The Iraqis, slowly but surely have undermined and bankrupted the mightiest military machine on earth and its allies. If it wasn't for Iraq, the mad US Martians would have tried to march on Damascus and Tehran. But who said the Iraqis have finished with the Americans? There are more surprises in the offing.
Tomorrow is the start of Iraq inquiry on the war on Iraq under the chairmanship of . I have already submitted to Sir John Chilcot. Although I am sceptical about the government holding an inquiry, but I did send Sir Chilcot the following: Dear Sir John Chilcot, Subject: Marching on Baghdad to Israeli drums! I would like to refer here to BBC Panorama Program prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. One of the former British diplomat was quoted as saying "If the invasion of Iraq ever to take place we will be marching on Baghdad to Israeli drums". I have been following this matter and reached a similar conclusion that the US-UK Jewish lobby was a major player in promoting the war. A large number of US Jews became a fixture on many US TV Channels e.g. Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, David Frum, Bill Cohen, Madeline Albright...etc. It was not a coincidence that Jewish UK attroney General told Blair that the war on Iraq was legal. I wish that your inquiry will reveal the extent of Jewish involvement in the war on Iraq. I do Wish you Sir, all the success as your mission is not that easy taking into consideration the number of people involved in the campaign to lie and to deceive the public.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 5:58 AM on 23rd November 2009
Leaked documents today reveal the extent of tensions between UK military commanders in Iraq and their US allies.
The British chief of staff in Iraq, Colonel J.K. Tanner, branded his American military counterparts as 'a group of Martians' for whom 'dialogue is alien'.
'Despite our so-called "special relationship", I reckon we were treated no differently to the Portuguese,' he added. British soldiers carry out maintenance work near Basra last month
British soldiers carry out maintenance work near Basra last month. Leaked documents today reveal tensions between UK and US military chiefs in Iraq
The senior UK commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, disclosed how he spent 'a significant amount of my time' 'evading' and 'refusing' orders from his US superiors.
The frank comments came in internal Ministry of Defence interviews with Army figures who had just returned from Operations Telic 2 and 3 - the first year of 'peacekeeping' operations in Iraq, from May 2003 to May 2004.
Transcripts of the discussions, along with 'post operational reports' by British commanders, were obtained by the Daily Telegraph.
More...
* Just five bullets for each soldier: Iraq inquiry leak reveals how British troops went in woefully unprepared
Major General Stewart bluntly stated that 'our ability to influence US policy in Iraq seemed to be minimal'.
He said it was 'incredible' that there was not even a secure communication link between his headquarters in Basra and the US commander, General Rick Sanchez, in Baghdad.
The details emerged on the eve of the first public hearings by the long-awaited Iraq War Inquiry.
The head of the inquiry, retired Whitehall mandarin Sir John Chilcot, pledged to produce a 'full and insightful' account of the decision-making process which took Britain into the conflict.
He said he and his team would not shrink from making criticisms of individuals or organisations if they were justified.
But at the same time he stressed the inquiry was not a court of law set up to determine issues of guilt and innocence.
Their job, he said, was to 'write the narrative in order to learn the lessons for the future'.
To that end, he said that the witness hearings which begin tomorrow in Westminster would forego the 'adversarial ding-dong' of the courtroom in order to try to get 'a naturalness' into the exchanges.
UK plotted Iraq invasion in 2002 Updated at: 0900 PST, Monday, November 23, 2009 LONDON: Leaked British government documents call into question ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's public statements on the buildup to the Iraq war and show plans for the U.S.-led 2003 invasion were being made more than a year earlier, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Britain's newspaper published details of private statements made by senior British military figures claiming plans were in place months before the March 2003 invasion, but were so badly drafted they left troops poorly equipped and ill-prepared for the conflict.
The documents � transcripts of interviews from an internal defense ministry review of the conflict � disclose that some planning for the Iraq war had begun in February 2002.
Maj. Gen. Graeme Lamb, then head of Britain's special forces, was quoted as saying he had been "working the war up since early 2002," according to the newspaper.
In July 2002, Blair told lawmakers at a House of Commons committee session that there were no preparations to invade Iraq.
Critics of the war have long insisted that Blair offered then-President George W. Bush an assurance as early as mid-2002 � before British lawmakers voted in 2003 to approve U.K. involvement � that Britain would join the war.
The leaked documents are likely to be supplied to a public inquiry established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to scrutinize prewar intelligence and postwar planning, and which will hold its first evidence sessions later this week.
Brown appointed ex-civil servant John Chilcot to lead the panel, which will call Blair and the current and former heads of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency � John Sawers and John Scarlett � to give testimony in person.
According to the Sunday daily, military leaders used the defense ministry review to criticize government departments over their failure to plan for reconstruction work once Saddam Hussein had been deposed.
"We got absolutely no advice whatsoever. The lack of involvement by the FCO (Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office), the Home Office and the Department for International Development was appalling," the newspaper quoted Brig. Bill Moore as saying in his statement.
It quoted Lt. Col. M. L. Dunn as reporting that his soldiers "only had five rounds of ammunition each" when the invasion began, and that troops lacked the correct armor and other equipment.
In another statement, Lt. Col. John Power said long-distance radios failed in Iraq's heat and claimed planning was so haphazard that military officials mistakenly sent a container of skis along with desert equipment.
The newspaper said the internal review concludes that a swift military victory was won only because Iraq's forces were so poor. "A more capable enemy would probably have punished (our) shortcomings severely," it quotes a document as saying.
Britain's role in the Iraq conflict � which triggered massive public protests at home � left 179 British soldiers dead.
"Tony Blair consistently denied to Parliament and public that the U.K. government was preparing for war in Iraq, yet these documents show that planning began as far back as 2002," Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, said Sunday.
The revelations prove Blair took Britain "an illegal and disastrous war on false pretences," Salmond said.
The defense ministry declined to comment Sunday on the leaked documents, but said it "recognizes the importance of identifying and learning lessons from operations."
ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a former caretaker prime minister and veteran politician, died in London on Friday after a protracted illness. He was 78.
According to sources, his body will arrive in Karachi on Saturday morning and he will be laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in New Jatoi village, about 10km from Naushehro Feroze.
He leaves behind six sons and three daughters.
Mr Jatoi served as caretaker prime minister for three months after former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dis
missed the first government of Benazir Bhutto on Aug 6, 1990.
Born on August 14, 1931, in the village of New Jatoi, Mr Jatoi was a confidant of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. After the 1970 elections, he held several important portfolios in the cabinet of prime minister Z.A. Bhutto before becoming chief minister of Sindh in 1973, the position he held till 1977, when then army chief Gen Ziaul Haq imposed martial law.
Mr Jatoi played an active role in the struggle against military rule from the platform of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) and was put behind bars by Gen Zia, first in 1983 and then in 1985.
After developing differences with the PPP leadership in 1985, Mr Jatoi formed his own faction of the PPP — National People’s Party (NPP). A number of PPP stalwarts and Mr Bhutto’s friends whom Benazir Bhutto used to call ‘uncles’ joined the NPP.
He later headed the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), a nine-party alliance that fought the 1988 elections against the People’s Party. He himself lost the elections, but later was elected member of the National Assembly by winning a by-poll in 1989. He now became the opposition leader in the house.
Interestingly, after the 1993 elections, the NPP joined the Benazir government as a coalition partner. His son Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi is a sitting MNA from Naushehro Feroze. Two of his other sons — Arif Jatoi and Masroor Jatoi — are MPAs while Asif Jatoi is a former senator.
Mr Jatoi was elected member of the West Pakistan assembly in 1958 and 1965. He was the eldest of four brothers.
After passing Senior Cambridge from Karachi Grammar School in 1952, he went to the UK for higher education in law, but could not complete his studies because of the death of his father.
PM’s daughter collects 23.5 m for IDPs; An amount of Rs 23.5 million was collected for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Swat and Malakand at a fund raising dinner hosted by the Prime Minister’s daughter, Syeda Fizza Batool Gilani at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club at Lahore. (Source, APP, Daily The Mail Contact: adnan.khan@pakboi.gov.pk) First lady Mrs.Fauzia Gilani and daughter Ms. Fiza Batool Gilani talking to media persons in Lahore.—APP PM’s wife paid Rs45.5m against Rs570m liabilities By Syed Irfan Raza Sunday, 22 Nov, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Although the wife of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had settled her default case with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), she had been given ‘undue favour’ and asked to pay only Rs45.5 million against total liabilities of Rs570 million, sources in the NAB alleged on Saturday in an interview with Dawn.
A scrutiny of Fauzia Gilani’s case revealed that she had obtained two loans totalling Rs200 million from Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), but she settled the case after committing ‘wilful default that prevailed over a decade’.
According to documents, the sources said, the principal of Rs200 million had swelled to Rs570 million as non-payment of instalments spanned a decade. However, she managed to settle the case by paying back Rs45.521 million.
The sources said she had obtained a loan of Rs120 million for Multan Edible Oil Extraction and another loan Rs77 million for Pak Green Fertilisers.
According to the NAB press release, the cases were settled by the ZTBL in pursuance of the Sindh High Court’s order of Oct 2, 2006, and March 17 of last year and a circular of the State Bank.
In consequence, ZTBL forwarded a request to NAB for withdrawal of the cases.
‘After having received clearance of liability certificate from ZTBL regarding full payment of the settlement amount of Rs45.521 million, NAB withdrew references against the companies.’
The source said Mrs Gilani had gone through the prescribed procedure of settlement of ‘wilful default cases’. They interpreted the move as a ‘confessed wilful default’.
The NAB Ordinance defines wilful default as: ‘Wilful default under this ordinance if he does not pay, or continues not to pay, or return or repay the amount due from him to any bank, financial institution, cooperative society, Prime Minister Gilani faced two other cases in NAB—illegal appointments in National Assembly when he was National Assembly speaker and purchase of vehicles. Both cases were settled in the Islamabad High Court.
A case of the prime minister’s personal secretary, Tariq Khakwani, in which he was accused of obtaining a plot in Sector I-8, Islamabad, under the prime minister’s quota in 1988-89 is still alive in Lahore High Court.
The NAB had filed an appeal against its own reference and had requested an accountability court to dispose of the case.
However, the court turned down the request and the NAB moved LHC against the accountability court’s decision.
The LHC upheld the verdict of the accountability court and the case is still pending.
--------------- 36 politicians, 3 envoys among beneficiaries; names of PM, his wife not on list
Beneficiaries outed
* NRO beneficiaries’ list includes names of Asif Ali Zardari, Altaf Hussain, Rehman Malik, Aftab Sherpao, Ahmed Mukhtar, Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghauri, Salman Farooqui, Tariq Anees * State minister for law says Supreme Court will decide fate of beneficiaries g Government will implement SC decision in ‘letter and spirit’
By Irfan Ghauri
ISLAMABAD: The government officially announced on Saturday the names and details of some National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) beneficiaries – which include President Asif Zardari, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain, several federal and provincial ministers and top bureaucrats.
The NRO would cease to be a law on November 28, as the government has already decided not to legislate on the document in parliament.
Minister of State for Law Afzal Sindhu released the names of 248 of the 8,041 beneficiaries – whose “fate would now be decided by the Supreme Court (SC)” – at a press conference, which followed a meeting with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The beneficiaries include the top leadership of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the MQM and the PPP-Sherpao (PPP-S) – in addition to several cabinet members, retired bureaucrats and technocrats, former military officials and diplomats.
Names announced on Saturday include Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, PPP-S chief Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar, Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Minister of State for Housing Tariq Anees, PPP Secretary General Jehangir Badar and Nusrat Bhutto.
Of the 248 names announced on Saturday, 36 are politicians.
The list of public servants who benefited from the NRO features the names of Pakistani Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani and Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqi. The APP news agency said two other envoys were also among the NRO beneficiaries.
Sindhu said the government would not only accept the SC verdict on the fate of beneficiaries – whatever it may be – but would also implement it in “letter and spirit”. He said in case the court decided that the ordinance was ultra vires to the constitution, all cases closed under the law would reopen.
Replying to a question, Sindhu said Zardari had constitutional immunity under Article 248 of the constitution as head of state.
Sindhu said most of the cases were “politically motivated”, and Nawaz Sharif had “admitted the fact”. He said the names of the prime minister and his wife were not on the list.
MQM beneficiary in mostly criminal cases
ISLAMABAD: With Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Huassain’s name on top of the list of MQM leaders who benefited from the NRO – details of the 72 cases against him show that all of the lawsuits were registered on criminal charges. Details show that 31 of the cases have been registered on murder charges, 11 on attempted murder charges, three on kidnapping charges, 25 on hooliganism charges and two on other charges. In all 3,230 cases – most of which had been registered against MQM members – were withdrawn in Sindh. Almost all cases against MQM leaders were registered on criminal charges. Other top MQM leaders who benefited from NRO include Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Farooq Sattar, federal Minister for Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad. zulfiqar ghuman ------------
A Leader With A Vision Jump to Comments
By Syeda Fizza Batool Gilani
The stage was set and the moment had arrived. It was time to introduce the next generation of Bhutto and Zardari to the world– Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Assefa. Who would have imagined that these children, who had always preferred to stay away from the glitz and paranoia of the dangerous world of politics would one day be entering it albeit, owing to circumstances neither to their liking nor of their own doing.
But it was the tragic and unfortunate assassination of their beloved mother that invoked them to change course and set afoot on a dangerous path trodden with surprises and anguish. While friends of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto say she always envisaged Bilawal becoming her political heir, they agree that she would not have wanted him to have to bear such a burden so young.In an interview in 2004, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was asked if he wanted to enter Pakistani politics. “We will see, I don’t know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies,” he said. Today, he stood tall being forced into a decision much earlier than he would have imagined then. A person’s character is best judged once he is pitted against odds. Bilawal had to endure the loss of his mother when he so needed her to be around him to pamper him, to love him and to see him grow. Yet he lost it all in the flash of a second. It was at this crucial moment in his life that there emerged a leader out of him in whose voice echoed the words of his mother “democracy is the best revenge”.
All these thoughts resonated through my head and my eyes flooded with tears as I sat in the Presidency on the 18th of July 2009, listening to the magnanimous speech delivered by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s only son and the Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party. The event was attended by the parliamentarians and ticket-holders of Pakistan People’s Party, who had been awarded tickets for the elections by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto herself in 2007, along with their children and families.This was not the first time that I had met Bilawal, Bakhtawar or Assefa, yet there was something different about Bilawal tonight. This young man standing on the podium, talking to the members of the party, formulated by his grandfather and nourished by his mother had come a long way from the libraries of Christ Church, Oxford. Today, he seemed like an embodiment of perfection, ideally suited to hold the reigns as a true heir to the legend of the party; a people’s man, a true Bhutto.
There were many who had gone to the event with doubtful minds. They wondered as to whether this young lad in his twenties, who did not even reside in this country, could be entrusted with the enormous responsibility of leading the largest political party of this country and in future, the country itself. And this is what he had to say to clear the doubts of one and all. “The Pakistan People’s Party can and will solve all challenges. As the future generation, what can we promise the people of Pakistan? We can promise them that we shall deliver what our older generation has not yet delivered.”There was resolve, commitment, resoluteness but most importantly, there was recognition and acceptance of the fact that promises made had not entirely been fulfilled yet and it was the right of the people of Pakistan to point out the anomalies of the government in addressing the needs of the people. This coming from the chairman of the party that is in government is a big accolade and surely, we Pakistanis are not used to such true self analysis and accountability.On that evening, everybody present there saw Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto come to life again in Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
This young man has the potential, the capability and the courage to lead this party and this country forward. As I listened to Bilawal with tears in my eyes, I felt hope, hope that I had long forgone since the Shahadat of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. It just occurred to me sitting there that this was what Mohtarma meant once she aptly titled her last book ‘Reconciliation’. It is time to reconcile with the fact that the next generation of the Bhuttos is ready, ready to take on from where their predecessors left and when Bilawal says, “Khoon chaihay, khoon dein gay; sir chahiyay, sir dein gay, jaan chahiyay, jaan dein gay,” you know that this young man really means it because his name ‘Bilawal’ means “one without equal”.
The writer is the daughter of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani
JAKARTA (Reuters) - An overloaded ferry sank in bad weather off Indonesia's Riau islands on Sunday, killing four while nearly 300 passengers survived the accident, officials said.
A transport ministry official told a news conference in Jakarta the ferry, which had the capacity to carry 273 people, had 213 passengers on its manifest. Sunaryo, director general of sea transportation, said 292 people had survived.
"The disparity between the manifest and reality is large, it's such a classic case" of breaking the regulations, said Sunaryo.
"Bad weather is hampering search and rescue efforts. The waves are as high as six metres, it's difficult for small ships to reach the location."
The ferry, the Dumai Express 10, was sailing from Batam near Singapore to Dumai island in Riau when it ran into massive waves, Riau police chief Puji Hartanto told Metro TV.
Survivors were spotted floating at sea, Hartanto said.
Separately, another ferry, the Dumai Express 15 with 278 people on board, ran aground after it was hit by large waves, said Riau police spokesman Yasin Kosasih.
All passengers and crew survived, he added. The ferry was travelling between Batam and Moro island.
Indonesia relies heavily on ferry services to connect the many islands in the sprawling archipelago.
But accidents are common, largely due to years of under-investment in infrastructure and a tendency to overload ferries.
The accident was a blow for the Chinese government, whose large state-owned coal mines are generally considered to be safer than smaller, private ones.
The country’s mines remain the world’s deadliest, despite efforts to close or bring hundreds of them under state control.
A total of 528 people were working in the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province at the time of the 2.30am explosion, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement. It said 389 escaped after the blast.
China Central Television reported that 42 were dead, 31 were rescued and the others were trapped about 500 metres underground.
The report said the explosion was caused by a gas build-up. It shattered windows within 20 yards (meters) of the mine shaft. A man answering the phone at the mine said an unknown number of people were injured. He did not want to give his name, as is common among Chinese officials.
The mine is located near the border with Russia, about 400km northeast of the provincial capital, Harbin. It is run by one of China’s top 520 state-owned enterprises, according to the Web site of its owner, the Hegang branch of the Heilongjiang Longmei Holding Mining Group.
------------
China mine explosion death toll reaches 87 22 Nov 2009 12:04:43 GMT Source: Reuters * Hopes fade for more survivors
* 21 miners trapped or unaccounted for (Adds comment from officials and locals and updates search efforts in paragraphs 3 and 10-13)
By Maxim Duncan
HEGANG, China Nov 22 (Reuters) - The death toll from China's latest coal mine disaster reached 87 as hopes dimmed on Sunday that more survivors would be found a day after a gas blast at a colliery in the country's icy far northeast.
Xinhua news agency reported 528 workers were in the mine, at Hegang in Heilongjiang province, at the time of the blast, and 420 had been rescued by Sunday.
Some 21 miners remained trapped or unaccounted for, Zhang Jinguang, a spokesman for the mine company, told reporters, who were taken by officials to see 20 or so rescue workers descending into a tunnel still belching smoke. By later on Sunday, none of the 21 had been found, Xinhua reported.
Zhang Fucheng, an official in charge of rescue efforts, told Chinese television that efforts were held up by dense gas and collapsed tunnels. Temperatures were near freezing.
The blast was the latest accident to hit the world's deadliest major coal mining industry. The explosion was so violent it shook the surrounding area and nearby buildings partly collapsed.
Some of the survivors were badly injured.
"When I saw my husband, this mess of blood and flesh, I didn't recognise him at first," said Huang Guizhen, the wife of injured miner Qu Zhongliang, a Heilongjiang province news website (www.northeast.com.cn) reported.
"Then the doctor told me it was my husband and I burst into tears."
Compared to other manual jobs, Chinese coal miners can earn relatively high wages, tempting workers and farmers into rickety and poorly ventilated shafts.
Safety staff knew gas in the mine had reached dangerous levels and were rushing to evacuate the miners when the blast erupted 500 metres (1,500 feet) below ground, the website report also said, citing workers at the mine.
Central government prosecutors went to Hegang to oversee investigations into any possible crimes or official misconduct behind the blast, the China News Service reported.
Zhang Jinguang, the mine spokesman, told Reuters that "as far as I know, there were no signs (of the accident beforehand)".
Police in Hegang kept a close eye on locals near the mine, and people organised by the government sought to prevent reporters speaking to residents.
"There's no hope", said one resident who said two friends were victims of the blast.
"One in hospital hasn't woken up yet, and the other, Wang Gang, still hasn't come out (out of the mine)", said the resident, who gave only her surname, Yu.
The Xinxing mine in Hegang lies near China's border with Russia and produced over a million tonnes of coal in the first 10 months of this year, local reports said. It is owned by the Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, making it larger than most operations where colliery accidents occur.
In the first half of this year, 1,175 people died in officially recorded coal mine accidents across China, a fall of 18.4 percent compared to the same time last year, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.
A gas explosion in a mine in central Henan province in September left 79 workers dead or missing and likely dead.
Nor have Hegang's coal mines had a spotless record.
Earlier state media reports showed that in three accidents -- one in 2002 and two last year -- a total of 88 miners died. (Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by David Fox and Michael Roddy) ((chris.buckley@thomsonreuters.com; +86-13501014479))
((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to newsfeedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com))
In a survey conducted recently in Pakistan most people blamed America, India, Israeli MOSSAD and Blackwater mercenaries for the series of explosions in a number of cities. That is despite the habit of the Taliban to claim responsibility for most of the attacks in retaliation for the government military operations in South Wazirstan. But an objective observer must give credit to the Pakistanis as they are not being fooled by CIA propaganda. To start with, The Bush administration has groomed Zardari and his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, and encouraged them to fight their own people. The Obama administration has promised to triple the military assistance to Pakistan if the government moves on the tribal areas. Furthermore, CIA drones have killed over 1000 people this year, naturally all civilians. The Pakistani students have labelled these killing as targeted execution of people while sleeping in their homes and not fighting in the front. In addition, there is something sinister about some of the recent explosions in Peshawar market that reminded people of CIA dirty work in Iraq and of US Phoenix operation in Vietnam where civilians were randomly butchered in order to blame the enemy, in this case the Taliban. It is rather regrettable that during Obama administration the number of CIA drones attacks has increased from 34 in 2008 to 48 until today 19.11.09 and the violence in Pakistan has increased by 1000 folds. It is like the massacres in Cambodia advocated by Jewish Henry Kissinger while the war was waged in Vietnam. The Americans are already in Pakistan advising the army and the ISI there and this may gradually be increased to an all-out invasion of the country.
20 Nov 2009 10:48:56 GMT Source: Reuters Nov 20 (Reuters) - A missile-firing U.S. drone aircraft killed eight Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan on Friday, Pakistani officials said.
It was the second U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border since late on Wednesday and comes as the United States weighs options for how to deal with an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operates the missile-firing Predator and Reaper drones. Here are some questions and answers about the strikes:
WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES ATTACK?
Many al Qaeda and Taliban members fled to northwestern Pakistan's ungoverned ethnic Pashtun belt after U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001. From their sanctuaries there, the militants have orchestrated insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States and Afghanistan have pressed Pakistan to eliminate the sanctuaries. Apparently frustrated by Pakistan's inability to do so, the United States itself is hitting the militants. One option being considered as the United States reviews its Afghan strategy is for more missile attacks in Pakistan.
HOW MANY ATTACKS? The United States has carried out 46 drone air strikes in northwestern border regions this year, killing about 415 people, including many foreign militants, according to a tally reports from Pakistani officials and residents. In 2008, there were 32 strikes, 24 of them in the last four months of the year, that killed about 240 people. U.S. attacks on the Pakistani Taliban in their South Waziristan stronghold picked up after the Pakistani government ordered a military offensive against them in June. But there have been no missile strikes in South Waziristan since the Pakistani army launched the offensive on Oct. 17.
WHERE ARE THE DRONES LAUNCHED FROM?
A senior U.S. lawmaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein, told a U.S. Senate hearing in February that the drones were being flown from an air base inside Pakistan. Pakistan denied that, saying it had never granted permission for the strikes.
WHAT IS PAKISTAN'S POSITION?
Pakistan officially objects to the U.S. drone strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty. It also worries the strikes could undermine efforts to deal with militancy because the civilian casualties inflame public anger and bolster support for the fighters. Pakistan has pressed the United States to provide it with drones to allow it to conduct its own attacks.
WHAT IS THE U.S. POSITION?
U.S. officials say the missile strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad that allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public. U.S. sources said in May that Washington had given Pakistan data on militants from surveillance drones in Pakistani airspace under an agreement with Islamabad.
WHO WERE THE MOST PROMINENT MILITANTS PEOPLE REPORTED KILLED? Jan. 28, 2008 - A senior al Qaeda member, Abu Laith al-Libi.
July 28 - An al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, Abu Khabab al-Masri.
Nov. 22 - Rashid Rauf, a Briton with al Qaeda links and the suspected ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, was reported killed though doubts have since arisen. An Egyptian named as Abu Zubair al-Masri was also reported killed.
Jan. 1, 2009 - Pakistani agents said a drone killed three foreign fighters. A week later, a U.S. counter-terrorism official said al Qaeda's operational chief, Usama al-Kini, and an aide had been killed.
Aug. 5 - Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a South Waziristan stronghold.
Sept 14 - Senior Uzbek militant Najmiddin Kamolitdinovic Jalolov was killed in North Waziristan. (For main story, click on [ID:nSP494046]; for more on Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK]) (Compiled by Islamabad Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alex Richardson)
A picture taken in November 1979 shows smoke billowing from Mecca's Great Mosque, which was attacked on November 20, 1979 by gunmen belonging to a group commanded by Juhayman al-Oteibi, alias ‘Lieutenant Mahdi’ (the Messiah). — AFP
Thursday, 19 Nov, 2009
RIYADH: Thirty years ago, as tens of thousands of hajj pilgrims were completing dawn prayers inside Mecca, gunshots pierced the sanctity of the Grand Mosque.
To mark a new century on the Islamic calendar, a group of millennialist zealots, who claimed to have with them the new redeemer — the mahdi — seized Islam's holiest site.
The November 20, 1979 takeover of the Grand Mosque by Juhayman al-Oteibi and his 400-plus fundamentalists, and the subsequent unholy, bloody military assault to dislodge them, stunned Muslims worldwide and rocked the Saudi monarchy to its foundation.
While Oteibi and 67 fellow militants were ultimately caught and beheaded, and the mahdi was shot dead in the battle, the incident continues to reverberate through Saudi society and the world, say historians.
‘It is painfully clear: the countdown to September 11, to the terrorist bombings in London and Madrid, and to the grisly Islamic violence ravaging Afghanistan and Iraq all began on that warm November morning,’ wrote Yaroslav Trofimov, author of the most complete account of the uprising, ‘The Siege of Mecca’.
The hajj had just finished when Oteibi and his band smuggled hundreds of assault weapons into the mosque at the centre of Mecca.
Angered at what they saw was Saudi society's plunge into immorality, with Muslims embracing ‘Western’ entertainment like cinema, television and sports, and Muslim women taking jobs, Oteibi's act was to herald a new age of purism.
His army took over every corner of the massive walled mosque, locking shut the normally welcoming gates, sending machine-gun armed snipers into the seven minarets, and taking hostage hundreds of the faithful.
Quickly shooting dead two guards who resisted, they denounced Saudi Arabia's leading clerics as corrupt and the ruling Al-Saud family as illegitimate.
Snipers picked off arriving policemen and soldiers and it would take two weeks and a massive Saudi army effort, that began with shelling the mosque and ended up with hand-to-hand fighting, to regain control.
The soldiers were backed by a small team of French commandos, led by the now infamous Lieutenant Paul Barril, and endorsed by a fatwa extracted the highest clerics that it was permissible to shoot the militants inside the sanctum.
The official death toll was 127 soldiers, 117 militants, and an unknown number of civilians. Trofimov cites independent observers in reporting a toll of ‘well over 1,000 lives.’
For most of the three million pilgrims massing in Mecca in the coming week for the hajj, Oteibi's takeover of the Grand Mosque is likely a vague memory.
Many details — including whether the non-Muslim French commandos were allowed inside Mecca — remain secret.
But 30 years later, the intense security around Mecca, a sharp turn toward more conservative behaviour in Saudi society, and the very present Al-Qaeda threat, attest to lasting effects of the 1979 siege.
Sparked by Oteibi's complaints, Saudi religious leaders now ban movie theatres, and public concerts of all but traditional music are unknown.
Women cannot drive or attend soccer matches, and the religious police try to enforce a stringent dress code for them: all-black shroud-like abayas, with all but the eyes covered.
Robert Lacey, whose new book ‘Inside the Kingdom’ traces Saudi history from the Mecca siege to the present, said there is no proven direct link between Oteibi and Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
‘The link between Juhayman and bin Laden is that they are clearly in the Salafi tradition,’ he told AFP, referring to the arch-conservative Islamic movement.
‘Their messianic style — from their long, Salafi beards to their quarrel with the House of Saud — stem from the same violent and rejectionist reading of traditional Islam,’ he said.
‘We can now see that Juhayman's revolt helped shift Saudi society in the conservative and reactionary direction that has only been seriously contested in the last few years.’
Trofimov drew a closer parallel, saying that in many ways Oteibi's multinational army of zealous Islamic fighters ‘was a precursor to Al-Qaeda itself.’
By the 1990s, when bin Laden turned against the Saudi rulers, ‘he started to repeat almost word for word Juhayman's repudiations of the royal family,’ Trofimov wrote.
And indeed, several Oteibi acolytes joined Al-Qaeda after their release from Saudi prisons, he said.
Similar tensions remain in Saudi society. Progressives are pressing for theatres; a women's soccer team plays — though not publicly — in Jeddah; and clerics are battling what they see as licentious television shows broadcast by satellite from abroad.
Meanwhile a resurgent Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen attacks King Abdullah's reforms as abandoning ‘true’ Islam. In August a Qaeda operative tried but failed to kill a top security official, Prince Mohammmed bin Nayef, with a suicide bomb.
In October Qaeda plots to attack unknown targets in the kingdom were interrupted, with hundreds of weapons, explosives and suicide vests discovered and dozens of suspects captured.
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700 CCTV cameras installed for security in Makkah
Updated at: 2110 PST, Thursday, November 19, 2009 MAKKAH: A public safety official announced on that 2,194 security officers would be deployed at the Haram.
He explained that the �high-tech� Operations Room of the force would be the nucleus of all security activities. There are 700 CCTV cameras to monitor the entire mosque and its surrounding courtyards.
�The force working in the Grand Mosque is comprised of 1,557 ordinary security men, 114 inspectors and 23 other officers, in addition to four high-ranking officials and 500 Makkah policemen,� head of the Grand Mosque security forces Col. Yahya Al-Zahrani said on Tuesday.
Special emergency forces and regular security forces in addition to battalions of military and National Guard will be posted to manage crowds near the gates of the mosque and in the mataf (the area of circumambulation), Al-Zahrani added.
Undercover police would also be deployed to �watch for any untoward developments� in the Haram, such as pickpocketing or other forms of theft.
Crowd control and missing persons� reports would also be monitored from the Operations Room, he added. The officer urged everyone to wear his or her identification bracelets or badges showing their contact information. This is particularly important for children, he said.
�(Parents should) at least put their telephone numbers in their children�s pockets,� he pointed out.
For the second time, there will be Grand Mosque �stoplights� at the gates of the mosque: Red indicates that there is no room inside while green gives the go-ahead.
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Saudi troops killed in Yemen rebel clashes-report 22 Nov 2009 17:17:39 GMT Source: Reuters DUBAI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Three Saudi soldiers were killed and an unspecified number wounded as they fought to stop new cross-border raids by Yemeni rebels, the Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on its website on Sunday.
It said Saudi forces foiled attempts by the Shi'ite rebels to gain control of Yemen's Red Sea port of Midi, in a coastal area near the border where Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval blockade to stop weapons being smuggled to insurgents.
Saudi air force planes took part in operations in the border area, where the Yemeni rebels launched an attack on Saudi border guards earlier this month, the website said.
The rebels' Nov. 3 cross-border raid into Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, raised concerns about the wider impact of instability in Yemen, one of the poorest nations outside Africa.
In August, Yemen stepped up its military campaign against the rebels, who belong to the Zaidi Shi'ite Muslim minority, after about five years of sporadic fighting with the group. The rebels say they suffer religious, economic and social marginalisation and neglect in the poor Arab country.
Regional media reported on Sunday that the rebels launched hit-and-run attacks against advancing Yemeni troops.
Yemeni forces backed by artillery and tanks combed mountain regions in the north of the country, killing a number of rebels, Al Arabiya television reported.
The rebels said on their website they had captured several Saudi soldiers and killed and wounded an unspecified number of the troops whom they accused of trying to cross into Yemen.
"We again advise the Saudi regime to stop its unjustified aggression on Yemeni territory and to respect neighbourly rights," said a statement on the rebels' website.
On Friday, Yemeni state media said troops foiled an attempt by rebel fighters to take over government buildings in the northern provincial capital of Saada. (Writing by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Janet Lawrence) ((dubai.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; +971 4 391 8301))
Pakistan suicide bomber kills 30 in blast outside courthouse in Peshawar
By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 10:50 AM on 19th November 2009
At least 30 people have been killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a courthouse in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar today.
The suspected Taliban fighter triggered the explosive device while he was being body searched by a police guard at the gate of the court complex.
The blast was the latest in wave to hit the city in recent weeks in apparent retaliation for an army offensive against the Taliban in the nearby Afghan border region. Under attack: An injured boy following a blast in Peshawar earlier this one
Under attack: An injured boy after another blast in Peshawar earlier this week
Last week a car bomb targeted Pakistani intelligence offices on the same road, just a couple of miles westwards.
The building is also close to the Pearl Continental Hotel, which was targeted by a truck bomb earlier this year.
More than 100 people were killed in a blast at a market in Peshawar last month.
The number of attacks across Pakistan has increased dramatically as the army continues its offensive against the Taliban in the country’s South Waziristan region.
Dr Sahib Gul, head of Lady Reading Hospital, said 16 bodies and 36 wounded people had been brought to the hospital.
Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast.
Security officials have cordoned off the area Khyber Road has been closed for traffic.
The head of Peshawar city administration, Sahibzada Anees, told reporters that a suicide bomber carried out the attack.
‘The bomber blew himself up when he was being body searched by a police guard at the gate of the court complex,’ he said.
16 Nov 2009 20:01:57 GMT Source: Reuters * $8.5 billion contracts fed U.S. troops in Middle East
* PWC now called Agility
(Adds quotes, details, byline)
By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. grand jury indicted a Kuwaiti company on Monday on charges of fraud and conspiracy alleging that it overcharged the U.S. Army on $8.5 billion worth of contracts to provide food to soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.
The grand jury in Atlanta indicted logistics firm Public Warehousing Company, K.S.C. (PWC) on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy in connection with contracts issued by the U.S. Department of Defense between 2003 and 2005.
The charges stem from a probe into abuses in vendor contracts in the Middle East that involve the illegal inflation of prices, said Gentry Shelnutt, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
"The indictment alleges PWC submitted false information and manipulated prices to overcharge for food," Shelnutt said.
"This indictment is only the first step. Our investigation of entities and persons who have defrauded the United States and our military is ongoing."
If convicted of violations of the False Claims Act, PWC faces probation and a fine of up to twice the gain it realized or twice the loss to the United States, Shelnutt said.
Overcharging amounted to $60 million over a 41-month period, according to Patrick Crosby, spokesman at the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta.
PWC Logistics, now called Agility , is a global provider of "integrated logistics solutions" listed on the Kuwait stock exchange, according to Agility's website.
The six counts charge PWC with crimes against the United States including: conspiracy to defraud, committing major fraud, making false statements, making false, fictitious or fraudulent claims and wire fraud.
The alleged fraud was committed through PWC's manipulation of its vendor contracts, which established its unit price using a formula of a manufacturer's invoice price plus a distribution fee to include the company's expenses and profit.
PWC overbilled the Army through scams including failing to purchase cheaper or discounted food, inflating its distribution fees and submitting fraudulent claims, a statement said.
The lawsuit followed an initial whistle-blower suit filed by Kamal Mustafa Al-Sultan, the owner of a company that partnered with PWC to submit a proposal for the contracts, according to Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman. (Editing by Chris Wilson)
17 Nov 2009 10:37:00 GMT Source: Reuters * Somalia, Afghanistan seen most corrupt among 180 nations
* New Zealand, Denmark have best scores in watchdog ranking
* United States, Russia make gains, Iran's score dips
By Noah Barkin
BERLIN, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Public sector corruption in Afghanistan has worsened over the past two years and is now seen to be more rampant than in any country apart from Somalia, according to Transparency International.
Releasing its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on Tuesday, the watchdog said Afghanistan had sunk for the second straight year in its ranking of 180 nations based on perceived levels of corruption in the public sector.
The report highlights the dilemma for western governments, including the United States, which are reviewing their strategies for stabilising the country following the re-election of President Hamid Karzai in a vote plagued by fraud.
"Examples of corruption range from public posts for sale and justice for a price to daily bribing for basic services," the watchdog said of Afghanistan. "This, along with the exploding opium trade -- which is also linked to corruption -- contributes to the downward trend in the country's CPI score."
The CPI scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low levels. The ranking is based on data from country experts and business leaders at 10 independent institutions, including the World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit and World Economic Forum.
For the third year running, the conflict-ridden east African nation of Somalia came in last, this time with a score of 1.1.
Afghanistan had the second-worst ranking at 1.3, down from 1.5 in 2008 and 1.8 in 2007. Myanmar followed with a score of 1.4, while Iraq and Sudan were both on 1.5.
New Zealand was the top-ranked country with a score of 9.4, followed by Denmark at 9.3, and Singapore and Sweden, both on 9.2. Click for a table of the rankings.
IRAN RANKING SLIDES
The Afghan government bowed to western demands and announced on Monday that it would form a new anti-corruption unit to investigate high-level graft.
President Karzai has been under intense pressure from NATO countries with troops in Afghanistan to root out corruption and mismanagement in his government, which has complicated the fight against Taliban insurgents. Violence has reached its deadliest levels since the Taliban was forced from power in 2001. In Somalia, fighting since the start of 2007 has killed about 19,000 civilians, uprooted 1.5 million from their homes and confined a weak central government to a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu.
"Fragile, unstable states that are scarred by war and ongoing conflict linger at the bottom of the index," TI said.
Countries which saw their ranking drop included Iran, which fell to 1.8 from 2.3 following a presidential election in June that the opposition said was rigged.
Political turmoil also contributed to a fall in Ukraine's score to 2.2 from 2.5. Greece saw its score slide to 3.8 from 4.7, reflecting insufficient anti-corruption enforcement, lengthy delays in the judicial process and a string of corporate scandals that TI said pointed to "systemic weaknesses".
Nations that improved included the United States, which rose to 7.5 from 7.3. TI cited Washington's swift response to the financial crisis, including reforms demanding greater transparency and accountability.
Poland rose to 5.0 from 4.6 after establishing an anti-corruption office. Russia edged up to 2.2 from 2.1, a rise attributed to anti-corruption legislation introduced by President Dmitry Medvedev. But TI noted that the excessive role of the Russian government in the economy remained a problem.
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Traitors turned fraudsters in US-occupied lands! Prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the CIA had recruited 800 Iraqis mostly from Kurdish and Assyrian background and took them to Washington D.C. for training and briefing on how to manage ministries in occupied Iraq. It was no wonder that these collaborators have planted the seed of corruption in every department. Knowing that their future will be bleak, following the eventual US withdrawal, they went on a bribery and corruption spree unseen in Iraq long history. One of these was the minister of electricity who was accused of stealing $30 million, escaped to Jordan to be smuggled to the US. That is at the time when Iraqis get no more than few hours of electrical power a day. One of the US-appointed- minister of defence ran away after being accused of buying second-hand useless military equipment from Poland. He is currently protected by US-appointed civilian contractors and travelling using his own private jet. But the worst of all of these agents is no other than Dr Ayad Allawi who became the first Prime minister of occupied Iraq. A close collaborator of Saddam, in charge of killing and kidnappings of Iraqi opposition abroad, has been working as an agent to 10 different intelligence organisations including CIA, MI-6, Egyptian and Jordanian secret services, that is; according to his own dedclaration. Dr Allawai is a member of the Iraqi parliament who had never attended one single session. He travels surrounded by 38 bodyguards and have recently received a $300 million from the CIA to run for the next parliamentary election in the hope of returning the Baath party to power. Similarly, in Afghanistan the CIA recruited Hamid Kharzai, his two brothers and Zalmay Khalilzad to manage the US occupation of the country. It is no wonder that Afghanistan and Iraq are classified as the most corrupt in the world. Traitors are like prostitutes, know their services are of short duration and had to get the most out of serving their clients. But unlike prostitutes who may go to retire or die of sexually-transmitted diseases, the Iraqi traitors are usually massacred. For this reason, the Americans have started to repatriate those Iraqis who have helped them destroy Iraq and kill its people for a price. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
18 Nov 2009 01:00:35 GMT Source: Reuters * Army suicide rate nearly double U.S. national rate
* Many suicides among soldiers who never fought abroad
* U.S. military not near tipping point, top officer says (Adds Mullen comments, background)
By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Suicides in the U.S. Army will hit a new high this year, a top general said on Tuesday in a disclosure likely to increase concerns about stress on U.S. forces ahead of an expected buildup in Afghanistan.
The findings, released as President Barack Obama inches toward a decision to send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, show the number of active-duty suicides so far in 2009 has already matched last year's record of 140 deaths.
"We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year," General Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, told a Pentagon briefing.
"This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way."
Another 71 soldiers committed suicide after being taken off active duty in 2009 -- nearly 25 percent more than the end-year total for 2008. Some had returned home only weeks before taking their own lives.
The figures applied only to the U.S. Army. Data from other branches of the armed services was not immediately available.
Chiarelli cautioned against generalizing about the causes of the suicides, or assuming links to combat stress on forces stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said the causes were still unclear and noted that roughly a third of the soldiers who took their own lives had never been deployed abroad.
The Army recently revealed that about one in five lower rank soldiers suffered mental health problems like depression.
The latest data and this month's shooting spree at a base in Fort Hood, Texas attributed to an Army psychiatrist have raised new questions about the effects of combat stress and the state of the military's mental health system.
STRESS 'MANAGEABLE'
The top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday deployments were still manageable even though troops would be operating in a "stress window for the next couple of years."
"I certainly don't underestimate, or I would not want to understate the seriousness of the stress issue," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a gathering of business leaders in Washington.
The Army has announced it would take a "hard look" at itself to discover how accused shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with killing 13 people in the Nov. 5 rampage, slipped through the cracks.
President Barack Obama has said he would hold to account those who missed warning signs, which U.S. officials say included Hasan's communications with an anti-American cleric in Yemen sympathetic to al Qaeda.
As the largest branch of the U.S. armed forces with 1.1 million active duty and reserve soldiers, the Army has done the brunt of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, including years of extended duty and repeated deployments.
In 2008, there were 268 active-duty suicides across the U.S. armed forces, most in the Army.
The military's suicide rate among active-duty soldiers was about 20 per 100,000, nearly double the national U.S. rate of 11.1 suicides per 100,000 people, as reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chiarelli said the Army was investigating whether stress related to a future deployment could be a factor in the deaths of soldiers yet to be sent abroad. He said a study being carried out in conjunction with the National Institute of Mental Health could shed some light. (Editing by Alan Elsner)
16 Nov 2009 15:54:32 GMT Source: Reuters * Saudi's top cleric says Iran cooperating with Yemen rebels
* Says rebels aim spread of Shi'ism on Iran's behalf
By Souhail Karam
RIYADH, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Saudi clerics have accused Yemeni Houthi rebels of working with Iran to try to spread Shi'ism in Sunni Islam's heartland, days before the start of the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage.
"Iranian cooperation with Houthi rebels in Yemen is a collusion for sin and aggression,"
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh said in remarks published on Monday.
Riyadh launched an assault on neighbouring Yemen's Houthi rebels 12 days ago after they staged a cross-border incursion that killed two Saudi border guards.
"Houthi infiltrators entered our territories, so ... it is obvious that they should be fought since the kingdom here is defending itself,"
Sheikh said.
The Houthi rebels said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to launch attacks against them from the mountainous territory they seized inside Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.
Saudi forces have been using fighter jets and artillery to pound Houthi hideouts to enforce a 10 km (six mile) deep buffer zone inside the Yemeni side of the porous border.
The Saudis are on particularly high alert for any security threats as Muslim pilgrims flock to the kingdom for the haj, which begins on November 25, and warned earlier this month against any attempts to politicise it.
The warning followed remarks by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to departing pilgrims that the haj should "display the firm resolve of the Muslim nation to confront attempts that damage its unity and progress".
Iran boycotted haj for three years after 402 pilgrims, mostly Iranians, died in clashes with Saudi security forces at an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally in Mecca in 1987.
Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally which sees itself as the guardian of Sunni Islam, has often been at odds with Shi'ite Iran, particularly since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In a statement issued over the weekend, about 40 Saudi clerics said Iran "destabilises Muslim nations by implanting, financing and arming its agents to spread" Shi'ism, a direct reference to Houthi rebels.
Both the Yemen government and the rebels have said that the conflict between them is not sectarian.
Yemen stepped up a military campaign against Houthi rebels in August. Fighting between Yemeni troops and Houthis, who belong to Yemen's Zaidi Shi'ite minority and say they suffer religious, economic and social marginalisation and neglect, has flared on and off since 2004 in the northern province of Saada.
Saudi Arabia and its ally, the United States, fear al Qaeda militants are exploiting instability in Yemen, an impoverished country also grappling with separatist unrest in the south, to establish a stronger base for operations in the region. (Writing by Souhail Karam, Editing by Dominic Evans)
A pickup truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four people in an area that has become the focal point for militant retaliation against an army offensive along the nearby Afghan border.
The explosion destroyed several shops and homes and damaged the station and a nearby mosque in the town of Badh Ber, which lies close to a Pakistani air force base as well as the major northwestern city of Peshawar. Thirty other people were wounded.
Militants have killed more than 300 civilians and security personnel in the last month to try and weaken the country's resolve to continue the military operation in South Waziristan region, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding.
"We have to continue this war against terrorists and have to keep our nerves," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for North West Frontier Province where Badh Ber is located.
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16 Nov 2009 06:49:30 GMT Source: Reuters * Twenty-four hurt in attack at checkpost
* 16 militants killed in Orakzai tribal region (Adds comment, detail, stock market)
By Alamgir Bitani
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 16 (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber killed four people on Monday near a Pakistan air force base close to the northwestern city of Peshawar and the Afghan border, a government official said.
The city has been targeted several times since the army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month and militants stepped up retaliatory attacks. Hundreds of people have been killed.
The attacker set off his bomb after being challenged at a checkpost near a police station about 2 km (1 mile) from the Badaber air base on the city's outskirts. The blast badly damaged the police station, a mosque and a shop.
"It was a suicide car-bomb attack. The mosque was worst damaged. The police station was also damaged," city administrator Sahibzada Anis told Reuters.
Four people were killed and 24 wounded, said Abdul Hameed Afridi, administrator at the Peshawar's main hospital.
The bomber was driving a small van of a type often used as a delivery vehicle and police opened fire on him when he refused to stop for a check, said Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali Khan.
The van was coming from the direction of the Khyber ethic Pashtun tribal region where Taliban militants have been fighting security forces.
"We have beefed up checks at entry and exit points to and from the tribal areas and that's why these blasts are taking place at our checkposts and our men are laying down their lives," Khan told Reuters.
STOCK MARKET HIGHER
The army went on the offensive in South Waziristan on the Afghan border on Oct. 17, aiming to root out Pakistani Taliban militants who stepped up their war on security forces in 2007.
The militants have responded with intensified attacks in towns and cities across the country.
The United States, weighing options as it struggles to stabilise Afghanistan, says Pakistani action against militants in border enclaves is vital for its Afghan effort.
The violence in recent weeks has rattled investors and the main stock index <.KSE> has lost more than 3 percent since the offensive began.
However, the market was 1.32 percent up at 9,186.94 at 0620 GMT, though volume was thin.
"Even though the market has opened on a positive note, volume is still on the low side which clearly shows investors are still worried," said Sajid Bhanji, a dealer at brokers' Arif Habib Ltd.
The market got a boost late last week after the International Monetary Fund said there were glimmers of recovery despite risks. [ID:nWEN6456]
Separately, suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a pro-government ethnic Pashtun tribal elder in the Bajaur region, north of Peshawar, a government official in the region said.
Militants have killed hundreds of pro-government tribal leaders over recent years.
In the Orakzai tribal region southwest of Peshawar, 16 militants were killed when jet fighters attacked them on Sunday, government officials said. (For full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK]) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan) (Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Izad Mohmand; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Salman Siddiqui Friday, 13 Nov, 2009 font-size small font-size largefont-sizeprintemail share Police officers search a car as part of an anti-terrorism drive in Karachi. - File photo Pakistan The ‘It-is-not-us’ syndrome STATE OF DENIAL The ‘It-is-not-us’ syndrome KARACHI: Recently, when the top official of Sindh who also belongs to a leading political party was asked whether it was due to government and police ‘efficiency’ that terrorists had not been able to strike Karachi, he admitted, on condition of anonymity, that ‘although we have been successful in thwarting militants from targeting people and key installations here in recent times, the truth of the matter is that it is not because we are so much better than authorities elsewhere in the country. It is due to the fact that the terrorists themselves didn’t want to strike Karachi and that’s why we saw a period of relative calm here. The day the militants get frustrated in the northern areas, Islamabad, and Lahore and decide to target Karachi, it will be next to impossible to stop them.’
This fear of the inevitable was echoed by Fayyaz Khan, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP Operations), Crime Investigations Department (CID) Sindh, who has been at the centre of media attention for nabbing ‘high-profile militants’ in the city.
‘The police force is limited in terms of man power and resources, and one can’t possibly secure every area,’ concedes Khan. ‘Still, due to our untiring efforts, we have been able to stop the terrorists before any damage could be done,’ he claims, citing various examples in which a number of militants were apprehended in Karachi with suicide jackets, C4 explosives, and AK-47s.
Modus operandi
Elaborating on the modus operandi of the militants, Khan explains that Karachi has always been a major source of funding for the terrorists: ‘Apart from collecting charity money from mosques, they conducted robberies and kidnapping for ransom, and now we have evidence that the militants also smuggled narcotics, which they sold overseas in the illegal drug market.’
He adds that militants also come to Karachi to get ‘medical benefits.’
Another advantage for militants in the city is that they can blend in with the local population. ‘It is very easy to hide in Karachi,’ Khan points out. ‘The city is hugely divided into Pathan, Sindhi, Bengali, or Urdu-speaking areas. Terrorists we have held hail from all ethnicities and choose to reside in places where they can easily dissolve among the local residents.’
Potential targets
Based on the interrogation of suspects, the CID has information that militants are planning to attack high-profile targets such as politicians and the police headquarters in Karachi. ‘The militants may also try to stir sectarian strife,’ he adds.
Schools and educational institutions might also be threatened, but for the moment they are not at high risk, says Khan.
Taliban in Karachi
Khan believes that more or less all radicalised militants in the city are now operating under the umbrella of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and one should no longer differentiate between groups. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Khaliq Sheikh adds that the TTP and its supporters are the most active group in the city. ‘Not only have militants come from areas outside the city, but local handlers within Karachi also remain active,’ says Sheikh.
Previously, several groups were operating distinctly in the city: the sectarian outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which staged the Nishtar Park bombing that killed more than 50 people in 2006; the Jundullah group, which attacked the Corps Commander Karachi in 2004; Harkatul Mujahideen; Al-Alami; Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami; and Al Qaeda.
Police officials say the involvement of these groups in current terrorist ploys are evidenced by the fact that nabbed militants hail from a variety of backgrounds, including Pathan and Urdu-speaking. The notion that only people from the north-west of the country are involved in terrorism is a misconception perpetuated by certain political parties, insist the police officials.
Recently, the police also displayed explosive material allegedly manufactured in India. For that reason, DIG Sheikh says ‘the likelihood of India being involved cannot be ruled out.’
Counter measures
To tackle the terrorism threat, a dedicated police unit called the Special Protection Group under the supervision of a DIG and two SSPs is in place. This group is tasked with rapid reaction measures in the event of a terrorist attack, and will be in charge of investigations to identify the culprits.
Meanwhile, the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) has released a document suggesting safety measures for educational institutes, including a control room with security cameras at entry and exit points; security guards at an elevated place; window panes preferably laminated with PVC film to prevent splinters in case of a blast; emergency drills in case of terrorism for teachers and children, and more.
CPLC chief Sharfuddin Memon suggests that the public should make arrangements on their own to protect their communities since the state is unlikely to provide for everyone in these difficult economic times. For example, Memon suggests that the administration of all shopping malls should start installing walk-through scanning gates, CCTVs, and security guards of their own.
Security loopholes
Recently, the CPLC signed an agreement with the local government to jointly monitor the feeds of surveillance cameras installed by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK). However, there are about 100 cameras, which are grossly inadequate for a city with an estimated population of over 17 million people.
Privately, police officials say the CDGK has no business running the camera network and suspect ulterior, political objectives. But the police department has only itself to blame for not implementing its own plan of installing between 2,000 and 3,000 surveillance cameras around Karachi under its ePolicing project.
Former Inspector General Police Jehangir Mirza, under whom the idea of a city-wide camera network was floated by the bureau in Islamabad, recalls that the meetings were all empty talks. ‘Apart from inadequate surveillance network, we also lack modern counter-terrorism techniques, and the courses offered by our police training academies are very far behind,’ he adds.
Junior police officer Waseem who was enrolled at one such course in an academy in Karachi informs that there were four main events in his three-to-six month long course, including judo, karate, jungle mission, 300-foot-tall tower climbing drills, and firing with various types of arms.
Mirza explains that most of the ‘trained’ policemen like Waseem lack motivation because of low pay. They also take no pride in completing courses because there is no guarantee that training will lead to promotions.
Another significant grey area is intelligence sharing between the CID, which is the intelligence arm of the police, the Inter Services Intelligence, and Military Intelligence. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one senior serving police official says that inter-agency coordination on intelligence may be the biggest hurdle to clamping down on terrorism in Karachi.
Rajiv Shah: the Man Obama Wants to Revitalize USAID By HOWARD LAFRANCHIi WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2009
President Obama is turning to Rajiv Shah, a medical doctor who served on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation before joining the Department of Agriculture, to head up the US Agency for International Development. Rajiv Shah: The man Obama wants to revitalize USAID Rajiv Shah, Under Secretary USDA, participates in a news conference with Agriculture Secretary Tom... Expand
Rajiv Shah, Under Secretary USDA, participates in a news conference with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, at the National Press Club on October 8, 2009 in Washington, DC. President Obama is turning to Rajiv Shah, a medical doctor who served on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation before joining the Department of Agriculture, to head up the US Agency for International Development. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) More Photos
Mr. Shah's appointment Tuesday, which is subject to Senate confirmation, comes after a 10-month vacancy at the helm of the agency. That vacancy belied comments by Mr. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who have spoken of the growing importance of development in US foreign policy and national security. Both have said they wish to expand the role of the agency, which administers $20 billion in annual assistance.
That figure is set to more than double during the next half-decade as development efforts grow in areas of strategic importance to the US. Related Pakistanis Blame U.S. for Taliban Terror Bombs Ex-Gates Foundation Exec Named Foreign Aid Chief
But many development experts, while relieved that USAID is finally getting a new chief, caution that Shah must first put the US foreign aid and development house in order. Only then could the agency think of "elevating" its role in US foreign policy.
"USAID is a damaged agency that must take on institutional strengthening as a first order of business," says Thomas Carothers, director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace in Washington.
He notes that USAID lost its policy division when the agency was integrated into the State Department in 2006. "So we have a development agency responsible for billions of dollars a year in foreign aid with no policy division," Mr. Carothers says.
As a result, USAID "needs strong leadership to reassert its role and define its purpose."
USAID's purpose had become increasingly "diffuse" as "the Pentagon and more than 20 other federal agencies increasingly engaged in development activities," said Raymond Offenheiser, president of the international organization Oxfam, in a statement.
Given the growing nexus between foreign aid and national security in the post-9/11 era, some development experts have called for the USAID chief to be elevated to cabinet status or to a seat on the National Security Council.
------------ Will USAID's Role Be Upgraded?
Secretary Clinton said in a statement that Shah will "bring an impressive record of accomplishment and a deep understanding of what works in development" to USAID – attributes she said would "advance the president's agenda and ... elevate and integrate development in our foreign policy." Related Clinton to Pakistan in Shadow of Deadly Attack Poppy Season Poses Test for U.S. Opium Policy The Army's $10M Afghanistan Flop
But his appointment does not suggest that either Obama or Secretary Clinton intend to "upgrade" the status of the USAID chief, Mr. Carothers says. Shah is in his 30s, and his first federal appointment was to the post of undersecretary for research, education, and economics at the Department of Agriculture. This suggests Shah might bring "interesting ideas" to his new post, Carothers says, "but does not have the gravitas to suggest the president intends to upgrade USAID to a cabinet-level agency."
The growing correlation between development and national-security interests places a burden on Shah to resist having USAID deployed solely for political or strategic purposes, says Carothers. "We're a big enough nation to promote poverty reduction and things like global health and prosperity as desirable in their own right."
For a few days now, going out in the streets of Karkh, which is Baghdad west of the Tigris, has been a very difficult task – especially if you wanted to reach your destination at a pre-set time. The checkpoints have long, long lines; hundreds of cars waiting to pass one by one by the soldier holding the explosive detector – only to reach another checkpoint and another long wait. Sometimes for hours there is no progress.
The reason for the extra vigilance turned out to be the opening of the 36th exhibition of Baghdad International Fair, today.
I remember going to the Fair every year, during the seventies and eighties. The exhibition grounds are very wide and tens of countries, including almost all the Arab states participated, in addition to dozens of independent international companies. It used to be so exciting.
We would visit all the pavilions; see all sorts of products and artifacts from all over the world, many of which were very artful. The Korean pavilion was especially popular. Some participants used to sell their products to visitors before the end of the fair – it was great! Thousands and thousands of people would go every day. Popcorn – crisps – sandwiches – soft drinks and, of course: Iraqi tea; all to be had at every corner.
All the young people wore their most attractive clothes so they could show off! The young men trying to catch the attention of the young women - sparks flying!
At eleven p.m. the horns would start sounding and everyone would shout out loud, "NO!" and people had to be urged to leave.
We had such a time!
Today only four countries are participating: Iran, France, Brazil and Sweden; and 300 independent companies. No Arab states at all.
Iraqi security officials said that the streets around the fair ground, which is located in Mansour, central Baghdad, will be blocked to "provide a secure environment for the participants and their Iraqi counterparts". They also said that "detours" would be provided…
I'm sure I don't know how I would feel after ten or fifteen days of main thoroughfares blocked in the Mansour area, a vital, central area; no one will be very happy. People won't be able to reach their work places and schools.
I wonder why the security officials still believe that blocking the streets will provide security. Is this the only solution our security commanders have? Block the roads!
We know that the issue of violence in Iraq is political. And it follows that the solution should also be political.
When is our government going to take serious steps towards reconciliation? So long as the politicians sitting at the top table are working against each other as competitors instead of working together as partners, the violence will not end – blocked roads or no.
13 Nov 2009 12:07:23 GMT Source: Reuters (For main story, click on [ID:nSP502529]; for full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])
Nov 13 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber attacked an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing 17 people and wounding 60, officials said.
There was no claim of responsibility but Pakistani Taliban militants have in recent weeks stepped up bomb attacks in retaliation for an army offensive against their South Waziristan stronghold, launched on Oct. 17.
Here are some questions and answers about the Pakistani Taliban:
WHO ARE THE PAKISTANI TALIBAN?
Most Pakistani Taliban fighters are ethnic Pashtuns from northwestern regions on the Afghan border. They support the Afghan Taliban, most of whom are also Pashtun and many of whom fled to the Pakistani Pashtun lands after U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's hardline Taliban government in late 2001.
More than a dozen factions based in different parts of northwest Pakistan formed a loose umbrella group, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, led by Baitullah Mehsud in late 2007. Mehsud was killed by a missile-firing U.S. drone aircraft in South Waziristan in August.
He was replaced by Hakimullah Mehsud. Mehsud is a Pashtun tribal name and is used by many members of the tribe as a last name. Estimates of the strength of Mehsud's faction alone vary from about 10,000 fighters to more than 20,000.
Baitullah Mehsud was accused of plotting numerous bomb attacks after the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque in July 2007 to crush a militant movement there. But it was when the government named him the chief suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 that his notoriety rocketed.
While many senior Taliban are veterans of Afghan fighting, they have exploited poverty, frustration over an ineffective judiciary, anger against landlords and widespread anti-U.S. feeling to attract recruits. Intelligence officials say they also press families to send sons to fight.
ARE THE PAKISTANI TALIBAN LINKED TO AL QAEDA?
Intelligence officials and security experts say the Pakistani Taliban have grown increasingly close to their al Qaeda ally. Baitullah Mehsud gave refuge to many foreign militants, including Arabs and Central Asians. While helping al Qaeda, Mehsud and his successor have focused their attacks on Pakistan and its security forces.
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AFGHAN TALIBAN?
The TTP swears allegiance to Mullah Omar, chief of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and sends fighters across the border to Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban are fighting what they call Western "occupation" forces. The Pakistani Taliban support that and also want their version of Islamist rule in Pakistan. There are differences between militant factions on whether to fight Pakistani security forces. Some oppose violence in Pakistan and want all Taliban to focus on Afghanistan. But leaders such as the Mehsuds argued that fighting Pakistani forces was justified because of Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led campaign against al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.
Three major Taliban commanders on the border are Maulvi Nazir Wazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadaur and Jalaluddin Haqqani. They are not in the TTP and are known for attacks in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan. The military has declined to comment on news reports that deals have been struck to keep those factions out of the battle in South Waziristan.
Security analysts say some Pakistani Taliban fighters appear to be fleeing the army offensive and taking refuge with their allies in places such as North Waziristan from where they are likely to continue their campaign against the state. (Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Nick Macfie)
14 Nov 2009 12:10:20 GMT Source: Reuters * Explosion near police checkpost kills constable
* Police say 15 wounded
(Adds casualties, background)
By Alamgir Bitani
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A suspected suicide car-bomber set off explosives near a police checkpost in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Saturday, killing a policeman and wounding 15 people, police said.
The city, near the Afghan border, has been targeted several times since the army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month and militants stepped up retaliatory attacks.
The blast came a day after a suicide car-bomber attacked an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the northwestern city, killing 17 people. [ID:nSP502529]
"One of our constables has been killed and 15 people have been wounded. We're getting information," said a police official in the area.
A city resident said he had seen two bodies at the scene while Dawn television said seven people had been killed.
The army went on the offensive in South Waziristan on the Afghan border last month, aiming to root out Pakistani Taliban militants who stepped up their war on the security forces in 2007.
The militants have responded with intensified attacks in towns and cities, killing several hundred people.
The United States, weighing options as it struggles to stabilise Afghanistan, says Pakistani action against militants in border enclaves is vital for its Afghan effort. (For full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK]) (Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
---------------
On Friday, a suicide car bomb exploded at an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in Peshawar, killing 17 people. [ID:nSP502529]
The Taliban said it carried out that attack, as well as a suicide bombing at a police station in the northwestern town of Bannu on Friday, in which seven people were killed.
"We will carry out similar attacks in other parts of the country," Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior Pakistani Taliban member and a cousin of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, told Reuters by telephone. Hussain is known as "the mentor of suicide bombers".
Updated at: 0940 PST, Friday, November 13, 2009 QUETTA: Five oil tankers carrying fuel for Nato forces in Afghanistan were set on fire by unknown men in Mach area of district Bolan. One of the driver of an oil tanker killed in the incident.
Police sources said the fuel convoy, on way to Afghanistan from Karachi was set on fire by unknown persons in Gattani area near Mach. A driver of an oil tanker Jumma Khan was killed in the incident. Police and law enforcement agencies have cordoned off the area but attackers managed to
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber attacked an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the northwestern city of Peshawar Friday, killing 10 people and wounding 60, officials said.
The city, near the Afghan border, has been targeted several times since the army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month and militants stepped up retaliatory attacks.
A military spokesman said the bomber's target was the office of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and the bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpost outside.
The attack came shortly before U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones began meetings with military and government leaders in Islamabad.
The United States, weighing options as it struggles to stabilise Afghanistan, says Pakistani action against militants in border enclaves is vital for its Afghan effort.
The blast brought down the front of the three-storey building and sent a thick column of smoke billowing over the city.
A wounded soldier said the bomber was in a type of vehicle that usually delivers medical supplies.
"All of a sudden it appeared on the wrong side of the road and began coming towards the office," the soldier, Nasir, told Reuters. "The guards opened fire but it came to the entrance of the building as the firing went on and exploded."
It was not clear how many people were in the building when the bomber struck at about 6:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. British time).
The ISI has in the past supported Islamists, beginning with guerrillas battling Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but in recent years has become a target of some factions.
INVESTORS RATTLED
Shortly after the Peshawar attack, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station near the town of Bannu, killing seven people including five policemen. Bannu is a gateway to North Waziristan, another militant sanctuary, on the Afghan border.
Security is tight across the country with numerous checks on roads and it was not clear how the bomber was able to approach the ISI office.
Militants who attacked army headquarters in Rawalpindi last month were dressed in army uniforms and travelled in a vehicle with military markings, reflecting an increasing sophistication in their attacks.
The army went on the offensive in South Waziristan last month, aiming to root out Pakistani Taliban militants who stepped up their war on the security forces in 2007.
The militants have responded with intensified attacks in towns and cities, killing several hundred people.
The army said Friday afternoon 6 militants and 12 soldiers had been killed in the previous 24 hours.
The army said Thursday an intense clash had erupted as soldiers advanced into the Langar Khel area and 14 militants and 5 soldiers were killed. Ten wounded soldiers later died, taking the toll from that clash to 15, the army said.
Stock investors have been rattled by insecurity and the main index has lost about 5 percent since the offensive began.
But the index ended 1.60 percent higher at 9,067.17 after the International Monetary Fund said the previous day the economy showed signs of recovery but risks remained.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin told Reuters the IMF had expressed concern about how insecurity could affect the economy.
(Additional reporting by Alamgir Bitani, Zeeshan Haider and Sahar Ahmed; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Ron Popeski)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.
Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.
A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.
It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.
The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.
Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.
The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.
"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.
As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.
Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.
At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.
The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.
The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.
The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.
Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.
If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI, which played a big role in the investigation.
The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.
But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.
"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."
Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.
The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.
In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.
Associated Press writers Samantha Gross in New York City, Juan A. Lozano in Houston, investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York City and AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin in Maryland contributed to this report.
Updated at: 1750 PST, Tuesday, November 10, 2009 CHARSADDA: At least 24 people were killed and 42 others injured in a powerful car bomb blast at Farooq-e-Azam Chawk in Charsadda, Geo News quoted hospital sources as saying Tuesday.
The District Hospital sources told Geo News that the death toll could rise, as at least 20 bodies were brought to the hospital.
Talking to Geo News, Dr Manzoorullah said at least 24 people killed in the blast.
According to police sources, an explosive-laden car was used for the blast. The blast was so power that the windowpanes of nearby buildings broke and the smoke is seen billowing from the blast site.
The search is still underway at the blast site for the people trapped under the rubble.
According to hospital sources, the deceased include women and children.
The blast place is usually crowded one. The people on their own kick-started the relief activities and rushed the bodies and injured to the nearby hospital. The police personnel put security cordon around the blast site.
The state of emergency has been declared in the hospital.
According to hospital sources, the most of the injured are in normal condition at District Hospital; however, some injured are in critical condition.
At least 11 injured including a body of a woman have been rushed to the Lady Reading Hospital as well.
Gordon Brown says he understands the grief of mother dead soldier's mother Gordon Brown has said that he understands the grief of Jacqui Janes, the mother of a dead soldier who confronted him over the lack of equipment for troops serving on the frontline.
Published: 10:47AM GMT 10 Nov 2009
Mrs Janes, the mother of Jamie Janes, a soldier killed in Afghanistan, made the points to the Prime Minister in a 13 minute telephone call.
Speaking in public for the first time about the controversy, Mr Brown said at a press conference: "I understand very well the sadness that she feels, and the way that she has expressed her grief is something that I can also clearly understand.
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"I wanted to say during that conversation with her, but thought I could not really do so because I do not know her, that when there is a personal loss as deep and immediate as she has experienced it takes time to recover.
"That loss can never be replaced, you have got to take every day at a time... Over time, comfort comes from understanding that your son has played an important role in the security of our country and died in such a courageous and brave way that nobody will ever forget it."
Mr Brown had contacted Mrs Janes to apologise about a letter of condolence which contained a series of errors.
Mrs Janes had accused Mr Brown of being ''disrespectful'' because the letter began ''Dear Mrs James'' and appeared to contain other spelling mistakes and a visible correction to her son Jamie's name.
Mrs Janes said during the call she had challenged Mr Brown over equipment for troops.
During the conversation, which she recorded, Mrs Janes said: "Mr Brown, listen to me.
"I know every injury my child sustained that day. I know that my son could have survived but my son bled to death.
"How would you like it if one of your children, God forbid, went to a war doing something that he thought, where he was helping protect his Queen and country and because of lack, lack of helicopters, lack of equipment, your child bled to death and then you had the coroner have to tell you his every injury?"
(Coroner:A public officer whose primary function is to investigate by inquest any death thought to be of other than natural causes.)
Mr Brown replied: I do understand but I think you have got to also understand that I feel very strongly about this as, as you do."
At one point in the conversation, Mrs Janes said: "I can not believe I have been brought down to the level of having an argument with the Prime Minister of my own country."
Mr Brown denied spelling Mrs Janes' son's name wrong in the letter, and blamed his poor handwriting rather than his spelling.
Mr Brown said today: "I apologised to Jacqui Janes yesterday for any mistakes that had been made.
"I also said to anybody whom I have written to, if my writing is difficult to read, I apologise for that."
He insisted the mission in Afghanistan remained crucial, and there was a "plan to move things forward".
Mrs Janes told The Sun: ''
I was speaking for every serving soldier who is not allowed to speak and every mum, dad, child, brother and sister of every soldier.
''I felt Jamie gave me the strength somehow and I know he would have been so proud.''
Mrs Janes recorded the conversation with the Prime Minister and The Sun published a full transcript of the conversation.
Mr Brown was criticised for failing to bow his head as he took part in commemorations for the UK's war dead in London at the weekend.
Jamie Janes joined the Grenadier Guards shortly after his 16th birthday and was on his second tour of Afghanistan when he was killed by a Taliban bomb on October 5.
09 Nov 2009 15:38:32 GMT Source: Reuters TEHRAN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The political stakes are high for the plan of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cut food and energy subsidies.
Locked in dispute with Western powers over Iran's nuclear programme, the populist president has faced an unprecedented wave of protests by supporters of moderate defeated candidates claiming June's presidential election was forged.
The liberal reforms could stoke popular dissent, coming at a time of spending cutbacks because of the fall in world oil prices over the past year. Or they could put the economy and government in better shape to withstand more sanctions in the nuclear dispute. Iran is one of the world's top five oil producers.
Here are key facts in the subsidy debate:
WHAT IS THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE PLAN?
Overhauling Iran's generous subsidy system has been under discussion for years, but stiff popular and political resistance has repeatedly stalled attempts at reform.
Gasoline rationing was introduced in 2007 as the first step towards reforming the system. Though it provoked riots in Tehran, the plan went ahead.
The current bill, which takes the plan forward, was presented to parliament in early 2009, before the presidential elections in June that provoked protests by supporters of defeated opposition candidates who claimed vote fraud won Ahmadinejad the poll.
The bill was approved in October but Ahmadinejad fought off an attempt to impose close scrutiny over what his government does with the money. Parliament obliged the government to count the subsidy savings as part of the official budget that requires the assembly's approval but on Saturday pulled back from a threat to demand special accounts are set up directing the money into specific areas of the economy approved by parliament.
Now the reforms must win the approval of hardline watchdog body the Guardian Council before coming into effect.
HOW BIG ARE SUBSIDIES?
Subsidies covering gasoline and other refined products, natural gas, electricity, water and basic foodstuffs cost Iran at least $90 billion a year and equal around 30 percent of GDP. But state help in energy products accounts for the majority of the state subsidy system. Subsidies cover oil, petrol, natural gas, electricity, water, flour, transport, and telephone services.
WHAT WILL THE BILL DO?
The idea is to move towards free market prices in the five-year period to 2015. According to Business & Economy Digest, published by Access Consultancy Group:
* Gasoline and refined products will be priced at 90 percent of Middle East benchmark prices on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Prices will be revised if there is a fluctuation of more than 25 percent.
* Natural gas for households will be priced a minimum 75 percent of the average export price.
* Price of gas for industries, refining and petrochemicals will be a maximum 65 percent of the average gas export basket.
* Electricity and water will be at free market prices in 2014.
* The government could earn $10-20 billion in 2010/11 through price increases it will be able to introduce.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SAVINGS?
Analysts say around 50 percent is for redistribution among the people, 30 percent will be made available to industries in the form of loans, and 20 percent to create a social safety net.
Media have said the government intends to open bank accounts for 36 million people, about half its population, to give them cash to compensate for higher food and energy prices.
WHAT OTHER AIMS BEHIND IT?
By removing the heavy budget burden, Iran could be less vulnerable to any new U.N. sanctions on imports over Tehran's disputed nuclear energy programme, which Washington says is a front for building weapons. Tehran denies this.
Iran could be vulnerable to sanctions on energy imports since it imports around a third of its gasoline consumption needs due to lack of refining capacity. Iran imports around 100,000 to 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline. Demand is growing at 6 percent per year as 700,000 new cars hit the roads each year. Reducing consumption will lighten any blow.
Iran also imports rice, with annual consumption of about 3 million tonnes exceeding domestic production by about 750,000 tonnes. The country imported 5.9 million tonnes of wheat in the 2008-09 year after it was hit by a severe drought, but an agriculture official suggested in May it may produce enough of the grain this year to meet domestic needs.
With oil prices down to about $80 a barrel, many development and infrastructure projects have been delayed in the past year. The subsidy reform could help the government in this regard.
U.N. sanctions have stopped Western companies investing in Iran and even slowed the flow of cash from Asian firms less concerned by Western opprobrium.(Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.)
Critics say the need for savings is ironic, arguing that Iran's total debts balance around $40 billion was mainly incurred through overzealous spending during Ahmadinejad's first term.
WHAT OTHER EFFECTS COULD THE CUTS HAVE?
It could be inflationary and lead to a repeat of the street disturbances of 2007. Some analysts say inflation could rise by as much as 40 percent, with prices already high. Ahmadinejad says redirection of the subsidies to the poor will help close the gap between the rich and the poor segments of the country. But many fear it will make the poor poorer.
Hardline lawmaker Ahmad Tavakkoli said on Saturday: "The bill will have a negative impact on inflation. It will eliminate the middle class and will increase the number of poor people in the country."
Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said the plan could be beneficial if implemented well, hinting at corruption and incompetence in bloated state structures -- something his campaign dwelt on in the disputed election.
"If this does not happen then people, if pressured further, will confront the government," he said, according to website Kaleme on Monday.
(Compiled by Parisa Hafezi, Reza Derakhshi, Andrew Hammond; editing by Samia Nakhoul)
MORE >> (For more on Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Nov 9 (Reuters) - NATO and Afghan officials claimed on Monday their forces had killed at least 130 Taliban fighters in a major operation over the past week in an area of Afghanistan's north where militant activity has surged.
A combined force of 700 Afghan troops and 50 NATO soldiers cleared villages of fighters, killing more than 130 insurgents including eight Taliban commanders during a five-day operation, NATO spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician said.
Kunduz province governor Mohammad Omar told Reuters the combined force had killed 133 fighters during the operation, which took place in and around Kunduz's Char Dara district.
However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said only five fighters had died, and called the death toll given by NATO and Afghan officials "propaganda".
The NATO-led force deployed air strikes against armed insurgents but believed no civilians were among those killed, Vician said. No NATO or Afghan troops were killed, he added.
Kunduz province is mainly patrolled by the NATO force's German contingent, which has failed to prevent Taliban fighters from taking control of many rural villages in recent months.
Its Char Dara district was the site of the deadliest incident involving German troops since World War Two. In early September, a German officer ordered a U.S. air strike that the Afghan government says killed 30 civilians as well as 69 fighters.
Germany acknowledged this week for the first time that civilians were killed in that strike and not all procedures were followed correctly, but says an air strike was nonetheless needed to prevent a suicide attack by fighters in stolen fuel trucks.
That incident also drew attention to the rapid spread of Taliban control in Kunduz, one of the provinces where NATO says insurgents have made gains this year, spreading out of southern and eastern bases into once-quiet northern and western areas.
(Reporting by Peter Graff and Hamid Shalizi in KABUL and Mohammad Hamed in KUNDUZ; Editing by Paul Tait) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
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KUNDUZ - Afghan troops killed three insurgents during a gun battle in the Imam Saheb district of northern Kunduz province on Saturday evening, district governor Juma Khan said.
KUNDUZ - Taliban insurgents set on fire three loaded fuel tankers bound for NATO-led troops in Kunduz city on Saturday, but no one was killed or wounded, provincial governor Mohammad Omar said.
No left or right in US politics! We don't see any difference between G.W. Bush and Obama impotence in facing Israeli crimes and violations. Terrorist Netanyahu has already defied Obama and Bush calls to dismantle the settlements in the occupied Westbank. Obama is the black face of Jewish-controlled America. Summary: No-one can challenge the Jewish lobby!
The Jews have bankrupted America and sold its secrets to the Russians. Despite all this, they are still pulling the strings in Washingron D.C. After Jonathan Pollard can anyone imagine that Obama chief of staff is no other than Rahm Emanuel, who is an Israeli reserve army officer?
You don't have to go out to know it is winter! Unless something drastic happens, Obama will be a one-term president like Jimmy Carter before him. After Nixon Water gate, the American Zombies brought Carter to humiliate and dump him. Obama must realise this and be in charge as the president of a mighty superpower and not of a country under the mercy of the Jews who can easily switch sides and work against him. I have no hope in the ability of any US president to challenge, let alone, cut the fangs of the Jewish Dracula (s) controlling American financial institutions, the media and politics.
Iraq Occupation Times (IOT) interviews President Barak Hussein Obama on the eve of his meeting with Israeli PM Netanayhu. IOT: Our condolences for what has happened at Fort Hood. Do you think Mr President that there is a connection between the attack on Fort Hood and US disregard for Palestinian rights? Obama: I can’t comment on this sad incidence as there is an on-going investigation. IOT: How do you feel inviting ‘terrorist’ Netanyahu to the Whitehouse? Obama: I feel like President Carter inviting ‘terrorist’ Menachem Begin. IOT: What do you think of Jews spying on the US for Israel? Obama: We are open with our Israeli friends and allies. Our Pentagon and Foreign offices are infested with Jews. My chief of staff is an Israeli reserve army officer. Our views and decisions are passed to the Israelis before they become known to Hillary Clinton. IOT: Do you think that the Arabs are unjustified in their mistrust of US foreign policy? Obama: Because of the lack of democracy in the Arab world, there is no leader who represents the views of the Arab people. When in Washington, most Arab leaders get busy discussing their personal allowances. IOT: Do you think it is more appropriate for the US to impose sanctions on Israel for its massive stockpiles of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and for its breach of 39 UN Security Resolutions? Obama: Right now we are busy formulating types of sanction to be imposed on on Iran. The Israelis are our friends and allies. The American Jews practically finance the entire US political establishment. The American people support the decisions of their politicians. IOT: What is the difference between your policies and those of George W. Bush? Obama: When in the Whitehouse all US presidents defend US interests and work to satisfy the local power centres in order to either secure a second term or to support their party candidates. IOT: Thank you Mr President for your time and views.
Taken from: http://www.rense.com/general21/pastzionist.htm
Following are just a few of the many massacres committed by Jewish-Zionist terrorists, notably by the Zionist Hagana, Irgun and Stern Gang groups.
Don't expect any Hollywood films highlighting any of these massacres:
1. King David Hotel, July 22, 1946. 2. Sharafat, Feb. 7, 1951. 3. Deir Yassin, April 10, 1948. 4. Falameh, April 2, 1951. 5. Naseruddine, April 14, 1948. 6. Quibya, Oct. 14, 1953. 7. Carmel, April 20, 1948. 8. Nahalin, March, 28, 1954. 9. Al-Qabu, May 1, 1948. 10. Gaza, Feb. 28, 1955. 11. Beit Kiras, May 3, 1948. 12. Khan Yunis, May 31, 1955. 13. Beitkhoury, May 5, 1948. 14. Khan Yunis Again, Aug. 31, 1955 15. Az-Zaytoun, May 6, 1948. 16. Tiberia, Dec. 11, 1955. 17. Wadi Araba, May 13, 1950. 18. As-Sabha, Nov. 2, 1955. 19. Gaza Again, April 5, 1956. 20. Houssan, Sept. 25, 1956. 21. Rafa, Aug. 16, 1956. 22. Qalqilyah, Oct. 10, 1956. 23. Ar-Rahwa, Sept. 12, 1956. 24. Kahr Kassem, Oct. 29, 1956. 25. Gharandal, Sept. 13, 1956. 26. Gaza Strip, Nov. 1956. 26. Gaza Strip, Nov. 1956.
July 2, 1946: The King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed, killing 91 people.
Menachem Begin, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize for peace, is the same man who planned the destruction of the King David Hotel and the massacre of Deir Yassin. Ex prime minister, Shamir, was originally a member of the Jewish terrorist gang called Irgun, which was headed by none other than Menachem Begin. Shamir later moved over to the even more radical "Stern Gang," which committed many vicious atrocities.
Shamir himself has defended the various assassinations committed by the Irgun and Stern gangs on the grounds that "it was the only way we could operate, because we were so small. So it was more efficient and more moral to go for selected targets." The selected moral targets in those early days of the founding of the state of Israel included bombing of the King David Hotel and the massacre of Deir Yassin.
April 9, 1948: A combined force of Irgun and Stern Gangs committed a brutal massacre of 260 Arab residents of the village of Deir Yassin. Most of whom were women and children. The Israeli hordes even attacked the dead to satisfy their bestial tendencies. In April, 1954, during Holy Week, and on the eve of Easter, The Christian cemeteries in Haifa were invaded, crosses broken down and trampled under the feet of these miscreants, and the tombs desecrated. The Israeli military conquest, therefore was made against a defenseless people, who had been softened up by such earlier massacres as Deir Yasin (where 250 Arabs; men, women and children were massacred).
The Jew, Weizman, referred to the massacre as this "miraculous simplification of our task," and Ben Gurion said that "without Deir Yasin there would be no Israel." Americans are not told that ten percent of the Arabs killed by the Israelis in 1948 were Christian, and that ten percent of the Arab property confiscated belonged to Christians. Nor are they told that Israel's massacres and military actions forced 100,000 Christians to become refugees.
Accounts by Red Cross and United Nations observers who visited the scene said that the houses were first set on fire and the occupants were shot down as they came out to escape the flames. One pregnant woman had her baby cut out of her stomach with a knife. Reminiscent of the acts committed by their brother Jews in Russia during and after the Bolshevik (Jewish) takeover. The head of the International Red Cross delegation in Palestine, Jacques de Reynier, drove into the village and was met by a detachment of Irgun terrorists. In his report of the massacre the previous night, he wrote: "All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine-guns, hand-grenades, and knives, most of them still blood-stained. A beautiful young girl with criminal eyes showed me hers (knife) still dripping with blood, she displayed it like a trophy."
May 1948: The U.S. appointed Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden to mediate between the Arabs and the Israelis. In his first progress report (of Sept. 16, 1948) he recommended that the U.N. should affirm "the right of the Arab refugees to return to their homes in Jewish controlled territory at the earliest possible date." The Israelis responded in their own quiet way. The following day Bernadotte was murdered in Jerusalem.
Responsibility for the spectacular assassination, which caused an international outcry, was claimed by an unknown group, "Fatherland Front," which was actually a cover for Shamir's Stern Gang. Yoshua Zeitler and Meshlam Markover of Stern told Israeli television in 1989 that they respectively directed and led the operation that killed the Swedish diplomat and his French aide-de-camp. Zeitler, 71, said he decided to speak now because of fear that the U.N. and the "goyim" (non-Jews) are again trying to force Israel into concessions.
February 1949: Israel launched an offensive across the Armistice lines with Egypt which brought its forces to the Gulf of Aqaba, occupying the Palestinian police post of Umm Rashrash which they afterwards named Eilat.
1950: Israelis seized the Al-Uja de-militarized zone on the Egyptian side and Baqqara on the Syrian side, expelling their Arab inhabitants and razed their homes to the ground by bulldozers.
1950-1955: Israeli forces unleashed more than 40 acts of armed aggressions against Arab states, almost all causing a heavy loss of life. This included attacks and massacres in Qibya, Huleh 1953, Nahalin, Kfar Qassem in 1954, Gaza and a Syrian outpost on Lake Tiberias in 1955.
October 14-1 5, 1953 -- Under the command of Ariel Sharon, Israeli squads attacked the unarmed Arab village of Qibya in the demilitarized one. Where they blew up 42 houses and killed more than 60 residents who were trapped inside. The details were so gruesome that the U.S. joined in a U.N. condemnation of the Israeli action, and for the first and only time, suspended aid to Israel in reprisal.
July 1954: Israeli intelligence planted "a ring of spies (moles)" in Cairo. Its task was to begin sabotage operations against selected Egyptian, British and American targets. On July 14, the Alexandria post office was fire-bombed, and the U.S. Information Agency offices in Cairo and Alexandria were damaged by fire started by phosphorous incendiary devices, as was a British-owned theater.
Members of the spy ring were caught, and they confessed. They had been planted by Modin, the Israeli military intelligence organization. The purpose, presumably, was to sabotage Egyptian relations with the U.S. and Britain. Various commissions of inquiry into the affair conducted in Israel were never able to decide whether or not Israeli Defense Minister Pinchos Lavon authorized the operation.
MORE JEWISH TERRORISM
1956: Squads of Israeli soldiers committed a hideous atrocity in the Palestinian village of Kafr Qasim, 47 innocent people were shot down in cold blood. The careful and premeditated mass murders, never received great attention in the West. Although the Israeli courts convicted eight soldiers of murder, they were all released within two years of their trial, and within three years one of them who had been convicted of killing 43 Arabs in an hour, was engaged by the municipality of Ramleh as the "officer responsible for Arab affairs in the city." In October 1956 Israel, backed by England and France, attacked Egypt to gain control of the Suez Canal.
Taking advantage of the situation created by Egypt's decision of nationalization of the Suez Canal, Israel joined forces with Britain and France to invade Egypt. As a result, it occupied the Sinai Peninsula, seized the Gaza Strip, and Sharm Al sheikh which guarded the Strait of Tiran and the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. a year letter it withdrew reluctantly under the combined pressure of the U.N., U.S.A. and the Soviet Union.
There was no military necessity for this destruction; it was sheer vengeance against Arab Christians. This action created another 300,000 Arab refugees, thus making a total refugee population of Christian and Muslim Arabs, which is larger than the combined populations of Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. It was during this campaign that the Israeli's attacked the U.S.S. Liberty with the death of 34 of its number. If this had been an Egyptian or a Russian attack, American would have been at war, but the Jewish vote of America silenced any American criticisms of this action. Americans are also not told that Israel has always refused to obey any mandate of the United Nations. Resolutions affirmed by vote every year since 1948 recognize the right of the return of Palestinian refugees, but Israel always refuses to obey. Israel has been condemned over and over again for breaking the charter and now fulfilling the conditions upon which she was allowed to become a member!
1960-1962: Israeli forces attacked Syrian villages on Lade Tiberias and brought death to hundreds of Arab civilians.
1966: Squads of Israeli soldiers raided the Jordanian village of Sammu, they killed 18 civilians, wounded 100 others and demolished 130 houses including a school, a clinic and a mosque.
1967: THE U.S.S. Liberty was deliberately attacked in international waters as it monitored communications during the Six-Day War. Israel used U.S.-donated equipment to jam the ship's S.O.S., hoping to sink it and murder all aboard before word could get out. 34 sailors were butchered and 170 wounded in this blatant Act of War. The Liberty was part of the Sixth Fleet, a powerful group of men and ships paid for by U.S. Taxpayers to protect the Israeli's. What do the Jews think of our American Service Men, the descendants of the men who pulled their chestnuts out of the fire in World War II?
June 5, 1967: Israeli committed its biggest, most treacherous and premeditated aggression against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. After destroying Arab aircraft on the ground in a lightening attack, Israeli forces invaded and occupied the rest of Palestine, that is, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. In the first days of its aggression and in plain disregard of the truth, Israel fabricated a charge of aggression against its victims and presented it in a dramatic manner to the U.N. Security Council. Western media spread this fabricated story and the whole world sympathized with the supposed victim. In 1967 the Israeli's made a third ruthless blitzkrieg attack upon the Arabs. This time they deliberately destroyed three quarters of a million dollar's worth of church property.
The great deception practiced by Israel on the U.N. and the whole world is now completely discredited, the Israelis, therefore, changed their tactics and rely nowadays on the argument that, they were NOT attacked by Egypt, they were in danger of BEING attacked, and hence they resorted to a so-called pre-emptive strike. Alan Hart quotes a former Israeli Director of military intelligence as telling him "if Nasser had not given Israel the excuse to attack the Arabs, Israel would have invented a pretext for war within six or ten months" because its military planners had decided that the time had come to knock out vast amounts of mainly Soviet-supplied Arab armor. Yitzhak Rabin, who as chief of staff planned this attack told Le Monde in February 1968, quite simply: "We knew that Nasser did not intend to attack."
February 15, 1968: Israel invaded PLO bases in Karamah, on the eastern bank of the River Jordan with helicopter-borne troops and tanks. Three hundred commandos fought off 1,500 Israeli soldiers and force them to retreat. The battle lasted all day and into the evening. Although the village was totally destroyed, the Palestinian defenders repelled the Israelis and inflicted heavy casualties among the invaders. By the Israeli account, they lost 28 soldiers and 90 were wounded.
1969: The Israelis distinguished themselves by committing a horrible crime, in retaliation of attrition war across the Suez Canal, Israeli war planes raided an Egyptian school "Bahr al Baker" in southern Egypt killing 75 children and wounding over 100.
August 1969: An Israeli set fire to one of the most sacred Islamic shrines. Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, causing extensive damage to it. This crime plunged over one billion Muslims throughout the world into the deepest anguish.
March 12, 1970: Israeli forces invaded part of South Lebanon known as "Fatah-Land" killing a number of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
September 8, 1972 -- Without any apparent cause or reason, Israeli Phantoms bombed Palestinian targets in Lebanon and Syria in a series of raids killing hundreds of civilians. This action was explained by the Israeli prime minister the next day, who in the Knesset, that "Israel had now adopted a new policy to strike at the terrorist organizations where ever we can reach them."
February 21, 1973: Israel landed commando units on the coasts of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. They attacked two Palestinian refugees camps, dynamited several houses and buildings, some over the heads of their occupants, killing 35 refugees and wounding a similar number. On the same day, Israeli war planes shot down a Libyan Civilian Aircraft over the Sinai Desert killing over 100 passengers.
April 10, 1973: Israeli commando units with the help of some Lebanese collaborators stormed into a residential quarter in East Beirut and killed three PLO leaders: Yusef Al Najjar, Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser.
1974: Israeli air-borne commando units attacked Beirut airport and destroyed 13 Lebanese civilian aircraft on the ground.
In the same year, Israeli planes intercepted a civilian Syrian aircraft and forced it to land at Lydda (Lod) airport on suspicion that it was carrying a Palestinian commando leader. Christian shrines in Jerusalem were subjected to several acts of aggression and robbery. This included damaging the church of the Holy Sepulchre, burying four other Christian centers, and stealing the diamond Crown of the Virgin Mary.
1975-1980: Israeli's intelligence service, the Mossad, distinguished itself by feats of terrorist actions that killed a number of Arab and Palestinian diplomats, scientists and journalists such as the PLO representatives in London, Rome, Paris and Brussels, prominent Palestinian journalist and writer Ghassan Kanafani and the Egyptian nuclear scientist Dr. Al Mashad.
1981: Putting their so-called pre-emptive policy in action, Israeli warplanes raided and destroyed a peaceful Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad.
June 6, 1982: The Israeli armed forces invaded Lebanon. Less than two weeks after its election, the New Menachem Begin government unleashed the first blow in its war to liquidate the PLO in Lebanon.
June 1982: Israeli forced launched their savage invasion of Lebanon. As a result of this invasion a great number of refugee camps, Lebanese towns and villages were destroyed. Israeli warplanes launched eight raids on Palestinian targets in South Lebanon and Beirut, killing nearly one thousand people and wounding many others. The fantasy of the "pre-emptive strike policy" was dropped and even the Jerusalem Post correspondent was at pains to explain the purpose of the bombing raids. "The past few days of activities on the northern border followed five weeks of quiet. It is not know what triggered Israeli's Friday afternoon raid." Outraged by Israel's onslaught and the cruel destruction of Beirut, Jewish journalist Jacobo Timmerman called Begin "unbalanced" a "terrorist" and "a disgrace to the people." He accused Sharon of helping to make Israel "the Prussia of the Middle East.&quo t;
July 17, 1982: U.S. supplied F-4 and F-5 jets swooped low over Beirut in 4 passes, bombing the densely-populated Fakahani district. Five tall apartment buildings were destroyed, 200 people were killed and 800 wounded. Forty percent of the victims were small children, and one of the survivors was an unborn baby pulled by doctors from the dead mother's womb. Israel's then Chief-of-staff Rafael Eitan announced on Israeli Radio that civilian causalities were unimportant and that the Arab causalities suffered as of the July 17 attack did not yet constitute the Israeli "final solution."
September 1982: Israeli raids and bombardments continued during the weeks following the raid on Beirut in July. It was the beginning of the invasion of Beirut; after which an 80 days war led by Ariel Sharon, (then War Minister of Israel) resulted in the destruction of much of Beirut, killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese civilians. It was during this invasion that the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps was committed. Where over 2,500 Palestinian women, children and elderly people were slaughtered in cold blood. Even the Israeli high court held a number of the Israeli military officers, including Sharon, responsible.
October 1982: Israeli terrorists bombed the houses, cars and offices of three elected Palestinian mayors on the West Bank, Nablus, Ramallah and Al Beireh.
1984: Israeli warships and gunboats intercepted merchant ships on the high seas off the coast of Lebanon and kidnapped a number of Palestinians.
1985: Israeli planes raided and destroyed the PLO headquarters in Tunis.
1986: Israeli secret agents assassinated a noted Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali, in London.
April 1988: Israeli commando units stormed into the house of Khalil Al Wazir, in Tunis. Al Wazir who was the most senior PLO military commander and believed to be in charge of the Intifada, was murdered while sleeping.
February and March 1989: Israeli F-16 planes pounded Palestinian targets in Lebanon's Shouf Mountains, Damour and the Beka's valley with a series of raids killing a numbers of civilians, including 15 school children in Damour.
April 14, 1989: Israeli border guards and settlers attacked the peaceful and unarmed village of Nahalin near Bethlehem. Eight Palestinians were massacred for no reason and over 50 were injured. The killings took place late in the night and at the beginning of the Holy month of Ramadan.
ZIONIST TERRORISM IS NEVER-ENDING, AND IT MUST BE STOPPED!
• Poll crackdown and state broadcaster denounced • Supreme leader says he welcomes such comments
* Robert Tait * guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 19.20 GMT
Mahmoud Vahidnia, Iran student
Iranian student Mahmoud Vahidnia speaking in a meeting with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photograph: AP
He may be the bravest student in Iran or an unwitting stooge of the Islamic regime – or both. Either way, Mahmoud Vahidnia has gained instant fame after breaking a taboo by criticising the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to his face.
The 25-year-old maths student has been lauded by opposition websites after reportedly telling Khamenei that he had been turned into a "grand idol" who was above criticism. But in a twist demonstrating the inscrutable nature of Iranian politics, the incident has been used by Khamenei's supporters to show how he embraces criticism. Vahidnia has remained unmolested since his 10-minute critique, which condemned the recent brutal post-election crackdown and denounced the state broadcaster, IRIB, for biased coverage. But his most remarkable comments were reserved for Khamenei himself.
"I don't know why in this country it's not allowed to make any kind of criticism of you," he told Iran's most powerful cleric, who has the final say in all state matters. "In the past three to five years that I have been reading newspapers, I have seen no criticism of you, not even by the assembly of experts [a clerical body with the theoretical power to sack the leader]. I feel that if this doesn't happen this situation will lead to discord and grudge."
Vahidnia, who achieved nationwide recognition two years ago by winning Iran's annual mathematics Olympiad, made his remarks at a meeting between Khamenei and the country's scientific elite. They came after the supreme leader asked at the end of a question-and-answer session if anyone else wanted to speak. He chose Vahidnia after seeing him being pushed down by officials when he stood to ask a question.
Referring to the post-election crackdown sanctioned by Khamenei, he asked: "Wouldn't our system have a better chance of preserving itself if we were using more satisfactory methods and limited the use of violence only to essential circumstances?"
Although state TV cameras were present, the criticisms only came to light when they were highlighted on Khamenei's own website and by Alef, a fundamentalist site. Both carried accounts showing Khamenei responding calmly.
"Don't think that I'll be unhappy to hear such statements. No, I would be unhappy if such statements are not made," he said. "About lack of criticism of the leader, you go and tell them to criticise. We have not said that no one should criticise us … I welcome criticism. There is criticism and there is a lot of it. And I receive it and I understand the criticism."
The exchange has been seized on by pro-regime media as a demonstration of the leader's tolerance. The hardline Keyhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Khamenei, reported it under a headline reading, The Revolutionary Leader's Fatherly Response to Critical Youth.
Some opposition websites suggested that Vahidnia had been arrested by intelligence agents while other reports asked whether he had been a plant set up by regime officials. Vahidnia scotched both suggestions in an interview with Alef, in which he asked "society and elites not to spread rumours".
Under Iranian law comments deemed insulting to the supreme leader carry possible prison sentences, although in practice critics are often not arrested immediately. Ahmad Zeidabadi, the head of Iran's leading student movement, Tahkim-e Vahdat, published an open letter critical of Khamenei in 2007 but was only arrested in the round-ups that followed last June's disputed presidential election.
Serviceman from 2nd Battalion the Rifles dies in blast in central Helmand province, MoD says
* Adam Gabbatt and agencies * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 November 2009 09.52 GMT Sang
British troops on duty in Helmand, Afghanistan
British troops in Helmand, Afghanistan. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
The Queen led the nation in remembering its war dead today at the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in London.
This year's Remembrance Sunday commemorations, which are taking place across the country, have seen an emphasis on Afghanistan, where hundreds of soldiers gathered this morning to pay their respects to fallen comrades.
And the conflict was brought sharply into focus by the announcement today that a British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan yesterday. A total of 231 British troops have now died in the country since the war began, 94 so far this year alone.
The soldier was killed in an explosion near Sangin, in central Helmand province, the MoD said.
The man, who has not yet been named, was from 2nd Battalion the Rifles, but was serving with 4th Battalion the Rifles when he died. His next of kin have been informed.
Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said he would "not be forgotten".
"It is my sad duty to inform you that a soldier from the Rifles was killed ... in an explosion near Sangin, in Helmand province," he said.
"He died a soldier, doing his duty and among his fellow soldiers. He will not be forgotten."
Services are taking place in Britain and Afghanistan to mark Remembrance Sunday.
After a two minute silence in Whitehall at 11am the Queen led politicians and military and religious leaders in laying a wreath at the base of the Cenotaph. Prince Harry laid a wreath on behalf of the Prince of Wales, who is on official duties in Canada, before the prime minister, Gordon Brown, the Conservative leader, David Cameron, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, all laid their wreaths.
Earlier today, hundreds of soldiers gathered at the main British base in Afghanistan to pay their respects to fallen comrades.
Wreaths were laid and a minutes silence held after a week in which seven UK soldiers have died in Afghanistan, five of them killed in a gun attack by a rogue Afghan policeman.
"Remembrance Day is about remembering the dead of the Great War, the second world war, and all those who have died since," Brigadier James Cowan, the commander of Task Force Helmand, said.
"Here we are in Afghanistan remembering those of our comrades who have died in this conflict.
"We've been at war now for nearly eight years, both in Iraq and Afghanistan and it's a particularly poignant week at the end of which seven of our friends are dead."
08 Nov 2009 10:19:27 GMT Source: Reuters - For more on Afghanistan & Pakistan conflicts, click [ID:nAFPAK]
* Some 36 wounded in attack at market near Peshawar
* Target of attack was village mayor critical of militants
* Twenty more militants killed in South Waziristan (Adds death toll, Waziristan offensive)
By Faris Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban village mayor and 11 other people in an attack near Pakistan's volatile city of Peshawar on Sunday, officials said.
The bomber blew himself up as Abdul Malik, mayor of Matni village, was visiting a market crowded with people and goats being sold for the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
Muslims slaughter goats, cows, buffaloes and camels on Eid al-Adha, which will be celebrated later this month.
"Twelve people have been killed, including a four-year-old child, and 36 people are wounded," Mohammad Mukhtar, a doctor at Peshawar's main government hospital, told Reuters. Matni is close to the lawless tribal lands where Islamist militants are active.
Islamist militants have unleashed a campaign of bomb and suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for a major offensive launched by security forces in their main bastion, South Waziristan, on the Afghan border.
The army on Sunday said 20 militants were killed in the latest fighting there, taking their total death toll to 478 since the offensive began.
Forty-four soldiers have been killed in the same period, according to military figures. There was no independent verification of casualties as reporters and other independent observers are not allowed into the war zone.
That assault in South Waziristan's rugged landscape of barren mountains and hidden ravines, now a centre of global Islamist militancy, is being closely watched by the United States and other powers embroiled in Afghanistan. [ID:nSP235736]
TALIBAN BACKER-TURNED-ENEMY
To support their overall anti-militant drive, Pakistani authorities have encouraged Pashtun tribes to revive traditional militia to counter rising Islamist militancy.
Malik was once a Taliban supporter, but switched loyalty to the government in recent years and had survived several assassination attempts by the militants.
He was also head head of a lashkar, or tribal militia, raised by the villagers against the militants.
"He was pro-government and was deadly against the Taliban," Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali Khan said.
Militants have killed numerous pro-government tribal elders over the past few years, and have stepped up attacks recently.
Last month, more than 100 people were killed in a car bombing in Peshawar in the deadliest attack in the country in two years.
More than 150 people were killed in attacks before the army began the assault in South Waziristan.
The army went on the offensive in the ethnic Pashtun region on Oct. 17 aiming to root out Pakistani Taliban militants behind a wave of violence in urban areas.
Soldiers have been advancing into the militant heartland from three directions and had entered their headquarters of Makeen on Friday. [ID:nSP402645] (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
(Reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Bryson Hull and Sanjeev Miglani))
The Guardian co.uk, November 7, 2009 Noam Chomsky is the closest thing in the English-speaking world to an intellectual superstar. A philosopher of language and political campaigner of towering academic reputation, who as good as invented modern linguistics, he is entertained by presidents, addresses the UN general assembly and commands a mass international audience. When he spoke in London last week, thousands of young people battled for tickets to attend his lectures, followed live on the internet across the globe, as the 80-year-old American linguist fielded questions from as far away as besieged Gaza.
But the bulk of the mainstream western media doesn't seem to have noticed. His books sell in their hundreds of thousands, he is mobbed by students as a celebrity, but he is rarely reported or interviewed in the US outside radical journals and websites. The explanation, of course, isn't hard to find. Chomsky is America's most prominent critic of the US imperial role in the world, which he has used his erudition (Deep, extensive learning) and standing to expose and excoriate (denounce) since Vietnam.
Like the English philosopher Bertrand Russell, who spoke out against western-backed wars until his death at the age of 97, Chomsky has lent his academic prestige to a relentless campaign against his own country's barbarities abroad – though in contrast to the aristocratic Russell, Chomsky is the child of working class Jewish refugees from Tsarist (Russian Empire) pogroms( An organized, often officially encouraged massacre or persecution of a minority group, especially one conducted against Jews.). Not surprisingly, he has been repaid with either denunciation or, far more typically, silence. Whereas a much slighter figure such as the Atlanticist French philosopher Bernard Henri-Lévy is lionised at home and abroad, Chomsky and his genuine popularity are ignored.
Indeed, his books have been banned from the US prison library in Guantánamo. You'd hardly need a clearer example of his model of how dissenting views are filtered out of the western media, set out in his 1990's book Manufacturing Consent, than his own case. But as Chomsky is the first to point out, the marginalisation of opponents of western state policy is as nothing compared to the brutalities suffered by those who challenge states backed by the US and its allies in the Middle East.
We meet in a break between a schedule of lectures and talks that would be punishing for a man half his age. At the podium, Chomsky's style is dry and low-key, as he ranges without pausing for breath from one region and historical conflict to another, always buttressed with a barrage of sources and quotations, often from US government archives and leaders themselves.
But in discussion he is warm and engaged, only hampered by slight deafness. He has only recently started travelling again, he explains, after a three-year hiatus (A gap or interruption in space, time, or continuity; a break: "We are likely to be disconcerted by . . . hiatuses of thought" ) while he was caring for his wife and fellow linguist, Carol, who died from cancer last December. Despite their privilege, his concentrated exposure to the continuing injustices and exorbitant expense of the US health system has clearly left him angry. Public emergency rooms are "uncivilised, there is no health care", he says, and the same kind of corporate interests that drive US foreign policy are also setting the limits of domestic social reform.
All three schemes now being considered for Barack Obama's health care reform are "to the right of the public, which is two to one in favour of a public option. But the New York Times says that has no political support, by which they mean from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies." Now the American Petroleum Institute is determined to "follow the success of the insurance industry in killing off health reform," Chomsky says, and do the same to hopes of genuine international action at next month's Copenhagen climate change summit. Only the forms of power have changed since the foundation of the republic, he says, when James Madison insisted that the new state should "protect the minority of the opulent (Possessing or exhibiting great wealth) against the majority".
Chomsky supported Obama's election campaign in swing states, but regards his presidency as representing little more than a "shift back towards the centre" and a striking foreign policy continuity with George Bush's second administration. "The first Bush administration was way off the spectrum, America's prestige sank to a historic low and the people who run the country didn't like that." But he is surprised so many people abroad, especially in the third world, are disappointed at how little Obama has changed. "His campaign rhetoric, hope and change, was entirely vacuous. There was no principled criticism of the Iraq war: he called it a strategic blunder. And Condoleezza Rice was black – does that mean she was sympathetic to third world problems?"
The veteran activist has described the US invasion of Afghanistan as "one of the most immoral acts in modern history", which united the jihadist movement around al-Qaida, sharply increased the level of terrorism and was "perfectly irrational – unless the security of the population is not the main priority". Which, of course, Chomsky believes, it is not. "States are not moral agents," he says, and believes that now that Obama is escalating the war, it has become even clearer that the occupation is about the credibility of Nato and US global power.
This is a recurrent theme in Chomsky's thinking about the American empire. He argues that since government officials first formulated plans for a "grand area" strategy for US global domination in the early 1940s, successive administrations have been guided by a "godfather principle, straight out of the mafia: that defiance cannot be tolerated. It's a major feature of state policy." "Successful defiance" has to be punished, even where it damages business interests, as in the economic blockade of Cuba – in case "the contagion spreads".
The gap between the interests of those who control American foreign policy and the public is also borne out, in Chomsky's view, by the US's unwavering support for Israel and "rejectionism" of the two-state solution effectively on offer for 30 years. That's not because of the overweening (Presumptuously arrogant; overbearing:) power of the Israel lobby in the US, but because Israel is a strategic and commercial asset which underpins rather than undermines US domination of the Middle East. "Even in the 1950s, President Eisenhower was concerned about what he called a campaign of hatred of the US in the Arab world, because of the perception on the Arab street that it supported harsh and oppressive regimes to take their oil."
Half a century later, corporations like Lockheed Martin and Exxon Mobil are doing fine, he says: America's one-sided role in the Middle East isn't harming their interests, whatever risks it might bring for anyone else.
Chomsky is sometimes criticised on the left for encouraging pessimism or inaction by emphasising the overwhelming weight of US power – or for failing to connect his own activism with labour or social movements on the ground. He is certainly his own man, holds some idiosyncratic (Deviating from the customary) views (I was startled ( To cause to make a quick involuntary movement or start. # To alarm, frighten, or surprise suddenly.), for instance, to hear him say that Vietnam was a strategic victory for the US in southeast Asia, despite its humiliating 1975 withdrawal) and has drawn flak (Antiaircraft artillery) for defending freedom of speech for Holocaust deniers. He describes himself as an anarchist or libertarian socialist, but often sounds more like a radical liberal – which is perhaps why he enrages more middle-of-the-road American liberals who don't appreciate their views being taken to the logical conclusion.
But for an octogenarian who has been active on the left since the 1930s, Chomsky sounds strikingly upbeat. He's a keen supporter of the wave of progressive change that has swept South America in the past decade ("one of the liberal criticisms of Bush is that he didn't pay enough attention to Latin America – it was the best thing that ever happened to Latin America"). He also believes there are now constraints on imperial power which didn't exist in the past: "They couldn't get away with the kind of chemical warfare and blanket B52 bombing that Kennedy did," in the 1960s. He even has some qualified hopes for the internet as a way around the monopoly of the corporate-dominated media.
But what of the charge so often made that he's an "anti-American" figure who can only see the crimes of his own government while ignoring the crimes of others around the world? "Anti-Americanism is a pure totalitarian concept," he retorts. "The very notion is idiotic. Of course you don't deny other crimes, but your primary moral responsibility is for your own actions, which you can do something about. It's the same charge which was made in the Bible by King Ahab, the epitome of evil, when he demanded of the prophet Elijah: why are you a hater of Israel? He was identifying himself with society and criticism of the state with criticism of society."
It's a telling analogy. Chomsky is a studiedly modest man who would balk at any such comparison. But in the Biblical tradition of the conflict between prophets and kings, there's not the slightest doubt which side he represents. Adnan Darwash, Iraq OccupatinTimes
(bismillah) Thus do We relate to you (some) of the news of what has gone before; and indeed We have given to you a Reminder from Ourselves. Whoso turneth away from it, he verily will bear a burden on the Day of Resurrection, Abiding under it - an evil burden for them on the Day of Resurrection, On the day when the trumpet shall be blown, and We will gather the guilty, blue-eyed, on that day They will speak in a very low voice to each other (saying): "You stayed not longer than ten (days)." We know best what they say, when the fairest of them in course would say: You tarried (To remain or stay temporarily) but a day. 20:99-104
2:62 Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. جو کوئی مسلمان اور یہودی اور نصرانی اورصابئی الله اور قیامت کے دن پر ایمان لائے اور اچھے کام بھی کرے تو ان کا اجر ان کے رب کے ہاں موجود ہے اور ان پر نہ کچھ خوف ہو گا اور نہ وہ غمگین ہوں گے ﴿۶۲﴾ إِنَّ الَّذينَ ءامَنوا وَالَّذينَ هادوا وَالنَّصٰرىٰ وَالصّٰبِـٔينَ مَن ءامَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَاليَومِ الءاخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صٰلِحًا فَلَهُم أَجرُهُم عِندَ رَبِّهِم وَلا خَوفٌ عَلَيهِم وَلا هُم يَحزَنونَ ﴿٦٢﴾ Sabeans belonged to Chaldean religion. Their religion was much modified at various times and places by Jewish, Gnostic and Zoroastrian influences, and so there are conflicting accounts of them in various Muslim authors. Star-worship was the distinctive feature of their religion, otherwise they were monotheists.
Before saying that whoever believes in Allah and the last day, and does good, not becoming a Muslim even after Islam has been chosen as the religion of Allah, is entitled to be blessed by Allah, the following verse should be taken into consideration:
And whoso seeks as religion other than Islam it will not be accepted from him, and he will be among the losers in the hereafter.
(Al-e- Imran: 85)
]And to remove misunderstanding, it should be noted that this verse refers to those Sabeans, Jews and Christians who, as sincere faithful, followed the original teachings of their respective prophets, without ever corrupting the true message, and believing in the prophecy of the advent of Muhammad made known by Musa, Isa and other prophets (see Baqarah: 40), and also those of them who lived in the days of the Holy Prophet but died before the news of his proclamation of the promised prophethood could reach them, because surely they would have come into the fold of Islam if they had known about it. Belief in the unity of Allah and the day of judgement and doing good is the spirit of Islam. This was the religion all the messengers of Allah preached to their people. (99) Thus relate Who unto thee (Muhammad) some tidings of that which happened of old, and We have given thee from Our presence a Reminder. (100) Whoso turneth away from it, he verily will bear a burden on the Day of Resurrection, (101) Abiding under it an evil burden for them on the Day of Resurrection, (102) The day when the Trumpet is blown. On that day we assemble the guilty white eyed (with terror), (103) Murmuring among themselves: Ye have tarried but ten (days). (104) We are best aware of what they utter when their best in conduct say: Ye have tarried but a day.
ہم اسی طرح سے تجھے گزشتہ لوگوں کی کچھ خبریں سناتے ہیں اور ہم نے تجھے اپنے ہاں سے ایک نصیحت نامہ دیا ہے ﴿۹۹﴾ جس نے اس سے منہ پھیرا سو وہ قیامت کے دن بوجھ اٹھائے گا ﴿۱۰۰﴾ اس میں ہمیشہ رہیں گے اوران کے لیے قیامت کے دن بُرا بوجھ ہوگا ﴿۱۰۱﴾ جس دن صور میں پھونکا جائے گا اور ہم اس دن مجرموں کو نیلی آنکھوں والے کر کے جمع کر دیں گے ﴿۱۰۲﴾ چپکے چپکے آپس میں باتیں کہتے ہوں گے کہ تم صرف دس دن ٹھیرے ہو ﴿۱۰۳﴾ ہم خوب جان لیں گے جو کچھ وہ کہیں گے جب ان میں سے بڑا سمجھدار کہے گا کہ تم صرف ایک ہی دن ٹھہرے ہو ﴿۱۰۴﴾
(CNN) -- Eleven people plus a gunman were dead and 31 wounded after the gunman opened fire Thursday on a soldier-processing center at Fort Hood, Texas, officials said.
The gunman was a soldier, and two other soldiers have been detained as suspects, Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said.
The slain gunman was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a law enforcement source told CNN. Licensed in Virginia, Hasan was a psychiatrist who previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center but more recently was practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, according to professional records.
Ten of the other dead also were soldiers, while the remaining one was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said.
Two of the injured were in "very serious" condition, Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Hogue said.
Watch developments live
More than one shooter may have been involved, Cone said.
"All the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at 13:30 [1:30 p.m. CT], at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said. Video: One shooter 'a soldier' Video: Ft. Hood shooting 'horrifying'
The primary shooter had two weapons, both handguns, he said.
"The local police response forces were there relatively quickly and killed the confirmed shooter," Cone said.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she was told that the soldiers at the readiness facility "were filling out paper processing to go to Iraq or Afghanistan," according to CNN affiliate KXAN in Austin, Texas.
iReport.com: Are you there? Send pics, video
A senior officer who was playing golf Thursday about 2.5 miles from the attack said he witnessed the arrest of one of the two surviving suspects.
Shortly after the shooting, military police told him to clear the course, and he saw other MPs surround the building that held the golf carts, he said. He ducked into a nearby house for cover as 30 to 40 cars carrying MPs approached, he said.
A congressional aide said he was on the post to attend a graduation service when he saw a soldier with blood on his uniform near the building where the service was being held, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Greg Schannep, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Carter, said the soldier ran past him and said a man was shooting. He said the soldier appeared to be injured in a shoulder, the American-Statesman reported.
President Obama called the shootings "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence." He expressed his condolences for the shooting victims.
"These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis," Obama said.
"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."
Officials at Fort Hood, which is the Army's largest U.S. post, were asking people there to stay away from windows, CNN affiliate KXXV said. The incident took place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area, the station reported.
The Army has asked the FBI to look into the background of the suspects, Cone said.
On the Fort Hood Web site, the word "closed" is posted with the statement, "Effective immediately, Fort Hood is closed. Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel."
Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.
At least 25,000 people are at Fort Hood on any given day, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.
Fort Hood is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which is designed to help soldiers overcome combat stress issues.
In June, Fort Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told CNN that he was trying to ease the kind of stresses soldiers face. He has pushed for soldiers working a day schedule to return home for dinner by 6 p.m., and required his personal authorization for anyone working weekends. At the time, two soldiers stationed there had committed suicide in 2009 -- a rate well below those of other posts.
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Gunman kills 12 in shooting rampage at US base 06 Nov 2009 02:45:04 GMT Source: Reuters * Suspected gunman still alive, contrary to earlier reports
* Shooting targeted soldiers at pre-deployment center
* Obama calls event "horrific outburst of violence" (Updates with suspect alive, previous HOUSTON)
By Erwin Seba
KILLEEN, Texas, Nov 5 (Reuters) - An Army psychiatrist opened fire with two handguns at the Fort Hood Army post on Thursday, killing 12 and wounding 31 others, Army officials said, adding the suspect had not been killed as previously believed.
Authorities identified the suspected gunman as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who had treated soldiers wounded in foreign wars preparing for foreign deployment at the post.
"Our investigation is ongoing but preliminary reports indicate that there was a single shooter," Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commanding officer, told a news conference. "The shooter is not dead but in custody in stable condition."
Cone said the suspect had been shot multiple times. He previously said the suspect was killed by police officers during the attack at the biggest military facility in the world.
Asked whether the shootings were a terrorist act, Cone said, "I couldn't rule that out, but I'm telling you that right now the evidence does not suggest that."
The Army said the gunman opened fire at about 1:30 p.m. CST (1930 GMT) at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, a group of buildings where soldiers were getting medical check-ups before leaving for overseas deployments.
Cone said the gunman had two weapons, one of them a semi-automatic. "There is no indication that they were military weapons," he said.
It was one of the worst killings ever reported on a U.S. military base. In May, a U.S. soldier at a base in Baghdad shot and killed five fellow soldiers.
A cousin of the suspected shooter, Nader Hasan, told Fox news that he had been ordered to serve a term in Iraq and had been resisting such a deployment.
Nader Hasan said his cousin was a U.S.-born Muslim who had joined the military from high school. He had served as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., which treats many badly wounded troops.
"He was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed dealing with the people coming back and ... trying to help them with their trauma," he said.
He said his cousin had been transferred to Fort Hood in April months ago and was very reluctant to be deployed to Iraq. "We've known over the last five years that was probably his worst nightmare,"
he said.
The incident raised new questions about the toll that six years of continuous fighting in Iraq and nearly eight years of fighting in Afghanistan have taken on the U.S. military and on individual soldiers, many of whom have been on several combat tours.
OBAMA CONDEMNS 'HORRIFIC OUTBURST'
U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking in Washington, called the event a "horrific outburst of violence" and promised "answers to every single question about this horrible incident."
Fort Hood is home to about 50,000 troops, although Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said only about 35,000 were on base at the time. The fort, established in 1942, stretches across 339 square miles (878 square km) in central Texas and is the largest single employer in Texas.
It's the only military post in the United States capable of supporting two full armored divisions -- the 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division.
Base personnel have accounted for more suicides than any other Army post since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, with 75 tallied through July of this year. Nine of those occurred in 2009, counting two in overseas war zones.
A former FBI criminal profiler highlighted the irony of the gunman's reported expertise as a psychiatrist specializing in traumatic stress, which often affects combat soldiers.
"It may be that he succumbed to that which he was supposed to heal," Clint Van Zandt said on MSNBC.
Fort Hood is halfway between Austin and Waco, about 60 miles (97 km) from each city. Nearby Killeen, Texas, was site of one of worst U.S. shooting rampages when a gunman drove his truck into a Luby's cafeteria in 1991, killing 23 and wounding 20 before killing himself. (Additional reporting by James Vicini, Peter Cooney and Phil Stewart in Washington and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles) (Writing by Chris Baltimore, Editing by Peter Cooney)
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Ford Hood shooting suspect still alive, Army says 06 Nov 2009 02:25:47 GMT Source: Reuters KILLEEN, Texas, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The suspect in a shooting rampage at Ford Hood Army post on Thursday in which 12 people were killed and 31 wounded is in a hospital in stable condition, contrary to previous reports he had been killed, an Army general said.
"Our investigation is ongoing but preliminary reports indicate that there was a single shooter," Lieutenant-General Robert Cone told a news conference. "The shooter is not dead but in custody in stable condition."
Cone said the suspect, whom he identified as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had been shot multiple times. (Editing by Peter Cooney)
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Fort Hood shooting: officials examine 'suicide bomber' posting
Investigators in the US are examining internet posts promoting suicide bombing which they believe could have been written by the Texas gunman Major Malik Nadal Hasan.
By By Nick Allen, in Los Angeles, and Caroline Gammell Published: 8:33AM GMT 06 Nov 2009 Major Malik Nidal Hasan, emergency personnel carry the wounded at the U.S. Army post in Fort Hood, Texas Emergency personnel carry the wounded at the U.S. Army post in Fort Hood, Texas Photo: REUTERS
Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 injured when Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood base, the largest American military installation in the world.
The gunman was eventually shot and is critically ill and under guard in hospital
Armed with two handguns, he walked into a training centre and opened fire on fellow soldiers who were having last-minute medical check-ups before being deployed to Afghanistan.
He was about to be posted to either Iraq or Afghanistan himself and argued regularly against the wars, it has been claimed.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was already aware of inflammatory web postings by a blogger called Nidal Hasan, but officials have yet to confirm whether it is the gunman.
On the website Scribd, Nidal Hasan discussed the bravery of a US soldier who threw himself onto a grenade to save his colleagues.
“He intentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate.
“Its (sic) more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause.
“Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers.
“If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory.”
Hasan, a Muslim by birth, was born in Virginia, and his family is believed to have come from Jordan.
A former colleague, Col Terry Lee, said Hasan had fallen out with other soldiers on the base.
He claimed that Hasan said he was “happy” when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June.
However, Hasan’s cousin said that he had been the victim of harassment but had never expressed violent sentiments.
“He never went to Iraq. He was dealing with people coming back, trying to help them with their trauma,” Nader Hasan said.
“He was just normal, loved sports, never got into trouble.” He said his family was “shocked and baffled” by the incident.
Mr. Hasan said his cousin became more devout after his parents died in 1998 and 2001.
“His parents didn’t want him to go into the military,” Mr. Hasan said. “He said, ‘No, I was born and raised here, I’m going to do my duty to the country.’ ”
-------------- Maj Hasan, who is wounded but alive after being shot several times by police, had endured name-calling and harassment about his faith for years after the 9/11 attacks and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military.
His aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, told the Washington Post: "I know what that is like; I have experienced it myself while working as a bank executive.
"Some people can take it, and some cannot. He had listened to all of that, and he wanted out of the military and they would not let him leave even after he offered to repay for his medical training."
The army has refused to comment on her claims that he wanted to be discharged.
A hazy picture has emerged of a man who spent all of his career in the army before turning so violently against his own.
While Maj Hasan, 39, spent much of his professional career at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District caring for the victims of trauma, he spoke openly of his deep opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He is not married and does not have a girlfriend or many friends.
Despite his devout religious practices, he listed himself in army records as having no religious preference, co-workers said.
He is a graduate of Virginia Tech who went on to get a doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, the paper reported.
Maj Hasan's aunt said he had been affected by the physical and mental injuries he saw while working as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed for nearly eight years.
"He must have snapped. They ignored him. It was not hard to know when he was upset. He was not a fighter, even as a child and young man. But when he became upset, his face turns red. You can read him in his face."
It was reported that Maj Hasan had said Muslims should "rise up" and attack Americans in retaliation for the US war in Iraq.
Col Terry Lee, a retired officer who worked with him at the military base in Texas, alleged Maj Hasan had angry confrontations with other officers over his views.
The army major was born in the United States to Palestinian parents who had emigrated from a small town near Jerusalem.
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Suspect, a devout Muslim, wanted Army discharge, aunt said
Comments 3 | Recommend 0 November 05, 2009 11:11 PM By Mary Pat Flaherty, William Wan and Christian Davenport The Washington Post
He prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, a devout Muslim who, despite asking to be discharged from the U.S. Army, was on the eve of his first deployment to war. Yesterday, authorities said Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, a 39-year-old Arlington-born psychiatrist, shot and killed at least 12 people at Fort Hood, Tex.
In an interview, his aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, said he had endured name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military.
"I know what that is like," she said. "Some people can take it, and some cannot. He had listened to all of that, and he wanted out of the military, and they would not let him leave even after he offered to repay" for his medical training.
An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. George Wright, said he could not confirm that Hasan requested a discharge.
As authorities scrambled to figure out what happened at Fort Hood, a hazy and contradictory picture emerged of a man who received his medical training from the military and spent his career in the Army, yet allegedly turned so violently against his own. Hasan spent nearly all of his professional life at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District, caring for the victims of trauma, yet he spoke openly of his deep opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hasan, who was shot while being taken into custody, was reported in stable condition at a hospital Thursday night, authorities said.
The Associated Press reported that Hasan attracted the attention of law enforcement authorities in recent months after an Internet posting under the screen name "NidalHasan" compared Islamic suicide bombers to Japanese kamikaze pilots. "To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate," the posting read. "It's more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause."
He steered clear of female colleagues, co-workers said, and despite devout religious practices, listed himself in Army records as having no religious preference.
A longtime Walter Reed colleague who referred patients to psychiatrists said co-workers avoided sending service members to Hasan because of his unusual manner and solitary work habits.
Hasan is a 1997 graduate of Virginia Tech who went on to get a doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda. From 2003 through last summer, he was an intern, resident and then fellow at Walter Reed, where he worked as a liaison between wounded soldiers and the hospital's psychiatry staff. He was also a fellow at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Bethesda military medical school.
He had been affected by the physical and mental injuries he saw while working as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed for nearly eight years, according to his aunt. "He must have snapped," Noel Hasan said. "They ignored him. It was not hard to know when he was upset. He was not a fighter, even as a child and young man. But when he became upset, his face turns red." She said Hasan had consulted with an attorney about getting out of the service.
On the rare occasions when he spoke of his work in any detail, the aunt said, Hasan told her of soldiers wracked by what they had seen. One patient had suffered burns to his face so intense "that his face had nearly melted," she said. "He told us how upsetting that was to him."
Hasan "did not make many friends" and "did not make friends fast," his aunt said. He had no girlfriend and was not married. "He would tell us the military was his life," she said.
The psychiatrist once said that "Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor" and that the United States shouldn't be fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place, according to an interview with Col. Terry Lee, a co-worker, on Fox News.
At the Muslim Community Center, Hasan stood out because he would sometimes show up in Army fatigues, said Faizul Khan, the former imam there.
"He came to mosque one or two times to see if there were any suitable girls to marry," Khan said. "I don't think he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions. He wanted a girl who was very religious, prays five times a day."
In search of a partner in marriage, Hasan wrote in an application filed with a local Muslim matching service that "I am quiet and reserved until more familiar with person. Funny, caring and personable."
"He was a very quiet and private person. I can't say that people knew him very well other than attending prayers," said Arshad Qureshi, chairman of the board of trustees at the Muslim Community Center of Silver Spring. "You didn't see him attend anything -- school for children or celebrations. He did not go out of the way to engage people. We have thousands of people who come through to pray; he was just one of them."
A co-worker at Walter Reed said Hasan would not allow his photo to be taken with female co-workers, which became an issue during Christmas season when employees often took group photos. Co-workers would find a solo photo of Hasan and post it on the bulletin board without his permission.
Lee told Fox News that Hasan "was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. . . . When things weren't going that way, he became more agitated, more frustrated with the conflicts over there. . . . He made his views well known about how he felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."
And when he talked about fighting "the aggressor," he said that his fellow soldiers "should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Lee said.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told reporters after a briefing on the shootings that Hasan was born in Virginia to parents who emigrated from Jordan. The congressman said that Hasan "took a lot of advanced training in shooting."
Hasan was polite and respectful, according to 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, who was treated by the psychiatrist at Walter Reed while recovering from a gunshot wound suffered in Iraq.
Whiteside remembers Hasan as serious. During his initial evaluation of her, she tried to make light when he coughed by saying, "Bless you." Hasan replied that he had coughed and not sneezed.
Hasan was "like my sons," his aunt said, spending holidays and free time at her house. Born at Arlington Hospital, Nidal Hasan graduated from high school in Roanoke, where his parents had moved. He enlisted in the Army after high school and attended Virginia Tech, majoring in biochemistry.
Hasan's parents died about 10 years ago. He had joined the military over their objections, Noel Hasan said. She said he has two brothers, Eyad, a businessman in Sterling, and Anas, a lawyer in Jerusalem.
When Army officials called Eyad Hasan to relay the news from Fort Hood on Thursday, Noel Hasan said, the brother "fainted when he heard it." Initially, she said, Eyad was told his brother was injured and in surgery and later was erroneously told he had died.
Hasan was an avid Redskins fan. "That was his main entertainment," his aunt said. "He was not a movie watcher. He worked hard and had been studying for years. He buried himself in his work."
Noel Hasan was unaware of her nephew's pending deployment. "He didn't call or send an e-mail saying anything like that," she said.
His last e-mail to her, she said, was a little more than a week ago "and it was just, "Hi, Aunt Noel. How are you doing?' "
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Jews have been spying on America and pass information to Israel. That didn't prevent Obama from surrounding himself with Jews including his chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, who serves as a reserve Israei army officer. I sincerely believe that the Obama-Clinton on-going support for Israei atrocities and the change in their position regarding Israeli illegal settlements, was behind Major Hassan outrage.
Adnan
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Fruits of Western Culture Promoting Strip Clubs and Political Prostitution on Public Streets!
I was wondered while Americans @ Fort Hood were clapping at Obama's speech of mourning dead soldiers. What can you expect of a military who allow its soldiers to visit strips club located within military bases and to exchange thumb drives at check posts to pass unchecked. One can't avoid following regional cultures if cities become battle combat zones and bases became bigger then cities. Its now more 10th year, the so-called super duper massive Super States failed to get OBLD despite launching 3 wars and spending billions of dollars. How can an evil get hold of another evil? A theif can't punish a thief. A killer can't punish another killer!
--------- Participants pose during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for World's Largest Bikini Parade to raise awareness for breast cancer, in Johannesburg, November 7, 2009. Picture taken November 7, 2009. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko (SOUTH AFRICA HEALTH SOCIETY FASHION)
And off-course its part of western culture to promote stripping on the streets, despite the laws states against it.
Just like Atta and Co. And the obvious conclusion is in this article: "Hasan's presence at the club paints a starkly different portrait of the alleged killer from that offered by his imam and family members, who have described him... as a devout Muslim, and one who had difficulty finding a wife who would wear a head scarf and would pray five times a day."
He went to a strip club and got lap dances, so he must not have been a devout Muslim, right? In reality, it isn't that simple. "We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment," says the Koran(21:47): if one's good deeds outweigh one's evil deeds, one will go to Paradise, but if one's evil deeds outweigh one's good deeds, one will go to hell. And what good deed weighs the most??
Allah's Apostle was asked, "What is the best deed?" He replied, "To believe in Allah and His Apostle (Muhammad). The questioner then asked, "What is the next (in goodness)? He replied, "To participate in Jihad (religious fighting) in Allah's Cause." (Bukhari 1.2.25)
The Americans and the Israelis pride themselves on killing suspected terrorists and labelling their attacks as pre-emptive strikes. In a recent meeting with Hilary Clinton, one Pakistani student described US drone attacks as execution without trial. In Gaza, the Israelis have killed hundreds of Palestinians inside their homes using US-supplied hell-fire missiles and called the killings as pre-emptive strikes. So why not killing an American soldier who is getting ready to go on a killing spree of Muslims in Iraq or in Afghanistan? Although I am personally against the killing of any human being, but like the USraeli justifications, Major Nidal Hassan massacre at Fort Hood my be equally considered as self defence or a pre-emptive strike.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
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Soldiers wounded in the attack pay respects to their fallen comrades
Tragic: Soldiers wounded in the attack pay respects to their fallen comrades
In a presentation to Army doctors in 2007, U.S.-born Hasan, 39, said: 'It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.'
One part in the speech at Walter Reed Medical Centre in Washington, where he spent six years studying to become a psychiatrist, read: 'We love death more than you love life!'
Under 'Recommendation', Hasan added: 'Department of Defence should allow Muslim soldiers the option of being released as "conscientious objectors" to increase troop moral and decrease adverse events.'
Lieutenant Colonel Val Finnell, one of Hasan's former classmates, said yesterday: 'There were definitely clear indications that Hasan's loyalties were not with America.
'The issue here is that there's a political correctness climate in the military.
'They don't want to say anything because it would be considered questioning somebody's religious belief, or they're afraid of an equal opportunity lawsuit.'
Army ordered Hasan to attend lecture series on Islam
Psychiatrists did not see suspect in slayings as potentially dangerous
By Ann Scott Tyson and Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 12, 2009
Army psychiatrists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who supervised Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's work as a psychiatric fellow tried to turn his growing preoccupation with religion and war into something productive by ordering him to attend a university lecture series on Islam, the Middle East and terrorism, according to a Walter Reed staff member familiar with Hasan's medical training. This Story
* Army ordered Hasan to attend lecture series on Islam * Apartment's detritus offers glimpse into suspect's everyday life * In plain sight? * Honoring the dead * Full coverage: Shootings at Fort Hood
The psychiatric staff at Walter Reed did not discuss kicking him out of the service, according to the staff member. In fact, Hasan was initially considered a good medical school candidate because he had spent time as an enlisted soldier and had cared for his siblings after his parents died, both attributes that supervisors believed indicated he had a healthy work ethic.
An Army official also said that Hasan, who is believed to have killed 13 people last week at Fort Hood, Tex., did not formally seek to leave the military as a conscientious objector or for any other reason. It is unclear whether Hasan, whose aunt has said he sought to leave the military, made informal efforts to leave through contacts with his immediate superiors, and if so how his chain of command at lower levels might have responded to such efforts.
But any formal request by Hasan to separate early would have been submitted to the Department of the Army, according to the official, who saw Hasan's file before it was recently sealed by Army investigators. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
The idea that Hasan attend the lectures, which he did late last year or early this year, came up during discussions among the psychiatric staffs of the hospital and the Army's medical university about what was perceived as Hasan's lack of productivity and his constant interest in Muslims whose religious beliefs conflicted with their military duties.
"You're at an institution of higher learning. He seems to want to do work in an area no one knows anything about," the staff member, who also requested anonymity because he had not been authorized to speak publicly, said of the order. "You don't want to close him down just because it's different." ad_icon
Seen as gentle, polite
During those discussions, psychiatrists commented in passing about whether Hasan could be delusional or hurt fellow soldiers, but did not think he was dangerous and never took steps to have him evaluated either for mental fitness or as a security threat. On the contrary, his demeanor was regarded as gentle and polite, and he often responded to inquiries about his well-being by saying, "I'm doing well, thank God."
"He had his struggles, and he embraced his religion with such intensity that one wondered whether he" could have suffered from a form of "delusion," the staffer said. He cited as an example -- without speaking of Hasan in particular -- the belief that the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are against Muslims rather than against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein's government and then insurgents in Iraq.
Hasan came to the attention of two joint terrorism task forces in December 2008, as he corresponded by e-mail with Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen and Islamic spiritual leader residing in Yemen who has exhorted followers to pursue violent jihad, or holy war. A Defense Department analyst on one of the task forces concluded that the chatter was innocent and in keeping with Hasan's research interests, two government officials said this week.
In 2007, addressing other physicians at Walter Reed, Hasan said that to avoid "adverse events," the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims. At the time of the shooting, Hasan was about to be deployed to Afghanistan, officials have said.
Did he seek discharge?
After the shooting, his aunt Noel Hasan said her nephew had sought for several years to be discharged. She said he had consulted a lawyer about getting out of the service.
In an interview Tuesday, Hasan's criminal attorney, retired Col. John P. Galligan, declined to discuss whether his client had attempted to secure conscientious objector status or to leave the military.
Even if Hasan had sought to quit the Army over his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army almost certainly would have denied any such request, senior Army officials said. Hasan had a continuing obligation because the Army had provided him with medical training.
In a further indication that Hasan was not actively seeking formal discharge, he was evaluated by an Army promotion board in the spring of 2008 that endorsed his performance as an officer as patriotic, and elevated him from the rank of captain to major, a promotion that took place in May 2009, according to the official.
The Army faces a severe shortage of officers who hold the rank of major, as Hasan does, and that shortage is particularly acute in some medical branches. The Army this year is short about 2,000 majors needed to fill slots created as the service has grown in recent years, according to Army data. In the field of medical doctors, the Army lacks about 15 percent of the majors it needs, the data show.
To address the shortfall, virtually all Army captains are being promoted to major. The Army's promotion rate from captain to major has been well over 90 percent since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, leading some officers to describe the trend as the "no major left behind" program.
Hasan joined the Army in 1997, attended Army medical training and then worked as a psychiatry intern and resident at Walter Reed from 2003 until July of this year, when he was transferred to the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood. Hasan's last official performance evaluation took place in June of this year, according to an Army summary of his career known as an "officer record brief."
Maj. Gen. Gina S. Farrisee, the Army's personnel chief, said in an interview Monday that because of the ongoing investigation, she and other Army officials cannot discuss Hasan's specific situation. However, Farrisee said it would take an extraordinary situation -- such as debilitating illness or the death of a spouse -- for an officer with Hasan's rank and medical training to be allowed to resign before completing his or her service obligation.
It would be "very, very unusual," said Paul Aswell, an Army personnel official. "I can't think of any in recent years," he said.
Even after officers complete their service obligations, it is extremely rare for them to be allowed to leave immediately prior to deployments, Farrisee said. In the past three years, "we've had about three officers who asked to depart because their service obligation was over and then they did not deploy with the unit," said Farrisee, speaking of cases that came to the Department of the Army for approval.
The Army has received about 50 conscientious objector applications each year since 2001 from soldiers seeking either not to bear arms or to leave the service entirely because of religious or deeply held moral or ethical beliefs. Of those applications, a little more than half have been approved.
In the past three years, the Army board that decides whether to approve or disapprove such applications has not received any from Army officers with a remaining service obligation, according to the Army official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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Obama-Ft Hood shooter failings to be held to account 14 Nov 2009 11:00:10 GMT Source: Reuters By Alister Bull
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he would hold to account those who missed warning signs that could have prevented a shooting rampage on a Texas army base earlier this month that killed 13 people.
"If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability," Obama said in his weekly address.
U.S. government officials say Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist charged with 13 counts of murder in the Fort Hood rampage, had surfaced in communications with an anti-American cleric in Yemen who was sympathetic to al Qaeda.
The agencies monitored between 10 and 20 contacts between the cleric and Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent who was waiting to be sent to Afghanistan.
The officials said U.S. intelligence agencies learned of the communications late last year and passed this knowledge to federal authorities, who judged they were largely consistent with his academic work and did not warrant an investigation.
The information was shared with a joint terrorism task force led by the FBI, but the Pentagon said it had not been informed of the contacts until after the shooting spree.
Obama has ordered a review of how U.S. intelligence agencies handled information gathered about Hasan.
"Given the potential warning signs that may have been known prior these shootings, we must uncover what steps -- if any -- could have been taken to avert this tragedy," he said.
"We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information. Once we have those facts, we must act upon them."
Obama's remarks recall the push to learn lessons in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
This led to a major shake-up of U.S. intelligence agencies designed to ensure clues that could prevent another al Qaeda strike were not overlooked in the future. In addition to contact with the cleric in Yemen, Hasan was reported by the Washington Post to have argued that the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors in order to avoid "adverse events."
Representative Pete Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, has asked intelligence agencies to preserve all information they have on Hasan and said he expected Congress to fully investigate.
Obama welcomed Congress' inquiries, but cautioned that "all of us should resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater that sometimes dominates the discussion here in Washington. The stakes are far too high." (Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Todd Eastham)
05 Nov 2009 07:55:31 GMT Source: Reuters TEHRAN, Nov 5 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Iranian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
DONYA-YE EQTESAD
- The all-share index on the Tehran Stock Exchange closed at 12,506 points on Wednesday, up from last week's close of 12,345 points.
- The U.S. dollar traded at 9,945 rials on Wednesday on the open market.
SIYASAT-E ROUZ
- Some 700 people were injured and hundreds of homes ruined in a 4.9 Richter scale earthquake at the southern port city of Bandar Abbas and the Gulf island of Qeshm.
FARHANG-E ASHTI
- "Iran is not going to negotiate with any foreign power over its nuclear rights," said leading lawmaker Gholamali Haddadadel.
MARDOMSALARI
- "The judges should not hesitate in upholding the rights of the accused in Iran's penal system," said Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi.
HEMAYAT
- The government is paying around $100 billion a year in subsidies on energy and a range of consumer items, said Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari.
KAYHAN
- Millions of Iranians marked the 30th anniversary of the U.S. embassy takeover by students.
By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 11:29 AM on 04th November 2009
Five British soldiers have been killed by a rogue policeman as they drank tea inside a military compound in Afghanistan.
The gunman opened fire on the soldiers - only one of whom was armed - with an AK47 after they had removed their body armour and helmets.
He fled the scene on a motorbike, sparking a huge manhunt in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand Province, where the attack took place. Afghanistan
Evacuation: Casualties are unloaded at a hospital in Helmand in the wake of the shooting which left five dead British soldiers dead Afghanistan
The families of the dead soldiers - three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police- have been informed.
Another six UK servicemen and two Afghan police officers were injured in the incident. One is critically wounded.
Abdul Ahad Helmandwal, head of the district council in Nad Ali, described how Afghan police and British forces were drinking tea together when the attacker opened fire.
'He first fired on the commander of the police and his deputy then on the British soldiers. He escaped on a motorbike,' he said.
The deaths make this the single bloodiest year for British armed forces since the Falklands War.
As the desperate search for the policeman continued, tribal sources claimed he was a man named Gulbuddin who may have been dispute with his local commander over being moved between units.
Another source said his family had links to the Taliban.
More...
* Labour split as ex-minister urges troop pull-out in Afghanistan * 'Legendary' soldier who defused 64 Taliban bombs... only to be killed by the 65th, on his last day
It is possible the gunman, who had been with the police for two years, was a deliberate plant sent to infiltrate the force or that he had acted under pressure from insurgents. Similar tactics were used in Iraq.
Investigators believe he may have had an accomplice.
Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said: 'The soldiers concerned were mentoring Afghan police. They were working inside and living inside an Afghan national police checkpoint.
'It would appear, and it is our initial understanding, that an individual Afghan policeman possibly acting with another started firing within the checkpoint before fleeing the scene.'
He stressed that the attack did not come as a result of any breakdown or fight between British and Afghan forces.
A military spokesman added: 'It's our understanding that one individual Afghan National Policeman, possibly in conjunction with another, went rogue.' Afghanistan
Deadly: The soldiers were not wearing their helmets or body armour when they were shot in Nad-e'Ali district, Helmand
The group came under attack after entering a building inside a secure zone where they were to meet Afghan officials. They had passed through at least one checkpoint.
After entering a room off a courtyard, they appear to have laid down their weapons and removed their helmets and body armour as proof of their trust in their hosts.
The policeman then opened fire without warning. Only one of the British soldiers was armed as the group came under a hail of bullets.
Casualties were evacuated to the hospital at the main British army base Camp Bastion.
Several wounded men were flown in by Medical Emergency Response Teams using Chinook helicopters and a US Black Hawk.
The injured were rushed from the landing pad to the emergency department by ambulance where hospital medics and consultants were waiting en masse.
Eight are still being treated though it is unclear if the casualties are British or Afghans.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the soldiers describing their deaths as a 'terrible loss'.
'My thoughts, condolences and sympathies go to their families, loved ones and colleagues. I know that the whole country too will mourn their loss,' he said.
'They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
'I pay tribute to their courage, skill and determination. They will never be forgotten.' Afghanistan
Gunned down: A bloodied military flak jacket lies abandoned on the ground
Tory leader David Cameron said: 'I was deeply shocked to hear of the deaths of five British soldiers in a single incident in Helmand Province, and the horrific circumstances in which it appears they died.
'I pay tribute, as will the whole country, to their professionalism and their courage, and send my condolences to their families and their friends.'
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth added: 'It continues to be a difficult year in Afghanistan for our brave people who are operating within the most challenging area of the country.
'We owe it to them to show the resolve that they exhibit every day in building security and stability in Afghanistan and protecting the UK from the threat of terrorism.'
As well as the inquiry by the British Military Police, the local chief of the ANP and the Afghan National Director of Security have begun an investigation at the scene.
The Grenadier Guards were working in a so-called Omlette team, helping to advise the ANP and Afghan National Army in training, tactics and patrol methods.
The shooting is the equal-worst loss of life in a single incident in three years, on a par with five soldiers who were killed by inter-linked bombs in July.
Only once have more members of the British Armed Forces died together throughout the whole war - when 14 were killed in the Nimrod crash in 2006.
The attack also makes 2009 the bloodiest year for the armed forces since the Falklands War. Enlarge Map of Helmand province in Afghanistan
The attack took place in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand Province
Up until now, the worst period since the Falklands was 2007, when 89 members of the armed forces died on active service.
The latest deaths bring this year's figure to 93. The death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 now stands at 229.
On Saturday, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, of the Royal Logistic Corps, died near Sangin in central Helmand Province.
He had been due to fly back to the UK for a two-week break seven days later.
The attack comes just two days after Hamid Karzai was re-elected president after his rival pulled out of a run-off, planned for this weekend. Olaf Schmid,
Killed on his final mission: Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid died this weekend
Peter Galbraith, who left his post as deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan amid disagreements over the presidential elections, said the 'rushed' bid to train extra Afghan officers for the poll meant such deaths were to be expected.
'It is a terrible tragedy but it is, I won't quite say inevitable, but it is not surprising,' he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. 'The process of police training and recruiting has been very rushed. Normally the police get an eight-week training course. That is actually very short and there isn't a lot of vetting of police before they are hired.
'And actually, in recent months, they shortened the training programme from eight weeks to five weeks because they wanted to get more police boots on the ground in advance of the elections.
'So there was a real rush to recruit an additional 10,000, particularly in the south, particularly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
'So it is not totally surprising that people were recruited who may have had Taliban sympathies or were infiltrated into the police by the Taliban although I don't know yet whether in this particular episode that is exactly what happened.'
The undermining of the legitimacy of the Afghan government because of the 'chaos' surrounding the election had also 'created opportunities for the Taliban', he said, sending his condolences to the families of those killed in the incident.
LONDON (Reuters) - An Afghan policeman has shot dead five British soldiers at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, the defense ministry in London said on Wednesday.
The gunman opened fire at a military compound in Helmand province on Tuesday, a day after Afghan election officials canceled a presidential run-off vote and gave President Hamid Karzai a second term in office.
British soldiers returned fire, but the policeman escaped and is still at large, a defense ministry spokeswoman said. An investigation into the shooting is under way.
"An Afghan national policeman from the checkpoint started firing without warning before anyone could really respond," the spokesman said. "Every effort is being put into hunting him down."
Escalating violence in the U.S.-led war, a sharp rise in British casualties over the summer and concerns over corruption in Karzai's government have created a political headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown before an election due by June.
Brown has faced criticism over troop numbers, tactics and equipment levels, including suggestions that a lack of helicopters has put British soldiers at risk.
Former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, who chairs a parliamentary security committee, said Britain should withdraw most of its troops and focus on security at home.
"It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate instead on using the money saved to secure our own borders (and) gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain,"
he wrote in an article for the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday.
Brown, who argues that NATO efforts in Afghanistan have helped to prevent attacks in Britain, said the whole country would mourn the loss of the soldiers. A total of 229 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
"The death of five brave soldiers in a single incident is a terrible loss," he said. "They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Britain is the second largest contributor to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, with 9,000 troops fighting the Taliban and helping to train local police and soldiers.
Afghan election officials canceled a presidential run-off election on Monday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai's rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew citing serious concerns about the election.
(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Kabul; Editing by Charles Dick)
---------
Six soldiers killed in Afghanistan repatriated to Britain The bodies of six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, including five shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman, are being repatriated to the UK.
Published: 2:49AM GMT 10 Nov 2009
Five of the six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan are being repatriated (top row, from left) Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith and Sergeant Matthew Telford (bottom row from left) Guardsman James Major and Corporal Steven Boote Photo: PA Serjeant Phillip Scott of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, who was killed in Afghanistan, is being repatriated Serjeant Phillip Scott of 3rd Battalion The Rifles
Hundreds of people are expected to line the streets of Wootton Bassett, Wilts, to pay their respects as the flag-draped coffins are driven from RAF Lyneham nearby. Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40; Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37 and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, of the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police.
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They were shot dead by an Afghan police officer at a secure checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province on November 3 in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
Two days later Serjeant Phillip Scott, 30, of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an improvised explosive device near Sangin in Helmand.
After a private repatriation ceremony for their families at RAF Lyneham, hearses (A vehicle for conveying a coffin to a church or cemetery.)carrying their coffins will pass along the High Street at Wootton Bassett.
Crowds have appeared along the route to pay their respects since the bodies of British service personnel began being brought home through RAF Lyneham in 2007.
The cortege ( 1. A train of attendants, as of a distinguished person; a retinue. 2. 1. A ceremonial procession. 2. A funeral procession.) will then continue to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
As Regimental Sergeant Major, WO1 Chant, who was born in Walthamstow, east London, was the top non-commissioned officer in the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards.
On the day he was killed he was due to be told he had been awarded a commission as an officer.
He left his pregnant widow, Nausheen Chant, and three children from a previous marriage, Connor, 16, Adam, 10, and Victoria, eight.
Sgt Telford, from Grimsby, left behind his widow, Kerry, and two sons, Harry, four, and Callum, nine.
Mrs Telford, 33, spoke of her dilemma about how to break the news of her husband's death to Harry, telling the Grimsby Telegraph: ''I want to be able to tell him that he's in heaven now and that he's gone to be with the angels.''
Guardsman Major, also from Grimsby, was the youngest of those killed in the shooting.
He was due to turn 19 on Thursday this week but never had the chance to enjoy the birthday cake and presents his family had sent out to Afghanistan.
Cpl Webster-Smith, who grew up in Camarthen, west Wales, and lived in Brackley, Northamptonshire, was on his second tour of Afghanistan.
His girlfriend, Emma Robinson, wrote in a message on his Facebook page: ''You have made me so happy and we have had so many happy memories together which will never be forgotten. I love you always.''
Cpl Boote, from Birkenhead, Liverpool, was a soldier in the Territorial Army who had volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan.
He worked as a security team leader at a local Tesco store and had hoped to join the police when he returned to Britain.
Sjt Scott, who was born in Malton, North Yorks, deployed to Afghanistan in September alongside his brother Robin, also a sergeant in 3 Rifles.
He left behind his widow, Ellen, and children Ellie, three, and Michael, one.
A total of 232 UK troops have died since the mission in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
Pakistan's army has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said yesterday.
As the region's British colonial rulers did decades ago, the army is exploiting tribal rivalries to try to gain control in the region.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there was no agreement with the two men, but 'there is an understanding with them that they will not interfere in this war.' Enlarge Exodus: Some of the 100,000 residents fleeing the military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban enter Dera Ismail Khan from South Waziristan yesterday
Deals with the devil: Pakistani police officials display arms and ammunition that they said they confiscated from Taliban militants in Karachi yesterday
He said the army 'had to talk to the devil' to isolate its main target.
Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the current fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban.
They will also allow the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban.
In exchange, the army will ease patrols and bombings in the lands controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence officials based in the region. They spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to compromise their work.
Nazir is an old-time opponent of the Mehsud tribe, while Bahadur is reportedly angry over the appointment of Hakimullah as Taliban chief.
American Proverb: If you can't kill them make them friends
In the past American Commanders in Iraq paid Al-Qaeda militants, commanders to fight their war. Bush and state department funded regional land lords, feudal lords in Al Anbar heartland of Saddam and Wahabi/Salafi Suicide Bombers. Recently Obama announced to pay Taliban fighters to switch their loyalties, despite knowing that they are militants and terrorists loyal to Bin Laden/Mulla Omer.
-------------------- Pakistan Region or province: North West Frontier Province Where exactly:Swabi, Mardan and Hasan Abdal Region or province: Balochistan Where exactly:Bolan, Chaghai, Loralai Region or province: Federally Administered Tribal Areas Where exactly:Bannu
----------- Emily Sollie - Director, Communication and Media Relations USA Phone: 410-230-2802 Mobile: 443-220-3269 Email: esollie@lwr.org Fax: 410-528-5407
Anna Ford - Media Manager - Asia, Save the Children UK From 17/05/09 - Islamabad Phone: +44 20 7012 6844 Mobile: +44 7831 650409 (out of hours) Email: a.ford@savethechildren.org.uk, media@savethechildren.org.uk
Mike Kiernan - Communications Director, Save the Children US Westport, USA Phone: +1 202-640-6630 Mobile: +1 202 460 0614 Email: mkiernan@savechildren.org
اسلام آباد ہالیڈے ان میں ہونے والی الوداعی تقریب میں میری والدہ نے بھی شرکت کی
بی بی سی اردو سروس میں آنے سے پہلے ماہ پارہ صفدر پاکستان ٹیلی ویژن اور ریڈیو پاکستان پر نیوز پریزینٹر کی حیثیت سے وابستہ تھیں۔ زندگی کے اس ابتدائی سفر سے وابستہ بہت سی یادیں ان کی زندگی کا قیمتی سرمایہ ہیں، بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام پر گزشتہ گیارہ ہفتوں سے انہیں یاداشتوں پر مبنی سلسلہ شائع کیا جا رہا ہے۔ پیش ہے آخری قسط:
اگر میں یہ کہوں تو غلط نہیں ہوگا کہ میں نے جب سن نوے میں پاکستان ٹی وی چھوڑا یہ اپنے عالم شباب پر تھا۔ ٹی وی سکرین پر نظر آنے والے خاص طور پر نیوز کاسٹرز نہ صرف حکمرانوں بلکہ عوام اور اخبارات کی نظروں میں رہتے تھے۔ اسی لیے میرے بی بی سی جانے کی خبریں اکثر اخبارات میں شائع ہوچکی تھیں۔
تقرری سے لیکر 27 جنوری کو لندن روانگی تک ایک سوال جو مجھ سے تواتر سے پوچھا گیا وہ یہ تھا کہ میں ٹی وی اور ملک چھوڑ کر کیوں جارہی ہوں۔ بقول لوگوں کے شہرت و عزت پر لات مار کر میں کفران نعمت کی مرتکب ہورہی تھی۔
احباب کی محبتیں سر آنکھوں پر۔ یہاں پر متعدد تقریبات میں سے دو الوداعی تقریبات کا ذکر میرے اوپر قرض ہے۔
پہلی تقریب اسلام آباد ہالی ڈے اِن میں ظفر بختاری کے زیر اہتمام اور دوسری فدا حسین ملک اور اہلیان چکوال کی جانب سے چکوال میں منعقد کی گئی۔ ان دونوں میں شرکاء کی بھر پور شرکت میرے لیے باعث صد افتخار تو تھی ہی، باعث حیرانگی بھی تھی۔ منکسر مزاجی اپنی جگہ اس دوران میں پوری دیانت داری سے سوچ رہی تھی کہ زندگی میں شائد ایسے مواقع بہت کم لوگوں کو نصیب ہوتے ہوں گے۔ سابق وزیر شہناز وزیر علی
سابق وزیر شہناز وزیر علی
اسلام آباد میں تو ایک دوست غضنفر مہدی نے شدت جذبات میں یہ بھی کہہ دیا کہ اگر ماہ پارہ اور صفدر کے پاس اسلام آباد میں ذاتی گھر ہوتا تو شائد یہ لوگ بیرون ملک نہ جاتے۔ تقریب کی مہمان خصوصی خواتین کی بہبود کی وزیر شہناز وزیر علی نے مذاقاً کہا کہ مقررین کے تاثرات سن کر تو دل چاہتا ہے کہ کیوں نہ ماہ پارہ صفدر کا جانا رکوا دیا جائے۔ مجھے زیادہ خوشی اس بات کی تھی کہ میری والدہ ان دونوں تقاریب میں شریک تھیں۔
اسلام آباد انٹر نیشنل سے روانگی اور لندن ہیتھرو آمد تک چند گھنٹوں کے سفر میں میری زندگی نے ایک سو اسی ڈگری کا فاصلہ طے کیا تھا۔
اسلام آباد میں سٹیشن کے ایک اہلکار مسافروں کی طویل قطار کو پیچھے چھوڑ کر مجھے سب سے پہلے جہاز تک چھوڑنے آئے، مگر لندن ائر پورٹ سے باہر آنے والے آخری مسافروں میں سے تھی۔ میں دونوں چھوٹے بچوں کی انگلیاں تھامے چلتی ہوئی مسافروں کی قطاروں تک پہنچی تو کوئی پانچ یا چھ سو مسافر میرے آگے تھے۔امیگریشن ڈسک تا پہنچتے پہنچتے کچھ گھنٹے صرف ہوئے۔ اس کے بعد میری درخواست کے باوجود بچوں کی دیکھ بھال کے لیے عارضی ویزے پر میرے ساتھ آنے والی خاتون کے میڈیکل چیک اپ کے باعث چند گھنٹے اور لگے۔ اور یوں لگ بھگ بیس گھنٹے میں یہ سفر مکمل ہوا۔ ملک کی اصول پسندی اپنی جگہ قابل ستائش مگر اسلام آباد بہت یاد آیا۔ دیارِ غیر کے موسموں کے اپنے ہی رنگ تھے۔
لندن میں موسم کیسے دبے پاؤں گزرتے رہے۔ واپسی کے گلاب کیوں مرجھا تے رہے۔ وقت کی ریت کیسے پاؤں تلے سے کھسکتی چلی گئی۔ساحلوں پہ کھڑی کشتیاں ہم نے خود ہی کیوں جلادیں۔ یہ کہانی پھر سہی۔ سر دست تو بس ایک اعتراف حقیقت کہ ہم جسے دیارغیرسمجھتے رہے وہ ہی اپنا گھر ٹھہرا مگر ایک ’نسلی اقلیت‘ کے طور پر۔
پاکستان کی سرزمین چھوڑنے کے ساتھ ہی ٹی وی سے میرا رشتہ بظاہر تو ختم ہوگیا مگر اس کی پرچھائیاں ہمیشہ میرے ساتھ رہیں۔
بی بی سی جوائن کرنے کے فوراً بعد جو تین روزہ تعارفی کورس ہمیں کروایا گیا اس دوران بھی زیادہ تر میرے ٹی وی تجربات پر ہی بات ہوتی ہوئی۔ ایک روز کافی پینے کے وقفے میں شعبہ حالات حاضرہ کی انچارج میری رین ( چند برس قبل ریٹائر ہوچکیں ہیں) بہت دلچسپی سے جنرل ضیا کی ہلاکت کا ذکر کرنے لگیں اور مجھ سے ٹی وی کی انتظامیہ اور عوام کے رد عمل کے بارے میں پوچھا۔ دوران گفتگو ضیا کی ہلاکت کی خبر مجھے نہ پڑھنے دیے جانے پر بولیں کہ عورتوں کو جذباتی اور پروفیشنلی کم تر سمجھنے کا عمل کسی ایک ملک تک محدود نہیں۔
اور پھر اپنے ابتدائی دنوں کو یاد کرتے ہوئے بولیں ”میں فٹ بال کی دیوانی تھی۔ مجھے اس بارے میں سٹوری لکھنے کا بے انتہا شوق تھا۔ لیکن فٹ بال اور سنجیدہ موضوعات پر میری لکھی ہوئی سٹوری دیکھ کر ایڈیٹر حضرات یہ کہہ کر پھینک دیا کرتے تھے کہ عورتوں کو چاہیے وہ نسوانی امراض یا بچوں کے پیدائش جیسے موضوعات پر لکھا کریں”۔
ابتدائی چند ماہ کے دوران لندن کی سرد موسموں اور دھند رستوں پر چلتے ہوئے ملک میں گزرے شام و سحر جس شدت سے یاد آئے وہ اس مصرعے میں ڈھل گئے۔
محبتوں کی چاندنی کھلی ہے اپنے دیس میں
پرائے در نظر نظر نگر نگر دھواں ملے ماہ پارہ صفدر ایک تقریب میں
ماہ پارہ صفدر ایک تقریب میں
کئی مرتبہ اپنا تعارف کروانا یاد نہیں رہا کہ برسوں تک اپنے تعارف میں یہ سننے کی عادی ہوچکی تھی۔ یہ چہرہ اور آواز اپنی شناخت آپ ہے۔ چہرہ اور آواز تو وہ ہی تھی مگر شناخت کھو چکی تھی۔ بھیڑ میں احساس تنہائی اور بھی بڑھ جاتا تھا۔
اکثر دوستوں سے میری یہ بحث رہتی تھی کہ لوگ کیسے یہاں رہ جاتے ہیں۔ میں تو چار برس مکمل کرکے ضرور واپس جاؤنگی۔ مگر جو لوگ میرے سے پہلے اس جزیرے کے پانیوں میں اتر چکے تھے ایسے ہنس دیتے جیسے کہہ رہے ہوں۔
سیل حیات میں ہیں ہم انسان خار و خس
موجوں سے چند لمحے لڑے اور بہہ گئے۔
لندن میں موسم کیسے دبے پاؤں گزرتے رہے۔ واپسی کے گلاب کیوں مرجھا تے رہے۔ وقت کی ریت کیسے پاؤں تلے سے کھسکتی چلی گئی۔ساحلوں پہ کھڑی کشتیاں ہم نے خود ہی کیوں جلادیں۔ یہ کہانی پھر سہی۔ سر دست تو بس ایک اعتراف حقیقت کہ ہم جسے دیارغیرسمجھتے رہے وہ ہی اپنا گھر ٹھہرا مگر ایک ’نسلی اقلیت‘ کے طور پر۔
اور یوں انیس برس بیت گئے۔ سن نوے میں بچوں زہرہ اور محمد کے ساتھ
سن نوے میں لندن روانہ ہونے سے پہلے بچوں زہرہ اور محمد کے ساتھ۔
چند ماہ قبل ایک دن بی بی سی بش ہاؤس کی کینٹین میں کھانے کے بعد عامر احمد خان ( اردو سروس کے ایڈیٹر) نے اچانک مجھے سے ٹی وی سے وابستہ یادیں مرتب کرنے کو کہا تو لکھنے کی خفتہ خواہش کے باوجود یہ سوچ کر میں خاصی متذبذب تھی کہ زندگی کا یہ موڑ تو برسوں پچھے رہ گیا تھا۔
مگر ہمت بندھانے پر وقت کی فصیل کھولنے کی دیر تھی کہ بیتے موسم سامنے آ کھڑے ہوئے اور پھر تو یقین کیجئے یادوں کا اتنا خزانہ ہاتھ لگا کہ اسے کوزے میں بند کرنا مشکل ہوگیا۔
آپ لوگوں نے خصوصاً نوجوان نسل جس نے مجھے بلکل اپنے بچپن میں دیکھا ہوگا میری کاوش کو جس قدر پذیرائی بخشی وہ میرے وہم و گمان میں بھی نہیں تھا۔ اظہار ممنونیت میں یہ آخری چند سطریں لکھتے ہوئے میری آنکھوں میں نمی ہے۔ آپ کی محبتوں کا قرض چکانا تو ممکن نہیں البتہ میری یادوں کے سرمائے میں بیش بہا اضافہ ہوا۔ جنھوں نے تنقیدکی ان کی بھی شکر گزار ہوں کہ تنقید سے اکثر زندگی کے وہ پہلو دیکھنے میں مدد ملتی ہے جو شائد میرے لیے قابل ذکر نہ ہوں مگر ان سے آگاہی ضروری ہے۔
آپ سے اجازت چاہوں گی مگر اس امید کے ساتھ کہ جانے کس موڑ پر آپ سے پھر ملاقات ہو جائے۔
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دیار غیر کے موسموں کے رنگ ماہ پارہ صفدر
ماہ پارہ صفدر
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، لندن
اسلام آباد ہالیڈے ان میں الوداعی تقریب
اسلام آباد ہالیڈے ان میں ہونے والی الوداعی تقریب میں میری والدہ نے بھی شرکت کی
بی بی سی اردو سروس میں آنے سے پہلے ماہ پارہ صفدر پاکستان ٹیلی ویژن اور ریڈیو پاکستان پر نیوز پریزینٹر کی حیثیت سے وابستہ تھیں۔ زندگی کے اس ابتدائی سفر سے وابستہ بہت سی یادیں ان کی زندگی کا قیمتی سرمایہ ہیں، بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام پر گزشتہ گیارہ ہفتوں سے انہیں یاداشتوں پر مبنی سلسلہ شائع کیا جا رہا ہے۔ پیش ہے آخری قسط:
اگر میں یہ کہوں تو غلط نہیں ہوگا کہ میں نے جب سن نوے میں پاکستان ٹی وی چھوڑا یہ اپنے عالم شباب پر تھا۔ ٹی وی سکرین پر نظر آنے والے خاص طور پر نیوز کاسٹرز نہ صرف حکمرانوں بلکہ عوام اور اخبارات کی نظروں میں رہتے تھے۔ اسی لیے میرے بی بی سی جانے کی خبریں اکثر اخبارات میں شائع ہوچکی تھیں۔
تقرری سے لیکر 27 جنوری کو لندن روانگی تک ایک سوال جو مجھ سے تواتر سے پوچھا گیا وہ یہ تھا کہ میں ٹی وی اور ملک چھوڑ کر کیوں جارہی ہوں۔ بقول لوگوں کے شہرت و عزت پر لات مار کر میں کفران نعمت کی مرتکب ہورہی تھی۔
احباب کی محبتیں سر آنکھوں پر۔ یہاں پر متعدد تقریبات میں سے دو الوداعی تقریبات کا ذکر میرے اوپر قرض ہے۔
پہلی تقریب اسلام آباد ہالی ڈے اِن میں ظفر بختاری کے زیر اہتمام اور دوسری فدا حسین ملک اور اہلیان چکوال کی جانب سے چکوال میں منعقد کی گئی۔ ان دونوں میں شرکاء کی بھر پور شرکت میرے لیے باعث صد افتخار تو تھی ہی، باعث حیرانگی بھی تھی۔ منکسر مزاجی اپنی جگہ اس دوران میں پوری دیانت داری سے سوچ رہی تھی کہ زندگی میں شائد ایسے مواقع بہت کم لوگوں کو نصیب ہوتے ہوں گے۔ سابق وزیر شہناز وزیر علی
سابق وزیر شہناز وزیر علی
اسلام آباد میں تو ایک دوست غضنفر مہدی نے شدت جذبات میں یہ بھی کہہ دیا کہ اگر ماہ پارہ اور صفدر کے پاس اسلام آباد میں ذاتی گھر ہوتا تو شائد یہ لوگ بیرون ملک نہ جاتے۔ تقریب کی مہمان خصوصی خواتین کی بہبود کی وزیر شہناز وزیر علی نے مذاقاً کہا کہ مقررین کے تاثرات سن کر تو دل چاہتا ہے کہ کیوں نہ ماہ پارہ صفدر کا جانا رکوا دیا جائے۔ مجھے زیادہ خوشی اس بات کی تھی کہ میری والدہ ان دونوں تقاریب میں شریک تھیں۔
اسلام آباد انٹر نیشنل سے روانگی اور لندن ہیتھرو آمد تک چند گھنٹوں کے سفر میں میری زندگی نے ایک سو اسی ڈگری کا فاصلہ طے کیا تھا۔
اسلام آباد میں سٹیشن کے ایک اہلکار مسافروں کی طویل قطار کو پیچھے چھوڑ کر مجھے سب سے پہلے جہاز تک چھوڑنے آئے، مگر لندن ائر پورٹ سے باہر آنے والے آخری مسافروں میں سے تھی۔ میں دونوں چھوٹے بچوں کی انگلیاں تھامے چلتی ہوئی مسافروں کی قطاروں تک پہنچی تو کوئی پانچ یا چھ سو مسافر میرے آگے تھے۔امیگریشن ڈسک تا پہنچتے پہنچتے کچھ گھنٹے صرف ہوئے۔ اس کے بعد میری درخواست کے باوجود بچوں کی دیکھ بھال کے لیے عارضی ویزے پر میرے ساتھ آنے والی خاتون کے میڈیکل چیک اپ کے باعث چند گھنٹے اور لگے۔ اور یوں لگ بھگ بیس گھنٹے میں یہ سفر مکمل ہوا۔ ملک کی اصول پسندی اپنی جگہ قابل ستائش مگر اسلام آباد بہت یاد آیا۔ دیارِ غیر کے موسموں کے اپنے ہی رنگ تھے۔
لندن میں موسم کیسے دبے پاؤں گزرتے رہے۔ واپسی کے گلاب کیوں مرجھا تے رہے۔ وقت کی ریت کیسے پاؤں تلے سے کھسکتی چلی گئی۔ساحلوں پہ کھڑی کشتیاں ہم نے خود ہی کیوں جلادیں۔ یہ کہانی پھر سہی۔ سر دست تو بس ایک اعتراف حقیقت کہ ہم جسے دیارغیرسمجھتے رہے وہ ہی اپنا گھر ٹھہرا مگر ایک ’نسلی اقلیت‘ کے طور پر۔
پاکستان کی سرزمین چھوڑنے کے ساتھ ہی ٹی وی سے میرا رشتہ بظاہر تو ختم ہوگیا مگر اس کی پرچھائیاں ہمیشہ میرے ساتھ رہیں۔
بی بی سی جوائن کرنے کے فوراً بعد جو تین روزہ تعارفی کورس ہمیں کروایا گیا اس دوران بھی زیادہ تر میرے ٹی وی تجربات پر ہی بات ہوتی ہوئی۔ ایک روز کافی پینے کے وقفے میں شعبہ حالات حاضرہ کی انچارج میری رین ( چند برس قبل ریٹائر ہوچکیں ہیں) بہت دلچسپی سے جنرل ضیا کی ہلاکت کا ذکر کرنے لگیں اور مجھ سے ٹی وی کی انتظامیہ اور عوام کے رد عمل کے بارے میں پوچھا۔ دوران گفتگو ضیا کی ہلاکت کی خبر مجھے نہ پڑھنے دیے جانے پر بولیں کہ عورتوں کو جذباتی اور پروفیشنلی کم تر سمجھنے کا عمل کسی ایک ملک تک محدود نہیں۔
اور پھر اپنے ابتدائی دنوں کو یاد کرتے ہوئے بولیں ”میں فٹ بال کی دیوانی تھی۔ مجھے اس بارے میں سٹوری لکھنے کا بے انتہا شوق تھا۔ لیکن فٹ بال اور سنجیدہ موضوعات پر میری لکھی ہوئی سٹوری دیکھ کر ایڈیٹر حضرات یہ کہہ کر پھینک دیا کرتے تھے کہ عورتوں کو چاہیے وہ نسوانی امراض یا بچوں کے پیدائش جیسے موضوعات پر لکھا کریں”۔
ابتدائی چند ماہ کے دوران لندن کی سرد موسموں اور دھند رستوں پر چلتے ہوئے ملک میں گزرے شام و سحر جس شدت سے یاد آئے وہ اس مصرعے میں ڈھل گئے۔
محبتوں کی چاندنی کھلی ہے اپنے دیس میں
پرائے در نظر نظر نگر نگر دھواں ملے ماہ پارہ صفدر ایک تقریب میں
ماہ پارہ صفدر ایک تقریب میں
کئی مرتبہ اپنا تعارف کروانا یاد نہیں رہا کہ برسوں تک اپنے تعارف میں یہ سننے کی عادی ہوچکی تھی۔ یہ چہرہ اور آواز اپنی شناخت آپ ہے۔ چہرہ اور آواز تو وہ ہی تھی مگر شناخت کھو چکی تھی۔ بھیڑ میں احساس تنہائی اور بھی بڑھ جاتا تھا۔
اکثر دوستوں سے میری یہ بحث رہتی تھی کہ لوگ کیسے یہاں رہ جاتے ہیں۔ میں تو چار برس مکمل کرکے ضرور واپس جاؤنگی۔ مگر جو لوگ میرے سے پہلے اس جزیرے کے پانیوں میں اتر چکے تھے ایسے ہنس دیتے جیسے کہہ رہے ہوں۔
سیل حیات میں ہیں ہم انسان خار و خس
موجوں سے چند لمحے لڑے اور بہہ گئے۔
لندن میں موسم کیسے دبے پاؤں گزرتے رہے۔ واپسی کے گلاب کیوں مرجھا تے رہے۔ وقت کی ریت کیسے پاؤں تلے سے کھسکتی چلی گئی۔ساحلوں پہ کھڑی کشتیاں ہم نے خود ہی کیوں جلادیں۔ یہ کہانی پھر سہی۔ سر دست تو بس ایک اعتراف حقیقت کہ ہم جسے دیارغیرسمجھتے رہے وہ ہی اپنا گھر ٹھہرا مگر ایک ’نسلی اقلیت‘ کے طور پر۔
اور یوں انیس برس بیت گئے۔ سن نوے میں بچوں زہرہ اور محمد کے ساتھ
سن نوے میں لندن روانہ ہونے سے پہلے بچوں زہرہ اور محمد کے ساتھ۔
چند ماہ قبل ایک دن بی بی سی بش ہاؤس کی کینٹین میں کھانے کے بعد عامر احمد خان ( اردو سروس کے ایڈیٹر) نے اچانک مجھے سے ٹی وی سے وابستہ یادیں مرتب کرنے کو کہا تو لکھنے کی خفتہ خواہش کے باوجود یہ سوچ کر میں خاصی متذبذب تھی کہ زندگی کا یہ موڑ تو برسوں پچھے رہ گیا تھا۔
مگر ہمت بندھانے پر وقت کی فصیل کھولنے کی دیر تھی کہ بیتے موسم سامنے آ کھڑے ہوئے اور پھر تو یقین کیجئے یادوں کا اتنا خزانہ ہاتھ لگا کہ اسے کوزے میں بند کرنا مشکل ہوگیا۔
آپ لوگوں نے خصوصاً نوجوان نسل جس نے مجھے بلکل اپنے بچپن میں دیکھا ہوگا میری کاوش کو جس قدر پذیرائی بخشی وہ میرے وہم و گمان میں بھی نہیں تھا۔ اظہار ممنونیت میں یہ آخری چند سطریں لکھتے ہوئے میری آنکھوں میں نمی ہے۔ آپ کی محبتوں کا قرض چکانا تو ممکن نہیں البتہ میری یادوں کے سرمائے میں بیش بہا اضافہ ہوا۔ جنھوں نے تنقیدکی ان کی بھی شکر گزار ہوں کہ تنقید سے اکثر زندگی کے وہ پہلو دیکھنے میں مدد ملتی ہے جو شائد میرے لیے قابل ذکر نہ ہوں مگر ان سے آگاہی ضروری ہے۔
آپ سے اجازت چاہوں گی مگر اس امید کے ساتھ کہ جانے کس موڑ پر آپ سے پھر ملاقات ہو جائے۔
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شعبہ خبر سے وابستگی کے دوران دو خبریں ایسی تھیں جن میں سے ایک پڑھ کر افسوس ہوا اور ایک نا پڑھ کر۔ ایک جمہوریت کی موت تھی اور ایک آمریت کی۔
دونوں خبریں اپنی اپنی جگہ پاکستان کی سیاسی تاریخ میں ہمیشہ کے لیے محفوظ ہو گئیں۔ ایک ملک کے منتخب وزیر اعظم کے قتل کے باب میں جس کے خون کے چھینٹے انصاف کے دامن پر بھی نظرآتے ہیں۔ تو دوسری ایک آمر کے انجام کے باب میں۔
تو چلیئے پہلے یہ خبر جسے چار اپریل کو ریڈیو پر سن کر میرے بہت سے لمحے تو بے یقینی کی کیفیت میں گزرے، دل جیسے کہہ رہا ہو:
یا الہی مرگ یوسف کی خبر سچی نہ ہو
مگر حقیت کے ادراک پر آنکھ سے بے اختیار آنسو چھلک پڑے۔ یہ خبر پہلی مرتبہ ریڈیو پاکستان کے دن کے گیارہ بجے کے بلیٹن میں نشر ہوئی جس کے مطابق بھٹو صاحب کو ہمارے گھر سے تین میل کے فاصلے پر راولپنڈی ڈسٹرکٹ جیل میں رات کے دو بجے پھانسی دی جا چکی تھی۔
تاہم فوج کی جانب سے نو گھنٹے بعد ہینڈ آؤٹ اس وقت جاری کیا گیا جب انہیں بندوقوں کے سائے میں چند لوگوں کی موجودگی میں گڑی خدا بخش بھٹو میں دفنایا جاچکا تھا۔
پھانسی کی خبر جاری ہونے کے بعد ہمارے نیوز پروڈیوسر کا خاصی گھبراہٹ زدہ آواز میں فون آ گیا۔ ’خبر تو سن لی ہوگی آپ نے۔ بھٹو کی پھانسی کی خبر پڑھ لیں گی آپ۔‘ میرے اطمینان دلانے پر ان کی تسلی نہیں ہوئی۔ اب کے خود نیوز کنٹرولر حبیب اللہ فاروقی لائن پر تھے ’دیکھیں بی بی یہ خبر پڑھ لیں گی آپ؟ کہیں رو تو نہیں پڑیں گی؟‘
مگر یہی تو تربیت تھی کہ دلی کیفیت چہرے اور آواز میں جھلکنے نہ پائے۔
شام پانچ بجے کا بلیٹن میں نے بلکل معمول کے مطابق پڑھا۔ یہ خبر نپے تلے انداز میں بنائی گئی تھی یا شائد بار بار ٹوکے جانے کے دباؤ میں خود کو میں زیادہ مجتمع کرچکی تھی۔ نو بجے میرے ساتھ خالد حمید تھے۔ سرخیاں میں نے پڑھیں اور تفصیلی خبر خالد نے پڑھنی شروع کی۔ لیکن چند سطریں پڑھنے کے بعد آواز میں لرزش ہوئی جیسے گلے میں کچھ اٹک سا جائے۔ انہوں نے بمشکل جملہ مکمل کیا اور اگلہ جملہ شروع ہونے میں وقفہ سب نے محسوس کیا۔
میک روم میں میک اپ اتارتے ہوئے خالد خود ہی بولے ’میں تو بمشکل یہ خبر پڑھ پایا۔‘ میں نے پوچھا خالد کیا تم سے بھی پہلے فاروقی صاحب نے پوچھا تھا کہ خبر پڑھ سکوگے یا نہیں۔ مگر اس کا جواب نفی میں سن کر حیرت ہوئی کہ پھر مجھ سے کیوں؟
اس خبر کے ساتھ انہیں دفنائے جانے کی چند سیکنّڈ کی فٹیچ دکھائی گئی جس میں بند تابوت میں چند لمحوں کے لیے ان کے چہرے کی جھلک بھی تھی۔ جس کا مقصد لوگوں کو آگاہ کرنا نہیں یہ باور کرانا تھا کہ دفن ہونے والی لاش ذوالفقار علی بھٹو کی ہی ہے۔ کیا بے کسی تھی لاش پر۔
بہت بری خبر ہے جنرل ضیاء فوجی طیارے کے حادثے میں ’ شہید‘ ہوگئے ہیں۔ آج خبر نامے میں اس کے سوا کوئی خبر نہیں جائیگی اور یہ اظہر لودھی پڑھیں گے۔ یہ بڑی سنجیدہ اور افسوس ناک خبر ہے۔ یہ خبر کوئی ’مرد‘ ہی پڑھے تو بہتر ہے
شکور طاہر
مجھے خیالوں میں اس لاش کے پیچھے ماؤ زے تنگ کیپ پہنے وہ جواں سال بھٹو نظر آیا جسے میں نے اپنے بچپن نہیں ہاں لڑکپن میں چند گز کے فاصلے سے دیکھا اور سنا تھا۔ سن اڑسٹھ یا انتہر میں ذوالفقار علی بھٹو اپنی پیپلز پارٹی کی تنظیم کے سلسلے میں سر گودھا آئے تو چند مڈل کلاس لوگوں نے بھٹو صاحب کو ہاتھوں ہاتھ لیا اور پزیرائی کی تھی۔ مسعود زاہدی، ممتاز کاہلو رکن اسمبلی اور خود میری والدہ شمس الزہرہ زیدی خواتین کی مخصوص نشتوں کے لیے امیدوار بھی تھیں۔ بھٹو ہمارے عزیز ایڈوکیٹ مسعود زاہدی ہی کے گھر ٹھہرے تھے اور سرگودھا کے سیٹلائٹ ٹاؤن میں ہمارے گھر سے ذرا ہی فاصلے پر ہمارے خاندانی دوست علی احمد کاظمی کے گھر خواتین سے خطاب کرنے آئے تھے۔ میں بھی اپنی والدہ اور بڑی بہن فوزیہ کے ساتھ انہیں سننے گئی تھی۔
مگر پھر وہ ہی ہوا جو اکثر ہوتا آیا ہے۔
منزل انھیں ملی جو شریک سفر نہ تھے۔
ستر کے انتخابات میں نا قابل یقین مقبولیت کے بعد پیپلز پارٹی مڈل کلاس سے دور اور وڈیروں اور جاگیرداروں کی مقبوضہ بنتی چلی گئی۔
مگر یہ مڈل کلاس عوام اس شخص کو اپنے ذہنوں سے دور نہ کر سکی جو ان کے لیے جمہوریت کی علامت بن کر ابھرا تھا اور اس نے انہیں اور کچھ نہیں تو کم از کم پہلی مرتبہ ان کو ان کے ووٹ کی اہمیت کا احساس دلایا تھا۔
وہ اس شخص بھٹوکو بچا تو نہیں پائے مگر لفظوں کی صورت میں عقیدت کے جتنے نذرانے پیش کر سکتے تھے وہ کیے۔ یادگاری ریفرنس کی ایک ایسی ہی نشست میں اختر حسین جعفری سے بھٹو کی پھانسی پر لکھی طویل نظم سنی تھی۔ تین سطریں آپ بھی سنیئے:
تجھ کو کس پھول کا کفن ہم دیں تُو جدا ایسے موسموں میں ہوا
جب درختوں کے ہاتھ خالی تھے سترہ اگست مجھے پروفیشنل عورت کے ساتھ امتیازی سلوک کی بد ترین مثال کے طور پر بھی یاد رہے گا۔ مگر اتنا ضرور ہوا کہ اس نے مجھے جنسی تعصبات سے مقابلہ کرنے کا وہ حوصلہ دیا جس کی لو آجتک بھڑک رہی ہے
وہ خبر جو میں نہیں پڑھ سکی۔ وہ جنرل ضیاء کی ہلاکت کی خبر تھی۔ جنرل ضیا کا فوجی طیارہ سترہ اگست سن 88 کو لگ بھگ تین بجے کریش ہوا۔ اس دن خبر نامے پر میری اور اظہر لودھی کی ڈیوٹی تھی۔
شام سات بجے تک ہم سب کو صرف اتنا معلوم تھا کہ کوئی بہت بری خبر ہے۔ میں اوپر نیوز روم میں پہنچی تو افراتفری کا عالم دیدنی تھا۔ جنرل ضیاء کی فٹیج اور پرانی خبروں کے سکرپٹ نکالے جا رہے تھے، چھان پھٹک ہورہی تھی۔ اتنے میں چیف ایڈیٹر شکور طاہر مجھے دوسرے کمرے میں لے گئے اور بولے کہ ’بی بی بہت بری خبر ہے جنرل ضیاء فوجی طیارے کے حادثے میں شہید ہوگئے ہیں۔ آج خبرنامے میں اس کے سوا کوئی خبر نہیں جائیگی اور یہ اظہر لودھی پڑھیں گے۔‘ میں نے حیران ہو کر پوچھا کیوں میں کیوں نہیں۔ شکور طاہر نے کہا ’بی بی آپ لوگوں نے میک اپ وغیرہ کیا ہوتا ہے ذرا اچھا نہیں لگتا، یہ بڑی سنجیدہ خبر ہے۔ کوئی ’مرد‘ ہی پڑھے تو بہتر ہے۔‘ میں نے کہا شکور صاحب جب خانہ کعبہ پر حملہ ہوا تھا۔ مجھے پہلے ہدایت کردی گئی تھی کہ کپڑے بھی بہت سادا ہوں اور میک اپ بھی انتہائی کم۔ آج آپ نے پہلے کیوں نہیں بتایا۔ بتا دیتے میں میک اپ نہ کرواتی اور یہ غیر سنجیدہ خبریں کونسی ہوتیں ہیں۔
بھلا میرا یہ احتجاج ان کا فیصلہ کہاں بدلوا سکتا تھا۔ میں نیوز روم میں آکر رائیٹر اور اے پی کے پرنٹ پڑھنے لگی۔ اس دن خبر نامہ کیا ضیا نامہ تھا۔ واقعے کی خبر، ان کے حالات زندگی، غیر ملکی دوروں کا احوال اور شخصیات کے تعزیتی پیغامات اور نہ جانے کیا کیا۔
میری نظروں میں چار اپریل 1979 کا منظر اتر آیا اور میں نے سوچا ایک سولین رہنما کی اتنی بے توقیری کہ اسے سولی پر چڑھا دیا جائے اوراس کی محض چند سطروں کی خبر نشر ہو اور ایک آمر کی اتنی عزت افزائی کہ وہ ہلاک ہو تو ’شہید‘ اور خراج تحسین کے ڈھیر۔
سترہ اگست مجھے پروفیشنل عورت کے ساتھ امتیازی سلوک کی بد ترین مثال کے طور پر بھی یاد رہے گا۔ مگر اتنا ضرور ہوا کہ اس سلوک نے مجھے جنسی تعصبات سے مقابلہ کرنے کا وہ حوصلہ دیا جس کی لو آج تک بھڑک رہی ہے۔
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ذرا مڑ کے پیچھے دیکھتی ہوں تو یہ سوچ کر ذہن کو جھٹکا سا لگتا ہے کہ وقت کے ساتھ اقدار کس قدر تیزی سے تبدیل ہوئیں۔
کتنی سرعت سے بدلتا ہے مزاجِ روزگار۔ بالکل بدلتے موسموں کی طرح۔
کلِک ’چند یادوں کے سفینے ہیں سلامت اب تک‘(پہلی قسط)
اب ٹی وی پر کام مل جانا ایک دم آپ کے قد وقامت میں اضافہ کر دیتا ہے۔ آپ یک دم سے معتبر ہو جاتے ہیں۔ مگر آج سے کتنا مختلف تھا وہ زمانہ، جب ستر کے عشرے میں ٹی وی اپنے قیام کے ابتدائی عشرے سے گزر رہا تھا۔
میری والدہ جو لڑکیوں کی اعلیٰ تعلیم اور ملازمت اختیار کرنے کی زبردست داعی تھیں، انہیں جب میں نے بتایا کہ ٹی وی پر جانا چاہتی ہوں، تو انہوں نے مجھے بالکل یوں دیکھا جیسے دل میں کہہ رہی ہوں لڑکی تیرا دماغ تو نہیں چل گیا۔ ظاہر ہے کہ یہ بات ہے کوئی تین عشرے قبل کی جب لڑکیوں کے لیے بس دو چار ہی تو مخصوص شعبے تھے۔ سکول یا کالج کی استاد یا پھر ڈاکٹر، بس یہی دو تین ’پروفیشن‘ تھے۔
ہمارے ایک کزن صاحب نے تو یہاں تک کہہ دیا کہ اس لڑکی کی تو خیر شادی کے لیے اب رشتے کیا ہی آئیں گے۔ اس کی بدنامی کی وجہ سے اس کی بہنوں کو بھی کوئی نہیں پوچھے گا
میرے گھر میں بھی رویہ کچھ زیادہ مختلف نہیں تھا۔ میری والدہ جو چاہتی تھیں کہ میں ڈاکٹر بنوں ورنہ سول سروسز کے امتحان یعنی سی ایس ایس پاس کر کے بابو افسر بن جاؤں، میرے ٹی وی میں جانے کا سن کر سیخ پا ہوگئیں اور بڑے بہنوئی نے تو غصے میں بات کرنی ہی چھوڑ دی ( یہاں یہ بھی بتادوں کہ کیونکہ ہمارا بھائی کوئی نہیں تھا۔ ہم چھ بہنیں ہیں۔ لہذا ہمارے خاندان میں سب سے پہلے آنے والے میرے بہنوئی حبیب مرزا کو خاندان میں بڑے بھائی کا مقام حاصل تھا۔)
ہمارے ایک کزن صاحب نے تو یہاں تک کہہ دیا کہ اس لڑکی کی تو خیر شادی کے لیے اب رشتے کیا ہی آئیں گے، اس کی بدنامی کی وجہ سے اس کی دوسری بہنوں کو بھی کوئی نہیں پوچھےگا۔ ظاہر ہے یہ سب والدہ کی تشویش میں مزید اضافے کا سبب بنا اور ٹی وی پر جانے کی مخالفت بھی بڑھی۔ یہ اور بات ہے کہ بعد کے حالات نے ان اندیشوں کو غلط ثابت کردیا۔
میری والدہ مہ پارہ صفدر
والدہ شمس الزہرا زیدی میرے ٹی وی پر جانے کا سن کر ناراض ہوگئیں
بہر حال کئی مہینوں کی منت سماجت کے بعد ٹی وی پر جانے کی اجازت تو مل گئی مگر اس شرط کے ساتھ کہ ’راتوں کی ریکارڈنگ اور دیر سے گھر آنا نہیں چلے گا۔ اور ہاں تماری تعلیم بالکل نظر انداز نہیں ہونی چاہیے‘ (میں ان دنوں یونیورسٹی میں تھی)۔
ان شرائط کی روشنی میں خبروں میں قسمت آزمائی کے لیے ایک روز میں ایڈیٹر خالد محمود ربانی سے ملنے کے لیے لاہور ٹیلی وژن سٹیشن کے نیوز روم پہنچی۔ بہت اچھی طرح ملے، حالات حاضرہ سے میری دلچسپی سے قدرے مطمئن ہونے کے بعد کہنے لگے کہ نیوز کاسٹر کے انتخاب کے لیے ہر مہینے آڈیشن ہوتے ہیں۔ مگر کوئی معیار پر پورا ہی نہیں اترتا۔ کیوں بھلا؟ میں نے خاصا بے تکا سا سوال کردیا۔ خبریں پڑھنا کون سا اتنا مشکل کام ہے۔ میں سمجھ رہی تھی یہ بھی کالج کی کوئی تقریر جیسا معاملہ ہے۔
مرحوم محمود ربانی صاحب میری کم علمی پر مسکرا دیے اور بولے کہ بی بی نیوز کاسٹر کے لیے لازمی ہے کہ اسے خبر سے مکمل آگاہی ہو تاکہ اس کی ادائیگی وہ اتنے بھرپور تاثر کے ساتھ کرے کہ لوگ اس خبر پر یقین کریں۔ اس کے ساتھ ساتھ خبر پڑھتے ہوئے اس خبر کے ساتھ آپ کی کسی قسم کی وابستگی کا گمان بھی نہ ہو۔
’کسی پسندیدہ شخصیت کی موت خبر پڑھتے ہوئے آپ کے لہجے سے دکھ کا کوئی اظہار نہ ہو۔ گویا سینے میں طوفان بھی اگر برپا ہو تو آپ کا چہرہ اور لہجہ پرسکون نظر آئے۔ زیر زبر یعنی تلفظ درست ہو اور آواز معتبر ہو۔ لب ولہجہ شائستہ اور الفاظ کی ادائیگی واضح ہو۔ شکل وصورت خوبصورت نہیں مگر خوشگوار تاثر رکھتی ہو۔‘
کسی پسندیدہ شخصیت کی موت خبر پڑھتے ہوئے آپ کے لہجے سے دکھ کا کوئی اظہار نہ ہو۔ گویا سینے میں طوفان بھی اگر برپا ہو تو آپ کا چہرہ اور لہجہ پرسکون نظر آئے۔ زیر زبر یعنی تلفظ درست ہو اور آواز معتبر ہو۔ لب ولہجہ شائستہ اور الفاظ کی ادائیگی واضح ہو۔ شکل وصورت خوبصورت نہیں مگر خوشگوار تاثر رکھتی ہو
خالد محمود ربانی
اور پھر تنقیدی نظروں سے دیکھنے کے بعد بولے ’بی بی خبریں پڑھنا بچوں کا کام نہیں۔ بہت ہی سنجیدہ عمل ہے۔ اس لیے نیوز کاسٹر کی شخصیت بردبار نظر آنی چاہیے‘۔
یہ سب شرائط سن کر میں نے دل میں سوچا چلو ماہ پارہ بی بی یہ سب شرطیں تو پوری ہونے سے رہیں۔ یہاں تو کام ملنے والا نہیں۔ آڈیشن تو پاس ہونے سے رہا۔ دل میں سوچا کہ اماں کی خواہش تو ویسے ہی پوری ہوگئی۔ تو چلو پھر جو اماں کہہ رہی ہیں اسی امتحان کی تیاری کریں۔ مگر نجانے وہ ذات پر حد سے زیادہ اعتماد تھا یا ارادے کی طاقت کہ میں نے فوراً ہی شکست خوردہ سوچ کو اس خود کلامی کے ساتھ جھٹک ڈالا کہ
’ستارہ کیا میری تقدیر کا پتہ دے گا
وہ ِخود فراخی افلاک میں ہے خوار و زبوں‘
اور میں نیوز آڈیشن کے معیار پر پورا اترنے کا عزم لیے واپس ہوئی۔
پھر ملاقات ہوگی۔۔
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ایک دن میں فلم کے ساتھ خبر ( جیسے اب فٹیج کہا جاتا ہے) کی ریہرسل کے لیے ایڈیٹنگ روم میں داخل ہوئی تو فلم ایڈٹ کے دوران بار بار یہ آواز سنائی دی۔ ’یہ ’ہل‘ کی تصویر کٹو جی کٹو( کاٹوجی کاٹو) ’آواز بھی گھٹ کر یار‘۔ ہمارے قارئین بخوبی سمجھتے ہیں کہ کسی بھی خبری واقعے یا تقریب کی خاصی طویل فلم شوٹ کرلی جاتی ہے، پھر ایڈیٹنگ روم میں اس طویل کالے فیتے نما ریل میں سے تحریر شدہ خبر کے مطابق کچھ حصے منتخب کرلیے جاتے تھے۔ خیر اب تو ڈیجیٹل کیمرے آچکے ہیں ان میں کوئی ریل نہیں ہوتی تاہم ایڈیٹنگ اب بھی ہوتی ہے۔
عام حالات میں ایڈیٹنگ کرنا یا خبر کو مختصر کرنا یا ادارتی نکتہ نظر سے خبر کے کچھ حصے حذف کرنا ذرائع ابلاغ کے معمولات میں شامل ہے۔ ویسے بھی صحافت کا ایک مسلمہ اصول ہے کہ ’وین ان ڈاؤٹ کٹ اِٹ آؤٹ‘ یعنی اگر کسی خبر کے بارے میں ذرا بھی شک ہو تواسے نکال دو۔ مگر پی ٹی وی لاہور کے ایڈیٹنگ روم میں معاملہ کچھ اور تھا۔ یہاں یہ ایڈیٹنگ حکام بالا کی ہدایات کے مطابق کی جارہی تھی۔
مگر یہ معاملہ جاننے کے لیے آپ کو پہلے میرے ذہن کے پردے پر چلنے والی وہ فلم دیکھنی ہوگی جسے دیکھنے کے بعد آپ کو ایڈیٹنگ روم کا منظر بھی بلکل صاف نظر آنے لگے گا۔
ہوا یوں کہ سات جنوری سن ستتر کی ایک سرد شام کو ملک میں آئندہ انتخابات کا اعلان کردیا گیا۔ جس کے مطابق قومی اسبملی کے لیے ووٹنگ سات مارچ اور صوبائی اسمبلیوں کے لیے دس مارچ کو ہونا قرار پائی۔ یہ اعلان کوئی ایسا اچانک بھی نہیں تھا۔ انتخابات کے بارے میں کئی ہفتوں سے پیش گوئی کی جا رہی تھی۔ نیوز روم میں اس طرح کی باتیں ہوتی رہتی تھیں’ کہ بھٹو صاحب کو یہ یقین ہے یا انھیں دلوا دیا گیا ہے کہ حزب اختلاف اس قدر منتشر ہے کہ کوئی بھی سیاسی جماعت اس وقت ملک گیر سطح پر پیپلز پارٹی کا مقابلہ نہیں کرسکتی، وغیرہ‘۔
ٹی وی پر حزب اختلاف کی سرگرمیوں کی رپورٹنگ شروع ہوگئی۔ مگر نیوز کے عملے کو یہ خصوصی ہدایات تھیں کہ پاکستان قومی اتحاد ( پی این اے) کے انتخابی نعرے اور انتخابی نشان ’ہل‘ ( کھیتوں میں چلانے والا) کو حتٰی الامکان نہ تو سکرین پر دکھایا جائے اور رپورٹ کے دوران نہ اس کا ساؤنڈ یعنی لفظ ’ہل’ کسی کو سنائی پڑے۔
مگر یہ وہ تبصرے تھے جو پس پردہ ہی رہتے تھے۔ جو کچھ نشر ہوتا تھا وہ یہ کہ انتخابات تو دراصل سن تہتر کے ائین کے مطابق اکتوبر اٹھہتر میں ہونے تھے مگر یہ بھٹو کی جمہوریت پسندی ہے کہ انھوں نےقبل از وقت انتخابات کا فیصلہ کیا وغیرہ، وغیرہ (حالانکہ یہ انتخابات کوئی سات برس بعد ہورہے تھے)۔
یہ الفاظ پڑھتے پڑھتے لگ بھگ مجھے زبانی یاد ہوچکے تھے کہ بھٹو جیسا زیرک، معتبر اور سیاسی قد و قامت کا کوئی رہنما پاکستان میں تو کیا پورے عالم اسلام میں نظر نہیں آتا۔
لیکن انتخابات کا اعلان ہوتے ہی کوئی نو مختلف پارٹیوں نے پاکستان نیشنل الائینس پی این اے کے نام سے انتخابی اتحاد قائم کرلیا، جس میں نواب زادہ نصراللہ خان کی جمہوری وطن، اصغر خان کی تحریک استقلال کے علاوہ تینوں مذہبی جماعتیں یعنی جماعت اسلامی، جمعیت علماء اسلام اور شاہ احمد نورانی کی جمعیت علماءِ پاکستان اور کچھ چھوٹی چھوٹی جماعتیں شامل ہوگئیں۔ ویسے اتحاد میں اگر سچ پوچھیں تو ان تینوں مذہبی جماعتوں کے کارکن ہی زیادہ نمایاں نظر آتے تھے۔ اتحاد کا انتخابی نشان ’ہل‘ تھا۔ اسی ہل کی تصویر اور آواز، یعنی نعرے کی آوازیں ایڈیٹنگ کے لیے مسئلہ بنی ہوئی تھی۔
حزب اختلاف کا انتخابی جلوس ٹی وی سٹیشن کے سامنے سے اکثر یہ انتخابی نعرے لگاتا ہوا گزرا کرتا تھا ’سات مارچ دس مارچ۔ بھٹو کوئیک مارچ کوئیک مارچ‘
ایک دن میں نے دیکھا کہ ٹی وی کی عمارت سے قدرے دور تحریک استقلال کے جاوید ہاشمی میگا فون پر ریلی سے تقریر کر رہے تھے۔
جی ہاں میں بات کررہی ہوں موجودہ مسلم لیگ نواز کے سینئر رہنما جاوید ہاشمی کی۔ اپنی سیاسی زندگی کی ابتدا میں وہ ریٹائرڈ ائیر مارشل اصغر خان کی تحریک استقلال میں بھی شامل رہے۔ ملتان کے اس مڈل کلاس جواں سال سیاست داں سے خاصی امیدیں وابستہ کی جارہی تھی۔ گو کہ بعد میں جنرل ضیاالحق کی کابینہ میں شامل ہونے کے انکے فیصلے سے بہت ہی مایوسی ہوئی۔ ماہ پارہ
جاوید ہاشمی کو پنجاب یونیوسٹی لاہور سے فارغ اتحصیل ہوئے چند برس ہی گزرے ہونگے۔ خوش شکل ہونے کے ساتھ ساتھ شعلہ بیاں مقرر بھی تھے۔ بس یوں سمجھ لیجئے کہ مجھے تو وہ اس وقت احمد ندیم قاسمی کے اس شعر کی کچھ کچھ عملی تصویر لگے۔
فقط اس شوق میں پوچھی ہیں ہزاروں باتیں
میں تیرا حسن تیرے حسن بیاں تک دیکھوں
ویسے کہیں یہ نہ سمجھ لیجیے گا کہ قاسمی صاحب نے یہ شعر ان کے لیے لکھا تھا۔ خیر میں رک کر جاوید ہاشمی کی تقریر سننے لگی۔ مجھے ان کے الفاظ درست طور پر یاد نہیں مگر لب لباب یہ تھا کہ کہ ریڈیو اور ٹی وی پر صرف حکومت وقت کی تشہیر ہورہی ہے۔ یہ سراسر زیادتی ہے۔ اور یہ کہ حزب اختلاف کی انتخابی سرگرمیوں کو بھی کوریج دی جائے۔
معلوم نہیں کہ پی این اے کے رہنماوں کی آتشی تقریروں کا اثر تھا، اتحاد کا دباؤ تھا یا کچھ اور۔۔۔۔۔
ٹی وی پر پی این ایے کی انتخابی سرگرمیوں کی رپورٹنگ تو شروع ہوگئی۔ مگر نیوز کے عملے کو ان خصوصی ہدایات کے ساتھ کہ پاکستان قومی اتحاد ( پی این اے) کے انتخابی نعرے اور انتخابی نشان ' ہل' کو حتی الامکان سکرین پرنہ دکھایا جائے اور مختصر رپورٹ کے دوران اس کا ساؤنڈ یعنی لفظ ’ ہل‘ بھی کسی کو کم کم ہی سنائی پڑے۔
ایڈیٹنگ کے دوران فوٹیج میں جہاں کہیں ’ہل‘ نظر آتا تھا یا اس کا نعرہ سنائی دیتا تھا نیوز پروڈیوسر کی آواز بلند ہوتی تھی۔’ کٹو کٹو یار (کاٹو کاٹو یار ) یہ ہل نہ کٹا تو اپنی نوکری کٹ جائیگی‘ اور کبھی نعروں یعنی ’ہل ہمارا جیتے گا‘ وغیرہ پر رپورٹر کی آواز حاوی کردی جاتی تھی۔
ریڈیو پر لفظ ’ہل‘ کے بارے میں بوکھلاہٹ کا عالم یہ تھا کہ ایک اقتصادی رپورٹ میں جب تجـزیہ نگار نے تین مرتبہ کہا کہ اس مسئلے کا اس کے سوا کوئی ’حل‘ نہیں تو ریڈیو کے ایک جونیئر اہلکار نے کہہ دیا کہ یہ ٹاک قابل نشر نہیں۔ اس میں بار بار ’حل‘ کا ذکر ہے۔
ستتر کے انتخابات میں ایک روزنامے کی جانب سے دھاندلیوں کے مسلسل الزامات کے باوجود ویسی بےضابطگیاں نظر نہیں آئیں جیسی کہ جنرل ضیا الحق کے ریفرنڈم یا بعد کے انتخابات کے دوران باقاعدہ طور پر سرکاری سطح پر کی جاتی رہیں۔ دروغ بر گردن راوی جنرل ضیا کے ریفرنڈم میں تو سنا تھا فرشتوں نے ووٹ ڈالے تھے۔
ایسے ہی سلسلوں کے چلتے سات مارچ کا معرکۃ آرا دن آ پہنچا۔ اس دن ٹی وی پر خوب رونق تھی۔ سٹوڈیوز میں ایک بڑا سا خوبصورت سیٹ لگایا گیا تھا۔ چار کیمرے بیک وقت براہ راست الیکشن کی نشریات کی کوریج کر رہے تھے۔ موسیقی کے خصوصی پروگرام اور مزاحیہ خاکے خاص الیکشن کی مناسبت سے تیار ہوئے تھے، نشریات کا دورانیہ بڑھا دیا گیا تھا، خاصا جشن کا سا سماں تھا۔ تاہم اگلے ہی دن یہ رونق ماند پڑھ گئی۔
اس دن دھاندلیوں کے الزامات عائد کرتے ہوئے حزب اختلاف نے نہ صرف نتائج تسلیم کرنے سے انکار کر دیا بلکہ صوبائی اسمبلیوں کی ووٹنگ کا بھی بائیکاٹ کر دیا گیا۔ اس کے باوجود کم از کم ٹی وی اور ریڈیو کی حد تک تو انتخابات بخیر و خوبی انجام پائے۔ مگر حقیقت یہ تھی کہ نہ جیتنے والی پارٹی کو اپنی فتح کایقین تھا اور نہ ہارنے والوں کو اپنی شکست کا۔
ایک قومی روزنامہ شدت سے دھاندلی کے الزاما ت عائد کرتا رہا۔ مگر انفرادی یا مقامی سطح پر واقعات کے سوا ایسی کسی منظم دھاندلی کے شواہد پیش نہیں کیے گئے جیسے بعد میں جنرل ضیا الحق کے ریفرنڈم یا بعد کے انتخابات میں باقاعدہ طور پر سرکاری سطح پر کی جاتی رہی۔
جنرل ضیا الحق کے ریفرنڈم میں تو دروغ بر گردن راوی سنا تھا کہ فرشتوں نے بھی ووٹ ڈالے۔
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ایک دن میں فلم کے ساتھ خبر ( جیسے اب فٹیج کہا جاتا ہے) کی ریہرسل کے لیے ایڈیٹنگ روم میں داخل ہوئی تو فلم ایڈٹ کے دوران بار بار یہ آواز سنائی دی۔ ’یہ ’ہل‘ کی تصویر کٹو جی کٹو( کاٹوجی کاٹو) ’آواز بھی گھٹ کر یار‘۔ ہمارے قارئین بخوبی سمجھتے ہیں کہ کسی بھی خبری واقعے یا تقریب کی خاصی طویل فلم شوٹ کرلی جاتی ہے، پھر ایڈیٹنگ روم میں اس طویل کالے فیتے نما ریل میں سے تحریر شدہ خبر کے مطابق کچھ حصے منتخب کرلیے جاتے تھے۔ خیر اب تو ڈیجیٹل کیمرے آچکے ہیں ان میں کوئی ریل نہیں ہوتی تاہم ایڈیٹنگ اب بھی ہوتی ہے۔
عام حالات میں ایڈیٹنگ کرنا یا خبر کو مختصر کرنا یا ادارتی نکتہ نظر سے خبر کے کچھ حصے حذف کرنا ذرائع ابلاغ کے معمولات میں شامل ہے۔ ویسے بھی صحافت کا ایک مسلمہ اصول ہے کہ ’وین ان ڈاؤٹ کٹ اِٹ آؤٹ‘ یعنی اگر کسی خبر کے بارے میں ذرا بھی شک ہو تواسے نکال دو۔ مگر پی ٹی وی لاہور کے ایڈیٹنگ روم میں معاملہ کچھ اور تھا۔ یہاں یہ ایڈیٹنگ حکام بالا کی ہدایات کے مطابق کی جارہی تھی۔
مگر یہ معاملہ جاننے کے لیے آپ کو پہلے میرے ذہن کے پردے پر چلنے والی وہ فلم دیکھنی ہوگی جسے دیکھنے کے بعد آپ کو ایڈیٹنگ روم کا منظر بھی بلکل صاف نظر آنے لگے گا۔
ہوا یوں کہ سات جنوری سن ستتر کی ایک سرد شام کو ملک میں آئندہ انتخابات کا اعلان کردیا گیا۔ جس کے مطابق قومی اسبملی کے لیے ووٹنگ سات مارچ اور صوبائی اسمبلیوں کے لیے دس مارچ کو ہونا قرار پائی۔ یہ اعلان کوئی ایسا اچانک بھی نہیں تھا۔ انتخابات کے بارے میں کئی ہفتوں سے پیش گوئی کی جا رہی تھی۔ نیوز روم میں اس طرح کی باتیں ہوتی رہتی تھیں’ کہ بھٹو صاحب کو یہ یقین ہے یا انھیں دلوا دیا گیا ہے کہ حزب اختلاف اس قدر منتشر ہے کہ کوئی بھی سیاسی جماعت اس وقت ملک گیر سطح پر پیپلز پارٹی کا مقابلہ نہیں کرسکتی، وغیرہ‘۔
ٹی وی پر حزب اختلاف کی سرگرمیوں کی رپورٹنگ شروع ہوگئی۔ مگر نیوز کے عملے کو یہ خصوصی ہدایات تھیں کہ پاکستان قومی اتحاد ( پی این اے) کے انتخابی نعرے اور انتخابی نشان ’ہل‘ ( کھیتوں میں چلانے والا) کو حتٰی الامکان نہ تو سکرین پر دکھایا جائے اور رپورٹ کے دوران نہ اس کا ساؤنڈ یعنی لفظ ’ہل’ کسی کو سنائی پڑے۔
مگر یہ وہ تبصرے تھے جو پس پردہ ہی رہتے تھے۔ جو کچھ نشر ہوتا تھا وہ یہ کہ انتخابات تو دراصل سن تہتر کے ائین کے مطابق اکتوبر اٹھہتر میں ہونے تھے مگر یہ بھٹو کی جمہوریت پسندی ہے کہ انھوں نےقبل از وقت انتخابات کا فیصلہ کیا وغیرہ، وغیرہ (حالانکہ یہ انتخابات کوئی سات برس بعد ہورہے تھے)۔
یہ الفاظ پڑھتے پڑھتے لگ بھگ مجھے زبانی یاد ہوچکے تھے کہ بھٹو جیسا زیرک، معتبر اور سیاسی قد و قامت کا کوئی رہنما پاکستان میں تو کیا پورے عالم اسلام میں نظر نہیں آتا۔
لیکن انتخابات کا اعلان ہوتے ہی کوئی نو مختلف پارٹیوں نے پاکستان نیشنل الائینس پی این اے کے نام سے انتخابی اتحاد قائم کرلیا، جس میں نواب زادہ نصراللہ خان کی جمہوری وطن، اصغر خان کی تحریک استقلال کے علاوہ تینوں مذہبی جماعتیں یعنی جماعت اسلامی، جمعیت علماء اسلام اور شاہ احمد نورانی کی جمعیت علماءِ پاکستان اور کچھ چھوٹی چھوٹی جماعتیں شامل ہوگئیں۔ ویسے اتحاد میں اگر سچ پوچھیں تو ان تینوں مذہبی جماعتوں کے کارکن ہی زیادہ نمایاں نظر آتے تھے۔ اتحاد کا انتخابی نشان ’ہل‘ تھا۔ اسی ہل کی تصویر اور آواز، یعنی نعرے کی آوازیں ایڈیٹنگ کے لیے مسئلہ بنی ہوئی تھی۔
حزب اختلاف کا انتخابی جلوس ٹی وی سٹیشن کے سامنے سے اکثر یہ انتخابی نعرے لگاتا ہوا گزرا کرتا تھا ’سات مارچ دس مارچ۔ بھٹو کوئیک مارچ کوئیک مارچ‘
ایک دن میں نے دیکھا کہ ٹی وی کی عمارت سے قدرے دور تحریک استقلال کے جاوید ہاشمی میگا فون پر ریلی سے تقریر کر رہے تھے۔
جی ہاں میں بات کررہی ہوں موجودہ مسلم لیگ نواز کے سینئر رہنما جاوید ہاشمی کی۔ اپنی سیاسی زندگی کی ابتدا میں وہ ریٹائرڈ ائیر مارشل اصغر خان کی تحریک استقلال میں بھی شامل رہے۔ ملتان کے اس مڈل کلاس جواں سال سیاست داں سے خاصی امیدیں وابستہ کی جارہی تھی۔ گو کہ بعد میں جنرل ضیاالحق کی کابینہ میں شامل ہونے کے انکے فیصلے سے بہت ہی مایوسی ہوئی۔ ماہ پارہ
جاوید ہاشمی کو پنجاب یونیوسٹی لاہور سے فارغ اتحصیل ہوئے چند برس ہی گزرے ہونگے۔ خوش شکل ہونے کے ساتھ ساتھ شعلہ بیاں مقرر بھی تھے۔ بس یوں سمجھ لیجئے کہ مجھے تو وہ اس وقت احمد ندیم قاسمی کے اس شعر کی کچھ کچھ عملی تصویر لگے۔
فقط اس شوق میں پوچھی ہیں ہزاروں باتیں
میں تیرا حسن تیرے حسن بیاں تک دیکھوں
ویسے کہیں یہ نہ سمجھ لیجیے گا کہ قاسمی صاحب نے یہ شعر ان کے لیے لکھا تھا۔ خیر میں رک کر جاوید ہاشمی کی تقریر سننے لگی۔ مجھے ان کے الفاظ درست طور پر یاد نہیں مگر لب لباب یہ تھا کہ کہ ریڈیو اور ٹی وی پر صرف حکومت وقت کی تشہیر ہورہی ہے۔ یہ سراسر زیادتی ہے۔ اور یہ کہ حزب اختلاف کی انتخابی سرگرمیوں کو بھی کوریج دی جائے۔
معلوم نہیں کہ پی این اے کے رہنماوں کی آتشی تقریروں کا اثر تھا، اتحاد کا دباؤ تھا یا کچھ اور۔۔۔۔۔
ٹی وی پر پی این ایے کی انتخابی سرگرمیوں کی رپورٹنگ تو شروع ہوگئی۔ مگر نیوز کے عملے کو ان خصوصی ہدایات کے ساتھ کہ پاکستان قومی اتحاد ( پی این اے) کے انتخابی نعرے اور انتخابی نشان ' ہل' کو حتی الامکان سکرین پرنہ دکھایا جائے اور مختصر رپورٹ کے دوران اس کا ساؤنڈ یعنی لفظ ’ ہل‘ بھی کسی کو کم کم ہی سنائی پڑے۔
ایڈیٹنگ کے دوران فوٹیج میں جہاں کہیں ’ہل‘ نظر آتا تھا یا اس کا نعرہ سنائی دیتا تھا نیوز پروڈیوسر کی آواز بلند ہوتی تھی۔’ کٹو کٹو یار (کاٹو کاٹو یار ) یہ ہل نہ کٹا تو اپنی نوکری کٹ جائیگی‘ اور کبھی نعروں یعنی ’ہل ہمارا جیتے گا‘ وغیرہ پر رپورٹر کی آواز حاوی کردی جاتی تھی۔
ریڈیو پر لفظ ’ہل‘ کے بارے میں بوکھلاہٹ کا عالم یہ تھا کہ ایک اقتصادی رپورٹ میں جب تجـزیہ نگار نے تین مرتبہ کہا کہ اس مسئلے کا اس کے سوا کوئی ’حل‘ نہیں تو ریڈیو کے ایک جونیئر اہلکار نے کہہ دیا کہ یہ ٹاک قابل نشر نہیں۔ اس میں بار بار ’حل‘ کا ذکر ہے۔
ستتر کے انتخابات میں ایک روزنامے کی جانب سے دھاندلیوں کے مسلسل الزامات کے باوجود ویسی بےضابطگیاں نظر نہیں آئیں جیسی کہ جنرل ضیا الحق کے ریفرنڈم یا بعد کے انتخابات کے دوران باقاعدہ طور پر سرکاری سطح پر کی جاتی رہیں۔ دروغ بر گردن راوی جنرل ضیا کے ریفرنڈم میں تو سنا تھا فرشتوں نے ووٹ ڈالے تھے۔
ایسے ہی سلسلوں کے چلتے سات مارچ کا معرکۃ آرا دن آ پہنچا۔ اس دن ٹی وی پر خوب رونق تھی۔ سٹوڈیوز میں ایک بڑا سا خوبصورت سیٹ لگایا گیا تھا۔ چار کیمرے بیک وقت براہ راست الیکشن کی نشریات کی کوریج کر رہے تھے۔ موسیقی کے خصوصی پروگرام اور مزاحیہ خاکے خاص الیکشن کی مناسبت سے تیار ہوئے تھے، نشریات کا دورانیہ بڑھا دیا گیا تھا، خاصا جشن کا سا سماں تھا۔ تاہم اگلے ہی دن یہ رونق ماند پڑھ گئی۔
اس دن دھاندلیوں کے الزامات عائد کرتے ہوئے حزب اختلاف نے نہ صرف نتائج تسلیم کرنے سے انکار کر دیا بلکہ صوبائی اسمبلیوں کی ووٹنگ کا بھی بائیکاٹ کر دیا گیا۔ اس کے باوجود کم از کم ٹی وی اور ریڈیو کی حد تک تو انتخابات بخیر و خوبی انجام پائے۔ مگر حقیقت یہ تھی کہ نہ جیتنے والی پارٹی کو اپنی فتح کایقین تھا اور نہ ہارنے والوں کو اپنی شکست کا۔
ایک قومی روزنامہ شدت سے دھاندلی کے الزاما ت عائد کرتا رہا۔ مگر انفرادی یا مقامی سطح پر واقعات کے سوا ایسی کسی منظم دھاندلی کے شواہد پیش نہیں کیے گئے جیسے بعد میں جنرل ضیا الحق کے ریفرنڈم یا بعد کے انتخابات میں باقاعدہ طور پر سرکاری سطح پر کی جاتی رہی۔
جنرل ضیا الحق کے ریفرنڈم میں تو دروغ بر گردن راوی سنا تھا کہ فرشتوں نے بھی ووٹ ڈالے۔
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected Taliban suicide bomb killed at least 35 people in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Monday, officials said, as the government announced a reward for the capture, dead or alive, of the group's leader.
Pakistan Taliban militants are being squeezed out of their remote strongholds on the Afghan border by a massive army offensive and have retaliated by stepping up bomb attacks and commando-style raids on urban targets.
The army offensive is being closely watched by the U.S. and other powers embroiled in neighboring Afghanistan, as the border area has become a sanctuary for insurgent groups from both countries as well as foreign al Qaeda militants.
Monday's blast came as the Pakistan government announced rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and more than a dozen other leaders.
The attack in Rawalpindi, a large sprawling city that twins the smaller, administrative capital, Islamabad, took place in an area that is home to the army headquarters as well as some hotels.
Officials said many of the victims were elderly people who had gathered at a bank to withdraw their pensions. TV stations showed ambulances and police vehicles racing through the streets, sirens wailing.
"It was a huge blast. Smoke is rising from the scene,"
Nasir Naqvi, who runs a travel agency near the site of the blast, told Reuters.
Last month militants launched a brazen attack on the Pakistani army headquarters in Rawalpindi, taking dozens of people hostage before commandos stormed the building and rescued them.
WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE
The announcement of the bounty on Hakimullah's head was made through newspaper advertisements as security forces zeroed in on his Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) strongholds in South Waziristan.
"These people are definitely killers of humanity and deserve exemplary punishment," read the front-page advertisement, with photographs of Hakimullah and seven senior lieutenants, in The News.
"Help the government of Pakistan so that these people meet their nemesis," the advert said.
A reward of over $600,000 each was announced for Hakimullah, who is regarded as violent and brutal, and his top aide Wali-ur-Rehman, regarded as more thoughtful and canny.
The same amount was offered for Qari Hussain Mehsud, who is Hakimullah's cousin and also known as "the mentor of suicide bombers."
The trio spoke last month to a group of journalists in Sararogha, a major Taliban base in South Waziristan, but have not been sighted since.
Security forces have captured Kotkai, the birthplace of Hakimullah and hometown of Hussain, in the Waziristan offensive, and on Sunday the military said it was on the outskirts of Sararogha and Makeen, also strongholds of Hakimullah.
------------- RPO Aslam Tarin said suicide bomber was riding on a motorbike. Some body parts of bomber and a suicide jacket have been recovered from the blast site. A head is also found from the scene. Police have cordoned off the area as rescue operation is underway. Thirteen bodies were shifted to DHQ and 16 in different hospitals whereas three bodies transferred to military hospital, rescue 1122 sources said. Emergency has been imposed in the hospitals.
--------------
RAWALPINDI: An explosion occurred on Rawalpindi’s busy Mall Road on Monday. At least 30 people were killed, while more than 45 were reportedly injured.
According to reports, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the vicinity of the busy Mall Road, in the high-security area of Rawalpindi Cantt. Major hotels, including the Pearl Continental, as well as other important government and army installations are located in the area where the blast occurred.
Monday's explosion left bodies on the ground outside the bank and in a nearby hotel parking lot, witness Zahid Dara said. The stricken area also lies close to the army's main headquarters.
‘I was nearby and rushed toward the parking area,’ Dara told a private television channel. ‘There were many people lying on the ground with bleeding wounds, and a motorcycle was on fire with one man under it.’
The attacker rode a motorbike to the scene, and the 30 people dead included military personnel, Rawalpindi police chief Rao Iqbal said. Some 45 others were wounded, he said.
‘The bodies were lying all over,’ said Ali Babar, a rescue official who was doing a refresher course at a nearby college and rushed to the scene to help. ‘This is a terrible thing. It is happening again and again.’
The intensity of the blast left numerous buildings in the area with shattered windows. Vehicles parked in the area were also damaged.
Rescue work was underway and the injured were being shifted to hospitals.
The government declared an emergency in hospitals across the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Security forces also cordoned off the area, while military personnel also arrived at the site of the blast.
The attack comes amidst a deadly wave of terrorist attacks which have killed over 190 in the last month. —DawnNews
Afghan Journal Lifting the veil on conflict, culture and politics
10:07 October 30th, 2009
Posted by: Sanjeev Miglani
Reuters Kabul correspondent Jonathon Burch is currently on an embed with the U.S. Army’s Stryker brigade in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province. On October 27, eight soldiers from a platoon of the Strykers, named after an eight-wheel armoured combat vehicle, were killed in a bomb attack on the outskirts of Kandahar city.
Jonathon was accompanying them at the time and here’s his story :
AFGHANISTAN
The mission was simple. Some 20 U.S. soldiers were to patrol a riverbed in the dead of night, camp until morning, and provide backup to Afghan troops and their Canadian mentors in a clearing operation in Chahar Bagh village, an insurgent hotbed on the outskirts of Kandahar City.
Less than 12 hours later, seven of the soldiers and their Afghan interpreter would be dead, killed by a massive homemade bomb buried deep under pebbles along the dried-out riverbed.
The attack illustrates how a more aggressive U.S. military strategy of going into Taliban strongholds risks mounting casualties as President Barack Obama weighs whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan. The initial operation this week passed without incident. Around 200 Afghan soldiers and their Canadian trainers pushed through the village of mud houses surrounded by lush pomegranate orchards. A handful of men were arrested for later questioning.
The U.S. soldiers were not needed.”What are you going to write about? This is some boring ass mission,” one 1st Platoon soldier joked with a reporter as the sun rose behind a cragged mountain towering over the village. The soldiers — small groups from three platoons of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion 17th Infantry Regiment Stryker Brigade — had pushed out from their base at around midnight. Not far from Chahar Bagh village, they dismounted from their armoured Stryker vehicles and continued on foot.
Setting up in the riverbed alongside the village, the soldiers kept watch and waited. As the sun rose across the river valley, they jibed with each other and talked about life back home. By mid-morning, the operation was over. Three Stryker vehicles rumbled towards 2nd Platoon men waiting further down the riverbed to bring them back to base.
As the vehicles returned with the soldiers on board, a huge explosion sent rocks and sand flying high into the air. The first Stryker had hit a massive IED or improvised explosive device, flipping the 20 tonne vehicle onto its side. The thick armoured plate beneath the Stryker had been blown straight through the floor and the roof. Pieces of metal and debris lay strewn around the wreckage.
Minutes earlier, 1st Platoon soldiers had set off on foot, passing right over the site of the bomb, to meet their own waiting vehicles. As they mounted their Strykers, less than 400 metres (yards) away, the explosion tore through the air. “Oh shit! Get in! Get in!” yelled 1st Platoon Sergeant First Class Kelekolio Paresa to his soldiers and accompanying reporters as the men scrambled into the vehicles.
“I got, I got, seven KIA (killed in action) and an Afghan interpreter KIA!” a broken voice came across the radio.”Shit, we gotta go back and help!” shouted Paresa. The 1st Platoon Strykers turned around and raced back. As they reached the scene, gunfire broke out. Insurgents, laying in wait, were firing at the Strykers from orchards next to the village. Seconds later, the deafening sound of gunfire burst through the air as the Strykers returned fire. Empty shell casings rained down inside the vehicle, bouncing off the floor. “Open the ramp!” shouted Paresa.
Soldiers poured out of the Stryker, firing a hail of bullets and grenades towards the oncoming gunfire. Two Kiowa attack helicopters circling above fired rockets into the orchards. The insurgents stopped firing. “Cease fire!” shouted Paresa. “I need seven litters (stretchers)!” yelled a soldier near the overturned Stryker. It had carried nine men. Seven soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed instantly. Their bodies, ripped apart in the blast, lay scattered around the wreckage. The soldiers lifted the dead onto stretchers to be picked up by a helicopter. Only the driver survived.
“Thank God we were on foot. We walked right over that IED. Twice! That triggerman was waiting for the Stryker,” said Paresa later. The men from 1st Platoon had walked across the site of the bomb and had camped no more than 50 metres away. A command wire, used to activate the bomb, was traced some 100 metres away behind a low stone wall. An insurgent had most likely been behind the wall, waiting for a Stryker to pass full of soldiers before he detonated the bomb, the soldiers said.
They estimated the size of bomb at 600-900 kg (1,300-2,000 pounds). It was the largest IED any of the soldiers had ever experienced, in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Stryker Brigade deployed to Afghanistan in July as part of a troop drive ordered by Obama to quell a strengthening insurgency. For the past few months, the Strykers have been trying to clear insurgents from villages they say are used as staging posts for attacks inside Kandahar City.
The militants, preempting the soldiers’ arrival, have laid dozens of bombs in their path. The Strykers have suffered a high rate of casualties. In all, the Brigade has lost more than 30 soldiers, 20 of those from 1st Battalion and 10 of those from Charlie Company. More than 40 have been wounded.
IEDs, the Taliban’s weapon of choice, have killed nearly 240 foreign soldiers this year alone. “That was my best friend. We were together for two years. I just waved to him,” said Specialist Nicholas Saucier, speaking about one of the dead. “I’m sick of this shit! Guys are getting killed every week,” he said, tears welling up as he looked back at the wreckage.
Other soldiers took a more philosophical view. “These guys are great. Even after all this, after picking up their buddies’ dead body parts, they’ll soldier on. They dug deep. And in a couple days they’ll get back on their horse and do what they have to do,” said Staff Sergeant Jason Hughes.
01 Nov 2009 10:41:12 GMT Source: Reuters * Cycle bomb kills 5, wounds 37 in Mussayab south of Baghdad
* Bomb on bus leaves at least 3 dead, 15 wounded in Kerbala
(Adds bomb in Kerbala)
BAGHDAD, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A bicycle loaded with explosives killed five people and wounded 37 at a market in Mussayab, south of Baghdad, on Sunday and a bomb on a bus killed at least three more further south in Kerbala, police and health officials said.
The explosives in the first attack were stored in a water cooler attached to the bicycle, and women and children were among the dead and wounded, police said.
Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, is home to both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, but the town centre where the explosion took place is mostly Shi'ite.
Fifteen people were wounded in the second incident, hospital officials in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad said. One of the dead was a police officer at a checkpoint the bus was driving towards. Some police sources put the dead at five.
The attacks bore hallmarks of Sunni Islamist insurgents such as al Qaeda, who often attack crowded, mostly Shi'ite areas, but many Iraqis also fear an increase in intra-Shi'ite rivalries ahead of a parliamentary election in January.
Overall violence has fallen sharply in Iraq in the last two years, but bomb attacks and shootings remain common. Two suicide bombings killed 155 people and wounded more than 500 in Baghdad last week.
Iraq is due to hold a general election on Jan. 16, and insurgents are widely expected to try to upset an electoral process that is taking place as U.S. troops pull back ahead of a full withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. (Reporting by Khaled Farhan in Najaf and Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala; Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Louise Ireland)
