Opium, Rape and the American Way
Opium, Rape and the American Way
By Chris Hedges
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23884.htm
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November 03, 2009 “Truthdig” — The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.
“We need to tear the mask off of the fundamentalist warlords who after the tragedy of 9/11 replaced the Taliban,” Malalai Joya, who was expelled from the Afghan parliament two years ago for denouncing government corruption and the Western occupation, told me during her visit to New York last week. “They used the mask of democracy to take power. They continue this deception. These warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. The only change is physical. These warlords during the civil war in Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 killed 65,000 innocent people. They have committed human rights violations, like the Taliban, against women and many others.” Read more »
India, Israel Plot against Pak-Iranian Ties
Indo-Israeli Plot against Pak-Iranian Ties
Sajjad Shaukat
http://www.opinion- maker.org/ navigation. do?mode=showArti cles&id=1028
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Although the whole of Islamic world is target of Indo-Israeli plot, yet the same has intensified in case of Pakistan and Iran. It is because of the fact that Pakistan is a declared atomic country, while Iran is determined to continue its nuclear programme. In this regard, US-led some western countries have also been supporting the Indo-Israeli nexus against Islamabad and Tehran overtly or covertly.
However, we cannot blame especially India and Israel including US regarding the conspiracy against Pakistan and Iran without some concrete evidence. In this context, in his interview, published in the Indian weekly Outlook on February 18, 2008, Israel’s ambassador to India, Mark Sofer explained regarding India’s defence arrangements with Israel by disclosing, “We do have a defence relationship with India, which is no secret” and “with all due respect, the secret part will remain a secret.” On being asked whether he foresaw joint exercises, Sofer replied, “Certain issues need to remain under wraps for whatever reason.” Read more »
Israel’s Role In Destabilizing Pakistan
Israel’s Role In Destabilizing Pakistan
By Jeff Gates
http://pakalert. wordpress. com/2009/ 11/12/israels- role-in-destabil izing-pakistan/
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When waging war “by way of deception,” the motto of the Israeli Mossad, well-timed crises play a critical agenda-setting role by displacing facts with what a target population can be deceived to believe. Thus the force-multiplier effect when staged crises are reinforced with pre-staged intelligence. In combination, the two often prove persuasive. That duplicity was on display when U.S. lawmakers were induced to invade Iraq in response to the mass murder of 9-11. That crisis alone, however, was insufficient. Military mobilization required a “consensus” belief in Iraqi WMD, Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda, Iraqi mobile biological weapons, Iraqi meetings in Prague, and so forth. Though all were false, those “facts” proved sufficient to induce an invasion of Iraq.
Such agent provocateur operations typically include collateral incidents as pre-staging for the intended main event. Ongoing incidents suggest a follow-on operation is underway. Recent history suggests we’ll see an orgy of evidence that plausibly indicts a pre-staged Evil Doer. Though Iran is an obvious candidate, Pakistan is also a possibility where outside forces have been destabilizing this nuclear Islamic nation with a series of violent incidents. Will it be coincidence if the next war—like the last—is consistent with the expansive goals of Jewish nationalists? Read more »
Americans Dressed as Afghans Caught With Illegal Weapons
Islamabad: Americans Dressed as Afghans Caught With Illegal Weapons and Explosives
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ISLAMABAD – FOUR American citizens were caught red-handed by Capital Police in the early hours of Tuesday for photographing sensitive buildings. All four were dressed in traditional Afghan outfits and were found to be in possession of illegal weapons and explosives. According to details, police personnel deployed here at Nawaz Chowk, sector F-8, intercepted two suspicious vehicles in the early hours of Tuesday. During the search, police recovered weapons from their custody. The riders of these vehicles were found to be American citizens. They were all dressed as Afghans.
The number plates on both vehicles (IDM 2030 & LG 501) were found to be fake. The police personnel called for backup when the Americans refused to allow them to search the car. High Ranking Capital Police officials reached the site within minutes and had the vehicles searched, recovering 2 M-16A1 rifles, 2 handguns and 2 hand-grenades. The police held the American citizens in custody for an hour before the Interior Ministry interefered and had them released without charge even as preliminary investigation was being carried out. Read more »
Russia’s Daring Vote
Russia’s Daring Vote
Israel Shamir
shamireaders@ yahoogroups. com
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Russia’s vote to endorse the Goldstone Gaza report in the United Nations Human Rights Council last Friday was an important, milestone event both for Palestine and for Russia. For Palestine, this vote opened a way to try and sentence Israeli mass-murderers, and thus ushered Israel into a new era of responsibility after a long period of Wild West-style, Colt-45 justice. For Russia, this vote has proved to its own country and to the world that it is free from American and Zionist diktat and able to navigate its own policy.
This story began on Christmas with the Israeli onslaught on defenceless Gaza. Taking advantage of the holiday lull, the Israeli army killed hundreds of Palestinian children and other civilians by indiscriminate use of white phosphorus and artillery. The world was horrified, and the UN Human Rights Council appointed Judge Richard Goldstone, a former prosecutor for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, to find out the facts. Read more »
A Loose Coalition Of Pro-American Politicians, Writers, Academics To Promote US Goals, Isolate Pak Military
A US Counteroffensive In Pakistan
By Ahmed Quraishi
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI. COM
http://pakalert. wordpress. com/2009/ 09/28/a-us- counteroffensive -in-pakistan/
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Forget US diplomacy with the Pakistani government. The Americans are now setting the policy agenda in Pakistan in direct talks with Pakistani political parties. To ensure privacy, these talks are being held in Washington, away from prying eyes and ears in Pakistan. Pakistani politicians, writers and some academicians are being recruited to promote US policies and isolate the Pakistani military and intelligence. This is how a superpower occupies a nuclear-armed nation.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—US political and military officials go on the offensive inside Pakistan, boldly confronting critics and seeking to build a coalition of pro-American supporters across Pakistani politics, media and the academia. The goal is to create a domestic counter to the entrenched Pakistani policymaking establishment [read 'the military'] that is resisting American efforts to force Pakistan to become a voluntary full-fledged second theater of war after Afghanistan. Read more »
Pakistan On The Edge of The Precipice
Pakistan On The Edge of The Precipice
Shahid R. Siddiqi
Axis of Logic
Monday, Sep 28, 2009
http://axisoflogic. com/artman/ publish/Article_ 57043.shtml
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“American interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs reaches such an ominous level that the country seems to be run by an American under secretary of state or envoy, Richard Holbrook, rather than its elected representatives. “ In recent years, American strategists have propagated the need to redraw political boundaries of Islamic states along ethnic lines. Driven by paranoia with resurgent Islam and their obsession to control this very important oil rich region, they seek to legitimize their actions by labeling them as effort to dispense justice for `oppressed Muslim minorities’. The underlying belief is that smaller entities would be easier to micromanage through puppet regimes, enabling them to contain militancy and squeeze into extinction Jehadi outfits by choking their funding.
This `remapping’ involves splintering the Muslim world and creating sovereign states of Balochistan, Kurdistan and Arab Shia State by carving out and unifying Pakistani and Iranian Baluchistan territories to create Free Balochistan; unifying Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish Kurdistan to create Greater Kurdistan and slicing off Eastern Saudi Arabia to unite it with Southern Iraq to create Shia Arab State. It is no coincidence that these territories hold the bulk of the world oil and host anti-imperialist movements. ”The global interests of the United States have routinely propelled it into adversarial engagement with the Muslims, losing their hearts and minds.” Read more »
My Flower to Bush, the Occupier
The Story of My Shoe
By MUTADHAR al-ZAIDI
9/15/09
http://milfuegos. blogspot. com/2009/ 09/story- of-my-shoe- by-mutadhar- al-zaidi. html
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Mutadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi who threw his shoe at George Bush gave this speech on his recent release.
In the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful.
Here I am, free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. Firstly, I give my thanks and my regards to everyone who stood beside me, whether inside my country, in the Islamic world, in the free world. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: What compelled me to confront is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.
And how it wanted to crush the skulls of (the homeland’s) sons under its boots, whether sheikhs, women, children or men. And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. And many millions of homeless because of displacement inside and outside the country. We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shiite would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ, may peace be upon him. And despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than 10 years, for more than a decade. Read more »
Why CIA Is Engaged In Motivated Campaigns Against Pakistan’s ISI, Military?
Why CIA Is Engaged In Motivated Campaigns Against Pakistan’s ISI, Military?
By Sandra Johnson in Washington DC
Christina Palmer in New Delhi
Jamal Afghani in Kabul
Makhdoom Babar in Islamabad
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI. COM
http://pakalert. wordpress. com/2009/ 02/17/must- read-cia- versus-isi/
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The American CIA almost killed Musharraf. The ISI is familiar with terrorism inside Pakistan by the spy agencies of many countries. Even Libya’s Gaddafi once ordered a couple of bombings here after the execution of his friend Mr. Bhutto. But this is the first time that the CIA is found directly involved in working against Pakistani interests. The U.S. spy organization is sponsoring the multibillion dollar Afghan drug trade, helped by the Indians. CIA’s latest trash is a statement by a U.S. congresswoman and a book by a third-rate American journalist both aimed at discrediting the ISI in the eyes of its own people. The million dollar question is this: Why is CIA sponsoring the campaign to tarnish Pakistani image worldwide, from the nuclear scare to the breakup scare to the `terrorist’ scare? The answer is astonishing.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Coffee and aspirin, aspirin and coffee. This is what the Chief of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. General Ehsan-ul-Haque was repeating after he went through the news on the website of a U.S. newspaper in which a news report filed by a U.S. news agency claimed quoting “U.S. intelligence sources” that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf survived the bomb attack on his motorcade because the President’s limousine was equipped with state-of-the- art jamming devices. The news appeared on Dec. 18, 2003, shortly after former President Musharraf’s motorcade was attacked through a remote controlled device connected to a cell phone on a bridge in Rawalpindi. Read more »
What Actually Happened in Fatah’s Elections?
CIA-Trained Security Chiefs Elected to the Palestinian Leadership
By Esam El-Amin
Global Research
http://www.globalre search.ca/ index.php? context=viewArti cle&code= EL-20090817& articleId= 14810
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“He is our guy.” George W. Bush speaking of Palestinian security chief Muhammad Dahlan, June 4, 2003.
The U.S. government has been meddling in the Palestinian internal affairs since at least 2003. Its effort is to transform the Palestinian national movement for liberation and independence into a more compliant or quisling government, willing to accede to Israel’s political and security demands. The tactics employed by the U.S. include military, security, diplomatic, and political components. With the ascension of Hamas after the 2006 legislative election, U.S. strategy has been fixed on unraveling the election results. Its aim for a political comeback of the pro-American camp within the Palestinian body politic has been initiated with the convening of Fatah’s national conference this last week.
During the week of August 4, 2009, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah, convened its sixth national conference in its 44-year history. Fatah has historically been considered the largest Palestinian faction, but that perception changed when it lost the legislative elections to Hamas in January 2006. As the group wrapped up its conference after eight days, it announced the results of its elections. The international media, particularly western outlets, framed the election as “fresh” and “new” faces ascending to power in the movement. But what actually happened in the vote? Read more »
Zionists’ plan for World Depopulation
Zionists’ plan for World Depopulation
Abhijay Patel
Pakistan Daily
http://www.daily.pk/zionists%E2%80%99-plan-for-world-depopulation-7485/
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It was Zionist Jew Henry Kissinger, who in 1974 conceived the idea of the food genocide to control world population – less people to consume world resources – more for the rich nations (elites) to exploit the sources of the world to satisfy their greed. On December 10, 1974 the US National Security Council under Henry Kissinger prepared a classified study `National Security Study Memorandum 200 – which falsely claimed that the worldwide population growth poses a great threat to US national security interests. Later a similar false claim was made against Saddam Hussein’s regime and now it’s the turn of Islamic regimes in Tehran and Khartoum, who are targeted with similar false threats to US national security interests (read Israeli interests). By 1979 depopulation was the top priority of US national security policy, as outlined in the national security paper global 2000 written by Rockefeller contractors Henry Kissinger, Z. Brzezinski, Gen. Alexander Haig, and Ed Muskie for President Carter.
Leuren Moret is a US expert on radiation and public health-care. In her 2007 interview, she said: “The leadership in the US, the Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon have been taken over by a shadow government – that shadow from Wall Street and the city of London. The US is bankrupt and is being carved up like a turkey by the globalists. Europe is too… the EU is just another region being dragged into slavery… like the US-Canada-Mexico, which is now undergoing unification. I cannot believe this global nightmare being rolled out….. The US has contaminated 39 states with depleted uranium since 1945 from testing, manufacture, sales, storage and disposal of these weapons. The US is in a massive epidemic of radiation related illnesses, which is increasing every year – the US government nuked its own people with atomic bomb testing, nuclear power plants, and now depleted uranium….. So it is very clear that depleted uranium weaponry is being used for the purpose of depopulation in the Middle East, Central Asia, Lebanon, Yugoslavia… and these areas of course are rich in mineral resources that the Zionist Anglo-American economic empire wants to control. Read more »
U.S. Invades, Occupies Pakistan
U.S. Invades, Occupies Pakistan
By Talha Mujaddidi
http://www.pakalert press.com/ 2009/08/30/ the-u-s-invades- and-occupies- pakistan/
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We are watching it happen in the streets. The recurring nightmare has become a grim, new reality for the people of Pakistan. After watching the horrors of the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and neighboring Afghanistan for 8 years, the “war on terror” has finally arrived in The Land of the Pure. Obama is fulfilling his campaign promise to Pakistan. The sudden arrival of U.S. marines, U.S. military Hummers, the hired killers of Blackwater, houses barricaded for U.S. personnel in Islamabad and the construction of the world’s largest U.S. “Embassy” are terrorizing this nation of 180 million people. The U.S. slaughter and destruction in Iraq and neighboring Afghanistan for the last 8 years warn them of what may lie in store for them, their families, their land.
The U.S. Marines
On 9/21/08 a bomb ripped through the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad killing scores of people and injuring hundreds. Prior to the bombing, U.S. marines off-loaded steel boxes from a truck, by-passed security and took them to the 4th floor of the building. US officials refused to cooperate with the government’s attempts to investigate their activities. One year later, U.S. Marines are leading the occupation of Pakistan. Until this landing of U.S. forces, the nation’s spokesman for Foreign Affairs had been denying that 1000 U.S. marines were on their way to Islamabad. The thousand marines are now in the capital city of Islamabad. Some of them may be quietly slipping into Balochistan where the presence of JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) have been reported by foreign journalists. But most are here to defend what will be the largest U.S. embassy/fortress in the world, now under construction and to spearhead the invasion and occupation. Read more »
Duel in the Sun
America’s Iraqi Clients Play the Al Qaeda Card on Syria
By Chris Floyd
August 31, 2009
www.chris-floyd. com/component/ content/article/ 1-latest- news/1829- duel-in-the- sun-americas- iraq-clients- play-the- al-qaeda- card-on-syria. html
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The American client government in Iraq has embarked on a remarkable campaign of diplomatic hostilities with its neighbor, Syria, accusing Damascus of, among other things, the modern-day blood libel that immediate consigns a nation to diplomatic hell, and makes it a target for what George W. Bush used to call “the path of action”: supporting al Qaeda. As Jason Ditz reports, America’s Baghdad satrapy has been broadcasting confessions “obtained” (via “strenuous” but no doubt justified and right-minded interrogation) from captives blamed for the recent bombing attacks that have shaken the PR image of a calmer, surge-soothed Iraq. The bombings also pointed up the vast failures of the client regime to provide security or bring together the warring factions inside the country. These goals are of course impossible for a regime installed and maintained in power by foreign invasion; even so, they represent the Green Zoners’ sole claim to “legitimacy. ” Thus any threat to the PR image undermines the regime’s hopes to survive the partial reduction of American occupation forces (erroneously termed a “withdrawal” in the obfuscating argot of imperial message management).
And so the client state led by sectarian extremist Nouri al-Maliki has turned to the time-honored tactic used by governments since time immemorial to divert attention from its own manifest failures: blaming foreign devils. Naturally, the Maliki regime cannot blame its foreign masters in Washington for unleashing, arming, abetting and exacerbating the murderous chaos in the conquered land. Nor can they blame their long-time mentors and supporters in Iran. So that leaves Syria. Read more »
Why are we in Afghanistan?
Why are we in Afghanistan?
By David Skrbina
Saturday, 08.22.2009
http://www.arabamer icannews. com/news/ index.php? mod=article& cat=commentary& article=2439
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As we approach the eight-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan — the “good” war — we should ask ourselves an embarrassingly simple question: Why are we there? Amidst talk of troop levels, suicide bombings, coalition casualties, and “democratic” elections, more fundamental questions arise. How did we get there? What are we doing? What do we hope to achieve? These salient points are rarely verbalized and never honestly answered. But only by investigating such questions can we truly understand what is happening in that distant land, and by extension, how things work here at home. U.S. soldiers Anthony Salinas (R) and Korey Stealy (L) of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warriors run for cover from arms fire in Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province, August 19, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
The usual explanation, the one we get from the government and mass media, is a simplistic two-part story. We are in Afghanistan to “fight terrorism” and to “find Osama bin Laden.” Bin Laden’s whereabouts are still unknown, after an eight-year manhunt and despite a $50 million bounty on his head. Evaluating any “war on terror” is difficult, but one indication is a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal (Aug 10, 2009): “Taliban now winning.” Hence both explanations indicate evident failures. Read more »
No need to use Iran as excuse for ‘regional peace’
No need to use Iran as excuse for ‘regional peace’
By Zvi Bar’el
http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/1081040. html
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There is no end to the list of new words and phrases invented for the diplomatic dictionary. The latest gimmick is called “regional peace.” It is based on the following formula: Israel and the Arab states have a common enemy called Iran. In order to neutralize the Iranian threat, Israel will ultimately have to adopt the Arab peace initiative, and then something wondrous will happen – a bloc of states will rally and face down the Iranian nuclear threat. “For Israel to get the strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can’t stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand,” Hillary Clinton explained the magic formula. This formula is based on a supposedly historic volte-face, whereby, for the first time ever, a joint Israeli-Arab strategic interest exists, one more impressive than economic cooperation and more attractive than plain old normalization. Here we have a solid, firm footing for peace.
Like all magic, one needs to figure out the trick behind it. Arab states and Israel do not have to forge peace to demonstrate a united, anti-Iranian front. Such a front will crystallize in any event, even without an agreement, and the Arab states will not start loving Iran simply because they do not have peaceful relations with Israel. But let’s assume that Clinton is right and regional peace is mainly dependent on Israel’s full adoption of the “two-states- for-two-peoples” principle, without attendant conditions. Let’s also assume that the Netanyahu government agrees to this formula, because it is already showing signs it understands there is a difference between election campaigns and forming policy. This principle requires withdrawals, dismantling settlements, demarcating a border, sharing water resources, agreeing on how to administer the holy places, resolving the future status of Jerusalem, and, in short, solving all the core issues no Iranian threat is strong enough to neutralize. Read more »
The Lifeblood of Occupation
US Aid: The Lifeblood of Occupation
By Matt Bowles
http://www.wrmea.com/html/usaidtoisrael0001.htm
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Israel has maintained an illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestinian territories) for 35 years, entrenching an apartheid regime that looks remarkably like the former South African regime. Palestinians into small, noncontiguous bantustans, imposing closures and curfews to control where they go and when, while maintaining control over the natural resources, exploiting Palestinian labor, and prohibiting indigenous economic development. The Israeli military (IDF)—the third or forth most powerful army in the world—routinely uses tanks, Apache helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter jets (all subsidized by the U.S.) against a population that has no military and none of the protective institutions of a modern state.
All of this, Israel tells its citizens and the international community, is for “Israeli security.” The reality, not surprisingly, is that these policies have resulted in a drastic increase in attacks on Israel. These attacks are then used as a pretext for further Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas and more violations of Palestinian human rights which makes Israeli civilians more secure; all of which further entrenches Israel’s colonial apartheid regime. Most Americans do not realize the extent to which this is all funded by U.S. aid, nor do they understand the specific economic relationship the U.S. has with Israel and how that differs from other countries. Read more »
What you don’t know about Gaza
What you don’t know about Gaza
By RASHID KHALIDI
NY Times
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NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.
THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Read more »
THE MONSTROUS SHADOW ARMY IN IRAQ
Blackwater should be blacklisted
By Linda S. Heard
http://www.tehranti mes.com/index_ View.asp? code=200763
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The notorious private security company Blackwater, which now calls itself Xe Services, has become the center of a growing storm. In sworn statements filed in a U.S. federal court on Aug. 3, two former employees allege that the company’s founder and owner Erik Prince either murdered or arranged the murder of witnesses who were cooperating with federal investigators. For fear of ending up in the same boat, the men’s identities have been concealed, so statements were made in the names of John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. The story that was initially broken by author and journalist Jeremy Scahill in The Nation has been picked up by most mainstream television networks and newspapers and is being intensely debated.
John Doe 1 is an ex-marine who was sent by Blackwater to Iraq to guard American government personnel and now has a laundry list of accusations against his former employer. He says the company smuggled weapons into Iraq hidden in bags of dog food, which were used by persons not properly vetted by the State Department to kill or injure Iraqi civilians. He says his colleagues fired upon vehicles without stopping to check whether civilians were alive or in need of medical care and failed to report such incidents to either the Iraqi authorities or the State Department. Read more »
Uighur Nationalism, Turkey and the CIA
Uighur Nationalism, Turkey & the CIA
By David Livingstone
http://www.terrorism-illuminati. com/uighur- nationalism- turkey-and- the-cia
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Much was made in the news, earlier this month, of the series of violent clashes that erupted between Uighurs, a Turkic, and predominantly Muslim, minority ethnic group in China, and the Chinese state police, and Han Chinese residents in the the province of Xinjiang, in northwestern China. But the media’s recent attention to the matter should be seen in light of a larger geo-political strategy, involving Turkey and the CIA, in ongoing furtherance of The Bernard Lewis Plan. Originally implemented under the supervision of Zbigniew Brzezinski during the Carter administration, the plan was based on Lewis’ idea of an “Arc of Crisis”, created around the southern borders of Soviet Union, by empowering Muslim radicals to rebel against the communists, to bring about the fall of the Soviet Empire. The key aspect of this strategy, over the last 30 years, as revealed in the book and movie, Charlie Wilson’s War, began with support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, which became the CIA’s largest covert operation ever.
As outlined in Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard, control over central Asia, which in addition to Afghanistan, comprises the five former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, is a key factor in mastery of all of Eurasia, and thereby, the world. Because, as is popularly known, Central Asia holds vast stores of energy resources. Less known, however, is it’s role in the drug trade. Since the implementation of Bernard Lewis’ Plan, and the US’ involvement in Afghanistan, the country now accounts for almost 95% of the world’s opium production. And it is profits arising mostly from this illicit trade that go largely to financing the deliberate spread of a fabricated brand of Islamic fundamentalism. Read more »
World Prepares to Dump Dollar
World Prepares to Dump the Dollar
July 21, 2009
theTrumpet.com
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American economists think the world can’t afford to let go of the dollar’s reserve currency status. The world is about to teach them differently. What do China, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Germany have in common? These countries most often can’t agree on anything. But they are united in one strange—and ominous—way. They blame the United States for wrecking the global economy. And they think the dollar is the wrecking ball. One rock-solid, foundational belief underpins almost all economic theory in America: faith in the dollar’s unassailable status as the world’s reserve currency. Foreigners hold so many dollars that they can’t afford to stop buying them, the theory goes. Therefore the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency is sound. But the dollar is now coming under a concentrated attack. Are American economists about to get schooled?
Has a dollar-killer been minted?Angela Merkel summed up the dollar-skeptic viewpoint last year. “Excessively cheap money in the U.S. was a driver of today’s crisis,” she told the German parliament. And America’s solution—even more cheap money—was just setting the world up for another crisis, she said. It was just a matter of time. The irony is that America is completely blind to the catastrophe heading its way. As the economic crisis unfolded at the end of last year, investors made a mad rush out of global stock markets and into other assets. The biggest beneficiary of the panic was the one market large enough and liquid enough to handle the trillions of dollars being moved: the U.S. dollar market. This caused the dollar to surge in value. Read more »
The Arguments Against zion
I would like an amicable, fair and just resolution to the atrocity that is taking place in Palestine right now. And the legally elected government of Palestine ie. Hamas has my unequivocal support. I wish them the best of luck in achieving restitution for the atrocious inhumane crimes committed against them by the zionists.
For background & reasons for the conflict, I offer this film, which is hosted free at google videos: Occupation 101
George Galloway [a British MP] is also a champion of this cause, and has many insightful words of courage and wisdom.
And of course Hamas is launching rockets into ‘Israel’, anyone with a spine and human dignity would retaliate against the oppression and tyranny that they are being subjected to. ‘Israel’ for decades have been trying to eliminate the Palestinians from their territorial space, what do you expect the Palestinians to do, lie down and take it, or roll over & die?
A group of thugs broke into his house, took it over, and throw him out. Whats the man going to do? He is the legitimate owner of that house, his family has lived there for centuries, but those thugs are heavily armed, and he only has these weapons at his disposal, while the ‘authorities’ are in the pocket of the thugs. What is the man going to do? He is going protest and retaliate against the crime inflicted upon him the only way he can.
Although the British hold a lot of the responsibility for allowing this dreadful situation, ultimately the blame lies squarely and unequivocally with the zionists. It was the not British who created Israel, it was done with their approval, but the British had withdrawn for the territory “to allow the inhabitants to resolve the problem themselves.” Which actually means they left one heavily armed & aggressive group: the zionists, to massacre the other group which were and continue to be helpless. Read more »
How the Zionist Agenda Took Control of U.S. Foreign Policy
How the Israel Lobby Took Control of U.S. Foreign Policy
by Jeff Gates
http://intifada- palestine. com/2009/ 07/17/how- the-israel- lobby-took- control-of- u-s-foreign- policy/
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In the early 1960s, Senator William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The Council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: a foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby. Israelis and pro-Israelis object when they hear that charge. How, they ask, can we so few wield such influence over so many? Answer: it’s all in the math. And in the single-issue advocacy brought to bear on U.S. policy-making by dozens of `domestic’ organizations that now compose the Israel lobby, with AIPAC its most visible force.
The political math was enabled by Senator John McCain whose support for all things Israeli ensured him the GOP nomination to succeed Christian-Zionist G.W. Bush. McCain’s style of campaign finance reform proved a perfect fit for the Diaspora-based fundraising on which the lobby relies. Co-sponsored by Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, this change in federal election law typifies how Israeli influence became systemic. `McCain-Feingold’ raised the amount (from $1,000 to $2,300) that candidates can receive from individuals in primary and general elections. A couple can now contribute a combined $9,200 to federal candidates: $4,600 in each of the primary and general elections. Primary elections, usually low-budget, are particularly easy to sway. Read more »
The Western Powers’ Insatiable Thirst for Blood
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
16 Jul, 2009
http://www.opinion- maker.org/ navigation. do?mode=showArti cles&id=719
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The Anti-War Movement in America, Canada, and Britain has virtually become a non-entity. This was not unpredictable because the diverse groups which make up the so-called Anti-War Movement have neither the resources, nor the leadership, nor any solid ideological foundation beyond the apparent loathing for war. The invasion of Afghanistan by the United States took place at a time of high fever (September 11, 2001 attacks) and no one thought much of the long-term agenda of Americans at the time of Afghan invasion. Hence, Afghanistan never gained the kind of front end importance which Iraq immediately achieved with the Anti-War Movement. But now the Anti-War Movement is in total disarray over the continuous occupation of Afghanistan and the expanding military operations.
This has given a free hand to the three main governments which lead Afghan operations to do whatever they wish to do in Afghanistan without any fear of homegrown opposition. Thus President Obama had no one to oppose him when he decided to send more troops into Afghanistan. He did this to make his first term as “successful” as that of his predecessors, assuming that the time-tested American definition of success still holds good: America must be engaged in a war to be successful. Read more »
The New Great Game in Central Asia
ISLAM, THE RISE OF ASIAN ECONOMIES and the NEW GREAT GAME IN CENTRAL ASIA
© Sultana Afroz
Introduction
With the demise of the Soviet Union, consequent to the Soviet defeat in the hands of the “mujahedeen” in Afghanistan, Islam became the rising terror to the West. Much of the resources essential to the survival of the developed West, i.e. oil and gas are also in lands belonging to the Muslims in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Added to this fear over the Islamic control of oil and gas are the new challenges from China and India as the emerging world economic powers. As Afghanistan began to emerge as a stronghold of Islam with the Taliban in power, its strategic location vis-à-vis the resources in Central Asia and China, and its 
Islamic faith gained credence in a new emerging US foreign policy for the 21st century in the late nineteen-nineties. Pakistan, considered to be an ally of the West during the Cold War and a frontline state during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, is once again in the global chessboard in the so-called ‘War on Terror” and faces a threat to its territorial integrity. India not only conveniently uses the “War on Terror” to label the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir as terrorists but is also positioning herself as a counterbalance to the growing economic and military power of China. In these complexities, Afghanistan, currently, is occupied by a coalition of 41 countries headed by NATO forces under the command of US General David McKiernan. Read more »
The Muslim World under Western Siege
The Muslim World under Western Siege
© Sultana Afroz
Iran, Sudan and Somalia are currently threatened by the West. NATO forces under US leadership wages war in Afghanistan & Pakistan.
The US digs into Iraq while UK exits.
WOMEN IN ISLAM: MYTHS AND REALITIES
WOMEN IN ISLAM: MYTHS AND REALITIES
In the Name of ALLAH, The Abundantly Gracious and the Ever Merciful
The paper is dedicated to Rasulullah, Prophet Muhammad Mustafa (SAW), The Prophet of Mercy for all the Worlds
©Sultana Afroz
Introduction
Derived from the Arabic root word, Salamah, the word Islam means peace, purity and submission and obedience. In the religious sense, the word Islam means submission to the Will of ALLAH and obedience to His Law. Islam has at its heart the teaching of monotheism, the Worship of the One True Creator, which has been the eternal message since the beginning of mankind, Adam. Islam’s recognition of all the Prophets/Messengers of ALLAH starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Soloman, Jesus and Muhammad (SAW), as the Seal of Prophets (Peace be upon them all), and its belief in all the Revelations- Sahifah to Abraham, Tawrat to Moses, Zabur (Psalms) to David, Injeel (Gospel) to Jesus and the Holy Qur’an to Muhammad, make it the oldest and the last of the Abrahamic religions. Islam has at its core the message of justice. Islam, thus, has no room for sexism, racism, slavery and superstitious beliefs. With justice as its premise, Islam elevated women to the status of being as worthy of human dignity as were men, restoring their unique rights, position and privilege as enjoyed by Mariam (RA), mother of Prophet Isaa (AW), otherwise known as Jesus. The elevated position of women in Islam commensurate with the perfection of the Divine Revelation, as ALLAH states: “This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. (As such), you are the best people, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in ALLAH” (The Holy Qur’an, Surat Al Maidah, 5: 3; see also Surat Al Imran, 3: 110). Inherently and eternally modern, Islam is beyond reformation and requires no feminist movement for the elevation of women in human status.
Woman in Islam is, perhaps, one of the most intriguing, controversial and fascinating topics of discussion, which attracts the attention of both the Muslim and the non-Muslim world. Woman in Islam is intriguing because of the existence of the separate world and feminine mystique in many of the Muslim societies, not necessarily Islamic but due to the influence of pre-Islamic traditions. Read more »
The Extremists of Pakistan
The Extremists of Pakistan
ASIF SALAHUDDIN
http://www.dailymus lims.com/ News-Articles/ The_Extremists_ of_Pakistan. html
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THEY have no tolerance. They speak, abusively if necessary, and desire little debate in return. They order and demand to be obeyed. They care not of another’s grievance or state of affairs, nor make any effort towards an understanding of such. They choose to remain ignorant of the world around and its realities that impact them. They wish their every whim to be met and every diktat to be followed by all. They are prepared to use violence – brutal, unrelenting and destructive violence – until they get their way. Bearded, uneducated, warrior tribes from the North West reaches of Pakistan? No. The real extremists of Pakistan are the pseudo-intellectual , liberal elite dining away and making merry in the posh settings of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
For it is at their insistence that the might of the Pakistan army has been hurled indiscriminately at an entire civil populace, resulting in its wake the displacement of over 3 million people and the death of thousands. This now stands as the largest unsettlement of humankind caused by man since the Rwandan massacres in Africa fifteen years ago and further bigger than the migration during the Indian partition itself. All because of the US backed lie that a few thousand rag tag group of fighters could capture the capital and hence overrun the country. Read more »
THE TALIBAN WILL NEVER SURRENDER
THE TALIBAN WILL NEVER SURRENDER
http://www.thefridaytimes.com/news6a.htm
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The writer argues that Bush regime is anti-Taliban because the Taliban have refused to do its bidding.
HAMID MIR
LAHORE, Pakistan, September 14-20, 2001 (The Friday Times): Six years ago, Nusrat Javed of The News and I were invited to dinner in a Chinese restaurant by the then Interior Minister
Major-General (R) Naseerullah Khan Babar. “Why are you writing against the Taliban?” he asked us. “Because the Americans are supporting them,” I replied.
Babar gave us a long lecture about the Taliban but we were not ready to buy his theory. Finally, he picked up his famous stick in his right hand and said: “OK, you go to Kandahar independently, talk to them, come back and then see me.”
A few weeks later, I was in Kandhar and had a meeting with Mullah Muhammad Umar Majahid. I asked him: “Why is Robin Raphael (then the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia)
supporting you?” In response, Umar inquired, “Who is he?”
The Taliban were clearly not aware of who was supporting them and who was opposed to them outside Afghanistan. They knew only Pakistan. After coming back from Kandhar, I met Babar and told him that the Americans had a three-point agenda for the Taliban. One, they would like to use the Taleban against Iran. Two, they would like to pressurise them to arrange shelter and training camps to the rebels of Sinkiang in Afghanistan. And three, the Americans wanted to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. But I told Babar that the Americans will not be able to achieve even a single objective because the Taliban will not take dictation from them. This time, Babar was not ready to believe me. Read more »
Chinese suspicions
Chinese suspicions: How US Subverts China, Iran, The Frontier Post (Pakistan)
July 8, 2009
http://www.thefront ierpost.com/ News.aspx? ncat=ed&nid= 128
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For the fatal ethnic riots in its sensitive Xinjiang province, which have claimed at least 140 lives, the Chinese government has blamed exiled Uighur separatists. The foreign-based World Uighur Congress has specifically been named by the authorities for inciting these riots. Statedly, the outfit is headed by one Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled Uighur businesswoman, settled in the United States. Indeed, over time the Chinese have persistently accused the Americans of fueling ethnic sentiments and antipathies and inciting separatism in China, particularly in its Tibet and Xinjiang provinces, and of patronising and employing the exiled dissidents to this end.
And not so untenably. Even in these riots, most of the dead and injured were Han Chinese. On this score, the Chinese are even sour with us [Pakistan]. They believe the Americans have made our tribal region a base for training, arming and bankrolling the Uighur terrorists and then launching them into Xinjiang for terrorism. And they are unhappy that despite their persistent requests Islamabad is less than intent on shutting down this American wellspring for violence and terrorism in China. Read more »
Obama faces a Persian rebuff
Obama faces a Persian rebuff
The Hindu: India’s National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 02, 2009
M.K. Bhadrakumar
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The Iranian regime shows definite signs of closing ranks and pulling its act together in the face of what it assesses to be an existential threat to the Vilayat-e faqih system. The street protests in Tehran fizzled out. Twitter can revert to its earlier plan of shutting down its Iran services and attend to overdue maintenance work. Twitter goes into recess pleased that it embarrassed a regional power and itself became a hot topic of worldwide curiosity. The United States government owes Twitter a grand salute for rendering yeoman service. However, Persian stories have long endings. The Iranian regime shows definite signs of closing ranks and pulling its act together in the face of what it assesses to be an existential threat to the Vilayat-e faqih system. And London and Washington cannot simply walk away. The signs are that even if they want to, which is eminently sensible and logical, Tehran won’t let them do that.
When supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used a colourful Persian idiom to characterise the European and American officials and underscored that the ground on which they stood inevitably gets “soiled,” he made it plainly clear that Tehran would not easily forget the fusillades of mockery that the West — the U.S. and Britain in particular — fired over the past fortnight in a well-crafted ploy to tarnish its rising regional and global standing. In a veiled warning, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “Some European and American officials with their idiotic remarks about Iran are speaking as if their own problems [read Iraq, Afghanistan] have all been resolved and Iran remains the only issue for them.” Read more »
Was Iran’s Election Stolen?
Was Iran’s Election Stolen?
By Mark Weisbrot
co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
http://newsweek. washingtonpost. com/postglobal/ needtoknow/ 2009/06/was_ irans_election_ stolen.html
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Since the Iranian presidential election of June 12, allegations that the announced winner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’ s victory was stolen have played an important role in the demonstrations, political conflict, and media reporting on events there. Some say it does not matter whether the elections were stolen because the government has responded to peaceful protests with violence and arrests. These actions are indeed abhorrent and inexcusable, and the world’s outrage is justified. So, too, is the widespread concern for the civil liberties of Iranians who have chosen to exercise their rights to peacefully protest.
At the same time, the issue of whether the election was stolen will remain relevant, both to our understanding of the situation and to U.S.-Iranian relations, for reasons explained below. It is therefore worth looking at whether this allegation is plausible. According to the official election results, the incumbent president Ahmadinejad won the election by a margin of 63 percent to 34 percent for his main competitor, Mir Hossein Mousavi. This is a difference of approximately 11.3 million votes. Any claim of victory for Mousavi must therefore contain some logically coherent story of how at least 5.65 million votes (one half of the 11.3 million margin) might have been stolen. Read more »
Dubai: a salad bowl of cultures
Dubai: a salad bowl of cultures
© Farruk Bin Muhammad Abdullah
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Often touted as the best of the West in the Middle East, Dubai is actually a land of stark contrasts where something akin to forced labour is used to create glittering towers and a luxurious tax-free lifestyle for those at the top of the food chain, says recent resident Farruk Bin Muhammad Abdullah
My first experience with the disparity between the different nationalities in Dubai happened when I came to pay for the washing of my car. It was the second week of my stay in the country and the landlord of the villa I was sharing at the time had contracted his gardener/houseboy (from South Asia, either Pakistan or India) to wash my car every day along with the three others he was doing. I agreed a fee of 100 dirhams, which was equivalent to about 10 pounds sterling at the time, and which would pay for about two washes back in the UK.
I paid at the end of the first week after he had washed off the ever-present desert sand from the vehicle about five times for the week, arriving before dawn on his bicycle and going before I was awake. At the end of the second week I handed over another 100dhs to the landlord and he asked me what was this for. I told him it was for the second week of car washing, but he handed me back the note saying the first 100dhs was for washing the car for the entire month. Read more »
Finding Clarity in the Baluchistan Conundrum
Finding Clarity in the Baluchistan Conundrum
By Talha Mujaddidi in Pakistan
Axis of Logic Exclusive
http://axisoflogic. com/artman/ publish/Article_ 55546.shtml
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Editor’s Note: As in all of his analyses of the battle for Pakistan, Talha Mujaddidi provides a rare look into the internal struggle of the Pakistan people and the interference in their domestic affairs by the United States, India and other foreign elements. For those who are unfamiliar with the terms, places and names in this report, Talha
provides a glossary at the end of the article. It is especially important that we learn and understand what is happening in Pakistan as Washington is opening up a new front in this country in their “war on terror”. – Les Blough, Editor;
____________ _________ _________ __
Excerpt: “The problem for US is that BLA alone is not able to break away Baluchistan from Pakistan. Of the 5% population of Baluchistan they don’t even have support of 10% Balochi population. The Pakistan Army and ISI are resisting the assault in national and strategic interests of Pakistan. The Great Game of Brzezinski will surely
continue in Baluchistan and rest of Pakistan, the people of Pakistan are ready to counter this great game now we need leadership and some courage. It will take some time to achieve courage and leadership but it will come eventually. Street revolutions are easy to carry out the hard part is the mental revolution. That is what is required right now to challenge the US global hegemony.” Read more »
Pipelineistan in Conflict
Blue Gold, Turkmen Bashes, and Asian Grids: Pipelineistan in Conflict
Pepe Escobar
23 May 2009
http://www.tomdispa tch.com/post/ 175071/pepe_ escobar_pipeline istan_goes_ af_pak
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As Barack Obama heads into his second hundred days in office, let’s head for the big picture ourselves, the ultimate global plot line, the tumultuous rush towards a new, polycentric world order. In its first hundred days, the Obama presidency introduced us to a brand new acronym, OCO for Overseas Contingency Operations, formerly known as GWOT (as in Global War on Terror). Use either name, or anything else you want, and what you’re really talking about is what’s happening on the immense energy battlefield that extends from Iran to the Pacific Ocean. It’s there that the Liquid War for the control of Eurasia takes place.
Yep, it all comes down to black gold and “blue gold” (natural gas), hydrocarbon wealth beyond compare, and so it’s time to trek back to that ever-flowing wonderland — Pipelineistan. It’s time to dust off the acronyms, especially the SCO or Shanghai Cooperative Organization, the Asian response to NATO, and learn a few new ones like IPI and TAPI. Above all, it’s time to check out the most recent moves on the giant chessboard of Eurasia, where Washington wants to be a crucial, if not dominant, player. Read more »
The Zionist State of Israel
By: Dr. Sultana Afroz
THE CREATION OF THE ZIONIST STATE OF ISRAEL
Israel is a Zionist state created by leading Jewish Nationalist leaders, “the great majority of whom were believed to have no interest in the Jewish religion”. This is why there was a split within the Jewish community. Mass execution of the Jews in the Austro-Hungary Empire in the last quarter of the 19th century convinced Zionists to undertake a political movement. The Zionist movement for the creation of an artificial Jewish state in their so-called “Promised Land”-Zion, became a political movement when Dr. Theodore Herzl published his book, Judenstaate (The Jewish State). Based on this work, was born the World Jewry. He states:
The distinctive nationality of the Jews neither can, will, nor must be destroyed….The Jewish question…is a national question which can be solved only by making it a political world-question to be discussed and settled by the civilized nations of the world in council.
In other words, Zionism became a political national movement. However, with their insistence to return to Palestine, the movement was given a religious dimension to gain the acceptance of many who were opposed to it. Many Ultra-Orthodox Jews believed that political Zionism was incompatible with the religious basis of Jewry and that it introduced the concept of a secular Jewish nationality. However, with the mass pogroms of the Jews in Russia, many Orthodox Jews became a prey to the Zionists agenda. Read more »
THE GENESIS of ARAB DISUNITY
THE GENESIS of ARAB DISUNITY
©Sultana Afroz
The foreign policies of the Middle East countries is characterized by confusion and anarchism as the major decision-makers of this oil rich region, holding the key to the world development are the despotic monarchies which represent colonial legacy of the 19th and 20th centuries or republics symbolic of Pan-Arabism but for the most part lacking broad-based Arab support or unity. The Middle East described, as a ‘penetrated system’ is the periphery of Western-dominated world system. In simple terms, the Middle East represents the Arab cliental states of the West. In the absence of popularly elected governments or consensual leadership, foreign policy is rooted in state elites and generally has represented the status quo since the demise of the Ottoman Empire. While the despotic oil monarchies continue to seek Western military protection against internal threat, the nationalistic regimes (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran who are called pariah states) often threatened by external forces seek to extend their domestic power base through economic and social reforms and regional alliances with similar threatened states. Domestic opinions hardly play any role in the foreign policies of the Middle East since most of the states with the exception of Turkey and Iran have no electoral accountability mechanisms. Anarchism and lawlessness in Middle East foreign policies resulting from the lack of legitimacy of the region’s decision-makers are reflected in Western occupation of Middle East countries sanctioned by international organizations founded by these same Western imperialists. Islam, Arabism/nationalism, and Zionism often become the acknowledged forces of influence in shaping the course of the foreign policies of the region. Such anomalies in Middle Eastern foreign policies stem from a number of factors, each of them of equal importance in international geopolitics and global economics, namely: colonial legacy (following the demise of the Ottoman Empire), Arab-Israel conflict (the creation of Israel), Arab-nationalism, oil politics, minority problems, insecurity (terrorism), and Islam. Read more »
NEW WORLD DISORDER
NEW WORLD DISORDER
©Sultana Afroz
The Islamic Tawhid underscores humanity’s essential unity despite physical differences. Globalization based on a common worldview, moral values, and rules of right and wrong can provide unity and accommodate diversity based on natural characteristics. Islam not only forbids compulsion in religion but also shuns tribalism for the recognition of a common citizenship in a global village. Globalization should be synonym of a common citizenship based on interdependence, equality, justice, human rights, and the sanctity of each individual’s dignity. Such a common global citizenship, which respects pluralism, is antithesis to hegemony, which is characterized by domination through the use of military might, economic exploitation and expropriation, social depravity, cultural discrimination, and religious intolerance and bigotry.
Globalization or hegemonic rule by one or a few powers or by a race over the people of the global village contradicts the original concept of globalization which aimed to bring about development for the betterment of humanity through the exchange and free flow of knowledge, technology, labour and goods without undue barriers and obstacles. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has now become a nightmare for the people of the developing countries who can no longer count on government subsidies and assistance in any sector of the society. The governments of Western Europe and the United States and Canada continue to subsidize their farmers and the essential social services. Darwin’s theory of Survival of the Fittest has once again resurfaced with its venomous agenda. Real deeds of service and kindness proceed not from superiority but from recognition of our humility and limitations before the Creator. While self-pride and self-sufficiency lead to the fossilization of the human beings, mutual needs lead to a sense of equality of mankind.
The Manifest Destiny of the West with its divine mission of imposing its institutions and value system in Muslim societies through military means is a cloak for political, economic and cultural hegemony and is in direct contrast to the elements of democracy and freedom, and above all a violation of the Qur’anic commandments to establish consensual leadership acknowledging the Sovereignty of ALLAH in a Muslim state. While the policy of Manifest Destiny of 19th century United States of America was devoid of any divinity annihilating the American Indians in the process of their removal to the uninhabitable cold west on the pretext of ‘humanity’ and ‘justice’, the present day mission of bringing freedom and democracy to the people of the Muslim countries through military occupation is a violation of the most elementary principles of human rights and total disregard of international law. Freedom cannot be given, it has to be taken, otherwise the ‘free’ subjects remain ever subservient to the giver, i.e. the colonial/imperial power. The political leadership in most of the Muslim countries, to date, is the legacy of European colonial rule. Read more »
Islam and Democracy
ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY
© Sultana Afroz
Islamic institutions in all aspects of life must be uniquely created with the power of ijtihad within the framework of The Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah. Islam cannot follow any model or models.
Despite the commonalities and parallels between democracy and Islamic governance, they are inherently different. Where Islam is unique, no commonalities or parallels with any ideology or system can be acceptable or beneficial to look as models for Islamic governance. Islam requires the development of its own unique institutions designed for humanity, unlike democracy which represents mostly Western historical experience. The idea of looking at such models, limited in scope and time, is to restrict the minds of the Muslims from creating Islamic institutions through ijtihad which are uniquely different from institutions which predates Islam. Since Islam is based on Divine Decree, how beneficial is it for Muslims to investigate ideology and institutions, which have their origin in paganism?
Apparently, the view that “democracy” is infinitely nearer to Islam is because it “maintains that all human beings are socially equal and must, therefore, be given the same opportunities for development and self-expression.” Mohammad Asad in Principles of State and Government in Islam states:
Islam makes it incumbent upon Muslims to subordinate their decisions to the Guidance of the Divine law revealed in the Qur’an and exemplified by the Prophet: an obligation which imposes definite limits on the community’s right to legislate and denies to the “will of the people” that attribute of sovereignty which forms so integral a part of the Western concept of democracy. Read more »
Clash of Civilization
DIALOGUE OF GLOBAL CIVILIZATIONS: THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATION
AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE
© Sultana Afroz
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and an end to the bipolar world, Islam has become the common enemy of the Western world, which is founded on Judeo-Christian traditions. The War on Terror symbolizes this Western Islamophobia, as the Islamic world with its approximately 1.6 billion Muslims is emerging as a power to be reckoned with, in terms of its human resources and economic wealth – oil, upon which the security of the industrialized world rests. Deeply grounded in the belief of zero tolerance for any form of injustices, Muslims increasingly seem to be a threat to the established world order, which is characterized by Western domination of the economy in Muslim countries through outright military occupation sanctioned by the United Nations, a club of the imperialist West formed for the continuation of their interests through collective means in the name of maintaining international security. Policies of globalization and liberalization carried out by world bodies such as World Trade Organization, furthermore legalizes the hegemonic control of the economies of the developing Muslim countries.
The uncertainties created by the world-wide War on Terror and the reigning Islamophobia heightened by the Samuel Huntington’s work on Clash of Civilization, projecting Islam as a potential enemy of civilization, make it imperative for a continuous process of dialogue between the Muslims and the people of the Judeo-Christian cultures of the West to dismiss the myths and misconceptions about Islam and to uphold the inherent beauty of an eternal modern Islam, with its message of peace and justice for humankind. The urgency of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan calls upon the leadership in the Muslim world for collective action through the Organization of Islamic Countries to immediately bring an end to the systematic genocidal destruction of human lives, economy, culture and properties of Muslims by the ‘civilized’ Western powers all in the name of War of Terror. Read more »
THE CULT OF BEDOUINISM IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
THE CULT OF BEDOUINISM IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
In the Name of ALLAH, The Abundantly Gracious and the Ever Merciful
The article is dedicated to Rasulullah, Prophet Muhammad Mustafa (SAW), The Prophet of Mercy for all living creatures.
© Sultana Afroz
The Ummah-I-Islamiyah described by the Almighty ALLAH (SWT) as the best people led by Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the best of mankind and the bearer of the Glad Tidings of the Mercy of Allah, currently mirrors, with the exception of a very few, a sorrowful state of intellectual desolation, political anarchism in the absence of popular consensus, economic inequity and depravity, social malaise and cultural stagnation. Corrupt practices, intolerance of dissent, disregard of procedure, nepotism, and favoritism have created perpetual crises of confidence and trust in Muslim countries. Archaic monarchies, despotic autocrats, military dictators, or zealot theocrats hold the helm of affairs often with external support. Aristocracy, autocracy, theocracy, secularism or foreign installed democracy has become the norm instead of Islamic consultative and consensual leadership based on legal social contracts, such as the Constitution of Madinah also referred to as Al-Wathiqa. The prohibitive decree La Bedawi Fil Islam-there is no Bedouinism in Islam, presently, governs the relations among most Muslim countries threatening the principle of brotherhood of the Ummah-I-Islamiyah. Such an anomalous situation is most unfitting to the Divine Dictate:
This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. (As such,) you are the best people, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. (The Holy Qur’an, Surat Al-Maidah, 5: 3; see also Surat Al-Imran, 3: 110). Read more »
World Food Supply in Danger
Industrialized Farming Endangers World Food Supply
Karin Friedemann
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
http://karinfriedem ann.blogspot. com/2009/ 06/industrialize d-farming- endangers- world.html
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Multi-national food corporations are increasingly using global food insecurity as a tool for political control. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) reports that “land grabbing” by foreign investors in developing countries has resulted in a new form of colonialism. Spanish NGO, GRAIN reports that rich countries are buying poor countries’ fertile soil, water and sun to ship food and fuel back home. IFPRI researcher Joachim von Braun states, “About one-quarter of these investments are for biofuel plantations. “
Agribusiness imposes a devastating toll on small farmers worldwide. Landowners in African countries, where there are no official land deeds, have no legal recourse against foreign companies that steal their farmland. In the United States ranchers and farmers lose their land to agribusinesses and end up working as employees. American cattle ranchers have the highest suicide rate among American professions. Similar humiliations have also led thousands of farmers in India to take their own lives. Read more »
Zionist assault on “Academic Freedom” at UCSB
An egregious Zionist assault on “Academic Freedom” at UCSB
by Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan
Wed, 27 May 2009
http://www.aztlan. net/zionist_ assault_on_ academic_ freedom.htm
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Los Angeles, Alta Califronia – May 27, 2009 – (ACN) The ADL of B’nai B’rith, an arm of the Israeli Mossad in the USA, is again attempting to silence respected scholars at American universities who dare to criticize Israel’s genocidal policies against the Palestinian people. The ADL is today targeting Professor William I. Robinson of the University of California at Santa Barbara because he was teaching his students a lesson by making comparisons between the Nazis’ treatment of Jews and the Zionists’ treatment of Palestinians.
The ADL and other powerful Zionist organizations have now brought formal charges against the professor utilizing the old canard of “antisemitism” and are demanding that the UC Chancellor and the UCSB Academic Senate punish him. Professor Robinson teaches Global and International Studies as well as Latin American and Iberian Studies at the university. Read more »
The soils of war: The agenda in Afghanistan & Iraq
The soils of war: The agenda in Afghanistan & Iraq
GRAIN
http://www.grain. org/briefings/ ?id=217
In this Briefing, we look at how the US’s agricultural reconstruction work in Afghanistan and Iraq not only gives easy entry to US agribusiness and pushes neoliberal policies, something that has always been a primary function of US development assistance, but is also an intrinsic part of the US military campaign in these countries and the surrounding regions. Seen together with the growing clout that the US and its corporate allies exercise over donor agencies and global bodies – such as the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres, which influence the food and farm policies adopted by the recipient countries – this is an alarming development. These are not unique cases born from unusual circumstances, but constitute a likely template for US activities overseas, as it continues to expand its “war on terror” and pursue US corporate interests.
Asia has seen its fair share of disasters in recent years, both man-made and natural – floods, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, war. After each calamity, efforts are made to put the pieces back together. But “aid” from outside often comes with a political or even a military agenda that aims much more to refashion countries to satisfy powerful interests than actually to rebuild the affected communities. Humanitarian aid is regularly conditional on the adoption of neoliberal policies, and, perhaps more troubling, there has been a recent trend in the case of war to interweave this aid, classified as “reconstruction” , closely with the military machinery of the invading powers. In Afghanistan, where US President Obama is sending an additional 17,000 US troops, and Iraq, the testing grounds for this militarised aid, the distinction between the US’s civilian and military activities has been completely, and deliberately, blurred. Read more »
Avi Shlaim: Israel a Rogue State
Avi Shlaim: Israel a Rogue State
Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state’s legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions
How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
Avi Shlaim
http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2009/jan/ 07/gaza-israel- palestine
The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by “an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders”. I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’ s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question. Read more »
Order 81 and the plunder of farming
Order 81 and the plunder of farming
Latha Jishnu / New Delhi
http://www.business -standard. com/india/ news/latha- jishnu-order- 81the-plunderfar ming/353518/
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In recent days, the multinational force in Iraq has been putting out rather curious news releases. These state that visiting agriculture experts from the US have been helping Iraqi farmers to learn new farming techniques to help them “to compete in a free market economy by reducing prices”. Team Borlaug, as the expert group is called, is working to set up model farms where farmers can see the newest technology and techniques in action, according to a statement attributed to Dustin Kinder, the leader. Kirkuk is the third province in northern Iraq that the team has studied and after a six-month tour it will put together recommendations to improve Iraqi agriculture that has been in a shambles since the mid-1990s when global sanctions were imposed on the country.
There is an intolerable air of patronage — and duplicity — about the latest statement emanating from the military command of the occupying forces. It reflects a gross ignorance of the history of agriculture in the country which is now paying the price for Saddam Hussein’s adventurism and the Rambo-like invasion by US. Iraq, it must be remembered, has the oldest history of farming and one of the longest traditions of cultivation in the civilised world. Modern Iraq is part of the `fertile crescent’ of Mesopotamia where man first domesticated wheat more than 8,000 years ago, and is home to several thousand varieties of local wheat. Read more »
Can the guardians of “The Freedom Press” Come Out of Hiding?
Can the guardians of “The Freedom Press” Come Out of Hiding?
9 Apr 2009
Debbie Menon
Payvand Iran News
www.payvand. com/news/ 09/apr/1104. html
It has been a known fact for very long, that the Israel Lobby and its friends have used intimidation, friendly alliances and outright ownership of the public infotainment and educational media to
manipulate, American public opinion about Government Officials, appointees, American educators and any others who either criticize the unholy actions of Israel or its policies. They have had a firm and unrestrained hand doing this because of their widespread influence in American business, advertising, education, media ownership and have intimidated just about everyone in positions
of decision and responsibility into compliance with their objectives and directions.
It is sort of an offer that no one in position has been able to refuse….”
If you wanna play in this game, you play by our rules… or else!
What they did, or tried to do to Charles Freeman, is nothing new; What the Chas Freeman Fight Was Really About this, and much worse, has been done to quite a few, whose academic tenures have been blocked by men afraid to stand up for their own faculty against the Israel Lobby. Read more »
In A Complex World
Professor Sultana Afroz
Department of History, University of the West Indies,
Kingston, Jamaica
In a complex world of the 21st century, it is a difficult task to deal with only two cohesive values and two divisive values (vices) which unite and which divide the Muslim cultures and the Western cultures.
Cohesive Values:
On the question of common values, the dialogue between Muslim cultures and Western cultures should begin with the common human heritage. The father of the human race is Adam and this TRUTH should submerge all divisive issues (religious, social, cultural, economic and political) among people of diverse cultures and lead to the Unity of Mankind, i.e. the Unity of the Creator.
Divisive Values (Vices):
Religious Intolerance in the West and the War on Islam: War on terrorism is a war on Islam. Islam has been officially declared to be the religion of the terrorists from the highest political office to the ordinary level in the West. The media, both print and electronic, launches deliberate hate campaigns against Islam. Islam has been equated to fascism, the Holy Prophet has been ridiculed in the most obscene languages, and by means of caricature and cartoons, which is an act of sacrilege in Islam, the Holy Qur’an has been desecrated, masajid (Muslim houses of worship) have been destroyed, vandalized, clerics have been imprisoned for their religious sermons on grounds of inciting Islamic fascism, Islamic schools (madrasahs) have been either closed or restricted in their religious teachings, Muslim charity funds have been confiscated on allegations of money being transferred to terrorists, freedom to perform Hajj in Saudi Arabia restricted by various visa stipulations and the abuse of privacy of every pilgrim (Haji), whose photograph along with other identifications appear on the Hajj web page without the permission or knowledge of the pilgrim. Above all, in this war on Islam, the freedom of thought and freedom of movement of Muslims worldwide have been curtailed. Religious bigotry and hate campaigns against Islam initiated by Western heads of states and government and even by the head of the catholic Church have led to some unfortunate destruction of churches in some Muslim countries. Read more »
“But, hey, this is democracy –messy”
By: Dr. Sultana Afroz
How can something messy be the best in the world? Ha! Ha! Ha! Americans need to get real! They claim to have free elections, yet fraud reign supreme in every aspect of their democratic system. Is it money, which speaks of American democracy or is it people’s right to vote? When one hears of vote being cast before the genuine voters (respectable citizens) have arrived at the polling boothe, one would ascribe the situation to somewhere in a developing country. No! This happens in the United States of America and it is real! Yet, Americans go to oversee and approve elections in developing countries. Would Americans let international observers approve their elections when Mrs. Brazile herself says it is messy?
Gess, insha’ALLAH, I don’t think you need to worry for a job once you get your qualification. I am a little tired of hearing about cheap labour in Asia, although you do mention about Asian with similar qualification like yours. Asia is a continent of contrast and it is the richest in terms of human and natural resources. Asians are people with skills and indeed they are highly skilled. The West has been for long emphasizing on their wealth and their skills. If “Joe the plumber” thinks America is the wealthiest nation on earth and they are the most skilled people, why is the United States the greatest debtor country in the world? Why can’t Americans compete with the people of Asia? If the Asian products had not been of superior quality than theirs, they would not have found a market in America and the West. Cheapness is not the answer. It is the skills of the Asian people, the virtues of honesty, simplicity, frugality, perseverance and the absence of the evils of capitalism at large which make the big difference. Much of the West developed on the wealth of Asia and ruled the world and still does today. But the West must realize, there is a time to rise and there is a time to fall and none can live on others for too long! Read more »
This is Democracy?
By: Dr. Sultana Afroz
I think I know who Mrs. Donna Brazile is and why she says “But, hey, this is democracy –messy, but still one of the best systems in the world.” I am glad that you have pointed out “that’s what she believes”. My question is “does she know better”? Moral bankruptcy and arrogance based on ignorance are at the core of American decadence. Financial and economic crises are symptomatic of moral bankruptcy. The greatest fallacy is how the US government can bail out the financial sector when it is itself bankrupt.
Oh please! The concept of democracy saw its birth in Mesopotamia, present day Iraq and not in Greece or Rome! I have to ask the question repeatedly to myself, “Did the Greco-Roman Empire contribute anything to the world?” Anyone who has doubt, please check it out. Didn’t they steal and borrow from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and even the Great Alexander invade Northwest India from where they (the Mecedonians) stole the idea of public bath and urban lifestyle? The best steel in the Roman Empire came from India. These are historical facts! I remember that I refused to teach European history from a prescribed book at an American University in 1977, because it stated that civilization began with the Greco-Roman Empire. Read more »
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