How many US SEALs died?

Islamabad: In a sensational and explosive TV report, the Pakistani News Agency has provided a live interview with an eyewitness to the U.S. attack on the alleged compound of Osama bin Laden reports TT.

The eye witness, Mohammad Bashir, describes the event as it unfolded. Of the three helicopters, “there was only one that landed the men and came back to pick them up, but as he (the helicopter) was picking them up, it blew away and caught fire.” The witness says that there were no survivors, just dead bodies and pieces of bodies everywhere. “We saw the helicopter burning, we saw the dead bodies, then everything was removed and now there is nothing.”

I always wondered how a helicopter could crash, as the White House reported, without at least producing injuries. Yet, in the original White House story, the SEALs not only survived a 40-minute firefight with Al-Qaeda, “the most highly trained, most dangerous, most vicious killers on the planet,” without a scratch, but also survived a helicopter crash without a scratch.

The Pakistani news report is available on YouTube. The Internet site, Veterans Today, posted a translation along with a video of the interview. Information Clearing House made it available on May 17.

If the interview is not a hoax and the translation is correct, we now know the answer to the unasked question: Why was there no White House ceremony with President Obama pinning medals all over the heroic SEALs who tracked down and executed Public Enemy Number One?

The notion that Obama had to keep the SEALs’ identity secret in order to protect the SEALs from al Qaeda detracts from the heroic tough guy image of the SEALs, and it strains credulity that Obama’s political handlers would not have milked the occasion for all it is worth.

Other than on the Veterans Today and ICH Internet sites, I have not seen any mention of the Pakistani news story. If the White House press corps is aware of the report, no one has asked President Obama or his press spokesperson about it. Helen Thomas was the last American reporter sufficiently brave to ask such a question, and she was exterminated by the Israel Lobby.

In America we have reached the point where anyone who tells the truth is dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist” and marginalized. Recently, a professor of nano-chemistry from the University of Copenhagen made a lecture tour of major Canadian universities explaining the research, conducted by himself and a team of physicists and engineers, that resulted in finding small particles of unreacted nano-thermite in dust samples from the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers, in addition to other evidence that the professor and the research team regard as conclusive scientific proof that the towers were brought down by controlled demolition.

No American university dared to invite him, and as far as I know, no mention of the explosive research report has ever appeared in the American press.

I find it astonishing that 1,500 architects and engineers, who actually know something about buildings, their construction, their strength and weaknesses, and who have repeatedly requested a real investigation of the destruction of the three WTC buildings, are regarded as conspiracy kooks by people who know nothing whatsoever about architecture or engineering or buildings. The same goes for the large number of pilots who question the flight maneuvers carried out during the attacks, and the surviving firemen and “first responders” who report both hearing and personally experiencing explosions in the towers, some of which occurred in sub-basements.

A large number of high-ranking political figures abroad don’t believe a word of the official 9/11 story. For example, the former president of Italy and dean of the Italian Senate, told Italy’s oldest newspaper, Corriere delia Sera, that the intelligence services of Europe “know well that the disastrous (9/11) attack has been planned and realized by the American CIA and the (Israeli) Mossad . . . in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part in (the invasions).”

Even people who report that there are dissenting views, as I have done, are branded conspiracy theorists and banned from the media. This extends into the Internet in addition to newspapers and TV. Not long ago a reporter for the Internet site, The Huffington Post, discovered that Pat Buchanan and I are critics of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions. He was fascinated that there were some Reagan administration officials who dissented from the Republican Party’s war position and asked to interview me.

After he posted the interview on The Huffington Post, someone told him that I was not sound on 9/11. In a panic the reporter contacted me, demanding to know if I disbelieved the official 9/11 story. I replied that being neither architect, engineer, physicist, chemist, pilot, nor firefighter, I had little to contribute to understanding the event, but that I had reported that various experts had raised questions.

The reporter was terrified that he might somehow have given a 9/11 skeptic credibility and be fired for interviewing me about my war views for The Huffington Post. He quickly added at the beginning and, if memory serves, ending of the posted interview words to the effect that my lack of soundness on 9/11 meant that my views on the wars could be disregarded. If only he had known that I was unsure about the official 9/11 story, there would have been no interview.

One doesn’t have to be a scientist, architect, engineer, pilot or firefighter to notice astonishing anomalies in the 9/11 story. Assume that the official story is correct and that a band of terrorists outwitted not only the CIA and FBI, but also all 16 US intelligence agencies and those of our NATO allies and Israel’s notorious Mossad, along with the National Security Council, NORAD, air traffic control and airport security four times in one hour on the same morning. Accept that this group of terrorists pulled off a feat worthy of a James Bond movie and delivered a humiliating blow to the world’s only superpower.

If something like this really happened, would not the president, the Congress, and the media be demanding to know how such an improbable thing could have happened? Investigation and accountability would be the order of the day. Yet President Bush and Vice President Cheney resisted the pleas and demands for an investigation from the 9/11 families for one year, or was it two, before finally appointing a non-expert committee of politicians to listen to whatever the government chose to tell them. One of the politicians resigned from the commission on the grounds that “the fix is in.”

Even the two chairmen and the chief legal counsel of the 9/11 Commission wrote books in which they stated that they believe that members of the military and other parts of the government lied to the commission and that the commission considered referring the matter for investigation and prosecution.

Thomas Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, said: “FAA and NORAD officials advanced an account of 9/11 that was untrue . . . We, to this day don’t know why NORAD told us what they told us . . . It was just so far from the truth.”

Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton said: “We had a very short time frame . . . we did not have enough money . . . We had a lot of people strongly opposed to what we did. We had a lot of trouble getting access to documents and to people. . . . So there were all kinds of reasons we thought we were set up to fail.”

As far as I know, not a single member of the government or the media made an issue of why the military would lie to the commission. This is another anomaly for which we have no explanation.

The greatest puzzle is the conclusion drawn by a national audience from watching on their TV screens the collapse of the WTC towers. Most seem satisfied that the towers fell down as a result of structural damage inflicted by the airliners and from limited, low-temperature fires. Yet what the images show is not buildings falling down, but buildings blowing up. Buildings that are destroyed by fires and structural damage do not disintegrate in 10 seconds or less into fine dust with massive steel beams sliced at each floor level by high temperatures that building fires cannot attain. It has never happened, and it never will.

Conduct an experiment. Free your mind of the programmed explanation of the towers’ destruction and try to discern what your eyes are telling you as you watch the videos of the towers that are available online. Is that the way buildings fall down from damage, or is that the way buildings are brought down by explosives? Little doubt, many Americans prefer the official story to the implications that follow from concluding that the official story is untrue.

If reports are correct, the U.S. government has gone into the business of managing the public’s perceptions of news and events. Apparently, the Pentagon has implemented Perception Management Psychological Operations. There are also reports that the State Department and other government agencies use Facebook and Twitter to stir up problems for the Syrian, Iranian, Russian, Chinese, and Venezuela governments in efforts to unseat governments not controlled by Washington. In addition, there are reports that both governments and private organizations employ “trolls” to surf the Internet and to attempt to discredit in blogs and comment sections reports and writers who are out of step with their interests. I believe I have encountered trolls myself.

In addition to managing our perceptions, much is simply never reported. On May 19, 2011, the fourteen-decade-old British newspaper, The Statesman, reported that the Press Trust of India has reported that the Chinese government has warned Washington “in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China,” and advised the U.S. government “to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.”

As trends forecaster Gerald Celente and I have warned, the warmongers in Washington are driving the world toward World War III. Once a country is captured by its military/security complex, the demand for profit drives the country deeper into war. Perhaps this news report from India is a hoax, or perhaps the never-diligent mainstream media will catch up with the news tomorrow, but so far this extraordinary warning from China has not been reported in the U.S. media. (I had it posted on OEN.)

The mainstream media and a significant portion of the Internet are content for our perceptions to be managed by psy-ops and by non-reporting. This is why I wrote not long ago that today Americans are living in George Orwell’s 1984.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, a member of the congressional staff, and held academic appointments at Stanford University, Georgetown University, VirginiaTech, Tulane University, George Mason University, and the University of New Mexico.

Muslim world were not ready to accept that Sheikh Osama was a terrorist

gulzar@journalist.com

Sheikh Osama’s neighbours said they were not aware he was living there but if they had known they would’ve defended him.  Journalist asked them why, when he was responsible for killing many innocent people in US & Pakistan. They said he was not our enemy, he was the enemy of America & India. He was not a CIA agent or Indian agent; he was killing Americans & Indians because they are killing Muslims in Palestine, Kashmir, India, Iraq, Checheniya and Afghanistan. People were not ready to accept that he was a terrorist. But if you talk about the Taliban, they will start abusing them, saying they are very bad, they are killers. Their logic is Osama was fighting America, the Taliban are fighting us. It was a real learning for me. Sitting in Srinagar and New Delhi, we are not aware of how 70 percent of muslims think.

Sheikh GULZAAR
Journalist/Research scholar
Writer-South Asia
POB: 667 GPO Srinagar SGR Jammu and Kashmir 190001
(Via New Delhi-India)
e-mail: writerasia@in.com
home: http://writerasia.blogspot.com

Pak will respond if drone strikes don’t stop: ISI chief

Islamabad, May 223 The ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has warned the US that Pakistan will be "forced to respond" if it does not stop drone strikes in the country's tribal belt, according to a media report today.

Pasha, who faced tremendous criticism after the May 2 US raid that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad, made Pakistan's stand clear during a meeting yesterday between visiting CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell and senior ISI officials.

The ISI chief took a firm stance with the US on drone strikes, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted its sources as saying.

"We will be forced to respond if you do not come up with a strategy that stops the drone strikes," Pasha reportedly told Morell.

Pasha also described a recent incursion by NATO helicopters into Pakistani airspace as a "shock" for defence cooperation between the US and Pakistan.

Morrell also met operational leaders of the ISI and members of the spy agency's recently set-up counter-terrorism division.

Both sides reportedly discussed a way forward that will involve the US stopping drone strikes and expanding joint operations against militants.

Relations between the CIA and ISI were strained even before the May 2 unilateral American raid that killed bin Laden.

The ISI repeated the demand during yesterday's meetings, with Pakistani officials asking the US to provide a list of names of people employed by the CIA or other US intelligence agencies, The Express Tribune reported.

Why Propaganda against Pakistan Army - Detailed analysis

Lahore, 22 May: Our media is the traitor and everyone knows well only Army and ISI are the patriotic institutions of Pakistan. And the purpose of the OBL incident was to defame Pakistan. That has been achieved precisely. Their second move is to defame and ridicule the credibility of our defenders i.e., Pak Army and ISI. That's what they are working on currently. The 5th column of the enemy (Pak media) is doing the job easy for them, reports Shakil Ahmad from Lahore.

The Army and the establishment and practically the ONLY institutions left to safeguard Pakistan. Open your eyes and learn to differentiate between your friends and foes. Army has no comparison with corrupt politicians whatsoever.

you people still think America is your friend and didn't defame Pak Army and ISI. Mind you, Bob Woodwards has mentioned General Kayani in his book with sheer hatred for a reason. Why do you guys forget Army Khuda nahi hai? An army to run effectively needs the cooperation of the govt, the media and the economy in it's favour. Where as in Pakistan at the moment nothing's going favourable for the Pak Army. You stay in slumber and keep babbling against your only defenders meanwhile the enemy takes benefit from your slumber.

You sleep at night, just because your army is awake, you proudly call yourself Pakistan, just because Army is defending every inch of your land ,see what's happening in kashmir, see what is now happening in Libya! you are writing your ill0fate yourself.

For a reason America is desperate to label ISI as a terrorist organization in the UN. For a reason India is going wild to blame ISI as a terrorist organization too. Open your brain and THINK! They want to declare the establishment as rogue so that they can go wild on our land and there would be no one to save you since the paleed govt has already sold us to the enemies.

Now we can easily pridict the next move of this terrorist state i.e Aemrica, another fake drama will be done, it will be directly blamed on ISI, and Pakistan will be declared a terrorist state, and ISI will be declared a terrorist organization. and then , they will get the plea to attack Pakistan.

It all started way back will kerry-lugar bill, when government did agreement with US which ISI opposed but 7000 US citizens most probably CIA operants were allowed to enter Pakistan without any security, After that, these operants were working just like the way Raymond Davis, and this can also not be ruled out that may Faizan and Faheem were ISI agents, Raymond was kept in Pakistan for 50 days just because of ISI,
ISI forced the US and deported it nearly 500 operants in Pakitsan.

Now, they did this fals flag operation , which everyone knows that , it is fake. and They found no osama, we urge to wait till the whole picture comes out, which may convince you, It must be investigated that who shot down the heli, It must be investigated that , whether any US terrorist was killed that night or not?

Army will not expose its plans in public to convince you people, even in Raymond episode people turned their rage on the Army, many of them later on realized that they were wrong, its pitiable that many wise people often fall to the deception. Our media continuously talks about intelligence failure, but why doesn't it talk about the helicopter that was shot down on the night of 2nd May 2011. Can a helicopter has a technical fault on a such a high profile operation, why our media doesn't discuss as many of the residents of abbotabad are saying that reportedly Pak Army had a assault with terrorist US forces that night and sent many to hell, why doesn't media talk about investigating this, even the village which media says that Osama lived there, no solid evidence has been found, in short, use your wit instead of your enthusiasm because Sultan salhuddin ayyubi says that:
"To defeat a nation, make misunderstanding between its public and Army"do you want to get defeat ?, If yes, then keep blaming Army.

The only thing you must do is to prepare yourself for the upcoming war, that will be waged directly by US on Pakistan, support your Army. The troops have already been mobilized on the Line of Control in kashmir, Don't you smell a new war? If you do , then prepare yourself for it!!

ISI-Best Intelligence Agencies in the World – 2011

Sheikh GULZAR

e-mail: gulzar@journalist.com

An intelligence agency is basically a governmental agency which is made for information gathering. There purpose is the national security and defense. The information they gather can be about espionage communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with institutions and evaluation of public sources.

An intelligence agency is a national power. These agencies normally work without the knowledge of public even their successes are not remembered by the people but their failure is always the HIGHLIGHTED news of the press, Well, here we have the list of top 10 intelligence agencies of the world and the ranking is based on their rate of success and taking care of the situations efficiently.
So, let us take a look!

10. CSIS, Canada

It was created in 1984, it is made on the same pattern of CIA and MI6, which are civil agencies but connected to the military and police.

9. ASIS, Australia

This agency was formed on 13th May,1952. Their annual budget is $162.5m AUD(2007). This agency is the Australian government intelligence agency which is responsible for collecting foreign intelligence. Its main purpose is the protection of country’s political and economic interests.

8. RAW, India

This was formed in 21 September, 1968. Their headquarters are in New Delhi, India. It was formed after the two major wars in India, first the Sino-India war in 1962 and then the Pakistan-India war in 1965. Its responsibility is the collection of external intelligence, counter terrorism and covert operations.

7. MOSSAD, Israel

This was formed on 13th December, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination. The Mossad  is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations. Its director directly reports to the head of the state.

6. BND, Germany

This was formed on 1st April, 1956 and their employees are around 6,050. The BND acts as the early warning system to alert the German government. They depend highly on wiretapping and electronic surveillance f international communications.

5. DGSE, France

This was formed on 2nd April, 1982. They work under the direction os French ministry of defense, they provide intelligence and national security to the country.

4. FSB, Russia

This was formed in 3rd April, 1995 and their employees are around 350,000. These are involved in the counter intelligence, internal and border security, counter terrorism and surveillance. Their headquarters are in Lubyanka Square, Downtown Moscow. All the intelligence agencies including KGB and NKVD work under the instructions of FSB.

3. MI6, United Kingdom

This was formed in 1909 and their headquarters are in Vauxhall Cross, London. These are the british equivalent to the CIA and they are really effective.

2. CIA, United States

This was formed in 18th September, 1947 and their employees are around 20,000. This agency is responsible for gathering data from the other countries and national security.  They are also the advisors of the policy makers.

1. ISI, Pakistan

This was formed in 1948 and their headquarters are in Islamabad, Pakistan. This has the lengthiest record os success. After the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947 this was formed in 1948. This one is the GOLD MEDALIST even higher than the Mossad and KGB.

They have the highest number of agents all over the world, almost 10,000. It is one of the strongest intelligence agencies of the world. Pakistan is really proud of it!

Bitter memories of Hawal massacre still haunt survivors

Srinagar, May 22 In disputed state of Kashmir, the bitter memories of Hawal massacre still haunt the families who lost their loved ones despite the passage of two decades, reports Kashmir Media Service.

Over 67 innocent Kashmiris were killed on May 21, 1990, by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel when they resorted to firing on the funeral procession of prominent liberation leader, Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq who was assassinated by unidentified gunmen at his residence in Srinagar.

Recalling the fateful day, Ghulam Qadeer Beig, an eyewitness of the carnage, said that after firing on the funeral procession the BSF personnel started entering houses and shooting people from point blank range. “We were helpless and at the mercy of those who had come to kill us. My brother-in-law, Farooq Ahmad Beig, and my son, who was just ten years old then, were among the killed in the carnage,” he added.

He said that later they went to the Nowhatta Police Station and lodged a complaint against the troopers. “One of the BSF trooper’s cap fell in our home. The name inscribed on it was Pokhla. The authorities have taken no tangible action against the guilty trooper despite our complaint,” he deplored.

Qadeer’s wife, Parvaiza said, “My brother was one among the people killed that day. He was participating in the funeral procession of Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq. He was just paying his respects to a dead man.” Recounting the events of the day, she said that on hearing gunshots, many people ran and hid themselves in a neighbour’s house and she was one of them.

Makhta Begum, 60, mother of Abdul Farooq who was killed by the troopers on the day, said, “The troops came and snatched my son from my arms. The troopers followed Farooq Ahmad right from the procession to his house and killed him.”

11th August Foundation pay tributes to Sheikh Aziz, Abdul Qayoom, Jalal-ul-din,Nasir Bakhtiyar, Sheikh Muzamil, Sheikh Zahoor, Shahnawaz Saleem

Pampore, May 21: 11th August Foundation Pampore on Sunday  paid rich tributes to late Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, Sheikh Aziz, Abdul Qayoom, Jalal-ul-din, Nasir Bakhtiyar, Sheikh Muzamil, Sheikh Zahoor, Shahnawaz Saleem, Dr. Qazi Nisaar, Nasir-ul-Islam, Shamsul Haq, Mohd. Ashraf Dar, Sheikh Abdul hanid, Ashfaq Majeed Wani, Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Abu Talha, Jamal Afghani, and all of our martyrs  at a seminar organized by 11th August Foundation here.   

Speakers highlighted the supreme sacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs and renewed their pledge to take their mission to a logical end. “They sacrificed their today for our better tomorrow,” speakers said. 

They also denounced the “unabated human rights violations” in Kashmir and appealed the international community to impress upon India to put an end to it.

Terming unity as key to success they said that it was high time that Kashmiri leaders should burry their hatchet and forge a broad based unity so as to take the people out from the dark prospects of despondency and chaos.  

Describing dialogue as a civilized way to resolve dispute they said that Kashmiris were not averse to dialogue, however, they maintained that bilateralism had miserably failed to resolve Kashmir dispute and emphasized the need for associating genuin. (Writer-South Asia)

Mothers Day: 'It wasn't dream, my sons had come'

Sunday, 08 May 2011 19:02 Bandipora - Shazia Khan (Pictures Yawar Kabli)

It was dark and silent at midnight. At one of the mud houses in Aloosa village, silence was broken by a loud bang at the door. A group of men knocked and called for Saida. Muaji, mauji they shouted in Kashmiri (Muaji is mother in local parlance). Saida was jubilant, her sons had returned. There was no electricity in the village, she looked for a candle, but the calling grew louder and she groped towards the direction. A wooden door stood between the much waited encounter. With feeble hands she tried to unbolt the door and in the event fell down and injured her knee. The sound of her falling woke her daughter, Shakeela, who immediately rushed to her. Saida insisted on opening the door. A dark silence was all she could feel.

“It was not a dream, my sons had come. I heard my sons outside the door. They were calling me.....but when I tried to open the door, my knee got hurt and I fell down," Saida says, while applying ointment to her knee that has turned blue. Then she murmurs and Shakeela, who sits besides, says, “No one was there outside last night.”

Shakeela slowly moves closer to her and in a consoling voice says, “you dreamt about them again because you don’t take medicines properly these days.”

But, Saida insists she heard her sons. Shakeela points towards a piece of land fenced with rusted wire at a few meters distance from their house. "They have been buried there...... don't you know that?" she questions her mother. Saida nods and replies, "My sons are resting there, how could I forget they are buried in mounds of mud."

With an injured knee and a crumbling gait, she walks towards the graveyard. "All of them were killed by army... some in encounters, and some in custody," she says and stops at a grave. “Here lays my elder son Bilal. He was born in 1965, but only after 29 years his father laid him to rest here. At the extreme left of Bilal's grave, a distance of few feet, is his younger brother Ayoub’s grave. He was killed by army too,” she says.

Between the graves of her two sons there is an empty space where she sits. "I have asked village heads not to bury anyone in between the graves of my two sons. I want my third son Aazad who has also been killed by army to be buried here. He was killed at border but police did not handover his dead body to me,” she says amid sobs. Aazad was seventeen year old when he was killed, she adds.

From last sixteen years Saida is in a state of disturbed bereavement - a mental ailment, her daughter Shakeela informs. "She is under treatment from past decade but medicines only help in reducing the intensity of her pain but  cannot cure her trauma."

Her doctor says she is physically fit but psychological she is depressed and there isn’t much possibility of recovery. “She has reached a stage now where she is neither ready to forget her past nor she able to accept the reality of her dead sons,” he says.

Saida, 67, had three sons. At the inception of armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, her sons Bilal and Ayoub hailing from Bandipora decided to join militant outfits in 1990. “For about four years both of them were actively involved in militancy,” Shakeela says.  However, in August 1994, Ayoub was killed in an encounter at Kursu. “There was around more than ten bullets in his chest. We received his bullet ridden body from Bandipora police station,” she says.

That was the beginning of Saida’s mental illness. After Ayoub’s death, she forced Bilal to quit the militant ranks. “But he refused and only three months after Ayoub’s death, army arrested and killed him at Koyal Muqaam,” says Shakeela.

Saida was distraught; her only hope was her youngest son Aazad. But  Aazad at that time was training with the militant ranks in Pakistan administered Kashmir. “My mother after the death of her two sons started spending her days waiting for his third son’s return,” says Shakeela. Her wait ended with the news of Aazad’s death while he was crossing the Line of Control.

Aazad’s death paralyzed Saida mentally. “My old father was shattered after he shouldered the coffin of my third brother. There was nobody left in our house to take responsibility. We were facing the wrath of conflict and there was no source of income. To earn a living became hard,” says Shakeela.

In 1995, Saida’s husband Abdullah Bhat sensing the vacuum married Shakeela to Riyaz Ahmad Lone. Riyaz, a laborer, quickly filled the vacuum and supported the family for more than a year. “I was pregnant in 1996 and he also joined a militant outfit and a year later was killed in an encounter near LoC,” says Shakeela.

Lone’s death added to their agony. Saida lost the capacity to hear. "My father developed heart complications but to run the house he started working again and after five years he died of a cardiac attack,” she says.

The family since Abdullah’s death has been living in abject poverty. As Saida leaves the graveyard, she says with a sigh, “I do not know am I most fortunate mother or most  unfortunate mother in the world. Almighty bestowed me four sons including my son in law but they all got killed. I am waiting for the moment when I will close my eyes forever and will be together with my sons in heaven.”(Kashmir Dispatch)

Drones fuel terrorism, says Imran

KARACHI: Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that the “war on terror” is not Pakistan’s war and it is harming the country’s integrity. 

Addressing thousands of supporters at a rally held on Saturday at the Natives Jetty bridge leading to the Karachi harbour, he said that drone and other such attacks were breeding terrorism.

Imran Khan said had the leaders heeded his advice, taken a stand against the attacks and opted out of the American-led coalition, this situation would not have emerged.

He termed the sit-in the harbinger of a revolution and vowed to lay the foundation of a new Pakistan with the support of the people after emancipating them from plunderers of national wealth and honour.

He said the protest would convey to the US that “we will not be cowed down by drone attacks”. He said that if and when his party came into power it would finish the terrorists and assimilate the tribal people into the mainstream. He said it was the worst time for the country and the nation had been made subservient to the Americans.

Imran Khan said the drone attacks were being carried out with the connivance of the government and it was only making protests to hoodwink the people.

“It is a fixed match between the government, army and America,” he said. 

Representatives of some other parties and civil society groups also joined the sit-in held in protest against American drone attacks and to call upon the government to change its policy towards the US. The sit-in will continue till Sunday evening.

“Whenever the government wants, drone attacks will stop,” he claimed.

The PTI’s campaign is not only against drone attacks and Nato supplies through the country, but is also aimed at forcing mid-term elections as Imran says the government is not truly democratic and has capitulated to the 

US. He terms the drone attacks a breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Imran Khan also mustered the support of some of the right-wing parties, including the Sunni Tehrik and Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam, and the Sindh National Front. Because of a strong line taken by him against American attacks that have killed people in the tribal areas, a large number of people from the northern region of the country who eke out their living here were also seen at the rally.

They were carrying PTI’s flags and photographs of Aafia Siddiqui and chanting anti-America slogans.

Kashmir’s ‘missing girls’

SRINAGAR,  India’s only Muslim-majority state is seizing ultrasound scanners and enlisting religious leaders in an effort to save unborn baby girls from a shocking rise in female foeticide, reports AFP.

The issue has united politicians, clerics and social activists in Jammu and Kashmir, a state best known for the deep, blood-stained divides caused by a 20-year-old Muslim separatist insurgency against Indian rule.

Provisional 2011 census data released at the end of March painted a bleak picture of India’s gender imbalance, with a national child sex ratio of just 914 females to 1,000 males, the lowest figure since independence in 1947.

By far the most dramatic decline was in Jammu and Kashmir, where the ratio plunged to 859 girls for every 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group, down by 82 points from 10 years ago.

“We never expected such a drop,” admitted Yashpal Sharma, the Kashmir head of the National Rural Health Mission.

The global sex ratio is 984 girls to every 1,000 boys, according to United Nations population data.

But married women in India face huge pressure to produce male children, who are seen as breadwinners while girls are often viewed as a financial burden as they require hefty dowries to be married off.

The sharpest declines in the ratio were in the towns of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, heartland of the armed insurgency against Indian rule that began in 1989.

“It is a matter of shame that Kashmiri Muslims are aborting their girl children,” said Kashmir’s top cleric, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who heads an alliance of moderate political separatists.

Stressing that the practice was profoundly “un-Islamic” Farooq said everyone in the valley had to be conscripted in the battle against this “moral corruption.” Yasin Malik, head of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, was equally forceful in denouncing an “undesirable and unethical trend” which he said was dragging the region back into the Stone Age.

“According to the Koran and traditions of Islam, foeticide is a grave unpardonable sin equivalent to murder. We cannot claim to be Muslims while indulging in this heinous crime,” he said.

The first reaction of the Kashmir authorities to the census figures was a crackdown on the unlicensed use of ultrasound scanners.

Determining the sex of a foetus is illegal in India, but many clinics offer the service for a small fee, fuelling the demand for sex-selective abortions.

Lightweight, portable ultrasound machines mean tests can be carried out even in the most remote villages.

Sharma said close to 100 scanners had been seized in the initial crackdown, but added that long-term solutions were also needed.

“We are roping in religious and community leaders in our campaign. We have already sent 700 letters to various leaders – both Muslims and Hindus,” Sharma said.

Kashmir’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, promised harsher penalties for anyone aiding or abetting female foeticide.

“It is civil society as a whole, and religious, political and social activists in particular, who have to play their part and make the people aware of this crime,” he said.

But Nusrat Nazir, a college lecturer, said efforts to empower women and overcome the social bias towards sons were often undermined by the dowry system, which brought a stark financial factor into the equation.

“These are not issues of governance but ethos, culture and values that our society holds. We have to make efforts to change society, for the better,” Nusrat said. “Dowry is a resident evil.”

Roundup: Iran's intelligence ministry claims to identify, dismantle U.S.-linked spying network

Ginkgo biloba plants for sale

TEHRAN, May 21 The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced Saturday that it has identified and dismantled a large spy network linked to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), reports China Daily.

The elite and faithful forces of the Intelligence Ministry were able to arrest a number of 30 American-linked spies in their confrontation with the CIA agents and through numerous intelligence and counter-intelligence operations, the statement said.

Also, 42 CIA operatives linked to the network have been identified in various parts of the world, the ministry said in the statement.

It said that not only did the Intelligence Ministry defuse the CIA's heavy aggressive operations but the intelligence ministry's agents have succeeded in feeding false information to the CIA through a number of double-agents.

The ministry's Public Relations Office added in the statement that the U.S.-related spy network was operating under the cover of the so-called job-finding centers to attract Iranian citizens to cooperate with them, by promising them jobs and education opportunities, and deceiving them with visa and entry permission to the United States.

The network was "established by a number of the leading CIA operatives" in some countries, and due to the massive intelligence and counter-intelligence work, the Iranian intelligence agents succeeded in discovering and completely dismantling the network, said the statement.

"The network used a wide range of data bases and U.S. embassies and consulates in several countries, specially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia and Turkey, to collect information on Iran's scientific, research and academic institutions in the fields of nuclear energy, air and defense industries and biotechnology," the Iranian Intelligence Ministry said.

The statement further pointed out that the U.S. network also spied on Iran's oil and gas pipelines, power and telecommunication grids, airports, customs departments, network security and banks for future sabotage operations.

In the past years, Iranian authorities have been accusing the United States and Israeli intelligence services of spying on Iran' s military and nuclear programs.

In January, Iran said it had dismantled an Israeli spying network and arrested a group of its terrorist- spies who were linked to the assassination of its nuclear scientist.

An Iran's Intelligence Ministry announcement said then that, " In order to carry out its non-human, anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian wills, the Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) has used its bases in some European, non- European and some neighboring states of the Islamic Republic to conduct the terror attack against Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi."

In January 2010, Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, the nuclear scientist from Tehran University, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorbike parked near his house.

In November 2010, another Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriar was also killed by a bomb attached to his car on the way to his work.  

Also, Iranian nuclear officials have accused the United States and Israel of cyber-attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant computers but they have denied any serious damage to the facilities.

Osama brings China, Pakistan, US closer

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Srinagar, 21 May: US Navy SEALs launched a secret operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden which, the US says, is a victory in its war on terroris, reports China Daily 05/20/2011

The killing of bin Laden, however, has made many people question the legality of the US' unilateral action in Pakistan, Pakistani "support networks" for the Al-Qaida leader, and future US-Pakistani partnership in the fight against terrorism.

While discussing the reported row between the US and Pakistan, some US media outlets have unnecessarily dragged China into the debate. They have even speculated about China's reaction to bin Laden's death. 

 

Quoting Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Jiang Yu's statement, one US newspaper said that China initially welcomed bin Laden's death as a positive development but later went "out of its way to praise Islamabad for its anti-terrorist stance". The report concluded that the tension between the US and Pakistan had offered "Beijing a chance to wean its oldest regional ally off its dependence on US security assistance".

To begin with, Jiang's defense of Pakistan has nothing to do with Washington's doubts over Islamabad's commitment in the hunt for bin Laden. Jiang's affirmative reply to a question about whether Beijing believed Islamabad's claim that it didn't have prior knowledge of the US operation shows China's consistent stance on Pakistan. And that should not be interpreted as China's attempt to dissuade Pakistan from supporting the US in its war on terrorism.

Indeed, China and Pakistan have enjoyed an "all-weather" friendship for six decades, and the death of bin Laden will not change that. China is aware of the dangers of extremism and Talibanization spreading across Pakistan, but it appreciates Pakistan's determination to combat terrorists and militants and recognizes the sacrifice Islamabad has made in the war on terrorism.

Sino-Pakistani friendship reflects China's "good neighborhood" policy. It's this policy that has strengthened China's ties with all its neighbors, including countries in South Asia.

As a country facing terrorist threats itself, China has worked and coordinated with the US, which is leading the war on terrorism. Since 2001, Beijing and Washington have cooperated in anti-terrorism activities, even though they have somewhat different views on the concept of "terrorism" and the approach that the anti-terrorist strategy should take.

The US lays more emphasis on military raids and strategic operations, whereas China prefers economic development, which Chinese people believe is the only way terrorism can be eradicated from the roots. But China and the US both want a stable and moderate Pakistan.

In the post-bin Laden era, Sino-Pakistani cooperation in the fight against terrorism will continue. Washington, on its part, is likely to continue its cooperation with Islamabad, because terrorism has not died with bin Laden and the US still needs Pakistan's logistical and military support in its campaign against Al-Qaida and Taliban.

US Senator John Kerry was in Islamabad a couple of days ago to try to restore the "damaged" US-Pakistani relations. And US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Islamabad soon to reassure Pakistan of her country's commitments.

So instead of creating a gulf in relations, the death of bin Laden has offered a chance to Pakistan, the US and China to work together to combat terrorism. After all, the three countries' anti-terrorism mission is still very much on.

The author is an associate professor at Peking University's School of International Studies.(Writer-South Asia)

16 killed in NATO fuel truck blast in Pakistan

LANDIKOTAL, Pakistan - May 21:  At least 16 people were killed in northwest Pakistan on Saturday after a bomb attack claimed by a militant group hit a truck carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, the latest attack in an upsurge in violence since Osama bin Laden was killed, reports Agencies/AIP.
People walk around a burnt tanker, part of a NATO convoy that was attacked in Landikotal near the Afghanistan border, in this still image from a May 21, 2011.

It took place near the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber region, the main route for moving supplies to NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.

"The tanker was on fire because of a blast late in the night. There was another blast early in the morning in the same tanker and 16 people who gathered near it to collect oil were killed," a senior local administration official in Khyber told Reuters.

In another attack in the same region, a bomb struck 16 NATO fuel trucks late on Friday, setting them on fire. No one was hurt. 

Militants have stepped up attacks in Pakistan, an unstable US ally, since US special forces killed al Qaeda leader bin Laden in the garrison town of Abbottabad this month.

Abdullah Azzam Brigade, a militant group affiliated with Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for both attacks on the NATO trucks.

"It is our jihad against Americans. We want to stop supplies for NATO from our territory," Abu Musa'ab, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The attacks on the NATO trucks in Khyber came hours after the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a US consulate convoy in the city of Peshawar. 

One Pakistani was killed and 12 people were injured, including two lightly wounded US nationals.   

Routes through Pakistan bring in 40 percent of supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, according to the United States Transportation Command. Of the remainder, 40 percent come through Afghanistan's neighbours in the north and 20 percent by air.

The Pakistani Taliban are pressing ahead with their campaign of suicide bombings designed to de-stabilise the unpopular government, despite several army offensives against their strongholds along the lawless border region with Afghanistan.

Eight suspected militants were killed on Saturday when army gunship helicopters attacked their hideouts in Orakzai region, adjoining Khyber, local officials said.

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China Gives Pakistan 50 Fighter Jets

JF-17 Fighter

ISLAMABAD, May 19 : Pakistan — China has agreed to immediately provide 50 JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan, a major outcome of a visit by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to Beijing this week, Pakistani officials said Thursday, reports New York Times.

China and Pakistan have jointly produced the JF-17 aircraft, but the new planes would be equipped with more sophisticated avionics, the officials said. The latest jet fighters would be paid for by China, they said.

The announcement came as Pakistan’s already tense relations with the United States soured further after the killing of Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan on May 2.

Last week, Pakistan’s spy chief denounced the United States in a rare briefing before Parliament in which he condemned the American raid for breaching Pakistan’s sovereignty. Parliament, in turn, called for the government to revisit relations with the United States.

Mr. Gilani’s visit to Beijing served as a pointed reminder of Pakistani suggestions that the government might seek to recalibrate relations with the United States, using China to offset what many here view as an overdependence on Washington.

The United States has provided Pakistan with some $20 billion in aid, mostly military, for its cooperation in fighting terrorism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Much of that aid has come in the form of reimbursements for Pakistani counterterrorism operations.

Both the aid and the effectiveness of Pakistan’s cooperation have been called into question by the discovery that Bin Laden had lived for years in a large compound adjacent to a top military academy in the city of Abbottabad, a two-hour drive from the capital, Islamabad.

While the Obama administration would still like Pakistan’s cooperation to wind down the war in Afghanistan and to root out terrorist groups, some American lawmakers are now calling for aid to Pakistan to be cut or suspended.

For their part, Pakistani officials were incensed that the Obama administration gave them no notice of the raid until helicopters bearing a Navy Seal team had already left the country.

Mr. Gilani’s four-day visit to China may help Pakistan as it tries to regain leverage with the United States. During his visit, Mr. Gilani met with Premier Wen Jiabao of China, who bolstered Pakistan by saying the United States should respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.

The news about the JF-17 aircraft is clearly a signal that Pakistan is shopping for alternatives to Washington, though the value of the deal may be more symbolic than decisive in terms of Pakistan’s military capacity.

Pakistani military officials have consistently complained that American aid, which they would nonetheless like to keep flowing, falls short on many essential military items that the Americans have been reluctant to offer.

The United States provides Pakistan with F-16 fighter jets to help the country match the air power of its archrival India, but Pakistani military officials have complained that their F-16 fleet is aging.

The deal is another sign that Pakistan’s relations with China are frequently far less encumbered than those with the United States, and that in many ways the interests of Pakistan and China coincide more easily.

The United States may be Pakistan’s largest benefactor, but China is Pakistan’s largest trading partner, and for years the Chinese have heavily invested in building a deep-water port in the Pakistani city of Gwadar.

China is often referred to as Pakistan’s “all-weather friend,” a contrast to the common depiction of its up-and-down relationship with the United States, which is deeply unpopular here.

The United States has invested in a special relationship with India. Both China and Pakistan, on the other hand, view India as a rival. They share an interest in containing India’s regional influence, particularly as the United States draws down its forces in Afghanistan, a process the Obama administration says it will start this summer.

At a landmark meeting on April 16 in the Afghan capital, Kabul, top Pakistani officials suggested to Afghan leaders that they, too, needed to look to China, an ascendant power, rather than align themselves closely with the United States, according to Afghan officials.

“You couldn’t tell exactly what they meant, whether China could possibly be an alternative to the United States, but they were saying it could help both countries,” an Afghan official said afterward.

Respect Pakistan's sovereignty : China to US

Islamabad, 19 May:  China has told the US to respect Pakistan's sovereignty and understand its problems, it was reported here.

The daily Dawn reported that during a meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday in Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he had taken up the issue with US officials at a recent strategic and economic dialogue in Washington.

Gilani began a four-day official visit to China on Tuesday. The trip comes amid strained ties between the US and Pakistan after Osama bin Laden was shot dead on May 2 by US Navy SEALs in Pakistan's Abbottabad city. The US said it had taken unilateral action to take out the al Qaeda leader.

He said China and Pakistan would forever remain good neighbours and good partners.

China most-trusted friend of Pakistan: PM

Islamabad, May 18: Pakistan sees China as its most-trusted and all-weather friend, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said as he began his four-day visit to China Tuesday, reports Wang Zhaokun Global Times.


"We appreciate that in all difficult circumstances China stood with Pakistan, therefore we call China a true friend and a time-tested and all-weather friend," Gilani told the Xinhua News Agency in Islamabad before flying to Shanghai.

The Prime Minister also appreciated that China recognizes Pakistan's contribution and sacrifice in the war on terror.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters Tuesday that China will "unswervingly continue to support Pakistan's efforts to fight terrorism."

Leaders from both countries will witness the signing of agreements concerning trade, finance and culture. They will also participate in a reception to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, Xinhua said.

 The two governments are also reportedly planning to seal a extending of the Saindak gold and copper mining project.

Gilani's visit has long been planned as part of the anniversary celebrations, but the timing also coincides with the ongoing diplomatic spat between Islamabad and Washington over the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Tuesday, NATO helicopters originating from Afghanistan wounded two Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border attack, triggering a protest from Islamabad.

Andrew Small, a researcher at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Brussels told Reuters that Gilani's visit to China will tell the US, the Pakistani public and the wider world that "Pakistan has other options."

However, Sun Shihai, vice director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that China and Pakistan have long maintained close cooperation with each other at all times.

"I don't think Gilani's visit to China has any special implications for Pakistan-US relations because all parties have their own to play for the regional stability," Sun said.

US APOLOGISES TO PAK OVER DRONE ATTACKS

ISLAMABAD, May 17: The United States has formally apologized to Pakistan over drone attacks, Geo News has reported.
 

According to sources, the US apologized civil and military leadership of Pakistan over the drone strikes that killed nine people in North Waziristan yesterday.
 

The sources added that these strikes were scheduled before the visit of US Senator John Kerry. The US has stated that it would work together with Pakistan on any future operations in the country.

N-capability has saved Pakistan: Dr Qadeer

WASHINGTON, May 17: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has vigorously defended the program as sparing his country the fate of Iraq or Libya. Writing in a US magazine, Abdul Qadeer Khan said that Pakistan's nuclear weapons had prevented war with historic rival India, which he accused of pursuing a "massive program" due to ambitions of superpower status, reports AFP from Washinton.

"Don't overlook the fact that no nuclear-capable country has been subjected to aggression or occupied, or had its borders redrawn. Had Iraq and Libya been nuclear powers, they wouldn't have been destroyed in the way we have seen recently," Khan said.

'US to deploy troops if Pak nukes come under threat'

LONDON:  May 16: US laid occupational troops will be deployed in Pakistan if the nation's nuclear installations come under threat from terrorists out to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Sunday Express can reveal on Sunday.

The plan, which would be activated without President Asif Ali Zardari's consent, provoked an angry reaction from Pakistan officials last night. Barack Obama would order troops to parachute in to protect key nuclear missile sites. These include the air force's central Sargodha HQ, home base for nuclear-capable F-16 combat aircraft and at least 80 ballistic missiles.

A US source told the Sunday Express: "The plan is green lit and the president has already shown he is wiling to deploy troops in Pakistan if he feels it is important for national security." However, news of the plan has further increased tension between the US and Pakistan with relations already at an all-time low after the Operation Geronimo raid by the US Navy Seal special forces team that killed bin Laden at the house where he had been hiding in Abbottabad, near to a Pakistan military academy.

An angry Pakistani official said: "Pakistan has an elaborate command and control structure and is fully capable of defending its strategic assets under any circumstances and does not need any assistance from any country, including the US, to safeguard its nuclear installations."

The plan reflects growing concern over reprisals for the al-Qaeda terror leader's death. More than 80 people were killed and 140 injured when two Taliban suicide bombers struck at a military academy in the north-western town of Charsadda on Friday.

Alex Neill, of the Royal United Services Institute, said: "The United States places its own national security issues above all other sovereignty issues and trust in Pakistan's abilities are extremely low."

"If Obama can persuade congress that placing US troops at the installations is necessary to protect US citizens from possible nuclear attack, then that's what he will do." The Pentagon on Saturday refused to deny the existence of the plan, with a spokesman saying only: "We are confident that Pakistan has taken appropriate steps towards securing its nuclear arsenal."

Bin Laden was a US prisoner before being killed: Iran

Tehran, May 16:  Sheikh Bin Laden was a US prisoner before being killed: Iran TEHRAN: Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was a prisoner in US custody for "sometime" before he was killed by the American military, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday,reports AFP.

"I have exact information that bin Laden was held by the American military for sometime... until the day they killed him he was a prisoner held by them," the president said in a live interview on Iranian state television.

"Please pay attention. This is important. He was held by them for sometime. They made him sick and while he was sick they killed him," Ahmadinejad added.

He accused US President Barack Obama for announcing the Al-Qaeda leader's death for "political gain."

"What the US president has done is for domestic political gain. In other words, they killed him for Mr Obama's election and now they are seeking to replace him with someone else," Ahmadinejad said without elaborating.

Bin Laden was shot dead on May 2 in a US commando raid on a heavily fortified compound near Islamabad, Pakistan.

On May 4, Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi too had cast doubt on bin Laden's death, saying there were "ambiguities" over the way he was killed.

The Americans "said they threw his body in the sea. Why did they not allowed an independent expert to examine the body to say if it was bin Laden or not?" Vahidi said.

   

Secret deal with US not acceptable: Nisar Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: May 17: The government will have to finish inking secret deals with US. No behind-the-curtain agreements will be acceptable from now and onwards, these were the warning statements made by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the leader of opposition in National Assembly (NA) and the leader of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Geo News reported.

“No Pak-US joint operation against a high-value target in Pakistan will be allowed in future and a judicial commission to probe into US raid on a compound in Abbottabad on May 2 be immediately formed, ” Nisar demanded.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was addressing a press conference here at the Punjab House. He said that he came to know though media reports that the federal government and US administration have agreed upon a new code of conduct.(Writer-South Asis)

Osama bin Laden's Jerusalem home for sale

Srinagar, 16 May:  While real-estate agents say that location is everything in considering buying a home, sometimes an infamous former owner can also be a big selling point, reports Xinhua news agency.

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Especially when it's al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's handsome digs in northern Jerusalem's Palestinian Shuafat neighborhood.

"This is a historic house, and to this day I have not talked about it with anybody," current owner Mu'in Khoury told the Yediot Ahronot Hebrew daily on Sunday.

"Bin-Laden's father came from Saudi Arabia in the 1940s, bought the house, and lived in it from time to time," Khoury said, adding that "Osama also spent time there on several occasions in the 1960s."

Since then, however, the property has changed hands many times, and came to be Israeli state property as a result of the 1967 War, and served as the Spanish consul's office.

Khoury is the latest in the line of owners of the site, which has become a well-known neighborhood landmark since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

"The house is not for sale to anyone. But if Osama makes me an offer, I will be willing to consider it," Khoury said, according to the report.

Pakistan leans on China in face of US slams

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New Delhi, May 16: First impressions often tend to be lasting ones. There were many first impressions I gathered during my recent first visit to Pakistan. At the invitation of Pakistan's Ministry of Information, for eight days, I, along with eight other journalists, travelled to several cities, reports Shastri Ramachandaran (Global Times).

Of the four themes that figured through the program, predictably, Pakistan's war against terrorism and India-Pakistan relations topped the agenda. But more off than on the record was Pakistan's troubled ties with the US, worsening by the day. On the margins, outside the frame of formal interaction, a topic of much interest was Sino-Pak relations.

In Lahore, the agreements signed during Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's "successful" five-day visit to China from April 18 made headlines, but was routine nevertheless.

So, when Foreign Ministry officials and others spoke of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's visit to China from May 17, no eyebrows went up. After all, it was part of the year-long celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of Sino-Pak ties.

Few expected that, within a matter of days China-Pakistan relations would evoke great interest and greater speculation worldwide.

When the US struck at Bin Laden, the world erupted in jubilant applause and Pakistan came under severe fire. Pakistan was pilloried as the fount of global terrorism.

China alone supported Pakistan and stood by it in the face of global opposition. China and Pakistan had completed a strategic dialogue on May 13 to deepen cooperation on counter-terrorism. True to its stance, in the aftermath of Bin Laden's killing, China reaffirmed its cooperation with Pakistan to combat terrorism. China focused on stability in Pakistan, defended Pakistan's record of fighting terrorism and criticized the Obama administration for violating Pakistan's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.

China drew the world's attention to Pakistan's sacrifices and sufferings in combating terrorism. Pakistan could not ask for more at a time when it feels besieged, and relations with the US have hit a new nadir.

"Pakistan is again in trouble, in a difficult situation. What it urgently requires is allies' support. And, among allies, Chinese support is critical to its lifeline," observed Amna Yusaf Khokhar, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) in Islamabad.

"Instead of raising fingers at the time-tested friend's credibility, it showed support and, rather, criticized the Obama administration," she wrote in her role as editor of Asia Despatch.

More seasoned experts, too, adopted a similar stance to emphasize that China is much valued by Pakistan, and not only during a crisis.

Riaz Hussain Khokhar, former foreign secretary who has served as ambassador to China and High Commissioner to India, spoke strongly on these issues. "Pakistan and China never played games with each other. China does not really need Pakistan, but because of our sincerity, China has remained a strong friend," Khokhar told me.

Similar admiring views were expressed by others, including Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, director-general of ISS and a former ambassador toChina. Qazi, who served as Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, was also the UN Secretary-General's special envoy to Iraq and, later, Sudan.

What they don't say explicitly is more important: That Pakistan and China, even before Bin Laden's killing, but in preparation for the US drawdown in Afghanistan, have been striving to strengthen strategic cooperation in the region.

An expert at the ISS, speaking anonymously, said that Pakistan and China are joining hands to shape the region's security with Afghanistan at its center.

"The situation in Afghanistan calls for new alliances, new strategies." With US forces pulling out and Pakistan crucial for stabilizing the situation, China might emerge in a potent, new role, speculated a foreign affairs commentator.

As Qazi said, in a different context, "Every country has leverage," and the US should not take Pakistan for granted.

Gilani's four-day trip to China has assumed extraordinary significance amidst talk of a new strategic partnership with far-reaching implications, especially for the US but also for India, South Asia and the West.

In the history of China-Pakistan relations, rarely has a Pakistani prime minister's visit to Beijing attracted so much attention.

The author is a journalist based in New Delhi. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

America, Osama and Kashmir

By: Hashim Qurashi
Many people are angry with the US dropping Osma’s dead body into the sea. They rubbish the US claim that the body was submerged according to Islamic rites. But why be cross with the US? It has always been oppressive to freedom loving but subjugated nations. Its policy is to enslave countries politically and economically in modern age.  Americans dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 20th century taking a toll of the lives of more than three hundred thousand men, women and children. The soil there cannot grow any greenery even today. Children are born with various debilities and disabilities. Thousands of people were massacred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in carpet bombing by the Americans. Rusted bombs are still recovered occasionally from the farms there. A scare of communism was created in Latin America, especially Chile. Widespread killings were done in African and Muslim countries, view point Hashmi Qurashi in GK.

Desecrating a dead body is such an insignificant event in face of these atrocities. US would not care for the living beings, leave aside the dead. But those who created the US did it on the basis of the principles of freedom and self-determination for the nations. Naturally the souls of those founding fathers must be turning in their graves on finding the US converting to a colonial country.

Innumerable write ups have been produced on the life and death of Osama bin Laden. From publicity point of view his death is the third biggest news of the  21 century. According to a conservative estimate the US spent tens of billions of dollars to locate him. Osama is the Frankenstein of the US being its creation. They used him against the Soviet Union in Afghan war. He was privy to many secrets of the US and its CIA. After the Afghan war was over, the US left Afghanistan leaving Afghans in lurch. When the Afghans realized that not Russia but the US and its colonialism were the real enemy of Muslims, they pledged to seek revenge from the US. They struck at the roots of the American interests.

Unfortunately Osama or Taliban could not realize that their actions did more harm to the cause of the Muslims. It was just because they were obsessed with hatred towards the US. Osama was an educated person and many of his comrades had received their education in western or American universities. They found that the US was out to enslave the Muslims politically and economically. In particular, the US wanted general loot of the oil booty of the Arabs. They saw that the US adopted divide and rule policy vis-à-vis the Muslims; they saw that it protected illegal occupation of Palestine by the Israelis, and they saw that it was privy to the massacre of the Palestinians by the Israelis. All this created lava of hatred in their mind against the Americans.

Thus not distinguishing between the oppressor or the oppressed, innocent or the culprit, Al Qaeda let loose terrible terror against the US and the European countries. The US did carpet bombing on Tora Bora hills, and deployed one and a half lakh American and European troops against war in Afghanistan which resulted in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Afghans.

Al Qaeda targeted American missions in foreign countries. In 9/11 attack the Twin Towers of World Trade Centre in NY and the building in Pentagon. This was the first attack of the enemies of the US on the American homeland which turned the US almost mad. The US began picking up anybody and every body in Afghanistan and Pakistan whom she suspected of involvement in 9/11. The arrested persons were interned in Guantanamo Bay prison.

Al Qaeda attacked a train in Spain that killed about 250 persons. On 7/7 it made the British underground rail system its target that resulted in the killing of many innocent people. Many of its horrible missions did not materialize. The US and the western countries got exasperated by these recurrent attacks. The US challenged Muslim countries, including Pakistan that “those who were not with the US in war on terror were against the US and would be sent back to Stone Age”. At the same time the US put a heavy prize of millions of dollars on the heads of Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

Pakistani governments made a good use of the situation. They picked up Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, handed them over to the Americans and in return received billions of dollars. General Pervez Musharraf has described it fully in one paragraph of his book “In the Line of Fire”.

Rumours were floated during past one decade about the arrest and death of Osama. In 2003-4, I participated in a discussion in Europe. We talked about Osama, whether he was alive or dead and if alive, where was he hiding. I said with some analytical view that if he had managed to escape alive from Tora Bora bombardment then, surely he must be hiding in some city in Pakistan or must have taken shelter with some powerful elements in Pakistan. Now that we know he had been living first in Haripore and then in Abbatabad for last eight and a half years, it means that he had left Afghanistan as early as 2003 while the Americans and their allies were looking for him in Tora Bora and Waziristan. Drone attacks killed thousands of innocent Afghans and Pakistanis.

Conflicting reports are coming in in the aftermath of American raid on Osama hideout. On the one hand the US President and Pakistani rulers claim that Pakistan rendered significant service to CIA in getting Osama. President Obama thanked Pakistan for operation against Osama. But then the Pakistani’s suddenly made about turn and began saying that Pakistan was not informed about operation against Osama. It protested to Americans for violating Pakistani air space. But ours is the age of computers and everybody feels a compulsion to think that Pakistan was an accomplice with the Americans in their operation against Osama.  And if it was not so, then is Pakistan a paralyzed banana state?

I cannot believe it. Pakistani army and its ISI are a highly trained force and the ISI is one of the world’s most efficient organizations. Despite several challenges looking straight into Pakistan’s face, it has opted to be the standard bearer of jihad in the world. It is unthinkable that three American helicopters stay put in Pakistani air jurisdiction for two hours and neither the Pakistani army nor the intelligence has any information about it. It has to be remembered that the site of operation was Abbotabad where Pakistani Army has its Divisional Headquarter and Kakol Military Academy.  At a distance of just 20 kilometers from the site of operation is Kamrah air base. It is preposterous to say that Pakistan had no information of this operation.?

The fact is that Pakistan wanted to ward off the backlash from religious extremist elements among the Pakistani people, Taliban and Al Qaeda activists after the American operation was over. This was a gambit jointly contrived and executed by the Americans and Pakistanis. This has been confirmed by the statement of former Pakistani Corps Commander Salahu’d-Din Tirmizi who categorically said that “the entire operation was executed with full cooperation of Pakistan. Pakistan was forced to adopt this stand in order to escape the torment of terrorism. Now the US is not a foreign power for Pakistan. She is in fact the supremo of our rulers, and they are all the slaves who have no guts to say no to its diktat.”

Please come out of blind emotionalism. Don’t label them traitors who speak and write the truth. There are many around who could be on the pay roll of India or Pakistan. Imagine a man who carries a prize of 50 crores of dollars or 25 arab rupees on his head; here is a man who lives in a house in Abbotabad with three wives and eight children; here is a man who is a kidney patient and survives on the dialysis and needs medical support regularly, and here is a man who has to fulfill the daily needs of his household. And then Pakistani authorities aver that they had no knowledge on his being in Abbotabad. This is the biggest lie of 21st century.?

I am ready to accept that President Zardari and the Prime Minister, meaning political establishment and the bureaucracy had no wink of it but definitely the top brass of the army and ISI were in know  of it.  It has to be reminded that Pakistan has been an ally of the US in latter’s war on terrorism. Pakistan has given large sacrifices also. Pakistan even handed over to the Americans some top leaders of Al Qaeda like Khalid Shiekh and some Taliban leaders during the regime of Pervez Musharraf. Even an atomic scientist lady Arifa Sidiqe too was handed over to the Americans on accusations of supporting Al Qaeda.  All this was done to convince American masters that Pakistan was their ally in war on terrorism.  

As a person and as an entity, Osama is dead but his thoughts and his war against the US and the European countries will continue as long the US and the European countries do not stop exploitation of the entire world in general but the Muslims in particular. The British too had disposed the body of Bhagat Singh and his colleagues after hanging them but they had to leave India at the end of the day. Indira Gandhi ordered hanging of Maqbool Bhat and his dead body was buried within the premises of the Tihar jail. But today Maqbool Bhat is the brightest lighthouse for the people of the state.  An organization may be liquidated, leaders can be butchered, and their dead bodies can be disposed off clandestinely or thrown into the sea. But staunch followers of truth and fighters for the rights of oppressed peoples have their thinking and ideas which cannot be buried or submerged under water.The US contrived the death of Che Govera in 1960s. CIA buried him secretly. But his grave was identified after a lapse of thirty years and he was re-buried with full rites and with great respect.

Whether Osama bin Laden was a terrorist or a great mujahid is not the point. There is a UN resolution against him and Al Qaeda. It declared Osama as the chief of Al Qaeda a terrorist organization. The US and European countries, of who the UN is a puppet, spend over 3 billion dollars in locating Osama. They considered him responsible for the killing of thousands of civilians. If I open a discussion on whether Osama was a terrorist or not, I will provoke many followers of blind emotionalism against me. I would therefore remain content with the commentary of a famous Pakistani journalist Manu Bhai. This is what he says:

“There are many questions arising in the context of Osama bin Laden. In the name of service to Islam he became the prime cause for greatest decimation of Muslims and their destruction. He was the cause for humiliation of Muslim travelers especially Pakistani Muslim travelers at all international airports where they are required to undress and even take off their shoes for security reasons. There are many questions about projecting Osama first as a mujahid and then a terrorist.”There should be no need for any further comment on the subject. According to Quranic injunction, killing an innocent person is tantamount to killing all the humanity in the eyes of God.

It is true that after 9/11 event, Muslims came under great stress. They are being harassed at the airports under the pretext of security check. Western universities imposed a ban on the admission of Muslim students in universities and professional institutions. Even issuing of passport and visa too became very difficult.  Previously Muslim missionaries visiting western countries on propagation missions were given visas but now these too have been stopped. Now if somebody announces that namaze janazeh (prayer in absentia for a dead) be performed, is it not doing harm to the struggle of Kashmiris? Will not Kashmiris be associated with Al Qaeda? I cannot understand the logic of offering namaze juma for the dead Osama after five days of his death. Since Jamaate Islami Pakistan and Lashkar-eTaayyiba and other religious organizations offered prayer in absentia for Osama on Tuesday and Wednesday, Geelani and Shabir Shah found no justification in not following the suit. Reports say that Geelani’s appeal for prayer in absentia was by and large ignored by the people in Kashmir so much so that the Imam of Batmaloo mosque slipped out of the backdoor of the mosque without offering the prayer in absentia.Will Kashmiri leadership come out of egoism, urge for temporary popularity and thirst for media publicity? Will they not spare the helpless people of this state?

(About the writer: Hashim Qureshi is ChairmanJk Democratic Liberation party. Feedback at hashimquireshi@yahoo.com. Visit his blog hashimquireshi-jkdlp.blogspot.com)