The US Military Kill Team

From Rolling Stones Team

How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon

Cpl. Jeremy Morlock with Staff Sgt. David Bram

Share3

By Mark Boal

March 27, 2011 10:00 PM ET

Morlock and Holmes called to him in Pashto as he walked toward them, ordering him to stop. The boy did as he was told. He stood still.

The soldiers knelt down behind a mud-brick wall. Then Morlock tossed a grenade toward Mudin, using the wall as cover. As the grenade exploded, he and Holmes opened fire, shooting the boy repeatedly at close range with an M4 carbine and a machine gun.

Mudin buckled, went down face first onto the ground. His cap toppled off. A pool of blood congealed by his head.

The loud report of the guns echoed all around the sleepy farming village. The sound of such unexpected gunfire typically triggers an emergency response in other soldiers, sending them into full battle mode. Yet when the shots rang out, some soldiers didn't seem especially alarmed, even when the radio began to squawk. It was Morlock, agitated, screaming that he had come under attack. On a nearby hill, Spc. Adam Winfield turned to his friend, Pfc. Ashton Moore, and explained that it probably wasn't a real combat situation. It was more likely a staged killing, he said – a plan the guys had hatched to take out an unarmed Afghan without getting caught.

Back at the wall, soldiers arriving on the scene found the body and the bloodstains on the ground. Morlock and Holmes were crouched by the wall, looking excited. When a staff sergeant asked them what had happened, Morlock said the boy had been about to attack them with a grenade. "We had to shoot the guy," he said.

It was an unlikely story: a lone Taliban fighter, armed with only a grenade, attempting to ambush a platoon in broad daylight, let alone in an area that offered no cover or concealment. Even the top officer on the scene, Capt. Patrick Mitchell, thought there was something strange about Morlock's story. "I just thought it was weird that someone would come up and throw a grenade at us," Mitchell later told investigators.

But Mitchell did not order his men to render aid to Mudin, whom he believed might still be alive, and possibly a threat. Instead, he ordered Staff Sgt. Kris Sprague to "make sure" the boy was dead. Sprague raised his rifle and fired twice.

As the soldiers milled around the body, a local elder who had been working in the poppy field came forward and accused Morlock and Holmes of murder. Pointing to Morlock, he said that the soldier, not the boy, had thrown the grenade. Morlock and the other soldiers ignored him.

To identify the body, the soldiers fetched the village elder who had been speaking to the officers that morning. But by tragic coincidence, the elder turned out to be the father of the slain boy. His moment of grief-stricken recognition, when he saw his son lying in a pool of blood, was later recounted in the flat prose of an official Army report. "The father was very upset," the report noted.

The father's grief did nothing to interrupt the pumped-up mood that had broken out among the soldiers. Following the routine Army procedure required after every battlefield death, they cut off the dead boy's clothes and stripped him naked to check for identifying tattoos. Next they scanned his iris and fingerprints, using a portable biometric scanner.

Then, in a break with protocol, the soldiers began taking photographs of themselves celebrating their kill. Holding a cigarette rakishly in one hand, Holmes posed for the camera with Mudin's bloody and half-naked corpse, grabbing the boy's head by the hair as if it were a trophy deer. Morlock made sure to get a similar memento.

No one seemed more pleased by the kill than Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, the platoon's popular and hard-charging squad leader. "It was like another day at the office for him," one soldier recalls. Gibbs started "messing around with the kid," moving his arms and mouth and "acting like the kid was talking." Then, using a pair of razor-sharp medic's shears, he reportedly sliced off the dead boy's pinky finger and gave it to Holmes, as a trophy for killing his first Afghan.

According to his fellow soldiers, Holmes took to carrying the finger with him in a zip-lock bag. "He wanted to keep the finger forever and wanted to dry it out," one of his friends would later report. "He was proud of his finger."

After the killing, the soldiers involved in Mudin's death were not disciplined or punished in any way. Emboldened, the platoon went on a shooting spree over the next four months that claimed the lives of at least three more innocent civilians. When the killings finally became public last summer, the Army moved aggressively to frame the incidents as the work of a "rogue unit" operating completely on its own, without the knowledge of its superiors. Military prosecutors swiftly charged five low-ranking soldiers with murder, and the Pentagon clamped down on any information about the killings. Soldiers in Bravo Company were barred from giving interviews, and lawyers for the accused say their clients faced harsh treatment if they spoke to the press, including solitary confinement. No officers were charged.

But a review of internal Army records and investigative files obtained by Rolling Stone, including dozens of interviews with members of Bravo Company compiled by military investigators, indicates that the dozen infantrymen being portrayed as members of a secretive "kill team" were operating out in the open, in plain view of the rest of the company. Far from being clandestine, as the Pentagon has implied, the murders of civilians were common knowledge among the unit and understood to be illegal by "pretty much the whole platoon," according to one soldier who complained about them. Staged killings were an open topic of conversation, and at least one soldier from another battalion in the 3,800-man Stryker Brigade participated in attacks on unarmed civilians. "The platoon has a reputation," a whistle-blower named Pfc. Justin Stoner told the Army Criminal Investigation Command. "They have had a lot of practice staging killings and getting away with it."

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Pakistan awaiting the clerical tsunami: Pervez Hoodbhoy

by Farooq Sulehria

Taseer’s assassin is a Barelvi Muslim belonging to the Dawat-e-Islami, and 500 clerics of this faith supported his action. Most of these mullahs are part of the Sunni Tehreek and are supposedly anti-Taliban moderates. Those who claim that Pakistan’s silent majority is fundamentally secular and tolerant may be clutching at straws

On January 4, Salman Taseer, governor of Pakistan’s largest province, was gunned down by his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri. Salman Taseer was campaigning to reform country’s blasphemy laws. His advocacy to repeal these laws, seen as a threat to religious minorities, invited clerical wrath. Mullahs issued fatwas and announced prize money on his head. Mumtaz Qadri, a religious fanatic declared unsuitable by police department for VIP duties, was deputed along Taseer’s security details. A lapse? Given the influence of extremist in country’s security apparatus, such a slip would indeed be intriguing. In his confession, the assassin said he was inspired by a mullah but did it on his own. Incidentally, his fellow guards on duty did not react until he had finished Taseer off. He peacefully surrendered. Ever since the media, mullahs and the Right have made a hero out of him. The clergy has bestowed upon him the religious honorific of Ghazi(Conqueror). The government has announced not to touch the controversial blasphemy laws. In an interview with Viewpoint, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy discusses the situation in Pakistan. Hoodbhoy received his undergraduate and PhD degrees from MIT and has been teaching nuclear and high-energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad for 37 years. He also lectures at US universities and laboratories, and is a frequent commentator, on Pakistani TV channels as well as international media outlets, on various social and political issues. Excerpts:

The murder of Governor Salman Taseer, who opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy law, has shocked the world. But in Pakistan the killer has become a hero for a sizeable section of society. Why?

In a society dominated by traditional religious values, heroism often means committing some violent and self-destructive act for preserving honor. Although Governor Taseer was not accused of blasphemy, his crime was to seek presidential pardon for an illiterate peasant Christian woman accused of blasphemy by some Muslim neighbours. Taseer’s intervention clearly crossed the current limits of toleration. With no party support, he went at it alone.

Malik Mumtaz Qadri – the official security guard who pumped 22 bullets into the man he was deputed to protect – is not the first such hero. The 19-year old illiterate who killed the author of the book “Rangeela Rasool” in the 1920’s, and was then executed by the British, was held in the highest esteem by the founders of Pakistan, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It is reported that Iqbal, regarded as Islam’s pre-eminent 20th century philosopher, placed the body in the grave with tears in his eyes and said: "This young man left us, the educated men, behind." Ghazi Ilm-e-Deen is venerated by a mausoleum over his grave in Lahore.

In his court testimony, Taseer’s assassin proudly declared that he was executing Allah’s will. Hundreds of lawyers – made famous by the Black Coat Revolution that restored Pakistan’s Chief Justice – showered him with rose petals while he was in police custody. Two hundred lawyers signed a pledge vowing to defend him for free. Significantly, Qadri is a Barelvi Muslim belonging to the Dawat-e-Islami, and 500 clerics of this faith supported his action in a joint declaration. They said that those who sympathized with Taseer deserved similar punishment.

Significantly most of these mullahs are part of the Sunni Tehreek and are supposedly anti-Taliban moderates. Indeed, one of their leaders, Maulana Sarfaraz Naeemi, was blown up by a Taliban suicide bomber in June 2009 after he spoke out against suicide bombings. But now these “moderates” have joined hands with their attackers. Jointly they rule Pakistan’s streets today, while a cowardly and morally bankrupt government cringes and caves in to their every demand.

Pakistani voters have always voted for secular-leaning parties but it appears that today the religious parties actually represent popular discourse. Do you concur?

Yes, I do. Those who claim that Pakistan’s silent majority is fundamentally secular and tolerant may be clutching at straws. They argue that the religious parties don’t get the popular vote and so cannot really be popular. But this is wishful thinking. The mullah parties are unsuccessful only because they are geared for street politics, not electoral politics. They also lack charismatic leadership and have bitter internal rivalries. However the victory of the MMA after 911 shows that they are capable of closing ranks. It is also perfectly possible that a natural leader will emerge and cause an electoral landslide in the not too distant future.

But even without winning elections, the mullah parties are immensely more powerful in determining how you and I live than election-winning parties like the PPP and ANP. For a long time the religious right has dictated what we can or cannot teach in our public and private schools. No government ever had the guts to dilute the hate materials being forced down young throats. They also dictate what you and I can wear, eat, or drink. Their unchallenged power has led to Pakistan’s cultural desertification because they violently oppose music, dance, theatre, art, and intellectual inquiry.

To be sure there are scattered islands of normality in urban Pakistan. But these are shrinking. Yes, the Baluch nationalists are secular, and so is the ethnically-driven MQM in Karachi. But these constitute a tiny fraction of the population.

The government has capitulated. The prime minister has announced not to touch the blasphemy laws. Does this mean that religious fanatics can dictate their terms even without any parliamentary representation?

It is indeed a complete abdication. When the bearded ones brought out 50,000 charged people onto the streets of Karachi, a terrified government instantly sought negotiations with them. Even before that happened, the current interior minister – Rahman Malik, a venal hack and as crooked as they come – promptly declared that he’d personally gun down a blasphemer.

The government’s pants are soaking wet. In fact, so wet that the ruling party dumped Taseer – who was their own high-ranking member – after the murder. There’s talk now of getting American guards for Zardari since his own guards may be untrustworthy. Sherry Rahman, the brave parliamentarian who dared to table a bill to reform the blasphemy law, is now bunkered down. She is said to be receiving two death threats an hour. Significantly, the Army high command has made no public statement on the assassination, although it is vocal on much else.

Pakistan’s media is often described as independent and vibrant. But this media had painted Taseer negatively almost a month before he was killed. Your comments?

The media’s so-called independence and vibrancy is reserved for attacking a manifestly corrupt, but nominally secular, government. On other issues – such as a rational discussion of religion and the army’s role in society – it is conspicuously silent. Few sane people are brought on to shows, or are too scared to speak.

Let me recount some personal experiences. The day after Taseer’s assassination, FM-99 (Urdu) called me for an interview. The producer tearfully told me (offline) that she could not find a single religious scholar ready to condemn his murder. She said even ordinary people like me are in short supply.

The next day a TV program on blasphemy (Samaa TV, hosted by Asma Shirazi) was broadcast. Asma had pleaded that I participate. So I did – knowing full well 
what was up ahead. My opponents were Farid Paracha (spokesman, Jamaat-e-Islami) and Maulana Sialvi (Sunni Tehreek, a Barelvi and supposed moderate). There were around 100 students in the audience, drawn from colleges across Pindi and Islamabad.

Even as the mullahs frothed and screamed around me (and at me), I managed to say the obvious: that the culture of religious extremism was resulting in a bloodbath in which the majority of victims were Muslims; that non-Muslims were fleeing Pakistan; that the self-appointed “thaikaydars” of Islam in Pakistan were deliberately ignoring the case of other Muslim countries like Indonesia which do not have the death penalty for blasphemy; that debating the details of Blasphemy Law 295-C did not constitute blasphemy; that American Muslims were very far from being the objects of persecution; that harping on drone attacks was an irrelevancy to the present discussion on blasphemy.

The response? Not a single clap for me. Thunderous applause whenever my opponents called for death for blasphemers. And loud cheers for Qadri. When I directly addressed Sialvi and said he had Salman Taseer's blood on his hand, he exclaimed “How I wish I had done it!” (kaash ke main nay khud kiya hota!). You can find all this on YouTube if you like.

One can debate whether this particular episode (and probably many similar ones) should be blamed on the media, whether it genuinely reflects the public mood, and whether those students fairly represented the general Pakistani youth. But there is little doubt which side the Pakistani media took. This was apparent from the unwillingness of anchors to condemn the assassination, as well as from images of the smiling murderer being feted all around. Mullah guests filled the screens of most channels. Some journalists and TV-show participants favorably compared Qadri with Ilm-e-Deen. Others sought to prove that Taseer somehow brought his death upon himself.

Many in Pakistan like Imran Khan, a cricket star turned politician, blame the recent rise of extremism on the US occupation of Afghanistan. Is that the root cause in your opinion?

If the US had never come to Afghanistan, Pakistan would not be the violent mess that it is today. So there is an element of truth in this claim, but no more than an element. Let me give you an analogy: imagine lots of dry wood and a lighted match. The US-led anti-Soviet war was that match. But the combustible material is that dangerous conservatism which accumulated over time. The strength of the Islamist parties vastly increased after Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto kow-towed to them after 1973-4. This was 5-6 years before the Soviet invasion so one can scarcely blame America for that.

Yes, the West did set dry wood on fire. But the staggering quantity of wood comes from the rotting mass of Pakistan’s state and society. Ours is an apartheid society where the rich treat the poor like dirt, the justice system does not work, education is as rotten as it can be, and visible corruption goes unpunished. Add to all this a million mullahs in a million mosques who exploit people’s frustrations. You then have the explanation for today’s catastrophic situation.

Of course I would love to see the Americans out of Afghanistan. The sooner they can withdraw – without precipitating a 1996 style Taliban massacre – the better. But let’s realize that US withdrawal will not end Pakistan’s problems. Those fighting the Americans aren’t exactly Vietnamese-type socialists or nationalists. The Taliban-types want a full cultural revolution: beards, burqas, 5 daily prayers, no music, no art, no entertainment, and no contact with modernity except for getting its weapons.

In Tunis, a dictator has been humbled by peaceful mass mobilisation instead of al-Qaida affiliates. In Bangladesh, superior courts have re-instated the basic secular constitution of the country and religion in politics has been banned in recent months. Do you see the tide turning in Muslim world. Does it offer a hope in Pakistan?

The grievances in Tunisia are similar in some ways to those in Pakistan: raging unemployment, grotesque corruption, and the opulent lifestyles of the elite. Like Zardari, who fills Pakistani cities with pictures of the Bhutto clan and renames streets and airports, Ben Ali also promoted his family. Both plundered national wealth, and both got the West’s support because they claimed to be bulwarks against extremism. Today Ben Ali is gone, and tomorrow Zardari will be gone.

But the differences are profound: Tunisia’s population of 10 million is miniscule compared to Pakistan’s 180 million. Young Tunisians do not suffer from a toxic overdose of hard-line religion. So they came out bravely into the streets to fight for real social change. One can therefore hope that Ben Ali’s departure will lead to a flowering of Arab democracy rather than invite the dark forces of religious extremism. Yet one can be absolutely sure that Zardari’s departure, which may happen sooner rather than later, is not likely to lead to a more secular or more peaceful Pakistan.

As for Bangladesh: let us recall that it emerged from the collapse of Jinnah’s Two-Nation theory. Nationalism triumphed over religion in 1971. Hence the positive new developments in Bangladesh are not difficult to understand.

What do you think is the way to stem the rising tide of religious extremism in Pakistan?

If you want the truth: the answer is, nothing. Our goose is cooked. Sometimes there is no way to extinguish a forest fire until it burns itself out. Ultimately there will be nothing left to burn. But well before the last liberal is shot or silenced, the mullahs will be gunning for each other in a big way. Mullah-inspired bombers have already started blowing up shrines and mosques of the opposing sect. The internet is flooded with gory photographs of chopped-up body parts belonging to their rivals. Qadri, the assassin, admitted his inspiration to murder came from a cleric. So you can also expect that Muslim clerics will enthusiastically kill other Muslim clerics. Eventually we could have the situation that prevailed during Europe’s 30-Year War.

To save Pakistan, what miracles shall we ask of Allah? Here’s my personal list: First, that the Pakistan army stops seeing India as enemy number one and starts seeing extremism as a mortal threat. Second, that Zardari’s government is replaced by one that is less corrupt, more capable of governance, and equipped with both the will and legitimacy to challenge religious fascism. And, third, that peace somehow comes to Afghanistan.  

Pilot for a day: Thalassemia patient gets her wish

It was like a dream come true for 12-year old Naima Gul, resident of Mingora, Swat, when she became the first female pilot of the Pakistan Army Aviation.

PESHAWAR: It was like a dream come true for 12-year old Naima Gul, resident of Mingora, Swat, when she became the first female pilot of the Pakistan Army Aviation, after her wish was granted by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani on Tuesday.

Naima, who is suffering from Thalassemia, wrote a letter to General Kayani informing him of her wish to become a pilot. She received a prompt reply and was inducted as the first aviation female pilot in the history of the Pakistan Army.

“I don’t know how long I will live, but today my dream has come true,” Naima said, speaking at her induction ceremony.

“I will live for my country and will die for it,” said Naima.

“I’m lucky to have received a prompt reply from the Chief of Army Staff, who not only fulfilled my dream but also gave me immense courage, to fight against this deadly disease,” she added.

“I want to help patients suffering from this disease through establishing Naima Gul Foundation,” she added. The foundation, she said, would provide free medication to patients of Thalassemia.

Speaking at the induction ceremony, Corps Commander Lt Gen Yasin Malik said the role of women is not only increasing generally in society but also in the army, where they are working alongside the men.

Naima’s father, Zabatullah Sohail, her mother, Shabana Anjum and her younger sister Roqia were also there to see Naima fly a Lama helicopter.

“I’m a proud man today, as my daughter got the honour of becoming the first female pilot in Pakistan Army, an army whose jawans have given matchless sacrifices to achieve peace for the people of Swat and the rest of Pakistan,” Zabatullah told APP.

Naima’s mother thanked the COAS, the Corps Commander Peshawar and other officials for fulfilling her daughter’s dream.

“We are proud parents,” she added.

With her enrolment as honorary aviation pilot for a day, Naima’s treatment and education would be free

“We are happy that the army would carry out all medication and education expenses of Naima,” her father said.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Our ranting and raving

What is it that makes us really mad about the Raymond Davis saga? Is it that two Pakistani lives have been lost and no one has been made to account for them? Is it that big, bad America has rubbed our noses in the dirt, robbed us of honour and established that with power and money one can even get away with murder in Pakistan? Is it that our civilian and military leaders have proved yet again that their personal servitude to US interests takes precedence over all else? Is it that with the acceptance of blood money the families of the slain Pakistanis have reminded us that ordinary citizens are as eager to sell their souls for the right price as our leaders? 

Or is it a vile conspiracy against Islam that a Shariah-inspired law has been used by an infidel to get away with murder? Has the manner and speed of the Davis trial established that our justice system isn’t really blind and does play favourites if they are powerful enough? 

How does one explain the outpour of national outrage at the death of two Pakistanis (with suspect backgrounds at best) and nothing comparable at the killing of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti? Why are the lives claimed in Fata by drone attacks, in Balochistan by national security, and across Pakistan by morality, honour and intolerance any less valuable? 

Does Shariah-inspired law not endorse the concept of blood money, the role of a victim’s legal heirs in granting forgiveness and the legal system letting a killer off the hook if he manages to buy his pardon? Why is the use of this law acceptable when it comes into play to excuse premeditated murders of women by family members for the sake of ‘honour’ or to allow the rich to purchase their way out of the criminal justice system, but not in the case of Davis? 

Why criticise Hussain Haqqani for showing the Americans a legal way out of the Davis debacle? Could he have shown such a way if none existed? If the Davis case has made a mockery of justice why is no one interested in plugging loopholes in the Qisas and Diyat law even today? Has the justice system faltered in this particular case? Do we not know that thousands use money and influence every day to grease the wheels of our judicial system? Is financial or intellectual corruption kosher when it comes to cases involving Pakistanis but swift judicial process abhorrent if it benefits someone like Davis? 

The ability of a legal system to produce justice is contingent on the merit and substance of laws together with the integrity of procedures that comprise the system. 

As a nation we are loath to critique and revisit abusive statutory provisions such as the blasphemy law or the diyat law. We understand that bigots in the past conceived flawed legal provisions in the name of religion, present-day bigots defend them tooth and nail for their public survival rests on their ability to continue to drag religion into politics and abuse it, and yet we are too timid to stand for our beliefs and confront the abuse of religion in our state. 

How can a legal system comprising flawed laws and compromised procedural practices miraculously produce justice? 

Leaving our hypocrisy and internal contradictions aside, let us form a fair estimate of what happened in the Davis case. The fact that an undercover CIA operative was formally arrested and information about the case was released to the media was extraordinary. 

The federal government refused to declare that Raymond Davis enjoyed diplomatic immunity despite US pressure backed by all its might having been brought to bear upon it. The US administration was forced to backtrack and consider ‘amicable’ alternatives when Pakistan insisted that Davis’ release must be the outcome of our court process. 

At a time when the US is plunged into one of the most Islamophobic phases of its history (with legislators in more than 13 states having introduced bills requiring courts to disregard Shariah laws), the US administration has had to rely on a Shariah-inspired Pakistani law to buy the release of a spook in full public glare. 

Notwithstanding current US status as the sole superpower and the arrogance that comes along, the Davis episode (in the midst of the Middle East turmoil) would have driven home the point that even in satellite states such as Pakistan business-as-usual might not work for much longer. The formula of relying on compliant elites within client states eager and willing to do the master’s bidding is on an extended lease of life if not outdated. 

In Pakistan with the judiciary and the media emerging as new sources of influence more responsive to public opinion, power is no longer as centralised and monopolised as it used to be. Such change in the power-distribution pattern will make it harder for the US to rely on a coterie of individuals within the ruling regime to secure its interests in utter disregard of street opinion. 

But here lies the rub as well. The manner in which the Raymond Davis saga wound up has further entrenched the sense of disempowerment of the average Pakistani. We are angry most of all for we feel used. Our elites have not undergone a change of heart it now seems. They are still eager to sleep with the enemy. It is obvious that public anger was deliberately provoked in this case as a tactical maneuver to drive up the price. 

Our faceless khakis were running the show all along. Once they extracted their pound of flesh things became hunky-dory and the ‘system’ started to speak with one voice again. The biggest winners in this haggle have been the army and the ISI, and the democratic process, civilian control of the military and a rational tolerant society the sorest losers.

Punishing Raymond Davis was not going to rid Pakistan of any of its problems. We feel violated because this episode has thrown into our faces the ugly realities that characterise our state and our society. Our reaction is twofold: a sense of fatalism reflected in self-loathing commentary on how we are a failed people and deserve the hand we have been dealt; or a sense of denial obvious in theories about the US-Euro-Zino-Indian hegemonic-nexus conspiring to hold down the tremendous potential of the faithful in this land of the pure. 

Neither position helps one indulge in constructive self-criticism and take corrective measures. The real tragedy surrounding the Davis saga is that while getting all riled up against the US, we are refusing to learn the right lessons.

The Raymond Davis episode transpired because our security apparatus is not accountable to the people of Pakistan and the national security policy is not subject to public scrutiny. We will never know the details of why the CIA and the ISI fell out in the first place and the terms on which they made up and so more Davises will exist and thrive without our knowledge. 

What we do know is that the khakis have established conclusively that anyone interested in doing business in Pakistan must go through them (first by stirring up a national crisis over the Kerry-Lugar law and then taming it, and now by getting Davis wound up in a legal conundrum and then disentangling him). 

This will remind the US and other foreign actors of the necessity of building direct ties with the army, further perpetuate the civil-military imbalance in Pakistan and weaken the democratic process. Meanwhile the nation addicted to hollow notions of pride will continue to confuse jingoism with national interest and growing anti-Americanism will keep religious parties, bigotry and intolerance alive and well in Pakistan.

Babar Sattar
Saturday, March 19, 2011

The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND MAKE ENEMIES

In the 25 years of the Viet Nam war what lives on in most memories is the MY LAI massacre where US soldiers under the command of an officer deliberately massacred an entire village of men, women and children as sport. The fact that Bangkok was turned into a brothel for US military personnel and that there was widespread domestic dissent against the US war in Viet Nam leading to protests and refusal to enlist and that the veterans of that war still suffer are lesser known facts.

Read more...

Harrowing tale of Pakistani policemen lynched in Bahrain

By Salman Siddiqui

Published: March 21, 2011

Kashif was lynche­d and murder­ed by an angry mob when his police unit was ordere­d to move in agains­t protes­tors.

KARACHI: Kashif Mehmood joined the Bahraini police force soon after he graduated from the Pakistani school in Bahrain.

He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps who joined the Bahraini police after migrating from Gujranwala’s Mandi Bahauddin area, some 30 years ago.

No one from Kashif’s family of four siblings and parents could imagine that one day the 20-year-old’s life would be cut short as brutally as it was last Wednesday.

Kashif was lynched and murdered by an angry mob when a police unit, which Kashif was a part of, was ordered to move in against protesters gathered at Pearl Square in Manama.

The nightmare for Kashif’s family, however, did not end at his death. Gruesome images and videos of his death  have appeared all over the internet. Many have also posted hateful and racist slogans under them, against the Pakistani community in Bahrain.

“I haven’t slept in days,” says Ali, Kashif’s 18-year-old brother, while speaking over the phone as he emailed video links of his brother’s murder.

He sounded horrified when he said that houses of Pakistanis, especially those employed with the security forces, were being marked by protesters, to be attacked later.

Kashif, and another Bahraini policeman of Pakistani origin, Farooq Baloch, were on duty together on Wednesday, when an operation against the protesters was launched. Amid the chaos, the two young policemen, armed just with sticks, broke away from their unit and sought help from an approaching ambulance. Little did they know that the rescue van was actually loaded with protestors.

The ambulance ran them over, killing Baloch who had married three months ago and the sole breadwinner for his family.

Kashif, who barely survived the first onslaught, was kidnapped and taken to an empty ground.

Videos posted online show that groups of young men then took turns in kicking and clobbering with sticks Kashif’s lifeless body.

Even though it was apparent that he was dead, the protesters proceeded to mutilate his body, with groups of young men in their SUVs repeatedly running over the corpse.

The incident bore an eerie resemblance to the Sialkot lynching incident, where the onlookers cheered on as the victim was tortured.

Ali says his father sent his mother back to Gujranwala a few days ago. They have yet to tell her that her son died in such a horrific manner.

Both Kashif and Farooq were buried in Bahrain.

Another victim of the protestors’ wrath was the 54-year-old Saifullah Mohammad Ibrahim, who remains in critical condition after being severely injured in the attacks.

He worked in the police department and moved from Punjab decades ago, to settle in Bahrain.

“When [the protestors] took my uncle to the Lulu roundabout, they not only tortured him, but also heckled him for being a Pakistani,” said Maheen, a relative of Saifullah.

While humiliating him, the protesters chanted “Down down Pakistan, go back to your country,” Maheen added.

At least four Bahrainis of Pakistani origin have been reportedly killed and several dozens injured in the on-going crisis.

The security situation in the country remains volatile even though the state claimed that the protest was successfully being put down by Arab League-backed troops.

The main worry, however, for the Pakistani expatriates, is that the friction that this crisis has created in the Bahraini society will take years to repair.

When asked whether his family was considering leaving Bahrain for good, Ali said that although they were in shock, no one is thinking about leaving Bahrain or going back to Pakistan.

We were born and brought up in Bahrain, how could we just leave our home like that, he said.

“I’m going nowhere. I will join the police force like Kashif,” he added.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Pakistan coal mine blast death toll hits 45, survivors unlikely

Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:14am GMT

By Gul Yusafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The death toll from Sunday's methane gas explosions in a coal mine in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan rose to 45 on Monday, government officials said, as hopes faded there would be any survivors from the disaster.

More than 50 miners were in the mine when three big explosions triggered by methane gas ripped through the caverns.

"Forty-five miners have died. We have retrieved 25 bodies so far," Aslam Bizenjo, provincial irrigation minister, told the provincial assembly.

Officials said the chances of finding the trapped workers alive were very slim because of a fire, which had consumed all the oxygen. Witnesses said the bodies had severe burns from the huge fire.

The mine, some 35 km (22 miles) from the provincial capital, Quetta, is owned by the state-run Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation and was leased to a contractor.

Mohammad Iftikhar, chief inspector of mines in the region, said the contactor had been asked to shut down the mine two weeks ago because of an excessive accumulation of methane gas.

Such explosions are not uncommon in coal mines in Pakistan, most of which are located in Baluchistan and neighbouring Sindh, where safety measures can be lax.

The country has huge coal reserves estimated at more than 184 billion tonnes. It produces 4 million tonnes of coal annually, most of which is consumed by brick-making kilns.  

US Army 'kill team' in Afghanistan posed for photos of murdered civilians

Commanders brace for backlash of anti-US sentiment that could be more damaging than after the Abu Ghraib scandal

The Afghanistan 'kill team' photos of murdered civilians could be more
damaging than those from Abu Ghraib, say NATO commanders.
Photograph: AP

 

Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of "trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed.

Senior officials at Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world.

They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by a rogue US Stryker tank unit that operated in the southern province of Kandahar last year.

Some of the activities of the self-styled "kill team" are already public, with 12 men currently on trial in Seattle for their role in the killing of three civilians.

Five of the soldiers are on trial for pre-meditated murder, after they staged killings to make it look like they were defending themselves from Taliban attacks.

Other charges include the mutilation of corpses, the possession of images of human casualties and drug abuse.

All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

The case has already created shock around the world, particularly with the revelations that the men cut "trophies" from the bodies of the people they killed.

An investigation by Der Spiegel has unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the men.

The magazine, which is planning to publish only three images, said that in addition to the crimes the men were on trial for there are "also entire collections of pictures of other victims that some of the defendants were keeping".

The US military has strived to keep the pictures out of the public domain fearing it could inflame feelings at a time when anti-Americanism in Afghanistan is already running high.

In a statement, the army said it apologised for the distress caused by photographs "depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States".

The lengthy Spiegel article that accompanies the photographs contains new details about the sadistic behaviour of the men.

In one incident in May last year, the article says, during a patrol, the team apprehended a mullah who was standing by the road and took him into a ditch where they made him kneel down.

The group's leader, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, then allegedly threw a grenade at the man while an order was given for him to be shot.

Afterwards, Gibbs is described cutting off one of the man's little fingers and removing a tooth.

The patrol team later claimed to their superiors that the mullah had tried to threaten them with a grenade and that they had no choice but to shoot.

On Sunday night many organisations employing foreign staff, including the United Nations, ordered their staff into a "lockdown", banning all movements around Kabul and requiring people to remain in their compounds.

In addition to the threat from the publication of the photographs, security has been heightened amid fears the Taliban may try to attack Persian new year celebrations.

There could also be attacks because Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, is due to make a speech declaring which areas of the country should be transferred from international to Afghan control in the coming months.

One security manager for the US company DynCorp sent an email to clients warning that publication of the photos was likely "to incite the local population" as the "severity of the incidents to be revealed are graphic and extreme".

Libya's Opposition Leadership Comes into Focus

Libya has descended to a situation tantamount to civil war, with forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the west pitted against rebels from the east. One of the biggest problems faced by Western governments has been identifying exactly who the rebels are. Many of them, including former Libyan Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil and former Interior Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah Younis, defected early on from the Gadhafi regime and represent part of the leadership of the National Transitional Council, which lobbied Western governments for support soon after its formation.

Read more...

Prostitution In Pakistan

BY SAHRISH JAMALI, ON MARCH 18TH, 2011

Continue reading Prostitution In Pakistan

US Spy Operation that Manipulates Social Media

BY ANDREW JACOBSON, ON MARCH 18TH, 2011

Military’s ‘sock puppet’ software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

Continue reading US Spy Operation that Manipulates Social Media

A story of hope

BY ANDREW JACOBSON, ON MARCH 21ST, 2011

After the longest strike in the history of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), the students of the Multan College of Arts were forced back into the classrooms on Monday, March 16, 2011. They had stood united for 21 days while facing harassment and threats of expulsion by the administration, and threats of physical violence from politically-backed student groups. They continued to stand and peacefully protest after disappointment followed disappointment in meetings with the highest-level officials in the Punjab Government. The core of what they were fighting for was truth, justice and a proper education. In the end, none of their goals were achieved.

Continue reading A story of hope

Indian reporter wins AFP prize for work in Occupied Kashmir

“As a woman, Dilnaz endured difficult, male-dominated conditions in an extremely hostile environment to report on the human side of the Kashmir situation, particularly the impact on the youth,” said Eric Wishart said. –Photo by AFP/Rouf Bhat

HONG KONG: Dilnaz Boga, an Indian photojournalist and reporter, has won the Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize for her courageous work in Indian-administered Kashmir, the AFP Foundation announced Wednesday.

Boga, 33, spent a year in Srinagar working for the respected news portal Kashmir Dispatch as well as a number of international publications and websites, the culmination of a decade covering the troubled region.

The Kate Webb Prize was launched in 2008 in honour of the legendary AFP correspondent in Asia who blazed a trail for women in international journalism.

The prize recognises exceptional work produced by locally engaged Asian journalists operating in dangerous or difficult circumstances in the region.

Boga will receive a certificate and 3,000 euros in cash at a ceremony in Hong Kong.

“Covering Kashmir is tough enough for any journalist,” said Eric Wishart, AFP’s regional director for the Asia-Pacific region.

“As a woman, Dilnaz endured difficult, male-dominated conditions in an extremely hostile environment to report on the human side of the Kashmir situation, particularly the impact on the youth,” Wishart added.

Boga said monitoring the extent of the violence in all its forms is often difficult, especially when international human rights groups are barred from operating.

“Our stories manage to shed some light on the reality of those who have no voice,” said Boga, who was educated in India and Australia.

Before working in Srinagar, Mumbai-based Boga earned a master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney with a dissertation on the psychological impact of human rights violations on children in Kashmir.

“India may be the world’s largest democracy but it still has a long way to go when it comes to respecting the civil liberties of its citizens and letting them exercise their right to life, education and free speech,” she added.

The inaugural Kate Webb Prize was given in 2008 to Pakistani journalist Mushtaq Yusufzai for his reports from the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The 2009 prize was awarded to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, which was chosen for its fearless work in the deadliest country for reporters.

Webb, who died in 2007 at the age of 64, was one of the finest correspondents to have worked for AFP, earning a reputation for bravery while covering wars and other historic events in the Asia-Pacific region over a career spanning four decades.

She first made her name as a UPI correspondent in the Vietnam War prior to assignments in other parts of Southeast Asia as well as India and the Middle East with AFP.

The prize is administered by the AFP Foundation, a non-profit organisation created to promote higher standards of journalism worldwide, and the Webb family.

China to continue assisting Pakistan in nuclear energy

China says all the countries have an equal right of peaceful nuclear use and it will continue to assist Pakistan in nuclear energy.

The Chinese Ambassador Liu Jian has said that all countries have an equal right of peaceful nuclear use and his country will continue to assist Pakistan in its nuclear energy.

Speaking at a seminar in Islamabad on Tuesday, he said that China hopes an energy mechanism between the two countries will be set up soon.

To a question on Indo-US nuclear cooperation, the Chinese Ambassador said his country is opposed to double standards.

He said that China is ready to advance all sort of cooperation to Pakistan in energy, infrastructure, construction and other areas.

About enhancing people to people contacts, the Chinese Ambassador said that in the coming years, his country will provide five hundred scholarships to Pakistan and invite one hundred Pakistani students this year.

Appreciating the efforts of Pakistan towards the resolution of Kashmir issue, the Chinese Ambassador said the issue could be really solved through dialogue between Pakistan and India.

Forget Pakistan's nukes; worry about India's atomic plants!

India’s atomic plants remain on terror radar: Government

New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) Nuclear power plants in India continue to be on the target list of terror organisations but the government maintains constant vigil and enhances security from time to time, the Lok Sabha was told Tuesday.

‘In view of the prevailing security scenario, the atomic power plants continue to remain targets of terrorist groups,’ Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran said during question hour.

The minister said central security forces were conducting ‘regular sensitisation programmes’ for officials of these plants.

He said intelligence inputs were shared ‘at the appropriate level of Department of Atomic Energy and the state governments concerned from time to time’ to maintain constant tight security vigil at such vital installations.

‘Central security agencies review security of atomic power plants periodically and make specific recommendation to enhance the security wherever required,’ he said.

He said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was mandated to undertake security arrangements for all ‘sensitive’ nuclear installations.

‘Besides CISF, departmental security personnel are also deployed to assist in providing security to the installations,’ he added.

 

Related news:

1.    India to review nuclear plants safety system: PM

2.    India’s nuclear plants are safe, assure officials

3.    Sea level rise may affect atomic plants in Tamil Nadu

4.    Japanese PM declares atomic power emergency

US 'blocks' aid over Raymond Davis issue

By: Ismail Dilawar | Published: March 15, 2011

KARACHI - The United States has finally resorted to punitive measures against Pakistan after Islamabad’s failure to comply with Washington’s covert and overt but pressing demand for the release of Raymond Davis, accused of killing two Pakistani youths in Lahore. The revelation came after the US House of Representatives recently nodded to a Republicans-backed resolution calling for the suspension of economic aid to Pakistan as it was not complying with Washington’s demand for the immediate release of Davis. The resolution is, reportedly, awaiting approval of the American Congress scheduled to reassemble by end of this month. 

Official sources in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs told Pakistan Today that the US disbursements of military and civilian aid to Pakistan under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) and Kerry-Lugar aid package were “practically blocked” at present. “A high-level American delegation visited and pointed out to Pakistan that if it did not release Davis, the US will block the funding,” an official of the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) told Pakistan Today. If true, the suspension of US aid and assistance would fall heavily on the country’s economic managers who have repeatedly been calling upon their strategic partners in Washington to ensure a ‘timely’ reimbursement of war expenses to Pakistan under CSF.

The controversial special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has chosen a new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan: a long-time controversial neocon, a man who has been famous for parading as a foreign agent in the lobby circuit, the scandalous former diplomat Marc Grossman. The not-so-gradual resurrection of the old neocon cabal under the Obama administration, led by Hillary Clinton, should not come as a surprise. According to Washington insiders, Richardl Perle and Douglas Feith have been consulted more than a few times in their ‘unofficial’ capacity, but are not far down in the queue to receive ‘official’ acknowledgement. This shouldn’t come as a surprise; at least to those who’ve been following the steady momentum building at the Obama White House towards a soon-to-come Neocon Easter.

Hillary Clinton appointed Dennis Ross as Special Advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia; a man well-known as a hard-core neocon,  Paul Wolfowitz’ protégé, cofounder of the AIPAC sponsored Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and one of the loudest advocates for the Israel lobby. A man who is known to consider himself more Israeli than American; a Jewish American who is known to have spent ‘a lot of time’ in Israel to find hisreal identity-nationality.

We had Frederick Kagan, a neocon of choice for Mr. Obama, who was hired to manage General Petraeus on Afghanistan. A man whose father was born into a Jewish family in Lithuania; a man cherished by his bosses at theAmerican Enterprise Institute; a man who authored the book, While America Sleeps, arguing in favor of a large increase in military spending and warned of future threats, including the imaginary WMD program in Iraq. We are talking about the man who was one of the main signatories of Project for the New American Century manifesto – the Neocon Bible. The man who was one of the Bush-Cheney administration’s favorite masterminds when it came to perpetual wars.

Let’s jump to our newest and by far the boldest Neocon addition to the Obama-Clinton Whitehouse. Marc Grossman is chosen by the administration to fill the seat vacated byRichard Holbrooke; another Jewish American Neocon who had been a man of choice for every administration in the last four decades. I suggest you read the article titled ‘Obama’s Neocon’ if you want to know a bit more about the old neocon shoes Mr. Grossman will be filling. As for our media’s usual sanitized version for Mr. Grossman’s background, the following by the neocon circle PR machine, the Washington Post, sums it up well:

In a nearly three-decade career at the State Department, Grossman served as assistant secretary of state for Europe and ambassador to Turkey. His last assignment, before retiring from the foreign service in 2005, was undersecretary for political affairs during the first administration of George W. Bush.

He now is vice chairman of the Cohen Group, which advises international business clients on overseas enterprises. Although the consulting group, headed by former defense secretary William Cohen, has several clients with contracts in South Asia, administration officials said they did not foresee any problem in clearing Grossman for the post.

…

From the mainstream media reporting similar to the above, ordinary Americans should at least gather this much:

Mr. Grossman had to be a Bush-Cheney administration favorite to be appointed as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the State Department’s third-ranking official, in 2001. In 2004, Grossman attained the Foreign Service’s highest rank when the President appointed him to the rank of Career Ambassador.

Grossman works for the sin city’s (Washington DC) lobby industry. Not only that, he actually represents foreign governments, foreign businesses and interests. The Cohen Group represents some of the country’s largest weapons manufacturers, companies that stand to benefit from weapons sales: Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Sikorsky…among others. Their list of controversial and or criminal entities includes companies such as DynCorp International. Through their partnership with DLA Piper, the Cohen group also serves foreign clients such as the Turkish government and business interest groups, Australia’s scandalous AWB, India and UAE. 

And here is what many Americans won’t be getting from the US media:

-  The investigative reports on Marc Grossman and his role in planting moles in US nuclear facilities:

An unnamed high-ranking State Department official helps a nuclear smuggling ring connected to Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan and Pakistan’s ISI to plant “moles” in US military and academic institutions that handle nuclear technology, according to FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. The State Department official apparently arranges security clearance for some of the moles, enabling them to work in sensitive nuclear research facilities, including the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which is responsible for the security of the US nuclear deterrent. The high-ranking State Department official who is not named by Britain’s Sunday Times is said to be Marc Grossman…

- John M. Cole, a former FBI Counterintelligence and Counterespionage Manager, has publicly confirmed FBI’s decade long investigation the former State Department Official, Marc Grossman:

John M. Cole, a former FBI Counterintelligence and Counterespionage Manager, has publicly confirmed the FBI’s decade long investigation of the former State Department Official Marc Grossman. Cole worked for 18 years in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. According to Cole, as in over one hundred cases involving Israeli espionage activities directed against the US government, the Grossman case was covered up and buried despite mountains of evidence that was collected.

Here is the public response from John Cole after the publication of The American Conservative magazine’s cover story:

“I read the recent cover story by The American Conservative magazine. I applaud their courage in publishing this significant interview. I am fully aware of the FBI’s decade-long investigation of the High-level State Department Official named in this article, Marc Grossman, which ultimately was buried and covered up. It is long past time to investigate this case and bring about accountability…”

-Marc Grossman was the originator of the Plame Leak:

Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, prepares a memo about former ambassador Joseph Wilson’s trip to Niger to ascertain the truth or falsity of claims that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from that nation (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002). The memo refers explicitly to Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as a CIA official and identifies her as Wilson’s wife, using the name “Valerie Wilson.” The second paragraph of the memo is marked with an “S,” denoting that Wilson is a covert operative for the agency.

-In late December 2005, Grossman joined Ihlas Holding, a large and alleged shady Turkish company which is also active in several Central Asian countries. Grossman is reported to receive $100,000 per month for his advisory position with Ihlas.

-In May 2010, DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest international lobby-law firms, hired Marc Grossman as their front man for their Turkish operations. The man in charge of one of DLA Piper major accounts-Turkey is none other than our good ole Dennis Hastert. That makes two former FBI criminal targets for one firm;-)

Now, with all these murky qualifications, you’d think the mainstream media would have a field day with Marc Grossman’s appointment by the Hillary-Obama administration; right? Wrong. So far, not a peep from the US media and that includes both the ‘R’ and the ‘D’ fronts. Same goes for the quasi alternatives. Not even a word about the ‘revolving door’ aspect of this scandalous appointment: A Foreign Agent, A Lobbyist, A man on the payroll of a shady foreign company for over $1 million a year…But then again, less than a month ago we witnessed another envoy, another appointment, with a major ‘CONFLICT OF INTEREST’ flag rising to its top that went completely censored in the US media. The scandal was widely reported by foreign media, such as the Independent, who actually broke the story, and even after that, we barely heard a peep:

Frank Wisner, President Barack Obama’s envoy to Cairo who infuriated the White House this weekend by urging Hosni Mubarak to remain President of Egypt, works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the dictator’s own Egyptian government.

The US State Department and Mr Wisner himself have now both claimed that his remarks were made in a “personal capacity”. But there is nothing “personal” about Mr Wisner’s connections with the litigation firm Patton Boggs, which openly boasts that it advises “the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the [Mubarak] government’s behalf in Europe and the US”. Oddly, not a single journalist raised this extraordinary connection with US government officials – nor the blatant conflict of interest it appears to represent.

…

Mr Wisner is a retired State Department 36-year career diplomat – he served as US ambassador to Egypt, Zambia, the Philippines and India under eight American presidents. In other words, he was not a political appointee. But it is inconceivable Hillary Clinton did not know of his employment by a company that works for the very dictator which Mr Wisner now defends in the face of a massive democratic opposition in Egypt. So why on earth was he sent to talk to Mubarak, who is in effect a client of Mr Wisner’s current employers?

…

Patton Boggs states that its attorneys “represent some of the leading Egyptian commercial families and their companies” and “have been involved in oil and gas and telecommunications infrastructure projects on their behalf”. One of its partners served as chairman of the US-Egyptian Chamber of Commerce promoting foreign investment in the Egyptian economy. The company has also managed contractor disputes in military-sales agreements arising under the US Foreign Military Sales Act. Washington gives around $1.3bn (£800m) a year to the Egyptian military.

Mr Wisner joined Patton Boggs almost two years ago – more than enough time for both the White House and the State Department to learn of his company’s intimate connections with the Mubarak regime. The New York Times ran a glowing profile of Mr Wisner in its pages two weeks ago – but mysteriously did not mention his ties to Egypt.

…

 

I find this sentence in the above quotes really funny: “Oddly, not a single journalist raised this extraordinary connection with US government officials” As far as our media goes, what’s odd about that?! They’ve been really consistent at remaining very ‘odd’ when it comes to reporting on ‘crucial, troublesome & very relevant’ facts like this one. And, Marc Grossman’s recent unofficial appointment to be official this Friday is another perfect example:

A long-time neocon, a Jewish-American with questionably strong ties to Israel, a long-term target of FBI counterespionage and counterintelligence investigations, a lobbyist, a foreign agent, an employee of a shady foreign business, a man associated with major treason scandals, Marc Grossman, is making his way back to the ‘new’ administration, following his several other co-species who’ve been sitting inside, leading the way for the rest of the co-species who’ve been eagerly waiting to be granted official entry cards. Thanks to the media, while the public is sitting in the dark, the Obama-Hillary White House is changing color to pastels,  getting ready for their Neocon Easter and the resurrection of the previously, and dubiously, advertised as long-gone and dead breed – Neo-cons.

Ask West: Why China has to be what it is in your illusion?

By Li Hongmei 

In a wide-ranging news conference on the sidelines of China's annual sessions of National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi spoke of China’s financial aids to some debt-ridden European countries with deep feeling. He was cited as saying, "it is hard for China to do anything. When we offer help, they would find fault; but if we stand by and look on, they would also pick holes."

To the West----No Decry, Distort or Demonize China

When we were labeled as "Sick Man in East Asia", You held us in contempt calling us "Yellow Peril";

When we are catapulted to Stardom and expected to be next super power, You finger point us to be "a major threat".

Then we were forced entry by your Opium and Big Gun, and forced open to Your smuggling and looting;

Now we offer to open to you and are ready to embrace free trade, but you accuse us of robbing the "rice bowl" of you.

Then we were precarious like a candle guttering in the wind, Your "iron heel" mercilessly treaded on our sovereignty yelling "Share Interests evenly"; 

Now we stand up for our territorial integrity and sovereignty, You come out braying "China Aggression" and "Free Tibet".

Then it was Communism that saved the Chinese nation from extinction, You cursed between your teeth at such a sizable nation of Communists;

Now we try the market economy, You are also enraged for us accepting the idea of "Capitalism".

When we had a population of 1 billion, You said we were destroying the Earth;

When we set limit on our growing population, You immediately wield the stick of "Human Rights"

When we were impoverished, You put us in the same class of "beggors";

When we better off and lend huge sum of our money to You, You would complain we make You a miserable "Debtor".

When we started to develop our Industry, You accused us to be a "Bad Polluter";

When we can sell "Made-in-China’ products to You, You said we are held chief responsibility for "Global Warming".

When we purchase oil, you would say we are exploiting and "cleansing" races;

While when you launched War for oil, You bragged it was all for ‘salvage of the people". 

When we were in the days of tumult and chaos, you said we were barbaric and lawless;

We are now ruling by Law, You would never mince your words when saying we are "abusing human rights." 

When remained reticent and laid low, You said we should have "Free Speech";

When we raise our voice and loudly say No, You would remark we must be brainwashed and xenophobic.

Why You hate us so, ----We wonder,

"No, we never hate you", You might reply.

Neither do we hate You;

But, Do you really understand us? And how much?

"Yes, why?" You will always boast about Your free access to news from "AFP, CNN, and BBC…"

But what you want us to be?

To this, we do not need your reply----

Because enough is enough:

The world has seen enough of hypocrisy.

We hope to see "One world and one dream" and the shared peace.

The Blue Planet, spacious and tolerant, belongs to You, and to us Chinese.

------------------------------------
10:02, March 08, 2011

The articles in this column represent the author's views only. They do not represent opinions of People's Daily or People's Daily Online.

 

Indian Army develops serious differences with Govt

Gets defiant at orders of conducting operation in civilian border area
India Home Secretary holds special parleys to convince Eastern Commander Gen. Bikram Singh

From Christina Palmer

NEW DELHI- The Indian Army leadership has once again developed serious differences with the government and this time it is not over some amendments in Armed Forces controversial Act in Occupied Kashmir but now the Army leadership has straight away refused to obey the Central government’s orders to carry out a military operation in some districts in the areas bordering with Myanmar, reveal the latest findings of THE DAILY MAIL.

According to THE DAILY MAIL’S investigation last month, Indian Minister for Home Affairs, P. Chidambaram, directly approached the Commander of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army, Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh and directed him to carry out an operation to crush the clashing factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) in the border districts of Tirap and Changlang in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh.

These investigations further indicate that General Bikram straight away refused the directions and stated that he was there to follow the directions from Army Headquarters in New Delhi and not to follow any instruction from the Minister of Home Affairs.

Sources at the Army Headquarters here in New Delhi say that soon after this development, General Bikram Singh reported the matter to the Headquarters in New Delhi. Taking a serious notice of the development, Indian Army Chief, General V.K. Singh took up the matter with the government and showed his utter displeasure over the issue and very strongly refused to carry out any such operation.

These sources further said that General Singh made it clear to the government that an army operation in the said districts was not possible at all because the said areas do not fall under the Disturbed Areas Act.

THE DAILY MAIL’S investigations indicate that after this rude reply from General Singh, the Indian government decided to yield to the Home Secretary G.K Pillai, who is considered to be having deep relations with the Army top brass and the establishment as he proved it by making a controversial statement at the crucial stage of the Pak-India talks in Islamabad last year, at the behest of the Indian Army and the establishment while the foreign ministers of both the countries were holding negotiating in Islamabad.

The investigations also reveal that after Pillai’s involvement in the matter, the Army leadership asked Pillai to get a favourable report from General Bikram Singh to carry out an operation. The investigations further indicate that after this development, Home Secretary Pillai flew to Kolkata, to resolve the tricky situation.

The sources said that Pillai was holding a closed-door meeting with Lt. Gen. Bikram Singh, to find a way out to seek the Army’s help, without declaring the areas as “disturbed” under the Disturbed Areas Act.

The Home Secretary will also be seeking stepping up a vigil by the Assam Rifles on the India-Mayanmar border in the wake of reports of arms being supplied to insurgent groups from Thailand via Myanmar.

The government wants to ensure that there is comprehensive border patrolling by the Assam Rifles. A National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe has pointed out that the alleged chief arms procurer for the insurgent group NSCN (I-M), Anthony Shimray, had been conspiring with arms dealers in Thailand to procure large quantities of arms and ammunition to carry out “terrorist activities” in India.

Home ministry officials, however, stressed that Pillai was conducting a general review of the security scenario in the eastern region.

Government sources, meanwhile, pointed out that the Army holds the view that the NSCN clashes, resulting in more than 30 causalities, should be largely treated as a law and order problem. An official said Pillai is expected to work out a “solution” to the problem to restore peace in the area. An option under which the state government may requisition the Army “to aid the civil authorities” in the two districts is being looked at, the official said.

Over 35 cadres of the Isak-Muivah and Khaplang factions of the NSCN were killed on the night of February 24-25 on the Tirap-Burma border. This was the largest clash in the ongoing conflict between the two groups since December last year. The two factions are already observing a ceasefire agreement with the government where they are supposed to keep their cadres in designated camps and deposit their arms.

Eight nations accuse India over unpaid Games bills

Eight countries have lodged an official complaint with the Indian government over $74 million of unpaid bills after the Commonwealth Games, saying the delays could affect future investment.

AFP - Eight countries have lodged an official complaint with the Indian government over $74 million of unpaid bills after the Commonwealth Games, saying the delays could affect future investment.

Senior diplomats from seven European countries and Australia signed a letter demanding action over broken contracts and valuable equipment that is still stuck in Indian customs since the Games were held in October last year.

The Games were hit by poor preparations and shoddily-finished stadiums despite an estimated budget of $6 billion. A number of senior figures have since been arrested in a widening police probe into corruption.

"The long delay in settling these matters is damaging India?s national reputation, denting the confidence of foreign business and raising doubts about the enforcement of contracts," the envoys wrote.

Australia, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland all signed the letter, which was delivered to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last month.

Diplomats confirmed the letter after it was printed in the Hindustan Times on Monday.

Australian companies have also complained bitterly about unpaid fees for organising the opening and closing ceremonies, while British firm SIS Live is in a legal battle to be paid in full for broadcasting services.

Indian police have arrested the Delhi 2010 organising committee's director general, V. K. Verma, and its secretary general, Lalit Bhanot, over alleged financial irregularities.

The national anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), received complaints alleging up to $1.8 billion of Games money was misappropriated.

Swiss Timing, which has worked at many recent Olympic Games, recently took out full-page advertisements in the Indian press to deny allegations of kickbacks after police accused it of over-charging.

Saudi Police Fire On Protesters In Oil Hub

Saudi police have reportedly opened gunfire on and launched stun grenades at several hundred protesters March 10 rallying in the heavily Shiite-populated city of Qatif in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province.

The decision to employ violence in this latest crackdown comes a day before Friday prayers, after which various Saudi opposition groups were planning to rally in the streets. Unrest has been simmering in the Saudi kingdom over the past couple weeks, with mostly Sunni youth, human rights activists and intellectuals in Riyadh and Jeddah campaigning for greater political freedoms, including the call for a constitutional monarchy. A so-called “Day of Rage” of protests across the country has been called for March 11 by Facebook groups Hanyn (Nostalgia) Revolution and the Free Youth Coalition following Friday prayers.

Read more...

How the PPP fumbles and fails

How the PPP fumbles and fails

BY NADIR HASSAN

 ON 03 11TH, 2011 | NO COMMENTS

The PPP is the Kamran Akmal of public relations. Put its representatives behind a microphone and they will flail and fumble over their words. It is one of the conundrums of our time, on a par with the continued existence and relevance of Zaid Hamid, how the likes of Rehman Malik can continue displaying rank insensitivity and political cowardice.

After the unsurprising yet shocking assassination of minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti, the interior minister decided to make the brutal slaying all about himself. He wanted to assure the inquiring media not that the killers would be apprehended and brought to justice but that none of this was his fault. Washing your hands off something is one thing. Rehman Malik rinsed his hands with soap, bleached his fingernails and rubbed anti-septic all over his palms.

As an act of cowardice, Malik disavowing any responsibility for the security of Bhatti was an epic performance. He began by claiming that Bhatti had chosen not to stay in the parliamentary lodged, finding a rented home with his parents more secure. Malik also stressed that Bhatti voluntarily refused extra security. Never mind that the reason Bhatti felt so insecure was because the government had done nothing after Salmaan Taseer’s murder to ensure that government guards were loyal to their bosses and not demagogic preachers.

After the governor’s assassination at the hands of his ostensible protectors, two PPP members were considered to be at the most risk. One, Shahbaz Bhatti, who has now been successfully eliminated and the other, Sherry Rehman, who still does not have the kind of security that would inspire confidence. And yet, Rehman Malik would have us believe, this was all Bhatti’s fault.

Picking on Rehman Malik is easy but not entirely useful. The behaviour he has displayed over the last week is a mere symptom of the fear felt by the PPP leadership. The timidity shown by the party in the wake of Taseer’s murder is unprecedented. Forget repealing the blasphemy law, the interior minister (who once again proudly showed off the worst instincts of his party with his unhinged rhetoric) declared that he would personally wring the neck of any blasphemer. This would be akin to George W Bush insisting that he would torture in Guantanamo anyone who said an unkind word about Muslim terrorists.

What makes the PPP’s inaction so galling is not that we expect them to take instant action on the misuse of the blasphemy laws. After Benazir’s two stints in power, the one thing we have learned is that the PPP will not back up its rhetoric with achievement. But now even the courageous rhetoric has vanished, replaced either with stony silence or, worse, a focus on the grievances of the murderers not the murdered.

Here’s one way to measure the fear of the PPP leadership. Since the Aasiya Bibi case first made a media splash, Imran Khan and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain have confessed that perhaps the blasphemy laws need to be reconsidered. Asif Zardari, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Rehman Malik, on the contrary, have not even expressed the level of ambivalence shown by these two politicians who relied on the MMA in the 2003 elections. This doesn’t mean Imran and Shujaat are more liberal than the PPP leaders. It only proves that they are not as cowardly.

History has judged that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was the greatest appeaser that ever existed. If Chamberlain had the PPP leadership negotiating for him, he would have ended up delivering Britain to Hitler gift-wrapped on a silver platter.

Nadir Hassan is a journalist based in Karachi and can be found on Twitter.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.