7/4/2009
  • France Urged to Reveal 2002 Pakistan Attack Files 7/4/2009
  • Afghan-Pakistani Hostility Impedes US Troops 7/4/2009
  • Pakistani Airstrikes Kill at Least 10 Militants in Northwest 7/4/2009
  • Pakistani Airstrikes Kill at Least 12 Militants 7/4/2009
  • Pakistani Airstrikes Kill at Least 12 Militants 7/4/2009
  • Pakistani PM Seeks US Support for Massive Border Wall 7/3/2009
  • Pakistan Desperately Short of Money to Resettle Swat Residents 7/2/2009
  • Pakistan Upping Border Force Along Helmand Stretch 7/2/2009
  • Pakistani Police Say Bomb Kills 6 Near Capital 7/2/2009
  • Pakistan Moves Troops to Afghan Border 7/2/2009
  • Rawalpindi Blast Kills One, Injures 29 7/2/2009
  • US Slaps Sanctions on LeT Leaders 7/2/2009
  • Militant Violence Leaves 54 Dead in Pakistan 7/2/2009
  • 23 Militants Killed in Swat Valley 7/2/2009
  • Pakistani Troops Slay ‘More Than 50 Militants’ 7/2/2009
  • Poll: Pakistanis Worried About Terrorists, Wary of US 7/1/2009
  • UN Probe Into Slaying of Bhutto Begins 7/1/2009
  • Poll: Pakistanis View Taliban as Threat to Country 7/1/2009
  • In Pakistani Relief Camps, Charities Press Anti-US View 7/1/2009
  • 28 Militants Killed in Khyber 7/1/2009
  • Pakistani Army Rules Out Operation in North Waziristan 7/1/2009
  • Pakistan Tribes Request Army Aid Against Taliban 7/1/2009
  • Pakistani ‘Informant’ Faces Deportation From US 7/1/2009
  • Pakistani Army Rules Out Military Operation in North Waziristan 7/1/2009
  • Pakistani Troops Clear Taliban Stronghold in Swat 7/1/2009
  • India Presses Pakistan Over Mumbai 7/1/2009
  • US Targets Four in Pakistan for Terrorism Support 7/1/2009
  • Pakistan Army Faces Fight With End of Taliban Deal 6/30/2009
  • Pakistan Now Facing 2-Front War in Waziristan 6/30/2009
  • Warplanes Pound Militant Positions in North Waziristan 6/30/2009
  • Nine Injured in Buner Bomb Explosion 6/29/2009
  • US Resumes Surveillance Flights Over Pakistan 6/29/2009
  • Pakistan Treads Warily as New Fight Looms 6/29/2009
  • Gilani: Top Taliban Leaders Will Be Killed Soon 6/29/2009
  • Pakistani Military Wary of Looming Waziristan Fight 6/29/2009
  • Violence Across Nw Pakistan Kills Dozens 6/29/2009
  • 13 Militants, Seven Civilians Killed in Khyber 6/29/2009
  • Pakistani Military Mulls Expanding Offensive to North Waziristan 6/29/2009
  • Taliban Ambush Pakistani Army Convoy 6/28/2009
  • 22 Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Waziristan 6/28/2009
  • 22 Soldiers Killed in Waziristan 6/28/2009
  • Two Commanders, Trainer of Suicide Bombers Held in Swat 6/28/2009
  • Sectarian Clashes in Pakistan’s Tribal Region Kill 33 6/28/2009
  • Displaced Swatis Selling Relief Goods to Buy Medicine 6/28/2009
  • Pakistan Offers Reward for Taliban Commander 6/28/2009
  • Officials: Rocket Attack Kills 6 Pakistan Soldiers 6/28/2009
  • Petraeus Meets Pakistan’s Gen. Kayani 6/28/2009
  • Pakistan Offers Reward for Taliban Chief, ‘Dead or Alive’ 6/28/2009
  • Pakistani Forces Kill 11 Taliban Militants 6/28/2009
  • 13 Soldiers, 18 Taliban Killed in Nw Pakistan: Officials 6/28/2009
  • Pakistan Arrests Family of Wanted Taliban Commander 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan Tribesmen Sign Accord to Fight Militancy 6/27/2009
  • 5 Militants Killed in Shootout in South Pakistan 6/27/2009
  • Pakistani Forces Kill at Least 20 Militants 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan Bombs Taliban in Waziristan, 5 Shot in Karachi 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan: Arrested Ex-National Assembly Member Was Carrying Letter From Taliban Leader 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan Police Kill Five Suspected Taliban Rebels 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan Army Operation Hinders Taliban Efforts in Afghanistan, US Says 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan: Lobbying Dollars Flowing Out at Super Speed 6/27/2009
  • Taliban Losses Are No Sure Gain for Pakistanis 6/27/2009
  • 16 Killed as Militants’ Hideouts Pounded in Pakistan 6/27/2009
  • Did Pakistani Spies Kill 11 French Naval Engineers? 6/27/2009
  • Afghan Refugees Asked to Leave Pakistan’s Bajaur Tribal Region in 3 Days 6/27/2009
  • Pakistan Urges US to End Drone Attacks 6/25/2009
  • Obama Adminstration Is Helping to Upgrade Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons 6/25/2009
  • Pakistani PM Seeks US Role in Resolving Disputes With India 6/25/2009
  • Zardari Renews Demand for Drone Technology 6/25/2009
  • In Pakistan, the Displaced Yearn for Home 6/25/2009
  • India Aims Talks at Boosting Civilian Pakistan Govt 6/25/2009
  • Deadliest US Missile Strikes in Pakistan 6/24/2009
  • Three Cops Die in Peshawar Attack 6/24/2009
  • US Drones Prowl Over Waziristan, Pakistan Concerned 6/24/2009
  • Pakistan’s Plans for New Fight Stir Concern 6/24/2009
  • Pakistan: No Extradition Request From India 6/24/2009
  • Senate Votes to Triple Non-Defense Aid to Pakistan 6/24/2009
  • Challenger to Pakistani Warlord Baitullah Mehsud Killed 6/23/2009
  • At Least 80 Killed as US Drones Attack South Waziristan Funeral Procession 6/23/2009
  • Pakistani President Zardari: India Not a Threat 6/23/2009
  • Assassination in Pakistan Exposes Taliban Rifts 6/23/2009
  • Commander: Pakistan Offensive Helps Afghanistan 6/23/2009
  • Rival of Pakistan Taliban Leader Is Assassinated 6/23/2009
  • Situation Dire for Pakistani Refugees 6/22/2009
  • Pakistan Launches Airstrikes After Bases Attacked 6/22/2009
  • Pakistan Army Says in Final Phase of Swat Offensive 6/22/2009
  • Tens of Thousands Leave Waziristan Before New Pakistani Offensive 6/22/2009
  • Al-Qaeda Says Would Use Pakistani Nuclear Weapons 6/21/2009
  • Can Pakistan Take on the Lashkar-E-Taiba? 6/21/2009
  • 7 Militants Killed by Pakistan Citizens’ Militia 6/21/2009
  • At Least 46 Militants Killed as Pakistan Launches Strikes Along Afghan Border Region 6/21/2009
  • Al-Qaeda Leader Hopes to Use Pakistani Nukes Against US 6/21/2009
  • Ten Civilians, Seven Militants Killed in Pakistan Air Strikes, Clashes 6/21/2009
  • More Than 30 Militants Killed in Pakistan 6/21/2009
  • Pakistani Aircraft Hit Militants Near Afghan Border 6/21/2009
  • New Crisis in Pakistan’s Swat Valley as Residents Run Out of Food 6/20/2009
  • Pakistan Says It’s Wrapping Up Swat Campaign 6/20/2009
  • Ex-Aide Claims Taliban Chief Behind Bhutto Assassination 6/20/2009
  • Pakistanis Trickling Back to Shattered Towns 6/20/2009
  • Obama: No Plan to Send Troops to Pakistan 6/20/2009
  • Officials: 50 Militants Dead in Pakistan Fighting 6/20/2009
  • ‘Dozens Dead’ in Pakistan Clashes 6/20/2009
  • Pakistan Fires Up Big Guns to Destroy Taliban Leader 6/20/2009
  • Taliban Gains Money, al-Qaeda Finances Recovering 6/20/2009
  • US Owes Pakistan $1bn for NATO Fuel Supply, Says UN Representative 6/20/2009
  • Pakistan Announces ‘Formal Launch’ of South Waziristan Offensive 6/19/2009
  • 19 Militants Killed in Bajaur, Buner 6/19/2009
  • Pakistani Jets Bomb Suspected Taliban Facilities 6/19/2009
  • Ground Forces Move in for Pakistan Offensive 6/19/2009
  • Pakistan’s Offensive Opens New Forum for Militants: Refugee Camps 6/19/2009
  • Fighter Jets Bomb South Waziristan 6/19/2009
  • Congress Okays $1.4 Billion Pakistan Aid 6/19/2009
  • UN Probe of Bhutto Killing to Start July 1 6/19/2009
  • Displaced Swatis Eager to Return Home 6/19/2009
  • Suspected US Missile Strikes in Pakistan Kill 8 6/18/2009
  • 34 More Militants Die in Swat, Dir 6/18/2009
  • US Drones Attack Region Where Islamabad Seeks Allies 6/18/2009
  • Dissenters Say Pakistani Taliban Chief Implements Foreign Agenda 6/18/2009
  • Bomb Damages Girls’ School in Khyber Agency 6/18/2009
  • US Drone Attack Kills 13 in South Waziristan 6/18/2009
  • Pakistan DM: Swat Valley Offensive ‘Nearly Over’ 6/18/2009
  • Army Offensive Threatens Pakistan Itself: Imran Khan 6/18/2009
  • Pakistani Cleric’s Slaying Signifies a Shift in Taliban Tactics 6/17/2009
  • Waziristan Is Still a Hangover From the Colonial Headache 6/17/2009
  • Pakistan’s ‘Invisible Refugees’ Burden Cities 6/17/2009
  • Pakistan to Boost Swat Valley Police 6/17/2009
  • Peshawar Airport Shuttered by Defense Ministry 6/17/2009
  • Former Aide: Pakistani Taliban Head a ‘US Agent’ 6/17/2009
  • Clinton Urges Better US-India-Pakistan Cooperation 6/17/2009
  • 28 More Militants Killed in and Around Swat Valley 6/17/2009
  • Jets and Choppers Fly Sorties Over Waziristan 6/17/2009
  • Unclear if Pakistan Offensive Serves US Interests 6/17/2009
  • India Says Its Ready to Talk Peace With Pakistan 6/17/2009
  • Pakistan to Invite Taliban’s Victims to Fight Back 6/17/2009
  • Skirmishing Ahead of New Pakistan Offensive 6/17/2009
  • 15 Militants Killed in Bajaur, Dir 6/16/2009
  • Pakistan Prepares Offensive on Taliban Stronghold 6/16/2009
  • NWFP Govt Promises Proper Arrangements for Waziristan Displaced 6/16/2009
  • Hint of a Thaw for India and Pakistan 6/16/2009
  • US Envoy Tries to Convince Pakistani Refugees US Is on Their Side 6/16/2009
  • Home Is Distant for Pakistan Displaced 6/16/2009
  • From Body-Builder to Militant Chief: the Man With a Price on His Head 6/15/2009
  • Pakistan: 14 Militants Killed in Dir Districts 6/15/2009
  • Pakistani Officials Vow to Extend Militant Fight 6/15/2009
  • Pakistan Commander Warns Against Collateral Damage 6/15/2009
  • India to Deploy Advanced Aircraft Along Pakistan, China Borders 6/15/2009
  • Pakistan to Launch Offensive Against Taliban Chief 6/14/2009
  • Bombing in Northwest Pakistan Market Kills Eight People 6/14/2009
  • Blast in Pakistan Market Kills 8; US Drone Strikes 6/14/2009
  • Pakistani Military: 31 Killed in Assorted Offensives 6/14/2009
  • US Drone Strike in South Waziristan Kills at Least Five 6/14/2009
  • Pakistan Raises Defense Budget to Fight Islamic Militancy 6/13/2009
  • Pakistan: Dont Doubt Sincerity in Mumbai Attack Probe 6/13/2009
  • Gains Against Pakistani Insurgents Fuels Pentagon Optimism for Pursuing al-Qaeda 6/13/2009
  • Pakistani Military Launches Airstrikes on Taliban Strongholds 6/13/2009
  • Taliban Dupe Boy, 12, Into Planting Bomb at Pakistan Bazaar 6/13/2009
  • Imran Khan Warns of Pakistan’s ‘Suicide’ 6/13/2009
  • Pakistani and Indian Officials Play Down Release of Top Militant 6/13/2009
  • Backers Mourn Pakistan Cleric; Taliban Claim Fatal Attacks 6/13/2009
  • No Real Increase in Pakistan Defense Budget 6/13/2009
  • Pakistan Military Says Killed 41 Militants in NW Offensive 6/13/2009
  • Pakistan Tribal Area Sees Renewed Taliban Activity 6/13/2009
  • Pakistan: Taliban Claim Responsibility for Slaying Cleric 6/13/2009
  • Pakistan: 39 More Terrorists, 10 Soldiers Killed in Swat Valley 6/13/2009
  • Pakistanis Confront Bonds of Faith, Country in Battle With Taliban 6/12/2009
  • President Zardari: Pakistan to Fight Militancy to the End 6/12/2009
  • Four Killed, 103 Hurt in Nowshera Mosque Blast 6/12/2009
  • Pakistani General’s Home Attacked 6/12/2009
  • Pakistan Planning Offensive Against Terror Havens 6/12/2009
  • Pakistan Public Opinion Turning Against Taliban 6/11/2009
  • Four Killed, 45 Injured in Balochistan Blasts 6/11/2009
  • Cleric Among 33 Killed in Orakzai Air Strikes 6/11/2009
  • Five Militants Killed in Dir Lower 6/11/2009
  • Officials: Clashes in Pakistan Tribal Area Kill 23 6/11/2009
  • Fighting Intensifies in Pakistan’s Northwest 6/11/2009
  • Pakistani: Detention in Britain ‘Mental Torture’ 6/11/2009
  • UN Vows to Stay in NW Pakistan Despite Deadly Attack 6/11/2009
  • Militants Show Sophisticated Tactics in Pakistan 6/11/2009
  • Multiple Terror Strikes in Peshawar, Army Begins Patrolling 6/11/2009
  • Pakistani: Detention in Britain ‘Mental Torture’ 6/11/2009
  • Minister Injured, 85 Dead in Pakistan Violence 6/11/2009
  • Some Pakistan Qaeda Fighters Now in Yemen and Somalia 6/11/2009
  • Militants Show Sophisticated Tactics in Pakistan 6/11/2009
  • Taliban Assault Three Pakistani Army Posts in South Waziristan 6/11/2009
  • Younus Reveals Impact of Terror Attacks on Pakistan Team 6/11/2009
  • CIA Believes Osama bin Laden Still in Pakistan 6/11/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Attack Military Positions in South Waziristan 6/11/2009
  • Pakistan Appeals for Public Support on Taliban 6/10/2009
  • Army Repels Taliban in Nw Pakistan After Hotel Blast 6/10/2009
  • US Envoy Says Pakistan Shows New Vigor in Fight 6/10/2009
  • Attack on Pakistan Hotel Fuels Anger With Taliban 6/10/2009
  • Police Kill Three Protesters in Karachi 6/10/2009
  • Foreign Missions Suspend Activities in Peshawar 6/10/2009
  • PM: Pakistan Will Offer Olive Branch to India for Dialogue 6/10/2009
  • Over 100 Killed as Troops Target Taliban in Bannu 6/10/2009
  • Pakistani Army Backs Up Citizens Fighting Taliban 6/9/2009
  • Red Cross: 40,000 Civilians Still in Swat 6/9/2009
  • Curfew in Bannu as Troops Shell Taliban Hideouts 6/9/2009
  • Singh: India Has Vital Interest in Peace With Pakistan 6/9/2009
  • Taliban Faction Splits Over Terrorism 6/8/2009
  • Pakistani Troops Kill Seven Taliban in Swat; Win Local Support 6/8/2009
  • 11 Killed in Karachi Target Killings 6/7/2009
  • 90 Percent of Tribesmen Have Fled South Waziristan 6/7/2009
  • Why the Taliban Won’t Take Over Pakistan 6/7/2009
  • Pakistanis Avenge Mosque Blast, Attack Taliban 6/7/2009
  • Pakistanis Avenge Mosque Blast, Attack Taliban 6/7/2009
  • Taliban Blame Govt for TNSM Leaders’ Death 6/7/2009
  • Taliban Chief Behind Benzair’s Killing, Says Musharraf 6/7/2009
  • 90 Percent of Tribesmen Have Left South Waziristan 6/7/2009
  • United Nations Says 60 Per Cent of Swat’s Schools Destroyed 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Health Care Crumbles With Refugee Influx 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan: 1,305 Terrorists Killed Including 40 To-Be Suicide Bombers 6/6/2009
  • Blast Hits Islamabad Police Station 6/6/2009
  • Jaag Utha Pakistan, Cry Villagers as They Attack Taliban Militants 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Used US Aid to Built Up Arsenal Against India 6/6/2009
  • Two Cops Killed, Five Injured at Islamabad Police Station 6/6/2009
  • The Taliban Will ‘Never Be Defeated’ 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Army: ‘Command & Control Structure of Militants Dismantled’ 6/6/2009
  • Security Alert After Islamabad Attack 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Asks US Debt Forgiveness 6/6/2009
  • Ambush Kills Aides to Pro-Taliban Pakistani Cleric 6/6/2009
  • 17 Militants Killed in Operation in NW Pakistan 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Court Orders Arrest of Suspect for Aiding Mumbai Attackers 6/6/2009
  • Kidnappings Spike in Pakistan 6/6/2009
  • Gilani: Pakistan to Be Made Real Islamic Welfare State 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Wants Drones’ Technology and Possession 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Mosque Bombing Heightens Fears of Taliban Backlash 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan: Swat Men’s First Post-Taliban Shave 6/6/2009
  • Pentagon: Pakistan Terror Aid Diverted 6/6/2009
  • Blast at Police Building in Pakistani Capital 6/6/2009
  • India, Pakistan Were on Brink of War After Mumbai Strike 6/6/2009
  • High-Value Prisoners Killed in Pakistan 6/6/2009
  • Pakistan Says Tide Has Turned in Swat; Refugees Not So Sure 6/5/2009
  • Pakistan: Swat Residents Turned Away on Road Home 6/5/2009
  • Holbrooke Fears US Troops Will Push More Taliban into Pakistan 6/5/2009
  • Pakistani Military Keeps Swatis From Returning Home 6/5/2009
  • Five Soldiers Among Seven Killed in South Waziristan 6/5/2009
  • Civilians Continue to Flee Swat Valley 6/5/2009
  • Greater Pakhtunistan Map Signboards Appear in NWFP 6/5/2009
  • At Least 38 Killed in Mosque Bombing Near Swat Valley 6/5/2009
  • Former Extremist Now Fights Militancy in Pakistan 6/5/2009
  • Forces Kill 10 Taliban in Swat 6/5/2009
  • Swat Relief Under-Prepared, Under-Funded, Overwhelmed 6/5/2009
  • Suicide Blast at Mosque in Pakistan Kills 30 6/5/2009
  • Holbrooke Fears US Troops to Push More Taliban Into Pakistan 6/5/2009
  • Richard Holbrooke Says Pakistan’s Geo TV Is Anti-US 6/4/2009
  • Sufi Muhammad Arrested in Pakistan 6/4/2009
  • US Envoy Visits Pakistani Refugees, Promises Aid 6/4/2009
  • Pakistan: Last Batch of School Abductees Found 6/4/2009
  • Pakistan Arrests Close Aides of Islamist Hardline Cleric 6/4/2009
  • US Announces Another $200 Million Aid for Displaced Swatis 6/3/2009
  • US Envoy: Bin Laden Blaming US for Pakistan Refugee Crisis ‘Silly’ 6/3/2009
  • Pakistani Military to Stay in Swat for a Year 6/3/2009
  • Pakistan Frees Head of Militant Group Accused of Mumbai Attack 6/2/2009
  • India Fumes Over Freeing of Pakistani Militant 6/2/2009
  • Pakistani Villagers Come to the Aid of Refugees 6/2/2009
  • Pakistani Court Orders Mumbai-Linked Cleric Freed 6/2/2009
  • Pakistan PM Hopeful of Resumption of Peace Process With India 6/2/2009
  • Girls’ School Blown Up in Mohmand 6/1/2009
  • US Says al-Qaeda Shaken in Pakistan 6/1/2009
  • Pakistanis Negotiate for Kidnapped Students 6/1/2009
  • Mysterious ‘Chip’ Is CIA’s Latest Weapon Against al-Qaeda Targets Hiding in Pakistan’s Tribal Belt 6/1/2009
  • Pakistani Forces Say Kidnapped Cadets Recovered 6/1/2009
  • 3.4 Million Displaced by Pakistan Fighting 6/1/2009
  • Taliban Conflict Hits Pakistan Border Trade 6/1/2009
  • Pakistan: Iran Partially Closes Border Crossing 6/1/2009
  • Pakistani Army Lifts Curfews in More Swat Towns 6/1/2009
  • Pakistan’s War Refugees Losing Patience 6/1/2009
  • India Casts Wary Eye on China’s Role in Pakistan 6/1/2009
  • Gutsy Pakistan Protesters March Against the Taliban 6/1/2009
  • Swat Taliban Recruiting Teenaged Bombers 5/31/2009
  • 31 Killed in South Waziristan Clashes 5/31/2009
  • Pakistan to Attack the Fountainhead of Extremism: Rugged Waziristan 5/31/2009
  • Troops Hunt Taliban as Pakistan Says Victory Near 5/31/2009
  • Pakistan: Corpses Lie Exposed in Retaken Swat Town 5/31/2009
  • Trapped Residents Emerge, Seek Food in Swat Town 5/31/2009
  • True Swat Victory Won’t Be Military 5/31/2009
  • Pakistan: Corpses Lie Exposed in Retaken Swat Town 5/31/2009
  • Corpses Litter Streets of Swat Valley’s Largest City 5/31/2009
  • Mingora in Ruin After Taliban Expulsion 5/31/2009
  • NGO: Pakistani Army Thinks Foreign Power Provided Swat Mines 5/31/2009
  • Pakistani Religious Party Calls for Anti-US Asian Bloc 5/31/2009
  • Pakistan Military Retakes Town in Swat Valley 5/30/2009
  • Pakistan Army: Swat’s Main Town ‘Fully Under Control’ 5/30/2009
  • Gates: US ‘Very Sensitive’ to Pakistan’s Sovereignty 5/30/2009
  • Pakistani Army Retakes Largest Town in Swat Valley 5/30/2009
  • Intel Officials: NW Pakistan Clashes Kill Dozens 5/30/2009
  • Pakistani Army Retakes Largest Town in Swat Valley 5/30/2009
  • Drones Could Face Legal Challenge in US 5/30/2009
  • Pakistan Religious Schools Get Scrutiny 5/30/2009
  • Petraeus: Pakistan in for ‘Tough Fight’ Against Taliban 5/30/2009
  • Implementing Af-Pak Strategy Is the Hard Part 5/30/2009
  • Kashmir Separatist Slams Pakistani Taliban 5/30/2009
  • Pakistani Army Claims to Retake Main Swat City 5/30/2009
  • Rambo III Explains Why Pashtuns Feel Neglected and Victimized 5/30/2009
  • In Pakistan, an Exodus That Is Beyond Biblical 5/30/2009
  • Taliban Behead Three ‘Spies’ in Buner 5/30/2009
  • Interior Minister Insists Buner, Lower Dir ‘Safe’ 5/30/2009
  • Pakistan Gains in Swat as Trouble Flares Elsewhere 5/30/2009
  • Pakistan Army Claims Control of Main Town in Swat Valley 5/30/2009
  • Police: Taliban Suspects Among Pakistani Refugees 5/29/2009
  • Pakistani Military: Taliban Weapons Coming From Afghanistan 5/29/2009
  • Pakistan Ups Bounty on Swat Valley Militant Chief 5/29/2009
  • Pakistan PM: Nuclear Weapons Country’s Cornerstone 5/29/2009
  • Bullet-Proof Vests Show New Ways to Motivate Pakistani Soldiers 5/29/2009
  • US Pays $447 Million to Pakistan 5/29/2009
  • Police Arrest 39 ‘Suspected Taliban’ Among Swat Displaced 5/29/2009
  • Pakistan: Five Killed in Quetta Gunfire 5/28/2009
  • Swat Taliban Chief Fazlullah Killed in Pakistan? 5/28/2009
  • Pakistani Militant Groups Uniting 5/28/2009
  • Bombs in Pakistan’s Peshawar Kill Five 5/28/2009
  • Briton Held in Pakistan Set Free: Family, Officials 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan: Taliban Leader, Former FATA MNA Arrested 5/28/2009
  • India Air Force Had Option of Deep Strike Inside Pakistan Soon After Mumbai Attacks 5/28/2009
  • Pakistani Extremists Attack Marketplaces, Warn of All-Out Assaults 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan: Rawalpindi Police Told Not to Hold Open Courts 5/28/2009
  • Middle-Class Pakistanis Awaken to Taliban Threat 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan: Afghan Among Six Taliban Held in Landikotal 5/28/2009
  • Residents Seethe as Pakistan Army Destroys Homes 5/28/2009
  • Bombings Continue as Pakistani Militants Threaten Wider War 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan Seeks English Version of Mumbai Evidence 5/28/2009
  • Following Attack, Pakistan Offers Rewards for Swat Taliban Leaders 5/28/2009
  • Residents Seethe as Pakistan Army Destroys Homes 5/28/2009
  • Taliban Wages War on Pakistani Police 5/28/2009
  • Landmines Kill Driver, Schoolboy in Pakistan 5/28/2009
  • How a Jilted Karachi Woman Saved Pakistan’s Nuke Program From Sabotage 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan Forces to Secure Mingora Within Three Days 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan: We Will Counter India’s AWACS With 500 US Missiles 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan: 11 Killed in Suicide Attack, Market Blasts 5/28/2009
  • Sri Lanka Denies Pakistani Pilots Flew Its Planes 5/28/2009
  • Swat Taliban Pay Mercenaries to Kill Pakistan Policemen 5/28/2009
  • Blasts in Northwest Pakistan Kill 8, Including Children 5/28/2009
  • Taliban Claim Pakistan Bomb Attack 5/28/2009
  • Nuclear Aims by Pakistan, India Prompt US Concern 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan Rejects Indian Pre-Conditions for Re-Launching Dialogue 5/28/2009
  • Explosion in Mosque Kills 15, Wounds 50 in Southeast Iran Near Pakistan 5/28/2009
  • Pakistan’s Wali of Swat Blames Taliban, Government 5/28/2009
  • Official: Car Bombing Kills 30 in Pakistan 5/27/2009
  • Car Bomb Kills 30 at Pakistan Police, Intel Offices 5/27/2009
  • Civilians Suffer in Pakistan Army War on Taliban 5/27/2009
  • In Pakistan’s Terrorist Attacks, Who Gets the Blame? 5/27/2009
  • Obama Seeks Funds for Pakistan Super-Embassy 5/27/2009
  • Pakistani Forces Claim Advance in Swat Valley 5/26/2009
  • PM Declares Malakand as Calamity-Hit Area 5/26/2009
  • Pakistan Opposition Leader Wins Right to Polls 5/26/2009
  • Pakistan Lifts Election Ban on Opposition Leader 5/26/2009
  • Forces Kill 29 Militants in Swat 5/26/2009
  • Six Troops, 29 Taliban Killed in Pakistan’s Swat Valley 5/26/2009
  • Army Moves Into South Waziristan, Kills Six 5/26/2009
  • Chidambaram Says Pakistan Given Enough Mumbai Evidence 5/25/2009
  • Massive Police Desertions Reported in Swat Valley 5/25/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban to Swat Civilians: Come Back 5/25/2009
  • UN Mulls Asking Pakistan to Pause Fighting to Aid Trapped Civilians 5/25/2009
  • 6,000 Pregnant Swati Women in Camps 5/25/2009
  • Report: Police Deserting Across Swat Valley 5/25/2009
  • US Appeals to China to Help Stabilize Pakistan 5/25/2009
  • Musharraf: Extremism Is Biggest Threat to Pakistan 5/25/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban: We’ll Avoid Combat in Swat City 5/25/2009
  • Pakistani Refugee Crisis Poses Peril 5/25/2009
  • Street Battles Rage in Mingora 5/24/2009
  • Iran, Pakistan Sign Gas Export Deal – Media 5/24/2009
  • Sharif Advises Pakistani Displaced to Stay in Camps 5/24/2009
  • Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan Agree to Eliminate Terrorism, Extremism 5/24/2009
  • Pakistan PM: Drone Attacks Undermining Swat Operation 5/24/2009
  • Ordinary Pakistanis Wait for US ‘Rewards’ 5/24/2009
  • 18 Killed in Orakzai Shelling 5/24/2009
  • Tribesmen Continue Fleeing Homes in South Waziristan 5/24/2009
  • Civilians Trapped in Pakistan’s Swat Valley Town 5/24/2009
  • Swati Refugees Barred From Entering Neighboring Provinces 5/24/2009
  • Pakistani Taliban Threaten to Eliminate PPP Leaders 5/24/2009
  • Swat Victims to Be Kept Within NWFP 5/24/2009
  • Pakistani Aircraft Strike at Taliban Hideouts, Killing at Least Seven 5/24/2009
  • Pakistan Says Decisive Battle Against the Taliban Has Begun 5/24/2009
  • ‘Bloody Intersection’ Secured by Pakistani Troops 5/24/2009
  • US Senators Urge Obama to Provide Largescale Aid to Displaced Pakistanis 5/24/2009
  • Pakistani Army Eyes Mingora Capture 5/24/2009
  • Army Says Pakistanis Form Militias to Expel Taliban 5/23/2009
  • Taliban Foiling Pakistani Army in Swat 5/23/2009
  • Terror Infrastructure in Pakistan Stumbling Block in Ties, Says New External Affairs Minister for India 5/23/2009
  • Five Killed, 15 Vehicles Torched Across Karachi 5/23/2009
  • Peshawar Cinema Bombing Death Toll Rises to 13 5/23/2009
  • Pakistan’s Mystics in Sights of Taliban 5/23/2009
  • Pakistan: the Wali of Swat Mourns His Lost Land 5/23/2009
  • Pakistan: No Timeframe for End to Swat Operation, Says Governor of NWFP 5/23/2009
  • Pakistan Army Widens Hunt for Taliban 5/23/2009
  • A Blast … Then the Birds Stop Singing in Peshawar 5/23/2009
  • Pakistani Army Claims Taliban’s Elimination in Swat Valley Imminent 5/23/2009
  • Militancy Cripples Economy in Pakistan’s Northwest 5/23/2009
  • Taliban Might Launch Retaliatory Attacks Across Pakistan, Says Gilani 5/23/2009
  • The CIA’s Silent War in Pakistan 5/23/2009
  • French Tourist Kidnapped in Pakistan 5/23/2009
  • Street Fighting Begins in Pakistan-Taliban War 5/23/2009
  • New Indian Govt Extends ‘Hand of Friendship’ to Pakistan 5/23/2009
  • Pakistani Troops Take on Taliban in Main Swat Town 5/23/2009
  • ‘Pakistan Ready to Phase Out Nukes if India Does So’ 5/23/2009
  • Foreign Banks Tell Staffers Not to Wear ‘Western Dress’ in Pakistan 5/23/2009
  • Taliban Driven From Road but Still in Hills 5/23/2009
  • Pakistan: Troops Battle Taliban in Main Swat Town 5/23/2009
  • UN Seeks $543 Million for Pakistan War Refugees 5/22/2009
  • Pakistani Military Shows Off Captured Taliban Base 5/22/2009
  • Insurgents Crossing Into Pakistan 5/22/2009
  • Five Soldiers Among 22 Dead in Swat and Lower Dir 5/22/2009
  • Ten Killed in Blast Near Pakistani Cinema 5/22/2009
  • On War Zone Tour, Pakistani Army Says ‘Collateral Damage’ Minimal 5/22/2009
  • US Senate Okays Pakistan Economic and Security Aid 5/22/2009
  • CIA’s War in Pakistan 5/22/2009
  • Crops Rot on Swat Battle Lines 5/22/2009
  • Mullen: Pakistan’s Not as Imperiled as Some Think 5/21/2009
  • Pakistan Allies Aid Refugees From Taliban Fight 5/21/2009
  • Official: Pakistanis in Swat Town Fend Off Taliban 5/21/2009
  • NWFP Govt Stands by Swat Peace Deal 5/21/2009
  • Pakistan’s Anti-Taliban Campaign Begins to Show Cracks 5/21/2009
  • Five Pakistani Troops Killed in Swat Fight 5/21/2009
  • Mullen: Afghan Troop Surge May Destabilise Pakistan 5/21/2009
  • War Planes Pound Militant Hideouts in Swat Valley 5/21/2009
  • Pakistan: Nine Killed in Tank Suicide Blast 5/21/2009
  • Pakistan Army Fails to Rescue Civilian Allies in Swat 5/21/2009
  • US Afghan Surge Could Push Militants Into Pakistan 5/21/2009
  • Gov’T: 250,000 Pakistani Refugees Expected in Camp 5/20/2009
  • Pakistan Army Wrests Town From Taliban, Killing 80 5/20/2009
  • No Option but to Win Against Militants, Says Zardari 5/20/2009
  • India Gives Pakistan New Information on Mumbai Attack
  • Links courtesy Antiwar.com

     

    Posted in Pakistan | Leave a comment

    A Fascist Odor of the New Coalition – Racists for Democracy By URI AVNERY

    Israel Criticism not Allowed - http://latuff2.deviantart.com/

    How lucky we are to have the extreme Right standing guard over our democracy.

    This week, the Knesset voted by a large majority (47 to 34) for a law that threatens imprisonment for anyone who dares to deny that Israel is a Jewish and Democratic State.

    The private member’s bill, proposed by MK Zevulun Orlev of the “Jewish Home” party, which sailed through its preliminary hearing, promises one year in prison to anyone who publishes “a call that negates the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State”, if the contents of the call might cause “actions of hate, contempt or disloyalty against the state or the institutions of government or the courts”.

    One can foresee the next steps. A million and a half Arab citizens cannot be expected to recognize Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State. They want it to be “a state of all its citizens” – Jews, Arabs and others. They also claim with reason that Israel discriminates against them, and therefore is not really democratic. And, in addition, there are also Jews who do not want Israel to be defined as a Jewish State in which non-Jews have the status, at best, of tolerated outsiders.

    The consequences are inevitable. The prisons will not be able to hold all those convicted of this crime. There will be a need for concentration camps all over the country to house all the deniers of Israeli democracy.

    The police will be unable to deal with so many criminals. It will be necessary to set up a new unit. This may be called “Special Security”, or, in short, SS.

    Hopefully, these measures will suffice to preserve our democracy. If not, more stringent steps will have to be taken, such as revoking the citizenship of the democracy-deniers and deporting them from the country, together with the Jewish leftists and all the other enemies of the Jewish democracy.

    After the preliminary reading of the bill, it now goes to the Legal Committee of the Knesset, which will prepare it for the first, and soon thereafter for the second and third readings. Within a few weeks or months, it will be the law of the land.

    By the way, the bill does not single out Arabs explicitly – even if this is its clear intention, and all those who voted for it understood this. It also prohibits Jews from advocating a change in the state’s definition, or the creation of a bi-national state in all of historic Palestine or spreading any other such unconventional ideas. One can only imagine what would happen in the US if a senator proposed a law to imprison anyone who suggests an amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

    * * *

    THE BILL does not stand out at all in our new political landscape.

    This government has already adopted a bill to imprison for three years anyone who mourns the Palestinian Naqba – the 1948 uprooting of more than half the Palestinian people from their homes and lands.

    The sponsors expect Arab citizens to be happy about that event. True, the Palestinians were caused a certain unpleasantness, but that was only a by-product of the foundation of our state. The Independence Day of the Jewish and Democratic State must fill us all with joy. Anyone who does not express this joy should be locked up, and three years may not be enough.

    This bill has been confirmed by the Ministerial Commission for Legal Matters, prior to being submitted to the Knesset. Since the rightist government commands a majority in the Knesset, it will be adopted almost automatically. (In the meantime, a slight delay has been caused by one minister, who appealed the decision, so the Ministerial Commission will have to confirm it again.)

    The sponsors of the law hope, perhaps, that on Naqba Day the Arabs will dance in the streets, plant Israeli flags on the ruins of some 600 Arab villages that were wiped off the map and offer up their thanks to Allah in the mosques for the miraculous good fortune that was bestowed on them.

    * * *

    THIS TAKES me back to the 60s, when the weekly magazine I edited, Haolam Hazeh, published an Arabic edition. One of its employees was a young man called Rashed Hussein from the village of Musmus. Already as a youth he was a gifted poet with a promising future.

    He told me that some years earlier the military governor of his area had summoned him to his office. At the time, all the Arabs in Israel were subject to a military government which controlled their lives in all matters big and small. Without a permit, an Arab citizen could not leave his village or town even for a few hours, nor get a job as a teacher, nor acquire a tractor or dig a well.

    The governor received Rashed cordially, offered him coffee and paid lavish compliments to his poetry. Then he came to the point: in a month’s time, Independence Day was due, and the governor was going to hold a big reception for the Arab “notables”; he asked Rashed to write a special poem for the occasion.

    Rashed was a proud youngster, nationalist to the core, and not lacking in courage. He explained to the governor that Independence Day was no joyful day for him, since his relatives had been driven from their homes and most of the Musmus village’s land had also been expropriated.

    When Rashed arrived back at his village some hours later, he could not help noticing that his neighbors were looking at him in a peculiar way. When he entered his home, he was shocked. All the members of his family were sitting on the floor, the women lamenting at the top of their voices, the children huddling fearfully in a corner. His first thought was that somebody had died.

    “What have you done to us!” one of the women cried, “What did we do to you?”

    “You have destroyed the family,” another shouted, “You have finished us!”

    It appeared that the governor had called the family and told them that Rashed had refused to fulfill his duty to the state. The threat was clear: from now on, the extended family, one of the largest in the village, would be on the black list of the military government. The consequences were clear to everyone.

    Rashed could not stand up against the lamentation of his family. He gave in and wrote the poem, as requested. But something inside him was broken. Some years later he emigrated to the US, got a job there at the PLO office and died tragically: he was burned alive in his bed after going to sleep, it appears, while smoking a cigarette.

    * * *

    THESE DAYS are gone forever. We took part in many stormy demonstrations against the military government until it was finally abolished in 1966. As a newly elected Member of Parliament, I had the privilege of voting for its abolition.

    The fearful and subservient Arab minority, then amounting to some 200 thousand souls, has recovered its self-esteem. A second and third generation has grown up, its downtrodden national pride has raised its head again, and today they are a large and self-confident community of 1.5 million. But the attitude of the Jewish Right has not changed for the better. On the contrary.

    In the Knesset bakery (the Hebrew word for bakery is Mafia) some new pastries are being baked. One of them is a bill that stipulates that anyone applying for Israeli citizenship must declare their loyalty to “the Jewish, Zionist and Democratic State”, and also undertake to serve in the army or its civilian alternative. Its sponsor is MK David Rotem of the “Israel is Our Home” party, who also happens to be the chairman of the Knesset Law Committee.

    A declaration of loyalty to the state and its laws – a framework designed to safeguard the wellbeing and the rights of its citizens – is reasonable. But loyalty to the “Zionist” state? Zionism is an ideology, and in a democratic state the ideology can change from time to time. It would be like declaring loyalty to a “capitalist” USA, a “rightist Italy”, a ”leftist” Spain, a “Catholic Poland” or a “nationalist” Russia.

    This would not be a problem for the tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews in Israel who reject Zionism, since Jews will not be touched by this law. They obtain citizenship automatically the moment they arrive in Israel.

    Another bill waiting for its turn before the Ministerial Committee proposes changing the declaration that every new Knesset Member has to make before assuming office. Instead of loyalty “to the State of Israel and its laws”, as now, he or she will be required to declare their loyalty “to the Jewish, Zionist and Democratic State of Israel, its symbols and its values”. That would exclude almost automatically all the elected Arabs, since declaring loyalty to the “Zionist” state would mean that no Arab would ever vote for them again.

    It would also be a problem for the Orthodox members of the Knesset, who cannot declare loyalty to Zionism. According to Orthodox doctrine, the Zionists are depraved sinners and the Zionist flag is unclean. God exiled the Jews from this country because of their wickedness, and only God can permit them to return. Zionism, by preempting the job of the Messiah, has committed an unpardonable sin, and many Orthodox Rabbis chose to remain in Europe and be murdered by the Nazis rather than committing the Zionist sin of going to Palestine.

    * * *

    THE FACTORY of racist laws with a distinct fascist odor is now working at full steam. That is built into the new coalition.

    At its center is the Likud party, a good part of which is pure racist (sorry for the oxymoron). To its right there is the ultra-racist Shas party, to the right of which is Lieberman’s ultra-ultra racist “Israel is our Home” party, the ultra-ultra-ultra racist “Jewish Home” party, and to its right the even more racist “National Union” party, which includes outright Kahanists and stands with one foot in the coalition and the other on the moon.

    All these factions are trying to outdo each other. When one proposes a crazy bill, the next is compelled to propose an even crazier one, and so on.

    All this is possible because Israel has no constitution. The ability of the Supreme Court to annul laws that contradict the “basic laws” is not anchored anywhere, and the Rightist parties are trying to abolish it. Not for nothing did Avigdor Lieberman demand – and get – the Justice and Police ministries.

    Just now, when the governments of the US and Israel are clearly on a collision course over the settlements, this racist fever may infect all parts of the coalition.

    If one goes to sleep with a dog, one should not be surprised to wake up with fleas (may the dogs among my readers pardon me). Those who elected such a government, and even more so those who joined it, should not be surprised by its laws, which ostensibly safeguard Jewish democracy.

    The most appropriate name for these holy warriors would be “Racists for Democracy”.

    Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is a contributor to CounterPunch’s book The Politics of Anti-Semitism.

    Source

    Posted in Ideaology, Middle East, Palestine, Zionism | Leave a comment

    “We Saw No Evidence of Genocide” Women in Darfur By AFSHIN RATTANSI

    George Clooney, Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Cindy Crawford, Bono, Michael Caine, Claudia Schiffer, Bob Geldof, Hugh Grant, Mia Farrow, Mick Jagger and so many others have expressed their solidarity with the people of the oil-rich region of Darfur. A few weeks ago, Democrats John Lewis of Georgia, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Lynn Woolsey of California, Donna Edwards of Maryland, and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts were all arrested as they demonstrated against the Sudanese government. When Colin Powell used the word genocide in 2004, it kicked off $1 billion-a-year international aid program, much higher than that afforded Somalia or Congo.

    But why?

    In the past few months, the International Criminal Court has charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo is appealing the setting aside of genocide charges, claiming that there is “ongoing genocide” in Darfur. The Sudanese government has expelled some foreign aid groups, accusing them of espionage. They include Oxfam, Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres. According to the Save Darfur Campaign, it was the relief organizations that provided clean water, food, and medical attention to roughly 1.5 million people. The Sudanese government claims these aid-agencies deliberately exclude Arab Darfuris in their ranks, exacerbating sectarian tensions.

    And at the moment, President Obama’s Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration is on a diplomatic tour and Britain is sending $185m in aid and $140m in “peacekeeping” money.

    Collette Valentine, a TV producer visiting from the United Kingdom, and Ali Gunn, a British media consultant, last week returned from Darfur where they attended the first “International Conference on the Challenge Facing Women in Darfur” in Al-Fasher in the north. Valentine says that articles about Darfur in the international press make her feel as if she visited a completely different region, a completely different country. It all adds weight to the thesis of Columbia University’s Professor Mahmood Mamdani that there is something very murky about Western aid agencies’ insistence that there has been genocide in Darfur, that at the heart of campaigns for Darfur is the culmination of a powerful, imperial desire to suppress citizenry from U.S. high school classrooms to right across the developing world.

    Afshin Rattansi: Tell me about your visit and how your experience differed to the portrayal in the corporate media. I understand you went at the invitation of Rajaa Hassan Khalifa from the largest women’s union in conjunction with Bakri O.Saeed from Sudan International University.

    Collette Valentine: Ali Gunn and myself and a group of journalists were lucky enough to be invited to Sudan by the Sudanese Women General Union. The women’s union in Sudan has got 27,000 branches all over Sudan, including Darfur. They have representatives in all the rural villages, across all different communities consisting of around 80 tribes and clans. The women of Sudan are a real force. Historically, there have been female leaders. They are wives, mothers, farmers, they build, they grow the vegetables and basically run the communities and are respected by their men folk. A third of families in the camps are headed by women. In recent years, some members of the women’s union have been elected as ministers in the Sudanese government and a quarter of the seats in the Sudanese parliament are occupied by women.

    They are all members of the union and they have direct links right down from the most educated academic women from the professional classes to grassroots people. This chain of open communication is active and alive from bottom to top and top to bottom. Because the women have such a strong role in the communities, the women themselves have decided to take action for peace and security in Darfur. They have seen the failure of external, international agencies and NGOs and they know that peace can only come from within their own communities via reconciliation talks.

    The IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in the refugee camps are people who have fled trouble in their own areas of Sudan. They didn’t want to leave but had no option but to flee. Before the international NGOs got involved, the IDPs were provided with camps by Al-Bashir’s government, provided with wells, administrators, bureaucratic structures, materials for shelter and local doctors, clinics, and health services paid for by the Sudanese government.
    When women fled their villages, active male rebels from every community that were fighting each other remained. Those conflicts rage on even as there is peace and stability in the camps. We saw no evidence of any genocide. We were not embedded by the government nor with any NGO. We had absolute freedom to talk with whomever we wished. And we randomly talked to as many men, women and children as we could.

    One man, a village leader who led 4,000 of his community , separated in two camps, said he had been there six years. His home was 50km away. We asked about genocide and he said that he wouldn’t have remained in the Sudanese government camps for six years if he hadn’t been looked after. When we asked about the issue of rape, he did not deny there wasn’t an issue. The women we spoke to said that unfortunately, rape exists everywhere in the world and some we spoke to quoted statistics about the prevalence of rape in the U.S. and how in developed nations, women are too frightened to press charges. One woman told me that allegations of wide and systematic rape crimes against Darfur women constitute a type of war against Sudan. Historically, in areas of conflict, they maintained, cases of crime and rape are bound to increase. Rape is not a weapon of the government and women are being told to report instances of rape. But the ICC is using the prevalence of rape and giving it undue importance, helping NGOs fill their coffers.

    Afshin Rattansi: Were you concerned about safety in Darfur?

    Ali Gunn: I understood the situation had settled and that there was quite a lot of fighting down south but that the situation in Darfur was more stable since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. However, I had been warned off by expert security consultants who feared for my safety.

    We went to two camps in Darfur and we saw people eeking out a simple existence. No bullet holes, no tanks and no fighting. The only military vehicles belonged to the United Nations. We were given carte blanche to wander around the camps as we pleased and talk to anyone we liked. Many spoke English. I was appalled that so much reporting in our newspapers has no basis in reality. Cheap and lazy journalism at its worst.

    Afshin Rattansi: What about the United Nations’ presence on the ground?

    Collette Valentine: When we were actually in one of the two camps, we looked up and saw an American tank approaching, followed by a patrol of around 15 UN vans and two more tanks. They drove up, parked the cars outside the office of the administrator of the camp. We didn’t know what was happening.

    We were told that three times day, this happens at the camp and that UN officials come to ask whether everything is alright. Women told us that the camps are peaceful places. While we played football with children in the camp at around 9am, men and women setting out market stalls selling tomatoes and oranges, and as the UN personnel talked to the administrator, the soldiers lined up with guns, five meters apart facing us and the rest of the people in the camps.

    It was obvious that the soldiers were protecting UN bosses whilst we kicked a football with the children. It was extraordinary. Women were making yoghurt with goat’s milk even as the UN troops pointed their guns at us. I asked one of the women, Maha Feraigon, why guns were being aimed and whether they were scared that we might throw a tomato at them and she just laughed. As Ali says, quite a few people could speak English. Maha was first assistant to the Secretary General of the Sudanese Women General Union, independent of the government. All the people we spoke to were furious about UN personnel arriving in this way and wanted the UN to leave. The UN personnel left their engines running and people resented how much that money for the UN was being wasted in front of their eyes. They asked about what they could be doing with the money. I was disgusted. They asked why these personnel were not in the villages where the fighting continues and their ‘dar’ or land was. People said that NGOs did not want the fighting to stop so that they can continue to be paid. None had seen any money from the Save Darfur campaign and they resented that money was being raised in their names.

    Ali Gunn: At the conference, we spoke to opposition leaders and women at the conference. There was no sense of urgency about any “genocide” in the camps themselves. Our concern for our trip was to look at the living conditions of the people in the camps and look at the future of Darfur and the future for families there. And there was very little evidence of external aid. Darfur is the size of France so we didn’t go to all the camps. We have photographic evidence of families and women making their own bricks. You would have to ask the aid agencies about where their money has been sent.

    Afshin Rattansi: What about how the Sudanese perceive outside, external forces?

    Collette Valentine: I was lucky enough to sit beside Mafa on the flight from Khartoum to Darfur. I emphasize that she has no connection to any NGO or the government. She spoke very good English and explained the anger of the people. Her general feeling, having been all over Darfur, speaking to women at all levels from all communities throughout the region was that they did not want foreign interference because they know that it is all about oil and water – the “oil of tomorrow”.

    She told me about how Sudan was sitting on the biggest underwater lake in Africa giving rise to the best arable land. Despite the desertification, responsible for so many of the deaths in recent years, the lake holds great promise. She told me about how Chevron was thrown out of the country and how Chevron executives took all their drilling and exploration maps with them. They still believe that the NGOs in concert with the U.S. are only involved because of water and oil. She pointed to Congo, Sierra Leone and other African countries, firmly believing that there were no good intentions when it comes to great power involvement on the continent.

    Afshin Rattansi: Not a day goes by without the word genocide being used when Darfur is in the corporate media.

    Ali Gunn: The Western media has totally misrepresented the situation subsequent to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In Darfur, they are desperate for long term measures to alleviate the cycle of non-delivery in Darfur. Some believed that there were a significant number of people who would never return to their homeland areas.
    Living conditions in the camps were spartan but clean and people were very aware of their personal space. There was a market with a butcher, vegetable-sellers, a makeshift restaurant…many different rows of shops. It was very much like a souk you would see in any country of this type, with domestic goods on sale. The people we saw were not starving and pretty healthy.

    Afshin Rattansi: Do you see money from oil being used for the benefit of the people?

    Collette Valentine: Oil is all-important for Sudan and is vital to the infrastructure-building plans of the country. They are planning schools and health centers. Free medical care is available to everybody but not every village has a clinic so people have to travel to the next village. There is a lot of work to be done in Sudan. This is not a bed of roses, by any means but only oil money is going to be able to change things. I saw in Khartoum how development is beginning. They have big plans for the areas around the Blue Nile in Khartoum and it looks to me like Pudong in Shanghai where I made some documentaries when it was developing, a decade ago.

    Maha told me that there was a rail system in Sudan that you could time your watch by but U.S. sanctions starting in the 1990s destroyed it as parts to fix trains and tracks dried up. Sanctions prevented people being able to travel. But, now the Sudanese government has done a deal with the Chinese who they feel are completely different to the Americans. I was told that Chinese involvement was trusted where the U.S. wasn’t. The Chinese are not interested in hegemonic power. I could see the development present in Khartoum. When I later met the president, he said that growth should be across Sudan and not just limited to an elite in Khartoum. The work is in progress and the president’s popularity has gone through the roof after the ICC indictments.

    Afshin Rattansi: What about signs of corruption?

    Ali Gunn: People had told us the President was a humble and modest man and he certainly seemed like that in person. I was very wary of signs of corruption and wealth. The palace looked like any municipal building in a developing nation. The furniture was all very normal. We were told that he was a modest man who had come up the ranks of the army and as such was possibly less concerned about the ICC than about rebuilding his nation. He is much more popular after the ICC indictments.

    There was a feeling that the country has been picked on in comparison to what has been happening in surrounding nations. I saw that people were being actively encouraged to vote. I mentioned that I work in the British parliament and stressed the need for people to register to vote and there was certainly no problem in people understanding the importance of voting.

    Like people in Britain, many of the people we spoke to had a healthy skepticism about politicians per se. But they did believe that the next elections would be free and fair.
    Collette Valentine: The president knew that the conference was taking place but he had no knowledge of which camps we were visiting. The women were careful not to tell him because they were aware that we were looking for any signs that we were being embedded in any way.

    Afshin Rattansi: And the perception is that the ICC has aided the president of Sudan?

    Collette Valentine: On the night before we left, we met with President Al-Bashir and his advisor, Dr Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani. Everything they said backed up what we heard on the ground. He admitted that the ICC has aided his reelection chances. He admitted that rape was present in Darfur but he blamed outside aid agencies for putting petrol on the fire and he highlighted the external supply of arms. He also blamed the classic British divide-and-rule tactics of colonialism for the roots of trouble in Sudan. Attabani said “Sudan is politically isolated and that when the ICC indictment was first raised 4 years ago the president offered to step aside, to abdicate – he said 16 years was too long. Our policy in that the National Congress Party (NCP) is that we don’t believe in a’ president for life.’ The made him look like a villain but internally it boosted his popularity. .. now the NCP can’t consider any other candidate.”

    From my experience of seeing western leaders in London, there is a cavalcade of security. Al Bashir when he goes from his house to local weddings, funerals and the mosque, seems to have no security at all. One of our delegates went to the mosque and was baffled by the lack of security on seeing him there.

    Afshin Rattansi: What about what the president of Sudan expects from the change of administration in Washington?

    Ali Gunn: We were attacked about international media coverage of Darfur as the people saw the situation very different to how it is portrayed. They saw the West as patronizing the Sudanese people. On Obama, President Al-Bashir said “He’s much more pragmatic. The old guard from Clinton’s days are still around – in the 90s they were hostile..they’ve not changed, but they have toned down their rhetoric…we believe that the US has been exploited by certain undercurrents .” I would suggest that people go and see for themselves what is happening.

    Collette Valentine: Dr. Ghazi said that they are hopeful about Obama but they don’t trust the Clinton people, the Susan Rices and Samantha Powers. Continuation of the ICC path would be seen as vindictive and alien and could result in turning Darfur into a real conflict.

    The women in the camps are focused on talking to their men and they believe that the only hope for peace and reconciliation lies with their ability to encourage forgiveness. They believe no international organizations can persuade the men to reconcile with each other. Before this conflict happened, tribal elders would meet to settle conflicts between nomadic and peasant communities. Right across Darfur, women are campaigning on the ground for reconciliation talks. This was the first peace conference. All the women from all the communities are coming together to urge reconciliation talks with women from each community given their time to speak. Security was on top of the agenda as well as education and healthcare.

    Ali Gunn: After we came back from the camps, we were both shocked about the disparity of what was happening on the ground and what was in the media.

    Afshin Rattansi has helped launch and develop television networks and has worked in journalism for more than two decades, at the BBC Today programme, CNN International, Bloomberg News, Al Jazeera Arabic, the Dubai Business Channel, Press TV and The Guardian. His quartet of novels, “The Dream of the Decade” is available on Amazon.com. He can be reached at afshin@afshinrattansi.com

    Source

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    Redefining Pakistan – Asif Salahuddin

    Pakistan

    Pakistan today finds itself very much at the centre of the world’s headlines, unfortunately though for almost entirely the wrong reasons. Just in the last few weeks alone we have witnessed an unprecedented level of turmoil in the country – the outrageous attacks on the police academy outside Lahore and on the Sri Lankan cricket team inside the city, the political theatrics of rule in Punjab, the Long March episode followed by the subsequent reappointment of the Chief Justice and the continued violation of sovereignty and killings via US drone attacks – indeed Pakistan as a nation is in grave turmoil.

    Militarily the country is at war in the tribal areas. This is firstly due to the direct assaults by the US/NATO forces based in Afghanistan, which have manifested themselves in the form of missile strikes / drone attacks, cross border raids etc. Secondly, the US is utilising the Pakistan armed forces themselves to further this assault. Here the full brunt of the Pakistan military has been hurled at the tribal people in order to quell them but without decisive results. Over a thousand Pakistani soldiers have died fighting this American war against their own brethren. Further, after sustained assaults by Pakistani troops and heavy shelling by Pakistani tanks and artillery, many thousands of tribal civilians have perished and over 700,000 have been displaced. Probably topping the roll of shame is the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) actions against its own people. Whilst the Gazan Muslims were being haplessly bombed by the Israeli air force in front of a horrified world stage earlier this year, the PAF have been busy doing the same against their own people, killing hundreds. The only difference being the complete media blackout in Pakistan, designed to hide from the public the rampant bloodshed being inflicted on the tribal people.

    Moreover, the Pakistan government has gone out of its way in receiving and executing orders from the American leadership. Almost every week brings new high ranking American dignitaries to Pakistani soil with the latest set of instructions for their puppets in Islamabad to follow blindly and obediently; recently the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, visited Pakistan in early April.

    The age old predicament of biting the hand that feeds has been astonishingly reversed by the treacherous Pakistani leadership, who are indeed busy feeding the hand that very much bites. Reported by The Times newspaper of the UK, almost four hundred trucks per day are transported by road from Karachi to the US forces in Afghanistan, carrying the very bullets and missiles that will be rained down back at Pakistan. This constitutes about seventy percent of the total supplies consumed by the US and NATO forces across the border. Then there is the access and use of military bases, intelligence, logistics etc. For example the recent front page revelation also by The Times that the US drones firing on the tribal areas have in fact been operating from Pakistani soil for quite some time.

    Economically the country is in just as much mayhem. According to a survey of Pakistan by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), inflation in 2008 was about 13%, whereas inflation of food prices stood at almost 20%. Government subsidies of electricity and gas costs have now been removed under pressure from the IMF. After witnessing such rampant inflation and in addition the recent food, electricity, gas and petrol shortages, the country has been financially brought to its knees. Like a drug addict, the country is living from one shot of IMF loans to the next, whilst staring continuously at the same time in the face of imminent bankruptcy.

    Coupled together, the above two predicaments have resulted in an extremely unstable political climate in Pakistan, to the extent that the country is now being labelled, from both internal and external sources, as a failed state which is incapable of enforcing its own writ and meeting the basic needs for its own people. Even more dangerous is the constant linkage of Pakistan to international terrorist attacks, resulting in the ‘elevation’ from this despicable status to an even lowlier one to that of a rogue state – i.e. one that poses a physical threat to countries neighbouring it and around the world.

    Iraq, prior to its invasion and subsequent occupation, was politically painted in the exact same colours. It was linked to the 9/11 attacks in New York and further the West went about creating a political storm over the fact that Iraq was capable of launching WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) at the West within forty five minutes of so choosing. The fact that no such evidence was ever found in Iraq is largely irrelevant to the point here – Pakistan today is now clearly marked out to be the next black sheep in the flock and therefore needs to be culled. The British Foreign Secretary recently alleged that 9/11 was executed from the Pakistan tribal areas – the West’s narrative has again been conveniently changed. This stance towards Pakistan now presents without doubt the gravest danger to the country since its birth over sixty years ago.

    The real motives for placing Pakistan in the crosshairs of the Western, indeed American military nexus are however deeper and more complex than that which is being projected across the media in and outside Pakistan alike. Pakistan, and the surrounding areas, are of immense political, economic and military significance, and this is the real impetus behind why the United States today is busy ensnaring Pakistan in its tentacles.

    First of all Pakistan, including Baluchistan and the NWFP, are rich in resources, which include huge gold, copper, coal, oil and gas reserves. This extends to countries immediately in the vicinity of Pakistan, such as Afghanistan and the Central Asian states that border it, which themselves have amongst other things massive oil and gas resources. America not only seeks the control of such resources, but also the supply route that will enable the extraction and delivery of these to the strategic deep sea port of Gwadar. Already most of the foreign military bases in southern Afghanistan line the route that the proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan will take on its way to Pakistan. Hence it will greatly benefit America to merge NWFP with Afghanistan and to ‘liberate’ Baluchistan into a free state upheld by a puppet government subservient to the US just as it has done so with Afghanistan.

    Next we have the vital region of the Middle East and the enormous oil deposits present there. The US has successfully become the dominant player in the region displacing the British and French in the last 50 years, now having established a firm control directly (via military occupation) or indirectly (via client regimes) over the major oil fields in the area. Such control over the oil is vital to America’s oil companies and similarly crucial to America’s banking system since the oil is traded in America’s currency of choosing – the US Dollar, which the US can print at will. If this oil were to fall out of their domain of control, then this commodity will cease to be traded in US Dollars, causing the collapse of the Dollar and hence the American financial system. According to a late 2000 Time magazine article, Saddam Hussein intended exactly such a step by reverting the trade of Iraq’s oil from US Dollars to the rival currency of Euros instead and hence the reason why the US was so keen to invade and take over the country, thereby securing Iraq’s oil and the medium of its transaction.

    Similar to an earlier point, to ensure this status quo, America must not only control the source of the oil, i.e. the oil fields, but also the oil supply route which extracts the oil out of the region. This is fundamentally via oil tankers that snake through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman after emerging from the Persian Gulf. And it is this vital shipping lane that must be protected by the US at all costs and hence why such large deployments of America’s Navy exist in the region (e.g. the US fifth fleet is based at Bahrain) and further explains why America is eager to ensure that no other major power can manoeuvre itself in the position to project its military might over this region.

    The Afghan war against the Soviets in the eighties was backed and controlled by the US for this very purpose – to keep the Soviet Union out of this vital region. Today the US is equally concerned not to see China extend its political and military influence in the region via, amongst other things, Pakistan’s port of Gwadar, which overlooks the Gulf of Oman, and in which China has invested heavily and has intentions of placing a military presence there. Hence we see America’s eagerness to split Baluchistan from Pakistan, bringing the entire region under its direct influence.

    Thirdly, and perhaps the most significant reason behind America’s intense activity and interest in Pakistan, is the threat that Pakistan itself poses. This particular danger to America’s interest emanates from within Pakistan and is certainly not of the terrorist nature which the Western media is busy hyping up. It rather stems from a genuine desire of the people in the country to revert to an Islamic ruling system which will rescue them from the failed concept of secularism, in which man made legislation, whether in the form of democracy or dictatorship, has only ensured the furthering of the vested interests of a few powerful families and select groups.

    A very recent study conducted early this year on public opinion across key parts of the Muslim world by the University of Maryland in America further corroborates this. Surveys were conducted across countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia and results were found to be fairly consistent. In answer to the question whether Shariah law via an Islamic system should be applied strictly across one’s country, more than three quarters of the people examined in Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco were in favour of such an initiative, whereas about half agreed in Indonesia.

    This system, the Khilafah or Caliphate as it is also commonly known as, is indeed greatly feared in the West since it will spell the end of their domination of not just the region in and around Pakistan, but eventually the entire Muslim world, which has been divided into over sixty nationalist based states since the fall of the Uthmani Khilafah over eighty years ago. The US understands this clearly, and statements by its senior most leaders over the past few years, flavoured with appropriate propaganda for the consumption of Western populations, have confirmed this. For example some of the now famous quotations are: “They hope to establish a violent political utopia across the Middle East, which they call caliphate, where all would be ruled according to their hateful ideology” – George Bush, “Their ultimate aim, and one they boldly proclaim, is to establish a caliphate covering a region from Spain, across North Africa, through the Middle East and South Asia, all the way around to Indonesia. And it wouldn’t stop there” – Dick Cheney and “They want to destabilise moderate mainstream Muslim regimes and establish a Caliphate, and have a handful of clerics determine what everyone in that country can do, and then spread that across the globe from Indonesia to the Middle East through North Africa and Southern Europe” – Donald Rumsfeld.

    The US further recognises, possibly unfortunately more so than the Pakistani establishment itself, that Pakistan contains all the raw elements of becoming such a new technologically advanced and powerful Islamic entity; namely massive agricultural and mineral resources, a large, young and driven population with expertise in many fields, a powerful, nuclear armed military backed up with a innovative military industrial complex gaining further every day the capability to produce its own aircraft, tanks, submarines, missiles and warships together with an economically and politically strategic geographical location.

    Therefore to maintain its control over the region, the US has produced the now infamous map of the Wider Middle East – drawn up in 2006 by the retired US army colonel Ralph Peters. In this map Pakistan, like several other countries including Iraq, has been fragmented and what remains of it are only the Punjab and Sindh provinces, if these have not already been surrendered over to India.

    To facilitate this agenda, the US and the West have undertaken a whole series of nefarious activities related to Pakistan. The first stage has been the initiation of a psychological phase in which public opinion in Western countries is being turned against Pakistan and the case to ‘deal’ with it is stacking up on a daily basis. To help facilitate this and subsequent stages, the US has on the ground in Pakistan its special forces, intelligence units and the infamous and ruthless private mercenary force Blackwater.

    Make no mistake – it is the task of these entities to create disorder inside Pakistan and to stoke up unrest in the country. And they have much experience in this – their most recent project being Iraq where they have been put to use both prior to the invasion and during the subsequent military occupation of the country. They have been very much active in pitting various ethnic groups against one another, ensuring the continual of bombings and killings amongst the civilian population etc. For example it is well known now that westerners dressed up as Arabs have been caught in Iraq with substantial explosives in their vehicles, which were being placed in busy locations like bazaars at the time. Another tactic, as reported by reliable sources, is stopping innocent drivers at checkpoints. Whilst the driver is interrogated at length separately, his vehicle is carefully laden with explosives, which are hidden beneath the seats and doors. The driver is then released with his vehicle and told to proceed with urgency to a certain police station to help retrieve his confiscated paperwork. Upon reaching his destination, the explosives are then detonated remotely.

    In Pakistan, this activity has taken a similar tone in the sense that the tribal people are being agitated against the security forces of the country and vice versa. Similarly it is no secret that separatist groups, like the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), are being armed and funded by such foreign hands, as with Kurdish groups in Iraq for example the Kurdish Liberation Army (KLA). In both cases the aim is to create the political conditions to help bring about a breakaway state, i.e. Baluchistan and Kurdistan respectively.

    In addition, the US has utilised some of its most senior and experienced officials to oversee this scheme against Pakistan. Under President Bush it was John Negroponte as the US Deputy Secretary of State and under President Obama it is now Richard Holbrooke as the United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both have had extensive experience in directing US designs to break up a country or to cause serious civil disorder within it. For example, Negroponte overصلى الله عليه وسلم CIA death squads in Latin American countries in the eighties whose task it was to overthrow elected governments or to brutally quash genuine resistance against handpicked pro-US despots.

    A look at Holbrooke’s past career reveals a man who has been involved in some of America’s bloodiest foreign policy interventions abroad. Aside from the credit of having served eight years as managing director of the now failed Lehman Brothers investment bank, Holbrooke has some more bloodier accomplishments to his name. Holbrooke having learned Vietnamese was the youngest advisor sent by then President John F. Kennedy to Vietnam, serving in Mekong Delta supporting American efforts to prop up the South Vietnamese regime as the Vietnam War raged. In 1966 he was directly assigned to the White House, working on the Vietnam staff of President Lyndon Johnson, who assisted by Holbrooke greatly escalated the Vietnam war killing millions in the process.

    Holbrooke, then as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs between 1977-81, directly helped support the brutal regime of Suharto in Indonesia. Holbrooke travelled to meet Suharto in August 1977 at the height of the massacres in East Timor under the pretext of concern for human rights. Holbrooke actually afterwards praised Suharto for his “improvement in human rights” and was instrumental in ensuring covert American military aid continued to Suharto’s regime. Holbrooke then declared in 1980 that Indonesia under Suharto was “perhaps one of the greatest nations in the world.”

    Holbrooke is fondly spoken of by the media as the man who helped end the Bosnia war with the Dayton agreement in 1995. Given the responsibility to bring a conclusion to the Yugoslavian crisis in the early nineties, the Dayton Agreement resulted in the accomplishment of the ultimate aim of the US to break up and balkanise the country into smaller states and establish it’s footprint in the region whilst simultaneously diminishing Russian influence. Moreover, the Yugoslavia turmoil was set into motion with the onset of severe economic measures imposed by the IMF onto the country. This led to the federal government becoming bankrupt and unable to support its provinces, which in turn led to them breaking away. A similar dilemma now faces Pakistan.

    Looking back in history it was a British official, Mortimer Durand, who in the late nineteenth century drew what was to become over fifty years later the newly created Pakistan’s Western border. Today, an American military officer has proposed to do the same. Has not the time come that the establishment in Pakistan realises that it is they who must now take pen in hand and go about defining the frontiers of our state?

    And the window for such an opportunity is right now. For currently the military-political chessboard that is Pakistan is still arranged in the favour of those who are sincere to the people of the country. However, with every passing visit of an American leader, with every passing action that the current insincere rulers of Pakistan execute and with every passing day, more and more squares on this board fall under the dominance of the US and more and more pieces are being lost to this enemy.

    Without delay, the supply lines emanating from Pakistan to the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan need to be cut – devoid of this critical lifeline these forces will grind to a halt in a very short time. All US and associated Western personnel, be they of military, intelligence or diplomatic nature, or even journalists, photographers or academics from these countries that only serve as spies, need to be expelled forthwith. The US embassy in Islamabad, which is set to expand by eighteen acres – yet another sign of the increased US interference in Pakistan – needs to be shut down and sealed immediately.

    All actions against indigenous tribal groups and similar religious organisations in Pakistan that are fighting out of genuine grievance need to be halted and every effort instead needs to be undertaken to re-establish relations with them and bring them back into the fold. These are our people and part of the Ummah and further should be treated as a military asset of the state since they can effectively be considered as an extension of the army.

    Afghanistan itself has always traditionally functioned as a fifth province of Pakistan and therefore this country, which currently is only serving as a launch pad for hostile activity against Pakistan, needs to be amalgamated into a greater Pakistan. Thus such an expansion of the western frontiers will greatly strengthen Pakistan by the elimination of this weak flank, which is currently being exploited by India as well.

    Further it must be realised that the US is in a much weakened position, and certainly not in the state to take on the Pakistan military offensively. The US is going through a debilitating recession, with all the signs that this financial storm will be even more dire than the infamous 1930’s Great Depression which crippled the United States for almost a decade. After its Iraq adventure, the US army remains demoralised and disillusioned with many of its ranks questioning the whole basis of the campaign itself as the new Obama administration busies itself in shifting focus onto Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, distrust and scepticism amongst the public in the West against their own governments has grown, with many now not willing to readily accept their leaderships’ policies.

    In order to undertake such steps, the power brokers in Pakistan need to understand that only by raising the banner of Islam, with firm and sincere hands, can they hope to execute these actions and safeguard the homeland that exists for the Muslims of Pakistan. For it is only Islam that will rally the people together, move them forward in one direction and bring out all the best that lies dormant in the population. They must take heart at the fact that the people are ready, willing and eager to be led sincerely in such a manner and have proven that their emotions lie firmly for this cause, as is evident over the last few years in Pakistan where the Ummah have poured out into the streets in their lakhs for Islamic related issues; namely to speak out against the insulting cartoons of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), the Israeli attack on Lebanon and the recent Israeli slaughter in Gaza.

    By establishing an Islamic system in Pakistan and with the incorporation of Afghanistan, the door is further left open for other Muslim countries to be incorporated into this expanding Islamic state. The likes of the Central Asian states, with their colossal resources and bubbling Islamic sentiment and desire in their people, will make for ideal new additions in this twenty first century Khilafah that will bind these Islamic lands together into one political, economic and military block.

    This re-established Khilafah will have very high goals and will seek to match if not out do the Islamic civilisations of old. From the time Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) himself set up the first Islamic state in Medina in 622, through to the final stages of the Uthmani Khilafah over thirteen centuries later, the Islamic state always looked after the affairs of the Muslims. Moreover, for much of this period this state was the leading nation in the world, at the forefront of technological development in the sciences and medicine and was unparalleled in the justice and welfare that it imparted to its citizens – Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

    During its peak, the Islamic state flourished across much of the civilised world, with prestigious centres of learning in many of its major cities like Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, Cairo etc. A plethora of famous inventions and discoveries were made during this period in the fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, maths etc. Indeed the industrial revolution that gathered pace in Europe in the mid nineteenth century was built upon this lengthy period of enlightenment in the Islamic world. The elite of Europe were sent to study in such academic centres of the Islamic state and to be able to converse in Arabic was seen as a major accomplishment and a sign of fine pedigree.

    Even towards the final and politically lowest period of this Islamic state, the conditions within it were still much to be envied for outside observers. David Urquhart, a prominent and influential British diplomat of his time, commented in an 1833 publication of his on the economic and judicial conditions of the Uthmani Khilafah. He stated that he was greatly impressed by the policies being implemented throughout the country, particularly at grassroots levels which greatly encouraged free enterprise and economic activity and further that the justice meted out to people was outstanding and in return the people sympathies were very much behind the state’s interests. He further recommended that the British people themselves would benefit greatly by the incorporation of such policies in Britain.

    Albeit a perfect system designed by the creator Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) himself, Islam nonetheless requires implementation by humans which are inherently imperfect. Thus despite lasting for many centuries, the Islamic state began to fragment from the early part of the nineteenth century onwards. However what needs to be understood well is the reason behind this gradual downfall of the state, i.e. what caused the decline in the thinking and institutions of the Muslims of that time that eventually led to the Islamic state breaking apart.

    For a long time the Muslims were in a position of ascendency relative to those around them in terms of technological progress and military might. They achieved this coveted position due to their adherence to the Islamic creed, their ability to extract or derive solutions from the Islamic texts in evolving situations and finally the acceptance of these principles by the majority of the people in the Islamic society during these times. In other words the Muslims during this period of the Islamic state as a whole had a clear viewpoint on life and always looked to resolve or deal with new predicaments using the set of laws that were derived from this viewpoint, i.e. the Islamic Shariah.

    What occurred during a relatively lengthy period up to the nineteenth century, however, was a detachment from these core principles by the Muslim community. So even though they were still implementing Islamic laws, they had now as a society lost a great deal of the understanding of the processes used to derive these laws. Hence they were no longer in the suitable position to find solutions to the new realities which every society faces with the passage of time. Thus with the acceleration of the industrial revolution in the mid nineteenth century in the Western world, combined with the preceding political upheavals in European societies, the Muslim world suddenly faced a new ideological challenge and was found wanting.

    Therefore when confronted by the advent of new inventions, theories and discoveries by the West, the Muslims struggled to understand why they were suddenly being left behind and further how to consolidate these new developments into their own civilisation. Rather than appreciating that their own creed – and the set of laws which had resulted – equally gave arise to such progression as a foretime, the Islamic society instead went about contorting Islam to adapt to the newly established secular thinking in the West. This was a grave error, and effectively meant that the Islamic state was now compromising the very foundations behind its existence. Intellectually the state had now failed, and it was only a matter of time before the state physically fell apart as well, which it did so officially in March 1924.

    Today the world has now witnessed the failure of capitalism and the reality of secularism that bred this ideology. During its brief time in the world, the world has only witnessed in the last two centuries or so unprecedented levels of wealth inequity, worldwide wars, poverty and famine gripping almost entire continents.

    In such a backdrop nonetheless the Islamic revival has been taking place across the Muslim world, with sincere and dedicated Muslims intellectually presenting the alternative an Islamic System has to offer. Pakistan, along with one or two other Muslim countries, serves as an excellent possibility for such a comeback considering its economic and military potential.

    Under a Khilafah, Pakistan’s economy will be completely transformed. From the outset, the state will seek to invest heavily in the country’s transport, utility, medical, educational and military infrastructure. In doing so jobs on masse will be provided to the nation’s burgeoning young population and business activity will soar in such an environment. The uncountable number of crippling taxes in the country will be removed and replaced with just a core handful that would be applicable only to the rich. Inflation will be effectively nullified with the removal of the current fiat currency system and with an introduction instead of a currency based on the gold/silver bimetallic standard.

    To fund such a drive, Pakistan’s enormous resources will be utilised for the benefit of the people. The ownership of the current coal, gas, oil and mineral deposits will be acquired by the state as stipulated in Islam. For example in Reko Diq alone – a small town in Baluchistan – $65 billion dollars worth of gold lies just beneath the surface alone. This amount by itself is enough to pay off all of Pakistan’s external debts. In addition, there are vast quantities of resources which currently lie untouched beneath the soils of Pakistan. As an example, Baluchistan is reported to have hundreds of billions of barrels of untapped oil reserves as reported in a 2006 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report on Baluchistan.

    By taking ownership and fully developing these resources, the cost to the people for the basic commodities of petrol and gas will be the equivalent of just a handful of rupees, i.e. people will just have to pay for the costs involved in the extraction, processing and distribution of these items. Combined with Islamic land reforms that will fully utilise the agricultural potential of Pakistan, this will have a knock on effect on food prices and availability and thus will ensure that staple food items are produced abundantly and within easy reach of the people.

    Only with the comprehensive application of all the sub-systems of the Islamic system, i.e. the ruling, economic, social, judicial etc, can such progression and development be brought about. Any superficial and partial implementation of this, e.g. the recent Nizam-e-Adl regulation in Swat, will only lead to failure and mockery of Islam as a whole. For it must be understood that Islam is made up of the above interlocking sub-systems, that do not work independently of one another. A simple illustration is the punishment system in Islam for theft. In the entire thirteen centuries’ history of the Islamic state, this penalty is stated to have only been issued a few hundred times. If it were to be implemented in today’s Pakistan on a standalone basis, then tens of thousands would fall under its remit. Rather, this rule is designed only to be enforced when the economic conditions in the country are in accordance with Islam, i.e. where all the basic needs of the people are being met and justice is imparted equally to all. In such a climate if someone does steal, then he would be punished because he done so out of greed and not need, which is the essence behind the rule.

    In conclusion, such a reformation in Pakistan will fulfil the original goals laid out for the country by its founding fathers. By enlarging to encompass the neighbouring Muslim countries, this new Islamic state will indeed be a formidable challenge to any opposition. Beyond this point, the scope of the Islamic state is only limited by how quickly it can expand into the rest of the Muslim world. For from Morocco to Indonesia, the entire global Muslim Ummah desperately awaits a sincere and strong Islamic leadership unified under a single Khaleefah. Such a potential superpower can then present to the entire globe the much awaited ideological alternative to the defunct capitalistic system.

    Source

    Posted in Empire, Ideaology, Pakistan, South Asia | Leave a comment

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