By Pepe Escobar

It’s September 11 all over again – eight years on. The George W Bush administration is out. The “global war on terror” is still on, renamed “overseas contingency operations” by the Barack Obama administration. Obama’s “new strategy” – a war escalation – is in play in AfPak. Osama bin Laden may be dead or not. “Al-Qaeda” remains a catch-all ghost entity. September 11 – the neo-cons’ “new Pearl Harbor” – remains the darkest jigsaw puzzle of the young 21st century.

It’s useless to expect US corporate media and the ruling elites’ political operatives to call for a true, in-depth investigation into the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Whitewash has been the norm. But even establishment highlight Dr Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski, a former national security advisor, has admitted to the US Senate that the post-9/11 “war on terror” is a “mythical historical narrative”.

The following questions, some multi-part – and most totally ignored by the 9/11 Commission – are just the tip of the immense 9/11 iceberg. A hat tip goes to the indefatigable work of 911truth.org; whatreallyhappened.com; architects and engineers for 9/11 truth; the Italian documentary Zero: an investigation into 9/11; and Asia Times Online readers’ e-mails.

None of these questions has been convincingly answered – according to the official narrative. It’s up to US civil society to keep up the pressure. Eight years after the fact, one fundamental conclusion is imperative. The official narrative edifice of 9/11 is simply not acceptable.

Fifty questions

1) How come dead or not dead Osama bin Laden has not been formally indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as responsible for 9/11? Is it because the US government – as acknowledged by the FBI itself – has not produced a single conclusive piece of evidence?

2) How could all the alleged 19 razor-blade box cutter-equipped Muslim perpetrators have been identified in less than 72 hours – without even a crime scene investigation?

3) How come none of the 19’s names appeared on the passenger lists released the same day by both United Airlines and American Airlines?

4) How come eight names on the “original” FBI list happened to be found alive and living in different countries?

5) Why would pious jihadi Mohammed Atta leave a how-to-fly video manual, a uniform and his last will inside his bag knowing he was on a suicide mission?

6) Why did Mohammed Atta study flight simulation at Opa Locka, a hub of no less than six US Navy training bases?

7) How could Mohammed Atta’s passport have been magically found buried among the Word Trade Center (WTC)’s debris when not a single flight recorder was found?

Who is in the possession of the “disappeared” eight indestructible black boxes on those four flights?

9) Considering multiple international red alerts about a possible terrorist attack inside the US – including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s infamous August 6, 2001, memo – how come four hijacked planes deviating from their computerized flight paths and disappearing from radar are allowed to fly around US airspace for more than an hour and a half – not to mention disabling all the elaborate Pentagon’s defense systems in the process?

10) Why the secretary of the US Air Force James Roche did not try to intercept both planes hitting the WTC (only seven minutes away from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey) as well as the Pentagon (only 10 minutes away from McGuire)? Roche had no less than 75 minutes to respond to the plane hitting the Pentagon.

11) Why did George W Bush continue to recite “My Pet Goat” in his Florida school and was not instantly absconded by the secret service?

12) How could Bush have seen the first plane crashing on WTC live – as he admitted? Did he have previous knowledge – or is he psychic?

13) Bush said that he and Andrew Card initially thought the first hit on the WTC was an accident with a small plane. How is that possible when the FAA as well as NORAD already knew this was about a hijacked plane?

14) What are the odds of transponders in four different planes be turned off almost simultaneously, in the same geographical area, very close to the nation’s seat of power in Washington, and no one scrambles to contact the Pentagon or the media?

15) Could defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld explain why initial media reports said that there were no fighter jets available at Andrews Air Force Base and then change the reports that there were, but not on high alert?

16) Why was the DC Air National Guard in Washington AWOL on 9/11?

17) Why did combat jet fighters of the 305th Air Wing, McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey not intercept the second hijacked plane hitting the WTC, when they could have done it within seven minutes?

18) Why did none of the combat jet fighters of the 459th Aircraft Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base intercept the plane that hit the Pentagon, only 16 kilometers away? And since we’re at it, why the Pentagon did not release the full video of the hit?

19) A number of very experienced airline pilots – including US ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a former fighter jet pilot – revealed that, well, only crack pilots could have performed such complex maneuvers on the hijacked jets, while others insisted they could only have been accomplished by remote control. Is it remotely believable that the hijackers were up to the task?

20) How come a substantial number of witnesses did swear seeing and hearing multiple explosions in both towers of the WTC?

21) How come a substantial number of reputed architects and engineers are adamant that the official narrative simply does not explain the largest structural collapse in recorded history (the Twin Towers) as well as the collapse of WTC building 7, which was not even hit by a jet?

22) According to Frank de Martini, WTC’s construction manager, “We designed the building to resist the impact of one or more jetliners.” The second plane nearly missed tower 1; most of the fuel burned in an explosion outside the tower. Yet this tower collapsed first, long before tower 2 that was “perforated” by the first hit. Jet fuel burned up fast – and by far did not reach the 2000-degree heat necessary to hurt the six tubular steel columns in the center of the tower – designed specifically to keep the towers from collapsing even if hit by a Boeing 707. A Boeing 707 used to carry more fuel than the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 that actually hit the towers.

23) Why did Mayor Rudolph Giuliani instantly authorized the shipment of WTC rubble to China and India for recycling?

24) Why was metallic debris found no less than 13 kilometers from the crash site of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania? Was the plane in fact shot down – under vice president Dick Cheney’s orders?

25) The Pipelineistan question. What did US ambassador Wendy Chamberlain talk about over the phone on October 10, 2001, with the oil minister of Pakistan? Was it to tell him that the 1990s-planned Unocal gas pipeline project, TAP (Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/ Pakistan), abandoned because of Taliban demands on transit fees, was now back in business? (Two months later, an agreement to build the pipeline was signed between the leaders of the three countries).

26) What is former Unocal lobbyist and former Bush pet Afghan Zalmay Khalilzad up to in Afghanistan?

27) How come former Pakistani foreign minister Niaz Niak said in mid-July 2001 that the US had already decided to strike against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban by October? The topic was discussed secretly at the July Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy, according to Pakistani diplomats.

28) How come US ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine told FBI agent John O’Neill in July 2001 to stop investigating al-Qaeda’s financial operations – with O’Neill instantly moved to a security job at the WTC, where he died on 9/11?

29) Considering the very intimate relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the ISI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is Bin Laden alive, dead or still a valuable asset of the ISI, the CIA or both?

30) Was Bin Laden admitted at the American hospital in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on July 4, 2001, after flying from Quetta, Pakistan, and staying for treatment until July 11?

31) Did the Bin Laden group build the caves of Tora Bora in close cooperation with the CIA during the 1980s’ anti-Soviet jihad?

32) How come General Tommy Franks knew for sure that Bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora in late November 2001?

33) Why did president Bill Clinton abort a hit on Bin Laden in October 1999? Why did then-Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf abort a covert ops in the same date? And why did Musharraf do the same thing again in August 2001?

34) Why did George W Bush dissolve the Bin Laden Task Force nine months before 9/11?

35) How come the (fake) Bin Laden home video – in which he “confesses” to being the perpetrator of 9/11 – released by the US on December 13, 2001, was found only two weeks after it was produced (on November 9); was it really found in Jalalabad (considering Northern Alliance and US troops had not even arrived there at the time); by whom; and how come the Pentagon was forced to release a new translation after the first (botched) one?

36) Why was ISI chief Lieutenant General Mahmud Ahmad abruptly “retired” on October 8, 2001, the day the US started bombing Afghanistan?

37) What was Ahmad up to in Washington exactly on the week of 9/11 (he arrived on September 4)? On the morning of 9/11, Ahmad was having breakfast on Capitol Hill with Bob Graham and Porter Goss, both later part of the 9/11 Commission, which simply refused to investigate two of its members. Ahmad had breakfast with Richard Armitage of the State Department on September 12 and 13 (when Pakistan negotiated its “cooperation” with the “war on terror”) and met all the CIA and Pentagon top brass. On September 13, Musharraf announced he would send Ahmad to Afghanistan to demand to the Taliban the extradition of Bin Laden.

38) Who inside the ISI transferred US$100,000 to Mohammed Atta in the summer of 2001 – under orders of Ahmad himself, as Indian intelligence insists? Was it really ISI asset Omar Sheikh, Bin Laden’s information technology specialist who later organized the slaying of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi? So was the ISI directly linked to 9/11?

39) Did the FBI investigate the two shady characters who met Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi in Harry’s Bar at the Helmsley Hotel in New York City on September 8, 2001?

40) What did director of Asian affairs at the State Department Christina Rocca and the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef discuss in their meeting in Islamabad in August 2001?

41) Did Washington know in advance that an “al-Qaeda” connection would kill Afghan nationalist commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, aka “The Lion of the Panjshir”, only two days before 9/11? Massoud was fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda – helped by Russia and Iran. According to the Northern Alliance, Massoud was killed by an ISI-Taliban-al Qaeda axis. If still alive, he would never have allowed the US to rig a loya jirga (grand council) in Afghanistan and install a puppet, former CIA asset Hamid Karzai, as leader of the country.

42) Why did it take no less than four months before the name of Ramzi Binalshibh surfaced in the 9/11 context, considering the Yemeni was a roommate of Mohammed Atta in his apartment cell in Hamburg?

43) Is pathetic shoe-bomber Richard Reid an ISI asset?

44) Did then-Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence tell the CIA in 2001 that 25 terrorist pilots had been training for suicide missions?

45) When did the head of German intelligence, August Hanning, tell the CIA that terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft?”

46) When did Egyptian President Mubarak tell the CIA about an attack on the US with an “airplane stuffed with explosives?”

47) When did Israel’s Mossad director Efraim Halevy tell the CIA about a possible attack on the US by “200 terrorists?”

48) Were the Taliban aware of the warning by a Bush administration official as early as February 2001 – “Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs?”

49) Has Northrop-Grumman used Global Hawk technology – which allows to remotely control unmanned planes – in the war in Afghanistan since October 2001? Did it install Global Hawk in a commercial plane? Is Global Hawk available at all for commercial planes?

50) Would Cheney stand up and volunteer the detailed timeline of what he was really up to during the whole day on 9/11?

(Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com)

{Source: Asia Times Online}

By Imran Khan

My generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at its peak. Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was similar to all elite schools in Pakistan. Despite gaining independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas of public schoolboys rather than Pakistanis.

I read Shakespeare, which was fine, but no Allama Iqbal – the national poet of Pakistan. The class on Islamic studies was not taken seriously, and when I left school I was considered among the elite of the country because I could speak English and wore Western clothes.

Despite periodically shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ in school functions, I considered my own culture backward and religion outdated. Among our group if any one talked about religion, prayed or kept a beard he was immediately branded a Mullah.

Because of the power of the Western media, our heroes were Western movie stars or pop stars. When I went to Oxford already burdened with this hang up, things didn’t get any easier. At Oxford, not just Islam, but all religions were considered anachronism.

Science had replaced religion and if something couldn’t be logically proved it did not exist. All supernatural stuff was confined to the movies. Philosophers like Darwin, who with his half-baked theory of evolution had supposedly disproved the creation of men and hence religion, were read and revered.

Moreover, European history reflected its awful experience with religion. The horrors committed by the Christian clergy during the Inquisition era had left a powerful impact on the Western mind. To understand why the West is so keen on secularism, one should go to places like Cordoba in Spain and see the torture apparatus used during the Spanish Inquisition. Also the persecution of scientists as heretics by the clergy had convinced the Europeans that all religions are regressive.

However, the biggest factor that drove people like me away from religion was the selective Islam practiced by most of its preachers. In short, there was a huge difference between what they practiced and what they preached. Also, rather than explaining the philosophy behind the religion, there was an overemphasis on rituals.

I feel that humans are different to animals. While, the latter can be drilled, humans need to be intellectually convinced. That is why the Qur’an constantly appeals to reason. The worst, of course, was the exploitation of Islam for political gains by various individuals or groups. Hence, it was a miracle I did not beco
me an atheist. The only reason why I did not was the powerful religious influence my mother wielded on me since my childhood. It was not so much out of conviction but love for her that I stayed a Muslim.

However, my Islam was selective. I accepted only parts of the religion that suited me. Prayers were restricted to Eid days and occasionally on Fridays, when my father insisted on taking me to the mosque with him. All in all I was smoothly moving to becoming a Pukka Brown Sahib. After all I had the right credentials in terms of school, university and, above all, acceptability in the English aristocracy, something that our brown sahibs would give their lives for. So what led me to do a ‘lota’ on the Brown Sahib culture and instead become a ‘desi’?

Well it did not just happen overnight.

Firstly, the inferiority complex that my generation had inherited gradually went as I developed into a world-class athlete. Secondly, I was in the unique position of living between two cultures. I began to see the advantages and the disadvantages of both societies.

In Western societies, institutions were strong while they were collapsing in our country. However, there was an area where we were and still are superior, and that is our family life. I began to realize that this was the Western society’s biggest loss. In trying to free itself from the oppression of the clergy, they had removed both God and religion from their lives.

While science, no matter how much it progresses, can answer a lot of questions – two questions it will never be able to answer: One, what is the purpose of our existence and two, what happens to us when we die? It is this vacuum that I felt created the materialistic and the hedonistic culture. If this is the only life then one must make hay while the sun shines – and in order to do so one needs money. Such a culture is bound to cause psychological problems in a human being, as there was going to be an imbalance between the body and the soul. Consequently, in the US, which has shown the greatest materialistic progress while giving its citizens numerous rights, almost 60 percent of the population consult psychiatrists. Yet, amazingly in modern psychology, there is no study of the human soul. Sweden and Switzerland, who provide the most welfare to their citizens, also have the highest suicide rates. Hence, man is not necessarily content with material well being and needs something more. Since all morality has it roots in religion, once religion was removed, immorality has progressively grown since the 70s. Its direct impact has been on family life. In the UK, the divorce rate is 60 percent, while it is estimated that there are over 35 percent single mothers. The crime rate is rising in almost all Western societies, but the most disturbing fact is the alarming increase in racism. While science always tries to prove the inequality of man (recent survey showing the American Black to be genetically less intelligent than whites) it is only religion that preaches the equality of man. Between 1991 and 1997, it was estimated that total immigration into Europe was around 520,000, and there were racially motivated attacks all over, especially in Britain, France and Germany. In Pakistan during the Afghan war, we had over four million refugees, and despite the people being so much poorer, there was no racial tension.
There was a sequence of events in the 80s that moved me toward God as the Qur’an says: “There are signs for people of understanding.” One of them was cricket. As I was a student of the game, the more I understood the game, the more I began to realize that what I considered to be chance was, in fact, the will of Allah. A pattern which became clearer with time. But it was not until Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” that my understanding of Islam began to develop.

People like me who were living in the Western world bore the brunt of anti-Islam prejudice that followed the Muslim reaction to the book. We were left with two choices: fight or flight. Since I felt strongly that the attacks on Islam were unfair, I decided to fight. It was then I realized that I was not equipped to do so as my knowledge of Islam was inadequate. Hence I started my research and for me a period of my greatest enlightenment. I read scholars like Ali Shariati, Muhammad Asad, Iqbal, Gai Eaton, plus of course, a study of Qur’an. I will try to explain as concisely as is possible, what “discovering the truth” meant for me. When the believers are addressed in the Qur’an, it always says, “Those who believe and do good deeds.” In other words, a Muslim has dual function, one toward God and the other toward fellow human beings.

The greatest impact of believing in God for me, meant that I lost all fear of human beings. The Qur’an liberates man from man when it says that life and death and respect and humiliation are God’s jurisdiction, so we do not have to bow before other human beings.

Moreover, since this is a transitory world where we prepare for the eternal one, I broke out of the self-imposed prisons, such as growing old (such a curse in the Western world, as a result of which, plastic surgeons are having a field day), materialism, ego, what people say and so on. It is important to note that one does not eliminate earthly desires. But instead of being controlled by them, one controls them. By following the second part of believing in Islam, I have become a better human being. Rather than being self-centered and living for the self, I feel that because the Almighty gave so much to me, in turn I must use that blessing to help the less privileged. This I did by following the fundamentals of Islam rather than becoming a Kalashnikov- wielding fanatic.

I have become a tolerant and a giving human being who feels compassion for the underprivileged. Instead of attributing success to myself, I know it is because of God’s will, hence I learned humility instead of arrogance.

Also, instead of the snobbish Brown Sahib attitude toward our masses, I believe in egalitarianism and strongly feel against the injustice done to the weak in our society. According to the Qur’an, “Oppression is worse than killing.” In fact only now do I understand the true meaning of Islam, if you submit to the will of Allah, you have inner peace. Through my faith, I have discovered strength within me that I never knew existed and that has released my potential in life. I feel that in Pakistan we have selective Islam. Just believing in God and going through the rituals is not enough. One also has to be a good human being. I feel there are certain Western countries with far more Islamic traits than us in Pakistan, especially in the way they protect the rights of their citizens, or for that matter their justice system. In fact some of the finest individuals I know live there.

What I dislike about them is their double standards in the way they protect the rights of their citizens but consider citizens of other countries as being somehow inferior to them as human being, e.g. dumping toxic waste in the Third World, advertising cigarettes that are not allowed in the West and selling drugs that are banned in the West. One of the problems facing Pakistan is the polarization of two reactionary groups. On the one side is the Westernized group that looks upon Islam through Western eyes and has inadequate knowledge about the subject. It reacts strongly to anyone trying to impose Islam in society and wants only a selective part of the religion. On the other extreme is the group that reacts to this Westernized elite and in trying to become a defender of the faith, takes up such intolerant and self-righteous attitudes that are repugnant to the spirit of Islam. What needs to be done is to somehow start a dialogue between the two extreme. In order for this to happen, the group on whom the greatest proportion of our educational resources are spent in this country must study Islam properly.

Whether they become practicing Muslims or believe in God is entirely a personal choice. As the Qur’an tells us there is “no compulsion in religion.” However, they must arm themselves with knowledge as a weapon to fight extremism. Just by turning up their noses at extremism the problem is not going to be solved.

The Qur’an calls Muslims “the middle nation”, not of extremes. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) was told to simply give the message and not worry whether people converted or not, therefore, there is no question in Islam of forcing your opinions on anyone else.

Moreover, we are told to respect other religions, their places of worship and their prophets. It should be noted that no Muslim missionaries or armies ever went to Malaysia or Indonesia. The people converted to Islam due to the high principles and impeccable character of the Muslim traders. At the moment, the worst advertisements for Islam are the countries with their selective Islam, especially where religion is used to deprive people of their rights. In fact, a society that obeys fundamentals of Islam has to be a liberal one.

If Pakistan’s Westernized class starts to study Islam, not only will it be able to help society fight sectarianism and extremism, but it will also make them realize what a progressive religion Islam is. They will also be able to help the Western world by articulating Islamic concepts. Recently, Prince Charles accepted that the Western world can learn from Islam. But how can this happen if the group that is in the best position to project Islam gets its attitudes from the West and considers Islam backward? Islam is a universal religion and that is why our Prophet (peace be upon him) was called a Mercy for all mankind.

(Mr. Imran Khan is the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf PTI. His article first appeared in the Arabnews)

Ekta Kapoor’s annual party this year coincides with the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Not that she planned it that way. But now that the two events coincide, Ekta is determined to have a blast.

This is a very social season for television’s resident czarina. “Right now, I’ve got two sets of Ganesh Mahotsavs, the one in my parents’ house and the other in my own, which blessedly is just a hop away. So I’m hopping and skipping back and forth. This way, I’m sure I’ll be able to lose enough kilos for my annual party next month,” chuckles Ekta.

Need an excuse

For Ekta Kapoor’s theme party this year, the dress code is beachwear. She says, “The idea is to be informal, cool, relaxed and in a fun zone. Where would one have as much fun as on a beach? I know there’s no beach near my house, so people would look kinda odd in beach wear.

They can wear Bermudas and casuals, but no bikinis, please. I’d probably put up a blue prop suggesting a beachside skyline just to get the whole ambience.”

And then comes the real reason why Ekta wants a beachwear theme for her party. “Because I got the coolest Goa pants and I need an excuse to get into them. And what better reason to get into my coolest clothes than my annual party?”

Postponed

The soap queen has postponed her annual birthday bash from the first week of July when she usually hosts the jamboree, to the second week of September and that too, one of the most dreaded days in the calendar. She has already sent out pre-invitation SMSes to all her friends to keep the date free. She explains, “I was supposed to have it in July.

Then in August. But August we’ve Ganeshotsav. September too is choc-a-block with parties in Bollywood. That’s why I’ve told all my friends well in advance to keep September 11 free.” She will be inviting the guests personally. “300 handpicked guests, each one will be invited by me. Hopefully there’ll be no gatecrashers.”

But why have a party on 9/11 when the World Trade Center came crashing down? “Oh that’s because we want to have a blast of our own,” comes the poker-faced reply. “No, I’m joking. I couldn’t have it before September 9 for personal reasons.”

{Source: Mid-Day}

By Maryam Ismail

You! go to the red lights.” But isn’t the kid wearing the cannabis leaf T-shirt more eligible than me?” I thought. But I knew better than to argue with airport security as I have seen what can happen if you do.

Once there was a woman who decided to throw a tantrum over some videotapes and ended up being taken way by French police. They’re really scary. So, when the guy at JFK said “Red lights,” like a sheep being guided to pasture, I humbly obliged. Looking down the row of red lights, it seemed that the three Africans and I were the only suspected wrongdoers on the plane. It was then that I figured out that random checks were not so random. And this was 
way before 9/11.

At work, I met a Sierra Leonean who gave me some tips on getting through these checks quickly, “Put all of the dirty laundry on top.” I have a friend who seems is a target all the time. His creamy skin and bright green eyes, long curly hair, and a pair of Birkenstocks, make him a target as a spy infiltrator. “They had me standing there naked while they ate my Godiva’s.” He was visiting the Dominican Republic and got himself pegged as a Cuban spy.

It’s been over ten years, but the images run clearly in my mind when I remember the way the airport interrogated me; bending my shoes looking for what, I never found out, as the officer asked me why I had been to Paris. I was infact worried about my red oranges and Egyptian garlic but those apparently did not matter to him.

I will never forget the last time I arrived at Newark Liberty International airport on November 30th. The security greeted me crooning, “We wish you a Merry Christmas.” Ironically, the hijab and abayah never posed a problem for me at the airport, not even post September 11. Brother Shah Rukh Khan didn’t do his research before he went to Newark. Not only was it rumored to be a launching pad of the attacks, its proximity to New York City (a mere 5 miles) makes it the most likely place of all disasters happening in America. Still, you can’t tell when they will single you out.

“I am never going to America again,” my friend declared after returning from the US after the last Ramadan break. They made her stand on two cinder blocks and put the metal detecting wand between her legs. She was mortified and assumed it was because she was wearing niqab. That may have been the cause. However, when she went just this summer it was the total opposite. Her husband warned her, “Don’t make a big deal, just go along with it.” It helped—this time around.

Coming home from California, another friend tried to do everything not to be singled out. Leaving her abayah in her bag, wearing a jacket, T-shirt, jeans and hijab, she suddenly found herself as the ‘only one’ standing with her arms stretched out as the X-ray sniffed her body for suspicious articles.

The state-of-the-art machine, the whirling backscatter X ray can, not only find out what’s in your pockets, but has an ability to strip you down to your skin. This makes standing on two cinder blocks with a wand running up and down your inner legs, a non-issue. There has been much outrage about these machines as they transform a frequent flyer into a simple gray image—although it doesn’t reveal the body with ancient Roman precision.

Though not revealing bare skin, scars or anything, they do reveal your basic shape and form that can be seen by everyone in airport security and beyond. For a Muslim woman, this is beyond hurtful. The technology is twenty years old, and it was first designed to check luggage and prevent hijackings. Later, the technology was used to racial-profile certain undesirables. I spoke to someone on the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), who told me “We were fighting against this technology back in 1997.” With all of this technology, it makes one wonder how 9/11 did happen at all?

Khan, unfortunately for Shah Rukh, is a sort of common name. Just take a look at the white pages and you will find quite a few. That and Patel – the South Asians in the US are a large community. But there is another thing that one should know before they think about going to the US. That is, the story of Habib Khan and Hemant Lakhani. When I heard this story, on This American Life, last week, I was shocked at how the US government could stoop, to show that it was on top of things. Habib Khan was an informant who helped the FBI in Pakistan in its shakedown of drug lords and gangsters. But when he lost his touch, he was fired from this job. After 9/11, Homeland Security had the job of stopping acts of terrorism before they happened and at the same time they had to calm the nerves of a shaken citizenry. So how could they accomplish this impossible task? Find a wrongdoer, convict him and show that American was indeed safe. What they did was to find small time criminals and other dupes, and convince them they could make it big. So, what Habib Khan, the Homeland Security worker did was to convince Hemant Lakhani that he could sell a missile to attack America. Notice the ‘khan’ in Lakhani. Unfortunately, for Shah Rukh Khan, it’s his name that appears to be the problem, especially since it’s also a name most commonly found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. What a shame! It’s not a shame that one is named Khan or anything else from the Muslim world. It’s a shame that with a little general knowledge, the problem could have been avoided. Or could it? Perhaps, they were looking for another patsy, to set up and to blame. It’s ironic that Lakhani was tricked, tried and convicted in Newark, New Jersey—where Shah Rukh was stopped.

During the debate amongst the jury, there was one woman who felt that Lakhani was not guilty, that the government had sought him out and set him up to make itself look good. That juror was threatened and bullied into casting the last vote that sent the 70 year-old, Lakhani to prison for 47 years.

So perhaps they weren’t looking for a terrorist, as much as they were looking for someone who might play the bad guy in this horrible theatrical production of the supposed to be defunct war on terror.

Maryam Ismail is an American sociologist and writer based in Sharjah

{Source: Khaleej Times}

A Pakistani lobbying group has voiced its serious concern over the recent detention of the famed Indian Muslim actor, Shahrukh Khan, at the Newark International airport.

The Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee (PAKPAC) issued a statement said that the incident was not isolated but part of a pattern after 9/11 terrorist attacks. The actor, who came to the United States to lead an Indian parade in Chicago, was released after two hours of questioning.

“Since the terrorist attacks, lawful Muslim travellers have extensively been subjected to unfair inspections, intrusive secondary searches, excessive questioning based on their names and ethnicity,” the statement said. “This heightened scrutiny has resulted in substantial hardship for many travellers by missing their connecting flights or business appointments.

“The PAKPAC believes that profiling people based on their race, religion, and origin is wrong and not the appropriate use of resources.”

We believe that aggressive questioning of innocent travellers does not prevent terrorism, but alienates the one community that can serve as an important conduit to the wider Muslim world. “The PAKPAC has brought to attention the futility of interrogation procedures at US airports during various meetings with the Transport Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security officials.”

-Soiurce: The Nation-

PKonweb Report

AUG 8: Former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz A Naik, who was involved in back-channel diplomacy with India during the 1999 Kargil conflict as well after, has been tortured and murdered by unidentified persons at his residence, the Indian News Agency PTI reported today citing Islamabad police sources.

Naik’s body was found in his home in the heart of capital Islamabad. The dead body was said to be four days’ old, according to police.

The revelation that he has been murdered marked a turnaround from a police spokesman’s earlier statement that there were no marks of injury on the former diplomat’s body. Naik, 70, was unmarried and had been living alone in his house in a neighborhood in central Islamabad for a long time.

A post-mortem examination of Naik’s body revealed he was tortured before being killed, said police officials and doctors who performed the autopsy.

Naik was hit with a sharp and heavy object and there were signs of torture on his neck. Four ribs and the jaw were fractured and the lungs were damaged, the autopsy report said.

Naik’s friends had earlier informed police that the former diplomat was missing for the last five days.

Naik, who also served as High Commissioner to India and was involved in back-channel diplomacy during the Kargil conflict of 1999, apparently died three to four days ago, police said. Police officials said they were trying to ascertain the motive behind the murder.

The former diplomat was involved in back-channel parleys with R K Mishra, an aide of the then Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during the Kargil war.

He was also involved in back-channel diplomacy on Afghanistan before September 11, 2001. He was a participant or observer in the following events:

July 21, 2001: US Official Threatens Possible Military Action Against Taliban by October if Pipeline Is Not Pursued
Link:
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a072101berlin#a072101berlin

According to reports readily avaiable on the internet, Naik was witness to several historical events prior to September 11, 2001 event that changed the world for ever.

Three former American officials, Tom Simons (former US Ambassador to Pakistan), Karl Inderfurth (former Deputy Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs), and Lee Coldren (former State Department expert on South Asia) met with Pakistani and Russian intelligence officers in a Berlin hotel. [Salon, 8/16/2002] . This is the third of a series of back-channel conferences called “brainstorming on Afghanistan.” Taliban representatives sat in on previous meetings, but boycotted this one due to worsening tensions. However, the Pakistani ISI relayed information from the meeting to the Taliban. [Guardian, 9/22/2001] At the meeting, Coldren passed on a message from Bush officials. He later said, “I think there was some discussion of the fact that the United States was so disgusted with the Taliban that they might be considering some military action.” [Guardian, 9/26/2001]

Accounts vary, but former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik later says he is told by senior American officials at the meeting that military action to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan is planned to “take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest.” The goal is to kill or capture both bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, topple the Taliban regime, and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place. Uzbekistan and Russia would also participate. Naik also says, “It was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taliban.”

[BBC, 9/18/2001] One specific threat made at this meeting is that the Taliban can choose between “carpets of bombs” —an invasion—or “carpets of gold” —the pipeline.

[Brisard and Dasquie, 2002, pp. 43] Naik contends that Tom Simons made the “carpets” statement. Simons claims, “It’s possible that a mischievous American participant, after several drinks, may have thought it smart to evoke gold carpets and carpet bombs. Even Americans can’t resist the temptation to be mischievous.”

Naik and the other American participants deny that the pipeline was an issue at the meeting. [Salon, 8/16/2002]