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Posts tagged with: USA
Jan 29, 2008    |       15 comments

PAKISTAN PROTESTS – Edhi haggled by US Immigration & might be Deported

Abdul Sattar EdhiIts being reported that Pakistan’s renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi (Edhi Foundation) was interrogated by US immigration officials at the JF Kennedy Airport in New York for over eight hours, and they also later seized his passport and other documents,

Abdus Sattar Edhi told reporters “They asked me why I dont reside permanently in the US despite having a green card, he said. “I told them that Im a social worker and I have to travel extensively around the world, and so cannot live there permanently, he added. While talking to Dawn News he did mention that he had recently received a phone call informing him that he might be deported from the United States.

I sincerely hope that this turns out to be a farce and the US Immigration authorities do not execute this deportation as it would be additional salt of our wounds. I can guarantee that such an approach will lead to a massive outcry from every Pakistani across the world in unison. They all would stand testament to his selfless work for Pakistan over the past many years Mr Abdus Sattar Edhi is so highly regarded that many Pakistanis have been contemplating on nominating him for the Noble Peace Prize sadly that dream has not yet been realized but its embarrassing to watch this attitude dealt out by the American Government to our national heroes, might I dare say it will lead to worsening relationships, which are already dangling by a thread as it is.

On behalf of very Pakistani I issue a call for protest condemning this attitude meted out to our national hero, we hope that this issue may quickly be settled favorably and amicably. I would also like to demand a public unconditional apology to the people of Pakistan by the United States government for having humiliated our national hero in such away

Links – Pakistaniat, WatanDost & Dawn

Jan 29, 2008    |      1 comment

How to Steal an Election Without Breaking a Sweat

This writeup was posted on the People’s Resistance network, this might be more of a general report but quite literally the upcoming elections in Pakistan have all the signs to be fully rigged. Pakistan fails on each and every condition mentioned here

From Abuja to Islamabad, autocratic regimes have become adept at manipulating “free and fair elections to stay in power. Heres how they do itand how to stop them.

Control the process

How its done: Its much easier to steal an election when there are fewer checks on executive power and no legal framework for resolving disputes. When the laws are vague, election commissions are often powerless to confront a powerful central leader. “When you have a partial constitution that doesnt lay out the details of election law properly, thats a problem, says Chris Hennemeyer, director of African programs at the election-monitoring group IFES, adding, “Its a tried-and-true technique to stack the electoral commission with your cronies.

Real-world example: Kenyas constitution invests an enormous amount of power in the executive branch. This allowed President Mwai Kibaki to create a vast system of patronage throughout the government based largely on tribal ties. The head of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Samuel Kivuitu, has recently admitted that he was pressured by the presidents office to announce results before he could verify their authenticity.

How to stop it: An independent judicial branch that is capable of arbitrating electoral disputes without partisan pressure is a must. It also helps if polls are managed by independent election commissions rather than interior ministries.
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Jan 28, 2008    |       6 comments

Understanding the Petroleum Scam in Pakistan

I share with you a very interesting article published in The News yesterday discussing the controversial issue of the fluctuating price of oil, though it is an undeniable fact that we are intrinsically linked to the price of oil as prescribed by OPEC but somehow the varied fluctuations have never correlated with the international market, we have seen a rise in the price of oil even when the international markets were on the downhill. At the moment the international market is touching astronomical levels and we will soon see an upward trend of the local prices as well. I must give credit to Dr. Farrukh Malik to have taken on this rumbling giant to at least provide us with a short and digestible analysis

by Dr Farrukh Saleem
Published in The News on January 27 2008

In May 2006, the international price of oil hovered around $66 per barrel (OPEC Basket). On January 2, oil in New York was traded at $100 per barrel (NYMEX) while OPEC Basket was quoted at around $90 per barrel (remember, in January 1999, oil had hit a low of $11 per barrel).

Yes, in May 2006 the price of diesel in Pakistan was Rs37.18 per litre. Yes, Shell Pakistan is still selling diesel at Rs37.73 per litre. In effect, the price of oil in the international market has gone up by a whopping 40 per cent but the government of Pakistan is providing diesel to Pakistanis at rates lower than the international market (India hasn’t increased the price of petrol and diesel in 18 months).
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Jan 28, 2008    |       5 comments

Judges under siege by Qazi Faez Isa

Published in the opinion section of Dawn on 28th January 2008

Carry a placard “Release Justice Rana Bhagwandas and you will be thrown into the slammer. FIR No.13/08 lodged at the Clifton Town police station confirms the highhandedness of Musharrafs despotic regime.

Justice Rana Bhagwandas started his judicial career as a civil judge at the age of 24. In 1994 he was elevated to the high court and then to the Supreme Court where he eventually became the senior-most judge, serving as Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, whenever the Chief Justice was out of the country. He earned the reputation of hard work, dedication, clear thinking, impartiality and fairness. Upon retirement it has been the practice of the court to give the retiring judge a Full Court Reference, but in the building that now reminds one of the Supreme Court, traditions too have been banished.

On Nov 3, 2007, Justice Bhagwandas the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court was illegally incarcerated. After his retirement he was made a prisoner in his own home in Karachi. He caused offence because he did not break his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan when another was grinding his boot into it. “The people should fight for the law as for their city wall (Heraclitus, 5th century BC).
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Jan 26, 2008    |       8 comments

Imran Khan Brings Anti-Musharraf Effort to US – NPR

Imran Khan in the USA short audio report on The Morning Edition of NPR talks about Imran Khan’s visit to the United States. He continues to argue for the independence of Judiciary and the need to pressure the American lobby to stop patronizing one man as the sole savior for all problems in Pakistan. Hear the discussion here

[audio:https://teeth.com.pk/blog/wp-content/audio/nprimrankhan.mp3]

Morning Edition, January 25, 2008 · A former cricket star who leads one of Pakistan’s minority parties spent time in Washington this week meeting with lawmakers and speaking out against U.S. support of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Imran Khan, an international celebrity since his days as a sports star, leads a much smaller party than that of Benazir Bhutto, the leader who was killed last month. But in Pakistan, he’s nearly as well known as Bhutto. And he says that next month’s elections there won’t be real, if they happen at all.
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Jan 25, 2008    |       3 comments

‘l’etat, c’est moi’ – the state is me.

Guest Blog by Amer Nazir

The first time that I heard of him, was the day when I met him. It was at a ghazal party at the Defence Club. I noticed his penetrating eyes which seemed to be sizing a person on an already decided scale, his had shake was extremely firm and direct, and somehow it seemed, though this was of course a subjective appraisal this time on my part now that he was a simple man like me who had settled down to living his life according to a simplistic version of the Ten Commandments.

He seemed full of life during the evening. Often he would go to his staff car parked outside for obvious reasons and return with a rather boyish grin and a mischievous look in his eyes. He was a man who was enjoying his status in life to the fullest he was a Corps Commander with a difference, a man who seemed adamant not to be removed from the pleasures of the common company, from the common people with whom he mingled albeit from his vantage point high up on a pedestal. And after all (and I may not be able to do full justice to an urdu proverb here) that to what import to a peacock is the splendour of its dance if it takes place far away in a jungle where no one can see… To me it was obvious that we have a charming show man here who loves to play to an audience… that lucky are those who have him as their friend…

The evening when he was fired from his job and his plane was not being allowed to land, I had some entry mates from Hasanabdal over for dinner, and obviously by that time the rumours had started to spread, prompting different opinions. I on my part gave my prediction: I said that this man believes in standing next to his friends and would go all out to destroy his enemies a simple trait of a simple man who had never had the misfortune to contend with a much more complex world that lay outside his own very secure shelter. And I said to my friends that this man will take over the country…
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Jan 16, 2008    |       8 comments

A New World Order

Guest Blog by Faisal K – Deadpan Thoughts

In the last 10 years or so we have all watched in horror as disaster after disaster has struck the world. The events I am referring to are mostly man made ones which have left an indelible mark on our history and our conscience, they have also lead to a change in the very thought patterns and perceptions of the world.

This is not the only time in worlds history where a chain of events has happened resulting in wars, famine, destabilization of countries and then their destruction. It has happened before..for instance in the French revolution and the world wars. However If we consider, most of the calamities in the last 10 years have been attributed to militants and militancy in one form or the other. Al Qaeda claims responsibility for many of these events. The 9/11 disaster, the Gulf War, the Invasion of Afghanistan, The London Bombings, wide spread suicide attacks all over the world. Each one of these events has had a damaging impact on our collective trust in our people, our religions and our leaders.

Obviously with the amount of media coverage it has received, by those who control such things, Al Qaeda has been built up to be everyones Bogeyman. We must think clearly as to how and why Al Qaeda came into being to reveal many startling facts. Everyone knows that it happened at the end of an Afghan war when militants were established and were left with no cause to fight for, so they chose a religious one right? However a strange fact is that the Afghan people were getting support from the U.S even before the Russians moved in. In fact several theories exist that the Red Army made its move only because of tacit American involvement and support for the Afghans. Was the whole soviet Invasion made to happen? As a result of which militancy took root in this region? Is Al Qaeda a front?
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Jan 12, 2008    |      1 comment

Pakistans Nuclear Integrity under International threat

Dr Arif Alvi shares his genuine thoughts and concerns of how he percives the buildup of an American threat to our nuclear arsenal. The recent comments and indicators seriously show that it is not too far to imagine that very soon the US will in all likelihood may engage the United Nations (like their false / fake arguments they used to prempt the invasion of Iraq) to help them secure the Pakistani nuclear arsenal and demote Pakistan from the “nuclear club”.

This is a copy of his email to the People’s Resistance network urging them & the citizens of Pakistan to shed their own differences & lobby against such upcoming threats for the sake of Pakistan

  1. First Pak nukes were started as a subject discussion with their falling in wrong hands as a doomsday scenario and a possibility, started deliberately by US neocons, think tanks and the CIA.
  2. Endorsed recently by Bush Administration where they allowed US to intervene in FATA areas when considered necessary.

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Jan 12, 2008    |      Comments Off on American Journalist Deported from Pakistan today after publication of NY Times Magazine Article

American Journalist Deported from Pakistan today after publication of NY Times Magazine Article

An American journalist, Nicholas Schmidle, who authored the article “Next Gen Taliban ” that appeared in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine has been deported from Pakistan. He was forced to leave today — Friday, 11 January.

Schmidle will be returning to Washington, DC on Saturday and will be joining a panel I am moderating Monday afternoon titled “Pakistan in Peril” featuring veteran journalists and Pakistan-watchers Steve Coll and Peter Bergen as well as former Bush administration National Security Council senior official Flynt Leverett. Nicholas Schmidle will now be part of this panel.

Schmidle was informed that the Ministry of Interior was deporting him for unspecified reasons, but his speculation is that he was expelled because of his article which The Washington Note highlighted on Wednesday, 2 January — before it came out on Sunday. Continue Reading

Jan 9, 2008    |       12 comments

The NAB Diaries – Part Four

Guest Post by Amer Nazir

Part One of the ‘The NAB Diaries’ can be read here
Part Two of the ‘The NAB Diaries’ can be read here
Part Three of the ‘The NAB Diaries’ can be read here

“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money.

Money is the barometer of a societys virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion when you see that in order to produce, you need to take permission from men who produce nothing when you see money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors when you see that men go richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws dont protect you against them, but protect them against you when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self sacrifice you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.
Ayn Rand (Atlas shrugged)

Perhaps we are missing out on a simple point. It is not an issue of the Army against Democracy. We want democracy but what is holding us back are the illiterate, incompetent, and corrupt politicians. And we do want our army Pakistan needs an army but what is holding us back from having a professional army are the 150 or so generals that are in command…

Corrupt institutions can only bring forth corrupt people and a lawless society. Proper institutions bring forth proper people and transparency. Apart from institutions we need wealth and prosperity a larger pie. With the pie shrinking it is but natural that the men with guns would want to snatch other peoples share as well… there being no other solution for their personal economic survival. Any moral slogan is adopted patriotism, morality, religion, terrorism whatever.
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Jan 7, 2008    |       2 comments

American boots in Pakistan will push miscreants into Pakistani homes

Guest Blog Post by Moin Ansari
Moin Ansari’s Blog

The push theory pushes drug dealers and insurgents out of an area. This action does not eliminate the the insurgents or destroy the insurgency. It simply moves and “pushes the insurgents to a different area, usually into civilian quarters.

The US and NATO have been successful in pushing the insurgency, though not the insurgents out of Kabul to the Afghan Pashtun countryside. NATO, Khad, RAW and others then pushed the insurgency into the tribal areas of Pakistan. Continued activity pushed the insurgency, (not the insurgents) into Swat and Islamabad.

Already some of this insurgency has spread beyond Srinagar. More boots on the ground will spread this fire deep into the heart of India. From the other side, Burma, Thailand already are fighting a growing insurgency.

A more animated intervention or invasion of Pakistan will further push the insurgency and the insurgents into Lahore, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, and other settled areas of Pakistan. Surely the US army will follow the insurgency and the insurgents. Drones flying over Islamabad and firing missiled children hidden in Aabpara or missiles being fired into Gulberg 3 and Husein chowk in Lahore?
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Jan 6, 2008    |       23 comments

Pakistani Voter List sent to Montreal for ‘Safe Keeping’ with Mehndi.com founder

Thanks to KO and his investigation skills we have come across yet another fiasco that will haunt the government of Pakistan in the lead up to the elections.

In the past few weeks the Election Commission of Pakistan had hired the services of a certain Mr. Hayee Bokhari of Cronomagic Canada Inc, a data warehouse, to electronically host Pakistan’s election lists in safe custody under hacker proof conditions, on the face of it, it sounds honest enough, but probing a little further armed with the interview published by Canada.com of the company reveals some interesting and eye-opening flaws.

It must be mentioned that the list containing the 80 Million names of all Pakistanis eligible to vote generally does carry all our sensitive and personal information, ranging from our names, ages, home addresses, parental information and most importantly our ID Card number, if not anything else, simply said enough information to be a security risk. Paranoid as I might be all such information must be protected by the Government of Pakistan and ensured that it must never fall into the wrong hands, let alone transfer the data across the world via the Internet to a software house located in Montreal, try as much as you might, the Internet is considered highly insecure regardless of any number of security levels one might use, it is all crackable at many points along the route and definitely prone to data monitoring & mining. We all know that NSA does not hide the fact that it does data mining of all traffic going in and out of North America despite the attempt to block them in 2003 but I am certain that due to the sensitive nature of Pakistan practically all information coming out of Pakistan will definitely get ‘mined’ to help collect information for their efforts on the War on Terror in this region

I am quite sure that our local IT industry is not ‘that’ inept that we cannot host this information locally within our own secure premises which could be under the full control of the Government, heck it just requires a few good servers and a good firewall to keep hackers out and does not requires a braniac in Canada to figure this out. In all honesty I feel this is sensitive country information which should be housed and protected within the confines of our own territory, not handed over to some company housed in a foreign land in god knows where.
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Jan 6, 2008    |       9 comments

‘The Duty My Wife Left Us’ – Asif Zardari, op-ed Washington Post

Asif Ali Zardari has today written an Op-Ed in the Washington Post. Reading this artcile I came off with a sarcastic smile and the only words that came out after every sentence was YEAH RIGHT!!!. In all honesty I suspect many of you might also have the same reaction

The Duty My Wife Left Us
By Asif Ali Zardari

Last week the world was shocked, and my life was shattered, by the murder of my beloved wife, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Benazir was willing to lay down her life for what she believed in — for the future of a democratic, moderate, progressive Pakistan. She stood up to dictators and fanatics, those who would distort and defy our constitution and those who would defame the Muslim holy book by violence and terrorism. My pain and the pain of our children is unimaginable. But I feel even worse for a world that will have to move forward without this extraordinary bridge between cultures, religions and traditions.

I married Benazir in 1987 but spent less than five years living with her in the prime minister’s house over her two terms in office, which were interrupted by military interventions. I spent more than 11 years in Pakistani jails, imprisoned without a conviction on charges that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf (who brought and pursued the charges) have now publicly acknowledged were politically motivated. Even before Benazir was first elected prime minister, in 1988, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies began working to discredit her, targeting me and several of her friends. I was called “Mr. Ten Percent” by their hired guns in public relations, and the names of her friends abroad were besmirched with ridiculous charges that they headed the nonexistent “Indo-Zionist” lobby.
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Jan 5, 2008    |       2 comments

No Evidence of Pakistani or US Signal Intercepts Of Al Qaeda

Wayne Madsen Reports have published a detailed article talking about if the Government of Pakistan does indeed have evidence of Baitul Mehsud calling his colleagues and congratulating them after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Though there maybe some bias in the article but its good food for thought considering this alleged tape was released during ‘the investigation’ where the govt deliberately distorted the facts about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, could this be yet another figment of their imagination.

WMR’s [Wayne Media Report] intelligence sources are scoffing at the Pakistani Interior Ministry contention that it could prove that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of “Al Qaeda’s” chief in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud. The Interior Ministry claims that it recorded an “intercept” of Mehsud’s communications in which Mehsud allegedly congratulated his followers for the attack on Bhutto in the heavily-garrisoned city of Rawalpindi.

Bhutto’s political party and Mehsud both rejected the claims about the communications intercepts of Mehsud and said the Pervez Musharraf regime was behind the assassination of Bhutto.

US National Security Agency (NSA) sources have told WMR that signals intelligence (SIGINT) intercepts of Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are rare in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Not only is cell phone coverage spotty to non-existent in remote areas like Waziristan but ever since the 1996 NSA intercept of Chechen President Dzokhar Dudayev’s satellite telephone call to Moscow, which was passed in to Russian security authorities who triangulated his position and killed him with an air-to-surface missile, Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Osama Bin Laden, have refrained from using electronic communications. mindful of U.S. intelligence’s capability to lock in on the locations of cell phone and sat phone signals.


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Jan 3, 2008    |       4 comments

STRATFOR: Bhutto and the U.S.-Jihadist Endgame

An article appearing in STRATFOR [Strategic Forecasting Inc.] about Pakistan, its definitely worth reading, but mind you its from the perspective of a Non-Pakistani, its time that WE stand up for what we believe is right for Pakistan, not what they hope is good for us. Is that too much to ask…..

Pakistan, Bhutto and the U.S.-Jihadist Endgame
By George Friedman

The endgame of the U.S.-jihadist war always had to be played out in Pakistan. There are two reasons that could account for this. The first is simple: Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda command cell are located in Pakistan. The war cannot end while the command cell functions or has a chance of regenerating. The second reason is more complicated. The United States and NATO are engaged in a war in Afghanistan. Where the Soviets lost with 300,000 troops, the Americans and NATO are fighting with less than 50,000. Any hope of defeating the Taliban, or of reaching some sort of accommodation, depends on isolating them from Pakistan. So long as the Taliban have sanctuary and logistical support from Pakistan, transferring all coalition troops in Iraq to Afghanistan would have no effect. And withdrawing from Afghanistan would return the situation to the status quo before Sept. 11. If dealing with the Taliban and destroying al Qaeda are part of any endgame, the key lies in Pakistan.

U.S. strategy in Pakistan has been to support Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and rely on him to purge and shape his countrys army to the extent possible to gain its support in attacking al Qaeda in the North, contain Islamist radicals in the rest of the country and interdict supplies and reinforcements flowing to the Taliban from Pakistan. It was always understood that this strategy was triply flawed.
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