Peshawer---A New Twist

Fatima Rizvi

The massive bomb blast in Peshawer that killed a hundred people and injured hundreds more is a deviation from the TTP (Tehrik Taliban Pakistan) pattern of attacks. The TTP/Al Qaeda has not deliberately targeted civilians and certainly not women and children. They have invariably targeted military personnel, security personnel, intelligence assets, political leaders and government installations and buildings. They have carried out armed attacks and suicide bombings. The Peshawer attack used a vehicle borne explosive device detonated by remote control. It was meant to kill civilians---women and children-to spread fear and destabilize. It may be too early to reach a conclusion but it suits an entity that seeks to destabilize Pakistan and spark ethnic and religious violence. Besides the TTP the focus should shift to those who operate under the shadow of the TTP.

The US presence in Afghanistan and their operations against Pashtuns are the trigger for the Taliban-Al Qaeda nexus and the Afghan resistance against US presence. The Afghan government is dominated by no-Pashtuns and is a close ally of India and the US. India has a big presence in Afghanistan because of Afghan government sponsorship and US silence on the issue. US and India are allies with a Civilian Nuclear Technology Agreement between them and many other areas of cooperation. Pakistanis see the US-Afghan Government-India combine and conclude that India and Afghan Government are colluding in a pro-active policy to destabilize Pakistan. Pashtuns are predominantly in Southern Afghanistan and the western provinces of Pakistan and US policy of military aggression and drone attacks has alienated them. It is within this broader context that we should see the US-Pakistan alliance and the current operations in Waziristan and the terrorism within Pakistan.

Read Complete Article : http://fatimarizvi.newsvine.com/_news/2009/10/29/3441824-peshawer-a-new-twist-

What Pakistan's Military Needs To Learn From Israel

A Military Can Do Wonders for an Economy

This is where the Pakistani military blundered and where militaries in 'start-up' nations like Israel , Turkey and South Korea managed to achieve. Lesson One: Support creativity and not proxy corrupt elites. Lesson Two: Economy first; democracy second - Editor's Note - PakNationalists/AhmedQuraishi.com

An NRO Q&A

Why is Israel so economically successful? Dan Senor and Saul Singer go beyond stereotypes and beyond the continuing Mideast conflict to analyze this question in their new book, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. Senor, a former Bush-administration official in Iraq, took questions from National Review Online's Kathryn Jean Lopez on what Israel's done right, what stands in her way, and how we can learn a little from our ally.




KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What's so special about Israel?




DAN SENOR: Israel represents the highest concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship in the world today: the most start-ups per capita; the highest percentage of GDP invested in civilian R&D; more companies on NASDAQ than all of Europe, Korea, Japan, India, and China combined; and the biggest destination for global venture capital per capita. Israel raises 2.5 times as much global venture capital as the U.S., 30 times more than Europe, 80 times more than India, and 350 times more than China - and these numbers are from 2008, when the world was in the midst of an economic meltdown. Israel all but escaped the crisis that ripped through economies everywhere else.




LOPEZ: What makes Israel an economic miracle? What's most impressive?




DAN SENOR: The jaw-dropping data above would be impressive for any country, but to accomplish all this while under a near-total regional economic boycott, under physical attack, and absorbing millions of refugees in a tiny country with no resources is hard to comprehend.




LOPEZ: What's the secret of its success?




DAN SENOR: Our book dives into many interacting factors, but one of the most important is the training and battlefield experience that most Israelis receive in the military. The military is where many Israelis learn to lead and manage people, improvise, become mission-oriented, work in teams, and contribute to their country. They tend to come out of their years of service (three for men, two for women) more mature and directed than their peers in other countries. They learn "the value of five minutes," as one general told us. They even learn something more uniquely Israeli: to speak up - regardless of ranks and hierarchy - if they think things can be done better.




LOPEZ: Where has Israel fallen behind?




DAN SENOR: The non-tech portion of the economy is overconcentrated, overregulated, and overtaxed, and has consequently performed at a mediocre level. If the conditions that have allowed the high-tech sector to flourish were applied to the rest of the economy, Israel could grow even faster. If Israel also were to address the low labor-force-participation rates in certain demographics, we agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel could become one of the top ten largest economies in the world.




LOPEZ: Has this been an ethical success story?




DAN SENOR: We believe that the free-market system is progressively eliminating the extreme poverty that was the lot of the world throughout history. This process is largely driven by improvements in productivity, which are in part a result of advancements in technology, especially by small, scrappy start-ups. Also, Israel has specialized in life-enhancing and life-saving technologies like medical devices, water conservation, desalination, and irrigation, not to mention the information technology that is making the world smaller. The great thing about innovation is that, unlike physical resources, ideas can be shared and duplicated by all without taking from anyone else.




LOPEZ: Is there something particularly Jewish about Israel's success?




DAN SENOR: Many people conjecture that there is something specifically Jewish at work. The notion that Jews are "smart" has become deeply embedded in the Western psyche. We saw this ourselves; when we told people we were writing a book about why Israel is so innovative, many reacted by saying, "It's simple - Jews are smart, so it's no surprise that Israel is innovative." But pinning Israel's success on a stereotype obscures more than it reveals.




For starters, the idea of a unitary Jewishness - whether genetic or cultural - would seem to have little applicability to a nation that, though small, is among the most heterogeneous in the world. Israel's tiny population is made up of some 70 different nationalities. A Jewish refugee from Iraq and one from Poland or Ethiopia did not share a language, education, culture, or history - at least not for the two previous millennia. As Irish economist David McWilliams explains, "Israel is quite the opposite of a uni-dimensional, Jewish country. . . . It is a monotheistic melting pot of a Diaspora that brought back with it the culture, language, and customs of the four corners of the earth."




While a common prayer book and a shared legacy of persecution count for something, it was far from clear that this disparate group could form a functioning country at all, let alone one that would excel at - of all things - teamwork and innovation.




Indeed, Israel's secret seems to lie in something more than just the talent of individuals. There are lots of places with talented people, certainly with many times the number of engineers that Israel has to offer. Singaporean students, for example, lead the world in science and mathematics test scores. Multinationals have set up shop in places like India and Ireland, too. "But we don't set up our mission-critical work in those countries," an American executive from eBay told us. "Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, eBay . . . the list goes on. The best-kept secret is that we all live and die by the work of our Israeli teams. It's much more than just outsourcing call centers to India or setting up IT services in Ireland. What we do in Israel is unlike what we do anywhere else in the world."




LOPEZ: What's the Buffett test?




DAN SENOR: Without spoiling the surprise, let's just say that Warren Buffett - the apostle of risk aversion - bought his first company overseas in 2006 while Hezbollah's katusha rockets were landing near the company's factories. This was his $4 billion acquisition of the manufacturing company Iscar, and the deal was being closed in the midst of the Lebanon War. Buffett didn't blink. He went through with the deal. Even up against such geopolitical and security volatility, he bet on the Israelis, and in the book, we describe the test he used to justify that bet. It's key to understanding why so many investors and multinational companies (Cisco has bought nine Israeli companies and is looking to buy more) are willing to take the risk to do business in Israel.




LOPEZ: Can we have an economic miracle too?




DAN SENOR: Yes! America has untapped "Israeli" potential in the tens of thousands of returning veterans whose leadership experience is not appreciated by the American corporate world.




U.S. vets coming out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are better prepared than ever for the business world, whether building start-ups or helping lead larger companies through the current turbulent period. Yet the capacity of U.S. corporate recruiters and executives to make sense of combat experience and its value in the business world is limited. As Israeli entrepreneur Jon Medved explained, most American businesspeople simply do not know how to read a military résumé.




U.S. military career adviser Al Chase told us that a number of the vets he's worked with have walked a business interviewer through all their leadership experiences from the battlefield, including case studies in high-stakes decisionmaking and management of large numbers of people and equipment in a war zone, and at the end of it the interviewer has said something along the lines of, "That's very interesting, but have you ever had a real job?"




In Israel, it is the opposite. While Israeli businesses still look for private-sector experience, military service provides the critical standardized metric for employers - all of whom know what it means to be an officer or to have served in an elite unit. Our book explores ways in which the U.S. might close the cultural gap between the business world and the military communities in the U.S.




LOPEZ: Can economic miracles lead to peace?




DAN SENOR: Israel's economic success has been a key component in convincing the Arab world that its existence is permanent in the region, which is the threshold incentive for the Arab world to end its attempts to destroy Israel. The moment the Arab world is ready for peace, the opportunities for economic cooperation are great, and Israel could play a pivotal role in helping regional economies advance.




LOPEZ: If Israel is so smart, why can't it seem to fully outsmart its enemies?




DAN SENOR: Well, on the one hand, you have to be pretty deft and tenacious to be surrounded by enemies who've been at war with you since the dawn of your existence and still function like the Israelis do each day. On the other hand, it is remarkable that the Arab world has been attacking Israel incessantly yet has managed to paint Israel as the aggressor.




LOPEZ: Could Iran easily end all this success?




DAN SENOR: No, but if Iran goes nuclear, the possibilities for regional peace shrink to nil, and this is a great opportunity lost for Israel and the Arabs alike.




LOPEZ: What is the biggest threat facing Israel?




DAN SENOR: The threat of radical Islamists backed by an Iranian nuclear umbrella, but this is a threat that would cast a pall over global security and prosperity, not just Israel.




LOPEZ: What makes you two economists all of a sudden, by the way?




DAN SENOR: Aha, you have discovered that this is not a book about economics, really, but culture, history, and chutzpah. We came at this story with the tools of policy analysis, investment experience, and journalism, and tried to tell it for non-economists like ourselves.




LOPEZ: It's hard not to notice the prominent "A Council on Foreign Relations Book." When did Israel buy the Trilateral Commission?




DAN SENOR: You'll have to read the book to find out; but we're not sure that even we will be able to validate that conspiracy theory.




- Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online .

Some Question For Mrs. Clinton And Mr. Qureshi

The GHQ attack effectively derailed the parliamentary debate over Kerry-Lugar bill and gave a breathing space to the isolated pro-US government in Islamabad. It allowed Shah Mahmood Qureshi to do his Munich-style appeasement and sell out the Pakistani nation to Washington. Without the GHQ attack, the government could never have scuttled the expected Parliament resolution against the US aid conditions. The subsequent attacks on Pakistani military personnel were not the usual Taliban-style terrorism.

By DR. SHIREEN MAZARI


The Nation


WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-There are certain questions that are beginning to come to one's mind the more one sees targeted attacks against the military in Islamabad.

While soldiers and officials have been targeted by the "Taliban" - which has now become such an all-encompassing category that it defies explanation and allows so many elements to exploit the label for their own ends - primarily in the areas of the ongoing military operations, there is a new pattern that needs to be identified and discerned.

To begin with, is it simply a coincidence that the GHQ was targeted in the immediate aftermath of the army's press release expressing concerns over the then Kerry Lugar Bill (now Act)?

That attack effectively derailed the debate going on in Parliament and allowed Shah Mahmood Qureshi to do his Munich-style appeasement and sell out the Pakistani nation to Washington. The opposition got diverted and the formulation of a strong resolution got lost somewhere in the terrorism cloud. Soon after the GHQ attack, we saw Brigadier Moin's targeted killing in Islamabad and on Tuesday (27th October) another Brigadier was targeted outside his home. Now both these attacks were not the usual Taliban-style terrorism and the young motorbike riders did not "look" like the typical Taliban either according to eye witnesses. Then there is the question of how they managed to disappear and remain hidden, even though the police managed to get their pen sketches made.

Linked to these questions is the claim made by the TTP that they had carried out the GHQ attack. This is interesting because the TTP is the only terrorist outfit that is not identified by name in the Kerry Lugar Act. We also know that the TTP's weapons are coming from Afghanistan and to top it all off, the Pakistani nation and military have been shocked at the US/NATO withdrawal from their check posts along the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan immediately when the Pakistan army began its full-scale action in South Waziristan. Given how the US had been pressuring Pakistan into commencing this action, why would they then decide to vacate their check posts and thereby create an enabling environment for arms flows to the TTP? These are questions that when linked up pinpoint to a questionable US design vis a vis the Pakistan military. The reasons behind this have been elaborated in earlier columns.

However, there is also anther link that needs to be highlighted. That is the shenanigans, in Islamabad, of US diplomats and covert operatives - be they linked to Blackwater, Dyncorps or Inter-Risk. On Tuesday, early morning, four US diplomats were caught with weapons in the vicinity of Margalla police station in sector F-8 - but as always the police were helpless in the face of US pressure and had to let the men go. This is the sixth known case in recent times of US diplomats and undercover operatives being caught with weapons and/or harassing local citizens. One such incident also involved Dutch diplomats. But the question is: what are these diplomats doing carrying weapons to and from their embassy? Whom are they delivering these weapons to and who are they taking these weapons from? When linked to the illicit weapons caches' of Inter Risk and arms licenses being given to the US embassy without following proper procedures, there is a very real issue about US involvement in questionable covert actions in the Capital and beyond.

This becomes even more tenable when one goes back to the Inter Risk company's training of at least 200 ex-servicemen for the US, whom the US refused to hand over for questioning to the Pakistani authorities and instead tucked them away in "safe houses. These trained guards were also supposed to have been given some of the illicit weapons.

Finally, returning to the attack on GHQ, the attackers were not random militants but well-trained men also adept in deception, especially their leader, Aqeel alias Dr Usman, who almost got away by mingling with the crowd after the siege had ended - but for a guard who recognised him and hit him from behind.

Given the serious concerns that are only growing over what exactly the US is up to, especially with some journalists like S. F. A. Shah from Peshawar facing life threats from US operatives in that city, it is time the state sought to re-examine the multidimensional terrorist threats emanating from different sources. Only when we are clear about whom we are contending with on different fronts, can we formulate effective policies to fight the threats. It is a dangerous reductionism to simply lay every act of violence and terror at the doorstep of the "Taliban" and Al-Qaeda. Even here, which Taliban group are we talking about? The US has mesmerized the Pakistani state into simplifying everything and thereby glossing over the American game plan in this region, especially vis a vis Pakistan. For this naiveté we are continuing to pay a heavy price, not only in lives lost but in institutions undermined.

Dr. Mazari is the Resident Editor of daily The Nation. She can be reached at callstr@hotmail.com

Pakistan's Civil Society Still Needs U.S. Support

Jamsheed K. Choksy

As part of the recently signed Kerry-Lugar Bill authorizing $7.5 billion in economic assistance for Pakistan over the next five years, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department will be expected to "assist efforts to enhance civilian control and stable constitutional government" in Pakistan, as outlined in the draft metrics for evaluating progress in Pakistan presented by the Obama administration to Congress in September. The goal is to enhance Pakistan's local capacity for sustainable communal and economic growth so that counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts can be successful. Rebuilding civil society will be even more important as a bulwark against militancy once the Pakistani military's current offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan ends.

Yet, simultaneously, a major reorientation in U.S. policy toward Pakistan is underway, with the planning, administration, and staffing of reconstruction projects being handed over to the government of Pakistan and to private Pakistani organizations. U.S. officials hope this will both reduce Pakistanis' negative reactions to foreign aid, and safeguard American civilians by removing them from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).




There is no doubt that both social reconstruction and enhanced security is desperately needed in the FATA and NWFP, where local populations still face intimidation from armed Islamic terrorists. Economic opportunities have declined, leaving approximately 60 percent of the FATA's 5 million inhabitants and 20 percent of the NWFP's 17.5 million residents below the poverty level. Literacy has fallen to 17.4 percent in the FATA and 49 percent in the NWFP, because militants have destroyed secular schools.




What remains uncertain is whether local Pakistani organizations have the expertise and capacity to implement development efficiently, especially after the current fighting ends.




Indeed, Pakistani and foreign aid workers as well as officials of the FATA and NWFP are concerned by the possibility of unregulated and poorly directed funding. They are convinced that on-site U.S. guidance is necessary in addition to financial assistance. A senior USAID economist stated that lack of American involvement would "seriously compromise" reconstruction efforts. It seems that the U.S. is tossing Pakistan's government a proverbial bone -- control over billions of dollars of aid-related funds in exchange for advancing American counterinsurgency priorities in the country.




Is the trade-off worthwhile?




The increasing absence of USAID personnel and subcontractors is bemoaned by Pashtuns as a "terrible success" for the Taliban and al-Qaida, for it gives the impression that the militants have run the Americans out of town. So despite the security risks, the U.S. needs to demonstrate to skeptical Pakistanis that bilateral partnerships are based upon engagement at the local level, rather than upon directions from afar. As important, U.S. agencies must utilize official Pakistani security resources plus locally provided residential and administrative areas, rather than creating neocolonial expatriate enclaves.




But contrary to those who tout only the dangers, USAID and its subcontractors have demonstrated some success at ensuring that civil society development projects benefit both Pakistan and the U.S.




Over 100,000 micro-enterprises (.pdf) were established in the NWFP by USAID to ensure economic independence from militants. Skilled and unskilled workers in the NWFP and FATA who receive civil society-related employment have commented that they do not object to salaries being paid through U.S.-funded projects. Rather, they value being able to "feed, clothe, and shelter" their families "without shedding blood."




As importantly, where missteps have occurred, American aid workers with on-site experience have worked with Pakistani officials to correct them. So, for example, the U.S. currently does not brand aid to the FATA and NWFP, in the belief that this protects staff and beneficiaries from terrorist retaliation. However, since many local residents surmise correctly that the aid delivered by the government of Pakistan originates with USAID, the attempt to limit visibility has contributed to baseless suspicion of American attempts to colonize Pakistan. Local Pakistani and American representatives are working to correct this, realizing that far from fanning suspicion, transparency will mitigate the rumor-fueled resistance to foreign assistance that has been building within Pakistan recently.




Another error is the routine refusal by U.S. administrations to requests for educational development by Pakistani Muslim clerics, for fear of assets falling into Taliban and al-Qaida hands. Local officials and American contractors realize that Washington's fears are misguided and misplaced. Their field experience indicates that extending clearly labeled aid to carefully chosen madrasas would highlight how American resources are utilized in partnership with the Pakistani government and Muslim institutions, in ways that not only are not anti-Muslim but that benefit mainstream Islam and Pakistan.




Most important, because the government and people of Pakistan are finally accepting the challenges of counteracting militancy, it is vital that the U.S. administration respect local sovereignty. The slightest involvement of American troops and security contractors from private organizations would undercut Pakistanis' fierce sense of nationalism, and so facilitate the spread of anti-American sentiments by Islamic militants.




If the Pakistani government and peace-seeking citizens are slowly winning the battle for the hearts and minds of FATA and NWFP's residents, it is through the reconstruction of civil society and not through warfare alone. And U.S. assistance for incorporating the FATA and NWFP back into Pakistani civil society has been the key to the recent successes.




Sustaining positive outcomes, however, requires cautious policy, tactful engagement, and constant consultation -- not just between senior officials but also with those actually working in the NWFP and FATA. Militaries can win battles, but only society can ensure stability. Given the aid allocation over the next five years, an American withdrawal from direct engagement in Pakistan's societal development will squander a unique opportunity to get things right.




Jamsheed K. Choksy is professor of Central Eurasian, Indian, Iranian, Islamic, and International studies and former director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at Indiana University. He also is a member of the National Council on the Humanities at the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities. He has conducted research in Pakistan since 1984. The views expressed are his own.

Can Mrs. Clinton Control CIA In Afghanistan?

There is a reason why her first visit to Pakistan turned into a big firefighting mission. In less than two years, even Pakistan's elite turned suspicious of US intentions. Forget Hillary's empty accusations that Pakistan is protecting al-Qaeda, the truth is that Washington has played a double game with Pakistan. Afghanistan today is a hub for anti-Pakistan activities and a source for the supply of weapons to terrorists in Pakistan [and Iran, and China]. The charm offensive aside: Can Mrs. Clinton and President Obama control CIA activities in Afghanistan? Who is setting America's Afghan agenda?

She came, she charmed, she failed to convince.

By AHMED QURAISHI

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Two years ago, when isolated reports in the Pakistani media accused the United States of playing a double game in Afghanistan, most commentators dismissed them as conspiracy theories and kneejerk anti-Americanism.

Today those reports dominate the mainstream Pakistani media. The distrust is so serious that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to turn her first official visit to Pakistan into a firefighting mission, kicking off a charm offensive to win over skeptic Pakistanis.

Her campaign has included Facebook advertisements targeting young Pakistanis, town-hall type meetings, and group television interviews with anchors meant to maximize her on-air exposure.

Before she even landed in Pakistan, Clinton had instructed US diplomats in Islamabad to get tough with the Pakistani media. At one point, the American ambassador wrote a secret letter to a large Pakistani newspaper accusing one of its columnists, a critic of US policies, of endangering American lives. She gave no evidence of how a policy critique endangered anyone's life. The columnist was dropped after ten years of working for the paper. The US embassy in Pakistan is very powerful thanks to a pro-US Pakistani government that sees Washington as a hedge against the powerful Pakistani military.

Not that Mrs. Clinton and the US diplomats are alone in countering critics of US policies here. Pakistan's ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani, a former journalist who is widely derided as 'Washington's ambassador in the Pakistan embassy', is known to have put his media management expertise in the service of defending his government's ultra close ties with Washington, although his planted image-enhancement stories find little buyers among Pakistanis.

Mrs. Clinton's visit was so carefully choreographed that US diplomats launched a strict vetting process to determine which Pakistani television anchors should be allowed to participate in a 'pool interview'. The point was to exclude anyone critical of US policies ['anti-American' to US diplomats]. This sharply contrasts with the statements Clinton has been giving here, like this one she gave to the television anchors, " It is especially critical that we do more of what you're doing today with your colleagues so that I have a chance to answer the questions that are on the minds of the people of Pakistan."

But when time came for the real questions, she dodged them. So much for a successful public diplomacy.

Despite all this vetting, one anchor, Talat Hussain from Aaj News, managed to throw a couple of 'real' questions that unsettled Secretary Clinton. Visibly embarrassed, she kept repeating the line, 'No one can say Pakistani media is not free after this' and she kept repeating it until the end of the show.

At one point, media officials in the provincial capital Lahore wrote to higher-ups complaining against US diplomats who manipulated which Pakistani journalists should be allowed to interact with Clinton. "She came here to interact with Pakistanis. US diplomats don't get to decide which Pakistani media can attend her public events and which one cannot," a senior Punjab provincial official told me from Lahore.

This kind of media management is normally the prerogative of the host government and not the guest. In another press interaction with a few journalists in Lahore, Mrs. Clinton sat down with a handful of predominantly pro-American media personalities, including one widely known to be a paid consultant for the US Department of Defense, who normally advises on Pakistani affairs and is famous for saying everything that American policymakers want to hear.

Mrs. Clinton was received by a junior Foreign Office diplomat while for some reason Foreign Minister Qureshi stayed away

So much for Mrs. Clinton's public diplomacy mission, almost every Pakistani journalist known for well reasoned and calibrated critique of US policies was excluded from any interaction with the US Secretary of State. Which says a lot about Washington's tolerance level for criticism despite the high-sounding lectures on democracy that Mrs. Clinton delivered in Pakistan.

How fake in real sense this public diplomacy trip was can be gauged from the following: Mrs. Clinton's first day in Pakistan was full of warm imagery and rhetoric: how she and her husband love Pakistanis, how she and President Obama enjoy Pakistani food, how honest and straightforward she is, and how sincere United States is in its friendship with Pakistan.

But when it came to substance, she was full of hot air. For example, during the 'pool interview' with seven television anchors, she curtly ignored a question about the increasing incidents of arrests of US special operations officers inside Pakistani cities carrying diplomatic passports and illegal weapons. You would think she might want to address this point considering that this and similar stories are stoking Pakistani public's anger. But no, she didn't.

Merely two days before her arrival, four US 'diplomats' were arrested somewhere in the Pakistani capital dressed as Afghan Taliban, carrying illegal and unlicensed weapons, and in possession of pictures of sensitive buildings. They were released on the intervention of the Interior Ministry, headed by a close aide of President Zardari. The Ministry is openly accused in the media of not only covering for the US embassy's illegal actions but also of licensing the operations of private US security firms across Pakistan on an unprecedented scale not seen or known even during the reign of the former pro-US president Musharraf. Interestingly, the Pakistani intelligence agencies have been kept out of the loop by both the US embassy and the Ministry. This alone has generated tremendous ill will within the Pakistani public opinion against Washington.

Last month, a Pakistani journalist published official documents leaked from within the Interior Ministry that positively showed US Ambassador Anne Patterson colluding with the Ministry to 'legalize' a cache of weapons that came from an unknown source [most probably from Afghanistan]. The cache was handed over to an American security firm that was later stopped from operating in Pakistan.

Mrs. Clinton had a simple answer when a journalist asked her about such incidents. "I don't know about this," is what she said to someone asking her about the latest incident involving four US 'diplomats'.

These are some of the issues that the mainstream US media hides from the American public. No wonder most Americans don't know how bad their government and intelligence mess in Afghanistan is. US citizens are unaware, for example, about the strong Pakistani apprehensions that Washington - or some powerful lobbies there - decidedly brought in anti-Pakistan forces into the government in Kabul, and then set them loose on a course of collision with Pakistan, including recruiting, financing and training terrorists to incite an ethnic insurgency in Balochistan exploiting local grievances. For most of the past eight years, the US Ambassador in Kabul was an anti-Pakistan diplomat who spent more of his Afghan assignment finding ways and means to target Pakistan.

Pakistanis also have strong evidence that some Americans allowed India to set up a vast intelligence network there, hidden beneath several development projects. This network is involved in pumping money and weapons to terrorists inside Pakistan. [On Oct. 28, Pakistani police arrested five members of a banned militant outfit and seized about 150 kilos of explosives of Indian origin , automatic rifles and suicide vests from them].

The above cannot happen in US-occupied and controlled Afghanistan without US knowledge. Or, to be precise, without the knowledge of at least one influential US actor: the intelligence community. CIA and possibly other US spy agencies that come under the Department of Defense are involved in fostering terrorism not just in Pakistan but also inside Iran and western China.

In Pakistan, elements in CIA aided by the Indians and Karzai's spy groups have played a role in setting up and feeding insurgencies across western Pakistan between 2004 and 2008. This was done during the Bush-Cheney administration as punishment for Pakistan for not completely submitting to the US project in Afghanistan. Washington then suspected that Musharraf was double dealing. US did not want Pakistan to have any independent foreign policy or ideas on Afghanistan, Kashmir and India other than what Washington was planning.

The spate of recent suicide bombings in Pakistan, killing some 200 Pakistanis in less than a month, is not the work of mountain hillbillies in South Waziristan on the Pak-Afghan border but the work of trained operatives who receive support, intelligence and training from organized military groups.

We know our own citizens are involved in this terrorism, but the small terror army in South Waziristan is not getting its money and weapons from inside Pakistan. Rehman Malik's Interior Ministry and the military's spy agencies have credible, strong and detailed information about how a US-controlled Afghanistan is being used for anti-Pakistan covet warfare. BLA and TTP terrorists have a safe haven there. Terrorist Abdullah Mehsud was killed in 2007 slipping back from Afghanistan through Balochistan [and not the tribal belt] after meeting his backers. We know why the Chinese working on different projects in Pakistani were targeted here.

American officials like Hillary Clinton avoid commenting on these issues. The question she dodged from a Pakistani journalist on armed US 'diplomats' was a sign that we increasingly recognizing from watching US diplomats work in Iraq and Afghanistan. US diplomats are averse to commenting on possible clandestine activities of CIA and or people from the US military in the host country.

For years, US officials have been praising Pakistan for helping eliminate Al Qaeda and complaining about lack of Pakistani cooperation in pursuing the Afghan Taliban. That was Bush administration's refrain. Under Mr. Obama, his diplomats in Islamabad took turns this month in threatening war against Pakistan and in confirming the presence of Mullah Omar and Bin Laden inside Pakistan, without evidence of course, since US statements are enough. In return we, Pakistanis, are not allowed to make similar conjecture about the presence of bin Laden in Afghanistan, where the US military can't control the country eight years later.

Mrs. Clinton has added a twist to this American-Afghan saga. One of her rather bold statements in Pakistan is so fantastic I must quote it as it was reported by the Associated Press: "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they [Al Qaeda] are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," Clinton said in an interview with Pakistani journalists in Lahore. "Maybe that's the case. Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know."

Amazing to see her determination to question the role of Pakistan when she has no evidence on anything that she is saying.

While the isolated pro-US Pakistani government is understandably reluctant to confront Washington on this eight-year-old charade, the Pakistani public opinion, the media, opposition parties and the powerful military have all had it. Washington is good at messing things up and even better at pinning the blame on others. For some reason, Mrs. Clinton and her administration won't admit that they messed up Afghanistan big time and that rogue elements within the US military and intelligence played a big role in this. [The New York Times has reported that one of Afghanistan's biggest drug barons, a brother of the US-backed Afghan president, has been on CIA's payroll for years. Criminals and warlords in the Afghan government are allies of CIA and the US military. The US spy agency is also involved in fomenting trouble inside Pakistan, Iran and western China using the Afghan base. CIA is not always good at what it does, that's why many Pakistanis have ended up knowing some of the truth. Late but better than never.]

Can Mrs. Clinton and President Obama control CIA and the increasingly independent-minded US military in Afghanistan? The answer to this question will determine if peace returns to our region any time soon.

Turkish PM says West treating Iran unfairly

LONDON (AFP) - Turkey's prime minister accused Western powers of treating Iran unfairly over its peaceful nuclear program, in an interview Monday in which he referred to the Iranian president as a friend.

Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Recep Tayyip Erdogan downplayed Western concerns that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons as "gossip", and implied that the accusers were guilty of hypocrisy.




"There is a style of approach which is not very fair because those (who accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons) have very strong nuclear infrastructures and they don't deny that," he said.




"The permanent members of the UN Security Council all have nuclear arsenals and then there are countries which are not members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which also have nuclear weapons.




"So although Iran doesn't have a weapon, those who say Iran shouldn't have them are those countries which do."




Erdogan also said a military strike against Iranian nuclear installations would be "crazy", according to the newspaper.




"If the idea is to devastate Iran or somehow erase it altogether I don't think that would be right," he added.




"On the one hand you say you want global peace, on the other hand you are going to have such a destructive approach to a state which has 10,000 years of history. It is not correct."




Turkey, a NATO member, has in recent years improved ties with Iran, its eastern neighbor, and sought to help resolve the nuclear dispute.




Erdogan said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "There is no doubt he is our friend. We have kept very good relations and we have had no difficulty at all."

‘Pakistan pledges to capture Jundullah terrorists and extradite them to Iran’

Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN -- Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar has said that Pakistani officials have promised to cooperate with Iran and to take the measures necessary to capture the members of the Rigi terrorist group and extradite them to Iran.

Pakistan and Iran are both victims of terrorism and should cooperate in efforts to establish security in the region, he told reporters in Tehran on Monday.




The Jundullah terrorist group, which is also known as the Rigi group because it is led by Abdul-Malek Rigi, has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed over 40 people, including five senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan on October 18.




Militants of the Jundullah ring regularly cross over into Iran from their hideouts in neighboring Pakistan to attack civilians and police officers.




Najjar said that during his visit to Pakistan he informed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik about the Iranian nation's expectations of Pakistan.




He also stated that Tehran and Islamabad have drafted a security agreement on cooperation in dealing with problems such as human trafficking, illicit drug trafficking, and arms trafficking on their borders, as well as money laundering and cyber crime

The Day When Kashmir Was Occupied

Mahazi Islami

62 years ago on this day (October 27, 1947) India landed its army at Srinagar airport to occupy Kashmir. The disaster would have happened, but could have not continued, if the political foot soldiers, like the one mentioned below, had not been first cultivated by the Indian state. While narrating the events of 1947 in his autobiography 'My Life and Times'(1992: Allied Publishers, New Delhi, India, p39)The late Syed Mir Qasim, once a puppet chief minister of Kashmir, and himself a front-ranking foot soldier, writes:

"…As they [Indian Army] landed at the airport some of them killed a few Muslims. This shocked and infuriated the local people who were there to welcome the Indian army as their savior. The shocked people thought of carrying their dead ones to Jamia Mosque in a procession. This could have created an uncontrollable situation and turned the people's anger against India instead of the invaders and perhaps could have given a different direction to the history of Kashmir. No Kashmiri leader, including Sheikh Abdullah, could possibly stem this uprising. But Khawaja Ghulam Mohiuddin Qarra intervened and managed to stop the procession at Lal Chowk. He talked the mob out of its procession plan so convincingly that one of them stood up to shout that his son was among those dead, but he would sacrifice another son if Khawja Qara so demanded. The mob was pacified…"

The two foot soldiers, one who is talking and the other who is being talked about, both are no more. Gone from this world after breathing in their allocated volume of Oxygen. However, the misery their actions, as well as of those like them, brought still persists. We have to take on the burden, do what best we can to end the misery, and secure the future of coming generations.

Centre to retain security forces to combat Maoists

Press Trust Of India


Kolkata

The Centre has assured the West Bengal government that it will not withdraw the 1,700 personnel of central security forces from the three Maoist-hit districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, even though Assembly elections in adjoining Jharkhand is round the corner.

The assurance was given by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee when the latter met him in Delhi recently, Bhattacharjee was quoted as having told a Left Front meeting in Kolkata on Monday.

A CPI state leader, who preferred anonymity, said that the chief minister gave a briefing of his meeting with Chidambaram and expressed his government's firm determination to take on the Maoist challenge. He was also keen to find out the whereabouts of the two policemen missing since July 30.

He said that the chief minister dwelt at length on steps to fortify all 20 police stations in West Midnapore district, alert security forces and agencies about an impending Maoist attacks and augmenting police force and check-posts in the vulnerable areas.

"Efforts will be made to face the Maoists through encounters," he is said to have told the Front meeting.

Bhattacharjee said it was evident from Chidambaram's assertion that the Centre would like to combat the Maoists effectively, the CPI leader said.

Maoists' strategy to counter Cobra battalion

Ramashankar/Alok Kumar, Hindustan Times

Is the CPI (Maoist) planning to counter the operation to be launched by the newly established central para-military force, Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), in Bihar on the lines of Lalgarh in West Bengal?

If the statement of a self proclaimed zonal commander of the outfit is to be believed, a women brigade has been raised with recruits drawn from Dumaria, Bankebazar and Imamganj blocks under Sherghati sub-division of Gaya district.

The members have been prepared to offer stiff resistance to the CoBRA personnel, who are likely to be engaged in operations against Naxalites in Bihar by the end of October or at the beginning of November this year. "We have changed our strategy following the Union Government's decision to deploy CoBRA personnel in four worst Naxal affected states," said the Maoist leader. He said the members of the woman brigade have been trained to handle sophisticated weapons.

Under the changed strategy, the Maoists would put the trained woman commandos in front. Though use of women by Maoists in combat situations is nothing new in Bihar, this will perhaps be the first time, that they will be used as a cover for the hardened naxalite squads to take on the might of the COBRA personnel. They will mainly be used in holding operations, while the main squads prepare ambushes.

Besides, the members of the People's Liberation of Guerilla Army (PLGA), made up of actvists and sympathisers with coyuntrymade weapons placed as frontal squad of the outfit, would also be there to challenge the security personnel. Theirs remain a delaying action role, welldefined for over six years now.

Sources said that the members of the woman brigade were being imparted training at different training camps set up in hilly terrains and forests on the Bihar-Jharkhand-UP-Chattisgarh borders. The Maoists reportedly held public meetings at two places and demonstarted their new recruits' firepower, including at one of such assemblies in Thohi forests under Dumaria police station on Tuesday. Several squads totalling a hundred women particpated in the exercises. The meetings denounced the 'latest actions' of Congress Pesident Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram.

Sources in the intelligence agencies admitted that the Maoists have changed their strategy after the Union Government's decision to deploy CoBRA personnel in four worst naxal affected states, including Bihar and Jharkhand.

Iran must learn Manners

Asif Chauhdary

Knees are based under the belly by default and can never come before tummy. Trying it by someone would only bring desperation and humiliation and nothing else. Pakistan has a neighbour who is trying to put knees before belly so ever since the over thrown of Reza Shah Pehlvi. As it is no more a secret that we are talking of Iran, hence it is also essential to mention that the reasons for this vindictive and grudging attitude are known by a hair's breadth to Pakistan. The rise of Islamic revolution brought no goodwill messages for Pakistan. Though as far as Pakistan is concerned, it always stretched out a brotherly hand towards Iran, may that was about the revolutionaries coming into power or Iran-Iraq war. Besides this Pakistan never meddled into the Iranian politics or its internal affairs, nevertheless, Iran invariably showed a lost sleep about Pakistan's affairs, contrary to it.

If Iran could find the reasons for showing its disquiet over sectarian issue in Pakistan then the same rationales were valid for Pakistan to protest over the Sunnis plight in Iran but Pakistan while indifferent to whichever government was in power always displayed sensibleness. Pakistan never objected to the founding of Iranian cultural centers (Khana-e-Farhang) throughout Pakistan and that too in a number more than it required. Pakistan always had reasons to believe that why the Iranians have more than one cultural centers of this kind in the cities having Shia population in majority but Pakistan always demonstrated patience. It's no more a secret that what these cultural centers (Khana-e-Farhang) have been up to in Pakistan but Pakistan has never blamed Iran for any involvement.

Recently the Indians have handed over a newly constructed 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway to the Afghan government which is of strategic importance. What interest India had in constructing the road that will connect Kandhar to the Iran border is a question that Iran and Afghanistan are in a better position to answer, but Pakistan never showed any nervousness on it despite the fact that highway is defiantly likely to influence Pakistan's strategic interests in the region.

The IPI gas pipeline project was approved to meet the Indian requirements but who doesn't know that it was the India who backed out from the agreement at the eleventh hour which annoyed Iran also but at the end of the day Iran had no grievances against India while Pakistan has been asked to sit in the corner, wait and see.

Like Pak-Afghan border, the residents of Pak-Iran border are also living astride the international boundary. While Pakistan on Pak-Afghan border despite having great security problems never thought of erecting the wall and instead augmented the security, but Iran on Pak-Afghan border has constructed a700 kilometer long, 3 feet thick and 10 feet high concrete wall by using extra strong steel rods, alongside its border with Pakistan from Taftan to Mand, although the Baloch community of border village Sorap of western Mekran region have shown their fears about being politically and socially divided. The people were forced by the Iranian authorities to vacate the town in a stipulated time period, but Pakistan's official stance, that Iran has the right to erect border fencing in its territory, is very much on record.

Pak-Iran relations have seen some frequent highs and lows during last three decades. Late President General Zia ul Haq apart from visiting himself once had been sending the goodwill missions to stamp out the Iranian qualms quite off and on but unfortunately no one could satisfy the pre-fixed mind Iranians. If any common man here in Pakistan is asked he would definitely call the Iranians as Pakistan's brothers. Pakistani president late Field Marshal Ayub Khan gifted 60 Square KM area to Iran to save their Oil drainage on Pakistan side. Reza Shah Pehlvi reciprocated the gesture and started providing Pakistan subside oil in return. However, contrary to that no wonder if one hear the story of marching by the Iranian Passdarans on Pakistani flag in the presence of Pakistani diplomats as guests invited to witness the parade.

The recent Iranian elections were a unique example of rigging by Ahmadinejad gang where Pakistan had a great opportunity to create trouble for a brother country had the latter been an enemy as it is thought by the Iranians but remained indifferent to the issue until it resolved.

Iran must put his own house in order before leveling any accusation against Pakistan in the most ill-mannered and undiplomatic way as it doesn't speak high of an Iranian leader whose own loyalties and credibility is doubted amongst his own countrymen. Before pointing any accusing finger towards Pakistan he needs to satisfy the world body about the strong Argentinean criticism on President Ahmadinejad's decision to put forward Ahmad Vahidi as defense minister in his new 21-member cabinet. No one has forgotten that Vahidi is wanted by Argentina in connection with a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires which leveled a seven-floor Argentinean building, killing 85 people and wounded 300. It was the worst terrorist attack in Argentina.

Pakistan bagged all the blames for helping Iran in nuclear proliferation but surprisingly it is Pakistan which in return is targeted by the western and USA authorities whereas the Iranian government is simply getting just the verbal warnings by them which provides enough reasons to believe that a conspiracy to tight noose around Pakistan's neck is being executed discreetly and no wonder if Iran is also a party to it. It is high time for the Iranians to learn the diplomatic norms. Pakistan has always displayed tolerence and maturity. The recent example is of releasing 14 guards from Iranian Passdran-e-Inqilab, who entered Pakistan unlawfully.

Both the countries are not having that tensed relations that they can't even talk to clarify each others misgivings, only if India has priority over Pakistan for Iran. It is high time for Iran to remember one thing that, genetically knees are based under the belly by default and can never come before tummy. Trying it by someone would only bring desperation and humiliation to one and nothing else.

India, China and Russia agree to enhance cooperation

Sandeep Dikshit

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (right) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov prior to the trilateral meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K

China did not raise the issue of Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal Pradesh next month but complained about India's move to cancel business visas and convert them to employment visas during a 90-minute meeting between Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi here on Tuesday.

On the complaint about the cancellation of business visas that has affected many of its workers, India explained that it was a uniform policy being applied to all foreign nationals. "There was no change in the visa regime. Only the misuse of the business visa was stopped. Visas henceforth would be uniform employment visas," Mr. Yang was told by his Indian interlocutors.

China condemned the Mumbai attacks and the repeat bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul after India gave a detailed briefing and "exposed" the masterminds, said highly placed sources. China also said such killing of innocent civilians "also affected them."

Both sides also dwelt on trade issues and explored ideas to step up its volume in a manner that addressed Indian concerns about the massive imbalance.

To improve communication

India and China also resolved to step up communication to avoid differences that had recently cropped up over disputed areas and the proposed visit of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh. No official word was available about the meeting between Mr. Krishna and Mr. Yang barring a brief statement read out by the former. The reason why the meeting took up so much of time was because Mr. Yang's observations in Chinese had to be translated into English.

The two leaders decided to step up dialogue to build trust at several levels including more frequent high-level exchanges, media, cultural and people-to-people interaction and even more defence exchanges.

Mr. Krishna described the meeting as "warm" and the exchange of views on "all aspects" of bilateral relations "fruitful."

The Foreign Ministers welcomed the positive outcome of the meeting between the two Prime Ministers last weekend and discussed measures to improve relations including celebrating the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in a "befitting manner." Mr. Krishna accepted Mr. Yang's invitation to visit China next year and the date will be worked out.

"I am satisfied with my talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister. We both see this as part of the process to build trust and understanding at the political level," he said.

Afghan blasphemy protest continues

* UN mission in Kabul appeals for calm ahead of November 7 run-off elections

KABUL: Afghan police on Monday opened fire and turned a water cannon on demonstrators angry about allegations that Western troops torched a copy of the holy Quran, wounding at least three people, officials and witnesses said.




Clashes erupted as police tried to prevent around 300 students, most of them men, from marching on parliament, the city's criminal investigation police chief, Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, told AFP.




The UN mission in Kabul responded with an appeal for calm with a run-off presidential election less than a fortnight away.




"Police fired at the crowd, one bullet hit me. I was closing my shop at the time," Sherullah, an 18-year-old man who suffered a bullet wound to his hip, said from his hospital bed. "They (policemen) were just firing. They were firing at the people," he said.




Sayedzada denied that police fired towards the crowd, saying they only aimed their guns in the air. They also used water cannon, the police chief added.




But a doctor at the emergency ward of Ibn Sina hospital said that at least three men suffering from "bullet wounds" had been admitted for treatment. More than 15 police were also wounded in clashes between the angry mob and security forces, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.




An AFP reporter at the scene saw about three dozen people, mainly young students, herded into a police vehicle and taken away.




"We were demonstrating, we wanted to protest... but the police came and started beating us," a young man, refusing to give his name, said from the back of a police vehicle. Another man, one side of his face covered in blood, said, "They beat us up, they fired at the people." In a similar protest in Kabul on Sunday, demonstrators torched an effigy of US President Barack Obama and attacked police. Police responded by firing into the air to disperse the crowd.




The protests come amid a growing tide of resentment towards the presence of around 100,000 Western troops in Afghanistan trying to tame a raging Taliban insurgency.




Appeal: The demonstrations have added to tension in the build-up to a run-off election between Karzai and his former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah on November 7. "We want to appeal for calm. We recognise that emotions are high but this issue needs to be resolved by talking not by resorting to violence," Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the UN mission in Kabul, told AFP. "There is nothing to indicate the demonstrations are politically motivated but we do need to recognise the constitutional right of people to demonstrate peacefully." afp

NATO must check infiltration from Afghanistan: Gilani

By Irfan Ghauri



ISLAMABAD: It is imperative that NATO and ISAF forces in Afghanistan remain vigilant and effectively curb cross-border infiltrations and the supply of arms to terrorists, said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday.




Addressing a joint sitting of parliament, Gilani said Pakistan believed in a regional approach to combat terrorism and promote peace and stability.




Gilani told the session - which was also addressed by the Turkish prime minister - that Pakistan and Turkey had played a pioneering role in promoting regional connectivity.




Gilani said Pakistan was committed to serious, sustained and constructive engagement with India. "We view the composite dialogue as a win-win process that advances the cause of peace in the region.




Gilani also vowed to take action wherever the government's writ was challenged.

Maoists unleash more terror; blow up two schools in Jharkhand

Giridih (Jharkhand)

Maoists blew up two schools in the district in the wee hours today. The ultras packed explosives inside Upgraded Haridih School and Upgraded Dharpahari School, damaging the structures, police said in Giridih.

There was no loss of life in the incident. Police personnel have set out on foot to reach the place of the bombing to avoid landmines.

Maoists usually trigger blasts in schools which the security forces have used as shelters during their anti-naxal operations.

Looming war

Last week, Maoist insurgents in West Bengal paraded police officer Atindranath Dutta before the massed media, a prisoner-of-war logo draped around his neck. Mr. Dutta's release marked the end of the ugly hostage drama in Lalgarh - but illustrated in stark relief the crisis in which India's insurgency-ravaged heartland is mired. Later this year, the Union government plans to push in an estimated 75,000 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in an effort to restore the state's authority. Just two days before Mr. Dutta's release, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram made what has been interpreted as a last-ditch effort to ward off the inevitable bloodshed. In a letter to former Lok Sabha speaker Rabi Ray, he said the Union government was willing to hold talks with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) "on any issue that concerns them and the people they claim to represent." The problem, Mr. Chidambaram argued, was that the Maoists themselves had no apparent wish to enter into a dialogue. He suggested that an end to insurgent violence would have to precede meaningful talks.

What now lies ahead? Maoist leaders, many analysts believe, have little immediate reason to come to the table, given that a cessation of violence would mean losing control of the substantial territories they now dominate. The Union government's police-surge is more likely to prove no more than a holding operation. External forces, India's counter-insurgency experience shows, can take years to acquire local intelligence and tactical knowledge. The CRPF, moreover, suffers from crippling officer shortages and lacks an organic intelligence organisation. Successful counter-insurgency operations - among them Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura, and Andhra Pradesh - were built on an overall enhancement of police capabilities. Andhra Pradesh, which defeated a powerful Maoist insurgency, invested not just in its much-vaunted Greyhounds jungle-warfare unit, but in training its personnel, developing intelligence capabilities, and building a network of well-equipped police stations. Andhra Pradesh has 1,579 police stations to serve its 2,75,045 square kilometre territory. By way of contrast, Chhattisgarh has just a fifth as many police stations - 350 - although it, at 1,35,191 square kilometres, is half as large. The situation is no different in other insurgency-hit States such as Orissa. What the Union Ministry hopes is that the central forces it is now pumping in will be able to restore some semblance of order, if not law, while police modernisation programmes it is funding kick in over the next few years. The strategy is less than optimal - but better than no action at all. India's Maoist movement needs to consider if the war it is precipitating will in fact serve the interests of the desperately poor it claims to speak for.

Karzai questions US reliability as partner

By Stephanie Griffith (AFP)

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai questioned the reliability of the United States as a partner Sunday, as he fought off criticism of his government's legitimacy following fraud-marred elections.

An Afghan man places a poster of Hamid Karzai in Kabul

Karzai's main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, warned in an interview with CNN that the US strategy will not succeed without a credible partner in Kabul, blaming Karzai for deteriorating conditions.

But underscoring the political headache that Washington faces if Karzai wins a run-off against Abdullah next month, Karzai pointed the finger at the United States in a separate, pre-recorded CNN interview.

"Is the United States a reliable partner with Afghanistan? Is the West a reliable partner with Afghanistan?" Karzai asked. "Have we received the commitments that we were given? Have we been treated like a partner?"

Karzai said a partnership to him was "where the Afghan lives are respected, where Afghan property is respected, where the Afghan traditions are respected, where we know the direction we are moving to."

The comments appeared to allude to Karzai's longstanding criticism of civilian deaths in US air strikes, and to President Barack Obama's still unresolved review of US strategy and his commander's request for up to 40,000 more US troops.

Abdullah said more troops were needed to stabilize the country. But he said that after eight years of war, Afghanistan should have been in position to ask for fewer troops, not more.

"We are not there. Why? Because of the failures of the current administration in Afghanistan," he told CNN.

"Any success for the US strategy in Afghanistan will depend on the credibility of your partner, on the legitimacy of your partner," he added.

Abdullah suggested that only his own victory in November's head-to-head contest against Karzai will set his country on a path toward viability and better relations with international partners in Washington and around the world.

"Hopefully, this runoff... whenever it takes place, will provide the United States and the international community with such a partner," he said.

"There is no doubt that the partnership has not been working quite well in the past few months or few years," he said, adding that without a credible partner, "I don't see a successful strategy in Afghanistan."

Still, he said, "if Mr Karzai is elected through a transparent and credible process, I will be the first person to... wholeheartedly congratulate him and wish him well in this country, in being the opposition."

Abdullah officially won 30.59 percent of the August 20 first round vote, but Karzai agreed to a run-off after more than one million ballots were discounted due to fraud, leaving him short of the 50 percent required for outright victory.

With Obama in the throes of a critical decision on a major escalation in Afghanistan, administration officials have pointed to the disputed elections as an impediment to a deepening US involvement.

But Karzai said charges of election fraud had been blown out of proportion.

"There were some mistakes, there were some incidents of fraud," he said. But he maintained that "the election as a whole was clean, and as a result was clear."

Karzai said that now that a November 7 runoff vote has been scheduled, "whatever happens, this election must present a clear result and that result must be respected."

Meanwhile, leading US lawmakers said Sunday it remains an open question whether a new Karzai administration can help put Afghanistan on the road to greater stability.

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson said the US administration will have no choice but to work with a re-elected Karzai government, to "root out all that corruption and help them bring about an efficient government in the delivery of the services to the people, as well as the security."

Meanwhile, Abdullah said Obama was right to take his time in reaching a decision on troops, saying he understood that the US leader is "studying the situation in a critical time."

But he expressed concern about the country's security situation in the few weeks preceding the vote.

"In some parts of the country, the war is going on; insurgency has taken root," he said. "As a whole, security situation is not good."

Pakistan key for global stability: Erdogan

* Turkish PM assures Pakistan of full support in overcoming problems


* Pakistan, Turkey can solve region's issues


* All countries must fulfil pledges made at Tokyo donors' conference




By Irfan Ghauri



ISLAMABAD: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured Pakistanis on Monday that the people of Turkey support them in their campaign against terrorism and extremism, and said his country has always called for redressing issues confronting Pakistan, as "it is a key country for regional and global stability".




Addressing a joint sitting of parliament - where he was warmly greeted by members of the Upper and Lower Houses - the Turkish prime minister vowed to closely work with Pakistan to overcome problems and bring peace and stability to the region.




Erdogan said Pakistan was a key country at the juncture of South, Central and West Asia. He said he was confident that the country would prevail in its struggle against terrorism, "which is an enemy of humanity". He said that Pakistan was not alone in the campaign against terrorism and extremism, as the people and government of Turkey stood by the people of Pakistan and were ready to help Pakistan address its needs.




Erdogan called on other countries to fulfil commitments made at a donors' conference in Tokyo earlier this year.




The prime minister said Turkey and Pakistan were two "strong states", and by "further strengthening our cooperation ... we can overcome the problems being faced by the region".




He said both countries would try to improve economic and trade ties, and increase trade volume to $2 billion by the end of 2012.




He also praised Pakistani efforts to solve the Afghan problem and strengthen Pak-Afghan relations in collaboration with Turkey.

11 Iranian revolutionary guards held in Balochistan

By Muhammad Ejaz Khan




QUETTA: The law-enforcement agencies have taken into custody 11 personnel of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who crossed the border into Pakistan on Monday.




Sources said personnel of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards intruded 10 kilometres into Pakistani territory where the Pakistani security agencies arrested them. The Iranians were in two vehicles.




During the preliminary investigation, it was learnt that the Iranian personnel launched an operation against the activists of Jundallah near the Pak-Iran border inside the Iranian territory. The personnel crossed the border in an attempt to apprehend the activists.




Agencies add: The 11 officers were taken into custody in Mashkel, close to the countries' border in Balochistan, police officer Dadur Raman said. He said officers were interrogating the men and had seized two vehicles.




Another security official said the guards had no travel documents. ìWe need to probe that,î said Murtaza Baig, a spokesman for the paramilitary border force. The Guard is Iran's strongest military force, which is directly linked to the ruling clerics. The 120,000-strong Guard also controls Iran's missile programme and guards its nuclear facilities.

Asian nations jostle for power in EU-style bloc

By Martin Abbugao (AFP)

BANGKOK - Asia's moves toward an EU-style community covering half the world's population have sparked a backroom power play led by the United States, China and Japan, diplomats and analysts said Monday.

Heads of state from key south east Asian states at the closing ceremony of the 15th ASEAN summit in southern Thailand

Leaders at a summit of 16 nations meeting in Thailand at the weekend heard the prime ministers of Australia and Japan set out competing visions for a regional bloc that would boost Asia's global clout.

But beneath the talk of unity and the "Asian Century" lie intense diplomatic manoeuvrings, with countries desperate to avoid being marginalised in a new regional framework that could still be years off.

"The waters may be calm on the surface, but the undercurrent is sometimes turbulent," a veteran Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP after the summit in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin.

A central question is the role that the United States and China would play in any future grouping.

"Some countries want the United States to be part of a future regional framework as a counterbalance to China's influence," the diplomat said, asking not to be named.

Japanese premier Yukio Hatoyama, who pushed his plan at the summit for an East Asian community that could "lead the world", would not be drawn on the extent of proposed US involvement despite Tokyo's close ties to Washington.

But Australian leader Kevin Rudd's vision for an Asia-Pacific Community by 2020 explicitly includes Washington.

"Whether we like it or not, I think we could not avoid a US role because the US is a big country which has powers both in economic and security matters," said Chaiwat Khamchoo, an analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"Some countries in the region are suspicious of each other so they want the US to play a role."

After the distractions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has only recently re-engaged with the region, particularly in Southeast Asia where Washington's hard line on military-ruled Myanmar kept it at a distance.

With Japan kept busy by its economic woes, China has boosted its influence across the region in recent years, signing a free trade agreement with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

India has tried to play catch-up, belatedly signing its own trade pact with the bloc.

Russia has meanwhile applied to join the East Asia Summit, this weekend's meeting which groups ASEAN with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

But next month US President Barack Obama will hold the first ever summit with ASEAN leaders, as well as attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore.

Earlier this year US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the "US is back in Southeast Asia".

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in an interview with the Bangkok Post published Monday that any future Asia-wide community "must engage" with the United States.

"We should see to what extent we can integrate them (the United States) into the East Asian Community," he said.

And while the big players jockey for position, ASEAN itself is trying to stay in the driving seat of any new grouping.

This is based on the fact that it already hosts the main annual meetings with the region's major powers, especially the East Asia Summit.

But Asian leaders did appear to agree at this weekend's summit that they need some new framework to hold together their diverse and sometimes fractious region.

A closer community would help Asia capitalise on its relatively quick recovery from the global economic crisis and to cut its dependence on the West to drive growth, they said.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in his closing remarks to the summit on Sunday that the "old growth model" in which Asia relies on consumption in the West "will no longer serve us as we move into the future."

Karadzic shuns war crimes trial, court to proceed

* Karadzic boycotts start of trial, wants time to prepare




* Court says considering imposing counsel




(Adds prosecutor meeting victims' groups, lawyer comment)




By Aaron Gray-Block




THE HAGUE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic boycotted the start of his trial for some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two, but judges said they would proceed without him if he stayed away.




Karadzic has denied 11 war crimes charges arising from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including one over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, and two genocide charges for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica and for broader atrocities.




The judge adjourned the trial on Monday after 15 minutes and said it would resume on Tuesday at 1315 GMT with prosecution opening statements, effectively preparing to try Karadzic, who has chosen to represent himself, in absentia.




Protesters outside the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia reacted angrily to Karadzic's boycott, some complaining that the former psychiatrist was trying to dictate terms to the court. He is due in court again on Tuesday.




"It is a mockery," said Jasna Causevic, of the group Society for Threatened Peoples, who stood with members of about 20 victims groups around a banner with the names of more than 8,000 victims killed at Srebrenica and the words "Europe's Shame".




The groups later met Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz.




"Karadzic should be brought in pyjamas to the court," said Salihovic Nedziba, 56, a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica. "I need to be told who killed my husband and son."




The chair where Karadzic, 64, sat in pretrial proceedings at the tribunal was empty. Ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic sat in the same place for four years before his trial ended with his death in 2006.




The battle of wills at the start of the trial had echoes of the trial of Milosevic, who obstructed proceedings to buy time and gain concessions from the court.




Karadzic is the court's highest profile defendant since Milosevic and judges are eager to get the trial under way. Arrested 15 months ago, Karadzic appealed earlier this month for 10 more months to prepare, but the court denied his request.




"There are circumstances in which trials can proceed in the absence of the accused who has voluntarily waived his right to be present," said Judge O-Gon Kwon of South Korea, adding that he would impose a legal team on Karadzic.




LEGAL COUNSEL WOULD NEED TIME




Karadzic said he would only attend the trial if he was ready. "I would and will never boycott my trial, but if I am not prepared, that would not be a trial at all," he said in documents released on Monday.




Legal experts say that any newly assigned legal counsel would need time to prepare, leading to more delays.




The complex trial is expected to last years and involve hundreds of witnesses. There are more than one million pages of prosecution documents.




The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s saw Serbs, Croats and Muslims fighting for land. More than 100,000 people were killed in warfare and by such policies as "ethnic cleansing".




Karadzic, former president of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb republic Republica Srpska, is charged with genocide over the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995.




He is also charged over the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by Serb forces, in which between 10,000 and 14,000 people were killed, according to various estimates.




Karadzic has claimed immunity from the charges, saying he made a secret deal with former U.S. peace envoy Richard Holbrooke that he would not be prosecuted if he dropped out of public life. Holbrooke has denied the claims and the court has rejected the claim of immunity.




Karadzic, once a psychiatrist specialising in neurosis and depression, stepped down from power in 1996 and went into hiding after he was indicted by the tribunal. He was discovered in Belgrade in July 2008 and extradited to The Hague.




Serbian officials said he had lived for years under an alias, posing as an alternative healer, and showed photos of him unrecognisable behind long hair, thick glasses and a beard.




His former military commander, General Ratko Mladic, is still a fugitive and still sought by the war crimes tribunal.




Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff said Karadzic had exhausted all avenues to delay the trial further and asked the court to give him a warning before assigning counsel.




"Thereafter, if the accused still refuses to appear for the commencement of trial, at that time the trial chamber should impose counsel on the accused," she said.




Alexander Knoops, an international law professor at Utrecht University, said a common pattern of disruptive behaviour should be evident before judges decide to assign counsel, though that could also lead to more delays.




"Such counsel needs quite some time to prepare," said Knoops, who is also a defence lawyer at the Yugoslavia tribunal.




Param-Preet Singh at Human Rights Watch also warned of the possible reaction if Karadzic was stripped of his right to defend himself. (Additional reporting by Reed Stevenson and David Cutler; editing by Tim Pearce)

Dalai Lama dilemma

Ghalib Sultan

Dalai Lama is adamant over visiting Arunanchal Pradesh this November; despite China's obvious anxiety shoring up under its revived diplomatic 'rapping' with India. The Tibetan Buddhist population of Tawang, a small town in the contentious province bordering the two had been calling upon his holiness ever since he had last visited in 2003.

Yet previously, Indian government had denied Dalai Lama permission to visit the province under what was understood as diplomatic pressure from Chinese side. India and China had thus been pivoted upon bearings of limited dynamism, somehow or the other balancing the act since 1962. But this year the situation is different. The tiger is no more crouching and the dragon is no more hidden.

This fall, the Dragon has revealed his raucous side to the tiger in way of reemphasizing its territoriality in Tawang and other parts of the Arunanchal Pradesh. It also tried to foil away Indian request for loan from the ADB that it planned to use for development in the province.

Read Complete Article : http://why-who-where-when.newsvine.com/_news/2009/10/27/3429306-dalai-lama-dilemma

Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water

Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.

Sheperds stand beside a cistern in the village of Umm al-Kheir, in the southern West Bank (OPT), September 2009.

These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developing an effective water infrastructure there.




"Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's researcher on Israel and the OPT.




In a new extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent to which Israel's discriminatory water policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to access to water.




Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.




The Mountain Aquifer is the only source for water for Palestinians in the West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes for itself all the water available from the Jordan River.




While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres a day per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres per day, four times as much.




In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations.




Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater.




In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools.




Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.




In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from the Mountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.




Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entry into Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development and repair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the water and sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.




To cope with water shortages and lack of network supplies many Palestinians have to purchase water, of often dubious quality, from mobile water tankers at a much higher price.




Others resort to water-saving measures which are detrimental to their and their families' health and which hinder socio-economic development.




"Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians' access to water have prevented the development of water infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, consequently denying hundreds of thousand of Palestinians the right to live a normal life, to have adequate food, housing, or health, and to economic development," said Donatella Rovera.




Israel has appropriated large areas of the water-rich Palestinian land it occupies and barred Palestinians from accessing them.




It has also imposed a complex system of permits which the Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order to carry out water-related projects in the OPT. Applications for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.




Restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods in the OPT further compound the difficulties Palestinians face when trying to carry out water and sanitation projects, or even just to distribute small quantities of water.




Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli military checkpoints and roads which are out of bounds to Palestinians, resulting in steep increases in the price of water.




In rural areas, Palestinian villagers are continuously struggling to find enough water for their basic needs, as the Israeli army often destroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates their water tankers.


In comparison, irrigation sprinklers water the fields in the midday sun in nearby Israeli settlements, where much water is wasted as it evaporates before even reaching the ground.




In some Palestinian villages, because their access to water has been so severely restricted, farmers are unable to cultivate the land, or even to grow small amounts of food for their personal consumption or for animal fodder, and have thus been forced to reduce the size of their herds.




"Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtaining even poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become a luxury that they can barely afford," said Donatella Rovera.




"Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians' access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources."

INDIA'S JHARKAND JUGGERNAUT

by Rohit Kumar

Of all the states in India's troubled north east JHARKAND is the third worst effected but it has the greatest potential for a slide into total chaos from its present precarious situation. The Naxalite-Maoist violence is fed from the neighboring areas of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar and so far all efforts to stem this tidal flow have failed. According to officials almost one third of the overall violence is centered in Jharkand.

That the level of violence is extremely high has never been disputed though the State government like all governments in dire straits plays down the threat extolling some marginal successes that they have had against the insurgents. Exact figures are hard to access but from all counts there have been at least 390 incidents of Maoist instigated violence in the state in the first six months of this year. At least 200 have died with civilians and security force personnel outnumbering the Maoists.

Read Complete Article : http://rohit-kumar.newsvine.com/_news/2009/10/27/3429364-indias-jharkand-juggernaut

Maoists attack on CISF men in Dantewada

Click here to watch Video

Carnage and corruption in Iraq

Ignored by the west, Iraqis continue to suffer as the US's 'exit strategy' begins to unravel

Sami Ramadani

It is tragic that Iraq hits the headlines only if there is a major explosion with hundreds killed and injured. Yesterday's carnage in Baghdad is the second of its kind in two months, and yet another horrific reminder that the Iraqi people are still paying with their blood for the US-led invasion and occupation of their country.

Though inevitable, there is something morally questionable in the way Afghanistan has replaced Iraq in the news headlines. As the number of casualties suffered by US forces went down in Iraq and as the equivalent numbers of US and British casualties in Afghanistan started to climb, the latter has gradually displaced Iraq in the news schedules. This has given the impression that the situation in Iraq has improved markedly and that the country is making progress on all fronts. Back in June, amid much fanfare, the US forces were "withdrawn" from the Iraqi cities to various US bases around the country.

There is no doubt that the situation has improved for US forces, while British troops were airlifted from the fires of Iraq to be thrown into the flames of Afghanistan. The US plan for Iraq has so far succeeded in reducing its own casualties by pushing more of the Iraqi forces into the battle against the "insurgency" - better known in Iraq as the "honourable patriotic resistance" to distinguish it from the hated al-Qaida-style terrorists attacks.

But try to tell Iraqis who are not part of the ruling circles that their situation has improved since the occupation and they will remind you not only of the countless dead and injured but also of the million-plus orphans and widows, the 2 million who fled the country, and the 2 million internal refugees, most of whom live in dreadful squalor.

They will tell you about the sewage covering the streets of many towns and cities, the lack of clean water, fuel and electricity, and the ever deteriorating health and education services. They will tell you about the more than 50% unemployment, the kidnapping of children, the fear of women to move freely, and the rapid rise in drug abuse and prostitution. They will describe the horrific methods of torture inflicted on the tens of thousands of prisoners in Iraqi and American jails. They will remind you that if a "world-famous patriot" such as Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at President Bush, was tortured by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's own guards and forces, what chance ordinary citizens?

Iraqis will also instantly refer you to the corrupt rulers who came to Iraq "on the backs of US tanks". They will tell you of the division of ministries and senior posts among the various sectarian and ethnically identified political allies of the US. Indeed, corruption has reached such levels that the minister of trade and his brothers have been accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars by the "Integrity Committee", while the deputy transport minister was caught receiving $100,000 as the "first instalment" of another huge bribe.

While Iraq and its people continue to suffer, with most of the western media ignoring their plight, President Obama is still pursuing President Bush's goal in Iraq - to have a government in Baghdad that is closely allied to the US. This is incompatible with bringing about a stable, peaceful and democratic Iraq. What US strategists have yet to learn is that the Iraqi people will not freely accept a pro-US regime in Baghdad and that the "exit strategy" will inevitably result in long-term occupation, and bring only more bloodshed and destruction.

Why are the Iraqi people expected to elect a disparate collection of corrupt and sectarian pro-US politicians? The only realistic exit strategy must start with the right of the Iraqi people to self determination, free of American intervention.