baithak

Defending the Arsenal - Seymour M Hersh

2009-11-09T02:01:00.001-05:00

Excerpts:

Obama did not say so, but current and former officials said in interviews in Washington and Pakistan that his Administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military. These would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis.

But, the Pakistani official said, “both sides are lying to each other.” The information that the Pakistanis handed over was not as complete as the Americans believed. “We haven’t told you anything that you don’t know,” he said. The Americans didn’t realize that Pakistan would never cede control of its arsenal: “If you try to take the weapons away, you will fail.”

Musharraf also confirmed that Pakistan had constructed a huge tunnel system for the transport and storage of nuclear weaponry. “The tunnels are so deep that a nuclear attack will not touch them,” Musharraf told me, with obvious pride. The tunnels would make it impossible for the American intelligence community—“Big Uncle,” as a Pakistani nuclear-weapons expert called it—to monitor the movements of nuclear components by satellite

“We’re there to help the Pakistanis, but we’re also there to extend our own axis of security to their nuclear stockpile.” The detailed American planning even includes an estimate of how many nuclear triggers could be placed inside a C-17 cargo plane, the former official said, and where the triggers could be sequestered

The former high-level Bush Administration official was just as blunt. “If a Pakistani general is talking to you about nuclear issues, and his lips are moving, he’s lying,” he said. “The Pakistanis wouldn’t share their secrets with anybody, and certainly not with a country that, from their point of view, used them like a Dixie cup and then threw them away.”

Shaheen Sehbai, a senior editor of the newspaper International, said that Zardari’s “problem is that he’s besieged domestically on all sides, and he thinks only the Americans can save him,” and, as a result, “he’ll open his pants for them." [fact check missed here]

“My belief today is that it’s better to have the Americans as an enemy rather than as a friend, because you cannot be trusted,” the former officer concluded.

Officials and journalists said that soldiers and middle-level officers were increasingly attracted to the preaching of Zaid Hamid, who joined the mujahideen and fought for nine years in Afghanistan. On CDs and on television, Hamid exhorts soldiers to think of themselves as Muslims first and Pakistanis second.

Seymour Hersch really slipped here. He should have done a backgrounder on Zaid Hamid and exposed him for the alleged charlatan that he is, an ex supporter of CIA bankrolled Ahmed Shah Masood, a disciple of a fake "prophet" with dubious claims to his past and a doctored resume...all these allegations are available on the net ~~t

Defending the Arsenal: In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe? by Seymour M. Hersh

Winslow Homer

2009-11-09T01:00:00.000-05:00

Smokers’ Corner: Boxing the faith, Ardeshir on Jinnah,

2009-11-08T16:05:00.001-05:00

Smokers’ Corner: Boxing the faith - But some congested shopping areas in Karachi and Lahore still have a few shops that have boxes pleading charity for mosques. Some believe these are harmless, while others claim that the presence of these few boxes proves that the ‘Islamist’ charity box menace is not fully taken care of and may continue to raise funds for organisations bent on creating havoc in the name of Islam.

‘Bring back Jinnah’s Pakistan’ – 2 He told them that the first duty of a government is to impose and maintain law and order to protect the lives, properties and religious beliefs of the citizens. Not an impossible task, but one which successive governments have failed to achieve. We are today paying heavily for their corruption and incompetence. Jinnah came down hard on bribery and corruption — he called them “a poison”. Again he was thwarted. In his very lifetime the men who would lead the country were scheming and stealing, falsely declaring properties owned in India so that they could grab what was left abandoned by the Hindus who had fled. Dishonesty, graft and robbery were part of Pakistan’s birth pangs and with the years they have blossomed exponentially.

The politics of Vande Mataram

2009-11-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

Engineer points out that the nationalistic paean has always been politicised (see box)-he recalls that the controversy over it had helped both the Muslim League (which refused to sing it) and the Shiv Sena (which insisted on it) win seats in the 1974 BMC election. He himself finds the song unobjectionable. "Vande Mataram means `I pay my respects to the motherland. Even if you translate it as `I bow to my motherland, what objection can there be to doing so?'' he asks. "The Mughals made courtiers bow to them and perform sajda (respectfully lowering and then lifting your hand to your forehead repeatedly). Why was this not condemned as un-Islamic? Simply because the emperor had power! In fact, Islamic scholar Mujaddid Alf Sani had objected to this practice in Jehangir's time, only to be thrown into prison.'' Writer Sajid Rashid recalls singing Allama Iqbal's Naya Shivala in his Urdu school, a song which contains the lines Patthar ki mooraton mein samjhaa hai tu khudaa hai/ Khaak-e-watan ka mujh ko har zarraa devtaa hai (You think that God resides in the stone idols/ Each speck of the motherland is God to me.) "Ulema of every sect consider Iqbal to be a devout Muslim. Why is there no furore against this well-known song?'' asks Sajid. Interestingly, the Pakistani national anthem has a line that says, `Blessed be the sacred land'. The politics of Vande Mataram

Hamas Wants Britain to Make Amends for Crimes Against Palestine, Noam Chomsky, James Jones, Google, Tomgram

2009-11-08T05:20:00.002-05:00

Hamas Wants Britain to Make Amends for Crimes Against Palestine By Stuart Littlewood - London - Hamas marked the 92nd anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration by recalling the misery of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) and insisting that European states in general and Britain in particular make amends for the crimes committed against Palestine.

Noam Chomsky: No Change in US 'Mafia Principle' By Mamoon Alabbasi – As people across the world breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of former US president George W. Bush, top American intellectual Noam Chomsky warned against assuming or expecting significant changes in the basis of Washington's foreign policy under President Barack Obama.

US National Security Adviser James L. Jones on Afghanistan: 'We Will Not Solve the Problem with Troops Alone' - US National Security Adviser James L. Jones talks to SPIEGEL about his skepticism regarding calls for more US troops to be sent to Afghanistan, the chances of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands and President Barack Obama's leadership style.

Patent Lies: Who Says Saving the Planet Has to Cost a Fortune? One of the nagging issues in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit are demands that the US and Europe provide massive aid so poorer countries can buy expensive emissions-free technologies. Activist David E. Martin claims many of the patents for today's low-carbon technologies -- including some used in wind power and hybrid cars -- are already in the public domain.

How news will change in Google's eyes By Mercedes Bunz on Technology - Google's Eric Schmidt gives eight ideas on the future of journalism. When Google's CEO Eric Schmidt sat down on Thursday evening at the MIT in Boston, one topic that came up in the discussion with the audience was the future of news. As was reported by several journalists, Schmidt appeared to have a lot sympathy for newspapers and magazines and, well, interest. This might be no surprise, since delivering the news in the future seems to be an issue that Google is brainstorming about.

Google centralises privacy control By Mercedes Bunz on Media - With the new Google Dashboard, the personal data and product settings of different Google products are combined on one side to make it simpler for users to deal with them. The feature, which has just been launched, looks like a console for your personal data. Now you can do what Google can do too, as it links from one place to the data stored on different Google sites. And yes, it does make it easier to manage your personal data.

Tomgram: Nick Turse, In Afghanistan, the Pentagon Digs in - In our day, the American way of war, especially against lightly armed guerrillas, insurgents, and terrorists, has proved remarkably heavy. Elephantine might be the appropriate word. The Pentagon likes to talk about its "footprint" on the geopolitical landscape. In terms of the infrastructure it's built in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps "crater" would be a more reasonable image.

Juba in a jam, Tariq Hyder, Focussing on killer's religion, CIA & Prisoners, 21 Poets, Robert Fisk,

2009-11-08T03:29:00.005-05:00

Juba in a jam - Salva Kiir's controversial remark regarding the possibility of secession just shows that the southern Sudanese will not opt for unity at any cost, surmises Gamal Nkrumah

Pakistan's terrorist surge - Cutting off the money supply to terrorists and diversifying economic and military aid are key to winning the battle for Pakistan, writes Tariq Osman Hyder . Without adequate multinational economic and military support, and also action by the Extra Regional Forces to control the border from the Afghan side, the battle for Pakistan will be long. It is also in India's interest to fully live up to its declared objective of wanting good relations with a stable Pakistan

Focusing on Fort Hood Killer's Beliefs Is an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre By Mark Ames - That alleged killer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is a Muslim is not enough to explain the attacks.

Claim: CIA Sent Prisoners Abroad to Be Boiled Alive and 'Raped with Broken Bottles' By Daniel Tencer - Former British ambassador alleges CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan.

Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century Book review By Sarah Crown - A new collection showcases young poets whose work soars above the tired editorial clichés
In 1962, Penguin published an anthology edited by Al Alvarez, bombastically entitled The New Poetry. Alvarez introduced his selection with a now-famous essay in which he expressed his belief that the postwar English literary scene had become insular and moribund, its poetry calcifying into the "academic-administrative verse, polite, knowledgable, efficient" typified by the Movement poets of the 1950s. His anthology, conceived to counter this process, championed younger poets whom he believed capable of "open[ing] poetry up to new areas of experience"; almost half a century on, his lineup, which included Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Thom Gunn and (in the 1966 reprint) Sylvia Plath, has stood the test of time.

The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen - Steven Poole - Humans are often misled by abstract nouns of their own making, and sometimes the bamboozlement can last centuries or more. Because one can say the word "justice", one might conclude that a singular thing or essence called "justice" actually exists. And so one could spend a life trying to figure out what this abstract animal called "justice" really is, and fail to pay much attention to problems of justice in the world.

UN vote overwhelmingly supports Goldstone report - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last winter is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it. The report, which was favorably voted by the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, received overwhelming support Thursday in the 192-member General Assembly. The vote was 114 in favor and 18 against, with 44 abstentions.

Dr. Robert Epstein: Why Hasan Did It: Are Shrinks Really Crazy? - The tragedy at Ft. Hood reminded me of an extensive investigative piece I originally wrote for Psychology Today a few years ago. I'm reprinting it...

Robert Fisk's World: The German Lawrence of Arabia had much to live up to – and failed So come with me this Saturday morning – with the help of a brilliant Catalan scholar called Rocío Da Riva – with the German Lawrence, an archaeologist (like Lawrence), cultural historian, traveller and adventurer (again like Lawrence) regarded by some as a genius and a leading expert on Africa, by others as a charlatan guilty of abject behaviour (yet again, like Lawrence). But he ended up back in Germany, denounced to Chancellor Bethman-Hollweg as a "tactless" political agent and a liar, stirring up trouble among Germans, Arabs and Turks in equal measure because he did "not understand the Oriental way of thinking". Unlike Lawrence.

What Fell Apart, What Came Together

2009-11-08T01:16:00.003-05:00

What Fell Apart, What Came Together -

Twenty years ago tomorrow, the Berlin Wall came down. The Op-Ed editors asked nine poets — Eastern European, American, Russian and German — to write new works inspired by that event.

walls
will be built
come down
will get resurrected
easier to see them physical edifices
crumble down
but the walls between people
built on inbuilt prejudices
those walls do not crumble easily
the gods
of muslims, christians, jew, hindus
and the non gods of atheists and animists
them gods see to it
as if...
that enmity and prejudice survive
and encourage animosity

this is the lasting legacy
of the 21st century

we live and die
we live and die
doing our mothers
shame

Clark Voorhees

2009-11-08T01:00:00.000-05:00

Cyril Almeida, Babar Sattar, Anjum Niaz, Why Karachi is safe so far,

2009-11-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

The military k(h)akistocracy has failed - Ayub, Yahya, Zi(n)a anbd Musharraf's military k(h)akistocracy failed the nation and people miserably. Now Cyril Almeida wonders, "Sixty-two years since its creation, the country still doesn’t have the answer to the question, can our politicians ever make it work?"

And Babar Sattar writes us, "We need to rid ourselves of our Rehman Maliks and instead empower capable professionals, who understand the state's obligations, value human life and have the expertise and the ability to conceive and implement practical solutions to bolster our security in these tough times." And under which "system" these capable professionals would emerge from and govern?

And Anjum Niaz asks, "We have a right to ask about the reported "out-of-court settlement" between the First Lady and the NAB." But what is the point dear Anjum? Is hamaam maiN sub naNgay haiN.

One notable achievement of the MQM, which has made it almost impossible for the PPP to touch it, has been the tight security control of the MQM in the city against terrorist attacks. MQM vigilantes monitor and patrol almost all neighbourhoods and keep a watch on all suspicious people, thus denying the suicide bombers the space to hide and strike.The Pathans, led by the ANP in Karachi, are also on the same side on this issue and this has made Karachi the safest city in the country in the context of terrorist attacks. While the PPP runs the government, the credit has to go to the MQM and the ANP and this is also an unusual situation. President Zardari, of course, cannot take any of the credit. Shaheen Sehbai

UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 2, Davutoglu’s Doctrine, Wajahat Ali, Robert Fisk,

2009-11-07T03:29:00.004-05:00

Fort Hood killings: Fort Hood has enough victims already - Wajahat Ali - After an American soldier's tragic outburst of violence at Fort Hood, Texas – the army's largest US post, with some 40,000 troops – dominates the headlines, a fear-mongering hysteria concerning his supposed religious motivations is taking priority over questions regarding his mental health. Although the facts, and clues about motive, are still being uncovered, we know that the alleged shooter, 39-year-old Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is an American-born medical doctor and licensed psychiatrist, who also happens to be a Muslim born to Palestinian immigrant parents. When Hasan's Arabic name was revealed as the alleged shooter, the blogosphere and message boards lit up with the predictable assortment of anonymous bigoted bile vilifying Islam and questioning the loyalty of American Muslims.

Davutoglu’s Doctrine - By M J Akbar - Byline by M J Akbar: Davutoglu’s Doctrine When Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul visits India early next year he will be representing a nation that has reinvented its geostrategic role through an independent foreign policy in barely eight years. I hope he brings along Ahmet Davutoglu, who shaped the theory and then structured the practicals, first as principal adviser to Prime Minister Recip Tayyab Erdogan, and now as Foreign Minister. He must be one of the few academics fortunate enough to get a chance to make ideas work.

Israel up in arms over weapons seizure - Israel has spared no effort in bringing the world's attention to its seizure of a ship carrying tonnes of apparently Iranian-supplied weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon, via Egypt and Syria. If history is any guide, the incident could be used as a pretext for waging another war on Hezbollah, or even a strike against Iran. - Sami Moubayed

UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 2 : Breaking up is (not) hard to do - The Pentagon well knows that AfPak is the key land bridge between Iran to the west and China and India to the east; and that Iran has all the energy that both China and India need. The balkanization of AfPak would neutralize China's drive for land access from Xinjiang across Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, via the port of Gwadar in Balochistan province. - Pepe Escobar

Robert Fisk: America is performing its familiar role of propping up a dictator - Could there be a more accurate description of the Obama-Brown message of congratulations to the fraudulently elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan? First the Palestinians held fair elections in 2006, voted for Hamas and were brutally punished for it – they still are – and then the Iranians held fraudulent elections in June which put back the weird Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom everyone outside Iran (and a lot inside) regard as a dictator. But now we have the venal, corrupt, sectarian Karzai in power after a poll far more ambitiously rigged than the Iranian version, and – yup, we love him dearly and accept his totally fraudulent election.

POLITICS: U.S. Seeks to Limit Warlords in Karzai Cabinet - By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (IPS) - The Barack Obama administration is talking tough to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the need for decisive action on corruption and governance reform, but its main objective is to prevent particularly corrupt and incompetent warlords from getting plum ministries as rewards for helping clinch his fraudulent reelection, IPS has learned.

POLITICS-US: No Sunset for Sweeping Patriot Act Powers? By William Fisher
NEW YORK, Nov 4 (IPS) - The USA Patriot Act, rushed into law by a panicky U.S. Congress in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, gave the government broad surveillance powers to spy on innocent citizens. But it also stipulated that three of its more controversial provisions should expire next month unless reapproved by lawmakers.

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

2009-11-07T01:00:00.001-05:00

Rafia Zakaria

2009-11-06T23:53:00.000-05:00

Finally, however, the tense moments following the attack and the discovery of the attacker’s Muslim identity demonstrate how increasingly difficult the position of American Muslims is in a United States which has been drawn into protracted conflicts with Muslim countries. Even in a case like this, where the attacker’s religion was at best just a part of the derangement that led him to kill with such impunity; it could once again be presented as the single most important motivating factor. If so, it should remind American Muslims yet again, the need to be politically organised and locally visible in their communities so that they are recognised as patriotic and peace loving American citizens who wholeheartedly condemn the tragedy. Rafia Zakaria

Early video of Jinnah

2009-11-06T12:01:00.003-05:00

There is no sound. Even without it, he appears charming, mesmerising and towering. A digression: Thank Allah for small mercies - in all the available photos that have survived - in not a single one of them Jinnah has a beard!

Otherwise, hanging from all the government buildings, that photo would have transformed Jinnah into a bearded maulana sahib.

UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 1 : Welcome to Pashtunistan, Reading to the Endgame,

2009-11-06T03:29:00.001-05:00

UNDER THE AFPAK VOLCANO, Part 1 : Welcome to Pashtunistan - A rough beast, its hour come at last, Pashtunistan is already being born across the strategic corridor straddling eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. If the Pakistani Taliban and their Pashtun allies manage to establish full control, with or without jihadi support, an Islamic emirate will for all practical purposes be constituted. - Pepe Escobar (Nov 5, '09) This is the first article in a two-part report

SPEAKING FREELY : How Eurocentric is your day?
A Boston professor, teaching his students about Eurocentric biases in Western accounts of the rise of the global economy, poses a simple question to get his point across. Can they get through a typical day without running into ideas, institutions, values, technologies and products that originated outside the West? The answer is, of course, no. - M Shahid Alam

D-8 looks forward to stronger ties
The Group of Eight Islamic Developing Countries, or D-8, is looking towards greater and more meaningful cooperation, with Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt at the forefront of efforts to strengthen trade, energy and other ties. Achievement of a preferential trade agreement remains a distant prospect. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Reading to the Endgame D. Graham Burnett and W. J. Walter A chessboard consists of sixty-four squares commonly designated by alphanumeric coordinates (a-h across the x-axis and 1-8 up the y-axis). If one were to replace the numerical assignations with a continuation of the alphabet (running, for instance, i-p up the y-axis), each square would be designated uniquely by a two-letter coordinate that we will call a “tuple.” Now imagine setting up a simple computer program that knows the rules of chess—nothing more. It knows, for instance, all the moves that are makeable by a given piece, and it can keep track of a chessboard (updating what pieces are on which squares as moves are made). Suppose further that this program takes directions for making moves in the form of a pair of “tuples”—namely, one letter-pair designating the coordinates of a square occupied by a movable piece, and then a second letter-pair designating the coordinates of a square to which that piece can be legitimately moved (including squares where it would capture an opposing piece). 

A simple truth eludes Zardari. The Sage of North Edgeware can subject him to a further round of Chinese torture (supping with the MQM being akin to that) but he can't rescue him. Nor can that ace of political gymnasts, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, another firm believer in the theory of extracted pounds of flesh, although on a lower scale than the maestros of the MQM. The only person standing between Zardari and imminent destruction is someone he has a disliking for the most, Nawaz Sharif. Ayaz Amir

Shafqat Mahmood, Censorship by another name, NAPA students, Trouble with Hakimullah

2009-11-06T02:01:00.002-05:00

Kayani's personality is such that it is difficult to believe he will go into a military campaign before analysing everything in detail and preparing for all eventualities. He may not win everything, but it won't be for lack of deliberation and hard work. An aspect of that is visible in the current Waziristan campaign. First, it is in the targeting of the anti-Pakistan Tehrik Taliban (TTP) and its foreign allies in the Mehsud area. The Wazirs in the shape of Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazir have been left alone, and in effect neutralised. This despite American pressure to take them on as they have links with the Afghan Taliban, particularly the Haqqani group. This has ensured protection of an important flank of the campaign. Shafqat Mahmood

Robber beaten to death When law and order is denied we turn lawless

However, the mistakes, Chinoy said had provided valuable lessons for the organisers and said that these would be avoided. An internal committee has been set up with Photographer Amean Jan as one of the members. This committee would actively work to consider every exhibit piece and judge whether they could elicit an unfavourable response from members of the public. Internal Censorship at Shanaakht

NAPA students’ troupe wins hearts in India - A team of National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) graduates returned to Karachi last week from Amritsar, India, after a successful show at the South Asia Foundation Festival for Peace-2009. They had performed an experimental play, titled “Jaaney Pehchaney Ajnabi”, under the direction of Zain Ahmed. The efforts of the troupe were largely appreciated.

“Remember this is the commandment of God that once fighting starts with the enemy, you cannot leave the battlefield without permission from your commander, and don’t look for excuses to run away from the fighting,” Hakimullah told his followers in a speech on Tuesday broadcast over a wireless radio network. Of those, who do run away, he warned, “Such people will go to hell.”The intelligence officials shared a recording of the speech with The Associated Press, to show that the militant leader is concerned about desertions in the ranks. “We are in Jihad and we should not pay heed to the whispers of Satan. We should sacrifice our lives for Islam so that we can feel pride on the day of judgment,” Hakimullah said. Trouble in Hakimullah's Paradise?

Rembrandt van Rijn

2009-11-06T01:00:00.000-05:00

US puts its faith in Pakistan's military, Zeba Khan, Rick Santourn

2009-11-05T13:29:00.005-05:00

Apart from other senior officials, Clinton met with the chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, and the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. It was agreed that all US-led negotiations with Abdullah, which included offering him the position of chief executive officer of Afghanistan, would stop, and Karzai would get full backing for a second five-year term.
The biggest setback to the ruling Pakistan People's Party came from its main ally, the Muttehida Quami Movement, the only real anti-Taliban and pro-American political party in the country. In a very humiliating way, it advised Zardari to step down as president and face the courts. US puts its faith in Pakistan's military By Syed Saleem Shahzad

Petty criminals dressed up in a world wide conspiracy...that is what it appears in the following post ~t

Aside from the Muslim name of the man involved, the story reads like any number of organized crime busts. On Oct. 28, a 53-year-old man named Luqman Ameen Abdallah, was shot and killed during an FBI raid on a storage facility in Dearborn, Mich. Federal agents said they had intended to arrest Abdallah and 10 other men on criminal charges including conspiracy to sell stolen goods (such as laptops, furs, and energy drinks), mail fraud and illegal possession of firearms. According to the FBI, Abdallah, who had a previous criminal record, died in a gunfire exchange after refusing to surrender to authorities. Zeba Khan

But that may be changing. Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, a prominent university in Cairo, Egypt, seems recently to have endorsed a more liberal attitude toward apostasy. According to Tantawi, a Muslim who renounces his faith should be left alone as long as he does not threaten or belittle Islam. Giving up the faith alone should not trigger actions against an apostate in this view; only acting as an enemy of Islam should prompt reprisals.

It is certainly not the place of non-Muslims to say what constitutes authentic Islam. But if leading Muslim clerics are prepared to take on al-Qaeda's interpretation of Islam in this war of ideas, our leaders and our media should publicize their work and extol their courage. Rick Santorum

The 50 best things to eat in the world, and where to eat them, What really happened during the Israeli attacks?

2009-11-05T05:19:00.004-05:00

The 50 best things to eat in the world, and where to eat them - From cake, steak and tapas, to oysters, chicken and burgers, Killian Fox roamed the world to find the 50 best things to eat and the best places to eat them in, with a little help from professionals like Raymond Blanc, Michel Roux, Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray

Captives - What really happened during the Israeli attacks? by Lawrence Wright - Hamas is more firmly entrenched in Gaza than it was before the invasion. It controls the only newspaper and the local television station, and it bans any Palestinian paper that does not reflect the views of the Party. Moreover, according to Israeli intelligence, Hamas is already rearming with high-quality weapons, many of them supplied or paid for by Iran. “They are now smuggling in rockets and rebuilding,” General Halevi said. “I tell you, we will come again, in better shape, because we have learned our lessons.”

Francisco Ayala obituary - The Spanish literary lion Francisco Ayala, who has died aged 103, enjoyed a remarkable privilege: attending a major international conference to mark his own centenary. With dozens of books to his name, he was more acclaimed for novels and short stories than for his stylish textbooks on social sciences, although he saw his academic and creative works as an organic whole.

Stephen King publishes poem in Playboy - By Alison Flood on Books
The Bone Church, a narrative work about an ill-fated jungle expedition, appears in November edition. Marge Simpson's appearance as its cover girl has attracted a frenzy of media attention, but this month's edition of Playboy magazine contains another, almost equally unexpected celebrity appearance: from author Stephen King, making a very rare outing as a poet.

A political public that cares Bernard Keenan By Bernard Keenan on Comment is free - Chomsky is right about the decline in human rights, but can they be resurrected in the service of progressive politics? Invited to the LSE last week to address the question of human rights in the 21st century, Noam Chomsky began with a simple answer – easy, there aren't any. In the bleak hour that followed, Chomsky listed example after example. He detailed the many ways in which powerful states are currently ignoring, if not actively undermining, the values laid down in various international human rights treaties.

Claude Lévi-Strauss obituary - French anthropologist whose analysis of kinship and myth gave rise to structuralism as an intellectual force - The fame of Claude Lévi-Strauss, who has died aged 100, extended well beyond his own subject of anthropology. He was without doubt the anthropologist best known to non-specialists. This is mainly because he is usually considered to be the founder of the intellectual movement known as structuralism, which was to have such influence, especially in the 1970s. He was one of those French intellectuals – like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and Paul Ricoeur – whose influence spread to many other disciplines because they were philosophers in a much broader sense of the word than the academic philosophers of the British and American tradition.

Pakistan, India and 1971- Khurram Hussain, a Pakistani writing in India’s Outlook magazine, has started the discussion by arguing that the way to understand Pakistan is not through the lens of partition in 1947, but through the war in 1971 which led to the division of the country and the creation of Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. Here are some excerpts, but do please read the full article:
“The Partition has a mesmerising quality that blinds the mind, a kind of notional heft that far outweighs its real significance to modern South Asian politics. The concerns of the state of Pakistan, the anxieties of its society, and the analytic frames of its intellectual and media elites have as their primary reference not 1947 but the traumatic vivisection of the country in 1971. Indians have naturally focused on their own vivisection, their own dismemberment; but for Pakistan, they have focused on the wrong date. This mix-up has important consequences,” he writes.

Learn to play Bridge, Collecting Headlines, Top Ten Geniuses, CIA agents ,

2009-11-05T03:29:00.003-05:00

Learn to Play Bridge I, Fred Gitelman for the American Contract Bridge League This free software program was created by a founder of Bridge Base Online. Players can learn basic rules in five minutes, or go through the entire program and digest the equivalent of a 1,000-page book, says Mr. Gitelman. http://web.acbl.org/LearnToPlayBridge/

Ten Young Geniuses Shaking Up Science Today - Meet PopSci's annual Brilliant 10--a selection of the brightest young researchers in the country. They're helping to keep us healthy, prevent disasters, and make green energy cheaper than coal. Lucky for us, our future is in their capable hands

Collecting Headlines Funnier Than This - Headlines in the satirical weekly newspaper The Onion tend to function both as punch line and setup, in that order. They are the heart of the paper, and not only the first thing anybody reads, but also, unlike headlines in real newspapers all over the world, the first things to be written. The staff devotes the first two days of every week to composing headlines, then assigns the articles that will run beneath them and provide a body of supporting jokes.

23 CIA Agents Convicted in Italy for Kidnapping Cleric in "War on Terror" - By Gina Doggett, Agence France Presse - The CIA's Milan station chief at the time, Robert Seldon Lady, was sentenced to eight years in prison and othersto five years, all in their absence in the landmark trial.

Russia, India and China go their ways - Despite its best efforts, Russia failed at a recent trilateral summit to get India and China to agree to a common regional initiative regarding Afghanistan. This failure ensures that the United States can now press ahead with its own strategy of striking grand bargains individually with these key players. - M K Bhadrakumar

New Remarkable Numbers Released: Water Use in the US Has Dropped Per Person by 30 Percent Since 1975 - By Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute - It is possible to improve the efficiency of water use and such improvements eliminate the need for expensive and environmentally damaging new supply.

Obama's world outreach teetering - Just months after well received speeches in Turkey and Egypt, setbacks from Afghanistan to the West Bank to Pakistan, Iraq and Iran have seen belief plunge in the Muslim world over United States President Barack Obama and his plans for progress. With this, anti-US sentiment is back on the rise. - Jim Lobe

I'll Tell You What Yesterday's Election Results Mean: Nada - By Joshua Holland, AlterNet

Why Can't the Corporate Media Just Tell the Truth About Iraq & Afghanistan? - By Rory O'Connor, MediaChannel.org - One NY Times reporter finally 'fesses up that the invasion of Iraq wasn't presented truthfully by the big media outlets. It's still not too late to tell the truth.
Everyone's spinning it otherwise, of course.

MQM-PML-Q alliance forced NRO change of heart, Sind Archives, Shahen Sehbai

2009-11-05T02:01:00.000-05:00

Perhaps the most important work currently being carried out is the creation of a computerised database that would make thousands of old files available online. Currently, many titles and documents can be seen on the website (http://www.sindharchives.gov.pk/), and this list is being constantly expanded. But it’s slow work because the equipment needed to speed up the project is too expensive for the Sindh Archives to buy. Nevertheless, I am glad to report that the provincial government has been very supportive, especially since the chief secretary is an old friend and a keen student of history. Irfan Hussain

Giving background of this dramatic development, inside sources said actually a late night message of MQM leader Altaf Hussain to President Asif Zardari a day before to quit the Presidency had come as a big blow for the besieged PPP government. President Zardari was not expecting this kind of message, at least, from Altaf Hussain, who had nominated him for this elevated post last year after Musharraf left the Presidency. The sources said Altaf Hussain had chosen the timing of his message very carefully and communicated to President Zardari that he had also sent Governor Sindh Ishratul Ebad to General Musharraf with similar message to quit. But, Altaf was quoted as saying to Zardari through his messenger that Musharraf did not heed his friendly advice and subsequently was made to quit. According to Altaf Hussain, now once again, he was sending a message to him to quit, if he wanted to learn any lesson from the exit of Musharraf. MQM-PML-Q alliance forced NRO change of heart Rauf Klasra

A fly on the presidential wall told me the first part of this series was faxed by Altaf Hussain from London to President Asif Zardari on Wednesday with the note that you should read it personally as it had come from a journalist who used to meet you in jail. Hussain also ensured that the fax was seen by the president.Next: Has a countdown begun in Islamabad? Shaheen Sehbai

Liu Ye

2009-11-05T01:00:00.002-05:00

Suicide Bombers and the Prozac God: A Review of Dying for Heaven By Bruce B. Lawrence

2009-11-04T14:07:00.002-05:00

A new work advancing a radical theory of the motivation behind suicide bombers is almost bizarrely off the mark. Stitching together thought and observation from disparate and often dissonant sources, Georgetown theology professor Ariel Glucklich’s book would be laughable were he not a consultant to the defense community. Suicide Bombers and the Prozac God: A Review of Dying for Heaven By Bruce B. Lawrence

Some excerpts:

While it may be easy to decode the thesis from a mere glance at the book’s title and subtitle, it’s not quite so easy to accept the premise. Dying for Heaven, released today, is at once conceptually misguided and systemically flawed; psychologizing religion in general and Islam in particular. Having mined myriad, often disparate sources, and writing from a lofty platform, the author is attempting to answer several metaphysical questions with some potentially physical, real-life implications on the ground. Of his book, Glucklich writes on the HarperOne site:

The obvious topic is whether Iran can be deterred from using nuclear weapons against Israel when they finally do acquire them. Can deterrence ever work with
an actor who is completely committed to a religious life?

An Indologist by training, Glucklich has written highly acclaimed, prize-winning books that adroitly analyze the Hindu tradition and its mythic claims. He occupies a major academic post (professor of theology at Georgetown) and serves as an advisor to the US defense community as it attempts to cope with asymmetric warfare in the post-9/11 era.

***
This stream of consciousness does, of course, have a history. There is, for instance, happiness economics—a.k.a. hedonics—which focuses on how the pleasure principle impacts investment strategies and consumer preferences. But the oldest use comes from religious psychology itself when no less a mystic than Timothy Leary coined the term. Back in 1971, when he was still a professor at Harvard, Leary operated a Hedonic psychology laboratory where he postulated and tested his eight circuits of consciousness, all of which could be traced to tantric yoga.
***
It is a pity that the long list of friends and colleagues who are acknowledged at the end of Dying for Heaven did not have the courage to tell Glucklich (or if they did, that he did not have the wisdom to hear) that the thesis he advances is a dystopic inversion of The Chronicles of Narnia—minus, alas, C.S. Lewis’ self-mockery and genuine sense of humor.
Dying for Heaven makes a mockery of both religion and death, transforming holy pleasure into a dirge of contradiction and Islamophobia. No laughing matter, it should be treated as a symptom rather than a solution to American (dis)engagement with Islam and Muslims. [thanks YA]

Jamiat Ulama i Hind, Nawab Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, M F Hussain, McChrystal-Tillman - Daily show

2009-11-04T06:06:00.001-05:00

The MF Husain controversy: Identity, intent and the rise of militant fascism

Jamiat upholds fatwa against Vande Mataram
The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind on Tuesday endorsed a fatwa issued by the influential Darul Uloom seminary at Deoband that calls on Muslims not to sing Vande Mataram as doing so was violative of Islam's faith in monotheism.

Readers will recall my repeated warnings that a man with Zardari’s reputation, who has no educational or political background and lacks all the other prerequisites of leadership, will be an absolute disaster in a minor office, let alone the top position in the country. This has proved to be true in a short period leading to a nationwide upheaval. His claim to fame rests entirely on being the husband of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and spending eight years in jail. Let us look at these laurels a bit closely. Nawab Mumtaz Ali Bhutto

"Daily Show" Beat "Meet The Press" To The Punch On Jon Krakauer - By The Huffington Post News Editors Daily Show" Beat "Meet The Press" To The Punch On Jon Krakauer By The Huffington Post News Editors - Here's an excellent observation from Mediaite's Rachel Sklar, who reminds us that while the "big news to come out of Meet The Press this week has been author Jon Krakauer's assertion that General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was implicated in the cover-up about the death of Pat Tillman," that big news had already been more or less broken by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show: Krakauer was on [The Daily Show] over a month ago. It's surprising that this one flew under the radar, given how many sharp-eyed journalists, bloggers and media-watchers tune into the Daily Show, and regularly report on the news it makes. But it can and does happen, and happened here. What this says about Krakauer, McChrystal and his book is no different than what was picked up from Meet The Press. But what this says about so-called 'fake' news is, keep your eye on it. People with important things to say make a point of trying to say them on the Daily Show. So don't fall asleep before the interview. All of that is absolutely right, and it's worth pointing out that Stewart conducted his interview with a greater awareness of where the "news" is in an interview with Jon Krakauer. That meant that Daily Show viewers got an interview that began with the Pat Tillman story and went on for six probing minutes. Meanwhile, at Meet The Press, Krakauer sat on the set like window dressing, and the subject of Pat Tillman wasn't broached until the show's final sequence of questions. Why have him on then?

Clinton Moderates Settlements Statement After Palestinian Anger By The Huffington Post News Editors - MARRAKECH, Morocco — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday moderated her praise for Israel's offer to restrain, but not stop, its building of settlements in Palestinian areas. She said it falls short of U.S. expectations but would have a "significant and meaningful effect" on limiting the growth of Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for their own state. On Saturday her praise of Israel's offer to restrict its settlement activity drew widespread criticism from Arab nations who interpreted it as a softening of the U.S. position on settlements, which stand in the way of a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

2009-11-04T03:29:00.001-05:00

In Afghanistan, Victory For a Crooked, Corrupt, and Discredited Government - By Patrick Cockburn, Independent UK - The election in Afghanistan has turned into a disaster for all who promoted it.

China's Three Gorges Dam comes of age
Fifteen years since work began and at a cost of between US$8 billion to $27 billion, the water level in the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will soon reach its final height of 175 meters. Officials, though, aren't celebrating too loudly: as China searches for new forms of renewable energy, the dam has become a monument to obsolete ambitions.

"Restless Vagina Syndrome": Big Pharma's Newest Fake Disease
By Terry J. Allen, In These Times
The pharmaceutical industry wants you to think that if you don't have sex like a porn star, you're in need of their drugs.

Shaheen Sehbai, Anjum Niaz, Matthew How, Zafar Hilaly, Altaf Hussain,

2009-11-04T02:01:00.000-05:00

What has already happened is known but what is likely to come is more important. All stakeholders agree, and this I can claim after meeting almost all of them in the last few days in Islamabad and Lahore, that President Asif Ali Zardari will have to either step down with dignity, hand over his presidential powers to the PM through a fast-track constitutional amendments process, or become a figure head and stay within his bunker for as long as he does not create any nuisance.Some apologists for the presidency have already publicly indicated that Mr Zardari is seriously thinking about this course because that would keep him in the top most position, immune to the unpleasant hardships of defending himself in civil courts, a process he has endured for years, and wait for his time to strike back as a relevant PPP leader, with the active aid and presence of son Bilawal and daughters Bakhtawar and Assefa. Shaheen Sehbai

With men like Peter W Galbraith (Benazir Bhutto's old buddy), Matthew Hoh and Nick Horne around, we can dare to hope. We can also dare to dream of a fairer world order. The three have raised the bar for truth. They have challenged the UN and the US for following a trajectory in Afghanistan mined with iniquity, death and deception. As the UN deputy special representative in Afghanistan, Galbraith rang the alarm bells back in August against Karzai's electoral fraud. He got promptly fired by his boss, the UN secretary-general. Matthew Hoh, an American diplomat stationed in Afghanistan, resigned recently against US occupation in Afghanistan. Richard Holbrook's sweet persuasion failed to convince Hoh not to quit. And Nick Horne, another UN political affairs aide in Kabul, has just resigned for similar reasons. Anjum Niaz

As Pakistan continues to be drenched in blood, there are sane and conscientious voices emanating from within the US highlighting the absolute futility of its continued presence in Afghanistan and the dire need for formulating an immediate exit strategy. The latest to surface is Matthew How, the first US official known to have resigned over the Afghan war, who expressed his deep-set fears in his resignation letter: "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is not based on how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." He went on to write: "Many Afghans are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there – a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt US-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a maligned presence and Pakistan-based Al Qaeda needs to be confronted, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war." Raoof Hasan

About the only issue on which Hillary would not be drawn out was that of the drones. And that, one suspects, was because she is aware that their use has been sanctioned expressly, or by a wink and a nod, from her hosts. Had Hillary confirmed such a suspicion it would have raised an outcry and marred her entire trip; she was wise to desist. Zafar Hilaly

The benefactors of the NRO belonging to the ruling party were propagating about the MQM workers that they were also beneficiaries of the NRO, but the pronouncement of the MQM leader cleared the air about them. The Monday announcement of Altaf Hussain would be remembered long that has changed the complexion of the MQM. Its leader has transformed the party into a robust national entity just with one remarkable stroke, the observers opined. Altaf Hussain

ISLAMABAD: Over 100 corruption and criminal cases involving many top politicians and bureaucrats, which were settled under the controversial NRO after February 2, 2008, would automatically reopen after 25 days on Nov 28.NAB documents and information collected from other sources reveal that not only President Asif Ali Zardari but most of his confidants and top political and bureaucratic aides benefited from the NRO after February 2, 2008, after the controversial ordinance had completed its constitutional life of 120 days. Ansar Abbasi

The prime minister sent a copy of the said letter to the president and another to the Pakistani mission in Washington DC through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Pakistani mission in Washington DC gave a detailed response on the objections raised by the ISI DG on August 11, 2009 and assured the government that it will try its best to safeguard national interests.Next day on August 12, the mission sent an advance copy of the KLB to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad and the objections raised by the ISI DG were still present in the draft. The army waited for another month. The consolidated text of KLB was sent by the Pakistani mission on September 14, 2009. It repeatedly claimed in its assessments that Ambassador Husain Haqqani had tried his level best to safeguard national interest but not a single objection raised by the ISI DG was removed from the bill till the end of September 2009. The army came out with a press release on the KLB on October 7. Hamid Mir