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Fwd: Will USA Break Up Like USSR; Economic Power Shifting from USA to China

August 26, 2013, 10:21 pm
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FROM MY DEAR FRIEND AMBASSADOR GAJENDRA SINGH FROM INDIA

You may use it if you so feel .Cheers Gajendra


Like Persians & Byzantines, after Collapse of USSR, Will USA break up a la Prof Panarin?
A Resurgent $ Trillions Rich China buying up US Assets
Economic Power Shifting from USA to China  
 
"Keynes's collective work amounted to a powerful argument that capitalism was by its very nature unstable and prone to collapse. Far from trending toward some magical state of equilibrium, capitalism would inevitably do the opposite. It would lurch over a cliff," --- Hyman Minsky.
"Capitalism has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, that it is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells"- Karl Marx
 
"When there is a general change of conditions, it is as if the entire creation had been changed and the whole world been altered." - Ibn Khaldun
"History is ruled by an inexorable determinism in which the free choice of major historical figures plays a minimal role", Leo Tolstoy 
 
Russian Prof Igor Panarin had forecast in 1998 that USA will break up in 2010. "There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he said.He cited French political scientist Emmanuel Todd, famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," said Prof. Panarin.
 
Prof Panarins' forecast about USA caught attention in 2008 when the US banks and economy had the first shock and went into recession .For an elephant like US it might take another few years at best a decade, the way its economy is declining .US is spending almost as much as the rest of the world on defence or rather attacking nations illegally ie, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now threatening Syria, which will bring the world to an East West? Shia-Sunni conflict as Iran and Russia have warned .US leaders egged by the slimy British leaders are lying shamelessly .West has no media just mouth pieces of military industry complex and war mongers . Saudi led GCC has gone mad.
 
A conflict around Syria , even if controlled ,will only benefit China at the expense of West and its allies and Russia and Iran.
 
Western and its Allies have outdone Goebbels in repeating lies and with Gestapo like surveillance by NSA, USA looks like the Nazi regime at its end . 
 
After almost ten centuries of warfare, the Roman/Byzantine and Persian empires, both exhausted, collapsed .Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 .Now USA is treading the same path...From 7th century the Muslim Arab Bedouins conquered the former territories of the two empires from Morocco to China's border.
 
Western destruction and wars are creating thousands of Jihadists, some heart eating ones .What will some of them do on return, especially in EU with almost 10 million Muslims in Germany, France and elsewhere, and disaffected Black Muslims in USA.
 
While US and its allies are hell bent on destruction including their own, a resurgent and trillions dollar rich China is buying up US companies and assets and elsewhere too.
 
Please also read the details of  China's purchase of US assets and companies at the end .Beijing is even panning to build a canal in Nicaragua parallel to Panama Canal costing $40 Billion .Surely it will build a naval base sooner or later .
 
The world even without a catastrophic war around Syria is headed for an epochal transformation already underway.
 
URL of my ten articles written since 2000 on the decline of American century and its hegemony;
 
 
Ambassador (Retd) K Gajendra Singh 26 August 2013 ,Mayur Vihar, Delhi-91
 
This is not a coffee break quickie .Spend some time to comprehend the possible shape of the world.
 
Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2008

 As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010

 
ANDREW OSBORN
MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.
 
IGOR PANARIN
In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
 
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
 
In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country's top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.
 
Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."
 
Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.
 
Mr. Panarin's résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.
 
The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."
 
In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.
"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."
 
At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.
 
He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.
 
California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.
 
"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for any reason," he says with a sly grin.
Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.
Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."
 
The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.
 
For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.
 
The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.
[Igor Panarin]
 
 
Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China to Dominate 1000s of U.S. Communities
June 8, 2013
Are you ready for a future where China will employ millions of American workers and dominate thousands of small communities all over the United States?  Such a future would be unimaginable to many Americans, but the truth is that it is already starting to happen.  Chinese acquisition of U.S. businesses set a new all-time record last year, and it is on pace to absolutely shatter that record this year.  Meanwhile, China is voraciously gobbling up real estate and is establishing economic beachheads all over America.  If China continues to build economic power inside the United States, it will eventually become the dominant economic force in thousands of small communities all over the nation.  Just think about what the Smithfield Foods acquisition alone will mean.  Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world.  It has facilities in 26 U.S. states and it employs tens of thousands of Americans.  It directly owns 460 farms and has contracts with approximately 2,100 others.  But now a Chinese company has bought it for $4.7 billion, and that means that the Chinese will now be the most important employer in dozens of rural communities all over America.  If you don't think that this is important, you haven't been paying much attention to what has been going on in the world.  Thanks in part to our massively bloated trade deficit with China, the Chinese have trillions of dollars to spend.  They are only just starting to exercise their economic muscles.
And it is important to keep in mind that there is often not much of a difference between "the Chinese government" and "Chinese corporations".  In 2011, 43 percent of all profits in China were produced by companies that the Chinese government had a controlling interest in.  Americans are accustomed to thinking of "government" and "business" as being separate things, but in China they are often one and the same.  Even when there is a separation in ownership, the reality is that no major Chinese corporation is going to go against the authority and guidance of the Chinese government.  The relationship between government and business in China is much different than it is in the United States.
Over the past several years, Chinese companies have become increasingly aggressive.  Last year a Chinese company spent $2.6 billion to purchase AMC entertainment – one of the largest movie theater chains in the United States.  Now that Chinese company controls more movie ticket sales than anyone else in the world.  At the time, that was the largest acquisition of a U.S. firm by a Chinese company, but now the Smithfield Foods deal has greatly surpassed that.
But China is not just relying on acquisitions to expand its economic power.  The truth is that "economic beachheads" are being established all over America.  For example, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, Inc. recently broke ground on a $100 million plant in Thomasville, Alabama.  I am sure that many of the residents of Thomasville, Alabama will be glad to have jobs, but it will also become yet another community that will now be heavily dependent on communist China.
And guess where else Chinese companies are putting down roots?
Detroit.
Yes, the poster child for the deindustrialization of America is being invaded by the Chinese.  The following comes from a recent CNBC article…
Dozens of companies from China are putting down roots in Detroit, part of the country's steady push into the American auto industry.
Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.
If you recently purchased an "American-made vehicle", there is a really good chance that it has Chinese parts in it.
In fact, it is becoming harder and harder to get auto parts that are actually made in America by American companies.  A lot of those companies are dying off.  One example of this is a battery maker that had received $132 million from the federal government that was recently gobbled up by a huge Chinese corporation…
Industry analysts are hard-pressed to put a number on the Chinese suppliers operating in the United States. "We simply don't know how many there are," said David Andrea, an official with the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, a trade organization for auto parts makers.
In one of the more prominent deals, the Wanxiang Group bought most of the assets of the battery maker A123 Systems, which filed for bankruptcy last year despite receiving $132 million of $249 million in federal grants to build two factories in Michigan.
Congressional Republicans criticized the deal, saying A123′s technology could support military applications in China. Still, the buyout was approved this year by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal government panel.
China seems particularly interested in acquiring energy resources in the United States.  For example, did you know that China is actually mining for coal in the mountains of Tennessee?
Guizhou Gouchuang Energy Holdings Group spent 616 million dollars to acquire Triple H Coal Co. in Jacksboro, Tennessee.  At the time, that acquisition really didn't make much news, but now a group of conservatives in Tennessee is trying to stop the Chinese from blowing up their mountains and taking their coal.  The following is from a Wall Street Journal article back in March…
The Tennessee Conservative Union began airing an ad Tuesday that says lawmakers have failed to protect the state's scenic mountains and are allowing the "Chinese to destroy our mountains and take our coal…the same folks who hold our debt."
But when it comes to our energy resources, China has been most interested in our oil and natural gas.  It is a complete and total mystery why the federal government would allow China to buy up our precious domestic sources of energy, but it is happening.  The following is a list of some of the oil and natural gas deals that China has been involved in during the last few years that was compiled by the Wall Street Journal…
Colorado: Cnooc gained a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming in a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy Corp.
Louisiana: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 265,000 acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after a broader $2.5-billion deal with Devon Energy.
Michigan: Sinopec gained a one-third interest in 350,000 acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.
Ohio: Sinopec acquired a one-third stake in Devon Energy's 235,000 Utica Shale acres in a larger $2.5 billion deal.
Oklahoma: Sinopec has a one-third interest in 215,000 acres in a broader $2.5 billion deal with Devon Energy.
Texas: Cnooc acquired a one-third interest in Chesapeake Energy's 600,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in a $2.16-billion deal.
Wyoming: Cnooc has a one-third stake in 800,000 acres in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming after a $1.27 billion pact with Chesapeake Energy. Sinopec gained a one-third interest in Devon Energy's 320,000 acres as part of a larger $2.5 billion deal.
Gulf of Mexico: Cnooc Ltd. separately acquired minority stakes in some of Statoil ASA's leases as well as six of Nexen Inc.'s deep-water wells.
How could we be so stupid?
Sadly, as our politicians endlessly bicker China just continues to aggressively push ahead.
And pretty soon China may want to build entire cities in the United States just like they have been doing in other countries.  According toBloomberg, right now China is actually building a city larger than Manhattan just outside of the capital of Belarus…
China is building an entire city in the forests near the Belarusian capital Minsk to create a manufacturing springboard between the European Union andRussia.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenkoallotted an area 40 percent larger than Manhattanaround Minsk's international airport for the $5 billion development, which will include enough housing to accommodate 155,000 people, according to Chinese and Belarusian officials.
And this is actually already happening on a much smaller scale in this country.  For example, as I have written about previously, a Chinese company known as "Sino-Michigan Properties LLC" has purchased 200 acres of land near the little town of Milan, Michigan.  Their stated goal is to construct a "China City" that has artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.
In other cases, large chunks of real estate in the middle of major U.S. cities are being gobbled up by Chinese "investors".  Just check out what a Fortune articlefrom a while back says has been happening in Toledo, Ohio…
In March 2011, Chinese investors paid $2.15 million cash for a restaurant complex on the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. Soon they put down another $3.8 million on 69 acres of newly decontaminated land in the city's Marina District, promising to invest $200 million in a new residential-commercial development. That September, another Chinese firm spent $3 million for an aging hotel across a nearby bridge with a view of the minor league ballpark.
Are you starting to get the picture?
China is on the rise and America is in decline.  If you doubt this, just read the following list of facts which comes from one of my previous articles entitled "40 Ways That China Is Beating America"…
#1 As I mentioned above, when you total up all imports and exports of goods, China is now the number one trading nation on the entire planet.
#2 During 2012, we sold about 110 billion dollars worth of stuff to the Chinese, but they sold about 425 billion dollars worth of stuff to us.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
#3 Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with China over the past decade that comes to more than 2.3 trillion dollars.
#4 China now has the largest new car market in the entire world.
#5 China has more foreign currency reserves than anyone else on the planet.
#6 China is the number one gold producer in the world.
#7 China is also the number one gold importer in the world.
#8 The uniforms for the U.S. Olympic team were made in China.
#9 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.
#10 The new World Trade Center tower is going to include glass that has been imported from China.
#11 The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.
#12 One of the reasons it is so hard to export stuff to China is because of their tariffs.  According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.
#13 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.
#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#15 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
#16 Overall, the United States has lost a total of more than 56,000manufacturing facilities since 2001.
#17 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.
#18 China now produces more than twice as many automobiles as the United States does.
#19 since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles has been built outside the United States.
#20 after being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, General Motors is currently involved in 11 joint ventures with companies owned by the Chinese government.  The price for entering into many of these "joint ventures" was a transfer of "state of the art technology" from General Motors to the communist Chinese.
#21 back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world's high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China's share had soared to 20 percent.
#22 The United States has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.
#23 China's number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment, but the number one U.S. export to China is "scrap and trash".
#24 The U.S. trade deficits with China are now more than 30 times larger than it was back in 1990.
#25 China now consumes more energy than the United States does.
#26 China is now the leading manufacturer of goods in the entire world.
#27 China uses more cement than the rest of the world combined.
#28 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.
#29 there is more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.
#30 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.
#31 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.
#33 China now produces 11 times as much steel as the United States does.
#34 China produces more than 90 percent of the global supply of rare earth elements.
#35 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.
#36 A recent investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found more than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain.
#37 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles.  But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.
#38 China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.
#39 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income.  In China, the average household debt loadis 17% of average household income.
#40 The Chinese have begun to buy up huge amounts of U.S. real estate.  In fact, Chinese citizens purchased one out of every ten homes that were sold in the state of California in 2011.
And what we have seen so far may just be the tip of the iceberg as far as Chinese "investment" in U.S. real estate is concerned.  The following is a brief excerpt from a Bloomberg article that was posted just last week…
China is studying the possibility of investing a portion of its $3.4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves in U.S. real estate, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange began the study after seeing signs of a recovery in the U.S. property market, said the people, who asked not to be identified as they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter. China may acquire properties, invest in real estate funds or buy stakes in property companies, they said. The safety of the investments will be the top priority, said the people, who didn't elaborate on a timetable or other details.
So what can we do about all of this?
Unfortunately, not a whole lot.  Both major political parties seem to be fully convinced that merging our economy with the economy of communist China is a great idea.  I would not expect major changes in our policies regarding China any time soon.
For now, I will just leave you with one piece of advice…
Learn to speak Chinese.  You might need it someday.
 




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Fwd: "Rationalising exploitation and atrocities”

August 26, 2013, 10:40 pm
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Respected and Dear Friend,

                                                          I hope all is well with you and your Respected Family.   

       I am sending my piece, "Rationalising exploitation and atrocities" printed in today's Daily Times for your kind perusal. Your kind comments will be highly appreciated. 


  With Very Best Regards
  Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur
 
"I know that I am prejudiced on this matter, but I would be ashamed of myself if I were not."
Mark Twain
 

"A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself." - Joseph Pulitzer

    "Organized religion is like organized crime, it preys on people's weaknesses, generates huge profits for its operators and is almost impossible to eradicate" Mike Hermann

COMMENT : Rationalising exploitation and atrocities — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Balochistan not only suffers because of the misuse of its natural gas resources and low employment but also because of the low prices for the misused gas

Punjab, with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in power, plans to take over gas resources through amending Article 158, which states: "Priority of requirements of natural gas: The Province in which a well-head of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from that well-head, subject to the commitments and obligations as on the commencing day." Minister for Petroleum Khaqan Abbasi stated that it was unfair that CNG was available for vehicles in a gas-producing province (read Sindh and Balochistan) while fertiliser plants were closed in another province (read Punjab) due to non-availability of gas and added, "This needs to be rationalised. Pakistan belongs to all and provinces are a part of it." Rationalising exploitation is their priority now.

Whether rational or irrational, vicious exploitation of Balochistan has been the norm here. Respected analyst Syed Fazl-e-Haider wrote in a national daily in September 2009: "Balochistan for increased share in gas revenue. While the federal government is arbitrarily subsidising the sale of natural gas from Balochistan to consumers in other provinces without its consent, the province is left with no funds to finance its annual development programme. According to one estimate, the subsidy for Sindh is around Rs 1.72 billion and for Punjab and the NWFP Rs 12.92 billion. The subsidy being given to the fertiliser sector in terms of fuel, amounts to Rs 1.054 billion, cement sector Rs 34.64 million, fertiliser (feedstock) Rs 31.03 million, CNG Rs 24.12 million, general industrial sector Rs 424.15 million and commercial sector Rs 54.67 million. All the subsidies are being provided at Balochistan's expense."

Mr Haider added, "Sui gas field is still the country's single largest gas field, which produces around 800 mmscf of natural gas daily from 87 wells. If it continues with the same speed, these reserves could hardly last for eight to 10 years. The gas reserves discovered in Sui were to the tune of 9.625 trillion cubic feet in 1952. Commercial exploitation of the field began in 1955. Since then, the Sui field has been meeting a significant amount of the country's energy requirements. The production from Sui gas field is a vital source of huge foreign exchange savings as the same would have been spent on the import of energy had the gas reserves not been discovered in abundance. Unfortunately, the province has been deprived of its due share in royalty and economic benefits." Article 158 has remained redundant in the case of Balochistan and an amendment would only allow increased injustice there and in Sindh.

Naseer Memon, Chief Executive of Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) in his paper "Oil and Gas Resources and Rights of Provinces: A case study of Sindh" says: "Sindh and Balochistan together contribute more than 93 percent of the national gas production and therefore can be considered energy basket of Pakistan." To prove that Punjab devours most despite Article 158, he quotes the Pakistan Energy Yearbook 2008 table, which translates as: "Sindh consumes less than the half of the gas against its production, Balochistan consumes just around a quarter while Punjab consumes 8.5 times more gas than its production."

Mr Memon also gives consumption figures to highlight the exploitation: "There are 2,760,238 domestic consumers in Punjab while in Balochistan only 179,372. Similarly industrial consumers' number is 4,792 and 46 respectively. The percentages of the above are 53 percent and 3 percent, and 53 percent and 1 percent of total respectively. The national average too is 53 percent and 3 percent respectively." Amending Article 158 will mean further deprivation of Balochistan and Sindh.

In an Urdu daily Mr Memon wrote: "The employment of the native Sindhis and Baloch in the gas and oil fields is also meagre. At the present time, Sindh produces about 65 percent of oil and 70 percent gas of the total (Balochistan produces more than 20 percent of gas now but for nearly two decades provided for 100 percent needs)."

In the National Assembly on April 14, 2006, the then Minister of Petroleum Mr Amanullah Jadoon gave the following employment figures for Sui Southern and Sui Northern companies:

Total Employment: 11,613.

Employees from Sindh: 3,613 (of which 1,960 are for the urban domiciled).

Employees from Punjab: 5,454.

Employees from Balochistan: 353.

Balochistan not only suffers because of the misuse of its natural gas resources and low employment but also because of the low prices for the misused gas. It is a triple whammy for Balochistan's eternally bankrupt economy. My friend Nizamuddin Nizamani in a paper for the Eighth Sustainable Development Conference 2005 exposed the blatantly unequal natural gas wellhead prices in different provinces:

Balochistan produces 374,161 MCFT/Year with wellhead prices as below.

Gas field Wellhead price Rs/MMBTU.

Sui 47.4.

Pirkoh 75.82.

Loti 75.82.

Average 66.34.

Sindh produces 536,452 MCFT/Y.

Gas field Rs/MMBTU

Qadirpur 137.86.

Kandanwari 181.26.

Badin 108.61.

Average 142.57.

Punjab produces 67,691 MCFT/Y.

Punjpir 222.97.

Rotana 188.06.

Dhodak 77.77.

Average 162.93.

Wellhead prices have seen some increase but still Punjab gets more from less while Balochistan less from more. Injustices against the Baloch and Sindhis are rife in every aspect of life, which are conveniently overlooked even when highlighted as the state narrative is fanatically fixated on 'national interests', which mean the ruling elite and establishment's interests. With Dr Malik Baloch's government in the saddle, which does not even sneeze without Lahore and Islamabad's permission, Baloch welfare prospects have diminished exponentially.

When exploitation is rationalized, its natural corollary is rationalisation of atrocities needed to suppress those who do not submit to exploitation. The Baloch, after realising the futility of deliverance under the establishment and elite favouring arrangements, which find respectability under the constitution and law, have struggled ceaselessly. Their struggle has evoked a vicious response from the establishment and they face a systematic 'dirty war' unleashed under the guise of 'maintaining the writ of the state'. This 'dirty war' has assumed a doubly sinister aspect since the 'establishment' and army switched from dumping abducted persons' bodies to killing abducted persons in staged encounters. Six abducted Marris were killed in a staged encounter in Bolan on August 10, 2013. The Bolan six included Bijjar Marri, abducted with the no longer missing Khudadad Marri on June 24. The viciousness of this intensified 'dirty war' is further exposed by the unprovoked killing of political activists. My friend Raza Jahangir aka Sheymureed Baloch, Secretary General of Baloch Students Organisation (Azad) and Imdad Baloch of Balochistan National Movement were killed in Turbat by the Frontier Corps (read army) as a part of the Independence Day celebrations of 14th of August.

The writer has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He tweets at mmatalpur and can be contacted at mmatalpur@gmail.com

 


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Fwd: More Details on Saudi Spook Bandar discussions with Putin

August 26, 2013, 10:42 pm
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FROM MY DEAR FRIEND AMBASSADOR GAJENDRA SINGH FROM INDIA


More Details on the visit of Saudi Spook Bandar to Moscow
and discussions with Putin
 
Reproduced below is a report from As-Safir (Lebanon) on website Al -monitor with more details about the visit
of Saudi intelligence czar Prince Bandar to Moscow during which he first held a meeting with the Russian
intelligence chief and then had a four hour long session with President Vladimir Putin .The details have
 apparently been leaked by Russian sources to remove any doubts about the Russian stand on issues in Middle
 East specially Syria which is of vital concern to Moscow in its strategic calculus vis a vis USA, even though
the latter is in decline, of which the visit itself is an indicator. Influence of Saudi money and of other Gulf
monarchies is on ascent in the region , while tiny Qatar has piped down.
 
Muslim Brotherhood ( MB) was created , financed and assisted by UK to counter nationalist parties and
movements in Egypt and oppose Gama Abdul Nasser .Given shelter in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states ,
MB organized cells in these countries and hence GCC's vehement opposition to MB.
 
I had briefly covered the visit earlier
http://tarafits.blogspot.in/2013/08/putin-unimpressed-by-top-saudi-spook.html
 
Putin was not taken in by the monkey tricks and monetary bribes and other offers by Prince Bandar and stood
firm on his current policy on Syria , also touching on good relations with the Military regime in Cairo and excellent
bilateral relations with Turkey.
 
Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief Discussed Syria, Egypt
Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon).
 
A diplomatic report about the "stormy meeting" in July between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan concluded that the region stretching from North Africa to Chechnya and from Iran to Syria — in other words, the entire Middle East — has come under the influence of an open US-Russian face-off and that "it is not unlikely that things [will] take a dramatic turn in Lebanon, in both the political and security senses, in light of the major Saudi decision to respond to Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian crisis."
The report starts by presenting the conditions under which the Russian-Saudi meeting was convened. It states that Prince Bandar, in coordination with the Americans and some European partners, proposed to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz that Bandar visit Moscow and employ the carrot-and-stick approach, which is used in most negotiators, and offer the Russian leadership political, economic, military and security enticements in return for concessions on several regional issues, in particular Syria and Iran.
King Abdullah agreed with the proposal and contacted President Putin on July 30. In a conversation that lasted only a few minutes, they agreed to Bandar's visit and to keep it under wraps. Bandar arrived in Moscow. The visit was secret. The Saudi Embassy did not follow the usual protocol for Saudi officials visiting Russia.
In Moscow, a preliminary session was held at Russian military intelligence headquarters between Bandar and the director of Russian Military Intelligence, Gen. Igor Sergon. The meeting focused on security cooperation between the two countries. Bandar then visited Putin's house on the outskirts of the Russian capital, where they held a closed-door bilateral meeting that lasted four hours. They discussed the agenda, which consisted of bilateral issues and a number of regional and international matters in which the two countries share interest.
Bilateral relations
At the bilateral level, Bandar relayed the Saudi king's greetings to Putin and the king's emphasis on the importance of developing the bilateral relationship. He also told Putin that the king would bless any understanding reached during the visit. Bandar also said, however, that "any understanding we reach in this meeting will not only be a Saudi-Russian understanding, but will also be an American-Russian understanding. I have spoken with the Americans before the visit, and they pledged to commit to any understandings that we may reach, especially if we agree on the approach to the Syrian issue."
Bandar stressed the importance of developing relations between the two countries, saying that the logic of interests can reveal large areas of cooperation. He gave several examples in the economic, investment, oil and military arenas.
Bandar told Putin, "There are many common values and goals that bring us together, most notably the fight against terrorism and extremism all over the world. Russia, the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on promoting and consolidating international peace and security. The terrorist threat is growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring. We have lost some regimes. And what we got in return were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the experience of theMuslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the extremist groups in Libya. ... As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory's direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria's political future."
 
Putin thanked King Abdullah for his greetings and Bandar for his exposition, but then he said to Bandar, "We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles."
 
Bandar said that the matter is not limited to the kingdom and that some countries have overstepped the roles drawn for them, such as Qatar and Turkey. He added, "We said so directly to the Qataris and to the Turks. We rejected their unlimited support to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere. The Turks' role today has become similar to Pakistan's role in the Afghan war. We do not favor extremist religious regimes, and we wish to establish moderate regimes in the region. It is worthwhile to pay attention to and to follow up on Egypt's experience. We will continue to support the [Egyptian] army, and we will support Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi because he is keen on having good relations with us and with you. And we suggest to you to be in contact with him, to support him and to give all the conditions for the success of this experiment. We are ready to hold arms deals with you in exchange for supporting these regimes, especially Egypt."
 
Economic and oil cooperation
Then Bandar discussed the potential cooperation between the two countries if an understanding could be reached on a number of issues, especially Syria. He discussed at length the matter of oil and investment cooperation, saying, "Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets. ... We understand Russia's great interest in the oil and gas present in the Mediterranean Sea from Israel to Cyprus through Lebanon and Syria. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area as well as in the areas of establishing refineries and petrochemical industries. The kingdom can provide large multi-billion-dollar investments in various fields in the Russian market. What's important is to conclude political understandings on a number of issues, particularly Syria and Iran."
 
Putin responded that the proposals about oil and gas, economic and investment cooperation deserve to be studied by the relevant ministries in both countries.
 
Syria first
Bandar discussed the Syrian issue at length. He explained how the kingdom's position had evolved on the Syrian crisis since the Daraa incident all the way to what is happening today. He said, "The Syrian regime is finished as far as we and the majority of the Syrian people are concerned. [The Syrian people] will not allow President Bashar al-Assad to remain at the helm. The key to the relations between our two countries starts by understanding our approach to the Syrian issue. So you have to stop giving [the Syrian regime] political support, especially at the UN Security Council, as well as military and economic support. And we guarantee you that Russia's interests in Syria and on the Mediterranean coast will not be affected one bit. In the future, Syria will be ruled by a moderate and democratic regime that will be directly sponsored by us and that will have an interest in understanding Russia's interests and role in the region."
 
Russia's intransigence is to Iran's benefit
Bandar also presented Saudi Arabia's views about Iran's role in the region, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Bahrain and other countries. He said he hoped that the Russians would understand that Russia's interests and the interests of the Gulf states are one in the face of Iranian greed and nuclear challenge.
 
Putin gave his country's position on the Arab Spring developments, especially about what has happened in Libya, saying, "We are very concerned about Egypt. And we understand what the Egyptian army is doing. But we are very cautious in approaching what's happening because we are afraid that things may slide toward an Egyptian civil war, which would be too costly for the Egyptians, the Arabs and the international community. I wanted to do a brief visit to Egypt. And the matter is still under discussion."
 
Regarding Iran, Putin said to Bandar that Iran is a neighbor, that Russia and Iran are bound by relations that go back centuries, and that there are common and tangled interests between them. Putin said, "We support the Iranian quest to obtain nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes. And we helped them develop their facilities in this direction. Of course, we will resume negotiations with them as part of the 5P+1 group. I will meet with President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the Central Asia summit and we will discuss a lot of bilateral, regional and international issues. We will inform him that Russia is completely opposed to the UN Security Council imposing new sanctions on Iran. We believe that the sanctions imposed against Iran and Iranians are unfair and that we will not repeat the experience again."
 
Erdogan to visit Moscow in September
Regarding the Turkish issue, Putin spoke of his friendship with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan; "Turkey is also a neighboring country with which we have common interests. We are keen to develop our relations in various fields. During the Russian-Turkish meeting, we scrutinized the issues on which we agree and disagree. We found out that we have more converging than diverging views. I have already informed the Turks, and I will reiterate my stance before my friend Erdogan, that what is happening in Syria necessitates a different approach on their part. Turkey will not be immune to Syria's bloodbath. The Turks ought to be more eager to find a political settlement to the Syrian crisis. We are certain that the political settlement in Syria is inevitable, and therefore they ought to reduce the extent of damage. Our disagreement with them on the Syrian issue does not undermine other understandings between us at the level of economic and investment cooperation. We have recently informed them that we are ready to cooperate with them to build two nuclear reactors. This issue will be on the agenda of the Turkish prime minister during his visit to Moscow in September."
 
Putin: Our stance on Assad will not change
Regarding the Syrian issue, the Russian president responded to Bandar, saying, "Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters. During the Geneva I Conference, we agreed with the Americans on a package of understandings, and they agreed that the Syrian regime will be part of any settlement. Later on, they decided to renege on Geneva I. In all meetings of Russian and American experts, we reiterated our position. In his upcoming meeting with his American counterpart John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will stress the importance of making every possible effort to rapidly reach a political settlement to the Syrian crisis so as to prevent further bloodshed."
 
As soon as Putin finished his speech, Prince Bandar warned that in light of the course of the talks, things were likely to intensify, especially in the Syrian arena, although he appreciated the Russians' understanding of Saudi Arabia's position on Egypt and their readiness to support the Egyptian army despite their fears for Egypt's future.
 
The head of the Saudi intelligence services said that the dispute over the approach to the Syrian issue leads to the conclusion that "there is no escape from the military option, because it is the only currently available choice given that the political settlement ended in stalemate. We believe that the Geneva II Conference will be very difficult in light of this raging situation."
At the end of the meeting, the Russian and Saudi sides agreed to continue talks, provided that the current meeting remained under wraps. This was before one of the two sides leaked it via the Russian press.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/08/saudi-russia-putin-bandar-meeting-syria-egypt.html#ixzz2cln6QjqU


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Fwd: Fw: Alleged Use of Poison gas in Syria and Western Objectives

August 26, 2013, 10:44 pm
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FROM MY DEAR FRIEND AMBASSADOR GAJENDRA SINGH


Syria gas attack story has whiff of Saudi war propaganda

Alleged Use of Poison gas in Syria and Western Objectives
 
There seems to be no limit to the blatant lies western leaders mouth which its corporate pressitute media then broadcasts .Remember Bush, Cheney, Gen Powell and Tony Blairs telling white lies about WMDs in Iraq before the illegal invasion of in 2003 .
 
Now the western leaders have been joined by Turkey, Saudi Arabia etc and its subservient media about the alleged use of poisonous gas against Syrians by the govt forces .Like Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels , they repeat and embellish lies .Below is a piece by William Engdahl about the alleged gas use .
 
At the end is a piece by Amb Bhadrakumar on the overall situation in Syria and the west –east conflict at the cost of Syrian lives .
 
Syria gas attack story has whiff of Saudi war propaganda
 
William Engdahl is an award-winning geopolitical analyst and strategic risk consultant whose internationally best-selling books have been translated into thirteen foreign languages.
: August 21, 2013
 
A man, affected by what activists say is nerve gas, breathes through an oxygen mask in the Damascus suburbs of Jesreen August 21, 2013. (Reuters / Ammar Dar)
A man, affected by what activists say is nerve gas, breathes through an oxygen mask in the Damascus suburbs of Jesreen August 21, 2013. (Reuters / Ammar Dar)
The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the "red line" for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility.
 
The Middle Eastern newspaper, Al Arabiya, reports that "At least 1,300 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria's Ghouta region, leading opposition figure George Sabra said on Wednesday…" The paper went on to claim that the Government of President Bashar al Assad was responsible for the attacks. If confirmed it could be the "red line" that US President Obama previously stated would tip the US into active military intervention in Syria, using No Fly Zones and active military steps to depose Assad.
 
That in turn could erupt into a conflagration across the Middle East and a Super Power confrontation with Russia and China and Iran on one side, and the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the opposite side. Not a happy prospect for world peace at all. 
  
Therefore the story is worth analyzing carefully. When we do, several things jump out as suspicious. First the newspaper breaking the story was Al Arabiya, initially saying that at least 500 people have been killed, according to activists. From there it got picked up by major international media. Making the story more fishy by the minute were reports from different media of the alleged number of dead that changed by the minute - 635 then to 800 by USA Today and 1,300 by Rupert Murdoch's SkyNews. 
A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows bodies of children and adults laying on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, 2013. (AFP Photo)
A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows bodies of children and adults laying on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, 2013. (AFP Photo)
Al Arabiya, the origin of the story, is not a neutral in the Syrian conflict. It was set up in 2002 by the Saudi Royal Family in Dubai. It is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster, Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC). Saudi Arabia is a major financial backer of the attempt to topple Syria's government. That is a matter of record. So on first glance Saudi-owned media reporting such an inflammatory anti-Assad allegation might be taken with a dose of salt. 
 
When we examine the printed content of their story, it gets more suspicious still. First they cite"activists at the Syrian Revolutionary Command Council said regime fighter planes were flying over the area after the bombardment, accusing the forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical agents." This is doubtful on many levels. First we can imagine that anti-government (unnamed)"activists" fighting Assad's forces would not be exactly neutral.
The story gets even murkier. Further in the text of the article we read that the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of people were killed, including children, in fierce bombardment." Now the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has been the source of every news report negative against the Syrian Assad government since the war began in 2011. More curious about the humanitarian-sounding SOHR is the fact, as uncovered by investigative journalists, that it consists of a sole Syrian refugee who has lived in London for the past 13 years named Rami Abdul Rahman, a Syrian Sunni muslim who owns a clothing shop and is running a Twitter page from his home. Partly owing to a very friendly profile story on the BBC, he gained mainstream media credibility. He is anything but unbiased.
The other aspect of the suspicious reports is the "convenient" fact they coincide with the arrival two days earlier of an official UN weapons inspection team, allowed by the government, to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in the Syrian war. It begs the most obvious question: What conceivably would Bashar al Assad stand to gain from using banned chemical weapons just at the time he has agreed to let a UN chemical weapons team into Syria? 
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by the Local Committee of Arbeen on August 21, 2013 allegedly shows Syrians covering a mass grave containing bodies of victims that Syrian rebels claim were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta and Zamalka, on the outskirts of Damascus. (AFP Photo)
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by the Local Committee of Arbeen on August 21, 2013 allegedly shows Syrians covering a mass grave containing bodies of victims that Syrian rebels claim were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta and Zamalka, on the outskirts of Damascus. (AFP Photo)
They initially were called to investigate evidence of any chemical weapons used in a March 19 attack in Khan al-Assad and in two other locations. In May, Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said that testimony gathered from casualties and medical staff in Syria indicated that the nerve agent sarin was used by rebel fighters. They found no evidence of use by Government forces. That proved highly embarrassing to the faction of war hawks in the Pentagon and State Department, agitating for Obama to escalate direct military intervention including a no-fly zone, de facto an act of war against Assad's regime. In 2012 Obama declared that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian President would cross a "red line" and change US calculations on whether or not it should intervene in the conflict.
Finally, the region reported to be the site of the poison gas attack by Assad forces, Eastern Ghouta, was re-secured from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra jihadist terrorists, by Government troops in May as part of a major series of rollback victories against the insurgent forces and is not currently a scene of any major resistance to Assad forces.  
Pending confirmation by genuinely independent judges of the latest allegations of Al Arabiya, we are well-advised to leave the reports in the category of war propaganda, in league with others such as the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964. That incident, we might recall, was faked by the Pentagon to railroad Congress into giving President Lyndon B. Johnson authority to "assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by communist aggression." The resolution became Johnson's legal justification for deploying US forces and the onset of open war against North Vietnam. 
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
 
 
Footfalls echo in Syria's rose-garden
By M K Bhadrakumar  Asia Times 22 August 2013.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-220813.html
The coincidence couldn't be more telling. No sooner than the United Nations chemical weapons inspectors arrived in Damascus - within 72 hours, in fact - the Syrian opposition figures based in Istanbul, Turkey, have claimed that up to 1,400 people have been killed in chemical weapons attacks by the government forces on the outskirts of the Syrian capital on Wednesday morning. 

The media blitzkrieg has been equally stunning - press conferences, video presentations by opposition activists, "expert opinion" from Western capitals and instantaneous reactions by western politicians. 

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and the Arab League are among those who have demanded for urgent action. 

The UN Security Council promptly held a closed-door meeting to consider the allegation against the Syrian government. Unsurprisingly, the Syrian government itself has strongly refuted the allegation calling it a "dirty" media war, which reflected the "hysteria, disorder and breakdown" of the rebels who have suffered a string of devastating military defeats in the recent days and weeks. 

Shedding full light 
What is the game plan? One vital clue lies in the appointment of the Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom as the head of the UN team that landed in Damascus three days ago. Sellstrom served in the select band of UN weapon inspectors in Iraq. 

Reuters quoted Sellstrom backing the demand that the alleged attacks in Damascus suburbs should be investigated and he even mooted a plan of action. Sellstrom suggested,
It [Syrian opposition claim] sounds like something that should be looked into. It will depend on whether any UN member state goes to the secretary general and says we should look at this event. We are in place.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague picked up Sellstrom's excellent idea and said,
I call on the Syrian government to allow immediate access to the area for the UN team currently investigating previous allegations of chemical weapons use ... The UK will be raising this incident at the UN Security Council.
France concurred within no time. President Francois Hollande too felt that the allegations "require verification and confirmation" and Paris would ask the UN to go to the site "to shed full light" on the allegations. Germany nodded in agreement. 

The Turkish foreign ministry had a full-fledged statement ready, which said Ankara is "deeply concerned" and the team of UN inspectors already in Syria "must investigate the allegations in question and present its findings" to the security council. 

Interestingly, the much-awaited statement by the White House in Washington turned out to be an endorsement of the European-Turkish demand - stopping short of confirming the incident but adding it was working to gather additional information, while demanding,
There is today, as we speak, on the ground in Syria, a United Nations team with a specialty in investigating the use of chemical weapons. So, let's give this team the opportunity to investigate what exactly occurred and get to the bottom of this so that we can hold accountable those who were responsible.
Indeed, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council has taken place in New York. The council did not explicitly demand a UN investigation but agreed that "clarity" was needed and welcomed UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon's calls for a prompt investigation by Sellstrom's team. 

In the words of Ambassador Cristina Perceval of Argentina, currently president of the Security Council, there is "strong concern among the Council members" about the allegations, and "a general sense that there must be clarity on what happened" and that the situation has to be followed carefully''. 

Meanwhile, Ban's spokesman told journalists in New York that Sellstrom is already "in discussions with the Syrian Government on all issues pertaining to the alleged use of chemical weapons, including this most recent reported incident''. 

Camel in Bashar's tent
In sum, the UN inspection team which is mandated to be in Syria up to 14 days - as agreed between the Syrian government and the UN - "with a possible extension" to probe the use of alleged use of chemical weapons at Khan al-Assal and two other undisclosed cites may just be getting an enhanced mandate. 

If so, it becomes a diplomatic coup of sorts for the Western powers and their Middle Eastern allies who have been persistently seeking some form of UN intervention in Syria. 

In essence, Sellstrom may well be on an open-ended mission now since the Syrian opposition will endeavor to make fresh allegations in other places in Syria as well. Most important, Sellstrom may tiptoe at some stage toward the chemical weapon stockpiles of the Bashar Al-Assad regime. 

Clearly, the camel has entered Bashar's tent. Sellstrom will now begin filing reports to Ban, which the latter will be obliged to bring to the notice of the Security Council and that, in turn, could mean the opening of a Syrian file in New York, which the West all along wanted. 

What does it all add up to? Three things emerge. One, the momentum of stunning successes by the Syrian military over the rebels is almost certainly going to be punctuated. The Syrian regime will need to turn attention to the diplomatic battle that lies ahead. 

The government forces have won successes in key battlefields such as in the central and coastal regions of Homs and Latakia and the suburbs of Damascus. General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the influential military aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claimed only Wednesday in Tehran that the "[Syrian] terrorists have been almost defeated from the military perspective." Savafi added,
What is left is the Geneva 2 conference. On one side there will be the US, Israel, France, England, Turkey and some Arab states, which supported the opposition. As a result of its domestic issues, Turkey has now realized its strategic mistake and left the front. Saudi Arabia is dealing with its Egypt project. The rest of the front is present but defeated. 

But on the other side of this front, there reside Russia, China and Iran, which aided Syria. Of course, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah aided Syria politically and internationally as they support restoration of peace, stability and tranquility to Syria.
Did Safavi speak one day too soon? Is Iran fully in the loop? Is its triumphalism warranted? The answers will unfold soon. 

Meanwhile, Moscow is maintaining deafening silence over the latest allegations on chemical weapons, presumably taken aback by the lightning speed with which the Western powers and their regional allies got the Syrian file into the agenda of the Security Council. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov had a telephone conversation on Wednesday morning with the Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud to "discuss the situation in Egypt and Syria ... [and] the relations between the two countries''. Bandar is a delightful bag of tricks, and at any rate, by Wednesday evening, Riyadh sang a different tune, with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal saying,
The UN Security Council should work out a clear resolution to put an end to the tragedy. We are shocked by the massacre in Syrian cities with the use of chemical weapons, which are prohibited under international law.
This is the second thing. The tectonic plates in the geopolitics of the Middle East were beginning to show some movement in recent weeks over developments in Egypt. The disharmony amongst the erstwhile allies who were until recently collaborating over the Syria project was becoming too obvious to be papered over. 

Turkey began openly criticizing the Egyptian junta and its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) supporters and taunting the West over its much-vaunted democracy project in the new Middle East. Qatar vanished from the Syrian frontline. Washington still wouldn't call the Egyptian coup by its real name, while the European Union is dithering on imposing any embargo on Egypt, with Saudi Arabia threatening to make up for any Western embargo on Egypt. 

Stalling a reset 
But the most sensational part of the realignment is the nascent proximity between Russia on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and its GCC allies (especially the United Arab Emirates) on the other hand in their shared antipathy toward Muslim Brotherhood. 

At the very least, the Syrian chemical weapon controversy puts a sudden break on the incipient moves of a "reset" in the political alignments in the Middle East. The Western powers have circled the wagons and their restive Arab allies - Saudi Arabia, in particular - are being told to stay put, with the signal that the Syrian project is work in progress. 

The heart of the matter is that the West simply cannot afford a regional ascendance by Russia, China and Iran. Nor is the West comfortable with the increasingly maverick ways in which its regional allies are behaving. 

Paradoxically, the chemical weapons controversy provides a vital lifeline for Turkey's beleaguered Recep Erdogan to break out of acute isolation over Egypt. Erdogan is at his wit's end in coping with the Kurdish problem, which has been surging lately as the leitmotif of the Syrian conflict. The Syrian Kurds have frontally challenged Ankara's covert nexus with the al-Qaeda affiliates operating in northeastern Syria bordering Turkey, which puts Erdogan in a tight spot. 

A tantalizing question, however, arises. The European powers - Britain and France in particular - and Turkey are evidently spearheading the latest controversy over chemical weapons. But how far and how real is the Obama administration's involvement in it? 

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, went on record as recently as Monday that the Obama administration is opposed to even limited military intervention in Syria because it believes that the rebels fighting the Assad regime wouldn't support American interests if they were to seize power right now. 

He wrote with brutal frankness in a formal letter addressed to US Congressman Eliot Engel (Democrat - New York),
Syria today is not about choosing between two sides but rather about choosing one among many sides. It is my belief that the side we choose must be ready to promote their interests and ours when the balance shifts in their favor. Today, they are not. 

It is a deeply rooted, long-term conflict among multiple factions, and violent struggles for power will continue after Assad's rule ends. We should evaluate the effectiveness of limited military options in this context. 

The use of US military force can change the military balance. But it cannot resolve the underlying and historic ethnic, religious and tribal issues that are fueling this conflict.
Dempsey concluded that the Obama administration is on course with its current policy of focusing on humanitarian assistance and bolstering the moderate opposition in Syria, since such an approach "represents the best framework for an effective US strategy toward Syria''." 

A perpetual possibility 
All in all, therefore, the chemical weapons controversy opens an exit door of sorts for the western powers (and Turkey) in Syria. The western powers have been dodging the issue of arming the Syrian rebels after making verbal pledges while Assad's forces have been gradually gaining the upper hand militarily. 

The Syrian opposition is in a mess and Egypt's strongman General Abdel Fatteh el-Sisi told its leaders who were based in Cairo to get lost. On the other hand, the Brotherhood, which dominated the Syrian opposition, is under heavy Saudi artillery fire all across the region. 

In sum, the compass of the "regime change" project in Syria has shifted in favor of the Salafists. Besides, these are still early days in Egypt and what happens on the Nile banks would ultimately rewrite Middle eastern politics. In the present situation, Assad will negotiate from a position of unassailable strength at the "Geneva 2" negotiating table, which is untenable. 

This is where the chemical weapons controversy and the opening of a Syrian file at the UN Security Council offers a breather to break the momentum of Assad's army and the swagger of the Hezbollah and Iran and end the look of smug satisfaction on the Russian face.

Is this a prelude to an Iraq-like scenario? The chancelleries in Moscow, Tehran and Beijing will be assessing. No doubt, Sellstrom is tiptoeing dangerously close toward Bashar's WMD stockpiles, something, which the US (and Israel) always wanted to fasten. 

The only task assigned to weapon inspector Sellstrom when he landed in Damascus three days ago with his team was to inspect three specific sites to determine whether chemical weapons were used in Syria. He didn't have a mandate even to name the party responsible. 

Now, all that is history. The plain truth is that Sellstrom's footfalls are beginning to echo in the memory. One could visualize Sellstrom going down the passage towards the door "we never opened into the rose-garden''. 

Maybe, as T. S. Eliot wrote,
"But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know."
But we know that what was an abstraction until the dawn broke on Wednesday is becoming a perpetual possibility in today's world of speculation. 

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including India's ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). 
 




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Fwd: (SPN) Fwd: Tanqeed | Issue V: Space

August 27, 2013, 2:36 am
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FROM MADIHA TAHIR VIA SPN

Hi folks -

TQ's 5th issue is out. This completes Vol 1 and marks our first full year of publication! This issue, we've got articles by Mohammed Hanif, Ammar Ali Jan, Matt Green, H. Kubra, Preeti Chopra and many others. We've had talented people writing for us from the start; we've added multimedia as well as original, attributed artwork and photography.

Cheers!
Madiha

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TANQEED

a magazine of politics and culture

 Issue V Space



EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

اردو | Tahrir Square, and now Taksim Square, have driven home not only the importance of public space to oppositional politics, but also that space remains pivotal to capital and power.

This issue marks TQ's first full year of publication! We've had talented people writing for us from the beginning. We've now added multimedia and only original artwork and photography.   Read on >>


Reportage

Looking for Uncle Ali | Mohammed Hanif

اردو | Nasrullah Bungalzai is still looking for his Uncle Ali in a Kafka-esque search for one of thousands of missing Baloch. Read on >>

God's Gravediggers: The Politics of Sectarian Killing  | Matt Green

In a Hazara school, it was possible to divide the students' preoccupations into 4 categories: navigating relationships with parents, career choices, prospects for university and the risk of being shot by a death squad. Read on >>

Essays

A Place of One's Own | William J. Glover

اردو  | How did the middle class enter a patronage system made for the aristocracy? Read on >> 

'Where are you from?' Belonging after Partition | Preeti Chopra

اردو  | Where do you come from when your ancestors were forced to leave their homes? Read on >> 

Lahore's Elite Logic | Ammar Ali Jan

اردو | Millions of Lahore's urban poor remain absent from decisions regarding the city's development. Read on >>

A Bus Pass for Lahore | Muhammad Imran

اردو | It was in the early 1990s, when, as a teenager, I celebrated the inauguration of the first underpass on Jail Road in Lahore. Read on >>

A View from Taksim Square | H. Kubra

In the wake of Taksim, even allies succumbed to the stereotypes about Turkey. Read on >>

How Perween Rehman Crossed Over | Fizzah Sajjad

اردو | The Orangi Pilot Project's Perween crossed invisible boundaries that few in Karachi have been able to penetrate. Read on >>

Review 

City Limits: Military Urbanism from Baghdad to Brooklyn | Jakob Steiner

اردو | The demonization of cities has greased the wheels for a new kind of warfare. Read on >>

Multimedia

The Unsayable: Ayesha Malik on Photography

SLIDESHOW | Speaking art betrays its purpose. Watch >>

On the Road | Madiha Tahir

AUDIO | A conversation with Pakistan's NATO truckers. Listen >>


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    Our email address is:
    tanqeed@tanqeed.org









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    Fwd: (SPN) Re Demonstration At Pakistani consulate details below circulate to your Networks

    August 27, 2013, 2:40 am
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    FROM MR NADEEM ASLAM VIA SPN


     Demonstration At Pakistani consulate details below circulate to your Networks

     
     



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    Fwd: The money trail

    August 27, 2013, 2:41 am
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    FROM DEAR AAMIR MUGHAL AN OUTSTANDING INTELLIGENCE OFFICER
    To:


    The money trail by S Raza Hassan
    http://beta.dawn.com/news/764885/the-money-trail

    S. Raza Hassan explains how numerous criminals have jumped onto the bandwagon to make quick money

    It is an established fact that monetary gain is the primary objective behind most cases of kidnapping for ransom, irrespective of who is involved. Numerous criminal elements have jumped onto the bandwagon to make quick money. Criminal gangs from interior Sindh are very active in this crime as they kidnap victims from Karachi and keep them in interior Sindh for months while demanding big ransom amounts, says SSP anti-violent crime cell (AVCC) Niaz Ahmed Khosa. The funds generated by these criminal gangs are used for arms procurement and other criminal activities, the officer observed.

    Apart from these, extremist elements or militants and the Taliban also have a share in the kidnappings and the funds generated through the kidnappings are being utilised in terrorism in the country, In April 2009, the renowned filmmaker, Satish Anand, was set free after six months of captivity and payment of an undisclosed amount as ransom. He was held captive in North Waziristan.

    This was the first case highlighting that kidnapping was outsourced and the kidnappee was transported from Karachi to Waziristan. The 'transporter', Retd. Major Ashiq Haroon, is said to have carried out the job for Illyas Kashmiri out of conviction to the cause and not for money. He was caught by the Islamabad and Motorway police when he was transporting another kidnappee picked up from Islamabad.

    Some inter-provincial gangs from Sindh and Balochistan often collude with each other; for instance a gang kidnaps a person from Sindh and hands him over to their counter part in Balochistan for 'safe keeping'. They don't sell the kidnappee, but share the booty once the ransom is received, Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) Chief, Ahmed Chinoy said.

    However, kidnapping is not like the auto theft business where one party carries out the snatching or stealing part and the vehicle is handed over to the second party against payment, CPLC chief explained.

    It has recently come to fore that some criminal gangs also use electronic transfer of funds through the facility of 'Easy Paisa', a cellular phone facility through which funds can be transferred, shared an investigator. However, so far this trend has only been seen in Karachi, he observed.

    The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the mercenary groups working for TTP pick high-profile people who are in a position to pay huge ransom. Two high profile personalities were kidnapped from Lahore in August 2011, both of whom are believed to have been picked by TTP and Al Qaeda.

    The Al Qaeda is demanding release of some of the arrested militants as well as ransom in exchange of the American aid worker, security sources say.

    However, Aamir Malik, the abducted civilian son-in-law of former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General (Retd.) Tariq Majid, was kidnapped from his residence in Lahore in August 2010. The videotaped message received later showed masked militants wielding Kalashnikovs in the background. According to the security sources, the kidnapped man was shifted to the militants' hideouts in South Waziristan from where he was transported to North Waziristan. Malik bought his freedom in March 2012 after his family reportedly paid a large sum as ransom to the abductors from North Waziristan.

    Referring to the kidnappings taking place in Karachi, the chief of CPLC says that elements from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are responsible for 20 to 25 per cent of the kidnappings taking place from Karachi. "They demand huge ransom and keep the victims for a much longer period," he observed.


    --
    http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/

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    Fwd: (SPN) Conquest by pantented GM seed - by Najma Sadeque in Pakistan Today

    August 27, 2013, 2:45 am
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    FROM DENEB SUMBUL VIA SPN

    POSTING MAY NOT MEAN ENDORSEMENT NECESSARILY 

    AGHA H AMIN



    Conquest by GM seed
    Pakistan Today - 24 August, 2013
    by Najma Sadeque 



    Is our future to be controlled by corporate government?

    After all, that's what happened in Iraq. Once Iraq was bombed to rubble and taken over, what was USA's first step? They were prepared well in advance for imposing comprehensive hegemony. In 2004, Gen Paul Bremer, the military head of the Provisional Authority, slapped a hundred laws reducing Iraq to a vassal state sans sovereignty.

    Agriculture has always been key to American foreign policy, and the most destructive of new laws concerning Iraq's agriculture. From its birth, USA has been collecting foreign seeds – with or without host country's permission – from wherever in the world its navy and diplomats went. Iraq falls in the 'fertile crescent' where wheat was first domesticated 8,000 to 13,000 years ago, and still boasted several thousand varieties of indigenous wheat. A gold mine for agricultural MNCs relying on global seed variety for fresh germplasm when their genetically-modified versions run out of steam.

    The most shattering of Bremer's laws was Order 81. It cleared the immediate import of corporate, patented, hybrid and GM seeds from the US, mainly Monsanto's, while banning the saving of indigenous seed. That was not all. The Americans made unilateral changes in Iraq's 1970 patent law. Previously plant varieties were never allowed to be patented: henceforth they could. Overnight the livelihoods of 97 percent of farmers relying on free saved seeds and inputs were destroyed. It led international researchers to condemn the deliberate annihilation of Iraq's agriculture as the 'ultimate war crime'.

    Today, besieged by unprovoked war, Syria faces a similar threat. The Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria held samples of Iraq's seeds including threatened varieties. No one knows, yet, whether they still survive or have been similarly lifted away.

    Americans forget that before Thomas Jefferson became a US President, he collected and bred new seeds on his own plantation. He actually supervised drafting of the first US patent laws; they however excluded animals, plants, and other "products of nature". The role of patents was to ensure inventors making a worthwhile living while contributing to society, not for companies to create monopolies. If a patent granting monopoly was contrary to the public interest, he said, the public interest should take precedence. This is no longer quoted.

    Furthermore, biotechnology in USA was the outcome of 50 years of post-World War II research at universities and medical colleges sponsored by the federal government – that is, taxpayer-funded. Great advances and discoveries were made without any patent protections whatsoever. Later, instead of these remaining public goods, corporations were allowed to privatise them through unwarranted patents on developments paid for by taxpayers.

    Since life patents began to be awarded, the free exchange of information and collaboration came to a stop, while resultant monopoly products soared in prices. Individual scientists no longer benefit from patents, but the corporations and shareholders who make fortunes from monopolies. Monsanto's transgenic plants control extends to subsequent generations and authorises them to prevent farmers from saving their seed.

    Researchers find that patents actually kill innovation as well as competition by closing up vast areas of unexplored knowledge for 20 years or more at a time. Since new patents keep being taken out overlapping similar previous ones, the monopoly in effect is ongoing and permanent.

    When corporations and other interests don't piggyback on warfare to entrench themselves, they mostly spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and the White House. At any given time there are a minimum of 10,000 registered lobbyists in Washington. While the same system doesn't exist here, lobbying is just as alive and kicking, Monsanto having been at it for over a decade. In 2006, a more responsible Agriculture Ministry in Pakistan warned that an agreement with Monsanto would bind farmers with unbearable terms and conditions. Today's agriculture ministry is unhealthily cosy with Monsanto, and wants unilateral control over agriculture in all of Pakistan.

    The US government, responding to corporate pressure, seeks to force all countries to accept US-style patent laws. For example, the US government threatened to end science and technology agreements with India, unless Indian patent laws were extended to cover pharmaceutical and agricultural products. Despite lobbying at the highest levels, Monsanto was forced out of India and Europe.

    People need to realise that there are at least 80,000 edible plants on earth of which some 300 were major sources of food. Today, large-scale industrialised agriculture has led to merely 20 major crops being grown to produce 90 percent of the world's food, although GM is useless for dryland and flood agriculture. This has destroyed biodiversity and local farmer specialisation, making corporate intervention easier controlling 75 percent or more of the world's seeds, agro-chemicals and food. Is our future to be controlled by corporate government like the US is?
    --



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    DUBIOUS CLAIMS OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS ON SYRIA

    August 27, 2013, 7:56 am
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    Things are turning ugly in Syria.....

    The USA builds its claims on DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS .....  who have a board member of GOLDMAN SACHS  at their board of directors and have functioned like a NATO med battalion in Syria....

    This is turning bad... very bad.

    Christof
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    Fwd: Patrick Buchanan: Congress Should Veto Obama's War

    August 27, 2013, 8:00 am
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    There you go.  Why doesn't Congress return to duty on something as serious as a decision to go to war?
     
    Patrick Buchanan: Congress Should Veto Obama's War – OpEd
    Eurasia Review ^ | August 27, 2013 | Patrick J Buchanan

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:17:03 AM by Colonel Kangaroo

    "Congress doesn't have a whole lot of core responsibilities," said Barack Obama last week in an astonishing remark.

    For in the Constitution, Congress appears as the first branch of government. And among its enumerated powers are the power to tax, coin money, create courts, provide for the common defense, raise and support an army, maintain a navy and declare war.

    But, then, perhaps Obama's contempt is justified.

    For consider Congress' broad assent to news that Obama has decided to attack Syria, a nation that has not attacked us and against which Congress has never authorized a war.

    Why is Obama making plans to launch cruise missiles on Syria?

    According to a "senior administration official … who insisted on anonymity," President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people last week in the two-year-old Syrian civil war.

    But who deputized the United States to walk the streets of the world pistol-whipping bad actors. Where does our imperial president come off drawing "red lines" and ordering nations not to cross them?

    Neither the Security Council nor Congress nor NATO nor the Arab League has authorized war on Syria.

    Who made Barack Obama the Wyatt Earp of the Global Village?

    Moreover, where is the evidence that WMDs were used and that it had to be Assad who ordered them? Such an attack makes no sense.

    Firing a few shells of gas at Syrian civilians was not going to advance Assad's cause but, rather, was certain to bring universal condemnation on his regime and deal cards to the War Party which wants a U.S. war on Syria as the back door to war on Iran.

    Why did the United States so swiftly dismiss Assad's offer to have U.N. inspectors — already in Damascus investigating old charges he or the rebels used poison gas — go to the site of the latest incident?

    Do we not want to know the truth?

    Are we fearful the facts may turn out, as did the facts on the ground in Iraq, to contradict our latest claims about WMDs? Are we afraid that it was rebel elements or rogue Syrian soldiers who fired the gas shells to stampede us into fighting this war?

    With U.S. ships moving toward Syria's coast and the McCainiacs assuring us we can smash Syria from offshore without serious injury to ourselves, why has Congress not come back to debate war?

    Lest we forget, Ronald Reagan was sold the same bill of goods the War Party is selling today — that we can intervene decisively in a Mideast civil war at little or no cost to ourselves.

    Reagan listened and ordered our Marines into the middle of Lebanon's civil war.

    And he was there when they brought home the 241 dead from the Beirut barracks and our dead diplomats from the Beirut embassy.

    The only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. Congress should cut short its five-week vacation, come back, debate and decide by recorded vote whether Obama can take us into yet another Middle East war.

    The questions to which Congress needs answers:

    •Do we have incontrovertible proof that Bashar Assad ordered chemical weapons be used on his own people? And if he did not, who did? •What kind of reprisals might we expect if we launch cruise missiles at Syria, which is allied with Hezbollah and Iran? •If we attack, and Syria or its allies attack U.S. military or diplomatic missions in the Middle East or here in the United States, are we prepared for the wider war we will have started? •Assuming Syria responds with a counterstrike, how far are we prepared to go up the escalator to regional war? If we intervene, are we prepared for the possible defeat of the side we have chosen, which would then be seen as a strategic defeat for the United States? •If stung and bleeding from retaliation, are we prepared to go all the way, boots on the ground, to bring down Assad? Are we prepared to occupy Syria to prevent its falling to the Al-Nusra Front, which it may if Assad falls and we do not intervene? The basic question that needs to be asked about this horrific attack on civilians, which appears to be gas related, is: Cui bono?

    To whose benefit would the use of nerve gas on Syrian women and children redound? Certainly not Assad's, as we can see from the furor and threats against him that the use of gas has produced.

    The sole beneficiary of this apparent use of poison gas against civilians in rebel-held territory appears to be the rebels, who have long sought to have us come in and fight their war.

    Perhaps Congress cannot defund Obamacare. But at least they can come back to Washington and tell Obama, sinking poll numbers aside, he has no authority to drag us into another war. His Libyan adventure, which gave us the Benghazi massacre and cover-up, was his last hurrah as war president.


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    1971 India Pakistan War

    August 27, 2013, 8:20 am
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    Pakistan Army, 1971 India Pakistan War and after Paperback

    by Agha Humayun Amin (Author)

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    VOM KRIEG-ON WAR

    August 27, 2013, 8:22 am
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    The Essential Clausewitz Paperback – October 26, 2012

    by Agha Humayun Amin (Author)

    Product Details

    • Paperback: 56 pages
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    Americans Would Rather Get a Root Canal or a Colonoscopy than Launch War Against Syria

    August 27, 2013, 8:24 am
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    FYI - 3 short articles from Colonel Osinski - if true Obama is just another puppet on the end of a string and WE - America and the World are in trouble. This could really blow up into a regional if not global war - very very dangerous!
     
    Oh, and by the way in the Constitution - Congress has to okay any war - I guess our Constitution has been buried in the mud!  If we send missiles into Syria - that's war!
     
    Regards 
     

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3059255/posts

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:44:39 AM by Zakeet

    We noted last month than Congress is less popular than North Korea, cockroaches, lice, root canals, colonoscopies, traffic jams, used car salesmen, Genghis Khan, Communism, BP during the Gulf oil spill, Nixon during Watergate or King George during the American Revolution.

    The Washington Post notes today that a Syria intervention is less popular than Congress. So that means that the American people would much rather get a root canal or a colonoscopy than bomb Syria.

    Indeed, while John Kerry announced today that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, Reuters noted:

    The polls suggest that so far, the growing crisis in Syria, and the emotionally wrenching pictures from an alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb this week, may actually be hardening many Americans' resolve not to get involved in another conflict in the Middle East.

    The bottom line is that Americans are sick of war.

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:15:16 AM by Liberty Ship

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3059240/posts

    London, Jan 30 (ANI): The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

    A new report, that contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence, showed a scheme 'approved by Washington'.

    As per the scheme 'Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons,' the Daily Mail reports.

     

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:39:00 AM by george76

    Recent news of a chemical weapons attack in Syria smacks of desperation. The question comes down to who is most desperate right now, the Assad regime or the Muslim Brotherhood rebels? Consider that since June, Assad's forces have been winning. According to a CBS News report from last month, victories for the rebels had become "increasingly rare" and that the Muslim Brotherhood-backed opposition fighters were sustaining "some of their heaviest losses" near Damascus.

    The New York Times echoed this sentiment, even saying that before gaining the upper hand, concerns were that Assad would use chemical weapons; he did not.

    In fact, even before Assad's forces gained the momentum, a UN official reportedly found evidence of rebels using chemical weapons but no evidence Assad's regime did

    ...

    Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.

    Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof," that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

    But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons

     
     
     
     

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    Mans Role in History

    August 27, 2013, 8:29 am
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    Mans Role in History Paperback – November 1, 2012

    by Agha Humayun Amin (Author)

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    Books- Agha H Amin

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    A Point of View: Democracy and Islamic law

    August 28, 2013, 8:22 am
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    FYI - see article Werner sent below!
     
    Werner - Parliamentary Democracy can work - kind of, as it is not working very well today even in the West - "when individuals identify as citizens, as opposed to communal support networks along ethnic and/or religious lines necessary for survival under precarious economic and environmental conditions".
     
    The reasons Western-imposed Democracy doesn't work very well in Africa or the Middle East is simple but complicated - a combination of cultural, religious, political & economic issues, how Africa elite relate to their people & how the rest of the World has related to these regions of the world.  The attached section of our book attempts to delve into these issues.  Most of you won't be interested in reading the entirety, but I suggest skimming it. 
     
    When I lived in West Africa and you asked a person who they were it would kind of go like this #1: Their village, #2 Their clan/tribe, #3 region of the country, #4 Religion and if Muslim the sect/marabou that they followed, #5 or 6 down the lines - last but least - oh yes - their country. There is not a lot of feeling of nationhood in much of Africa and there are many reasons for this which we attempted to bring out.  Given the history of many regions of the world - it is to be expected.
     
    Africa - because of its incredible resource wealth is experiencing an economic boom - the real question arises - will this economic boom only benefit a few elites while the majority remain poor - what some call "The Resource Curse", or will it result in an Africa Renaissance with a growing "Educated" middle class and "Representative Governance" that may or may not look like that of the West, but fit into their values and cultures.  I would say the same for the Middle East.
     
    Although I don't expect it - as it is not in the interest of the West that sees an uneducated backwards society living off Global Welfare - as easier to control and exploit - if they would have a long-term vision and look into the future - as I have said - it would be better to develop a Win/Win relationship with the rest of the World than Win/Lose - see Africa & the Middle East develop and evolve - but then I don't think our politicians are smart enough for such a visionary view, and they along with their compliant bureaucrats and greedy corporate partners tend to Live For Today.
     
    So it will be up to Africans and Africa to start calling the shots because be it America, Europe, China, India, Brazil or whom ever comes into Africa - there won't be any free lunches - Beware of the Trojan Horse! 
     
    Africa and the Middle East must find their own ways forward, as our cookie cutter approach to Democracy doesn't work - it won't be easy and there will likely be turbulent times in some cases. 
     
    I believe South Africa, where I lived for 12 years, is a fine example of a country - that many felt would fall into turmoil back in 1994 - slowly finding a way forward - it hasn't been easy, but the people of all races (white, black, colored, Asian, etc.), religions (Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Animist. etc.) and ethnicities of South Africa (11 major official languages of which English is one and the rest representing the 10 dominant ethnic groups such as Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Pedi, Ndebele, & the white Africans - Afrikaner/Boer of primarily Dutch, German & French decent and they do consider themselves proudly African) are working together to make their country functional for all segments of the society - education being a key to this evolution/revolution.  Is it perfect - no! Can it be criticized - yes!  But so can America's/Europe's forms of governments - easier to find fault than to praise! The rest of Africa can proudly look to South Africa as a role model - now maybe I am biased - but how does one explain that the rest of Africa is flooding into South Africa - the continent's economic powerhouse that has first world educational institutions, first world infrastructure & first world health care, among others!
     
    Say - Don - you are mention in this section of the book!
     
    Regards

    xyz

    A Point of View: Democracy and Islamic law

    23 August 2013Last updated at 16:37 GMT
    Meeting in Turkey after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, December 1918French and Turkish military officials meet after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire

    Should a nation be defined by language and territory, by ruling party or by faith, asks Roger Scruton.

    To understand what is happening in the Middle East today we must look back to the end of World War I. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had been destroyed, and from the ruins emerged a collection of nation states.

    These nation states - including Austria, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia - were not arbitrary creations. Their boundaries reflected long-standing divisions of language, religion, culture and ethnicity. And although the whole arrangement collapsed within two decades, this was in part because of the rise of Nazism and communism, both ideologies of conquest.

    Today we take the nation states of central Europe for granted. They are settled political entities, each with a government elected by the citizens who live on its soil.

    When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, so too did the Ottoman Empire, whose territories embraced the whole of the Middle East and North Africa.

    Continue reading the main story

    Find out more

    Roger Scruton
    • Roger Scruton is a writer and philosopher
    • A Point of View is usually broadcast on Fridays on Radio 4 at 20:50 BST and repeated Sundays, 08:50 BST

    In his four-week stint, he considers the nature and limits of democracy:

    The victorious allies divided up the Ottoman Empire into small territorial states. But very few of these have enjoyed more than a temporary spasm of democracy. Many have been governed by clans, sects, families or the military, usually assisted, as in Syria, by the violent suppression of every group that challenges the ruling power.

    People often explain the relative absence of democracy in the Middle East by arguing that the carving up of the region into territories bears no relation to the pre-existing loyalties of the people.

    In a few cases it worked. Ataturk, general of the Turkish army, was able to defend the Turkish-speaking heart of the empire and turn it into a modern state on the European model. Elsewhere, many people identified themselves primarily in religious rather than national terms. Hassan al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, told his followers that bringing together the world's Muslims in a supra-national Islamic State, a Caliphate, should be a top priority.

    The result of imposing national boundaries on people who define themselves in religious terms is the kind of chaos we have witnessed in Iraq, where Sunni and Shia fight for dominance, or the even greater chaos that we now witness in Syria, where a minority Islamic sect, the Alawites, has maintained a monopoly of social power since the rise of the Assad family.

    Iraqi men wearing labels in Arabic to identify their different ethnic and religious affiliations, June 2013Prayers against divisions in Iraq - the shirts read (from right), Kurdish, Yazidi, Turkmen, Shia, Sunni, Christian

    By contrast Europeans are more inclined to define ourselves in national terms. In any conflict it is the nation that must be defended. And if God once ordered otherwise, then it is time he changed his mind. Such an idea is anathema to Islam, which is based on the belief that God has laid down an eternal law and it is up to us to submit to it: that is what the word Islam means: submission.

    Sunni Islam was the official faith of the Ottomans, and no other form of Islam was formally recognised. Toleration was extended to the various Christian sects, to Zoroastrians and to Jews. But the official story over several centuries was that the empire was ruled by Sharia, the holy law of Islam, augmented by a civil code and by the domestic law of the various permitted sects.

    Ataturk abolished the Sultanate and established a new civil code, based on European precedents. And he drew up a constitution that expressly severed all connection with Islamic law, forbade Islamic forms of dress, outlawed polygamy, imposed a secular system of education, and enjoined allegiance to the Turkish homeland as the primary duty of every Turk. In any crisis, when loyalty is at stake, you are to identify yourself first of all as a Turk, and only then as a Muslim. And he allowed the sale of alcohol, so that the Turkish people could drink to their new condition in the way that he preferred.

    Ataturk remade Turkey as a comparatively open and prosperous country that could turn a proud face to the modern world. For he made it into a nation, defined by language and territory rather than by party or faith. Universal adult suffrage for both sexes was introduced into Turkey in 1933. And the country continues to be governed by a legal system that derives its authority from human legislators rather than divine revelation.

    Anti-government protester with Turkish flag with portrait of AtaturkA portrait of Ataturk - founder of modern Turkey - decorates this protester's flag

    At the same time its population is almost entirely Muslim, and experiences the inevitable nostalgia for the pure and beautiful way of life invoked in the Koran. There is therefore tension between the secular state and the religious feelings of the people.

    Ataturk was aware of this tension, and appointed the army as the guardian of the Secular Constitution. He imposed a system of education for army officers that would make them instinctive opponents of the obscurantism of the clerics. The army was to be the advocate of progress and modernity, which would place patriotism above piety in the hearts of the people.

    In obedience to its appointed role, the Turkish army has several times stepped in to uphold Ataturk's vision. It took over in 1980, when the Soviet Union was actively trying to subvert Turkish democracy and nationalists and leftists were fighting it out in the streets. The army has also made its presence felt in recent years, when the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has taken a step back towards the old Islamic values.

    Erdogan gestures as he gives a speech under a Turkish flag and portraits of himself and AtaturkErdogan, with portraits of himself and Ataturk as backdrop

    Erdogan's Justice and Development Party is nominally secular. But he is a man of the people and a sincere Muslim, who believes that the Koran contains the divinely inspired and uniquely valid guide to human life. He is not happy with a constitution that puts patriotism above piety, and which makes the army, rather than the mosque, into the guardian of social order. He has put a large number of leading army officers on trial on charges of subversion, some of them now jailed for life.

    The trials have been denounced as a travesty of justice; but those who say this are likely to be accused of subversion themselves. Journalists opposed to Erdogan's policies have a remarkable tendency to end up in jail. Newspapers that criticise the prime minister find themselves suddenly confronted with crippling tax demands or massive fines. And popular protests are put down with whatever force may be required. In Turkey, opposition is now becoming dangerous.

    The Turkish case vividly illustrates the point that democracy, freedom and human rights are not one thing but three. Erdogan has a large following. He has three times won an election with a substantial majority. But the elementary freedoms that we take for granted have been rather jeopardised than enhanced by this.

    The Egyptian example is even more pertinent. The Muslim Brotherhood has always sought to be a mass movement, seeking to establish itself by popular support. But its most influential leader, Sayyid Qutb, denounced the whole idea of the secular state as a kind of blasphemy, an attempt to usurp the will of God by passing laws that have a merely human authority. Qutb was executed by President Nasser, who came to power in a military coup.

    And ever since then the Muslim Brotherhood and the Army have played against each other. The Brotherhood aims for a populist government and won an election that it took to authorise the remaking of Egypt as an Islamic Republic. The posters waved by Morsi's supporters did not advocate democracy or human rights. They said: "All of us are with the Sharia." The army replied by saying no, only some of us are.

    Tank outside Egypt's constitutional court

    So why cannot a modern state govern itself by Islamic law? This is a controversial issue about which there are many learned views.

    Here, for what it is worth, is mine. The original schools of Islamic jurisprudence, which arose in the wake of the Prophet's reign in Medina, permitted jurists to adapt the law to the changing needs of society, by a process of reflection known as ijtihad, or effort. But this seems to have been brought to an end during the 8th Century, when it was maintained by the then dominant theological school that all important matters had been settled and that the "gate of ijtihad is closed".

    Trying to introduce Sharia today therefore runs the risk of imposing on people a system of law designed for the government of a long since vanished community and unable to adapt to the changing circumstances of human life. To put the point in a nutshell - secular law adapts, religious law merely endures.

    Moreover, precisely because Sharia has not adapted, nobody really knows what it says. Does it tell us to stone adulterers to death? Some say yes, some say no. Does it tell us that investing money at interest is in every case forbidden? Some say yes, some say no.

    When God makes the laws, the laws become as mysterious as God is. When we make the laws, and make them for our purposes, we can be certain what they mean. The only question then is "who are we?" What way of defining ourselves reconciles democratic elections with real opposition and individual rights? That, to my mind, is the most important question facing the West today. It is important because, as I shall argue next week, we too are giving the wrong answer.

    You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook



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    The War on Iran Begins in Syria

    August 28, 2013, 8:49 am
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    The War on Iran Begins in Syria

    Eric Draitser
     
    As the United States, along with its European and Israeli allies, prepares to launch yet another illegal war of aggression in the Middle East, the geopolitics of the US strategy could not be more apparent.
    Despite the high-minded talk of humanitarianism, the US is advancing a transparently neo-colonialist agenda aimed at securing hegemony in the region by destroying what little opposition remains.

    Lights…camera…war!

    The images and videos flooding the internet since last week purport to show 'evidence' of a chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the Assad regime. This development neatly and conveniently coincides with the declaration by the Obama administration that the use of such weapons constitutes a 'red line', merely a euphemism for the point at which the US would feel emboldened to militarily intervene on behalf of the rebels.
    And so, as news outlets report on the 'likely use of chemical weapons' by Damascus without anything other than unverifiable hearsay and ambiguous video footage, the drumbeat of war gets louder and louder.
    A clear-thinking and rational political analyst would immediately be suspicious about the attack considering the presence of international chemical weapons investigators in Syria, as well as the fact that Damascus was undeniably winning the war against the jihadi rebel factions in cities like Qussair, Homs, Aleppo and elsewhere. That Assad would sabotage his own military victories and provide the perfect pretext for a foreign intervention is not only far-fetched, it runs contrary to his own record throughout this conflict. Remember that Damascus has shown restraint in the face of international war crimes committed against it by Israel, Turkey and other regional actors who have been fomenting the conflict in Syria for more than two years.
    And so we see once again that we are living in what French philosopher and cultural critic Guy Debord called 'The Society of the Spectacle'– a world in which representation of truth is more important than truth itself, where videos of unknown origin and without verification take the place of authentic evidence and investigation, where wars that will destroy millions of lives and future generations are manufactured by paid actors on television who merely masquerade as journalists.
    All this leads many to wonder whether the United States is really as stupid as it seems. Could Washington actually believe that a war in Syria will actually benefit the US and its interests? Could they truly be so short-sighted and unwilling to learn from past mistakes? Although these questions would seem entirely valid, they presuppose that a war with Syria is actually the goal of a war with Syria. On the contrary, this illegal aggression against the sovereign Syrian Arab Republic is merely the opening phase of a greater regional war with the ultimate target being the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    Smashing the Shiite crescent

    In the decades since the revolution of 1979 which created the modern Islamic Republic of Iran, the US policy toward that country has been antagonistic and belligerent to such a degree that Iran has been forced, out of sheer necessity, to rely very heavily on its few regional and international allies. And so, given the political posture of Bashar Assad, like that of his father before him, Damascus has been viewed as Iran's key political partner, providing Iran with a crucial ally along the border with Israel and a bridge to the Hezbollah organization in Southern Lebanon. Additionally, a multi-ethnic society like Syria with a dominant Shiite-Alawite demographic presents itself as a natural friend to Shiite Iran. However, the importance of this relationship does not stop at mere similarities.
    Since the United States imposed draconian sanctions against Tehran, ostensibly over Iran's alleged nuclear program, the economics of the Iran-Syria relationship have become even more significant. As Tehran has been increasingly frozen out of world energy markets due to US and European sanctions that make it difficult if not impossible to settle international debts with the Islamic Republic, it has been forced to find alternative methods and infrastructure to sell its oil and gas and maintain its fragile economy.
    A centerpiece of this strategy is the Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline deal signed last month. Intended to provide Iran with a new delivery route to the Mediterranean coast, giving it renewed access to the Eurasian landmass and markets, the pipeline is obviously a blow to US-Israeli attempts to strangle the regime in Iran economically. Syria, being the critical linchpin in this deal, figures significantly in the Iranian strategy to survive the sanctions, thereby necessitating Iranian involvement in the conflict if only to provide the critical support Assad needs to maintain control of the security of the country.
    When one looks at the players involved in the war in Syria, it becomes clear that the Sunni monarchies – Saudi Arabia and Qatar primarily – have committed to the war in order to ensure their own continued hegemony, especially in terms of energy production. Qatar, being one of the world's wealthiest gas exporters, views the growing relationship between Iran and Syria, especially the gas pipeline deal, as an existential threat to their own standing. The Saudis, long since mortal enemies and rivals of the Shia Iranians, also have come to view Syria as merely a battleground in the larger proxy war with Iran.
    And then of course, there's Israel. Perched comfortably on Syria's border, Israel has played a key role in stoking tensions and fomenting unrest on the other side of the Golan Heights. Not only did Israel carry out a number of blatantly illegal bombings inside Syria's borders, there have been dozens of mainstream accounts, including videos, of Israeli Special forces commandos inside of Syria. Naturally, Israeli intentions are to further their own interests which for decades have been centered on the destruction of Iran, their main regional competitor and rival.
    Furthermore, as renowned author and geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl has noted, Israel's new gas discoveries off the Mediterranean coast add a new dimension to the struggle for dominance in the region. Engdahl writes, "Now Israel faces a strategic and very dangerous dilemma. Naturally, Israel is none too excited to see Assad's Syria, linked to Israel's arch foe Iran, and Iraq and Lebanon out-compete an Israeli gas export to the EU markets. This could explain why Israel's Netanyahu government has been messing inside Syria in the anti-Assad forces."
    Of course, Israel is not an entirely independent actor. As a principal player in the US-dominated imperial system, Israel serves as the bad cop to Washington's good cop on Iran. While the warmongers in Tel Aviv call for Iranian blood, the US is able to feign interest in nuclear negotiations to resolve the conflict and lift the sanctions. At the very same moment, the US, EU and Israel foment civil war in Syria precisely to weaken the Iranians, already isolated politically and economically, thereby showing that not only are they not interested in peace with Iran, they are implementing a multi-phased strategy to destroy that country.
    Adding insult to injury, the continued instability and violence in Iraq has politically weakened Prime Minister Maliki, a key Iranian ally. With Baghdad and Damascus in chaos, Tehran will find it very difficult to continue to support Hezbollah, another important piece on the chessboard. So one can see without great difficulty that the war in Syria is, at a fundamental level, a means to an end – the end being the total destruction of the Shiite Crescent insofar as it represents resistance to the hegemonic designs of the US, Israel, and their puppet Sunni monarchies.
    What has become ever more apparent in recent weeks and months is that the conflict in Syria is much larger than Syria itself. Like the Balkans almost exactly 100 years ago, Syria has become the proverbial powder keg in which Western leaders play with matches. Tragically, the diplomatic brinksmanship of the imperial powers in 1914 unleashed upon the world one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity: the First World War. As the United States prepares to commence yet another war, let us hope that world war is not once again the outcome.
    ______________________________________
    Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City
     

    FYI - 3 short articles from Colonel Osinski - if true Obama is just another puppet on the end of a string and WE - America and the World are in trouble. This could really blow up into a regional if not global war - very very dangerous!

    Oh, and by the way in the Constitution - Congress has to okay any war - I guess our Constitution has been buried in the mud!  If we send missiles into Syria - that's war!

    Regards 

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3059255/posts

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:44:39 AM by Zakeet

    We noted last month than Congress is less popular than North Korea, cockroaches, lice, root canals, colonoscopies, traffic jams, used car salesmen, Genghis Khan, Communism, BP during the Gulf oil spill, Nixon during Watergate or King George during the American Revolution.

    The Washington Post notes today that a Syria intervention is less popular than Congress. So that means that the American people would much rather get a root canal or a colonoscopy than bomb Syria.

    Indeed, while John Kerry announced today that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, Reuters noted:

    The polls suggest that so far, the growing crisis in Syria, and the emotionally wrenching pictures from an alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb this week, may actually be hardening many Americans' resolve not to get involved in another conflict in the Middle East.

    The bottom line is that Americans are sick of war.

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:15:16 AM by Liberty Ship

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3059240/posts

    London, Jan 30 (ANI): The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

    A new report, that contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence, showed a scheme 'approved by Washington'.

    As per the scheme 'Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons,' the Daily Mail reports.

    Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:39:00 AM by george76

    Recent news of a chemical weapons attack in Syria smacks of desperation. The question comes down to who is most desperate right now, the Assad regime or the Muslim Brotherhood rebels? Consider that since June, Assad's forces have been winning. According to a CBS News report from last month, victories for the rebels had become "increasingly rare" and that the Muslim Brotherhood-backed opposition fighters were sustaining "some of their heaviest losses" near Damascus.

    The New York Times echoed this sentiment, even saying that before gaining the upper hand, concerns were that Assad would use chemical weapons; he did not.

    In fact, even before Assad's forces gained the momentum, a UN official reportedly found evidence of rebels using chemical weapons but no evidence Assad's regime did

    ...

    Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.

    Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof," that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.

    But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons


    The volatility of Gas, Geo-Politics and the Greater Middle East. An Interview with Major Agha H. Amin

    Mijn foto

    Major Agha H. Amin is a retired Pakistani military officer and the author of various books, including "Development of Taliban Factions in Afghanistan", "Taliban War in Afghanistan" and "History of Pakistan Army". He studied at the Forman Christian College and at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kalkul.

    Agha H. Amin has been working as Assistant Editor of Defense Journal, Executive Editor at the Globe, and as Editor of the Journal of Afghanistan Studies. He is an active member of the Think Tank ORBAT and the Alexandrian Defense Group and he is working as security management consultant.

    Agha H. Amin has been working as consultant on various oil, gas and energy projects in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the TAPI pipeline, CASA 100, the Uzbekistan Afghanistan Pakistan line and the Turkmenistan Mazar Sharif line. He is an expert on national and regional security, energy security and geo-political issues. The following is the full text of an interview by Christof Lehmann with Major Agha H. Amin from 30 January 2013.

    CL. Not long ago we were discussing the situation in Syria, and the fact that the root cause for the attempted subversion of Syria is the 10 billion USD PARS gas pipeline project from Iran, via Iraq and Syria to the Easter Mediterranean Coast, the most important factors being the political leverage Iran would acquire if it, together with Russia provided more than 40 % of the gas consumed in the EU over the coming 100 – 120 years, a US and a US and UK attempt to sabotage the further integration of the continental European and Russian national economies and energy sectors. Both high ranking members of the Workers Party Turkey and retired Turkish military officers accuse the AKP government of Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdogan of being involved in the implementation of the Greater Middle East Project, developed by the RAND Corporation for the US Defense Department in 1996. This plan includes the "balkanization" of Turkey into smaller states. We discussed a possible plan to establish a NATO Corridor from Turkey to India. In our discussion you said: "I would like to add to them that the establishment of the Kurdistan part of the corridor would significantly change the security dynamics of the Russian South Stream gas pipeline which is part of the causes for the war on Syria." Could you please brief us on the most important factors with regard to the security dynamics of the Russian South Stream gas pipeline ?

    AHA. The strategic idea of NATO, is aiming at securing the northern borders of Israel against Hezbollah and the southern borders against Hamas; to eliminate the Russian naval base in the eastern Mediterranean, Syrian city of Tartous. NATO is planning to create a western strategic corridor to maintain energy-security in the case that oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz are disrupted because of a war with Iran or otherwise.

    Kurdish+Syrian+Strat+ScenarioOne of the first steps toward the implementation of the long-term strategic plan, is the partition of Turkey by creating separate Kurdish areas, thereby providing NATO a direct access to Russia´s soft underbelly in the Caucasus.

    This can ideally be used to dominate the Caucasian oil as well as support the Chechen against Russia in a low intensity conflict. Also, to create a viable independent Kurd state, it would need a windpipe access to the sea. This can be provided via the southern coast of Turkey and the Northern Coast of Syria. Whether a Syrian government soldier or a Syrian Islamist "Nut" dies in the process, "both are equally beneficial to the US/NATO".

    The cardinal strategic idea is to internalize the war within the Islamic world so that Europe and the USA become safer while the enemies of western civilization destroy each other.

    NATO is a club of wolves and Turkey is the odd wolf in NATO. Once the wolves have eaten Syria, they will eat the odd wolf Turkey. Yes, Turkey has been getting huge funds from Saudi Arabia, especially the clown Islamist Freedom and Justice Party. The clown Islamist Party is corrupting Turkey´s secularism. On the other side, Turkey is playing as NATO´s best chattel.

    To use a historic comparison. When Hitler started eating the lambs of Europe like the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia and Austria, the world tolerated it. The limit was reached in 1939. It is comparable with the NATO, led by the USA, eating the lambs since 1991. First Serbia was destroyed, then came Kosovo, then came Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

    I think and hope that Syria would be the turning point. With Libya a most negative practice of using Islamist mad dogs and proxies started. Al Qaeda and other most rabid Islamist groups were used in Libya and now again in Syria. The NATO is unleashing the same savages that it claims to fight in Afghanistan on secular states like Libya and Syria.

    If Russia had not asserted itself, the wolves would have attacked Syria by now. These wolves only fear Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD´s, and any state not having WMD´s will be shred into bits and devoured by the wolves. Lets hope that Putin proves to be like a new Moses who challenges the wolves who have the souls of Pagans.

    CL. Considering the volatility of the situation in Syria and that a conflict of that nature easily can develop a dynamic on its own, even a dynamic that was neither planned nor wanted by any of the stakeholders, and considering that the aggravation of the crisis into a regional war with the involvement of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, the Gulf Arab States, Turkey and NATO countries as well as Russia could have catastrophic consequences,- furthermore considering that the situation as it is seems so that non of the stakeholders can win, but all can loose, which diplomatic, political and economic initiatives would you consider necessary and feasible to solve the crisis ?

    AHA. "We are moving toward a great global war and supreme strategic anarchy by remote pilot".

    This happened, because the pilots who were supposed to man policy and regulate the tide of history did not have the talent to exercise their due role in history ! These pilots in reality wore the uniforms of pilots but had the caliber of air stewards and air pursers! This includes Obama, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Man Mohan Singh and the Saudi king. This brought us into a Sarajevo situation, where events started moving decision makers rather than decision makers moving events.

    Till 2008 the USA was led by an impetuous pilot with a low IQ but a definite strategic decisiveness. A man with limited intellect, but one who could take strategic decisions. After 2008 the USA got a social climber who looked outwardly smart and bright but lacked statesmanship and had near zero strategic vision. Thus Afghanistan, after 2008, moved from relative calm into anarchy, as far as the South was concerned.

    Pakistan was the worst case. It was led by an opportunist who attempted to please all parties, including the Americans, Islamists, Pakistani liberals and the Indians. As as result Pakistan developed such a fatal "confusion of principle" that the whole Pakistani society was fractured down into its deepest foundations. This military opportunist in turn, made peace with the corrupt politicians to prolong his rule. Subsequently, the whole political fabric of Pakistan was shattered.

    The Pakistani military was attacked by Islamists, for allegedly being in league with the Christian powers. The Pakistani military lost its entire credibility when it emerged as the main party in the controversial NRO deal, which legitimized past corruption of Pakistan´s politicians, which the army had prosecuted with zeal from 1999 to 2002. Pakistan became engulfed in two major insurgencies. One with the Islamists and the other in Baluchistan. Both have the potential to destabilize and even to destroy Pakistan.

    The USA has no strategy in Afghanistan and is in a catch 22, unless it decides on a strategy of decisive action. While the US policy makers saw Pakistan as a center of gravity of Islamists, including the Afghan Taliban, the US failed to frame a decisive strategy for dealing with Pakistan. Pakistan´s nuclear assets, Chinese support, and a growing Russian support are principal obstacles that the USA faces in formulating a strategy of decisive action against Pakistan. Both Iran and Pakistan remain two strategic thorn lands that the USA faces and which are being constantly watered by China and Russia.

    The Osama Raid and the Salala incident forced Pakistan´s military and political elite to close the NATO supply line to Afghanistan. The memogate scandal also increased the civil military divide in Pakistan but this appears to be more of a US ploy to divide and weaken Pakistan.

    The key strategic trends in this scenario are the following:

    Any US withdrawal, in totality or partially, would strengthen the Islamists in Afghanistan who will see full or partial defeat of the US as a great victory for Islam. This would destabilize Pakistan and increase the chances of a war between India and Pakistan.

    The US missile shield has permanently alienated Russia, and Russia will re-assert itself and take the lead in aiding all anti US forces. US failure to correctly deal with Iran and Pakistan will further destabilize the situation. Pakistan´s nuclear assets will deter the US from any grand adventure against Pakistan.

    The US´s chances of an internal pro US coup in Pakistan by the PPP have become week after the Osama bin Laden incident and the Salala incident. The chances of a military coup in Pakistan will get stronger as the situation moves and if the Pakistani´s ISI´s (Inters Services Intelligence-service) plan to bring a national government led by Imran Khan fails.

    India still perceives Pakistan as a grave strategic threat and remains apprehensive of Pakistan's strategic nukes. This will ensure that the Indians will continue with aiding the low intensity war in Pakistan. The US will try to follow a policy that reduces Pakistan to a smaller size and confines Pakistan´s nukes to Punjab.

    In the case of Baluchistan, it will not be difficult for the USA to Balkanize Pakistan if the USA decides to support Baloch secessionists. Karachi remains a strategic US asset with the MQM and other elements who can paralyze Karachi at few hours notice.

    US policy will be difficult to formulate and execute. No nuclear state was ever denuclearized by war. The policy that the US will follow will be to destabilize Pakistan and to present it as a danger to world peace, like the Democratic Peoples´ Republic North Korea. In the process, even a small incident can initiate a grand strategic earthquake. God help the USA, Pakistan, India and the world.

    CL. The US-led war on Afghanistan has now lasted for more than ten years. After NATO´s 25th Summit in Chicago in 2012 it transpired that NATO will maintain a presence in Afghanistan until at least 2014, and most likely until 2025 and beyond. NATO and western mainstream media continue marketing the argument that the NATO presence is necessary for fighting "the Taliban" and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the US Aggressions in Pakistan, predominantly in the form of drone attacks increase, and are also being marketed under the slogan of combating "the Taliban". Could you please help us deconstruct the tale of "the Taliban" and elicit who is meant with "the Taliban", which nuances should we should be aware of. It seems that the USA in many regards is fighting an enemy which it creates.

    AHA. To answer your questions, let me refer to my 2008 assessment. "Note that Obama is just a clever social climber, a mixed breed who was kicked upwards, a President with no control over anything."

    The objectives are not Al Qaeda, the Taliban or bin Laden. The objectives are to attack Iran, Russia´s soft Central Asian State and oil-rich belly, to destabilize China´s Sinkiang province with an Islamist insurrection, to denuclearize Pakistan and to consolidate the US – India base against China after Pakistan has been Balkanized.

    The objectives on the ground are neither Al Qaeda, the Taliban or Bin Laden. The droning of random targets continues to convince public opinion and gives the rich friends in the defense industry more ammunition and equipment contracts. US troops consolidate the oil transmission route on the herat Kandahar road.

    GRAND+LIES+1+jpgNo real offensive is launched against the Taliban. They are the good reason for why the USA is in Afghanistan, so why would the US/NATO want to eliminate "them". US policy is pressuring Pakistan by the means of drone attacks, forcing Pakistan to take military action in Fata is designed to destabilize Pakistan so that final grounds for the denuclearization of Pakistan are being set in place. The US tools in this exercise are US contractors in Pakistan and Afghanistan, US and British security companies in Pakistan, US or EX-US Bankers and Corporate Executives in Pakistan who are subverting civil and military brass. Through the 2008 elections the US has already achieved a political regime change in Pakistan, while the Pakistani military, who are safeguarding Pakistan´s nuclear assets are the next target.

    The objective to attack Iran and Russia´s soft Central Asian State oil-rich belly has so far been a miserable failure, with US proxies being checked bu Central Asia, Iran and China. However, secret training of proxies is going on in US bases in Afghanistan. With regard to the objective to destabilize the Chinese Sinkiang province with an Islamist insurrection, it is a logical objective, but there is the independent will of the enemy, backed with WMDs. China is "not" Iraq.

    The denuclearization of Pakistan is proceeding at a good pace, although no major success has been achieved. The Pakistani civilian government is fully on the US payroll while it may take 2 – 5 years for the Pakistani military to become a full-time US chattel. With regard to the objective of consolidating the US – India base after Pakistan is Balkanized, the program for Balkanization includes a Baloch State, a Pashtunistan, a City State of Karachi, Sindhu Desh. A denuclearized Pakistan will only be consisting of Punjab and northern areas controlled by China. This is to take five to ten years. With Pakistan Balkanized the US and India will have a complete, contiguous base against China and Russia.

    The Analysis.

    The present US strategic position is the silent registration of targets in Pakistan, Iran, Chinese Sinkiang and Russian dominated Central Asia. By trying to base logistics on Russian Ex Soviet Central Asian states, the USA is trying to bring economic benefits to Central Asia, so that the Russian hold can be weakened. However, Russia is convinced, that the US must fail in Afghanistan and it has made considerable efforts to aid anti US forces in Afghanistan through Iran and through Central Asian republics. US forces will not be able to control Afghanistan unless Pakistan is Balkanized and this would at least take 3 to 5 years.

    The first state to secede with US support would be Baluchistan. This is so, because the Base of anti US forces in Afghanistan is Pakistani Baluchistan, and Russia, Iran, and China have a combined interest in making the USA bleed in Afghanistan through Pakistani proxies known as Taliban. When Pakistan aids the Taliban in Afghanistan it is actually defending Pakistan. The maneuver to fix the situation for the USA would be an US manipulated India Pakistan war that would be leaving Pakistan severely damaged and India less damaged, followed by a denuclearization of Pakistan.

    China, Russia and Iran are the US opponents. They have the potential to throw a spanner in US plans. There is the unforeseen Factor X.

    There appears to be a strong evolving consensus in the USA as well as its NATO allies that Pakistan is the center of gravity of the Islamists in the ongoing, so-called war on terror. The idea gained currency in various high US policy making circles as well as think tanks around 1987 – 89 and then assumed a solid shape in the decade 1990 – 2000. After it was adopted as policy and concrete albeit top-secret planning was started to deal with Pakistan, which at the ulterior level was seen as part of the problem rather than a solution.

    Let me also refer a 2006 assessment that is still valid: A Brief Strategic Assessment of US Presence in Afghanistan Made in September 2005. By Agha Amin.

    The distinction between Islamist and non Islamist is being fast transformed into US versus Anti US Forces. Afghanistan may prove to be an area of strategic convergence for Islamists, China, Russia and even Pakistan and Iran which are logically phase two US targets. It is naive to think that the USA came to Afghanistan to deal with Talibs.

    The choices of the USA: The USA has several choices. It can deal with Afghanistan alone and consolidate. This would not be cost-effective for the USA. The investment it has made is too big. It could widen the front to Phase Two, Pakistan and Iran. Phase Three may be Chinese Sinkiang and Phase Four Central Asian Republics. The US can also chose to withdraw from Afghanistan while retaining a central position to strike at any target in the area. Possibly and independent Baloch State, carved out of Iran and Pakistan alone at first and Pakistani Baluchistan later.

    China´s and Russia´s Choices: China and Russia can allow the USA an uncontested stay and risk a Muslim rising in Sinkiang within the next ten years and US domination of Central Asian Republics. They can aid anti US forces, using non state actors in Pakistan and state actors in other areas, and they can strengthen alliances with Iranian and Pakistani states.

    Pakistan and Iran's choices: Pakistan and Iran can either accept US domination and scrap WMD programs, strengthen alliances with China and Russia, or aid anti US forces in Afghanistan with Chinese and Russian blessings.

    The Major Actors: The anti US forces are divided in two parts , state and non state actors. The main bases of non state actors are in Pakistan,Iran and Middle East. The Pakistani and Iranian states are the forward states having direct borders with Afghanistan and are involved in the Afghan game via state and non state actors.

    Key Strategic trends: A realization in Pakistan, that the Pakistani WMD apparatus is a future target of the USA which will have Afghanistan as its base. A realization in both China and Russia that the strategic salvation of both lies in aiding anti US groups , particularly those in Afghanistan. The development of Pakistan as the best base area of anti US groups operating in Afghanistan more because of non state actors. In order to deal with non state actors, the USA at some stage, will have to deal with both Pakistan and Iran. The USA seems strategically clueless and is playing a waiting game. Time is the key. Anti US forces can wait for ten years but every second, the USA is losing money. The USA has to achieve a tangible strategical objective. Both China and Russia will use the Islamic card, like the USA used it in Afghanistan from 1979 till 1989.

    Militarily, an anti US war in Afghanistan aided by China and Russia can prove to be USA's Spanish ulcer. Anti US forces in Afghanistan Pakistan and Iran are intact and can change the strategic balance. The USAs hold in Afghanistan is confined to key cities only.

    The drug mafia is a major US opponent and can sustain anti US forces in Afghanistan. Islamists have realized that they must have China and Russia as allies. The same realization is taking place in China and Russia. Thus, there arises the convergence of interest.

    The strategic options of the USA are: To create an alternate drug mafia which is non Pashtun and create new states, which are US allies like Baluchistan,Kurdistan. Possibly the USA could also work toward a non Pashtun state in North Afghanistan.

    CL. In one of our discussions you said that there was a significant discrepancy between the areas where the USA is deploying drones and where the so-called "Taliban" attacks US troops. You also stated that many of the drone attacks are carried out in areas where the Pakistani military controls and secures the Af-Pak border while very few, if any drone attacks are carried out in areas where it would actually make sense. Could you please describe this in some detail and elicit the most important strategic as well as political implications ?

    AHA. Drone attacks are being carried out in the two agencies North and South Waziristan and 90 % are carried out in the Datta Khel Sub District. These are aimed at Haqqani Group which is regarded as an ISI asset by the USA.

    PROXY+WAR+IN+AFGHANISTANA major aim with the drone attacks is also to benefit private contractors who are involved in these attacks at all levels from intelligence gathering down to munitions and drone suppliers. Another major idea is to demoralize the Pashtuns, so that any war against the USA would bring such a retribution that they will be unable to answer or match it with equal fire.

    CL. You stated that Iran has a significant interest in South West Afghanistan. WE hear very little about this in western media and I have not been able to find any detailed analysis in Iranian media either. Could you please give us your position on which role Iran is playing in Afghanistan ?

    AHA. Iran is active in West Afghanistan as well as Central Afghanistan. Iran is a most important supporter of the Northern Alliance after Russia and India . Iran views the Taliban as an existential threat. It regards non Pashtuns as well as moderate Pashtuns as its allies.

    CL. There is little doubt among analysts that the USA and some NATO member states are attempting to "balkanize" Pakistan into smaller nations. We observe increased activities of often Soros-funded UN agencies and NGOs, especially in Northern Pakistan, indicating an attempt to play on ethnicity. It is a standard strategy which has been used by the West in Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the strategy is currently being implemented in Nepal, and it is being implemented in Myanmar, in an attempt to create so-called inter-communal violence in Myanmar´s Rakhine State. Could you give us your perspective about attempts to destruct the nation-state Pakistan ?

    AHA. Let me also here refer to a previous assessment which I made in April 2009. Every movement in history has a direction, a quantum, a modus operandi. According to the father of the philosophy of war Carl Von Clausewitz everything in strategy moves slowly, imperceptibly, subtly, somewhat mysteriously and sometimes invisibly.

    The greatness of a military commander or statesman lies in assessing these strategic movements. The USA inherited a historical situation in the shape of 9/11.At this point in time it was not making history if we agree that 9/11 was the work of Al Qaeda for which so far the USA has failed to furnish any solid evidence.

    After 9/11 when the USA attacked Afghanistan ,US leaders and key military commanders were making history. They had a certain plan in mind. The stated objectives of these plan were the elimination of Al Qaeda. The unstated objective was the denuclearization of Pakistan. This scribe has continuously held this position, held consistently, in articles published in Nation from September 2001,all through 2002,2003,2004,2005 and till 2009.

    The US strategic plan followed the following distinct phases

    *An initial maneuver occupying Afghanistan in 2001.

    *Establishing and consolidating US military bases near the Afghan Pakistan border. Most prominent being the Khost, Jalalabad, Sharan and Kunar US bases. Some military bases like Dasht I Margo in Nimroz and three other bases in Kandahar, Badakhshan and Logar were so secret that their construction was not even advertised. Even in the case of sensitive areas the contracts were awarded to the US Government owned Shaw Inc and the CIA proxy operated Dyncorps Corporation.

    Patriotic Afghans trained in the USSR were removed from Afghan Intelligence because they would not agree to be a party to USA's dirty game in between 2001 and 2007. Similarly many patriotic Afghan officers trained in USSR were removed from the Afghan military establishment.

    * Cultivating various tribes in ethnic groups on the Pakistan Afghan border by awarding them lucrative construction and logistic sub contracts.

    * Forcing the Pakistani military to act against the FATA tribes thus destabilizing Pakistan's North West area close to the strategic heartland of Peshawar-Islamabad-Lahore where Pakistan's political and military nucleus is located.

    * Creating a situation where mysterious insurgencies erupted in various parts of Pakistan including FATA, Swat and Baluchistan.

    * Carrying forward urban terrorism into Punjab through various proxies. Now it appears that the strategic plan is entering its final stage of launching a strategic coup de grace to Pakistan.

    These may be assessed as following

    * A US military buildup in Afghanistan and the launching of an offensive against Taliban, with an aim of pushing them into Pakistan.

    * Simultaneously pressuring the Pakistan Army into launching an operation in Waziristan. Thus Pakistan´s Army gets severely bogged down and hundreds of thousands of refugees enter Pakistan's NWFP and Baluchistan provinces. Infiltrators and fifth columnists being a heavy promiscuous mixture of this movement.

    * Since 2001 the USA has spent a great fortune collecting information on Pakistan's strategic nuclear assets. It appears that in 2009 it has sufficient data to launch a covert operation. The covert nuclear operation could have a civilian and a military part. The civilian part may involve an attack on Pakistan's non-military nuclear reactors like Chashma and KANUPP. The military covert operation could involve an attack on any of Pakistan's strategic nuclear groups anywhere in Pakistan.

    Once this type of attack is done the USA with its NATO lackeys like Britain, France and Germany would go the UN and maneuver an international resolution, demanding the denuclearization of Pakistan. The international opinion may be so strong that Pakistan's government may capitulate.

    * Once Pakistan is denuclearized, the USA would encourage Pakistan's Balkanization into a Baloch US satellite, a city-state of MQM in Karachi, a Pashtunistan badly bombed and in tatters and a Punjab stripped of nuclear potential, kicked and bullied by India. A Northern Area republic which is an US lackey unless China decides to call the US bluff by occupying the Northern Area.

    CL. At closing, I remember that you stated, that international law was irrelevant because nothing had changed since the time of Alexander the Great. I agree that for instance the International Criminal Court has more to do with victor's justice than with international law. We see over the last decade a serious explosion of international law at its very root. The Geneva Conventions are circumvented by creating artificial constructs such as unlawful combatant, enhanced interrogation methods, the use of "contractors", as if they were workers to build public schools and hospitals, being deployed to maintain military tasks. Extraordinary rendition, just to mention a few of the most obvious problems. As a man of military education, which risks do you see in the deterioration of international law ?

    AHA. We are heading towards an international new order where the power of the state will be totally in hands of a corrupt mafia, who will usurp all human rights on pretext of controlling terrorism. This would result in grand strategic anarchy and even the US will Balkanize. The boomerang will come back and as they say the wheel turns !

    Interview with Maj. Agha H. Amin by Christof Lehmann

     Related Sites:

    The Development of Taliban Factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan: A Geographical Account, February 2010 [Hardcover]

    MAPS By Maj. Agha H. Amin

    Kurdish+Syrian+Strat+Scenario

    GRAND+LIES+1+jpg

    PROXY+WAR+IN+AFGHANISTAN

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    About the Author

    Christof Lehmann - Dr. Christof Lehmann is the founder and editor of nsnbc. He is a psychologist and independent political consultant on conflict and conflict resolution and a wide range of other political issues. His work with traumatized victims of conflict has led him to also pursue the work as political consultant. He is a lifelong activist for peace and justice, human rights, Palestinians rights to self-determination in Palestine, and he is working on the establishment of international institutions for the prosecution of all war crimes, also those committed by privileged nations. On 28 August 2011 he started his blog nsnbc, appalled by misrepresentations of the aggression against Libya and Syria. In March 2013 he turned nsnbc into a daily, independent, international on-line newspaper. He can be contacted at nsnbc international at nsnbc.wordpress@gmail.com

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    How can one change the system when 50% of the American population is employed in the armament industry.

    August 28, 2013, 8:58 am
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    abc


    How can one change the system when 50% of the American population is employed in the armament industry.
    Werner




    This recent posting on the BBC site illuminates for the first time the massive nature of the weapons trade. Almost all of it is to fuel war, murder, and crime, almost none is for hunting.

    You might want to circulate this to your hunting friends:


    I think that genuine hunters need to distance themselves from these criminals, just like you don't want to be associated with racist hunters like Lord Teleki who boasted that on his Kenya safari he "shot 35 elephants and 300 niggers".

    xyz

    Rio de Janeiro's Igarape Institute visualises global arms trade

    26 August 2013 Last updated at 23:01 GMTHelp

    In 2011 the US exported more than $800m (£513m) in small arms and ammunition and imported $1.2bn. More than a tenth of those imports came from Brazil, a country that has quickly become the biggest player in the Southern hemisphere, exporting $330m worth in 2011.

    These kind of numbers and connections are easily accessible through a website called Mad (Mapping Arms Data). In conjunction with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and Google Ideas, the Igarape Institute collected data from 73,000 records of the export and import of small arms, light weapons and ammunition from more than 262 states and territories for the decade ending in 2011.

    Robert Muggah, the research director at Igarape, says the online tool - and its availability on the internet - has influenced the debate on the global arms trade.

    "It's fundamental that we start thinking about ways of digitising the research that we do as think tanks, as research institutes, as advocacy organisations," Mr Muggah told the BBC at the Igarape Institute in Rio de Janeiro.

    Produced by the BBC's Franz Strasser.

    Living Online is a series of video features published every Tuesday on the BBC News website which takes a look at how technology converges with culture, and all aspects of our daily lives.

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    Why I Think Andy Murray Is Not Nice

    August 28, 2013, 8:59 am
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    BEGIN:VCARD
    VERSION:2.1
    N:;Anthony
    FN:Anthony
    REV:20130828T091833Z
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    28 August MMXIII
     
    With my compliments...
     
    Cordially...
     
    ASJ
     

    Why I Think Andy Murray Is Not Nice

    I do not like Andy Murray. Many other tennis enthusiasts feel as I do, too. My own reasoning is twofold: I am displeased with AM as a person; and, he pleases me not as a tennis player.

     

    I have the impression that AM has been singled out—even touted out of proportion—by the British press in order to use him as some symbol of some Empire rebirth—that he is being manipulated surreptitiously to steer Scots away from their secessionist imaginativeness and keep them solidly fixed within the realm of kings and queens and princes and princesses. He is a patsy and especially so for the BBC. I hope he will come to his senses and avoid blending sports with politics and, of course, risk being fudged by others for political gain.

     

    We all should decry the horrendous mix of politics and sports and/or religion and sports. Political and religious ideologies must not have place intruding upon the sports scene. Sports, perhaps, might one day be a substitute for individual and collective violence just as religion has been unable to be so. Sports must be left alone and not contaminated by political or religious theories. It has today its hands filled trying to eliminate illicit drug consumption and corruption from its internal functioning. Let it work, and better itself, in peace.

     

    I do not appreciate Andy Murray especially when he plays tennis. I rarely watch him compete because he makes me think that he might have missed his true vocation: to be a guard for the National Basketball Association. He is robust, lanky and awkward. As a tennis player he is gifted in that he possesses a great serve, calculates precisely his deep shots, and possesses the savvy to be at the right place at the right time—a tennis court being less tremendous than a basketball court. When AM has to run to meet a ball that has bounced far from him, he charges like a drunken giraffe, and I wonder if this time he will trip himself up—the taller they are, the harder they fall—and injure his bipartite patella. Finesse is not one of AM's virtues. We cannot credit him with being an all-round tennis player.

     

    The poor guy rarely smiles. He will look with amusement or cry only in the winner's circle. What is truly repugnant about him is the fact that after every error he commits in play, he will grunt and groan, look up to The Almighty, and wonder how He could have let him make a boo-boo.

     

    With his talent to win—he has earned so much that many another mortal would do backflips to be in his place—one would surmise that he should be grateful for his accomplishments. But not so. No sensations of satisfaction on his puss. No vibes from him that he is enjoying one of the world's most popular and delightful games. No shows of pride even for himself. The perfect dullard. The unrelenting whiner.

     

    Is Andy Murray a frustrated basketball player?

     

    Authored by Anthony St. John

    9 August MMXIII

    Calenzano, Italy

    www.scribd.com/thewordwarrior

    * * *

    Anthony St. John
    Casella Postale 38
    50041 CALENZANO FI
    Italia
    Voice & Fax: 0558873228
    Cellphone: 3356047381
    Blog: www.scribd.com/thewordwarrior

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    Battle of Phillora-1965-Historic Letter

    August 28, 2013, 9:59 am
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    Colonel M.Y Effendi was a direct participant in the battles fought around Chawinda in 1965.

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