By Ibne Rehmat

We sometime say a word `wrong’ not knowing what does and how will it impacts to the generations, for all times to come. It is u-turn from the Indian intransigence and usual way of hatching and fomenting troubles, let alone a root cause of attitude and outlook problem. Mr. Singh deserves a lot of praise for being realistic in saying “Between Jinnah and Nehru the differences got so bitter as to actually become a factor in the country’s vivisection. The Congress led by Nehru, was the political party that agreed to Partition; then later as the occupant of the seat of authority, and as the head of government of the day, he (Nehru) was clearly guilty of failing totally in his duty of preventing the bloodshed of millions of innocents. The fratricidal killing was of such unprecedented dimension that the blood that then soaked our land till today (continues) to entrap Hindu Muslim relation into congealed animosities…how criminally short sighted. That is why Gandhi till the last had continued to plead for `independence first Pakistan after’ that Jinnah would not agree, but then sadly, neither did Nehru nor Patel go along with the Mahatma”.

In any controversial debate acknowledgement is the first step in the molding of opinion or perception. If take more rational view, it appears that Jaswant initiative have tacit approval of the government. If it is, then it is clear that Indian government wants to change its previous culture after fully weighing what all it wants to transform. During the last two decades it has totally switched over to the new cultural patterns and a similar major shift was also being hinted at in the political wisdom as well. If both the countries demonstrate such an acumen and courage by taking one more step forward with firm resolve to make a radical departure from their outdated India or Pakistan eccentric mindset, most of the problems would be solved. That is why it is said that if you are part of the solution, you are part of the problem as well.

His book amounts to going to square one to set the record straight. Such an approach is a positive move in the right direction, seldom displayed by Indian leaders. Pakistan has been praying and calling upon the New Delhi to reciprocate gestures of `right sense of direction’. Sub-Continent will march towards its `Golden Age Era’ by reviving the bonhomie of the past. Its grandeur and magnificence could be restored, if our leaders’ sacrifice by showing flexibility and sense of accommodation. If France and UK can become allies after 100 years of war, nothing is impossible. We have suffered for a long time. It is not too late if we look back and take a more rationale look on our beaten track, provided we remember the golden universal principle, `Do Good and have Good’ or `Live and let others live’.

Let us make a new start from Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tamil Nado and Baluchistan even. Let the glory of Nepal, Sikkim take a new lease of life. Let us exterminate all the naughty idioms from our politics. India would be a paradise again when its leaders acknowledge that one wrong has set many strategies on the self-destructive course of actions. This book may prove a great achievement and a landmark event in the fractured and mutilated history of Indo-Pakistan. Had some of the Indian politician realized what price the people of this sub-continent are paying with their blood and souls by any degree of self-introspection, the issues like Siachen and Kashmir much of the troubles would have been averted.

By painting Nehru and Patel, in their true colors, no wrong has been committed. It amounts to heal some disease with the panacea of poison, as its true anti-dote. The role of these two leaders in the independence of the India cannot be denied to, but much disillusionment prevails, that will certainly recede after Singh’s scholastic work. His study will help to set new era of change like Charles Dickens’ described in his famous book `A Tail of Two Cities’ – how Europe leaped out of Medieval Age. His novel reveals how the blunder of one of the French Empresses. She offered monetary compensation to the parents of a child who was crushed under her chariot, triggered a chain of riots/upsurge leading to French Revolution – over-hauled the entire feudal system in the Europe. The chain of subsequent events paved way for the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution. Jaswant Singh could become a pioneer and harbinger of this transformation, provided he succeeds in bringing a positive change in the outlook of Indian leadership in future.

When somebody does some wrong, it may do good to others or many. The fact is that such a master stroke results into multiple effects at different time, in different set of events and at different political stages. Each group or individuals value such initiatives or moves through his own prisms of judgment � depending upon the rewards or repercussions, they reap or suffer. Similarly, motives are the prime factor that determines the final outcome.

In the past the Indian government has been playing the confidence game through Islamic fake identity hoax or ploys. If Singh tried to replay the same, then it amounts to acting more as a Kashmir Singh than Jaswant. In the history of Indian freedom struggle leaders like Shaikh Abdullah and many other Congress Ulemas did in the past.. Acknowledged Singh has shown remarkable courage to reciprocate historical facts, but other realities, like Junagadh tragedy, Hyderabad Deccan’s wheeling dealing, Congress – Muslim league’s intriguing past demands candid explanation. The fact that Muslim played a glorious part in the freedom of India but most of it still lies buried under the debris of Indo-Pakistan hostilities for any reason or rhymes. Mr. Singh’s book can stir up a passion storm, if Indian government shows their willingness to bring about a remarkable change through their actions. But such a change demand sincerity, objectivity, firm resolve for a change and firm faith in the golden principle of `doing good to reap good’ and `live and let others live’ to make India a living paradise once again.

(Author is free lance journalist, based on Islamabad)

{Source: Kashmir Watch}

Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has declared that his team’s Pool A match against old rivals India in the Champions Trophy will be the ‘match of the tournament’.

Malik told reporters at the National Stadium that no other game in the elite eight-nation contest will be able to match the intensity of the Pakistan-India clash.

“It is easily the most awaited match, both for the crowd and for the players because if you perform well and help your team win you become an instant hero, so players from both teams try to put up their best,” said the experienced all-rounder at the end of a strenuous training session.

Malik and other Pakistani cricketers are currently attending a Champions Trophy preparatory camp in Karachi and are due to leave for South Africa Thursday.

Malik, who was replaced by Younis Khan as Pakistan captain early this year, believes there will be no title favourites in the Champions Trophy to be played September 22-October 5.

“The Champions Trophy is more competitive than the World Cup and no team is favourite to win the title,” he said.

He said Pakistan will try its best to win its maiden Champions Trophy.

Pakistan has never progressed beyond the semifinal stages in the biennial Champions Trophy since its inception in 1998.

It is placed in Group A alongside defending champions Australia, India and the West Indies.

Hosts South Africa, Sri Lanka, England and New Zealand are in Group B.

Malik said his team is first targeting a place in the last four.

“In the first phase a team needs to win at least two matches to progress to the semi-final, so you have to do your best in each match and that’s why this event is regarded as tougher than the World Cup,” said Malik.

{Source: Sify.com}

By Ahmed Quraishi

The Americans are back to their favorite arm-twisting practice: Diplomacy through calculated media leaks. The New York Times story on alleged Pakistani modifications to old-tech US missiles is a reminder that American interests do not overlap with those of Pakistan’s despite the best efforts of the pro-American lobby within the Pakistani government. This lobby has been quite active recently – through a PR campaign – in defending US position and counseling fellow citizens to stop opposing Washington because Pakistan needs American aid.

What will America’s Pakistani apologists say after this indirect salvo, threatening Pakistan of scuttling the five-year, $ 7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar aid bill because Pakistan continues to develop strategic missiles and refuses to turn its army into a police force at the beck and call of Uncle Sam’s bungled freedom mission in Afghanistan?

Maybe this is the reason why our usually boisterous ambassador in Washington was circumspect yesterday, saying little except that there appears to be a misunderstanding. But it is not a misunderstanding. The report – where no US official appears by name – is tailored to create panic in Islamabad and exert pressure without the need for Mr. Holbrooke’s personal skills. Pakistani policymakers would do well to read between the lines.

Two things stand out: unwarranted US spying on Pakistan’s strategic weaponization programs and – more importantly – the preposterous US accusation that Pakistan’s defensive capability risks attracting an arms race with India.

There is only one explanation for the mounting American frustration: Despite seven years of intense pressures on Pakistan, Washington is nowhere close to putting a leash on the Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies. It does not know yet the exact location of Pakistan’s nuclear bombs and warheads. It is no closer to neutralizing Pakistan’s nuclear button despite the wild campaign to convince the world that Pakistan was incapable of protecting its weapons. Pakistan managed to deflect pressures and refused to turn itself into a walkway for American and Indian boots.

The credit for this goes solely to the Pakistani military and people. Our politicians, in government and opposition, remain hugely impressed with American influence and ready to work with it to counterbalance a powerful Pakistani military. The latest episode in our political soap opera, where retired intelligence officers have been used to divulge old secrets, is designed to discredit the military.

While they distract the nation with their nonissues, there is no one to question the rulers why they approved the construction of the world’s largest US embassy in Islamabad when the American aid bill has not even passed US Congress? There are signs that the politicians are quietly allowing unprecedented US military and covert presence in and around the Pakistani capital in order to change the balance of power inside Pakistan in a permanent way. There are reports now that US military presence is being formalized in both Sindh and Balochistan. The frequency and detail of these reports means they cannot be discounted as hearsay.

Two Pakistani political parties, Mr. Zardari’s PPP and Mr. Sharif’s PMLN, both ironically created during the reigns of two different military rulers, are taking the nation for a ride in the name of democracy. Thanks to their nonperformance in the past nineteen months, Pakistan is staring at a huge national failure, from foreign policy to Gwadar. Terrorism and target killings in Balochistan are being ignored by all politicians in the name of sympathizing with a politician-turned-terrorist who secretly received weapons from abroad and who permitted his grandson to join enemies of the homeland.

Lost in this circus is any talk about health care, education, highways or infrastructure. It is a national decline.

The worst part about our politicians is not their glaring ineptitude. It is the fact that their parties are so stifled there is no hope the ruling elite will expand its limited pool of talent to include a nation brimming with initiative and yearning for change.

The first major exhibition of contemporary art from Pakistan opens in New York on Thursday, with curator Salima Hashmi saying that it depicts the country in its totality, and the courage and grit of its artists.

At a media preview of Asia Society exhibition “Hanging Fire”, Ms Hashmi said that it was also a testimony to diversity and vitality of the contemporary Pakistani art scene that has flourished over the past two decades. More than 50 works by 15 artists, comprising installation art, video, photography, painting and sculpture are on display at Asia Society Museum. Ten of the artists were present at the media event, which was largely attended.

The pieces of art reflect the determination of the people of Pakistan, which is often portrayed in the west as a country continuing to struggle with political and social instability. The exhibition’s title, “Hanging Fire”, refers to an idiom that means “to delay decision.” In the context of the exhibition, the title evokes the idea of delaying judgment, particularly based on assumptions or preconceived notions about contemporary society and artistic expression in Pakistan. It also alludes to the contemporary economic, political, and social tensions-both local and global-from which these artists find their creative inspiration.

For over 40 years, Asia Society has been a leader in providing balanced perspectives on Pakistan and US-Pakistan relations,” Asia Society President Vishakha Desai said. “Despite Pakistan’s rich artistic and cultural history, most notably as a centre of the Mughal courts, the country is all too often portrayed in the West in negative terms. Through this exhibition and our related programming, we aim to address the critical need for deeper understanding of Pakistan’s diversity and complexity and to present a fuller picture of contemporary Pakistani society.” The exhibition includes artists for whom the highly charged socio-political context in which they live and work is critical to understanding their art.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive, full-colour, 161-page research book, distributed by Yale University Press, addressing Pakistan’s political, social, cultural and art history.

The volume is edited by Ms Hashmi and includes essays by specialists in Pakistan, the United States and the United Kingdom: artist Naazish Ata-Ullah and artist/critic Quddus Mirza, professors Iftikhar Dadi (Cornell University), Ayesha Jalal (Tufts University), and Carla Petievich (Montclair State University), and celebrated author Mohsin Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 2007, short-listed for the Man Booker Prize).

The artists whose works are on display are: Hamra Abbas, Bani Abdi, Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq, Faiza Butt, Ayaz Jokhio, Naiza Khan, Arif Mahmood, Huma Mulji, Asma Mundrawala, Imran Qureshi, Rashid Rana, Ali Raza, Anwar Saeed, Adeela Suleman and Mahreen Zuberi.

{Source: The Nation}

OF all the challenges and potential problems the United States faces, Pakistan tops the priority list, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

“Pakistan faces a lot of problems right now,” he said during an interview on PBS. “I think … they have always thought of India as the existential threat to Pakistan, but I think they are beginning to understand that the extremists in the ungoverned spaces in their west have become an existential threat.”

Going forward in the Middle East, the United States will be looking for ways to strengthen its partnership with Pakistan, Gates said, such as helping the country with some of its economic problems. At the same time, he added Pakistan will be encouraged to take action in some of its ungoverned spaces in the western part of the country, where the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have taken sanctuary.

The situation in western Pakistan was caused, in part, by the withdrawal of Pakistani soldiers, Gates said. “Now, the Pakistanis are back in the fight,” he added. “They have been an important source of support for us. Almost all of our supplies, about 80 per cent of our dry cargo, moves through Pakistan to Afghanistan, and they have helped provide protection for the convoys.”

Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, has cooperated or worked with many of the extremist groups operating in the western part of the country as a method of keeping a handle on them, Gates said, but now the country’s new leadership has a decision to make.

“They really have to make up their minds now that … those groups are a threat, not a hedge,” he said. “And they really have to get in the fight against those groups as well.”

The Pakistani government also understands that if US citizens are attacked, and there’s reliable information it originated in Pakistan, the United States will respond, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also was on the programme, said.

“It’s a conversation I’ve had many times – not just with military leadership, but also with political leadership – that any president of the United States would respond to an attack on US citizens,” Navy Adm Mike Mullen said. “They understand that very clearly, and they don’t disagree with that.

“I think you’re at the heart of dealing with the most difficult part of the problems we have there, where we have this safe haven in a sovereign country that is threatening and plotting against Americans and other Western countries, and it must be eliminated,” Mullen added. “Ideally, that would come through the pressure that the Pakistanis bring to eliminate that threat.”

And Pakistan plays an important role in success or failure in Afghanistan, Gates said.

“I think one of the challenges that faces the new administration is, in fact, to decide what our objectives are in Afghanistan, and whether some of our objectives may reach too far into the future in terms of being idealistic,” Gates said. “I think everybody agrees that’s got to be our highest priority in Afghanistan: to keep it from becoming a safe haven again.

“But that’s easier said than done, and it can’t just be a military solution,” he added. “We also have to help them try and build a government and try and develop their society … and to improve their governance.”

One of his biggest concerns in Afghanistan, Gates said, is how the Afghan people view the American military. If too many US forces are in the country, the United States could come to be seen as ‘in it for ourselves, and not as their ally, and they can turn against us’, Gates said.

“As long as the Afghan people see us as … in this fight for them as well as for ourselves, then I think we’ll be OK,” he added. “So I think the solution for us when all is said and done is we must accelerate the growth of the Afghan army and get the Afghan army in the lead where we are helping them and partnering with them.”

Mullen agreed that success in Afghanistan must involve a multi-layered diplomatic solution. While giving credit to the NATO allies who have provided capabilities in Afghanistan, he added that the requirements in Afghanistan are broad and varied.

{Source: The Nation}

Pakistan’s ‘double game’ and its undercover relationship with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda helped Osama-bin-Laden escape the allied forces and prevented him from being nabbed, The Times online reports.

Pakistan’s connection with al-Qaeda dates back to 1980’s when the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped the CIA to supply arms, ammunition and financial help to bin- Laden and other members of the Mujahideen resistance against Soviet forces.

Following the 9/11carnage, the United States made it clear that Pakistan must co-operate in the ‘war on terror’ and pressed it to flush out the ISI of Taliban and Al-Qaeda supporters, the report said.

However, Islamabad continued its support to the outlawed outfits.

According to the report several thousands of Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives were airlifted out of the northern Afghan region of Kunduz in November 2001 by Pakistani agencies.

During the same period several more Al-Qaeda commanders, probably including bin-Ladensneaked into Pakistan from the southeastern Afghan region of Tora Bora, where the NATO forces had initiated a massive hunt operation for the Qaeda chief, the report said.

However, the ISI, in its bid to show its sincerity in the fight against extremism, formed a Counter Terrorism Cell in 2002 to work with the CIA and MI6 to hunt down Al-Qaeda’s top command, but the cell failed to achieve its objective, it added.

The cell was only able to capture or eliminate low and middle ranking Al-Qaeda commanders. It failed to find any significant intelligence about the whereabouts of either bin-Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, it said.

{Source: DNA}

By FREDERICK W. KAGAN

Winning the war in Afghanistan—creating a stable and legitimate Afghan state that can control its territory—will be difficult. The insurgency has grown in the past few years while the government’s legitimacy has declined. It remains unclear how the recent presidential elections will affect this situation.

Trying to win in Afghanistan is not a fool’s errand, however. Where coalition forces have conducted properly resourced counterinsurgency operations in areas such as Khowst, Wardak, Lowgar, Konar and Nangarhar Provinces in the eastern part of the country, they have succeeded despite the legendary xenophobia of the Pashtuns.

Poorly designed operations in Helmand Province have not led to success. Badly under-resourced efforts in other southern and western provinces, most notably Kandahar, have also failed. Can well-designed and properly-resourced operations succeed? There are no guarantees in war, but there is good reason to think they can. Given the importance of this theater to the stability of a critical and restive region, that is reason enough to try.

Critics of the war have suggested we should draw down our troops and force Pakistan to play a larger role in eliminating radical extremists. American concerns about al Qaeda and Taliban operating from Pakistani bases have led to the conventional wisdom that Pakistan matters to the U.S. because of what it could do to help—or hurt—in Afghanistan. The conventional wisdom is wrong as usual.

Pakistan is important because it is a country of 180 million Muslims with nuclear weapons and multiple terrorist groups engaged in a mini-arms race and periodic military encounters with India—the world’s most populous state and one of America’s most important economic and strategic partners. Pakistan has made remarkable progress over the last year in its efforts against Islamist insurgent groups that threatened to destroy it. But the fight against those groups takes place on both sides of the border. The debate over whether to commit the resources necessary to succeed in Afghanistan must recognize the extreme danger that a withdrawal or failure in Afghanistan would pose to the stability of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s ambivalence toward militant Islamist groups goes back decades. The growth of radical Islamism in Pakistan dates to the 1970s and ’80s when the government encouraged radicalism both for domestic political reasons and to combat Soviet encroachment. The Pakistani government, with U.S. support, established bases in its territory for Afghan mujahedeen (religious warriors) fighting the Red Army.

When Afghanistan descended into chaos in the ’90s following the Soviet withdrawal, Pakistan intervened by building the Taliban into an organization strong enough to establish its writ at least throughout the Pashtun lands. Links forged in the anti-Soviet war between Pashtun mujahedeen and Arabs from the Persian Gulf remained strong enough to bring Osama bin Laden to the territory controlled by mujahedeen hero and Taliban leader Jalalluddin Haqqani. The 9/11 attacks were planned and organized from those bases.

The 9/11 attacks caught Pakistan by surprise and forced a radical, incoherent and unanticipated change in Pakistan’s policies. Under intense pressure by the U.S., including an ultimatum from Secretary of State Colin Powell, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf chose to ally with America against Pakistan’s erstwhile Afghan and Arab partners. Mr. Musharraf long tried to channel his own and U.S operations narrowly against al Qaeda while diverting them from the remnants of the Taliban (whom elements of the Pakistani intelligence services continued to support).

But U.S. pressure to act in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the inexorable logic of the conflict led Pakistan to take actions that brought it into open conflict with some insurgent groups. Those groups in turn came to see Pakistan itself as their main enemy. By 2004, Pakistan faced a serious and growing insurgency in its tribal areas. By 2008 that insurgency had spread beyond the tribal areas into more settled areas such as the Swat River Valley. By 2009 it had metastasized to the point where Punjabis and not just Pashtuns were fighting the Pakistani government.

Pakistan turned an important—and little noticed—corner in its fight against its own Islamist insurgents this summer. The Pakistani military drove the Pakistani Taliban out of Swat and the surrounding areas, including much of the northern part of the tribal areas. Most recently, Pakistani military operations (with covert American support) decapitated the most dangerous Pakistani Taliban group based in Waziristan by killing its leader, Beitullah Mehsud. He was thought to be responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

In contrast with previous such efforts, the current Pakistani government has retained significant military force in all of these areas and so far appears to be continuing the fight even after these successes. Remarkably, the combat divisions now holding Swat and other areas in the northwest of Pakistan are among those most critical to Pakistan’s strategy to defend against the always-feared Indian attack.

But as American and NATO forces in Afghanistan discovered, the fight against the Taliban must be pursued on both sides of the border. Pakistan’s successes have been assisted by the deployment of American conventional forces along the Afghanistan border opposite the areas in which Pakistani forces were operating, particularly in Konar and Khowst Provinces.

Those forces have not so much interdicted the border crossings (almost impossible in such terrain) as they have created conditions unfavorable to the free movement of insurgents. They have conducted effective counterinsurgency operations in areas that might otherwise provide sanctuary to insurgents fleeing Pakistani operations (Nangarhar and Paktia provinces especially, in addition to Konar and Khowst). Without those operations, Pakistan’s insurgents would likely have found new safe havens in those provinces, rendering the painful progress made by Pakistan’s military irrelevant.

Pakistan’s stability cannot be secured solely within its borders any more than can Afghanistan’s. Militant Islam can be defeated only by waging a proper counterinsurgency campaign on both sides of the border.

(Mr. Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of “Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power” (AEI Press, 2008))

{Source: wsj.com}

In July, when federal authorities in North Carolina arrested seven men and charged them with training to become Islamist holy warriors, the government’s indictment claimed that last October an unidentified eighth member of the group had “departed the United States to travel to Pakistan to engage in violent jihad.”

A week later, my colleague Victoria Cherrie reported that the eighth man was Jude Kenan Mohammad — the 20-year-old son of an American mother and a Pakistani father — who was “believed to be in Pakistan and is still being sought.”

Three weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation put Mr. Mohammad’s face on a wanted poster and asked the American public for help in determining his whereabouts.

On Thursday, The Guardian reported that Mr. Mohammad is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow in the Pakistani town of Charsadda, where he will face minor charges unrelated the indictment in the United States.

According to a report in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, soon after arriving last October at his father’s home in the country’s volatile North-West Frontier Province, Mr. Mohammad was “arrested at a checkpoint on [his] way to the troubled Mohmand tribal region.” The Pakistani police officer who made the arrest told The Guardian, “I thought he looked like a Taliban spy,” despite the fact that he had an American passport and could not speak the local language, Pashto.

After Mr. Mohammad’s arrest in October, The Associated Press reported that he was being questioned by Pakistani intelligence agents and had been visited by American consular officials. An uncle in North Carolina told The A.P. that Mr. Mohammad’s mother had first learned of his arrest from the State Department.

Detained on such apparently flimsy charges, Mr. Mohammad was soon released on bail. His lawyer in Charsadda told The Guardian’s Declan Walsh that he had heard nothing of the more serious charges made by the American government in July. Since American consular officials attended Mr. Mohammad’s previous two hearings in the Pakistani court before he was accused of belonging to a ring of would-be jihadists in North Carolina, it is unlikely that they will miss his next appearance.

Jude Kenan Mohammad

One detail of Mr. Mohammad’s arrest in Pakistan that may cast some doubt on his intention to wage jihad is that he was stopped carrying a laptop computer and a knife but no gun. What makes that seem odd is that he was coming from his father’s hometown of Darra Adam Khel, which, as my colleague Raymond Bonner reported in 2002, is a town famous in the region for its gunsmiths:

More than 3,000 father-and-son operations, manufacturing, trading and selling weapons from their boxlike open-front shops, stand one after another along the main drag, and the arcades off it. [...]

There are pistols and hunting rifles, sniper rifles, Kalashnikovs, and M-16’s, new, used and modified.

Darra Adam Khel’s reputation as a weapons manufacturing center was made more than a century ago. An introduction to the town on a travel Web site explains:

Under a deal struck with the British colonial rulers, local residents were allowed to manufacture weaponry at Darra in exchange for guarding the Khyber Pass railway. Subsequent Pakistani governments have had no jurisdiction in the area, so the trade in arms flourishes, and it is correspondingly extremely dangerous. Don’t go there.

In 1971, Malcolm Browne wrote an article for The New York Times on the town which began this way:

There is an atmosphere of hard work, honesty and friendliness in this tribal town, where most people devote their lives to making submachine guns, assassination pistols and hundreds of other lethal weapons.

In 2005, The Telegraph reported that a locally made Kalashnikov knockoff cost just $40.

According to The Guardian, Mr. Mohammad’s father may not be in the gun trade — he studied law in New York and comes from a family with “extensive business interests across Pakistan,” including gas stations and real estate in Karachi — but it would seem strange for anyone to setting out from Darra Adam Khel to join the Taliban to fail to bring a gun.

For a glimpse of Darra’s gun trade, which flourishes in part because of its proximity to Afghanistan and in part because Pakistani law does not apply in the tribal area it belongs to, here is a video posted on YouTube by someone who visited the town in 2007:

{Source: New York Times}

The high court in the Indian state of Gujarat yesterday ordered the government to lift the ban on a controversial book on Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

The book was written by Jaswant Singh, a leader in India’s Hindu nationalist main opposition party, the BJP. The party subsequently expelled him.

But two social activists from Gujarat challenged the ban in court.

The state government said it had banned the book for “defamatory references” to India’s first home minister.

India’s first home minister, Vallabhbhai Patel, is a political icon in his home state of Gujarat.

While banning the book last month, the Gujarat government had said that Singh’s book Jinnah India-Partition-Independence was “objectionable, misleading and against public tranquillity”.

But the Gujarat high court said that the government had not “read the book” before imposing the ban.

The Gujarat government is expected to issue a statement reacting to the court decision.

Singh welcomed the decision and said: “I am thrilled”. He has filed a separate case in the Supreme Court challenging the ban.

The book examines the role of Congress party leader and the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Patel in the partition of India in 1947.

- Jaswant thrilled as ban lifted

Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh finally has reason to smile with the Gujarat High Court yesterday overturning the state government’s ban on his book Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence.

In the book, Jaswant Singh praises Pakistan founder Mohamed Ali Jinnah and blames India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for the partition.

A full-bench comprising Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan, justice Akil Kureshi and justice K M Thaker, hearing a public interest petition, ruled against the state government ban on the book.

Singh said he was “thrilled, absolutely thrilled” by the high court judgement and added it was a positive reflection on the judiciary.

However, he told CNN-IBN television channel, “one should not have to go to the court for this”.

“I have not abused anybody, so why (ban the book)?” the former minister for finance, defence and external affairs said.

A stunned BJP-ruled Gujarat government said it would study the judgment before firming up its next course of action.

State government spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas said: “We will wait for (a copy of) the judgment and then a matured decision will be taken.”

Asked if it was a defeat for the government, Vyas, also the state’s health minister, told reporters: “It is neither a victory nor a defeat.”

The state government led by Chief Minister Naredra Modi banned the book on August 19, two days after it was released in New Delhi, on the day Singh was expelled from the party for his views on Jinnah.

Jay Narayan Vyas had initially justified the ban, saying the book had objectionable references to India’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

“Making any references to his (Patel’s) role during those critical times without any evidence is an insult to the people of Gujarat, which we will not take lying down,” Vyas had said.

Jaswant Singh has said Pakistan founder Mohamed Ali Jinnah was “demonised” in India, while it was actually India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel whose belief in a centralised polity had led to the partition of the subcontinent-sized country.

Human rights activists Manishi Jani and Prakash N Shah had challenged the ban in the high court, saying the order was issued by the government without perusing the book.

“The bench noted that the ban was ordered without even studying the book,” Anand Yagnik, senior advocate who represented the petitioners, told reporters.

Welcoming the ruling, Jani said: “We were concerned with the freedom of expression. Any reader has right to read the book.

{Sources: Gulf Day News, Gulf Times}

By Imran Jamali

On July 20, a private TV channel in its programme showed a suicide bomber confessing working for the Indian RAW to create unrest in Pakistan. The bomber was arrested from Dera Bugti after he got injured as a result of explosion in a house. He disclosed that “Brahamdag Bugti is the actual ring leader of the terrorists; Indian officials meet Brahamdag regularly; the terrorists are being trained in the Afghan training camps; Karazai had been provided protection and stay in Balochistan during his years of exile, and now in return he is providing Brahamdag Bugti the status of state guest in Afghanistan; innocent people are being forcibly transported to Kabul; a large sum is being provided to the commanders who launch terrorists and suicide bombers; and the innocent youth have been brainwashed for suicide bombing in Pakistan, particularly against the security forces. Indian RAW is operating in Balochistan and FATA in collaboration with newly established Afghan intelligence agency RAAM (earlier name KHAD). For this purpose Afghanistan has made two detachments in Riasat 25 and 33. Both the establishments are being fed by RAW for spreading violence and creating internal security threat inside Pakistan. The Afghan government has provided shelter to Brahamdag Bugti. Indian RAW and Afghan RAAM have developed their deep relationship with each other. RAW has recently restructured KHAD giving it a name of Hindu god RAAM. It is imparting training to RAAM for breeding terrorists. Ahmad Wali Karzai, the brother of Hamid Karzai, has been accused of drug trafficking and RAW is covertly supporting him. Ever since the US NATO presence in Afghanistan, the drugs trade has soared all time high. The annual UN drugs report says the US-driven anti-narcotics policies had failed to make any significant dent in the trade, forcing a rethink. The reasons behind were that some of the Taliban elements, CIA, RAW and RAAM were generating money by exporting drugs. The funds generated by Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies are being used for storming terrorism in Pakistan. Reliable resources said Baitullah Mehsud was being funded by RAW for carrying out sabotage activities in Pakistan. The chiefs of Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies – V M Sharma and Amarullah Saleh – held a number of meetings in Kabul and New Delhi in order to implement their nefarious agendas. Few meetings had also been attended by top bosses of Mossad and CIA too. In a recent meeting they showed satisfaction over their covert operations in the region and decided to expand their loop-up up to China and Russia. Targeting Pakistan, China and Russia is obvious since these nuclear powers can challenge and create hurdle in the trail of their master’s great game. Some weeks ago Barahamdag reportedly met Amarullah Saleh and asked for additional money to undertake sabotage activities in Pakistan. He was promised a handsome amount and Commander Raziq Achakzai of Spin Boldak was made instrumental. Funds and explosives have been supplied by a man namely Abdul Sattar. A number of Afghan officials are facilitating Indian agents in crossing the border. Earlier this year, two border police personnel and one political figure were arrested while crossing the border without documents. Spin Boldak is said to be the main hub of anti-Pakistan activities and the town is being used as a launching pad. RAW-RAAM used to providing weapons via Bajaur, Dir, Pewchar (ex-headquarters for Fazlullah). Premier Gillani handed over these proofs to his Indian counterpart in Sharm el-Sheikh and provided pictures of Brahamdag and other terrorists showing them meeting with Indian agents in Afghanistan as well as in India. This was the proof of India’s involvement in recruiting, training, financing and arming terrorists being infiltrated into Pakistan. The links have been established through investigations that have proved the involvement of Indians in the attacks like that of on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, attack on Manawan police centre, etc, which jolted even the Indian lobby in Washington. Pakistan should also ask Afghanistan to stop interfering in our internal affairs. Kabul should be pursued to hand over criminals like Brahamdag back to Pakistan. The world community needs to be mobilized for putting pressure on Karzai to immediately close down the Indian consulates and training camps in Afghanistan. Secondly there is a need for the federal government to look into the Balochistan matters not the RAW way but also see the other side of the picture. The people’s dismay and dissatisfaction over the successive governments’ performance in Quetta as well as in Islamabad is because of the bigwigs’ ignorance about the ground realities. Unless they solve the issues like social disparity, educational, health, economic, literacy, employment, equal distribution of resources, equitable treatment to the people of this province, discriminatory attitude on the part of Centre, royalty and NFC Awards etc the problems cannot be solved. Indian involvement comes through our own inefficiency and insincerity.

(imran_jamalis@yahoo.com)

{Source: The Frontier Post}

By Syed Fazl-e-Haider

QUETTA, Pakistan – Political and administrative reforms recently announced by Pakistan for its Northern Areas, from last week known officially as Gilgit Baltistan, are aimed at providing better security cover for the rapidly growing Chinese interests in the territory, according to analysts.

Gilgit, the Northern Areas capital, has acquired the status of a gateway to Central Asia in the wake of a Pakistan-China barter trade agreement and accords with Central Asian states.

China has invested heavily in a range of projects in the Northern Areas and is poised to launch several new projects, particularly in power sector, costing billions of dollars. Last month, during a visit by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to China, the countries signed a memorandum of understanding on construction of a hydro-power station at Bunji, in Gilgit Baltistan.

The countries also agreed in June to allow market access for bilateral trade in 11 services sectors and to intensify their efforts to increase border trade, which constitutes merely 5% of their overall trade, and takes place through the Karakoram Highway (KKH), whose repair and upgrade is likely to be completed by 2012.

Last week, the Pakistan government announced significant reforms for the Northern Areas, including renaming the area as Gilgit Baltistan through the federal cabinet’s approval of the Gilgit Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order, 2009. The area has not been given the status of the country’s fifth province, though it will have a legislative assembly, a chief minister and a governor.

The people of Gilgit Baltistan had hitherto been denied any clear constitutional status and hence system of governance and the delivery of justice. This in part reflects the Kashmir issue, with India maintaining that the Northern Areas has been illegally occupied by Pakistan.

Historically, Gilgit Baltistan was not merged into Pakistan proper due to concern this might undermine the country’s claim on Kashmir and it was not merged into Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the southernmost political entity within the Pakistan-controlled part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, because it could complicate a settlement on the area, said a recent editorial of the Dawn newspaper.

If Gilgit Baltistan is made a full-fledged province within the constitutional framework of Pakistan, India could perhaps argue that the state it has carved out of the disputed area, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, is also a legitimate entity and that it is a settled issue, the editorial said.

Beijing’s profile in the Northern Areas has been rising for the past decade, with investments in a range of infrastructure projects. Important China-funded projects include the construction, maintenance and expansion of the KKH, small hydro-power projects, construction of a dry port at Sost, water-diversion channels, bridges, railway projects and telecommunication facilities.

The proposed Bunji dam is estimated to cost up to US$7 billion and will have a capacity to generate 7,000 megawatts of electricity. Under the deal, undertaken on a build-operate-transfer basis, all the investment will be made by Chinese entrepreneurs.

China and Pakistan also plan to link the KKH to the southern Pakistani port of Gwadar in southwestern Balochistan province through the Chinese-built Gwadar-Dalbandin railway, which extends up to the Pakistan garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The KKH, which connects China’s Xinjiang province with the Northern Areas, has a strategic importance as it cuts through the collision zone between the Asian and Indian continents, where China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan come within 250 kilometers of each other. It connects the Northern Areas to the ancient Silk Road, which runs about 1,300 kilometers from Kashgar city in Xinjiang region, to Havelian in the Pakistan district of Abottabad. An extension of the highway meets the Grand Trunk road at Hasn Abdal, west of Islamabad.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed in June 2006 between China’s state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Pakistani Highway Administration, the KKH will be widened from 10 meters to 30 meters, and its capacity will be increased three times. The upgraded road will also be constructed to particularly accommodate heavy-laden vehicles and extreme weather conditions.

The dry port at Sost, on the Pakistan-China border, is connected by the KKH to Karimabad, Gilgit and Chilas on the south and the Chinese cities of Tashkurgan, Upal and Kashgar in the north. The port has the potential to act as a conduit of trade for Central Asian states.

Islamabad is also poised to undertake the construction of the $12.6 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam, with a capacity to generate 4,500 MW of electricity per day. Work on the dam is to begin this month and is scheduled to be completed in 2016. The project, on the Indus River, is 165km downstream of Gilgit and 40km downstream of Chilas.

To support such developments, Pakistan expects an investment of $1.5 billion per year from European, Arab and Chinese companies willing to form a consortium on a build-operate-transfer basis on a “supplier’s credit” basis.

China has already agreed to extend 10 billion rupees (US$121 million) supplier credit out of a total cost of 12 billion rupees for the construction of the Karakoram Highway to establish links with the Bhasha dam site to help to transport heavy machinery needed in its construction.

(Syed Fazl-e-Haider, sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com, is a Quetta-based development analyst in Pakistan. He is the author of six books, including The Economic Development of Balochistan (2004)

{Source: Asia Times Online}

By Ahmed Quraishi

The Americans are back to their favourite arm-twisting practice: Diplomacy through calculated media leaks. The New York Times story on alleged Pakistani modifications to old-tech US missiles is a reminder that American interests do not overlap with those of Pakistan’s, despite the best efforts of the pro-American lobby within the Pakistani government. This lobby has been quite active recently – through a PR campaign – in defending US position and counselling fellow citizens to stop opposing Washington because Pakistan needs American aid.

What will America’s Pakistani apologists say after this indirect salvo, threatening Pakistan of scuttling the five-year, $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar aid bill because Pakistan continues to develop strategic missiles and refuses to turn its army into a police force at the beck and call of Uncle Sam’s bungled freedom mission in Afghanistan?

Maybe this is the reason why our usually boisterous ambassador in Washington was circumspect yesterday, saying little except that there appears to be a misunderstanding. But it is not a misunderstanding. The report – where no US official appears by name – is tailored to create panic in Islamabad and exert pressure without the need for Mr Holbrooke’s personal skills. Pakistani policymakers would do well to read between the lines.

Two things stand out: unwarranted US spying on Pakistan’s strategic weaponisation programmes and – more importantly – the preposterous US accusation that Pakistan’s defensive capability risks attracting an arms race with India.

There is only one explanation for the mounting American frustration: Despite seven years of intense pressures on Pakistan, Washington is nowhere close to putting a leash on the Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies. It does not know yet the exact location of Pakistan’s nuclear bombs and warheads. It is no closer to neutralising Pakistan’s nuclear button despite the wild campaign to convince the world that Pakistan was incapable of protecting its weapons. Pakistan managed to deflect pressures and refused to turn itself into a walkway for American and Indian boots. The latest episode in our political soap opera, where retired intelligence officers have been used to divulge old secrets, is designed to discredit the military.

While they distract the nation with their non-issues, there is no one to question the rulers why they approved the construction of the world’s largest US embassy in Islamabad when the American aid bill has not even passed US Congress? There are signs that the politicians are quietly allowing unprecedented US military and covert presence in and around the Pakistani capital in order to change the balance of power inside Pakistan in a permanent way. There are reports now that US military presence is being formalised in both Sindh and Balochistan. The frequency and detail of these reports means they cannot be discounted as hearsay.

Two Pakistani political parties, Mr Zardari’s PPP and Mr Sharif’s PML-N, both ironically created during the reigns of two different military rulers, are taking the nation for a ride in the name of democracy. Thanks to their non-performance in the past 19 months, Pakistan is staring at a huge national failure, from foreign policy to Gwadar. Lost in this circus is any talk about healthcare, education, highways or infrastructure. It is national decline.

The worst part about our politicians is not their glaring ineptitude. It is the fact that their parties are so stifled there is no hope the ruling elite will expand its limited pool of talent to include a nation brimming with initiative and yearning for change.

(The writer works for Geo TV. Email: aq@ahmedquraishi.com)

{Source: The News}

Fasi Zaka settles his 320-pound frame into a swivel chair in the small, stuffy FM studio, pulls his microphone close and lets it rip.

An upwardly mobile caller seeks a girlfriend and wonders whether he should move overseas for love and fortune.

Adopting an exaggerated posh South Asian accent, Zaka gently mocks the man’s concerns.

“I want young girl. I am engineer,” he says, speaking in a clipped, whiny fashion for comic effect. “Give me green card. I love America,” he continues, before letting out a belly laugh and moving on to the next caller: “OK, buddy, hope you get someone.”

In a country with conservative Islamic values whose government is battling the Taliban, rampant corruption, frequent suicide bombings and a limping economy, Zaka skirts the edge, variously insulting listeners, questioning sacred truths and dispensing mass therapy.

The idea of a Pakistani shock jock underscores some of the nuances, complexity and diversity of a society often seen by foreigners as little more than a land of suicide bombers, inflammatory mullahs and political turmoil.

In a recent tongue-in-cheek article, Zaka speculated what two fictional Pakistani Taliban leaders, Breath (bad) Nullah from Waziristan and Fuzz Gandah Nallah from Swat, might say at an English tea party.

“We should also take action against Cartoon Network.”

“Yes, we should. Tom is always chasing Jerry. They are always naked.”

“Yes, it is an American conspiracy to spread sex.”

Even as he’s panned as frivolous or ignored by some critics and establishment types, Zaka’s irreverent tone has hit a chord with the mostly 16- to 25-year-old set, making his radio program among the most popular in the nation. A core operating principle: Pakistanis are so weighted down by daily life that they need a laugh.

The 3-year-old “Fasi Zaka Show” on FM 91, which airs nationwide three nights a week from 10 to midnight, has been described as part Jon Stewart, part Monty Python, part stripped-down Howard Stern.

“Stripped down because Howard Stern has no limits,” says Hassan Gulfaraz, a frequent co-host. “We’re in a very conservative country . . . which means we have to be more creative.”

Zaka doesn’t exactly fit the mold for someone in this line of work. The 32-year-old ethnic Pashtun from the woolly North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan is an Oxford graduate and Rhodes scholar. After school he ignored family pressure to become a doctor, lawyer or multinational functionary.

One recent riff on the show involved repeated playing of the military ballad “Oh Pak Navy!”

“We are playing the Pakistani navy song in case someday the Taliban learns how to swim,” Zaka explained into the microphone.

“Or their donkeys,” Gulfaraz said.

“Oh Pakistan, you are the pride of our nation,” Zaka continued. “The Pakistani army never had time to get ready for the Taliban, so we want to encourage the navy.”

His irreverence occasionally draws threats. A religious caller seven months into the show threatened repeatedly to kill him. Text messages periodically heap abuse, including a recent one that read, “I’m from the Taliban. Let’s see if you still have this show when we come to power.”

But those tend to be the exception.

“It’s a good program that really connects with young people,” says Fatima Hussain, 16, a student. “I love it.”

Some have been less effusive, chiding its disrespectful tone, widespread use of slang and “lightweight content.”

“I wouldn’t call it frivolous — it has its moments,” says Nadeem Farooq Paracha, a cultural critic. “But it’s a bit silly.”

Others say Zaka is squandering a golden opportunity to be constructive and to foster moderation in a confused younger generation.

“It bothers me when people do silly entertainment shows when we really need people to make a difference,” says Mani, another radio host, who uses only one name.

Radio hosts don’t have to be boring and didactic to get their message across, counters Zaka, pointing to frequent discussions on extremism, women’s equality and the violence sweeping Pakistan.

“They presume preaching is the way for change,” he says. “It isn’t.”

The chain-smoking Zaka shows his more serious side and strong liberal leanings in regular op-ed columns. In short order, over pizza in his bare-bones Islamabad apartment, largely devoid of pictures or much in the way of personal effects, he criticizes Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as uneducated and small-minded, the Obama administration strategy for the region as naive and a feeding trough for corrupt local officials, and Pakistani society as unwilling to face tough problems.

“We’re an ostrich nation, really,” he says. “We’re just hoping it all goes away.”

Despite the show’s wing-it format, Zaka keeps a few ground rules. Sex, drugs and religion are addressed at best peripherally, in line with social mores.

So when a guest host, a character named Mr. Enlightened Moderations, poked fun at “fundos,” slang for Islamic fundamentalists, it was not for any extreme religious views, but for their poor dress sense, aversion to after-shave and limited use of deodorant.

“You sound like a fundo,” he’d say accusingly to callers. “You doesn’t even wears a deo, smelly boy.”

The show also follows what co-host Gulfaraz calls a “Robin Hood” approach, afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. Callers are often asked what car they own, what they ate for dinner last night, what’s with the fake British accent.

The show also operates under a “no revenge” rule. If Zaka lands a zinger, the lampooned caller can’t respond with some personal attack for at least a week to prevent the show from deteriorating into a name-calling exercise.

“No revenge!” he’ll exclaim, moving on to the next caller.

Zaka does read out text-messaged criticism of him, including such low blows as people calling him “fatty.”

The wing-it format means that some nights fall flat, something Zaka readily acknowledges.

At its best, however, a chance call sparks impassioned discussions on a topic listeners are grappling with and may not have other venues to discuss; or broader issues, as when a Sunni Muslim called about his interest in a Shiite woman, leading to a long airing of views on marriage across sectarian lines.

His recent targets include Junaid Jamshed, a former pop star turned Islamic preacher recruited by Lays after a rumor spread that its potato chips weren’t halal, or in keeping with Islamic dietary laws.

Jamshed’s bid to save the beleaguered chip, Zaka says, may just be history’s first case of “potato jihad.”

{Source: Chicago Tribune}

Rising poverty in Pakistan is forcing many young girls to sex trade. The story of Kaneez Fatima is representative of how young women end up in the business of prostitution in the country.

Although they are legally outlawed, the number of sex workers in the country has increased over the past few years.

Growing unemployment and inflation and the resulting rise in poverty have led many down this road.

Increasingly, young women across the country are putting their bodies up for sale in the “flesh markets”.

The daughter of a poor rural farmer from the Punjab province’s sub-district of Chiniot, Kaneez Fatima’s only advantage was that she was able to complete her school education.

Still in her teens, she was married off as is normally the case in Pakistan’s rural heartland.

“Initially it worked fine, but then my husband went out of work,” she told BBC Urdu.

“I had two small children to support, and started to work as a maid.”

‘Rapid progress’

Kaneez Fatima says the place where she started work was actually a brothel.

“The people there convinced me to join the profession. The money was better than anything I could find and I was desperate.”

There has been no looking back after that, she says.

“I started out as one of the girls working out of the dera [or den, as a brothel is called by locals].”

The girls, as she calls them, work out of it and are handled by a man or more often a woman known simply as “aunty”.

Kaneez says she made rapid progress through the ranks due to her education.

“My first dera was in Mandi Bahauddin [a town in central Punjab], where they made me in-charge soon after I joined.”

She says that she kept her profession a secret from her family, but her husband managed to find out.

“He called me to the village and then tried to shoot me.”

She escaped with a bullet wound to her leg and never went back.

“I changed my name and moved to Lahore portraying myself as a model.”

She has continued in the business and has now graduated to supplying girls to brothels all over Punjab.

“I get a commission ranging from an average of 5,000 to 10,000 rupees ($60 to $120) per girl. The price varies according to age and beauty.”

Kaneez says she also has to guarantee that the girls will not run away.

“While most are forced into the profession due to poverty, there are some who join voluntarily because they can make more money than in a ‘normal’ trade.”

According to her, the normal rate for a girl for two to three hours ranges between 1,000 and 1,500 rupees ($12 to $18).

“Of course if a client wants to spend the entire night then the rate rises exponentially, depending on the girl’s age and looks.”

The girls only get a fraction of this money as most of it goes to the aunty, she says.

Rising numbers

“The girl will get 300 rupees ($4) if she spends a few hours, and up to 2,000 rupees ($24) for the entire night.”

Kaneez says the number of girls is rising by the day, and they are often brought in by relatives such as fathers, mothers, brother and even husbands.

“Some of the girls are so young that my heart refuses to agree, but what can one do?”

Nida is a pretty and innocent looking young woman of about 20 and has been a prostitute for six years.

“My first time was when I was 14 years old and I was brought here by my mother as she had to pay off a loan of 10,000 rupees.

“I did not even know what to do at the time.”

Nida says that she has continued in the trade as her entire family is now dependent on her for their day-to-day survival.

“I don’t want to be here… I have dreams about getting married and having children, but I have no choice.”

She says she would leave the trade immediately if the government or some social organisation could ensure food, clothing and shelter for her parents and siblings.

Maria, on the other hand, is very much in the business out of choice.

“My husband was good for nothing, and I wanted my children to get the best of everything,” she says.

Maria says she has worked all over northern Pakistan, specially in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

She says her best days were in Islamabad where she was able to make up to 100,000 rupees ($1,200) a month plus tips.

“The people were always well behaved and did not mistreat me. The clients never identified themselves, but I could tell some were powerful and important men.

“Quite a few of them were Westerners as well.”

Maria says she eventually left because of the rising attacks on hotels, which were her main operating places.

“I am in Lahore now, and while things are not as lucrative, at least there is more security.”

Maria, however, is one of the luckier ones.

Kaneez Fatima says that there are so many horror stories in the profession that she could relate them for hours.

“The most common cases are where a client makes a perverse or strange demand and the girl refuses. They either beat her black and blue, or just kill her and tell us she has run away.

“After all, who cares for another dead prostitute?”

{Source : BBC}

By Talha Mujaddidi

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 Afhanistan 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

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.

Costs to the U.S. Taxpayer

The total cost for housing and and general support for the marines alone will be US$112.5 million. US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson said the money is allocated as follows: “$5 million was for Marine quarters, $53.5 for housing infrastructure, $18 million for improvement of general services office area, and $36 million for temporary duty quarters and community support facilities.”

In Patterson’s explanation of the massive expansion of the U.S. Embassy she talked about 4 Billion (that’s with a “B”) dollars:

“The embassy expansion, she said, was a reflection of the long-term commitment that the US intended to have with Pakistan. Moreover, she said, quadrupling of the social, economic and military assistance that would touch $4 billion a year over the next 18 months, necessitated staff increase.”

Ambassador Patterson did not clarify whether the $4 Billion covers the construction which will make this embassy the largest in the world. When this construction is seen in context and coordination with the new level of U.S. occupation of Pakistan, it looks more like a permanent military base than an embassy for running military and covert operations not only in Pakistan but also in the region.

Weapons and Hummers

Eye witnesses and informed journalists have been reporting sightings of U.S. personnel in Islamabad for the past week or so, but now they are seen moving freely throughout the capital. The law (Section 144) provides that Pakistanis who own guns are not permitted to carry them in Islamabad. But U.S. personnel are showing Pakistanis that they are above the law as they openly brandish their weapons. It has also been confirmed that 3,000 U.S. military Hummers, locked and loaded are awaiting dispatch in Karachi’s Port Qasim. For millions of Pakistanis news of these Hummers conjures up images of U.S. troops charging through the streets of Iraqi cities, armed to the teeth, terrifying and often killing unarmed civilians.

Blackwater and the CIA

Pakistanis have known about the 300 U.S. military “advisers” lodged in Tarbela. But news of the arrival of the notorious Blackwater mercenaries in addition to the thousand U.S. marines are riveting their attention. In Pakistan, Blackwater is trading its tainted name for a telling name “Xe Worldwide”, – the name behind which these paid killers are now hiding.

Also, last week, Creative Associates International Inc (CAII), a CIA front, has been operating in Peshawar. They have now sealed off a road and set up shop near the houses of senior Pakistani officials in Islamabad, directly across from a school.

Dr. Shireen M. Mazari is a scholar and commentator on Strategic Studies and Political Science from Pakistan. She has a Ph.D. from Colombia University and was Director General of Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, Pakistan and former Chairperson of Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. She is critical of the relationship the Pakistan government has with the United States and India. Speaking for an opposition political party (Tehreek-e-Insaaf), Dr. Shireen Mazari speaks about the new arrival of U.S. forces in Pakistan:

“Will some of these go to the Pentagon’s assassination squads, who may take up residence in some of the barricaded Islamabad houses and with whom the present US commander in Afghanistan was directly associated? Ordinary officials at Pakistani airports have also been muttering their concerns over chartered flights flying in Americans whose entry is not recorded – even the flight crews are not checked for visas and so there is now no record-keeping of exactly how many Americans are coming into or going out of Pakistan. Incidentally the CAII’s (CIA/Blackwater) Craig Davis who was deported has now returned to Peshawar! And let us not be fooled by the cry that numbers reflect friendship since we know what numbers meant to Soviet satellites.”

Given little attention in the corporate media, Peshawar’s Pearl Continental Hotel was bombed on June 9, 2009. At the time of the bombing, Pakistani media reported officially that it was housing U.S. personnel at the time but did not mention Blackwater. However, Blackwater’s name began to surface in rumours and unofficial reports after the Peshawar bombing.

On August 5, 2009, Ahmed Quraishi, political analyst, columnist and independent owner of a news website reported on the insertion of U.S. Marines, Blackwater, the CIA and military hardware into Pakistan:

“Pakistanis ask, ‘Who rules our streets, the Pakistani government or the Americans? And who let them in?’

“Three weeks ago a group of concerned Pakistani citizens in Peshawar wrote to the federal interior ministry to complain about the suspicious activities of a group of shadowy Americans in a rented house in their neighborhood, the upscale University Town area of Peshawar. A NGO calling itself Creative Associates International, Inc. leased the house”. According to its Website, CAII describes itself as ‘a privately-owned non-governmental organization that addresses urgent challenges facing societies today … Creative views change as an opportunity to improve, transform and renew …’ The description makes no sense. It is more or less a perfect cover for the American NGO’s real work: espionage…

“In Peshawar, CAII, opened an office to work on projects in the nearby tribal agencies of Pakistan. All of these projects, interestingly, are linked to the US government. CAII’s other projects outside Pakistan are also linked to the US government. In short, this NGO is not an NGO. It is closely linked to the US government.

Meanwhile, when asked about the expansion of the embassy, U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson was “visibly shaken” and replied, “I’m speechless. To spy on Pakistan we don’t need a big US embassy.” Quickly recovering, she added, “And we don’t need to spy either.” Patterson went on to say that Pakistan could turn into a “family station” – whatever that means to a U.S. colonial bureaucrat.

Ahmed further explains the CIA’s cover for the Blackwater mercenaries:

“In Peshawar, CAII told Pakistani authorities it needed to hire security guards for protection. The security guards, it turns out, were none other than Blackwater’s military-trained hired guns. They were used the CAII cover to conduct a range of covert activities in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. The infamous Blackwater private security firm operates as an extension of the US military and CIA, taking care of dirty jobs that the US government cannot associate itself with in faraway strategic places. Blackwater is anything but a security firm. It is a mercenary army of several thousand hired soldiers.

“Pakistani security officials apparently became alarmed by reports that Blackwater was operating from the office of CAII on Chinar Road, University Town in Peshawar. The man in charge of the office, allegedly an American by the name of Craig Davis according to a report in Jang, Pakistan’s largest Urdu language daily, was arrested and accused of establishing contacts with ‘the enemies of Pakistan’ in areas adjoining Afghanistan. His visa has been cancelled, the office sealed, and Mr. Davis reportedly expelled back to the United States.

“It is not clear when Mr. Davis was deported and whether there are other members of the staff expelled along with him. When I contacted the US Embassy over the weekend, spokesman Richard Snelsire’s first reaction was, ‘No embassy official has been deported’.”

Keep in mind that Dr. Shireen Mazari who is in a position to know, stated flatly, “CAII’s Craig Davis who was deported has now returned to Peshawar!”

But Ahmed Quraishi explains the denial by the U.S. embassy:

“This defensive answer is similar to the guilt-induced reactions of US embassy staffers in Baghdad and Kabul at the presence of mercenaries working for US military and CIA. I said to Mr. Snelsire that I did not ask about an embassy official being expelled. He said he heard these reports and ‘checked around’ with the embassy officials but no one knew about this. ‘It’s baseless’ [he said]. So I asked him, “Is Blackwater operating in Pakistan, in Peshawar?” ‘Not to my knowledge’. [he answered].

“Fair enough. The US embassies in Baghdad and Kabul never acknowledged Blackwater’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan either. This is part of low-level frictions between the diplomats at the US Department of State and those in Pentagon and CIA. The people at State have reportedly made it clear they will not acknowledge or accept responsibility for the activities of special operations agents operating in friendly countries without the knowledge of those countries and in violation of their sovereignty. Reports have suggested that sometimes even the US ambassador is unaware of what his government’s mercenaries do in a target country.”

Finally, Ahmed discusses a U.S. diplomat met secretly with an Indian diplomat inside Pakistan, knowing full well that India is considered to be an enemy state of Pakistan:

“In May, a US woman diplomat was caught arranging a quiet [read 'secret'] meeting between a low-level Indian diplomat and several senior Pakistani government officials. An address in Islamabad – 152 Margalla Road – was identified as a venue where the secret meeting took place. The American diplomat in question knew there was no chance the Indian would get to meet the Pakistanis in normal circumstances. Nor was it possible to do this during a high visibility event. After the incident, Pakistan Foreign Office issued a terse statement warning all government officials to refrain from such direct contact with foreign diplomats in unofficial settings without prior intimation to their departments”.

NGOs that are not NGOs

In addition, many U.S. sponsored NGO’s are working to create news reports in mainstream media which are pro-U.S. For this purpose, many Pakistani analysts, retired generals, businessmen, journalists, and academics are being recruited. As Ahmed Quraishi said, “this NGO is not an NGO”, i.e. some Non Governmental Organizations operate under the control and direction of governments who use them for covert operations in foreign countries and fund them surreptitiously.

Conclusion

It’s clear that the current government has given full privileges to the US. They neither know how, nor want to draw a line against U.S. interference in Pakistani affairs. To put it bluntly, they are surrendering the sovereignty of Pakistan to a foreign power. Dr. Shireen Mazari says, “Whatever the US embassy gives out … the terrified Pakistani leadership echoes.” The objectives of the U.S. are clear: Deeper U.S. penetration will result in the destabilisation of Pakistan, leading to destabilization of the entire region. These U.S. military installations also strengthening their encirclement of Iran. The Pakistani political opposition parties are lip stuck at all these developments. The main reason for their silence is that they are as corrupt as the ruling PPP. No political party in Pakistan is in the mood to resist US hegemony. The Pakistan Army no longer shows any interest in directly interfering with political decisions. After the disastrous eight years under the military dictatorship of Musharraf, the people are also not ready for the Pakistan military to intervene in the political life of the country. The TTP terrorists have just been brought under control – barely. Now millions of Pakistanis are terrified by their new, unwelcome guests from the west – the U.S. terrorists. We will now have to learn to tolerate and survive under this growing and increasingly dangerous U.S. colonization of Pakistan.

{Source: Axis of Logic}

By Jawed Naqvi

Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged a meeting of India’s federal police (CBI) to go after the ‘big fish’ in a campaign to weed out deep-rooted corruption. This exercise has been going on since 1947 when more than Nehru his son-in-law Feroze Gandhi waged a momentarily successful battle against deviant tycoons and their political patrons.

The finance minister last week promised to crack the numbered accounts in Switzerland where business tycoons, bureaucrats, politicians, movie stars, among others, are thought to illegally keep billions of dollars. The only problem in this is that the finance minister is too closely identified with businessmen whose reputation in the realm of probity is not worthy of emulation.

In Pakistan, the courts and government bosses were criticised over the hoarding of sugar among other vital commodities ahead of Ramazan. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif told sugar mills to bring their stocks to market within 24 hours or their stocks would be seized. It’s difficult to keep track of, much less name, the men and women who have been caught or let off while indulging in large-scale graft in Pakistan.

Corruption evidently is not the monopoly of any single ethnic or religious community. Therefore, when communally motivated Pakistanis or Bangladeshis use the phrase ‘wily Baniya’ for either Mahatma Gandhi or other Hindu leaders in India they should go back to the address by Mohammed Ali Jinnah to Pakistan’s constituent assembly on August 11, 1947. The Quaid spent a good part of his speech to address the scourge of corruption and bribery, ostensibly among Muslims. Jaswant Singh has quoted the text in his adulatory book on Pakistan’s founder leader.

‘One of the biggest curses from which India is suffering – I do not say that other countries are free from it, but, I think our condition is much worse – is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison,’ said Jinnah. ‘We must put that down with an iron hand and I hope that you will take adequate measures as soon as it is possible for this assembly to do so.

‘Black-marketing is another curse. Well, I know that blackmarketeers are frequently caught and punished. Judicial sentences are passed or sometimes fines only are imposed. Now you have to tackle this monster, which today is a colossal crime against society, in our distressed conditions, when we constantly face shortage of food and other essential commodities of life.

A citizen who does black-marketing commits, I think, a greater crime than the biggest and most grievous of crimes. These blackmarketeers are really knowing, intelligent and ordinarily responsible people, and when they indulge in black-marketing, I think they ought to be very severely punished, because the entire system of control and regulation of foodstuffs and essential commodities, and cause wholesale starvation and want and even death.’

In India, a major initiative to tackle corruption in high places came this month from the Supreme Court, whereby its judges made it mandatory for themselves to post their financial assets on an official website. High court judges are expected to follow the example. This of course is a very small beginning towards eliminating what really amounts to centuries of criminality towards fellow Indians.

The decision of the Supreme Court judges does not, however, obviate the need for a law to make such public declarations compulsory. The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform (CJAR) has argued that the law must provide for an annual public declaration of assets and liabilities as well as income tax returns of all public servants, not just the judges.

It is only when people can compare the assets of public servants with their legal sources of income, that one can catch public servants who have acquired assets disproportionate to their legal income. According to CJAR, the argument that income tax returns or asset disclosures of public servants is an unwarranted invasion of privacy of public servants is specious, since in a democracy, the people who are the real sovereign are entitled to know whether their public servants are paying their taxes and whether they have acquired assets which are disproportionate to their legal income.

Apart from this, there is a serious problem with the method of appointing judges to the higher judiciary. There is not only no transparency in the process, there is also no system or method followed for preparing shortlists or for choosing among eligible candidates. This comment on potential nepotism by the CJAR though specific to the Indian system, has in its crosshairs an issue that Jinnah found important enough to flag at the outset of Pakistan’s tryst with sovereignty.’

The next thing (after corruption and bribery) that strikes me is this: Here again it is a legacy which has been passed on to us. Along with many other things, good and bad, has arrived this great evil, the evil of nepotism and jobbery. I want to make it quite clear that I shall never tolerate any kind of jobbery, nepotism or any influence directly or indirectly brought to bear upon me. Whenever I will find that such a practice is in vogue or is continuing anywhere, low or high, I shall certainly not countenance it,’ Jinnah told the constituent assembly.

The Quaid’s assault on corruption was probably rooted in his experience of Bengal where the British government and the Indian comprador classes wreaked havoc by creating a man-made famine in 1943. Various estimates of the total number of famine deaths that year have been made that range up to 5 million. A detailed American analysis of this tragedy estimated 3.5 to 3.8 million as the excess mortality due to starvation and attendant disease in 1943-1946.

The magnitude of this event and its continuing consequences can be gauged from the increase in population of West Bengal plus East Bengal (Bangladesh) of only 3 million in the period 1941 to 1951 as compared to a population growth of 11 million in the period 1931 to 1941. Hoarding and black-marketing of grain resulted in unprecedented increase in price. Bengalis having to purchase food (e.g. landless labourers) suffered immensely – thus it is estimated that about 30 per cent of one particular labourer class died in the famine.

Corruption of course is not a feature exclusive to South Asia. Transparency International in its report for 2008 ranked the United States at 20, three notches more corrupt than the UK at 17. However, by comparison India (86) fares a shade worse than China (73). On the other hand, Sri Lanka (95), Pakistan (136), Bangladesh (147) can boast of being less corrupt than American-administered Iraq (178) or Afghanistan (176).

India’s problem with corruption has not been helped by its new economic policies, prescribed by Dr Singh, which have spurred a race to become rich quickly, more often than not by unethical means. From stockbroker Harshad Mehta to Ramalinga Raju of Satyam, the premier IT giant, the path is littered with icons created and deserted by the pink dailies. Gandhi who mixed freely with the business community, especially from his native state of Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan, called them the trustees of India.

It was not without a hint of irony that he was assassinated in Birla House, once owned by his friend and confidant, a tycoon. In the early days during Nehru’s rule a book was published in the form of a detailed account of massive tax evasion carried out by this friend of Gandhi. The Birlas are said to have bought all the copies and the copyright of the investigative book Mystery of the Birla House, written by Debjyoti Burman. One copy escaped and is kept in the rare books section of the Nehru Memorial Library. The book needs to be read and emulated by journalists and writers in all South Asian countries, including India.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

{Source: Dawn}

An Indian newspaper has claimed that Muhammad Ali Jinnah – the founder of Pakistan – could not read or write Urdu, the official language of Pakistan which “later became one of the reasons behind separation of Bangladesh”.

The Times of India said, “The fact was recorded in many books that Jinnah was not comfortable with either Urdu or Bangla.” But Jinnah was fluent in Gujarati – his mother tongue and a language he could read as well as write.

“Around 1915, Jinnah gave an interview to experimental magazine Vismi Sadi (20th Century). In this interview, Jinnah answered eight questions in Gujarati in one word each in his own handwriting. These one-word answers in Gujarati from Jinnah gave interesting insight into his personality,” said the newspaper. “Jinnah signed off as Muhammad Ali Jeena, as one would write in Gujarati.”

- I want to remove negativity about Jinnah: Jaswant

Former BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Sunday said he wanted to remove the negative perception of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in India.

“I want to remove the negativity surrounding Jinnah,” he said while talking to people present at a book-signing event.

When asked about his future plans after being removed from the BJP, Singh said he was presently focused on promoting his book across the country.

Jawant’s book “Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence” has become the new bestseller and publishers are trying to meet with the rising demand.

Despite a ban imposed by the Gujarat state government and negative propaganda by some think tanks and politicians, the book is out of stock at most book stores and the publishers now plan several launching ceremonies across India.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Publishers has extended strong support to Jaswant’s book and condemned the Gujarat government for banning it.

Jaswant earlier said one needed to write about Jinnah, whom even Mahatma Gandhi had called a great man.

“Even today, 50 to 60 books are written about the American civil war. But here we write one book on India’s partition and Jinnah and you are expelled from a party,” he said.

- BJP is Imploding: Jaswant Singh

The BJP is “imploding”, says Jaswant Singh who feels the party he was associated for 30 years is demonstrating “lack of confidence” with each passing day and has suddenly been “robbed of reasoning”. He also said he was “trapped” into going to Shimla for the leadership meeting that sacked him without explanation.

Maintaining he had no plans to join another political party for the moment, Jaswant Singh said the BJP was collapsing internally following the rapid sequence of events following his exit.

“Yes, it is imploding. Every additional day they display greater and greater lack of confidence. I don’t know what has suddenly robbed them of reasoning. It is a very sad demonstration of incapacity,” Jaswant Singh said in an exclusive interview at his sprawling 15, Teen Murti Lane residence.

“Is it a crisis of the party or leadership? The party should have been bursting with political health after expelling me and been in the pink of health. Why is it suffering more? It puts paid to the rationale then.”

The MP from Darjeeling expressed disgust that the BJP threw him out summarily for writing a book that tried to historically evaluate Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

“Did I apprehend it (expulsion)? No. Did I have any indication? No. I have said in the academy as a gentleman cadet (that) when you are found unsuitable, you are withdrawn. So I reject the word expelled. But that is what they chose to use,” said Jaswant Singh, who was an officer in the Indian Army and is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, said of his expulsion from the party at its leadership meeting (called ‘chintan baithak’) in Shimla last week. “It seemed as if my own party colleagues were almost laying a trap for me,” he said. “Isn’t that humiliating beyond words? That a party which I served for 30 years and was one of its founding members should find it necessary to lay traps? This 
is dishonourable.” Jaswant Singh insisted that Vajpayee was aware he was writing the book and never tried talking him out of it.

“Of course not… there is no question. When James Laine’s book on Shivaji was banned in Maharashtra by the Shiv Sena (government), Vajpayee’s response was that there should be a reply to the book. (He) did not recommend a ban.

“And before I left for Shimla (for the BJP meeting), I gave a copy of my book, both in Hindi and in English, to him (Vajpayee) as I had (given) to Advani.

“And, yes, Vajpayee is aware of what is happing in the party. But I did not discuss party matters or go there to tattle. I went to wish him well.”

“The BJP should not come across as a 19th century organisation raising obsolete issues. In politics, perceptions are just as important if not more important than reality. Ram Setu and Babri Masjid are non-issues for people now.”

{Sources: Daily Times, Khaleej Times}

By Jeremy Scahill

Blackwater, the private mercenary company owned by Erik Prince, has been thrust back into the spotlight by a series of stunning revelations about its role in covert US programs. Since at least 2002, Blackwater has worked for the CIA in Afghanistan and Pakistan on “black” contracts. On August 19, the New York Times revealed that the company was, in fact, a central part of a secret CIA assassination program that Dick Cheney allegedly ordered concealed from Congress. The paper then reported that Blackwater remains a key player in the widening air war in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it arms drone aircraft. These disclosures follow allegations – made under oath by former Blackwater employees – that Prince murdered or facilitated the murder of potential government informants and that he “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.”

In addition, Blackwater is being investigated by the Justice Department for possible crimes ranging from weapons smuggling to manslaughter and by the IRS for possible tax evasion. It is being sued in federal courts by scores of Iraqi civilians for alleged war crimes and extrajudicial killings. Two of its men have pleaded guilty to weapons-smuggling charges; another pleaded guilty to the unprovoked manslaughter of an Iraqi civilian, and five others have been indicted on similar counts. The US military is investigating Blackwater’s killing of civilians in Afghanistan in May, and reports are emerging that the company may be implicated in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.

And yet, despite these black marks, the Obama administration continues to keep Blackwater on the government’s payroll. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, Blackwater still works for the CIA, the State Department and the Defense Department to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and its continuing presence is an indicator of just how entrenched private corporations are in the US war machinery. The United States now deploys more private forces (74,000) than uniformed soldiers (57,000) in Afghanistan. While the majority of these contractors are not armed, a sizable number carry weapons, and their ranks are swelling. A recent Defense Department census reports that as of June 30, armed DoD contractors in Afghanistan had increased by 20 percent from the first quarter of 2009.

With the exception of a few legislators, notably Representatives Henry Waxman and Jan Schakowsky, Congress has left the use of private military contractors largely unmonitored. But the recent disclosures of Blackwater’s covert activities may finally force Congress to take action. At the very least, the Obama administration should be required to disclose current and past federal contracts with all of Prince’s companies and affiliates, including those registered offshore.

Congress can take Schakowsky’s lead and ask the Obama administration why it is continuing to work with Blackwater. Schakowsky has called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to review all of the company’s existing contracts and not to award any new ones to its many affiliates. Congressional intelligence committees should also conduct a wide-ranging investigation into Blackwater’s involvement in the CIA assassination program. Were Blackwater operatives involved in actual killings? Who approved the company’s involvement? Was Congress notified? How high up the chain of command did the covert relationship with the company go? Was Blackwater active on US soil? What role, if any, did/does Blackwater play in secretly transporting prisoners?

This investigation must include the sworn testimony of former top CIA officials who were later hired or paid by Blackwater. Among these are Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, the former number-three man at the agency, who gave Blackwater its first CIA contract and then served on the company’s board, and J. Cofer Black, the former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism unit, which ran the assassination program. Black later became the vice chair of Blackwater and ran Total Intelligence Solutions, Prince’s private CIA. Total Intelligence has been simultaneously employed by the US government, foreign governments and private companies, an arrangement that may have created conflicts of interest that the House and Senate intelligence committees are obliged to investigate. Congress should also ask if national security is compromised when the knowledge, contacts and access possessed by former high-ranking CIA officials like Black and Krongard are placed on the open market.

John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has questioned whether Blackwater used its State Department clearance as cover to gather information for targeted killings. Kerry should hold hearings in which Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice would be compelled to testify on the matter. The oversight committees should probe allegations that Blackwater was involved in arms smuggling and extrajudicial killings in Iraq, while committees dealing with military affairs should investigate what impact Blackwater’s actions in Iraq have had on the safety of US troops. An invaluable asset for these investigations could be the Commission on Wartime Contracting, established by Senators Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill. Finally, the Justice Department should probe the murder, smuggling and other allegations against Prince and his executives.

In all of this, Blackwater has proved itself to be a whack-a-mole: it keeps popping up. Despite the Iraqi government’s ban on the company, its operatives remain in Iraq a full two years after the September 2007 Nisour Square massacre, in which seventeen Iraqi civilians were gunned down in Baghdad. This resilience means that the investigations into the company must be comprehensive and coordinated.

Lastly, it is a mistake to think that Blackwater is the only problem. In Iraq, for example, the Obama administration is replacing Blackwater with the private contractor Triple Canopy, which, in addition to hiring some of Blackwater’s men, has its own questionable history, including allegations of shooting civilians and hiring forces from countries with a history of human rights abuses. Blackwater is but one fruit on the poisonous tree of military outsourcing. It is imperative that Congress confront the intimate linking of corporate profits to US wars and lethal, covert operations.

{Source: truthout}