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Posts tagged with: US
Feb 5, 2010    |       11 comments

Aafia Siddiqui’s Indictment Court Order

I’m sharing with our readers, the actual court order issued by the District Court in the case US Government vs Aafia Siddiqui – if one might notice, there is no reference regarding the abduction of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui from Pakistan in collaboration of General Pervaiz Musharraf and the US Governmental Agencies, the case immediately jumps to her alleged arrest in August 2008 and the alleged tussle she had with the federal officers who had her in for questioning.
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Feb 5, 2010    |       22 comments

Dr Aafia’s Case Exposed the US judicial System

Guest Blog by Talkhaba

“The American court acquits Dr Aafia Siddiqui” The ticker blinks on TV screens is followed by the screen flashes “Breaking News; The US court releases Afia Siddiqui” “The justice has been made by the exemplary American judicial system.”

The News anchors inform us that Pakistani Ambassador to the US Mr. Hussain Haqqani will hold a press conference shortly. At the same time, the tickers read “Quid-e-Tehreek Altaf Hussain has praised Americans for making justice and freeing the daughter of Nation” The news anchors announce that MQM chief has made a phone call to Aafia’s mother which is to telecasted on TV channels live. The audience listens to Altaf Hussain. He is followed by messages from President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, Interior Minister, Mr Rehman Malik, chief of Pakistan Muslims league (N) Mr. Mian Nawaz Shareef, Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Syed Mushahid Hussain. Besides, shorts statements of different national leaders are displayed at TV screens, all congratulating Aafia’s family and praising US judicial system.
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Feb 4, 2010    |       55 comments

Dr. Aafia found Guilty – The Missing Links

Dear Awab and other friends,

I can feel Awab’s pain as someone who did follow this case so closely, and I do not mistake his patience now as anything due to lack of sensitivity. Contrary, I admire him for that.

Perhaps it would help to recap the points that were elaborated in the report ‘Don’t Blame the Victim‘ released from this forum in late 2008.

The basic stance was that in this case, a victim had been turned into the accused. That is an old tactic of patriarchy. In this case, there was not one allegations but four, and justice required that they should be addressed in the order in which they had appeared: Continue Reading

Feb 4, 2010    |       61 comments

Prisoner 650 – Dr. Aafia Siddiqui convicted on 7 counts

A US court has found Dr. Aafia Siddiqui guilty of attempting to murder US agents while she was detained for questioning in Afghanistan in 2008. She is allegedly have picked up an army rifle and shot at the US agents, none of the Americans was injured but Aafia Siddiqui also known as Prisoner 650, was shot in the stomach.

She was arrested by Afghan police in July 2008 on suspicion of carrying chemicals and notes referring to “mass-casualty attacks” in New York. A jury in Manhattan found Siddiqui guilty of attempted murder, of armed assault, using and carrying a firearm. She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

It must be remembered that in 2005 the then President of Pakistan, General Pervaiz Musharraf had bartered a deal with the Americans and may have actually handed over Aafia to the American CIA as she was deemed to have been declared a suspected terrorist, since then she has been missing until an outcry by Yvone Ridley who spotted a certain Prisoner 650 illegally being detained in Afghanistan, it is probably due to this media rukus that the Americans then had to create an elaborate story, which suddenly lead to this “assault on American soldiers and her getting a bullet in the stomach”
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Jan 31, 2010    |       11 comments

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s Trial

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is on trial this last week in New York on charges of her attempting to kill an FBI officer in Afghanistan. It interesting to note that none of the assault charges are seemingly holding up against her, the M-4 rifle which she allegedly used to fire four shots at the officers has not produced a single finger print of her, while other items presented as evidence in are trial are also not standing up in court. What one must remember that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was abducted from Karachi and held in some US custody from 2003 for allegedly supporting terrorism, only to re-emerge as a Prisoner 650 charged with assaulting FBI officers in 2008, her trial is not about her terrorism but instead an assault charge made against her in 2008.

Sounds like someone in Pakistan must answer the tough question as to why they felt the need to hand over her and many like her over to the US without a proper investigation and trial ensuring that they were actually guilty of the alleged crime or terrorist activity. Musharraf or for that matter should not have bartered with her life to pick up and let the Americans smuggle her out of Pakistan merely on the basis of a hunch?

A good summary of the progress of the trial can be heard in this short 10-minute interview of Tina Foster, Executive Director of International Justice Network who has been monitoring Dr. Aafia Siddiqi trial in New York on Letters to Washington telecasted on KPFA Washington Radio

[audio:Aafia.mp3]
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Jan 23, 2010    |       72 comments

Blackwater ‘IN’ Pakistan – Rehman Malik, Patterson & Clinton all LIED to the People of Pakistan

In an interview with Express News [transcript on DoD], Robert Gates confirmed in some clear terms that private security firms Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan. “They’re operating as individual companies here in Pakistan” – so technically by all counts this statement more or less proves that Anne Patterson, Hilary Clinton and Rehman Malik all have being LYING to the people of Pakistan. Where over the past few months they have one after the other vehemently denied the presence of Blackwater and its operatives in Pakistan. Rehman Malik is on record to quit. In an attempt to soften the blow the US Department of Defense is covering up their statement by that updating reporters that Mr. Gates had been speaking about contractor oversight more generally and that the Pentagon didn’t employ Xe in Pakistan – which we all know is yet another lie, since even Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, confessed to his organizations involvement in Pakistan barely a month back in the Vanity Fair article.

I can’t complain much if foreign agents like Anne Patterson and Hilary Clinton lied to our people, as they probably were protecting the interests of their own government, but what irks me is that our own Ministers (& President) knowingly continue to lie to their people literally selling our soul to the highest bidder and yet had the audacity to deny the real facts while our country continued to burn under our noses.
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Dec 30, 2009    |       67 comments

American forces Harass a Pakistani Citizen in Karachi

Mubashir Lucman in his show Point Blank on Express News which was aired yesterday on the evening of 29th December presents some sweeping evidences of the role of American forces in harassing Pakistani citizens, specifically intimidation and interrogation of Dr Mehvish Baig in Karachi – a naturalized Pakistani American who has been trying to give up her US citizenship.

Dr. Mehvish Baig shares her experience as a number of American forces enter into her house and harass her and her kids with dire circumstances. She resides in Naval Complex Karachi and her brother is a serving Naval officer. The first 12 minutes are relevant with the interview of Dr. Mehvish.


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Dec 26, 2009    |       103 comments

Talibans want to Negotiate for Peace with Imran Khan as a mediator

Today The News published a report of an audio tape delivered to their offices in Peshawar of a Taliban leader suggesting that they would like to discuss the possibility of a peaceful resolution in the region and offered the name of Imran Khan as a potential mediator. Looking at the news item published in the newspaper its ironic to note that the editorial board choose to hide the importance of this ground breaking news item, camouflaging it under the title of “No Talks with Taliban now: Fazl” probably yet another dubious statement by Maulana Fazlur Rehman who chose for the umpteenth time to toeing the official pro-establishment line of going guns blazing, suggesting that peace was utterly out of the question.

I feel this offer by the Swat Talibans to come onto the negotiating table is a very important development and quite possibly a breakthrough in an out-of-control war on terror offensive. It is my opinion that such peace initiatives should have been in place throughout the offensive, fully empowering the Pakistan Army to aggressively demilitarize the warring militants but at the same time keep an open door policy for diplomacy and possibly a peaceful settlement of this conflict.

Some pessimists may rightly see this to be a deliberately attempt by the Talibans to forestall any ongoing military offensives, which may give them time to recuperate and retaliate later with renewed energy, it is a genuine concern, but on the flip side it could also mean to suggest that the Talibans have weakened enough to be now ready to come onto the negotiating table for any peace talks.
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Dec 18, 2009    |       28 comments

APC’s making their way to Quetta / Waziristan? (US/NATO?)

APC being transported to Baluchistan

UPDATE I – Observers have been trying to identify this APC and best guestimates are of a long wheel base US Stryker possibly an M1135 NAB-RV [Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle]

UPDATE II – It is possible after observing the wide wheel base that this vehicle is actually a Short Range Ballistic Missle Launcher (upto 300km) resmebles the image here or here, in all likelihood this is not of Pakistan Army as teh color marking were of a muddy brown and the launcher was being transported in a private carrier without protocol and security

In a set of recently published pictures that were taken by me while I was going to Hingol, Baluchistan for a few days of offroading.  We happened to come across a transporter parked at a gas station about 2 km west of a small town called Winder some 40km away from Karachi on the RCD Highway (Karachi-Quetta).  It was a large privately owned transporter carrying a heavily draped vehicle which seemed like an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC)

The heavily draped cargo had no physical markings except a few on the back with bold letterings “Caution: Inflammable” It seemed to be a military grade Armored Personnel Carrier with a set of 8×8 heavy duty tires.  According to some experts on site and even Bilal, a commenter on this blog, this type of an APC is not available in the inventory of the Pakistan Army but is found in use with NATO or US forces.  It is my speculation that, had if the Pakistan Army, owned this APC or was transporting this cargo, they would have utilized their abundant brown colored military trailers and not be dependent on private contractors to move these to Quetta or possibly Waziristan
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Nov 28, 2009    |       45 comments

Jermey Scahill talks about Blackwater on Democracy Now

blackwaterJermy Scahill, the defense analyst who recently published an article in The Nation, is interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. Jermey Scahill says that when he was about to go to press with the article, he got some frantic calls from US Joint Chief of Staff General Mullen. He goes on to discuss the Kestral Logistics a Pakistani firm and its owner Liaquat Ali Baig having close contacts with being the front end for Blackwater’s operations in Pakistan. The numerous covert drone attacks were also analyzed. The first 20 minutes are relevant to the Blackwater controversy

Nov 25, 2009    |       22 comments

Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan being Verified

blackwater Xe servicesJeremy Scahill writes a must read detailed report on the operations of Blackwater in Pakistan. His extensive investigation naturally starts off from The White House which refused to comment or respond to his emails but a spokesperson from the US Department of Defense denied the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan to categorically say “We don’t have any contracts to do that work for us. We don’t contract that kind of work out, period”

I share some important points from the article, while I strongly suggest to read the full write at The Nation
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Nov 2, 2009    |       30 comments

Open Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Feryal GoharYour Excellency,

Allow me to apologize to you for not being able to be present during your address to civil society at the hallowed campus of Government College University in my beloved city of Lahore. Much as I would have wanted to benefit from the wisdom of your analysis and foresight, I could not make the journey quickly enough from the remote town of Chilas where I was in consultation with the proponents of a major dam which shall displace 32,000 people and submerge 32,000 ancient rock carvings if and when built. Allow me to further explain that since flights were cancelled from the nearest airport in Gilgit, a tedious five hour journey on the Karakoram Highway, I was compelled to take the road journey over the Babusar Pass situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet above sea level, travelling a total of eighteen hours to Islamabad.

Your Excellency, it was during this eighteen hour journey through some of the most desolate yet spectacular landscape of my country that I imagined speaking to you, being unable to join the privileged few who were invited to hear you speak both in Lahore and in Islamabad. As the vehicle carrying us made its way carefully over open culverts fashioned by the able engineers of the China Construction Company, as it slid over six inches of freshly falling snow, as it dipped into crevices swirling with glacial melt, and as it glided smoothly over the bits of tarmac which have survived the devastation of the 2005 earthquake which killed 70,000 people in these remote parts, I spoke to you, imagining that you were truly interested in what I, an ordinary citizen of this, my beloved, blighted country had to say.
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Oct 29, 2009    |       15 comments

Waziristan Strategy or Pakistan Strategy?

By Azhar Aslam

nwfp-waziristanWaziristan today has come to symbolize the paradigm in which Pakistan finds itself. An epicentre of ‘terrorism’, a symbol of ‘Talibanization’ and now a field for what has been euphemistically called ‘mother of all battles’. Pakistan and Waziristan were not always like this. How we have come to this pass is crucial to analyse, but even more urgent is to assess that are we prepared enough to win this battle?

Is this just a battle or a war? Is the battle confined to South Waziristan? What are the implications beyond Waziristan? What lies beyond the battle? What will happen after South Waziristan has been secured? What are our plans after the area has been secured and captured? How are we going to treat captured combatants? What will be things be like in two, five, ten and twenty years from now?

It is clear that there are no short term measures that can address a problem as complex and deeply embedded as this. The military win will be down to appropriate strategy, superior operational and tactical skills, appropriately trained troops, coordinated intelligence and finally high morale and right motivation. But this battle is about more than just winning in Waziristan. A lot more.
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Oct 27, 2009    |       10 comments

US official, Resigns in Protest questioning the American agenda in Afghanistan (& Pakistan)

Matthew Hoh, A former Marine Corps captain stationed in the Zabul province in Afghanistan tendered his resignation to the US Ambassador Nancy Powel, becoming the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.”
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Oct 21, 2009    |       21 comments

The Right to Refuse

obama-zardari-300x259Begging, as a profession could well compete with many others considered oldest on the list, with very similar characteristics. The first clink of coins falling in the begging bowl takes away one’s self esteem and any left over reluctance for all times to come. From here on, there is no looking back. One ceases to utilise one’s own faculties and gets hooked on to the life of easy money. More creative and unscrupulous begging techniques are devised to draw greater sympathy from the charity giver. Interestingly, few beggars have ever become rich or said good bye to beggary. It is a an addiction that even psychiatrists find difficult to deal with. Cold turkey is often the only solution.

Sixty years of begging and borrowing have reduced Pakistan to an addicted state whose claim to fame is its own self acquired helplessness. It has said good bye to its own faculties, conscience and self respect. It is willing to find a million excuses to beg , but is not willing to take a single action to reform itself. It is not willing to save billions that it looses every year on its mismanaged state-run organisations like PIA, Steel mill or Railway. It is not willing to save on its army of ministers, whose only job is to roam around in Prados sponsored by the tax payer or foreign aid. It is not willing to save on its leaders eternally performing ‘umrahs’ or doing family junkets in foreign lands. It is not willing to save on its hundreds of bullet proof cars that are imported for its worthless leaders.
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