News Confuse

Cost of supplying Afghan War increases 600%

2012-01-26T16:21:00.001+05:00

Zachary Keck

, DC Foreign Policy Examiner

January 19, 2012

The cost of supplying the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan has increased 600% since Pakistan closed its borders in November, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Using a Northern route to supply the Afghan War costs the United States $104 million dollars a month, an increase of $87 million from the $17 million it cost Washington when supplies were mainly sent through Pakistani territory, the AP report said.

Pakistan has refused to allow NATO supply convoys use its territory since a NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani troops last November. Pakistani political and military officials claimed that the killing of its troops was deliberate and refused to join a NATO investigation into the incident. Along with closing its border, Islamabad responded to the incident by forcing Washington to close down a base in Pakistan that it used to conduct drone strikes, as well as by refusing to attend an international conference on the future of Afghanistan held in Bonn, Germany in earlier December.

The NATO probe, which the Pentagon released in late December, said mistakes were made by both sides and that "inadequate coordination" and poor maps had led NATO air forces to mistakenly target the Pakistani soldiers. While expressing its "deepest regret" for the loss of life-and offering its "sincere condolences," to the Pakistani people, government and families of the soldiers that were killed- the Obama administration refused to apologize for the event. Pakistan rejected the conclusions of the report.

Since the November incident U.S.-Pakistani relations have reached their lowest point in the decades-long usually turbulent relationship. The United States has given Pakistan roughly $20 billion in foreign aid since 9/11. Recent reports, however, have cited unnamed U.S. and Pakistani officials saying they expect a more limited relationship in the future. On Wednesday, Pakistan refused to receive U.S. special envoy for AfPak issues, Marc Grossman, who was scheduled to visit Islamabad as part of a broader regional trip. Pakistani officials said Grossman's visit wasn't appropriate because they are currently revaluating their ties with Washington.

On Thursday an unnamed Pakistani official told Reuters his country intended to re-open supply routes to NATO, but would impose higher tariffs on the alliance. The official did not give a date for when the routes would actually be reopened.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Immunity in Switzerland procedure, MUST READ it plz.

2012-01-26T13:20:00.001+05:00

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)
Bundeshaus West
CH-3003 Bern
Tel. +41 (0)31 322 21 11
Fax +41 (0)31 324 90 47

Link http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/topics/intorg/chres/imdig.html

Immunity of holders of political office and of states:

To enable them to exercise their office unhindered, heads of state enjoy full immunity against legal proceedings abroad. Heads of government and foreign ministers can also claim immunity when travelling abroad. In certain circumstances, this also applies to other members of government in the exercise of their duties.

Besides the personal immunity of officeholders, states and their property also enjoy immunity.

Immunity of holders of political office

While abroad, serving heads of state enjoy absolute immunity against criminal proceedings in all actions that otherwise would have been subject to the jurisdiction of these states. The immunity of heads of state is a principle embodied in customary international law.

According to the Federal Supreme Court, immunity is weakened in the following two cases:
When a state expressly waives the immunity of its head of state, the head of state cannot invoke immunity.
When a head of state leaves office, immunity no longer holds. A former head of state can claim immunity at most for actions undertaken in the exercise of official functions. If such a connection does not exist, the former head of state can be legally prosecuted.

Decision of the Federal Supreme Court in the Marcos case (115 Ib 496, p. 500) (fr)
Heads of state have no immunity in the case of war crimes. The statutes of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunals for for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda make provision for the fact that a defendant's official position for qualified war crimes, e.g. as head of state, does not relieve such person of criminal responsibility.
The case of Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, revived the debate over the criminal responsibility of former heads of state for qualified crimes committed while in office. General Pinochet was held not to be immune from arrest for alleged acts of torture.

In contrast to criminal proceedings, there is less agreement on the immunity of heads of state with respect to offences under civil law. One body of legal doctrine holds that both the official actions and the private actions of heads of state enjoy immunity from civil law proceedings. Another body takes the view that immunity extends only to official, and not private, actions.
Immunity of states and their property

In Europe, the European Convention on State Immunity of 16 May 1972 regulates protection of the property of foreign states. Non-member states of the Council of Europe may also accede to this convention. Very few states have ratified the convention. In Switzerland, the convention entered into force on 7 October 1982.

On 2 December 2004, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNO) adopted a universal convention on the jurisdictional immunities of states and their property. Switzerland will sign this convention.

Switzerland does not have a law that regulates the application of the immunity of states under international law. In accordance with the Federal Supreme Court, under certain conditions a foreign state can be summoned before a Swiss court. A distinction must be drawn between
whether the foreign state acted in the exercise of sovereign authority (sovereign act or act of state, "acta iure imperii") or
whether it acted as a subject of private law equal to a private person (legal transactions, "acta iure gestionis").

Only in the first case can the state claim jurisdictional immunity. In the second case, by contrast, the state can be summoned before a Swiss court, but only on condition that there is a connection between the civil legal relationship and Swiss territory.

According to the Federal Supreme Court, Switzerland can also impose sanctions on the foreign state. What holds for jurisdictional immunity also holds in principle for immunity from measures of constraint: Measures of constraint may not be taken against assets and property intended for the performance of public functions.

A state can expressly waive its immunity from jurisdiction and constraint. Such a waiver can take place in various ways, either before a dispute materializes or ad hoc in a lawsuit.

Since 1918, the Federal Supreme Court has followed a restrictive line on the immunity of states.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

US Marine Kills Women Children Gets 3 Months

2012-01-26T13:07:00.001+05:00

Marine Reaches Plea in Haditha Massacre

By CBS/AP

January 23, 2012 "CBS" -- CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children pleaded guilty Monday to dereliction of duty in a deal that will mean a maximum of three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops to emerge from the Iraq War.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich of Meriden, Conn., led the Marine squad in 2005 that killed 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha after a roadside bomb exploded near a Marine convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others.

It was a stunning and muted end to a case once described as the Iraq War's version of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

Watch Wuterich's interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" in 2007 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2582353n The incident in Iraq is considered among the war's defining moments, further tainting America's reputation when it was already at a low point after the release of photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison.

Eight Marines were charged with killing the Iraqis, with Wuterich facing the possibility of life behind bars. In the end, seven Marines were acquitted or had charges dropped, and Wuterich pleaded to the single, minor charge.

The killings still fuel anger in Iraq after becoming the primary reason behind demands that U.S. troops not be given immunity from their court system.

Wuterich's plea interrupted his trial at Camp Pendleton before a jury of combat Marines who served in Iraq.

In a hearing to determine if the facts of the plea were accurate and that he agreed, Wuterich acknowledged he was negligent in his duties because he told his squad to shoot first and ask questions later, or words to that effect.

Honestly, I probably should have said nothing," Wuterich told the judge, Lt. Col. David Jones. "I think we all understood what we were doing so I probably just should have said nothing."

Later he added: "I shouldn't have done that and it resulted in tragic events, sir."

Wuterich acknowledged he had been trained in rules of engagement before going to Iraq and again when he was deployed.

He admitted he did not positively identify his targets, as he had learned to do in training. He said he ordered his troops to assault the homes based on the guidance of his platoon commander at the time.

Wuterich faces a maximum of three months confinement, two-thirds forfeiture of pay and a rank demotion to private when he's sentenced, likely on Tuesday. The plea agreement calls for manslaughter charges to be dropped.

"No one denies that the events ... were tragic, most of all Frank Wuterich," defense attorney Neal Puckett told the North County Times. "But the fact of the matter is that he has now been totally exonerated of the homicide charges brought against him by the government and the media. For the last six years, he has had his name dragged through the mud. Today, we hope, is the beginning of his redemption."

Phone messages left by The Associated Press for Puckett and co-counsel Mark Zaid weren't immediately returned.

The issue at the court martial was whether Wuterich reacted appropriately as a Marine squad leader in protecting his troops in the midst of a chaotic war or disregarded combat rules and ordered his men to shoot and blast indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians.

Wuterich was charged with nine counts of manslaughter, among other charges.

Prosecutors said he lost control after seeing the body of his friend blown apart by the bomb and led his men on a rampage in which they stormed two nearby homes, blasting their way in with gunfire and grenades. Among the dead were women, children and elderly, including a man in a wheelchair.

Wuterich's former squad members testified that they did not take any gunfire during the 45-minute raid on the homes or find any weapons. Still, several squad members testified they do not believe they did anything wrong because they feared insurgents were inside hiding.

The prosecution was further hurt by the testimony of Wuterich's former platoon commander who said the squad was justified in its actions because the house was declared hostile, and from what he understood of the rules of combat at the time that meant any use of force could be used and Marines did not need to positively identify their targets.

Wuterich has said he regretted the loss of civilian lives but believed he was operating within military combat rules.

After Haditha, Marines commanders ordered troops to try and distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The trial was delayed for years by pre-trial wrangling between the defense and prosecution, including over whether the military could use unaired outtakes from an interview Wuterich gave in 2007 to "60 Minutes." Prosecutors eventually won the right to view the footage.

Village that stood up to corruption a sign of hope for others

2012-01-25T13:32:00.003+05:00

Lin Zuluan succeeds Xue Jinbo, who died in December. Picture: Getty

By JAMES POMFRET IN WANGGANG, CHINA
Published on Tuesday 24 January 2012 00:00

AS CHINA gears up for a leadership transition later this year, a small fishing village that stood up to official corruption and rural land grabs has become a touchstone for other communities striving to fight back against grassroots abuses.

Since the uprising in December in Wukan, a coastal village of 15,000 in southern Guangdong province, which challenged and won key concessions from provincial officials, other rural communities have taken note.

About 1,000 residents of Wanggang, a gritty suburb of leather factories and shabby tenement blocks, recently massed outside the gates of the provincial capital Guangzhou, holding a rare large-scale protest against a major city government.

For some people, Wukan has become a new rallying cry for their own battle against public corruption.

"If China doesn't change and help … vulnerable residents in villages, every village might develop into a Wukan," said Mr Li, 33, a protester who took part in the rally against Wanggang's Communist Party village chief, Li Zhihang. He is accused of plundering land, committing widespread fraud and using a gang of thugs from the country's north to intimidate locals.

Guangdong province – China's most populated and a major manufacturing hub – has seen its share of unrest, including riots in Zengcheng over oppressive behaviour against migrant workers. The province's prominent party boss, Wang Yang, must avoid serious policy mistakes which would damage his prospects for promotion in a leadership transition late this year.

By invoking the name of Wukan, Wanggang villagers believe they won a swifter response from edgy officials.

Mr Li said: "They are forcing us to take this road."

After the villagers threatened to turn Wanggang into a "second Wukan", a Guangzhou vice-mayor, Xie Xiaodan, met them and promised an inquiry into alleged abuses.

But despite their bravado, Wanggang is no Wukan.

Wukan's residents were in open revolt, expelling officials and police and barricading themselves in for ten days until provincial government intervention brought an end to the siege.

Wangang appears less united, its residents split among numerous clans. Most are city dwellers holding urban jobs, less desperate to reclaim farmland for subsistence than those in Wukan.

For Wukan, Mr Wang chose conciliation instead of force, sending a key deputy to intervene and offer concessions on seized land. In a remarkable twist, the rebel village leader, Lin Zuluan, 65, was later named party secretary of Wukan.

Despite the softer approach, some experts say Wukan will not change China's iron-fisted approach to dissent.

Willy Lam, an academic and veteran China watcher in Hong Kong, said: "The fact that Wang Yang decided to use more conciliatory methods regarding Wukan doesn't mean a change of policy on the part of Beijing, nor does it mean that leaders in other provinces will follow.

"The leaders of other provinces cannot afford to allow the Wukan case to become a sort of a model because this will damage the authority of the party."

The legacy of Wukan still echoes in other villages. A man in Luogang village complained about officials bragging about new cars, as he dug taro roots and spring onions in a field.

"We want to be like Wukan, all the villagers here do," said the elderly man, squelching barefoot through the mud. "It's very encouraging, we hope everywhere can fight back and beat the corrupt officials."

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Georgia judge orders Obama to court on citizenship complaint

2012-01-25T13:32:00.001+05:00

http://youtu.be/Xff7Vsf7T1U

A Georgia judge has ordered PresidentBarack Obama to appear in court Thursday in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint he isn't a natural-born citizen and should not be on the state's primary ballot in March, reports the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

A Georgia resident made the complaint that prompted the order. It is one of many such complaints made across the country. So far, none of the complaints have been successful.

An Obama campaign aide said any attempts to involve the president personally will fail and that such complaints have no merit, the newspaper reported.

Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi on Friday denied a motion by the president's lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires Obama to show up, the Ledger-Enquirer said.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Sinking the Petrodollar in the Persian Gulf

2012-01-18T14:44:00.000+05:00

Pepe Escobar at 10:37am, January 17, 2012.

These days, with a crisis atmosphere growing in the Persian Gulf, a little history lesson about the U.S. and Iran might be just what the doctor ordered. Here, then, are a few high- (or low-) lights from their relationship over the last half-century-plus:

Summer 1953: The CIA and British intelligence hatch a plot for a coup that overthrows a democratically elected government in Iran intent on nationalizing that country's oil industry. In its place, they put an autocrat, the young Shah of Iran, and his soon-to-be feared secret police. He runs the country as his repressive fiefdom for a quarter-century, becoming Washington's "bulwark" in the Persian Gulf -- until overthrown in 1979 by a home-grown revolutionary movement, which ushers in the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini and the mullahs. While Khomeini & Co. were hardly Washington's men, thanks to that 1953 coup they were, in a sense, its own political offspring. In other words, the fatal decision to overthrow a popular democratic government shaped the Iranian world Washington now loathes, and even then oil was at the bottom of things.

1967: Under the U.S. "Atoms for Peace" program, started in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Shah is allowed to buy a 5-megawatt, light-water type research reactor for Tehran (which -- call it irony -- is still playing a role in the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program). Defense Department officials did worry at the time that the Shah might use the "peaceful atom" as a basis for a future weapons program or that nuclear materials might fall into the wrong hands. "An aggressive successor to the Shah," went a 1974 Pentagon memo, "might consider nuclear weapons the final item needed to establish Iran's complete military dominance of the region." But that didn't stop them from aiding and abetting the creation of an Iranian nuclear program.

The Shah, like his Islamic successors, argued that such a program was Iran's national "right" and dreamed of a country that would get significant portions of its electricity from a string of nuclear plants. As a 1970s ad by a group of American power companies put the matter: "The Shah of Iran is sitting on top of one of the largest reservoirs of oil in the world. Yet he's building two nuclear plants and planning two more to provide electricity for his country. He knows the oil is running out -- and time with it." In other words, the U.S. nuclear program was the genesis for the Iranian one that Washington now so despises.

September 1980: Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein launches a war of aggression against Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran. In the early 1980s, he becomes Washington's man, our "bulwark" in the Persian Gulf, and we offer him our hand -- and also "detailed information" on Iranian deployments and tactical planning that help him use his chemical weapons more effectively against the Iranian military. Oh, and just to make sure things turn out really, really well, the Reagan administration also decides to sell missiles and other arms to Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran on the sly, part of what became known as the "Iran-Contra Affair" and which almost brings down the president and his men. Success!

March 2003: Saddam Hussein is, by now, no longer our man in Baghdad but a new "Hitler" who, top Washington officials claim, undoubtedly has a nuclear weapons program that could someday leave mushroom clouds rising over U.S. cities. So the Bush administration launches a war of aggression against Iraq, which like Iran just happens to -- in the words of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz -- "float on a sea of oil." (Bush officials hope, in the wake of a "cakewalk" of a war to revive that country's oil industry, to privatize it, and use it to destroy OPEC, driving down the price of oil on world markets.) Nine years later, a Shiite government is in power in Baghdad closely allied with Tehran, which has gained regional strength and influence thanks to the disastrous U.S. occupation.

So call it an unblemished record of a kind not easy to find. In more than 50 years, America's leaders have never made a move in Iran (or near it) that didn't lead to unexpected and unpleasant blowback. Now, another administration in Washington, after years of what can only be called acovert war against Iran, is preparing yet another set of clever maneuvers -- this time sanctions against Iran's central bank meant to cripple the country's oil industry and crack open the economy followed by no one knows what.

And honestly, I mean, really, given past history, what could possibly go wrong? Regime change in Iran? It's bound to be a slam dunk and if you don't believe it, check out Pepe Escobar, that fabulous peripatetic reporter for Asia Times

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

What a surprise? Mahdi Army Terrorists exposed, conspiracy against PTI and PML N

2012-01-18T08:58:00.000+05:00

What a surprise? Mahdi Army Terrorists exposed, conspiracy against PTI and PML N

International Professor

Amir Mughal who runs a blog site Chagtai Khan wrote tweet and declared Mian Nawaz Shariff as Kharji, in reply I sent him web link of my article published in www.makepakistanbetter.com about discussion on Rafzi vs. Kharji (Link given below), soon after that a person that declare him off shoot of PTI and called PTI Nazariati started to distribute my some articles about Mr. Hamid Mir and Ansar Abbasi on tweet that were also published on the same website.

How they caught is very interesting that all such material against Hamid Mir and attempt to indict him in a terrorism case was initiated by www.letusbuildpakistan.com and www.criticalppp.com , where as an audio against Hamid Mir was initiated by them, refer my article link given below. The sensitive information was provided by Intelligence Bureau and behind the scene Farahnaz Isfahani and Faisal Raza Abidi were speculated to provide this information to the above websites. Faisal Raza Abidi presented same information on a TV talk show next day as well.

Amir Mughal who declares him as ex Intelligence Officer of Intelligence Bureau is mastermind, behind the scene operator of above website. He is on pay role of some foreign agencies including Iranian Intelligence agency, his entire group is very active in USA. Since USA is going for war against Iran, so links of all such group require thorough investigation. A pseudo name Ali Nishapuri, believed to be operating from Mashhad, Iran who is publicized as editor of the website, falsely showing operating from Ankarah Turkey. And his another pseudo is "Laibaah" @Laibaah1 Phoenix, Airzona

Amir Mughal is believed to be commander of defunct Sipah e Mohammed or Tehreek e Jaffria, Mahdi Army, Pasdaran e Inqilab Pakistan, Hizbullah or Mukhtar Force involved in terrorism and at least 22 terrorists of those groups are on blue book, according to daily Ummat, Karachi many are operating from Iran. Same peoples are involved in suicide attacks on their own Shia community at Quetta, according to Express news one suicide bomber involved in killings of Hazara community was son of Shia Mullah of Quetta, later his dead body was recognized by his father and from the balloon Hazara killings propaganda was released, moreover one Hazara PPP's MNA that remained protesting against killings of Hazara Brothers disappeared from the scene.

We have no doubt that some peoples from President House and Prime Minister House are involved to operate both websites. Their political target is to create rift between Imran Khan and Mian Nawaz Shariff, so that PML N and PTI may not join hands. PTI Nazariati is an example that is backed by www.letusbuildpakistan.com and www.criticalppp.com.

A list of web sites and peoples affiliated with both websites is given below, whereas same website declares it as a project of Pakistan People Party. According to their web site:

Abdul Nishapuri (pseudo name, Founding Editor), Ahmed Iqbalabadi (Blog Coordinator), Farhad Jarral (Expansion and Development Coordinator, Youth Leader), Humza Ikram (Development, Education, Minority Rights)
Junaid Qaiser (Media Watch, Minority Rights)
Maula Baksh Thadani (Political Critic), Sarah Khan (Critical Reflections)

LUBP Forum: Ahmer Asif (Forum Coordinator), Javed Sheikh (Forum Coordinator)

Advisory Board: Shaheryar Ali, Shiraz Paracha, Omar Khattab

And many websites or blog sites affiliated or working under same mentality are as under:

Pakistan Media Watch, Pak Tea House by Ali Abbas, Grand Trunk Road by Abdul Nishapuri, Views on Pakistani News, Chaudhary Ahmed Khan, Baynaampujabi etc.

Major writers are well known pro-Iranian like Ahsan Abbas Shah (Urdu Section), Anas Abbas (Counter-terrorism), Anas Muhammad, Ai Sher Mussali, Laila Ebadi, Aal-e-Hashmat, Agha Haider Raza, Ali Raja, Sikandar Mehdi etc. Ali Nishapuri and Ali Arqam are fake names and believed to be living in Iran.

Activities in North America and Europe:

During Iraq invasion large shia groups were hired by agencies and billions of dollar were paid, there are big names on record who received cash, even one Shia Mullah Khoi was sent to Iraq and when he was killed media confirmed that he was paid millions of dollar.

In all such game Pakistan's Husain Haqani and Farahnaz Isfahani were also beneficiary of Iraq Invasion and later war of terror, their statements and Videos are available on this website www.makepakistanbetter.com, that is why for entire NRO sponsored current Government of Pakistan is shaking when same army generals that rectified NRO turned their back from Husain Haqani in Memogate.

Pakistan is unfortunate enough that 70% of its ambassadors at Washington, New York and London were Shia. Such as M H Isfahani, Abida Husain, Amjad Husian, Hussain Haroon and leading councilor offices are also under their control, such as Gardezi at Washington etc. A lot of Shia terrorists have reached North America and Europe. Now it is their business to propagate against Pakistan and commit terrorism against their own Shia community to pose their selves as victim to seek refugee status. Last month a lot of two dozen illegal persons died near Australia were all Shia's.

The terrorists and criminals that have reached America, Australia or Europe are using the venue for cyber terrorism, propaganda for making room for new comers.

Since war against Iran is knocking on the door, so, all pro-Iranian, Iraqi, Lebanese and Pakistani terrorists must be watched carefully for cyber terrorism. Particularly some Pakistan's ex Intelligence agents working at USA or posing living there.

Talk about new global terrorism or Iranian backed Shia Terrorists:

Poor apologists of Zardari and NRO'd agents of agencies are still trying to beat drum of Taliban and Wahabi, now time has changed and world is in danger from Shia Cyber Terrorists, Iranian state terrorism and export of Khomeinism. As such Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arab, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Central Asia are burning in fire by agents and exported Iranian state terrorism.

Pakistan's Shia Government:

Pakistan's President, Prime Minister, Speaker and majority of institutional heads are Shia. On the name of religion 95% Sunni majority is forcefully imprisoned into their homes when Shia take out processions, bully Sunni's and a tiny minority with the help of state try to confined peoples to their homes and even no one is allowed to see outside their windows. By hook by crook every month force to take out religious processions, peoples are restricted to homes and when any clash happens, propagandists pose them as minority under victimization.

Media hardly expose Shia terrorists; however a few cases reported are as under.

Mahdi Force

http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/21/mastermind-of-saudi-consulate-attack-killed-three-held.html

Mahdi Force busted

http://tribune.com.pk/story/98230/target-killings-doctor-killing-mehdi-force-busted/

Shia killer of Saudi diplomat sent to hospital

http://tribune.com.pk/story/180251/sectarian-target-killer-to-be-hospitalised-in-custody-orders-court/

Shia terrorists involved in attack on Saudi Consulate at Karachi

http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/20/police-arrest-criminals-involved-in-attack-on-saudi-consulate.html

Quetta bomber was Shia himself

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/11/quetta-bomber-was-shia-himself/

Eight sectarian killing suspects arrested

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=23548&Cat=4&dt=1/3/2011

Abid Bangish - Hizbullah Terrorist arrested from Parachanar

Refer Daily Ummat 04-09-2011 and also

http://images.thenews.com.pk/04-09-2011/ethenews/e-65824.htm

For details of Sipah e Muhammad Terrorists refer Daily Ummat, 08-09-2011, 28-09-2011

Analysis Kharji vs. Rafzi

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?ToLoad=Yes&GroupID=5&Group_title=Pakistan&ArticleID=6801

Hussain Haqqani is behind defamation campaign of Mr. Hamid Mir

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=1&Group_title=Politics&ArticleID=10292

A conspiracy against Hamid Mir and Mr. Ansar Abbasi

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=5&Group_title=Pakistan&ArticleID=10217

Hussain Haqqani - Runagate scandalous sax-phone

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=5&Group_title=Pakistan&ArticleID=4282

Hussain Haqqani Propaganda - Citibank links

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=1&Group_title=Politics&ArticleID=4243

Hussain Haqqani is under influence of Ispahani

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=1&Group_title=Politics&ArticleID=3904

Postmortem of Farahnaz Isphahani and Hussain Haqqani

http://makepakistanbetter.com/why_how_what_forum.asp?GroupID=5&Group_title=Pakistan&ArticleID=3768

From: mail.international.professor@gmail.com

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Panetta, Mullen to Pressure Pakistan on Terrorism

2012-01-15T03:24:00.001+05:00

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2011 – Although not yet willing to blame the Haqqani network for assassinating the former Afghan president, Pentagon leaders emphasized today that they will continue to pressure Pakistan to keep insurgents there from spilling into Afghanistan.

"Our biggest concern right now is to put as much pressure as possible on the Pakistanis to exercise control from their side of the border," Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said during a Pentagon news briefing with Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"We have continued to state that this cannot happen. We cannot have the Haqqanis coming across the border attacking our forces and [Afghans] and disappearing back into a safe haven," the secretary said. "That is not tolerable, and we have urged them to take steps."

Panetta declined to discuss specific strategies, including whether the United States would consider unilateral action. He did say, however, "We are going to take whatever steps are necessary to protect our forces."

It's in the best interest of the Pakistanis to deal with terrorists within their borders, he said.

"Frankly, terrorism is as much a threat for them as it is for us," he said. "And we keep telling them you can't choose among terrorists. If you are against terrorism, you have to be against all forms of terrorism. And that is something we just have to continue to stress."

Mullen said he made clear during his meeting last week with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that Pakistan needs to do more. Among issues he raised were the Haqqanis' proxy ties to Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency and their role in killing coalition troops and Afghans in Afghanistan.

"It was the heart of the discussion," Mullen reported, emphasizing that this activity "has to stop."

"That is not a new message, but it is one that [Kayani] clearly understands," Mullen said. "And I think it is one we have to keep reiterating."

Mullen credited the strong relationship he and Kayani have built with helping them work through difficult periods between their two countries. "It is going to go up and down," he said of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. "We have had a very tough patch here over the last several months."

Based on current information, Mullen said he cannot confirm that the Haqqanis were behind the death of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the senior Afghan official in charge of negotiating with the Taliban. Panetta called the killing of Rabbani, reportedly by a suicide bomber who hid explosives in his turban, a blow to the reconciliation and reintegration process in Afghanistan.

"I regret his loss. I think he was playing an important role," Panetta said. "I am hopeful that we will be able to work with others to try to continue the efforts that he was engaged in."

The assassination was among other recent high-profile attacks that Mullen said reflect an apparent shift in the Taliban's overall strategy.

"They have not succeeded on the ground this year. Their campaign has failed in that regard," he said, causing them to resort to high-profile attacks.

Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, described last week's Haqqani attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul an operational failure. Mullen acknowledged, however, that it had strategic significance.

"So we take it very seriously as a part of the campaign," he said. "We know that this is what the Taliban is doing, and we have got to adjust and we are doing that."

Panetta said the coalition is working with the Afghans to discuss ways to better protect against future attacks. But the Taliban's change of strategy, he added, shows that its leaders realize they are losing ground in Afghanistan.

"The bottom line still remains that that we are moving in the right direction," Panetta said. "We have made progress against the Taliban, but we can't let some of these sporadic events deter us from the progress that we are making."

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

The Truth About Muammar Gaddafi ( The ELITE Exposed )

2012-01-13T13:19:00.001+05:00

The Truth About Muammar Gaddafi

( The ELITE Exposed )

The truth is here! FULL LENGHT

Muammar Gaddafi was fighting against the illuminati

and the reason why he was killed is here!

Something that could help you understand the deeper details of this is if you look into further methods of how our system is run, especially in the US. The tactics they use to stay in power and the truth behind the banks and the economy.

Click here to watch the video

http://www.nidokidos.org/threads/169948

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi

2012-01-10T18:02:00.001+05:00

Wikileaks: The Gangs of Karachi

US Embassy cable - 09KARACHI138

SINDH - THE GANGS OF KARACHI

Identifier:	09KARACHI138
Origin:	Consulate Karachi
Created:	2009-04-22 11:52:00
Classification:
Tags: PTER ASEC PGOV PK

VZCZCXRO6005

OO RUEHLH RUEHPW

DE RUEHKP #0138/01 1121152

ZNY SSSSS ZZH

O 221152Z APR 09

FM AMCONSUL KARACHI

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1042

INFO RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 0499

RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0271

RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0314

RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1861

RUEHLH/AMCONSUL LAHORE PRIORITY 2720

RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR PRIORITY 4603

RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY

RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 KARACHI 000138

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019

TAGS: PTER, ASEC, PGOV, PK

SUBJECT: SINDH - THE GANGS OF KARACHI

Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN FAKAN FOR REASONS 1

.4 b and d.

  1. (S) Summary: The police in Karachi are only one of several

  armed groups in the city, and they are probably not the most

numerous or best equipped.  Many neighborhoods are considered

by the police to be no-go zones in which even the

intelligence services have a difficult time operating.  Very

few of the groups are traditional criminal gangs.  Most are

associated with a political party, a social movement, or

terrorist activity, and their presence in the volatile ethnic

mix of the world,s fourth largest city creates enormous

political and governance challenges.

MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement)

------------------------------

2. (S) The MQM is an ethnic political party of the Urdu

speaking community (known as \"Mohajirs,\" which is Arabic for

immigrants) that migrated from India at the time of

partition; Mohajirs make up around fifty percent of the total

population in Karachi.  MQM is middle-class, avowedly

secular, and anti-extremist (the only party to publicly

protest the recent Swat Nizam-e-Adl regulations).  It has a

long history of clashes with the Pakistan People,s Party

(PPP), which controls the Sindh province in which Karachi is

located, and with the Awami National Party (ANP), which

represents MQM,s rival ethnic Pashtuns.

3. (S) MQM\'s armed members, known as \"Good Friends,\" are the

largest non-governmental armed element in the city.  The

police estimate MQM has ten thousand active armed members and

as many as twenty-five thousand armed fighters in reserve.

This is compared to the city\'s thirty-three thousand police

officers.  The party operates through its 100 Sector

Commanders, who take  their orders directly from the party

leader, Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in the United

Kingdom.  The Sector Commanders plan and monitor the

  activities of the armed elements.  MQM\'s detractors claim

  these armed men are  involved in extortion, assassination of

political rivals, shootings at campaign rallies, and the

  murder of people from other ethnic communities.

  4. (S) Low to middle-ranked police officials acknowledge the

  extortion and the likely veracity of the other charges.  A

senior police officer said, in the past eight years alone,

  MQM was issued over a million arms licenses, mostly for

handguns.  Post (Consulate) has observed MQM security personnel carrying

numerous shoulder-fired weapons, ranging from new European

  AKMs to crude AK copies, probably produced in local shops.

MQM controls the following neighborhoods in Karachi:

Gulberg, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Korangi, Landhi, Liaquatabad,

  Malir, Nazimabad, New Karachi, North Nazimabad, Orangi Town,

Saddar and Shah Faisal.

MQM-H (Muhajir Quami  Movement-Haqiqi)

-------------------------------------

5. (S) MQM-H is a small ethnic political party that broke

away from the MQM in the mid-1980s.  MQM-H has its

strongholds in the Landhi, Korangi and Lines Area

  neighborhoods of the city.  The MQM regarded these areas as

  no-go zones when it was in power during the Musharraf

presidency.  As a condition for joining the Sindh government

in 2003, it asked that MQM-H be eliminated.  The local police

and Rangers were used to crack down on MQM-H, and its leaders

  were put behind bars.  The rank and file of MQM-H found

  refuge in a local religious/political party, Sunni Tehrik

(see para 9).  The local police believe MQM-H still maintains

its armed groups in the areas of Landhi and Korangi, and that

the party will re-organize itself once its leadership is

released from  jail.

ANP (Awami National Party - Peoples National Party)

--------------------------------------------- ------

6. (S) The ANP represents the ethnic Pashtuns in Karachi.

The local Pashtuns do possess personal weapons, following the

tribal traditions of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP),

and there are indications they have begun to organize formal

armed groups.  With the onset of combat operations in the

KARACHI 00000138  002 OF 003

Federally Administered Tribal Areas in August 2008, a growing

number of Pashtuns fled south to swell the Pashtun ranks of

what already is the largest Pashtun city in the world.  This

has increased tensions between ANP and MQM.

7. (S) If rhetoric of the police and the ANP leadership is to

be believed, these armed elements may be preparing to

  challenge MQM control of Karachi.  In March, the Karachi

  Police Special Branch submitted a report to the Inspector

General of Police in which it mentioned the presence of

\"hard-line\" Pashtuns in the Sohrab Goth neighborhood.  Sohrab

Goth is located in the Northeast of the city.

8. (S) The report said this neighborhood was becoming a no-go

area for the police.  The report went on to claim the

Pashtuns are involved in drug trafficking and gun running and

if police wanted to move in the area they had to do so in

civilian clothing.  A senior member of the Intelligence

Bureau in Karachi recently opined that the ANP would not move

against MQM until the next elections, but the police report

ANP gunmen are already fighting MQM gunmen over

protection-racket turf.

ST (Sunni Tehrik - Sunni Movement)

  ----------------------------------

  9. (S) ST is a small religious/political group with a

presence in small pockets of Karachi.  The group has only

managed to win a handful of council seats  in local elections

but militarily it is disproportionably powerful because of

  the influx of MQM-H gunmen after the government crack-down on

MQM-H (see above).  ST has organized the party and its gunmen

along the lines of MQM by dividing its areas of influence

into sectors and units, with sector and unit commanders.  ST

  and MQM have allegedly been killing each other\'s leadership

since the April 2006 Nishtar Park bombing that killed most of

ST\'s leadership.  ST blames MQM for the attack.  There

appears to have been a reduction  in these targeted killings

since 2008.

PPP (Pakistan People\'s Party)

-----------------------------

10. (S) PPP is a political party led by, and centered on the

Bhutto family.  The party enjoys significant support in

Karachi, especially among the Sindhi and Baloch populations.

Traditionally, the party has not run an armed wing, but the

workers of the PPP do possess weapons, both licensed and

unlicensed.  With PPP in control of the provincial government

and having an influential member in place as the Home

Minister, a large number of weapons permits are currently

being issued to PPP workers.  A police official recently told

Post that he believes, given the volume of weapons permits

being issued to PPP members, the party will soon be as

well-armed as MQM.

Gangs in Lyari: Arshad Pappoo (AP) and Rahman Dakait (RD)

  --------------------------------------------- ------------

  11. (S) AP and RD are two traditional criminal  gangs that

have been fighting each other since the turn of the century

in the Lyari district of Karachi.  Both gangs gave their

political support to PPP in the parliamentary elections.  The

gangs got their start with drug trafficking in Lyari and

later included the more serious crimes of kidnapping and

robbery in other parts of Karachi.  (Comment:  Kidnapping is

such a problem in the city that the Home Secretary once asked

Post for small tracking devices that could be planted under

the skin of upper-class citizens and a satellite to track the

devices if they were kidnapped.  End comment.)

12. (S) Each group has only about 200 hard-core armed

fighters but, according to police, various people in Lyari

have around 6,000 handguns, which are duly authorized through

valid weapons permits.  In addition, the gangs are in

possession of a large number of unlicensed AK-47 rifles,

Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers and hand grenades.  The

weapons are carried openly and used against each other as

well as any police or Rangers who enter the area during

security operations.  During police incursions, the gang

members maintain the tactical advantage by using the narrow

KARACHI 00000138  003 OF 003

streets and interconnected houses.  There are some parts of

Lyari that are inaccessible to law enforcement agencies.

Pashtun Terrorists

------------------

13. (S) A Senior IB officer recently opined to Post that \"All

Pashtuns in Karachi are not Taliban, but all Taliban are

Pashtuns.\"  The size, scope and nature of \"Talibanization\"

and true Taliban terrorist activity in Karachi is difficult

to pin down, but Post has increasingly received anecdotes

about women, even in more upscale neighborhoods, being

accosted by bearded strangers and told to wear headscarves in

public.

  14. (S) There has not been a terrorist attack against U.S.

interests in Karachi since 2006.  There are several theories

about Taliban activity in Karachi and why  they have not

staged an attack in so long.  One school of thought has it

  that MQM is too powerful and will not allow the Pashtuns to

operate in Karachi, and this, combined with the ease of

operating elsewhere in Pakistan, makes Karachi an undesirable

venue.  Another line of thinking claims Karachi is too

valuable as a hiding place and place to raise money.

15. (S) In April, the police in Karachi arrested Badshah Din

Mahsud, from their Most Wanted Terrorist list, known as the

Red Book.  It is alleged he was robbing banks in Karachi at

the behest of Baitullah Mehsud, from the NWFP, and the money

was being used to finance terrorist activity.  There is a

large body of threat reporting which would seem to indicate

the equipment and personnel for carrying out attacks are

currently in place in Karachi.  In April, Karachi CID told

Post they had arrested five men from NWFP who were building

VBIEDs and planed to use them in attacks against Pakistani

government buildings; including the CID office located behind

the US Consulate.  CID also claimed they had reliable

information that suicide vests had been brought to Karachi.

16. (S) Comment:  The importance of maintaining stability in

Karachi cannot be over-emphasized.  Traditionally, Karachi

was at the center of lawlessness, criminal activity, and

politically-inspired violence in Pakistan.  But with the

security situation in the rest of the country deteriorating,

the megalopolis has become something of an island of

stability.  Nevertheless, it still has a number of well-armed

political and religious factions and the potential to explode

into violent ethnic and religious conflict given the wrong

circumstances.

17. (S) The PPP,s decision to include MQM in coalition

governments in Sindh Province and in the federal government

has helped preclude a return to the PPP-MQM violence of the

1990,s.  But the potential for MQM-ANP conflict is growing

as Pashtuns challenge Mohajir political dominance and vie for

control of key economic interests, such as the lucrative

trucking industry.  Any sign that political violence is

returning to Karachi, especially if it is related to the

growing strength of conservative Pashtun \"Taliban,\" will send

extremely negative shockwaves through the society and likely

accelerate the flight from Pakistan of the business and

intellectual elite of the society.  End comment.

FAKAN

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Child sacrificed, liver offered to gods

2012-01-10T17:54:00.001+05:00

Child sacrificed, liver offered to gods

[Bismillahnews.in-05-01-12-RAIPUR-Kuwait Times] A seven-year-old Indian girl was murdered in a tribal sacrifice and her liver offered to the gods to improve crop growth, police in the central state of Chhattisgarh said yesterday. The body of Lalita Tati was found in October one week after her family reported her missing.
"A seven-year-old girl was sacrificed by two persons superstitiously believing that the act would give a better harvest," Narayan Das, the police chief of Bijapur district, told AFP by telephone.
The two men was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of killing the girl and offering her liver to the gods in a grisly tribal ceremony. Police said the men had confessed to the crime. The girl was murdered in a jungle district of Chhattisgarh that is a stronghold of rebel Maoists who have tapped into disaffection among local tribal groups.
Human sacrifices occasionally make headlines in deeply religious and superstitious India, and usually occur in poor areas where some people revere practitioners of black magic.
Two suspected child sacrifices were reported in Chhattisgarh in 2010, while in the same year the decapitated body of a factory worker was found in a temple in the eastern state of West Bengal. The victims are often ritually killed by witchdoctors to appease gods, spirits or deities. —AFP

http://new.kuwaittimes.net/2012/01/01/child-sacrificed-liver-offered-to-gods/

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Huge Profits For Congressmen Voting For " WAR "

2012-01-10T13:02:00.000+05:00

http://youtu.be/JtwUjcGNuIw

Last week we uncovered how many billions of dollars the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are costing the American taxpayers. We all know that war costs a lot of money. What we don't know is that the same people who profit off the wars we create have a direct influence in shaping the foreign policy that keeps America at war while putting millions of dollars in their own pockets.

Here is the way our government system is supposed to work: foreign policy is supposed to be drafted between the President and Congress, and the Secretary of State. In the present administration, this is Hillary Clinton. She is supposed to serve as the President's main foreign policy advisor. What is foreign policy? Foreign policy is a set of goals outlining how a country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily. These days, many of our elected representatives have become merely the messengers of foreign policy prescriptions that were created by councils and think tanks comprised of CEOs and executives from the biggest corporations in the world. On these councils sit executives from every major industry from food to media and, most shockingly, national defense.

Is if there is a conflict of interest when CEOs of the largest defense corporations are advising our lawmakers on foreign policy? Before you decide ask yourself this: if you were the CEO of Lockheed Martin, the largest defense corporation in America, and 95% of your company's $35 billion dollar annual profit came directly from government contracts that employ you to supply war materials, would you want the war to end? Especially if you personally enjoyed a $21 million increase in compensation from 2005 to 2008 as a result of the War on Terror? Between 2001 and 2005, defense corporations' annual profits climbed 189%, and the CEOs of these corporations that benefited the most from this profit increase sit on councils together with our politicians to "recommend," "suggest" and "prescribe" foreign policy.

In this episode of YOURTRUTH, we are going to take a look at how much influence the CEOs of the top defense corporations have on the shaping of our foreign policy, specifically the foreign policy that has kept us at war. Let's start with Robert Stevens, who we mentioned earlier is the CEO and President of Lockheed Martin, the number one defense corporation in the nation. Stevens is the presiding director of Monsanto, the largest manufacturer and distributor of genetically modified seeds, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Advisory Board to the Atlantic Council. So what are these councils?

The Council on Foreign Relations is a powerful think tank comprised of the worlds' biggest CEOs and executives in banking, oil, media, mining, food, real estate investment, and politics. A few of the most recognizable political members include David Rockefeller, John McCain, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Madeleine Albright. President of the CFR, Richard Hass, was the former Director of policy planning for the Department of State. CFR board member Richard Holbrooke is Obama's Special Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to their website, one of their functions is to sponsor "independent task forces that produce policy prescriptions on the most important foreign policy topics." Let's not forget that corporate CEOs don't take an oath to serve the best interest of the American people: their primary obligation is to maximize company profits.

I know, we all want to believe that our politicians are incorruptible and won't take corporate dollars that might sway their decision making. But would millions of dollars sway you? According to recent reports from OpenSecrets.org, 151 members of Congress in 2006 had up to $195.5 million of their personal assets invested in defense corporations. What does this mean? When members of our Congress vote to keep us in war, are they really doing it for the safety of the American people, or are they doing it because their stocks will increase, giving them a bigger payout?

Major defense corporations were seriously involved in the 2008 elections as well. Lockheed Martin gave $2,612,219 in total political campaign donations, with 49% to Democrats ($1,285,493) and 51% to Republicans ($1,325,159). Boeing gave $2,225,947 in 2008 with 58% going to Democrats and General Dynamics provided $1,682,595 to both parties. Northrop Grumman spent over $20 million in 2008, hiring lobbyists to influence Congress, and Raytheon spent $6 million on lobbyists in the same period. Wow. That is a lot of money… I wonder what these corporations expect in return for their campaign handouts?

Well, all we have to do is look at the policy prescriptions they help draft and provide to our politicians. For example, let's take a look at the Atlantic Council's most recent proposal, outlining U.S. policy objectives with Pakistan. Senator John Kerry, who personally has over $30 million invested in defense companies, and Atlantic Council chairman Chuck Hagel just recently proposed the plan to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for review.

So what is the Atlantic Council? Well according to their website, they focus on "drafting roadmaps for U.S. policy towards the Balkans, Cuba, Iraq, Iran and Libya." Other than Robert Stevens, CEO of Lockheed Martin, who else belongs to this council? Corporate membership includes all four of the top four defense corporations in the country: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. Another interesting fact is that General Jim Jones left as chairman of the Atlantic Council to work as Obama's National Security Advisor, and four other prominent officials from Obama's administration are also members: Susan Rice, Richard Holbrooke, General Eric Shinseki, and Anne-Marie Slaughter.

In both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council we see corporate CEOs and politicians working together to draft and implement foreign policy that will financially benefit those invested in the defense industry. Whose interest does this serve: the American people who are paying their hard earned tax dollars for these wars, the CEOs of defense corporations who are profiting from these wars, or the politicians who are personally invested in continuing these wars? Need more proof of the revolving door relationship between corporations and government? According to Project Censored, President Obama recently nominated Raytheon's Senior VP for government operations and strategy, William Lynn, for the number two position at the Pentagon.

One of the other top defense corporations is Boeing. Current CEO of Boeing, James McNerney, Jr. is a sitting member of the Business Roundtable. What is the Business Roundtable? CEOs of the top 160 corporations present government officials with "reasoned alternatives and positive policy suggestions." Also, it is not unusual for Business Roundtable members to meet with the President and his staff in private.

Northrop Grumman, the 4th largest defense corporation in the world, saw net sales of $7.6 billion in 2000 skyrocket to nearly $34 billion by 2008. According to Corpwatch, at least seven former officials, consultants or shareholders of Northrop Grumman held positions in the George W. Bush administration. It is also noteworthy that, in the last ten years, Northrop Grumman shelled out $8.5 million in campaign contributions to both parties.

To spell it out, defense corporations are making millions by the wars we create. Our politicians are also financially benefiting from the wars we create. The cozy relationship that many in our government have with the most powerful leaders in the defense industry should be a significant cause for concern for any taxpaying American. If our foreign policy decisions are intertwined with the business interests of major corporations, the voices and opinions of American voters will be sidelined and ignored. The time is now to stop the corruption and end this war. Tune in next week to find out what people are doing all over the world to end this war and restore peace. It is time for a change, and this change starts with you.

Media Roots

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Pakistan's President Zardari fights back at moves to oust him

2012-01-09T12:55:00.000+05:00

BY TOM HUSSAIN

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani government has mounted a counterattack against moves by the country's military and Supreme Court that could result in what critics call a constitutional coup against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The Supreme Court had set a Jan. 10 deadline for the government to request that a Swiss court reopen a corruption case against Zardari, but his ruling Pakistan People's Party said Thursday that the government would ignore it. At a meeting held at the presidential offices — in defiance of a court order against such use of the premises — the party said it would uphold the president's constitutional immunity from prosecution.

The party also said that Zardari wouldn't respond to a summons from a judicial inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court to investigate allegations that a top Zardari aide had sought White House help to dissuade the Pakistani military from staging a fifth coup in 64 years.

The moves figured to prolong a standoff that has brought Pakistani politics to a standstill and threatens to imperil U.S. efforts to enlist Islamabad's help in achieving peace in neighboring Afghanistan. With military officials seemingly bent on removing Zardari — whom they view as a threat to their considerable power — and the president digging in his heels, the turmoil also has distracted attention from the country's worsening economic difficulties and a decisive phase of its war against Pakistani Taliban insurgents.

Four major Pakistani Taliban factions had on Sunday pledged to end attacks on Pakistani security forces and join the war against U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. However, the pledge rang hollow on Thursday after one faction, led by Hakimullah Mahsud, announced it had executed 15 paramilitary soldiers kidnapped from a fort in December.

The Supreme Court panel's inquiry focuses on a memo that Pakistan's former ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani, is alleged to have drafted for Gen. James Jones, who was then President Barack Obama's national security advisor. The claim was made in October by an American businessman of Pakistan origin, Mansoor Ijaz, who said he delivered the memo.

Jones has acknowledged receiving the memo and forwarding it to the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. Both have said they doubted Ijaz's claims and hadn't considered the memo to be authentic.

The Pakistani government has rejected Ijaz's claims. It was furious when the army chief and the head of the military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, told the Supreme Court in December that they believed Ijaz's claims warranted a judicial investigation.

The ensuing rhetorical back-and-forth in court and in the Pakistani media have sparked rumors of a coup against Zardari.

His government appeared to win a boost Wednesday when opposition leader Nawaz Sharif — who had filed the petition asking the Supreme Court to look into Ijaz's claims — said that he'd welcome negotiations with the government on efforts to rein in the military. Sharif has feuded with the military since it overthrew him as prime minister in 1999, forcing him into a 10-year exile in Saudi Arabia.

"I don't think the government is really serious about restricting the political role of the army and intelligence services, but if it is, I'm ready for talks," he told Geo, the leading Pakistani cable news channel.

As clips of Sharif's interview were broadcast, the federal cabinet ordered all military officers, civil servants and judges to declare their financial assets — a first in Pakistan's history.

It also wasn't clear whether Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry, would comply with a request by the judicial inquiry for transcripts of text-message conversations between Ijaz and Haqqani. Ijaz said that those conversations contained evidence that supported his claims, but the firm said in a statement Wednesday that it would "balance any such requests against our priority of maintaining the privacy rights of our users."

The Supreme Court's decision to form a judicial commission to investigate the so-called Memogate charges against Haqqani and Zardari has drawn fire from human-rights groups. They have zeroed in on the court ruling that national-security interests trumped the constitutional rights of Haqqani, who hasn't been charged with any criminal offense but was ordered by the court not to leave Pakistan.

Pakistan's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, has frequently clashed with Zardari since the government reinstated Chaudhry in 2009. Chaudhry has since frequently initiated corruption and other proceedings against the government and overruled it on administrative matters, drawing criticism from international jurists.

The Supreme Court has been notably less vigorous in its pursuit of allegations of human-rights violations by the military.

Meanwhile, Haqqani is holed up at the prime minister's official residence in Islamabad. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, published Wednesday, he said he rarely left the compound out of fear of being kidnapped and tortured, or even killed. Although he didn't identify the source of the threat, he alluded to the military.

(Hussain is a McClatchy special correspondent.)

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Obama's plan: less troops, more fire from the skies

2012-01-09T12:53:00.000+05:00

http://youtu.be/bLNYXcdB3vs

DER SPIEGEL

They are difficult to detect, deadly and cheap to build. Despite the dubious legality of assassinating suspected terrorists and Taliban without a trial, the market for drones is heating up around the world. With Israel and China moving into the market, are we about to see a new arms race?

The US is carrying out drone strikes ever more frequently. Vice President Joe Biden, especially, has been an effective advocate for the weapons. It was Biden who urged his boss to end the war in Afghanistan and instead to combat the Taliban with drone strikes on their hideouts in Pakistan. Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama now sends out a missile-equipped drone an average of once every four days, while his predecessor, George W. Bush, did so only once every 47 days. Obama, it seems, has taken a liking to remote-controlled war, which delivers faster results and is less complicated than wrangling with Guantanamo.

The American fleet now stands at 230 drones. The Air Force trains more pilots for drone operations than for fighter jets, and last month acknowledged the existence of previously classified drone bases in Ethiopia, the Seychelles and Djibouti.

American manufacturers such as Northrop Grumman and General Atomics would like to start marketing their products to the rest of the world, and their representatives serve as cheerleaders urging more and more new drones. "Countries have an insatiable appetite for drones," James Pitts, from defense contracting giant Northrop, told the Financial Times. Northrop representatives recently visited Japan, bringing along a 1:1 model of the enormous "Global Hawk" drone. The same drone, under the name " Euro Hawk" will soon be stationed with the Bundeswehr, Germany's Armed Forces, at its air base in Jagel in northern Germany.

A United Nations report lists over 40 countries that have bought remote-controlled aircraft, although most of these are used for aerial reconnaissance, the original purpose for which drones were designed. So far the only countries to carry out drone strikes, besides the US, are Israel and Great Britain.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Keep Obama on your call list and on your dua list

2011-12-23T06:32:00.001+05:00

Assalamu Alaikum

President Obama has not signed the National Defense Authorization Act yet. That spells opportunity.

The President's intention to sign a bill enshrining indefinite detention into U.S. law is provoking unprecedented rage throughout America. A New York Times editorial says:

President Obama came into office pledging his dedication to the rule of law and to reversing the Bush-era policies. He has fallen far short.

This pressure may be giving the former professor of Constitution Law, President Obama that is, a pause. And maybe your dua against the bill and calling pressure on him to veto will do the job.

If this NDAA 2012 becomes a law it will allow the military to imprison anyone indefinitely without trial or a charge including the US citizens from your neighborhood and green card holders next door, just based on suspicion.

President Obama while receiving his Nobel Peace Prize said:

"We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard."

This country's ideals have always been in rights and freedoms for individuals, in justice and equality. The National Defense Authorization Act with its provisions on indefinite detention does not live up to the ideals of our constitution.

You must remind Obama of his own words that he must stand up for justice even if it is hard.

Call President Obama Now: 202-456-1111.

Remind him of his quote above
Ask him to veto indefinite detentions in NDAA 2012 bill
Call ten friends, colleagues and relatives to call President Obama as well. Do it every day.
Forward this action alert with your friends.

Join Our Network!

We work with several partners on this issue, Muslim Peace Coalition USA organized conference calls to develop responses to the NDAA bill. The first call was attended by 20 national and regional Muslim organizations and the second was attended by 32 peace, justice, and interfaith groups.

If you would like to join this network and participate in our conference calls please fill out the following form to let us know about your networks advocating for peace and justice.

Thank you BORDC.

One of our past action alert essentially used the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's action alert without quoting or referring to it. We are thankful to their great work and regret the omission.

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The Muslim Peace Coalition USA is a grassroots alliance that has spread to 14 states since its inception. The Coalition's mission is to work closely with the peace movement and civil rights organizations to oppose war, terrorism and Islamophobia.

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--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com

Nato's fraught roads to Afghanistan

2011-12-15T13:45:00.001+05:00

By Natalia AntelavaBBC News, Bishkek

Pakistan's decision to shut down Nato supply routes going through its territory means that for the coalition the only remaining overland route to Afghanistan is through Central Asia.

The US military is now preparing to shift more traffic along the roads, rail and air routes that run between the Baltic Sea and Afghanistan via the Caucasus and Central Asia - the so-called Northern Distribution Network.

These routes have been crucial in supplying coalition soldiers in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

But in recent months, as Washington's relationship with Pakistan has deteriorated, there has been a steady increase not just of cargo but also diplomatic traffic to secure the support of Central Asian leaders who guard the precious access routes to Afghanistan.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Manas provides proximity. From here the international effort can be sourced much quicker than from any other location in the world"

Col James JakobsonManas Transit Center

But the way through the post-Soviet Stans - as the Central Asian republics are known - is fraught with difficulty and controversy.

Huge blow

In Kyrgyzstan, the newly elected leader Almazbek Atambayev says he wants to shut down Manas air base just outside the capital Bishkek because he sees it as a threat to Kyrgyz security.

"What if America goes to war with Iran and next thing we know Tehran will be bombing Manas," he said in a BBC interview shortly after his election in October.

Mr Atambayev said his decision not to extend the lease when it runs out in 2014 was non-negotiable, and that the US should respect the agreements it signed.

In the past, the US has played down similar statements from Mr Atambayev's predecessors, saying there were alternatives for a similar base elsewhere.

And, anyway, US President Barack Obama hopes to get combat troops out of Afghanistan by 2014.

But many experts say the closure of the base would be a huge blow for the US, especially at the time it is withdrawing.

Virtually every Nato soldier passes through Central Asia and on any given day there are some 2,000 troops coming through Manas, either on their way to Afghanistan or on their way home. The base is also used for refuelling fighter jets and bombers in Afghanistan.

"It takes only two hours to get from here to Kabul," says Col James Jakobson, who is in charge of the Manas Transit Center.

"So Manas provides proximity. From here the international effort can be sourced much quicker than from any other location in the world."

With the future of the base uncertain and routes via Pakistan unreliable, the US has also been courting other Central Asian leaders.

In the same week as the White House was congratulating Libyans on the death of Col Muammar Gaddafi, Hillary Clinton stood in front of the cameras in Tashkent shaking hands with a man whose human rights record is often compared to the former Libyan leader.

"I wanted to come to Tashkent, to see you and to see your people," she said, smiling broadly at Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, who nodded approvingly.

"He is the biggest beneficiary of the troubles between the US and Pakistan and he can't believe his luck," said a Tashkent-based journalist, who did not want to be named for his personal safety.

"This will benefit him enormously - both politically and financially and it's bad news for whatever is left of civil society here."

'Scared of 2014'

Stern, short and stocky, Mr Karimov may not have the flamboyance of the late Libyan leader and, unlike Libya, his country has never been on the radar of the Western media or its public.

But there is, observers say, plenty of room for comparison.

"When it comes to human rights abuses, lack of freedom and a complete intolerance of dissent, Mr Karimov is right up there with some of the most brutal of Arab dictators," says Paul Quinn-Judge, Central Asia Director for the International Crisis Group.

But this autumn the US Congress lifted its ban on military aid to the Uzbek regime, seven years after imposing the measures because of widespread human rights abuses.

Rights groups accuse the US of empowering one of the world's most brutal regimes.

"The Obama administration is clearly scared as 2014 is approaching and they don't only need to get the troops in and out of Afghanistan, they'll need to get a lot of expensive equipment out," says Mr Quinn-Judge.

"But this is foreign policy reduced to problem solving. The problem is Afghanistan, the solution is seen to lie with Islam Karimov."

Mr Obama's priority is to end the war and get the troops home.

But paving routes out of Afghanistan is a challenge, and many fear that the deals Washington makes along the way could have a lasting impact on the whole region.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Russia Considers Blocking NATO Supply Routes

2011-12-14T07:07:00.001+05:00

NOVEMBER 28, 2011, 2:27

By ALAN CULLISON

MOSCOW—Russia said it may not let NATO use its territory to supply troops in Afghanistan if the alliance doesn't seriously consider its objections to a U.S.-led missile shield for Europe, Russia's ambassador to NATO said Monday.

Russia has stepped up its objections to the antimissile system in Europe, threatening last week to deploy its own ballistic missiles on the border of the European Union to counter the move. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization says the shield is meant to thwart an attack from a rogue state such as Iran, that it poses no threat to Russia, and that the alliance will go ahead with the plan despite Moscow's objections.

If NATO doesn't give a serious response, "we have to address matters in relations in other areas," Russian news services reported Dmitri Rogozin, ambassador to NATO, as saying. He added that Russia's cooperation on Afghanistan may be an area for review, the news services reported.

Threats to the NATO supply line through Russia come at an awkward time for the alliance. NATO has become increasingly reliant on the Russian route as problems in Pakistan—its primary supply route—have escalated. Over the weekend, Pakistan closed its border to trucks delivering supplies in response to coalition airstrikes Saturday that killed 25 Pakistani soldiers.

NATO began shipping its supplies through Russia in 2009, after the so-called reset in relations between Moscow and the U.S., allowing the alliance a safer route for supplies into Afghanistan. But U.S.-Russian relations have been strained lately by the approach of elections in both countries. In the past week, the Kremlin has sharply stepped up its anti-Western rhetoric ahead of parliamentary elections on Dec. 4.

Ivan Safranchuk, deputy director of the Moscow-based Institute of Contemporary International Studies, said Russia is unlikely to cut off the flow of NATO supplies to Afghanistan as an immediate response to missile-defense decisions. But Russia does want its objections to the missile shield to be taken more seriously, he said.

"If the U.S. is not responsive, then a cutoff could be a reality at some point," Mr. Safranchuk said. "Russia would like the U.S. to be more serious about Russian concerns."

( WSJ )

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Black Money and Tax evasion has always been a failure in Pakistan

2011-12-14T06:54:00.001+05:00

Black Money and Tax Evasion has always been a Failure in Pakistan

BY. Shoaib Habib Memon

Tackling twin menace of black money and tax evasion has always been a failure in Pakistan. Successive governments, instead of dealing with these issues with an iron hand, have been pardoning the corrupt and appeasing tax evaders through various laws and amnesty schemes. The result is obvious.

There is an ever-growing informal economy undermining national growth and promoting lack of transparency in all spheres of life. Political culture is fraught with favours to those having money power and control over economic resources - both, anti-thesis of a true democratic set up.

All steps and schemes taken in the past to document informal economy have miserably failed and black economy has relentlessly been growing rather than there being any sign of decline. The present size of underground economy at US $85 billion, almost half of formal economy, is symptomatic of a deep illness of the system where the corrupt rule and the honest suffer, the rich thrive and the poor strive yet starve.

The corrupt, occupying top positions in State institutions, are giving blanket protection to offenders and plunderers of national wealth. In other civilised societies such anti-State elements are treated with iron hand, their ill-gotten money and assets are seized through proper legislation and exemplary punishments awarded to them.

The latest tax amnesty scheme, announced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) under the name of 'Tax Investment Scheme', is yet another attempt to protect tax evaders asking them to pay just 2% of fair market value of their untaxed incomes and assets and no question would be asked about their sources.

Like all previous schemes, it will also prove a fiasco, being a move in the wrong direction: "persuading with helplessness" the corrupt to pay tax without realising that it is they who now control the State and are least pushed to whiten their colossal money and wealth lying outside Pakistan.

This scheme will further shatter the confidence of law-abiding citizens in the system of governance, besides adding to the prevailing illusions that even the so-called elected representatives in parliament are capable of passing such erratic laws.

The recurrent appearance of amnesty schemes and money whitening instruments/modes shows that the State has conceded the failure of its tax machinery in performing its main function of collection of tax from wherever it is due. This nation has become addicted to easy money and such schemes/instruments have become a routine matter for them.

Those people, hooked on ill-gotten wealth/income for the last many years know for certain that every now and then, there will be an amnesty scheme giving them a chance to get their income/assets whitened by paying far less the amount than what they are required to pay under the normal tax regime.

It is a tragic situation where the entire State apparatus is subservient to those who blatantly manage to hide their income and wealth. It is an ugly joke with those who have been paying their taxes honestly at much higher rates than those offered to tax evaders (2%) under the ongoing scheme.

One of the worst consequences of black money and tax evasion is its pernicious effect on the general moral fabric of society. It puts integrity at a discount and places a premium on vulgar and ostentatious display of wealth.

This shatters the faith of the common man in the concept of dignity of honest labour and virtuous living. It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say that ill-gotten wealth is like a cancerous growth in the country's economy, which if not checked in time, is certain to culminate in its doom.

Apart from direct monetary costs of corruption, other significant costs, such as loss of government credibility, spread of injustice, distortions in resource allocations and loss of foreign and local investment, are destroying the very fibre of civil society in Pakistan. Judging from different studies and reports published in print media from time to time, Pakistan's underground economy has the following salient features:

Since 1979 (courtesy General Zia's legacy of speed money culture and its adoption by all the subsequent governments, notably that of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf et al), our underground economy has developed at a surprising rate. Its large size ranging between 22% to 35% of GDP is a cause of great concern for both official and independent economists. Its manifestations are very wide. It is not only large and all-pervasive but also exists in daily life of every Pakistani.

It includes production of fake and substandard goods, smuggling, "black society" economy, human trafficking, contraband drugs, massive infringement of copyrights, interloping, tax evasion with the active collaboration of tax officials, financial corruption and rent-seeking [exchange of power for money] activities of government officials, plundering of bank loans, just to name a few and significant ones.

Massive migration towards big cities confirms that a huge population of Pakistan is directly engaged in underground economic activities. Large-scale mobility of people is also a contributing factor in generating underground economy eg high demand of local private houses to accommodate the mobile population.

Active participation of government officials is the most disturbing feature of Pakistan's underground economy. The rent-seeking activities of the government functionaries emerge in an endless stream. They are the single most important catalyst for accelerating the growth and sustainability of underground economy.

The State has miserably failed to check rampant corruption amongst their officials. They have emerged as the most powerful mafia whose control over the underground economy is now invincible. The government must constitute an expert committee to determine the negative effects of underground economy.

It has certainly created distortions in the statistical data vital for economic planning and macroeconomic decision-making, but its one most devastating and direct effect is considerable loss of tax revenues of the State. Theoretically, losses of tax revenue not only refer to a static result, ie the tax revenue lost by the fact that the taxes payable failed to be levied or collected for all kinds of reasons, but also mean a dynamic loss process.

TAX REVENUE LOSSES CAN BE DIVIDED INTO THREE CATEGORIES:

1. tax revenue loss of a compliance nature;

2. tax revenue loss of an administrative nature; and

3. tax revenue loss of an institutional nature.

Among these three categories, revenue loss of compliance nature results from underground economic activities because of taxpayers' evasion and fraud by non-compliance with tax laws, and such a loss is characterised by erosion of the tax base. The latter two types of tax revenue losses exist in the public economic field, and are characterised by reduction in effective tax rates.

In Pakistan, tax revenue losses due to inefficient and corrupt tax machinery are equally significant. Tax officials do not only properly enforce the promulgated laws, are always hesitant to probe tax frauds but also take active part in providing their "expert services" for exchange of money to tax evaders and plunderers of national wealth. They are active and potential generators of untaxed black money in the country.

IN PAKISTAN, TAX REVENUE LOSSES STEMMING FROM THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY CAN BE BRIEFLY SUMMED UP AS UNDER:

Taxpayers do not register with the tax departments. One reason for this might be the activities they undertake which are illegal or even criminal, and another reason might be that the taxpayers attempt to escape registration and interlope for the purpose of tax evasion, despite the legal nature of their business;

Although a taxpayer registers with the authorities but he resorts to non-reporting. Taxpayers indulge in under-reporting so that a wide gap exists between the tax liability reported and the tax which would have been payable if tax returns were correct. On the basis of different studies conducted to determine the size of underground economy in Pakistan, in terms of different taxes, the following table shows the ratio of the lost commercial and industrial taxes to that of actually collected in the last 20 years:

====================
Year % (losses)
====================
1988-89 58.65
1989-90 60.75
1990-91 62.22
1991-92 58.44
1992-93 61.25
1993-94 64.55
1994-95 57.15
1995-96 70.20
1996-97 83.06
1997-98 89.04
1998-99 84.69
1999-2000 85.45
2000-2001 87.83
2001-2002 88.25
2002-2003 87.95
2003-2004 86.35
2004-2005 85.80
2005-2006 87.25
2006-2007 88.42
2007-2008 87.80
====================
As evident from above, our underground economy has caused substantial loss of revenue during the last 20 years, and brought about plenty of negative economic effects forcing the national growth to deviate from the objectives of efficiency and equity.

A direct consequence of tax revenue losses is a reduction in the government's fiscal targets. Our fiscal deficit could have been substantially low or even zero had the State effectively tackled growth of underground economy.

It is an irrefutable fact that tax revenue losses due to underground economy, in turn, aggravates income distribution and wealthy classes became more powerful thus making the entire society subservient to their interests and control. These colossal revenue losses reduce the efficacy of allocation of social resources thus seriously retarding equitable distribution of societal benefits to cross-sections of society.

It is an incontrovertible fact that the income gap among the Pakistanis has been gradually widening and trend of rich becoming richer and the poor poorer is gaining strength. Generally, the analysts have attributed it to economic policy, but they have neglected the impact on income distribution of tax revenue losses generated by the underground economy.

Virtually all types of hidden incomes arising from vast and widespread underground economic activities escape tax regulations and this should be considered as an important cause of widening of the Pakistanis' income gap over the last 20 years.

It is true that as long as taxation exists, tax revenue losses will not completely disappear, but such losses can be reduced considerably by employing countermeasures effectively. It is high time that the government should start attacking underground economic activities to reduce tax revenue losses. This work cannot be done solely by reforming tax administration.

In order to effectively reduce tax revenue losses, multi-sectoral participation and comprehensive co-ordination by and among different departments of the federal and provincial governments is much needed to curb underground economic activities.

The introduction of feasible and effective countermeasures, requires the removal of causes that generate black money and taxpayers' non-compliance. The theory of economics of taxation tells us that critical factors determining the taxpayer's compliance level include benefit incentives, social pressures and a self-regulating mentality.

THE ESTABLISHED CAUSES FOR TAXPAYERS' NON-COMPLIANCE ARE:

-- selfish non-compliance, ie taxpayer makes a cost benefit analysis with regards to tax non-compliance and then decides that this course of action can generate greater net gains for him;

-- non-compliance through ignorance, ie taxpayers do not intend to violate tax laws, but do so inadvertently because of unawareness of their tax obligations; and social non-compliance, ie taxpayers' behaviour is influenced by the attitude of the whole society towards approving tax avoidance and evasion.

KEEPING IN VIEW THE ABOVE FACTORS, THE FOLLOWING MAJOR COUNTERMEASURES ARE SUGGESTED TO REDUCE TAX REVENUE LOSSES:

1. Removing the selfish non-compliant taxpayer should be tackled from economic perspective. The taxpayer must be considered as an economic person and the following formula should be applied:

-- Expected returns of tax evasion = expected gains of tax evasion minus the expected cost of tax evasion

Applying the above formula it is necessary to reduce taxpayers' economic earning arising from the underground economic activities and tax evasion. Even more important step would be to devise measures to enhance the taxpayers' cost of evasion.

2. Reducing the total burden of taxpayers in the public economy is both desirable and urgent. At present, the Pakistani tax burden level is not very high vis-à-vis tax evaders (instead they get tax amnesty schemes frequently to get their untaxed money whitened at a nominal rate) and the critical issue is to reform the entire tax collection system preventing tax dodgers from going underground.

As regards the latter, the first important issue is to strengthen tax administration raising the potential of discovering non-compliant taxpayers. The present situation in Pakistan is very weak as far as effectiveness of tax administration is concerned. Besides raising evasion costs of taxpayers it is imperative to enhance the penalties of underground economic activities.

3. The most disturbing aspect of Pakistani tax system is weak enforcement, whereas FBR's perspective is that fault lies with tax legislation. It is a proven fact that the promulgated laws are not enforced effectively and whenever any shortcoming is pointed out, FBR stalwarts blame tax legislation.

Evidence of this attitude is clearly reflected in promulgation of a new Income Tax Ordinance which is quite a useless venture having nothing new to ensure proper collection of taxes. Mere promulgation of law cannot ensure enhancement of tax revenues, the greater need is to reform tax structures and improve attitude of tax collectors.

In Pakistan, one never hears of sending tax evaders to the prison for their illegal acts. This confirms extreme slackness on the part of tax administrators or their connivance with tax dodgers. Instead, punishment of tax evaders is restricted to nominal fines or penalties encouraging them to remain in the fold of the underground economy which is constantly expanding every day.

Unwillingness of tax collectors to crack down on players in the underground economy needs thorough probe so that ways are suggested to ensure that in future this unwillingness/collaboration ceases to exist. 4. The predominant cause of non-compliance in Pakistan remains ignorance of law and social non-acceptance of tax obligations.

The State has never bothered to promote tax culture through education of the masses who have never been informed of their duties towards the State, nor are they convinced of proper utilisation of taxes by the Government. There exists a relation of bad faith between the taxpayers and the State which needs to be addressed through a process of reconciliation.

A new social contract is needed to convince the citizens that taxes paid by them are to be utilised exclusively for the benefit of the country and not for providing a life of luxury to rulers and the civil/military bureaucracy.

The fundamental solution to promote tax culture is to popularise knowledge of the law through education, media and information services, enhancing the citizens' awareness of the need to tax payments raising the status to compliant taxpayers and thereby promoting the idea that paying taxes is an honour whereas evading taxes is a national disgrace.

This is indeed a difficult task requiring a long period of time to change the people's perception but to do this work and do it as soon as possible is indispensable if we want to survive as a self-reliant nation. 5. For the task of attacking underground economy and forestall losses of tax revenue, the most important and radical channel is deepening of reforms.

Conventional formulae and half-hearted attempts will not work. The State will have to flex its muscles to crack down heavily on the underground economy. All tax reforms, which are being initiated vigorously these days by obtaining loan from the foreign donors, will become useless unless black economy and its causes are eliminated once and for all.

Our State is presently controlled by the corrupt politico-administrative structures where people having huge money power are the key players. How can the agenda of tax reform succeed in isolation? The need is to purge the society, make all financial transactions transparent, eliminate money power and corrupt administrative structures and only then colossal losses of tax revenue can be restrained.

6. Misplaced emphasis on tax reforms without tackling the principal issue of underground economy, will bring more hardships for the common people of Pakistan as in the frenzy of collecting more taxes the incidence of taxation would be shifted to the poor and the vulnerable ordinary people and those who have invincible money power (generator and protector of underground economy) will remain outside the ambit of tax obligations.

7. The State has to give up its policies of appeasement towards plunderers of national wealth and tax evaders. The foundations of corruption and rent-seeking activities of the State functionaries have to be destroyed with full force otherwise the tax reform financed by huge loans will be another national waste. The tax-to-GDP ratio can only be improved significantly if the process of economic reform, especially elimination of underground economy goes hand in hand with tax reform agenda.

Once the State shows positive attitude by cracking down on underground economy and reducing all wasteful expenditures, the citizens will certainly reciprocate by paying their taxes diligently and honestly. This can be the only way to control and eliminate losses of tax revenue in Pakistan.

In the past, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was used for only victimising political opponents rather than cracking down on those who are engaged in massive tax frauds and evasions with the connivance of their friends in tax machinery. In the changed scenario, NAB should be asked to nab tax evaders and money launderers.

How many holding key positions in State institutions are engaged in rent-seeking and corrupt activities is not a secret, but their declarations before tax authorities have never been made public. Those responsible for colossal revenue losses to national exchequer, tax evaders and their friends in tax machinery, should be punished and debarred from holding any public office.

Unless this vital step is taken through a Tribunal headed by a Judge of Supreme Court after proper legislation to this effect, the dream of establishing a democratic polity will never become a reality in Pakistan, no matter how many elections are held.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

President Obama Must Veto Indefinite Detention without Trial

2011-12-09T06:41:00.001+05:00

Understand the Gravity of Situation:

Muslim Peace Coalition recently approached the editorial departments of New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsday and New York Daily News, urging them to take a stand. Two of them came out with their editorials on Dec 8th:

Hobbling the Fight Against Terrorism

Don't limit terrorism trials

The nation standing up for the Bill of Rights

Muslim Peace Coalition USA organized two conference calls last week to develop responses to stop the indefinite detention of civilians worldwide and the American citizens in the USA. The first call was attended by 20 national and regional Muslim organizations and the second was attended by 32 peace, justice, and interfaith groups.

Here are the decisions:

All organizations will use their email lists to issue action alerts asking congress to vote against the bill and asking president Obama to veto it if it contains those provisions
Organize press conference in all cities to bring media attention to the issue
Make full use of Dec 15th, an officially designated "Bill of Rights" day to oppose indefinite detention bill
Explore forming a high profile coalition inclusive of the right and the left on this issue

List of Attendees

Br. Nihad Awad, Executive Director, CAIR
Br. Sulieman Muhammad, President Islamic Council of New England
Br. Naim Baig, Vice President Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)
Br. Ghalib Begg, Michigan Muslim Council
Imam Khalid Griggs, Islamic Center of Winston Salem NC
Dr. Shaik Ubaid, Muslim Peace Coalition, NY
Sr. Seemi Ahmed, Muslim Peace Coalition, NY
Br. Mazhar Quraishi, Boston, MA
Br. Zahir Adil, Muslim Peace Coalition, NY
Sr. Huda Al-Shashtawi, MPAC, Washington DC
Br. Amjad Taufiq, Islamic Shura Council, Atlanta
Br. Maqsood Ahmed, Council of Islamic Organizations of Kentucky
Br. Anwar Kazmi, Boston
Sr. Eleanor Ommani of American Iranian Friendship Committee
Sr. Ahlam Jabara, Director, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC)
Br. Ashfaq Taufique, President Alabama Muslim Society, Birmingham, AL
Imam Ashrafuzzaman Khan, Majlis AsShura of New York

Time Sensitive:

Time is critical because the secret Congressional negotiators hope to jam the bill through Congress within a week or so.

The Background:

The Senate has passed a version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that includes a dangerous provision authorizing the U.S. military to pick up and imprison civilians — including Americans — without charge or trial, anywhere in the world, including in your own backyard. The provisions were negotiated by a few senators — in secret — and without proper Congressional review.

The House of Representatives earlier passed its own version of the NDAA that authorizes worldwide war, and worldwide indefinite detention, even within America itself. And now, the House and Senate are meeting in secret to write a final version and find a way to rush this outrageous affront to our constitutional rights to President Obama's desk.

Action Requested:

1) Ask President Obama fulfill his promise by vetoing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 if it includes provisions to detain civilians and citizens indefinitely without a trial.

2) Tell your members of Congress to vote NO on the NDAA if it contains indefinite detention without charge or trial.

Call & Email President Obama
Call the President: 202-456-1111
Email: Click here
Mail Organizational letter on your letterhead:
The White House: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

Call Your Senator & Congressperson to ask the President to Veto it:
Call & Email Your Senators: (202) 224-3121. Ask the operator to connect you with your Senator
Email: Click here

Call & Email Your Representative in Congress:
(202) 224-3121, ask for your representative
Email: Click here

Links to Understand the Issue Better:

Behind Closed Doors: Congress Trying to Force Indefinite Detention Bill on Americans

Hobbling the Fight Against Terrorism

Don't limit terrorism trials

Please download the pdf of this action alert here to print and distribute

Join Our Mailing List!

Muslim Peace Coalition, USA

202-643-JUST
www.MuslimPeaceCoalition.org

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--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com

Why are Jews so Clever.

2011-12-08T15:14:00.000+05:00

WHY ARE THE JEWS SO SMART?
By Dr. Stephen Carr Leon

Since I spent about 3 year in Israel for internship in few hospital there, it
came to my mind about doing research of "Why the Jews are Intelligent?"

It goes without denial that Jews are ahead in many aspects of life such as
engineering, music, science and most obvious in business where nearly 70% of
world trade is held by the Jews such as cosmetic, fashion, food, arms, hotels
and film industries ( Hollywood and others).

During the 2nd year, in December 1980, and I was about to go back to California
, this idea came to me and I was wandering why God gave this ability to them? Is
this a coincidence or is it man-made that could be produced like the goods from
a factory. My thesis took about 8 years to gather all the information as
accurately as possible, like the food intake, culture, religion, initial
preparation of pregnancy and etc. and I would compare them with other races.

Let's start with initial preparation of pregnancy. In Israel, the first thing I
noticed is that the pregnant mother would always sing and play piano and would
always try to solve mathematical problems together with the husband, and I was
very surprised to see the mother always carry math books and sometimes I would
help her to solve some problems, I would asked, "Is this for your child in the
womb?" she would answer "Yes to train the child still in the womb so that it
would be a genius later on". She would solve the problem without let-up until
the child is born.

Another thing I noticed, is about the food, she loved to eat almonds and dates
with milk, for lunch she would take bread and fish without the head, salads
mixed with almonds and other nuts, they believed fish is good for the
development of brain and the fish's head is bad for the brain. And also it is
like the culture of the Jews for pregnant mothers to take cod liver oil.

When I was invited for dinner, I always noticed that they always like to eat
fish (flesh and fillet) and no meat, according to their belief, meat and fish
together will not give any benefit to our body. Salad and nuts is a must,
especially almonds.

They would always eat fruits first before the main meal. Their belief if you eat
the main meal first (like bread or rice) then fruits, this will make us feel
sleepy and difficult to understand any lesson you learn in school.

In Israel, smoking is a taboo, if you are their guest, don't smoke in their
house, they would politely ask you to go out for a smoke. According to scientist
in university of Israel , nicotine would destroy the main cell in our brain and
will affect the genes and DNA, resulting in generation of moron or defective
brain. So all those smokers, please take note (Ironically, the biggest producer
of cigarettes is... you know who.. make your own guess).

The food intake for the child is always under the guidance of the parent, first,
the fruits with almonds, followed by cod liver oil. In my assessment, the Jewish
child, most of them knew 3 languages, ie Hebrew, Arabic and English, since
childhood they would be trained in playing piano and violin, it is a must.

Accordingly, it is believed that this practice will increase the IQ of the child
and will make him a genius. And according to Jewish scientist, the vibration of
music would stimulate the brain and that is why there are lots of geniuses among
the Jews...

Since grade 1 to 6, they would be taught business mathematics and science
subjects would be their first preference. For comparison I could see the
children in California , their IQ is about 6 years back. And Jewish children
were also involved in athletics such as archery and shooting, accordingly it is
believed that archery and shooting would make the brain more focused on decision
and precision.

In high school, students are more inclined to study science, they would create
products, indulged in all sorts of projects , although some looks very funny or
useless, but all attention is given seriously especially if it is armaments,
medicine or engineering, the idea will be introduced in higher institute in
polytechnics or universities.

Business faculty will be given more preference, in the last year of university,
the students in business would be given a project and practically they can only
pass if their group (about 10 in a group) can make profit of USD1 million.

Don't be surprised, this is the reality and that is why half of the business in
the world is held by the Jews, who design the latest Levis , it is being
designed in the Israel university by the faculty of business and fashion.

Have you seen them how they prayed, they always shake their heads, accordingly
they believed this action will stimulate and provide more oxygen to the brain.

Look at the Japanese, they always bow down their heads as their culture, lots of
them are smart, they love sushi (fresh fish), is this a coincidence?

In New York, the commercial/trading centre for the Jews are based in New York,
catering for the Jews only, if they had any beneficial idea, their committee
will give free interest loan and will make sure the business prosper. Due to
this, Starbucks, dell computer, Coca Cola, DKNY, Oracle, Levis, Dunkin Donut ,
Hollywood films and hundreds other businesses were under their sponsorship.

Jewish graduates from faculty of medicine in New York were encouraged to
register with them and allowed to practice privately with this free interest
loan, now I knew why most hospital in New York and California always lack of
specialist doctors.

Smoking will lead to generations of moron. During my visit to Singapore in 2005,
it surprised me to see smokers are regarded as outcasts and the price of a pack
of cigarettes is about USD 7, like in Israel it is a taboo and their form of
government is similar to the Israelis. And that is the reason why most of their
universities are of high standard, even though Singapore is only as big as
Manhattan .

Look at Indonesia , everywhere people are smoking, and price of a pack of
cigarette is very cheap only USD0.70 cents. and the results with millions of
people, you can count the number of universities, what technology or product
they produced that they can be proud of,...never!; can they speak other than
their own language, why it is so difficult for them to master English language
for example, all this is due to smoking, think for yourself.

In my thesis, I do not touch religion or race. The bottom line is, could we
produce intelligent generations just like the Jews?

The answer could be in the affirmative. The changes needed are in our daily
habits of eating, parenting and I guess within 3 generations, it could be
achieved. This I could observe in my grandson, for example at the age of 9 he
could write a 5-page essay on "Why I love tomato?"

May all of us be in peace and succeed in producing a future generations of
genius for the betterment of humankind no matter who you are.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

U.S.'s Afghan Headache: $400-a-Gallon Gasoline

2011-12-08T06:53:00.001+05:00

Military Air Drops Fuel Barrels to Avoid Dangerous Convoys

OVER EASTERN AFGHANISTAN—Parachuting a barrel of fuel to a remote Afghan base takes sharp flying skills, steady nerves and flawless timing.

It also costs a lot of money—up to $400 a gallon, by military estimates.

But the Pentagon is stuck with the expense for the foreseeable future, especially given the recent deterioration in U.S.-Pakistani relations.

"We're going to burn a lot of gas to drop a lot of gas," said Capt. Zack Albaugh, a California Air National Guard pilot deployed with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. He spoke just before a recent mission to supply a remote base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, scene of cross-border rocket attacks that have heightened regional tensions this fall.

Such security issues were addressed Monday at an international meeting over Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, where President Hamid Karzai appealed for continuing international funding well after most coalition forces withdraw in 2014.

But for now, nearly 100,000 U.S. troops are on the ground in Afghanistan, often stationed in difficult-to-reach outposts that depend on pallets of food, water, ammunition and fuel that are dropped by parachute out of cargo planes.

Capt. Albaugh's recent supply flight over the country's Paktika province underscored a simple fact of the U.S. military presence: War is inherently costly, and that is keenly felt when the military's budget is under growing strain and vital supply lines come under pressure.

That happened last month when Pakistan closed key border crossings to North Atlantic Treaty Organization supply convoys following a deadly coalition airstrike that claimed the lives of 24 Pakistani troops. The crossings remain closed.

Since 2005, the Air Force has increased by nearly 50 times the amount of supplies it air-drops to remote bases, partly as a way to avoid dangerous land-based fuel convoys.

The astronomical expense represents the "fully burdened" costs of fuel, including transportation and security.

The cost and difficulty of fuel deliveries in places like Afghanistan is one major reason the Pentagon is working to overhaul the way the armed forces use energy, from developing aircraft that can run on biofuels to powering remote bases with solar panels or wind turbines.

But those efforts are in the early stages, meaning troops still require expensive—and hair-raising—cargo flights to keep them flush with gas.

On Capt. Albaugh's run, two C-130 cargo planes flew in close formation, hugging the Pakistani border as they circled toward their target. The drop zone—the general area where the troops will pick up their cargo—was about the length of three football fields. Within that zone, the crew of the C-130 aimed to hit a smaller target: 60-feet-by-150 feet.

As the planes approached, a voice crackled over the radio network warning everyone else to stand by: "Everyone stay off the net for the next 10 mikes [minutes] until the bird drops."

The planes dipped over the landscape, laden with pallets of fuel. A small parachute deployed from each C-130's cargo door, sending 34,000 pounds of fuel clattering across the loading ramp, like the Coney Island Cyclone.

In the sky, parachutes blossomed, and the crates floated to the ground below. Aircrews based in Afghanistan fly missions around the clock to keep troops on the ground supplied. "We've been pretty busy," said Capt. Jose Ariza, Capt. Albaugh's crewmate.

The sheer volume of air-dropped cargo is swiftly rising. In 2005, Air Force planes dropped around two million pounds of supplies to troops in Afghanistan. Last year, they delivered around 60 million pounds by airdrop. By the end of this year, officials say, they expect to drop around 90 million pounds of food, water, ammunition and fuel to bases in the country.

Air Force Gen. Raymond Johns, who heads the service's Air Mobility Command, said the December 2009 surge in U.S. troops has made resupply more challenging, particularly because of the threat of roadside bombs.

"They [troops] are in places where getting them their supplies is very risky to go by land conveyance," he said. "So they've become more and more dependent on our airdrop."

This particular launch was successful: a total of 36 bundles reached the drop zone.

But two parachutes did not fully open, and pallets stacked with barrels of fuel slammed into the ground, lost or badly damaged—"burned in," as crews say.

"That's the cost of doing business," said Lt. Col. Bill Willson, the squadron's commander.

A single airdrop represents the tail end of a complex supply chain. The U.S. military has multiple routes to keep supplies delivered to landlocked Afghanistan, and had been working to reduce dependence on supply routes that go through Pakistan before last month border closing.

Besides air drops and Pakistani delivery routes, the U.S. military can transport cargo overland through a road and rail network called the Northern Distribution Network, which brings non-lethal supplies in through Central Asia.

But some supplies—certain kinds of weaponry or other sensitive cargo—must be moved by air.

And that means Air Force planes will keep burning more fuel, and their crews will keep flying long hours.

"If you want us to drop something on a postage stamp, by God we'll do it," said Maj. Richard Carter, a C-17 pilot, on a recent cargo flight to Afghanistan. "But there's only so many crews."

—Keith Johnson in Washington contributed to this article.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

The new ‘western policeman’ in Muslim World

2011-12-08T06:52:00.000+05:00

Qatar: The new 'western policeman' in Muslim World

Posted on December 6, 2011 by rehmat1

The US is grooming the tiny oil/gas rich ($25.9 billion in 2010) sheikhdom Qatar to replace Saudi Arabia as the 'western policeman' to guard US and Israeli interests in the Middle East in particular and the Muslim world at large.

In addition to its oil/gas wealth, Qatar is home to America's $1.4 billion Al-Udeid Air Base and Zionist-controlledAl-Jazeera English (AJE). The air base is the headquarter of CENTCOM, through which the Pentagon maintains its occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. The US has also used this base to rain hundreds of drones over Pakistankilling thousands of Muslim men, women and children. The US military bases in Qatar, Iraq and Turkey are the first defense line for Israel.

Al-Jazeera has played a major role in bringing the western-sponsored regime-changes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libyawhile providing full support to US-Israeli puppet regime in Bahrain and Yemen. Now, Al-Jazeera is running a vicious campaign against Bashar al-Assad and Sheikh Nasrallah of Hizbullah.

Qatar's al-Thani dynasty has become so aggressive that it officials assualted Russian ambassador Vladimir Titirenko at Doha Airport on November 29, 2011. It was a warning from Washington for Moscow's support for current regimes in Damascus and Tehran – and for inviting Hizbullah delegate to Moscow in October. As result of the incident, Moscow has suspended its diplomatic relation with Qatar.

On December 4, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov officially informed Qatari Prime Minister and concurrently Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani that Moscow is suspending diplomatic relations withDoha until demands of the Russian side are completed in full.

Moscow's relations with Doha became somewhat strained in the course of the Arab Spring gripping Middle Eastern and North African countries. The previous week, Russia officially criticized Qatar for its role in the Libyan uprising, which violated the arms embargo imposed on the country by the UN Security Council.

"We know how the arms embargo was applied in Libya. The opposition was receiving arms, with such countries as France and Qatar publicly stating that they have supplied those arms," said Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference in Moscow on the same day Titorenko was attacked at Doha Airport.

Qatar has been consistently supporting sanctions against Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whereas Russia is acting against sanctioning Syria on all diplomatic levels, including the UN Security Council.

The incident with the Russian diplomat may be viewed as an extension of the "aggressive stance" Qatar has adopted after it became the rotational head of the Arab League, says James Corbett. The US companies has invested $60-70 billion in the Qatari energy industry.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

US/NATO deadly attack on the front line partner in the war against terror

2011-12-04T15:02:00.001+05:00

US/NATO has killed many countless innocent people in IRAQ/Afghanista/Pakistan etc. What reaction we expect from whose family members are killed but by drone attacks or bombing by mistake .... for nothing................ Is US working to finish the terror or want something else..

Why we dont stand ???? waiting for something worst.....

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/thousands-of-pakistanis-protest-after-nato-attack-1322410196-slideshow/relatives-gather-last-glimpse-pakistani-soldier-killed-nato-photo-165537934.html

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

Vietnam-Style Exit: Russia Could Deliver Death Blow To NATO in Af-Pak War

2011-12-04T15:00:00.000+05:00

Russia could deliver death blow to Nato, say analysts

ISLAMABAD: With the Russian threat to cut land routes for supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Afghan battleground may turn into a cold death trap for NATO, defence analysts believe. They say that Pakistan should utilise the opportunity for a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan by pulling it out of the American war.

Russia has threatened to cut off NATO supply routes to Afghanistan if the alliance doesn't compromise on its missile defence plans. "If NATO doesn't give a serious response, we have to address matters in relations in other areas," Russian news services reported. Russia's cooperation on Afghanistan may be an area for review, the news services reported.

Pakistan has already cut NATO supply routes after the Mohmand Agency attack by NATO troops that killed twenty-six Pakistani soldiers. Lt General (retd) Hameed Gul, while talking to The News, said that Russia would utilise every option to take revenge on the Americans and the time has come for the Russians to do this. He said that Russia wants to join hands with Pakistan and Pakistan should re-consider its policy towards Russia. "Americans and NATO troops have been strangled in Afghanistan and the time has come for Pakistan to avail itself of the opportunity that it missed on 9/11 to regain respect and sovereignty", Gul said.

He mentioned that Americans will have to leave Afghanistan and will ask for concessions and Pakistan should negotiate with them on their exit. If Russia cuts its supply routes then the route will be from Georgia to Baku and then to Azerbaijan, which means NATO will never get the supplies, said Gul.

"Now NATO troops will have to exit Vietnam-style, and that too by using Pakistan's airspace because Iran will never let the USA use its airspace", the retired General said. He mentioned that the war against terror that was started with our own people will come to an end at once and there will be peace in no time once the Americans leave Afghanistan. He said that Indian interests in Afghanistan were growing but India will get nothing from Afghanistan.

Maria Sultan, defence analyst, while talking to this correspondent said that if the Russians also cut the supply line of NATO then it will turn out to be a cold death for NATO troops. "They will literally be strangled in Afghanistan with 90,000 troops, and as they admit that they have reserves for three months, which actually means they have reserves for two months, then NATO will have to airlift the troops and during the airlift only 15 to 20 percent can get out alive out of the 90,000 troops", Maria said.

She mentioned that in Afghanistan everything comes from outside and the insurgency this year has been very high as 700 [NATO] causalities have been reported. Therefore, after the Russian decision, Afghanistan will turn into a reverse Kargil for NATO. "They will have weapons but no bullets to fire; and if Pakistan shuts the air corridors to NATO then it would be a cold death for them and America will have to renegotiate with Pakistan", she said.

Stop NATO website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

All Eyes on Israel After Second Iranian Blast

2011-12-04T14:58:00.000+05:00

By Sheera Frenkel, Jerusalem

December 02, 2011 "The Australian" --

CLOUDS of smoke billowed above the city of Isfahan - evidence that the latest strike against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program had hit its target.

The second blast in as many weeks at an atomic or missile facility has sparked Iranian denials and claims of accidents, but a new phase in efforts to destroy its nuclear ambitions is said to be under way.

"Instead of overt action you have covert action. This is the new battlefront -- this is a new kind of war," an Israeli defence official said.

The Israeli Defence Minister, in a radio interview yesterday, did little to dampen speculation that it had a role in the blast at Isfahan, located in central Iran, and an explosion at a missile base west of Tehran.

Ehud Barak, acknowledging that Israel stood to benefit most from disruption to the nuclear program, said: "We are not happy to see the Iranians move ahead on this (program), so any delay, be it divine intervention or otherwise, is welcome."

More than 20 members of the Revolutionary Guards died in the explosion at the missile base two weeks ago, including General Hassan Moghaddam, described as the architect of Iran's missile program.

The facilities in Isfahan are involved in converting uranium yellowcake ore into uranium hexafluoride, part of the process of enriching it to fuel or weapons-grade material. A US official yesterday dismissed Iranian claims that the Isfahan explosion took place at a nearby site and not at the nuclear facility, but said it was unclear how much damage had been done.

Half a dozen other incidents of mysterious explosions and accidental deaths have been reported in the past two years. They range from a blast at a base housing a medium-range Shahab-3 missile near the western city of Khorramabad in October last year to the killing of Dariush Rezaei, a nuclear scientist, in Tehran in July. The deployment of Stuxnet last year, a computer virus that wreaked havoc on uranium-enrichment centrifuges, defined modern cyber-warfare.

Covert action suits Israel, hampering the nuclear program without provoking a direct confrontation, sources said. One Western intelligence official said the incidents were "perfect for Israel".

"You have Iran's nuclear weapons program slowed down. On the other hand, you don't have to take responsibility for doing anything, and Iran will continue to deny them and call them accidents."

He said this "served both parties for the time being" but that it could "only continue for so long".

When and how Israel could launch a full attack is still being debated by its officials. They have said that they would seek the support of the West, though US and British officials have said that they do not know whether Israel would give them warning.

The Times

See also - The war against Iran's nuclear program has already begun: Explosions, deadly computer viruses and other sorts of 'accidents' - someone is targeting Iran's nuclear project: either the Western intelligence agencies, internal opposition groups, or both.

--
Shahzad Afzal
http://www.pakistanprobe.com/

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Nato's fraught roads to Afghanistan

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U.S.'s Afghan Headache: $400-a-Gallon Gasoline

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The new ‘western policeman’ in Muslim World

Qatar: The new 'western policeman' in Muslim World

US/NATO deadly attack on the front line partner in the war against terror

Vietnam-Style Exit: Russia Could Deliver Death Blow To NATO in Af-Pak War

All Eyes on Israel After Second Iranian Blast

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