Playing with Fire in Pakistan
By Talha Mujaddidi in Pakistan. Axis of Logic exclusive
Dec 24, 2008, 13:57
While the U.S is facing an economic meltdown and people are hoping for better days under incoming President Obama, thousands of miles away in Pakistan things are going from bad to worst. Pakistan is always in the news in western media but unfortunately most of the news is extremely biased. The reports that emerge from Western think tanks on Pakistan are mostly one-sided and reflective of U.S Foreign Policy rather than independent analysis.
Changing relationships
Pakistan became a frontline ally of U.S after 9/11. Since then things have been moving in the wrong direction to say the least. Under Former President Musharraf, Pakistan started using its army against insurgents and Taliban sympathizers in Northern Tribal belt area of Pakistan, commonly known as FATA (federally administrated tribal areas). This resulted in a deadly wave of terrorism directed against Pakistani people and the army itself. Vast majority of the Pakistani public just like the majority of the Muslim world views U.S war on terror as a War against Islam.
The primary reason for this is that Muslim world does not see any justification for U.S troops to be stationed in almost all of the Middle East with few exceptions like Iran, and Syria. Secondly, Bush administrations’ lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction has proved to be a fatal blow for U.S image in the Muslim world. The common man on the street views U.S as an aggressor nation and compares U.S military adventurism in the Middle East with Imperial history of United Kingdom, and other European Nations. U.S public needs to realize that Muslim world was under colonial rule for the most part of the nineteenth century and early part of twentieth century, until the end of the Second World War; hence the public is extremely suspicious of U.S troop’s presence in Muslim world and U.S continued support of corrupt, incompetent rulers of the Muslim world.
The Schism: The people and the Zardari government
Pakistan is a country with 180 million people, nuclear weapons, and half million army. Pakistani population is turning against the Pakistani government which is seen as a spokesman of Washington D.C. To give the readers some idea of how the Pakistani population looks at this Zardari government I will quote some slogans and jargons that are used by the public in Pakistan. This government of President Zardari which the U.S is supporting just like they supported Ngo Dinh in South Vietnam is called “sellout to the CIA”, “mouth piece of the U.S”, “slaves of the Yankees”, and the harshest of all the slogans “Traitors”. This is the opinion of the common man on the streets of Pakistan against the current government. The International Republican Institute Survey on Pakistan that came out recently also reflects this trend. In the survey
88% of the Pakistani population thinks that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
59% think that the economic situation of the country will get worst. 76% think that the current government has performed poorly.
67% think that things will not get better under this “democratic” setup and lastly,
54% of the population thinks that peace deal with the extremist is a better option than the Army operation that is going on in FATA.
The U.S plans to neutralize Pakistan, as it has done so before with other countries. U.S officials are talking openly about disbanding Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the ISI; the U.S is constantly raising concern for the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and, the U.S wants to cut down Pakistan army into half, making it an effect counter-terrorism force from a professional army.
The U.S. historical treatment of its allies
Andrew G. Marshall is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). His recent article on Middle East and Pakistan gives us inside to the plan that will be executed under new U.S administration. Marshall’s article mentions that Pakistan is being destabilized under the same plan that was used to destabilize former Yugoslavia.
“As astonishing and outlandish as these claims may seem, the U.S has a long history of turning on its allies when they seek to become self-sufficient and developed, such as with Saddam Hussein and Iraq in the early 1990s. Also, it is vital to note the role of the IMF and World Bank in creating economic crises, and thus, political-social-ethnic instability, which invariably has led to all out ethnic war, genocides and international interventions [in countries such as Yugoslavia and Rwanda]".
Marshall notes that in 2008, “Pakistan was again seeking IMF help. On Nov. 25, it won final approval on a $7.6 billion loan package after foreign reserves shrank 74 percent to $3.5 billion in the 12 months ended on Nov. 8.” This loan was approved a day before the Mumbai attacks began. On December 4, it was reported that,
“Tough conditions of International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now started surfacing as IMF and the Government of Pakistan (GoP) agreed to discontinue oil import support, eliminate power subsidies and budgetary support of the government, public and private entities. IMF and GoP (government of Pakistan) have agreed to phase out the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBPs) provision of foreign exchange for oil imports. … Further steps will be taken during the remainder of the fiscal year to strengthen tax enforcement. Moreover, fuel prices will continue to be adjusted to pass through changes in international prices … The program envisages a significant tightening of monetary policy.”
Winners and Losers
A similar plan was discussed by Lt. Col Ralph Peters, in a 2006 article of Armed Forces Journal. Peters argues that redrawing the map of Middle East is a must in order to control the strategic locations and assets of Middle East and Central Asia:
“Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan … Iran, a state with madcap boundaries, would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today’s Afghanistan … Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren [and] “would also lose its Baluch territory to Free Baluchistan. The remaining ‘natural’ Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.”
Peters even made up a helpful little list of “losers” and “winners” in this new great game: as in, who gains territory, and who loses territory. Among the losers are Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the West Bank and Pakistan. And Peters made the startling statement that redrawing borders is often only achieved through war and violence, and that “one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works.”
U.S. Think Tanks Play With Fire
The problem with U.S think tanks and policy makers is that they have no connection with the common people of the country whose destiny they are trying to change. U.S is used to dealing with one dictator after another. First it was Pervaiz Musharraf, a military dictator who was in power obliging to U.S demands, now its Zardari, a civilian dictator who is trying his best to out flank Musharraf in serving U.S interest.
Destabilizing Pakistan is playing with fire. There is no guarantee that the Pakistani army will go all the way and give concessions to U.S and NATO while compromising Pakistan’s national interest. What happens if the U.S is successful in persuading Pakistani government to disband the ISI and cut down Pakistan army into half? We can recall what happened in Iraq after U.S disbanded the Iraqi army and Baath party infrastructure. Suddenly 300,000 men who were part of an army became mercenaries for hire. If Pakistan army is cut down into half and the ISI is disbanded then there will be no control over almost 400,000 men and they will readily work towards creating more trouble for U.S and NATO troops inside Afghanistan.
The dark possibility of a civil war inside Pakistan will remain if Pakistan is destabilized. Then there is the question of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons? Who will be able to guarantee their safety if Pakistan is destabilized further? As long as the Pakistan army is fully intact it will work with the U.S and NATO to safeguard U.S and Pakistan’s interests. Unfortunately U.S is pressuring Pakistan Army and ISI too much for their liking. At the moment it is not clear what the stance of the Pakistan Army will be in days to come. The army is also part of the nation, and their mood will be reflective of the mood of the nation. Already, the army has declined to accept pressure from the government of Pakistan on matters of National Security.
Pakistan and India
After the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, tensions between India and Pakistan have increased tremendously. The Pakistan government is once again succumbing to Indian pressure and its response is seen by the Pakistani people as a weak response. Serious doubts are being raised by public about government’s ability to give a proper response to India. Every Pakistani citizen knows that India is their arch enemy. This opinion of India in the Pakistani mind cannot be changed by the sugar coated rhetoric of President Zardari or U.S Secretary of State.
The problem with Western experts on South Asia is that they don’t understand the dynamics of Pakistan-India conflict. The root cause of conflict between Pakistan and India is Kashmir. Without the resolution of this conflict permanent peace between India and Pakistan cannot be achieved. There is peace in Europe today because they have resolved their problems and disputes and their countries treat each other with equal respect. We should not to forget that two brutal world wars were fought in Europe that completely devastated Europe. After such devastation Europe got together and realized that mutual peace is must for coexistence. Peace between two countries can only be on equal terms. The U.S and Soviet Union were able to co-exist because both had nuclear weapons. If Pakistan is destabilized then it’s not possible that India will remain intact and enjoy exponential economic growth rates.
At the moment the biggest issue is tension between India and Pakistan. India is hoping that U.S will be able to pressurize the Pakistani government into allowing India to carry out “surgical strikes” inside Pakistan, just like the U.S drone attacks of this year. India wants to make sure that Pakistan will not respond to these strikes. This is definitely not acceptable to Pakistani army and the public. It might even be asking too much from already weak Zardari government. Already there is a rumor circulating in Islamabad that Prime Minister Yousuf Gillani will be replaced. Nawaz Sharif, two time former prime minister and leader of the opposition, is gearing up for an offensive against the government’s ongoing domestic and international policies.
If the Pakistan army has decided to respond to Indian surgical strikes and India has planned to carries out such strikes, then tensions between India and Pakistan can turn into a short term high intensity conflict or war. This will be a disaster for this region, U.S interest in this region, Middle East and the U.S economy. Bangalore, and Hyderabad, are silicon cities of India and top IT capitals of the world. India’s IT exports amount to more than $40 billion dollars, with U.S taking a market share of 60%. U.S will certainly not want a war between India and Pakistan that will jeopardize business between India and U.S. Lastly any full scale conflict between India and Pakistan will threaten this region with the potential use of nuclear weapons.
Conclusion
In the long run, U.S plans to disband ISI, cut down Pakistan army, and break Pakistan into smaller parts will only lead to more chaos in this region. Pakistan will become center of a brutal civil war. This will give considerable strength to Islamic militants who will have a free hand to fight openly against U.S/NATO forces and their pro-U.S Pakistani elements. For eight years the world has witnessed the dire consequences of the wrong policies of Neo-Cons. It is high time that new U.S administration changes track and returns to dialogue and peace process in the entire Middle East. Unless this happens, we are in for at least four more destructive years in Middle East and the populations of the U.S and Europe will pay dearly, at the very least in the economic costs of this destruction.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Playing with Fire in Pakistan
By Talha Mujaddidi in Pakistan. Axis of Logic exclusive
Dec 24, 2008, 13:57
While the U.S is facing an economic meltdown and people are hoping for better days under incoming President Obama, thousands of miles away in Pakistan things are going from bad to worst. Pakistan is always in the news in western media but unfortunately most of the news is extremely biased. The reports that emerge from Western think tanks on Pakistan are mostly one-sided and reflective of U.S Foreign Policy rather than independent analysis.
Changing relationships
Pakistan became a frontline ally of U.S after 9/11. Since then things have been moving in the wrong direction to say the least. Under Former President Musharraf, Pakistan started using its army against insurgents and Taliban sympathizers in Northern Tribal belt area of Pakistan, commonly known as FATA (federally administrated tribal areas). This resulted in a deadly wave of terrorism directed against Pakistani people and the army itself. Vast majority of the Pakistani public just like the majority of the Muslim world views U.S war on terror as a War against Islam.
The primary reason for this is that Muslim world does not see any justification for U.S troops to be stationed in almost all of the Middle East with few exceptions like Iran, and Syria. Secondly, Bush administrations’ lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction has proved to be a fatal blow for U.S image in the Muslim world. The common man on the street views U.S as an aggressor nation and compares U.S military adventurism in the Middle East with Imperial history of United Kingdom, and other European Nations. U.S public needs to realize that Muslim world was under colonial rule for the most part of the nineteenth century and early part of twentieth century, until the end of the Second World War; hence the public is extremely suspicious of U.S troop’s presence in Muslim world and U.S continued support of corrupt, incompetent rulers of the Muslim world.
The Schism: The people and the Zardari government
Pakistan is a country with 180 million people, nuclear weapons, and half million army. Pakistani population is turning against the Pakistani government which is seen as a spokesman of Washington D.C. To give the readers some idea of how the Pakistani population looks at this Zardari government I will quote some slogans and jargons that are used by the public in Pakistan. This government of President Zardari which the U.S is supporting just like they supported Ngo Dinh in South Vietnam is called “sellout to the CIA”, “mouth piece of the U.S”, “slaves of the Yankees”, and the harshest of all the slogans “Traitors”. This is the opinion of the common man on the streets of Pakistan against the current government. The International Republican Institute Survey on Pakistan that came out recently also reflects this trend. In the survey
88% of the Pakistani population thinks that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
59% think that the economic situation of the country will get worst. 76% think that the current government has performed poorly.
67% think that things will not get better under this “democratic” setup and lastly,
54% of the population thinks that peace deal with the extremist is a better option than the Army operation that is going on in FATA.
The U.S plans to neutralize Pakistan, as it has done so before with other countries. U.S officials are talking openly about disbanding Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the ISI; the U.S is constantly raising concern for the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and, the U.S wants to cut down Pakistan army into half, making it an effect counter-terrorism force from a professional army.
The U.S. historical treatment of its allies
Andrew G. Marshall is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). His recent article on Middle East and Pakistan gives us inside to the plan that will be executed under new U.S administration. Marshall’s article mentions that Pakistan is being destabilized under the same plan that was used to destabilize former Yugoslavia.
“As astonishing and outlandish as these claims may seem, the U.S has a long history of turning on its allies when they seek to become self-sufficient and developed, such as with Saddam Hussein and Iraq in the early 1990s. Also, it is vital to note the role of the IMF and World Bank in creating economic crises, and thus, political-social-ethnic instability, which invariably has led to all out ethnic war, genocides and international interventions [in countries such as Yugoslavia and Rwanda]".
Marshall notes that in 2008, “Pakistan was again seeking IMF help. On Nov. 25, it won final approval on a $7.6 billion loan package after foreign reserves shrank 74 percent to $3.5 billion in the 12 months ended on Nov. 8.” This loan was approved a day before the Mumbai attacks began. On December 4, it was reported that,
“Tough conditions of International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now started surfacing as IMF and the Government of Pakistan (GoP) agreed to discontinue oil import support, eliminate power subsidies and budgetary support of the government, public and private entities. IMF and GoP (government of Pakistan) have agreed to phase out the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBPs) provision of foreign exchange for oil imports. … Further steps will be taken during the remainder of the fiscal year to strengthen tax enforcement. Moreover, fuel prices will continue to be adjusted to pass through changes in international prices … The program envisages a significant tightening of monetary policy.”
Winners and Losers
A similar plan was discussed by Lt. Col Ralph Peters, in a 2006 article of Armed Forces Journal. Peters argues that redrawing the map of Middle East is a must in order to control the strategic locations and assets of Middle East and Central Asia:
“Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan … Iran, a state with madcap boundaries, would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today’s Afghanistan … Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren [and] “would also lose its Baluch territory to Free Baluchistan. The remaining ‘natural’ Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.”
Peters even made up a helpful little list of “losers” and “winners” in this new great game: as in, who gains territory, and who loses territory. Among the losers are Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the West Bank and Pakistan. And Peters made the startling statement that redrawing borders is often only achieved through war and violence, and that “one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works.”
U.S. Think Tanks Play With Fire
The problem with U.S think tanks and policy makers is that they have no connection with the common people of the country whose destiny they are trying to change. U.S is used to dealing with one dictator after another. First it was Pervaiz Musharraf, a military dictator who was in power obliging to U.S demands, now its Zardari, a civilian dictator who is trying his best to out flank Musharraf in serving U.S interest.
Destabilizing Pakistan is playing with fire. There is no guarantee that the Pakistani army will go all the way and give concessions to U.S and NATO while compromising Pakistan’s national interest. What happens if the U.S is successful in persuading Pakistani government to disband the ISI and cut down Pakistan army into half? We can recall what happened in Iraq after U.S disbanded the Iraqi army and Baath party infrastructure. Suddenly 300,000 men who were part of an army became mercenaries for hire. If Pakistan army is cut down into half and the ISI is disbanded then there will be no control over almost 400,000 men and they will readily work towards creating more trouble for U.S and NATO troops inside Afghanistan.
The dark possibility of a civil war inside Pakistan will remain if Pakistan is destabilized. Then there is the question of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons? Who will be able to guarantee their safety if Pakistan is destabilized further? As long as the Pakistan army is fully intact it will work with the U.S and NATO to safeguard U.S and Pakistan’s interests. Unfortunately U.S is pressuring Pakistan Army and ISI too much for their liking. At the moment it is not clear what the stance of the Pakistan Army will be in days to come. The army is also part of the nation, and their mood will be reflective of the mood of the nation. Already, the army has declined to accept pressure from the government of Pakistan on matters of National Security.
Pakistan and India
After the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, tensions between India and Pakistan have increased tremendously. The Pakistan government is once again succumbing to Indian pressure and its response is seen by the Pakistani people as a weak response. Serious doubts are being raised by public about government’s ability to give a proper response to India. Every Pakistani citizen knows that India is their arch enemy. This opinion of India in the Pakistani mind cannot be changed by the sugar coated rhetoric of President Zardari or U.S Secretary of State.
The problem with Western experts on South Asia is that they don’t understand the dynamics of Pakistan-India conflict. The root cause of conflict between Pakistan and India is Kashmir. Without the resolution of this conflict permanent peace between India and Pakistan cannot be achieved. There is peace in Europe today because they have resolved their problems and disputes and their countries treat each other with equal respect. We should not to forget that two brutal world wars were fought in Europe that completely devastated Europe. After such devastation Europe got together and realized that mutual peace is must for coexistence. Peace between two countries can only be on equal terms. The U.S and Soviet Union were able to co-exist because both had nuclear weapons. If Pakistan is destabilized then it’s not possible that India will remain intact and enjoy exponential economic growth rates.
At the moment the biggest issue is tension between India and Pakistan. India is hoping that U.S will be able to pressurize the Pakistani government into allowing India to carry out “surgical strikes” inside Pakistan, just like the U.S drone attacks of this year. India wants to make sure that Pakistan will not respond to these strikes. This is definitely not acceptable to Pakistani army and the public. It might even be asking too much from already weak Zardari government. Already there is a rumor circulating in Islamabad that Prime Minister Yousuf Gillani will be replaced. Nawaz Sharif, two time former prime minister and leader of the opposition, is gearing up for an offensive against the government’s ongoing domestic and international policies.
If the Pakistan army has decided to respond to Indian surgical strikes and India has planned to carries out such strikes, then tensions between India and Pakistan can turn into a short term high intensity conflict or war. This will be a disaster for this region, U.S interest in this region, Middle East and the U.S economy. Bangalore, and Hyderabad, are silicon cities of India and top IT capitals of the world. India’s IT exports amount to more than $40 billion dollars, with U.S taking a market share of 60%. U.S will certainly not want a war between India and Pakistan that will jeopardize business between India and U.S. Lastly any full scale conflict between India and Pakistan will threaten this region with the potential use of nuclear weapons.
Conclusion
In the long run, U.S plans to disband ISI, cut down Pakistan army, and break Pakistan into smaller parts will only lead to more chaos in this region. Pakistan will become center of a brutal civil war. This will give considerable strength to Islamic militants who will have a free hand to fight openly against U.S/NATO forces and their pro-U.S Pakistani elements. For eight years the world has witnessed the dire consequences of the wrong policies of Neo-Cons. It is high time that new U.S administration changes track and returns to dialogue and peace process in the entire Middle East. Unless this happens, we are in for at least four more destructive years in Middle East and the populations of the U.S and Europe will pay dearly, at the very least in the economic costs of this destruction.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
Dec 24, 2008, 13:57
While the U.S is facing an economic meltdown and people are hoping for better days under incoming President Obama, thousands of miles away in Pakistan things are going from bad to worst. Pakistan is always in the news in western media but unfortunately most of the news is extremely biased. The reports that emerge from Western think tanks on Pakistan are mostly one-sided and reflective of U.S Foreign Policy rather than independent analysis.
Changing relationships
Pakistan became a frontline ally of U.S after 9/11. Since then things have been moving in the wrong direction to say the least. Under Former President Musharraf, Pakistan started using its army against insurgents and Taliban sympathizers in Northern Tribal belt area of Pakistan, commonly known as FATA (federally administrated tribal areas). This resulted in a deadly wave of terrorism directed against Pakistani people and the army itself. Vast majority of the Pakistani public just like the majority of the Muslim world views U.S war on terror as a War against Islam.
The primary reason for this is that Muslim world does not see any justification for U.S troops to be stationed in almost all of the Middle East with few exceptions like Iran, and Syria. Secondly, Bush administrations’ lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction has proved to be a fatal blow for U.S image in the Muslim world. The common man on the street views U.S as an aggressor nation and compares U.S military adventurism in the Middle East with Imperial history of United Kingdom, and other European Nations. U.S public needs to realize that Muslim world was under colonial rule for the most part of the nineteenth century and early part of twentieth century, until the end of the Second World War; hence the public is extremely suspicious of U.S troop’s presence in Muslim world and U.S continued support of corrupt, incompetent rulers of the Muslim world.
The Schism: The people and the Zardari government
Pakistan is a country with 180 million people, nuclear weapons, and half million army. Pakistani population is turning against the Pakistani government which is seen as a spokesman of Washington D.C. To give the readers some idea of how the Pakistani population looks at this Zardari government I will quote some slogans and jargons that are used by the public in Pakistan. This government of President Zardari which the U.S is supporting just like they supported Ngo Dinh in South Vietnam is called “sellout to the CIA”, “mouth piece of the U.S”, “slaves of the Yankees”, and the harshest of all the slogans “Traitors”. This is the opinion of the common man on the streets of Pakistan against the current government. The International Republican Institute Survey on Pakistan that came out recently also reflects this trend. In the survey
88% of the Pakistani population thinks that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
59% think that the economic situation of the country will get worst. 76% think that the current government has performed poorly.
67% think that things will not get better under this “democratic” setup and lastly,
54% of the population thinks that peace deal with the extremist is a better option than the Army operation that is going on in FATA.
The U.S plans to neutralize Pakistan, as it has done so before with other countries. U.S officials are talking openly about disbanding Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the ISI; the U.S is constantly raising concern for the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and, the U.S wants to cut down Pakistan army into half, making it an effect counter-terrorism force from a professional army.
The U.S. historical treatment of its allies
Andrew G. Marshall is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). His recent article on Middle East and Pakistan gives us inside to the plan that will be executed under new U.S administration. Marshall’s article mentions that Pakistan is being destabilized under the same plan that was used to destabilize former Yugoslavia.
“As astonishing and outlandish as these claims may seem, the U.S has a long history of turning on its allies when they seek to become self-sufficient and developed, such as with Saddam Hussein and Iraq in the early 1990s. Also, it is vital to note the role of the IMF and World Bank in creating economic crises, and thus, political-social-ethnic instability, which invariably has led to all out ethnic war, genocides and international interventions [in countries such as Yugoslavia and Rwanda]".
Marshall notes that in 2008, “Pakistan was again seeking IMF help. On Nov. 25, it won final approval on a $7.6 billion loan package after foreign reserves shrank 74 percent to $3.5 billion in the 12 months ended on Nov. 8.” This loan was approved a day before the Mumbai attacks began. On December 4, it was reported that,
“Tough conditions of International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now started surfacing as IMF and the Government of Pakistan (GoP) agreed to discontinue oil import support, eliminate power subsidies and budgetary support of the government, public and private entities. IMF and GoP (government of Pakistan) have agreed to phase out the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBPs) provision of foreign exchange for oil imports. … Further steps will be taken during the remainder of the fiscal year to strengthen tax enforcement. Moreover, fuel prices will continue to be adjusted to pass through changes in international prices … The program envisages a significant tightening of monetary policy.”
Winners and Losers
A similar plan was discussed by Lt. Col Ralph Peters, in a 2006 article of Armed Forces Journal. Peters argues that redrawing the map of Middle East is a must in order to control the strategic locations and assets of Middle East and Central Asia:
“Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan … Iran, a state with madcap boundaries, would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today’s Afghanistan … Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren [and] “would also lose its Baluch territory to Free Baluchistan. The remaining ‘natural’ Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.”
Peters even made up a helpful little list of “losers” and “winners” in this new great game: as in, who gains territory, and who loses territory. Among the losers are Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the West Bank and Pakistan. And Peters made the startling statement that redrawing borders is often only achieved through war and violence, and that “one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works.”
U.S. Think Tanks Play With Fire
The problem with U.S think tanks and policy makers is that they have no connection with the common people of the country whose destiny they are trying to change. U.S is used to dealing with one dictator after another. First it was Pervaiz Musharraf, a military dictator who was in power obliging to U.S demands, now its Zardari, a civilian dictator who is trying his best to out flank Musharraf in serving U.S interest.
Destabilizing Pakistan is playing with fire. There is no guarantee that the Pakistani army will go all the way and give concessions to U.S and NATO while compromising Pakistan’s national interest. What happens if the U.S is successful in persuading Pakistani government to disband the ISI and cut down Pakistan army into half? We can recall what happened in Iraq after U.S disbanded the Iraqi army and Baath party infrastructure. Suddenly 300,000 men who were part of an army became mercenaries for hire. If Pakistan army is cut down into half and the ISI is disbanded then there will be no control over almost 400,000 men and they will readily work towards creating more trouble for U.S and NATO troops inside Afghanistan.
The dark possibility of a civil war inside Pakistan will remain if Pakistan is destabilized. Then there is the question of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons? Who will be able to guarantee their safety if Pakistan is destabilized further? As long as the Pakistan army is fully intact it will work with the U.S and NATO to safeguard U.S and Pakistan’s interests. Unfortunately U.S is pressuring Pakistan Army and ISI too much for their liking. At the moment it is not clear what the stance of the Pakistan Army will be in days to come. The army is also part of the nation, and their mood will be reflective of the mood of the nation. Already, the army has declined to accept pressure from the government of Pakistan on matters of National Security.
Pakistan and India
After the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, tensions between India and Pakistan have increased tremendously. The Pakistan government is once again succumbing to Indian pressure and its response is seen by the Pakistani people as a weak response. Serious doubts are being raised by public about government’s ability to give a proper response to India. Every Pakistani citizen knows that India is their arch enemy. This opinion of India in the Pakistani mind cannot be changed by the sugar coated rhetoric of President Zardari or U.S Secretary of State.
The problem with Western experts on South Asia is that they don’t understand the dynamics of Pakistan-India conflict. The root cause of conflict between Pakistan and India is Kashmir. Without the resolution of this conflict permanent peace between India and Pakistan cannot be achieved. There is peace in Europe today because they have resolved their problems and disputes and their countries treat each other with equal respect. We should not to forget that two brutal world wars were fought in Europe that completely devastated Europe. After such devastation Europe got together and realized that mutual peace is must for coexistence. Peace between two countries can only be on equal terms. The U.S and Soviet Union were able to co-exist because both had nuclear weapons. If Pakistan is destabilized then it’s not possible that India will remain intact and enjoy exponential economic growth rates.
At the moment the biggest issue is tension between India and Pakistan. India is hoping that U.S will be able to pressurize the Pakistani government into allowing India to carry out “surgical strikes” inside Pakistan, just like the U.S drone attacks of this year. India wants to make sure that Pakistan will not respond to these strikes. This is definitely not acceptable to Pakistani army and the public. It might even be asking too much from already weak Zardari government. Already there is a rumor circulating in Islamabad that Prime Minister Yousuf Gillani will be replaced. Nawaz Sharif, two time former prime minister and leader of the opposition, is gearing up for an offensive against the government’s ongoing domestic and international policies.
If the Pakistan army has decided to respond to Indian surgical strikes and India has planned to carries out such strikes, then tensions between India and Pakistan can turn into a short term high intensity conflict or war. This will be a disaster for this region, U.S interest in this region, Middle East and the U.S economy. Bangalore, and Hyderabad, are silicon cities of India and top IT capitals of the world. India’s IT exports amount to more than $40 billion dollars, with U.S taking a market share of 60%. U.S will certainly not want a war between India and Pakistan that will jeopardize business between India and U.S. Lastly any full scale conflict between India and Pakistan will threaten this region with the potential use of nuclear weapons.
Conclusion
In the long run, U.S plans to disband ISI, cut down Pakistan army, and break Pakistan into smaller parts will only lead to more chaos in this region. Pakistan will become center of a brutal civil war. This will give considerable strength to Islamic militants who will have a free hand to fight openly against U.S/NATO forces and their pro-U.S Pakistani elements. For eight years the world has witnessed the dire consequences of the wrong policies of Neo-Cons. It is high time that new U.S administration changes track and returns to dialogue and peace process in the entire Middle East. Unless this happens, we are in for at least four more destructive years in Middle East and the populations of the U.S and Europe will pay dearly, at the very least in the economic costs of this destruction.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
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Monday, December 22, 2008
Great game continues; Round 3 of the neo-con agenda.
By
Talha Mujaddidi
Dec 13th 2008
Part 2
After 9/11 U.S started its crusade against the Muslim world. First round of this crusade started when U.S invaded Afghanistan, then later Iraq. After 9/11 U.S said that Al-Qaeda is the real culprit behind 9/11. U.S never presented any evidence against Al-Qaeda to any government or world body. To this date no evidence had been presented. Similarly U.S went to war with Iraq on a false pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ron Susskind’s book highlights the fact that highest authority in the British government knew that this was a false alarm operation.
U.S and Israel are together in this so called war against terror. Second round started when Israel was given green light to destroy Hezbollah in South Lebanon. After one month of intense fighting and using all the resources that they had except nuclear weapons, Israel was unable to crush Hezbollah. U.S tried to create a civil war inside Lebanon so that Hezbollah could be involved in fighting internally this plan also failed. After this, Israel pressurized the Bush administration to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program militarily. U.S and Israel go about this issue in two separate ways. U.S does not want confrontation with Iran on this issue. U.S is not in a position to start a confrontation with Iran on this issue. Israel on the other hand wanted military solution to Iran problem. Israel even threatened unilateral strikes against Iran. This did not receive green light from Washington. Israel then turned to India, who was already a strategic ally of the U.S. The nexus of U.S, Israel and India is now turned against Pakistan. The targets as mentioned before are Pakistan’s nuclear program, ISI, army, then breaking up Pakistan into smaller pieces.
This is beginning of round three. After the breakup of Soviet Union Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to Carter, and probably the shrewdest neo-con alive today came up with a plan. The plan was to control Middle East and Central Asia so that twenty-first century could be another American century. Brzezinski is not the father of neo-conservatism (that was Strauss), but right now the most influential neo-con. Some of the details of his plan are laid out in his book, “The Grand Chessboard”. In 2006, it started to become clear that the next U.S president could be someone who would be a handpicked brainchild of Brzezinski. This brainchild is none other than Barrack Obama. The Republican Party could only offer McCain as a presidential candidate; McCain did not even enjoy support of many republicans to begin with. On the Democrats side it was clear that Al Gore would not run, Kerry was labeled as a flip flop after 2004 elections, Howard Dean became the party chair. Hillary was the main candidate but she is not liked much by Israeli lobby in the U.S. Israel has still not forgiven Clinton for Camp David Accord. John Edwards, in my opinion was the best candidate of all the nominees, but again he has middle class roots, and would never become a puppet of Military-industrial complex of the U.S. Hence it came down to Obama, Brzezinski’s brain child. Obama himself mentioned clearly that in foreign policy matters he will consult Brzezinski regularly. What is the grand plan that Brzezinski has made? The main target is containment of Russia and China, followed by controlling the energy reserves of Central Asia and remaining part of Middle East. Recently we saw highlight of things to come, when limited conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out in August in South Ossetia. Brzezinski plan first calls for neutralizing Pakistan, so that in future there could be no threat from Pakistani nuclear weapons to either Israel or its new found love India. It’s interesting to note that recently different Israeli notables including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Pakistan’s nuclear program causes great danger to Israel. Why? Pakistan’s nuclear weapons can only cause danger to Israel if In future it plans to threaten Pakistan. They tried to do that in ’84, when they along with India made unsuccessful attempt to bomb Kahuta Nuclear plant. In the new map of Middle East, Pakistan is supposed to be divided into at least three possibly four parts as per the U.S plan. A separate Baluchistan, N.W.F.P incorporated in Afghanistan, two parts of Sind, and left over Sind and Punjab.
The convergence of U.S and Indian designs are limited until this point only. After this things start getting ugly. The problem is clash of ideologies. U.S is following a completely capitalistic, imperialistic ideology. India is following an ideology that is neither compatible with capitalism nor with imperialism. Remember Nehru doctrine, India is not happy with U.S inter-mingling into India’s affairs either. It’s only that against Pakistan Indian and U.S designs converge. Recall when Nehru was Prime Minister of India and Pakistan joined Baghdad pact. At that time Nehru was angry and said that we don’t like the fact that Pakistan has called a greater power into this region, and as long as a great power player like U.S is involved in Pakistan-India disputes, India will not solve Kashmir dispute. India doesn’t want a bigger power player destroying its regional hegemony. As Obama has said clearly, almost words out of Brzezinski’s mouth that Pakistan is the target and it will be attacked by drones, air strikes, and if needed covert operations also will take place to kill terrorists. (Remember terrorist are the pretext U.S has been using in post 9/11 world to attack countries). Obama has also said that Kashmir dispute must be resolved and U.S will mediate in Kashmir dispute. This is where there is a clash between Indian and U.S strategic goals. U.S wants Kashmir to be an independent country. If Kashmir is independent nation numerous benefits can be obtained by U.S, first it will be foreign policy trophy for Obama, secondly then U.S will force Pakistan and India to sign a no war pact. Then India will be the big brother in this region. Pakistan will not have any use for its nuclear program, no need to maintain a huge army, so on and so forth. U.S wants NATO troops to be places in Kashmir, they want to control air fields there, for e.g. the one in Laddakh, they want to encircle China, and then send in militants to create problems inside western China, where there is a huge Chinese Muslim population. India can never allow Kashmir to be broken up; India’s main concern is to destroy Pakistan. U.S wants to align India against China but India wants to remain neutral in U.S conflict with Russia and China. India had a choice, to consolidate its relationship with Pakistan but it chose a difficult path. Iran offered that choice to India, Indian economy is in dire need of energy resources, Iran offered gas pipeline to India via Pakistan. U.S will not allow anyone to get a hand on oil and gas reserves of Middle East and Central Asia. India was pressurized by U.S to step back from that agreement; instead it was given nuclear energy deal. India will not survive without oil and gas. The primary battle in the world is for oil and gas. If Iran, Pakistan, India gas pipeline project would have gone through then these three countries would not have been fighting with each other in future. India’s 15% gas requirement would be coming through Pakistan. U.S doesn’t want that. Instead it has offered India the plan that once Baluchistan is broken up from Pakistan you can get gas from Baluchistan via its seaport Gwadar. At the same time the U.S can use Baluchistan to create trouble into Iran. Again I think it’s a bluff for the Indians I am sure that U.S will not allow anyone taking any energy resources from its control. But Kashmir issue still remains and there is no way India will agree to it. There’s also the problem of Myanmar, or Burma. It’s a country virtually cut off from the world only in touch with China. Myanmar has gas and some oil reserves. This is where in future conflict could arise, and China will claim stake in these reserves. Brzezinski wants to use Islamic militants to create trouble in Central Asian Islamic states. No wonder Saudi government is talking to Taliban trying to bring them together into Afghan government. Just like these militants were used in Afghan war against Soviet Union, Brzezinski wants to use them again against Russia and China. Once land link between Pakistan and China is cut off, Kashmir issue is resolved, and there is relative calm in Afghanistan, with Indian army troops maintaining law and order in Afghanistan affairs. The Islamic militants could be moved towards Central Asia. Under Brzezinski plan conflict between Russia and U.S is inevitable. The brilliant part of the plan is that Brzezinski wants Iran to join hands with U.S. This is not really an off the wall plan either. Iran until Khomeini’s revolution was staunch U.S ally. After the revolution in Iran, U.S created Iran-Iraq war that resulted in hostilities between Arab world and Iran. These hostilities remain to this day. Russia is a strong supporter of Iran now, Russia also uses, a port in Syria. Obama has said clearly that he wants to engage both with Syria and Iran. Russia is also watching all these movements very closely. Iran has applied to become a member of SCO group that consists of all former Soviet countries of Central Asia, Russia, and China. If that happens then U.S plan against Iran will suffer greatly. China has said that if conflict takes place between India and Pakistan it will support Pakistan without a doubt. Obama’s tenure in office will see more violence in South Asia and Central Asia. It’s not clear if Iran will accept U.S offer to join in against Russia, and Arab world. It’s not that simple! Khomeini was more than just a revolutionary leader; he was the great Imam for Iranian people. He called U.S the biggest devil on this earth and responsible for sufferings of the Muslim world. It’s not easy for Iran government to engage with the big devil again. But like any country the choices for Iran are limited too.
Coming back to Pakistan, our choices are extremely limited too. India has troops inside Afghanistan and more troops will be pouring in the coming days. U.S is also bringing in 20,000 more troops in Jan 2009 into Afghanistan. India has built a road network in Afghanistan that goes all the way to Iranian border. India and Iran have strong relations with each other. As long as the U.S and NATO supplies go to Afghanistan from Karachi port, Indian navy can’t do a blockade of Karachi. Iran has a port near Baluchistan border its Charbahar port. Iran’s Charbahar port will be useless if Gwadar starts functioning and the city starts flourishing, since Gwadar is located before Charbahar. Plus Gwadar is of prime interest to China. India has told the U.S that since your supplies are getting a beating in Pakistan, why don’t you let our ships take your supplies through Iran into Afghanistan? Since U.S ships can’t go into Iran’s port. This way U.S will not be dependent on Pakistan and Karachi, then Indian navy will be in a position to blockade Karachi. Then India will bring troops on to Pakistan-India border. At the same time India will be in a position to attack us from our western border as well, Afghanistan. India will not start a full scale war but its plan is to somehow gain control of Azad Kashmir. Once India has control of Azad Kashmir, U.S plan to make Kashmir independent can’t go through as the area will become more disputed than before. India will be in a much stronger position and U.S will be unable to control Kashmir. This scenario poses grave risk since in any India-Pakistan border conflict there’s no guarantee that full scale war will not erupt. Likewise there is no guarantee that full scale war will not result in use of nuclear weapons. As recently as yesterday, U.S Secretary of State Condi Rice has warned India again not to take any step that could lead to a full scale war between India and Pakistan. Will India listen to that advice? That remains to be seen. Condi Rice has told U.S Congress, in reply to a question asked by Sen. John Kerry ,that U.S has a contingency plan of securing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if need be the details however can’t be discussed since they are classified. With Russia getting edgy because of U.S designs against it, and China vary of Brzezinski’s plan the world is back to pre-Second World War era.
At moment all is going well for U.S with regards to Pakistan. The country is under control as far as the U.S is concerned. One week before Shah’s downfall Iran was also under complete control of CIA. Then over night the country changed. My point is that U.S plan is playing with fire in South Asia and Central Asia, this region consists of regional powers like India, Pakistan who both have nuclear weapons, and there is Russia and China two greater powers, and Iran who is on the path to becoming a nuclear power. A wrong move by India, U.S itself, or any other country could start a regional conflict that could easily become a global conflict. We should remember that it’s not just U.S troops in Afghanistan, there are NATO troops there too, meaning that they represent different countries of Europe. Plus troops from Canada, Australia and some other smaller countries also present in Afghanistan. The problem is that U.S is not in any mood to leave Afghanistan. In fact it’s not in a position to leave Afghanistan even if it wants to since there is no end to this conflict in a meeting room. Just like the Soviet Union, U.S is realizing that when you go and occupy a sovereign nation you are in no position to negotiate with rebellious militants (Taliban). The only way out for U.S is to leave in disgrace and defeat like Vietnam but U.S is not willing to look down that line. It’s thinking in totally opposite direction to expand the conflict in this region even if it threatens a fourth world war.
Talha Mujaddidi
Dec 13th 2008
Part 2
After 9/11 U.S started its crusade against the Muslim world. First round of this crusade started when U.S invaded Afghanistan, then later Iraq. After 9/11 U.S said that Al-Qaeda is the real culprit behind 9/11. U.S never presented any evidence against Al-Qaeda to any government or world body. To this date no evidence had been presented. Similarly U.S went to war with Iraq on a false pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ron Susskind’s book highlights the fact that highest authority in the British government knew that this was a false alarm operation.
U.S and Israel are together in this so called war against terror. Second round started when Israel was given green light to destroy Hezbollah in South Lebanon. After one month of intense fighting and using all the resources that they had except nuclear weapons, Israel was unable to crush Hezbollah. U.S tried to create a civil war inside Lebanon so that Hezbollah could be involved in fighting internally this plan also failed. After this, Israel pressurized the Bush administration to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program militarily. U.S and Israel go about this issue in two separate ways. U.S does not want confrontation with Iran on this issue. U.S is not in a position to start a confrontation with Iran on this issue. Israel on the other hand wanted military solution to Iran problem. Israel even threatened unilateral strikes against Iran. This did not receive green light from Washington. Israel then turned to India, who was already a strategic ally of the U.S. The nexus of U.S, Israel and India is now turned against Pakistan. The targets as mentioned before are Pakistan’s nuclear program, ISI, army, then breaking up Pakistan into smaller pieces.
This is beginning of round three. After the breakup of Soviet Union Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to Carter, and probably the shrewdest neo-con alive today came up with a plan. The plan was to control Middle East and Central Asia so that twenty-first century could be another American century. Brzezinski is not the father of neo-conservatism (that was Strauss), but right now the most influential neo-con. Some of the details of his plan are laid out in his book, “The Grand Chessboard”. In 2006, it started to become clear that the next U.S president could be someone who would be a handpicked brainchild of Brzezinski. This brainchild is none other than Barrack Obama. The Republican Party could only offer McCain as a presidential candidate; McCain did not even enjoy support of many republicans to begin with. On the Democrats side it was clear that Al Gore would not run, Kerry was labeled as a flip flop after 2004 elections, Howard Dean became the party chair. Hillary was the main candidate but she is not liked much by Israeli lobby in the U.S. Israel has still not forgiven Clinton for Camp David Accord. John Edwards, in my opinion was the best candidate of all the nominees, but again he has middle class roots, and would never become a puppet of Military-industrial complex of the U.S. Hence it came down to Obama, Brzezinski’s brain child. Obama himself mentioned clearly that in foreign policy matters he will consult Brzezinski regularly. What is the grand plan that Brzezinski has made? The main target is containment of Russia and China, followed by controlling the energy reserves of Central Asia and remaining part of Middle East. Recently we saw highlight of things to come, when limited conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out in August in South Ossetia. Brzezinski plan first calls for neutralizing Pakistan, so that in future there could be no threat from Pakistani nuclear weapons to either Israel or its new found love India. It’s interesting to note that recently different Israeli notables including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Pakistan’s nuclear program causes great danger to Israel. Why? Pakistan’s nuclear weapons can only cause danger to Israel if In future it plans to threaten Pakistan. They tried to do that in ’84, when they along with India made unsuccessful attempt to bomb Kahuta Nuclear plant. In the new map of Middle East, Pakistan is supposed to be divided into at least three possibly four parts as per the U.S plan. A separate Baluchistan, N.W.F.P incorporated in Afghanistan, two parts of Sind, and left over Sind and Punjab.
The convergence of U.S and Indian designs are limited until this point only. After this things start getting ugly. The problem is clash of ideologies. U.S is following a completely capitalistic, imperialistic ideology. India is following an ideology that is neither compatible with capitalism nor with imperialism. Remember Nehru doctrine, India is not happy with U.S inter-mingling into India’s affairs either. It’s only that against Pakistan Indian and U.S designs converge. Recall when Nehru was Prime Minister of India and Pakistan joined Baghdad pact. At that time Nehru was angry and said that we don’t like the fact that Pakistan has called a greater power into this region, and as long as a great power player like U.S is involved in Pakistan-India disputes, India will not solve Kashmir dispute. India doesn’t want a bigger power player destroying its regional hegemony. As Obama has said clearly, almost words out of Brzezinski’s mouth that Pakistan is the target and it will be attacked by drones, air strikes, and if needed covert operations also will take place to kill terrorists. (Remember terrorist are the pretext U.S has been using in post 9/11 world to attack countries). Obama has also said that Kashmir dispute must be resolved and U.S will mediate in Kashmir dispute. This is where there is a clash between Indian and U.S strategic goals. U.S wants Kashmir to be an independent country. If Kashmir is independent nation numerous benefits can be obtained by U.S, first it will be foreign policy trophy for Obama, secondly then U.S will force Pakistan and India to sign a no war pact. Then India will be the big brother in this region. Pakistan will not have any use for its nuclear program, no need to maintain a huge army, so on and so forth. U.S wants NATO troops to be places in Kashmir, they want to control air fields there, for e.g. the one in Laddakh, they want to encircle China, and then send in militants to create problems inside western China, where there is a huge Chinese Muslim population. India can never allow Kashmir to be broken up; India’s main concern is to destroy Pakistan. U.S wants to align India against China but India wants to remain neutral in U.S conflict with Russia and China. India had a choice, to consolidate its relationship with Pakistan but it chose a difficult path. Iran offered that choice to India, Indian economy is in dire need of energy resources, Iran offered gas pipeline to India via Pakistan. U.S will not allow anyone to get a hand on oil and gas reserves of Middle East and Central Asia. India was pressurized by U.S to step back from that agreement; instead it was given nuclear energy deal. India will not survive without oil and gas. The primary battle in the world is for oil and gas. If Iran, Pakistan, India gas pipeline project would have gone through then these three countries would not have been fighting with each other in future. India’s 15% gas requirement would be coming through Pakistan. U.S doesn’t want that. Instead it has offered India the plan that once Baluchistan is broken up from Pakistan you can get gas from Baluchistan via its seaport Gwadar. At the same time the U.S can use Baluchistan to create trouble into Iran. Again I think it’s a bluff for the Indians I am sure that U.S will not allow anyone taking any energy resources from its control. But Kashmir issue still remains and there is no way India will agree to it. There’s also the problem of Myanmar, or Burma. It’s a country virtually cut off from the world only in touch with China. Myanmar has gas and some oil reserves. This is where in future conflict could arise, and China will claim stake in these reserves. Brzezinski wants to use Islamic militants to create trouble in Central Asian Islamic states. No wonder Saudi government is talking to Taliban trying to bring them together into Afghan government. Just like these militants were used in Afghan war against Soviet Union, Brzezinski wants to use them again against Russia and China. Once land link between Pakistan and China is cut off, Kashmir issue is resolved, and there is relative calm in Afghanistan, with Indian army troops maintaining law and order in Afghanistan affairs. The Islamic militants could be moved towards Central Asia. Under Brzezinski plan conflict between Russia and U.S is inevitable. The brilliant part of the plan is that Brzezinski wants Iran to join hands with U.S. This is not really an off the wall plan either. Iran until Khomeini’s revolution was staunch U.S ally. After the revolution in Iran, U.S created Iran-Iraq war that resulted in hostilities between Arab world and Iran. These hostilities remain to this day. Russia is a strong supporter of Iran now, Russia also uses, a port in Syria. Obama has said clearly that he wants to engage both with Syria and Iran. Russia is also watching all these movements very closely. Iran has applied to become a member of SCO group that consists of all former Soviet countries of Central Asia, Russia, and China. If that happens then U.S plan against Iran will suffer greatly. China has said that if conflict takes place between India and Pakistan it will support Pakistan without a doubt. Obama’s tenure in office will see more violence in South Asia and Central Asia. It’s not clear if Iran will accept U.S offer to join in against Russia, and Arab world. It’s not that simple! Khomeini was more than just a revolutionary leader; he was the great Imam for Iranian people. He called U.S the biggest devil on this earth and responsible for sufferings of the Muslim world. It’s not easy for Iran government to engage with the big devil again. But like any country the choices for Iran are limited too.
Coming back to Pakistan, our choices are extremely limited too. India has troops inside Afghanistan and more troops will be pouring in the coming days. U.S is also bringing in 20,000 more troops in Jan 2009 into Afghanistan. India has built a road network in Afghanistan that goes all the way to Iranian border. India and Iran have strong relations with each other. As long as the U.S and NATO supplies go to Afghanistan from Karachi port, Indian navy can’t do a blockade of Karachi. Iran has a port near Baluchistan border its Charbahar port. Iran’s Charbahar port will be useless if Gwadar starts functioning and the city starts flourishing, since Gwadar is located before Charbahar. Plus Gwadar is of prime interest to China. India has told the U.S that since your supplies are getting a beating in Pakistan, why don’t you let our ships take your supplies through Iran into Afghanistan? Since U.S ships can’t go into Iran’s port. This way U.S will not be dependent on Pakistan and Karachi, then Indian navy will be in a position to blockade Karachi. Then India will bring troops on to Pakistan-India border. At the same time India will be in a position to attack us from our western border as well, Afghanistan. India will not start a full scale war but its plan is to somehow gain control of Azad Kashmir. Once India has control of Azad Kashmir, U.S plan to make Kashmir independent can’t go through as the area will become more disputed than before. India will be in a much stronger position and U.S will be unable to control Kashmir. This scenario poses grave risk since in any India-Pakistan border conflict there’s no guarantee that full scale war will not erupt. Likewise there is no guarantee that full scale war will not result in use of nuclear weapons. As recently as yesterday, U.S Secretary of State Condi Rice has warned India again not to take any step that could lead to a full scale war between India and Pakistan. Will India listen to that advice? That remains to be seen. Condi Rice has told U.S Congress, in reply to a question asked by Sen. John Kerry ,that U.S has a contingency plan of securing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if need be the details however can’t be discussed since they are classified. With Russia getting edgy because of U.S designs against it, and China vary of Brzezinski’s plan the world is back to pre-Second World War era.
At moment all is going well for U.S with regards to Pakistan. The country is under control as far as the U.S is concerned. One week before Shah’s downfall Iran was also under complete control of CIA. Then over night the country changed. My point is that U.S plan is playing with fire in South Asia and Central Asia, this region consists of regional powers like India, Pakistan who both have nuclear weapons, and there is Russia and China two greater powers, and Iran who is on the path to becoming a nuclear power. A wrong move by India, U.S itself, or any other country could start a regional conflict that could easily become a global conflict. We should remember that it’s not just U.S troops in Afghanistan, there are NATO troops there too, meaning that they represent different countries of Europe. Plus troops from Canada, Australia and some other smaller countries also present in Afghanistan. The problem is that U.S is not in any mood to leave Afghanistan. In fact it’s not in a position to leave Afghanistan even if it wants to since there is no end to this conflict in a meeting room. Just like the Soviet Union, U.S is realizing that when you go and occupy a sovereign nation you are in no position to negotiate with rebellious militants (Taliban). The only way out for U.S is to leave in disgrace and defeat like Vietnam but U.S is not willing to look down that line. It’s thinking in totally opposite direction to expand the conflict in this region even if it threatens a fourth world war.
Great game continues; Round 3 of the neo-con agenda.
By
Talha Mujaddidi
Dec 13th 2008
Point of this article is to identify some thought provoking points about the Mumbai attacks, with historical background. Then to focus on U.S, Israeli, and Indian assault against Pakistan. Then to focus on greater agenda that Uncle Sam has for this region.
Part 1
Analysis of the Drama
Now that the dust is beginning to settle down after the Mumbai drama it is time that I shed some relevant light on this topic. The problem with modern day media is that in times of security crisis, it becomes just an arm of a nation’s foreign policy. As far as Indian media is concerned it’s more than just an arm of Indian foreign policy, it’s their mouthpiece. India, we should all remember is nothing like U.S. Until early 90’s it was staunchly a socialist country. Everything was state owned. India was in Soviet Camp from the day one. Pakistan from day one was in U.S and British Camp. There is a huge difference in the mindset of people who grew up in Pakistan at the height of cold war then those who grew up in India. The point is that no matter what the world media tells us and what the Indian media tells us the mindset of average Indian is democratic but the mindset of their foreign policy is nowhere close to democratic. It is in fact, very conservative mindset and it is based on Chankya’s ideology. Who was Chankya? and what was his ideology? this is a long debate. The bottom line is India’s military establishment, their intelligence agencies, and their foreign policy is still working on Chankya’s ideology. The synopsis of that ideology is that all of India’s neighbors are its enemies and all of the neighbors of India’s neighbors are India’s friends. That’s why India has bad relations with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and even Bhutan. India has always had very good relations with Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia. Chankya ideology also states clearly that India is the super power of the region (Bharat Mata), and all its neighboring countries are its proxies or satellites only. This is from where the rhetoric of regional economic block, regional zone and nefarious designs like that comes from. This understanding is very important before we move on to the Mumbai attacks.
When a terrorist attack takes place the first thing to ask is who is the target? Who benefits from it? Who is the net loser? and who gets to gain strategic objectives? The most important thing is how the entire scenario unfolds in a terrorist attack. As soon as the attacks took place entire Indian media, started saying that Pakistan is behind these attacks. This is not surprising; India has a history of pointing fingers at Pakistan. After Samjotha Express was burned, and 68 people were burned alive, mostly Pakistanis, they pointed the finger at Pakistan and ISI, it turned out the real culprits were their own splinter cell of Hindu extremist who had infiltrated into their intelligence agencies. Lt. Col. Purohit was the culprit who confessed masterminding the attacks; it’s extremely alarming that serving Indian army colonel who has worked for their intelligence agencies is involved in terrorist activities. The chief investigating officer was Haimant Karkare. Interestingly he was the one who was killed as soon as this drama started. What a perfect time to kill the man who is trying to catch a group of terrorist. When Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed they pointed the finger to ISI, when asked for evidence they could not present any evidence. Talat Hussain of Aaj News presented concrete evidence in his show proving that Pakistan has nothing to do with this attack. Neither Pakistan nor any group from Pakistan could have been involved in this staged drama. His show is available on the internet and is a must watch. The entire drama is now unfolding and Indian media itself is exposing the flawed theories, and fake information that was given out. First the media said that Deccan Mujahedeen named group has claimed responsibility. All I can do with this regard is to quote Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and Indian himself, he said that this is all baseless allegations, and Hyderabad Deccan has never produced any terrorist ever. As far as the Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba accusation goes, Christine Fair, a senior political scientist and South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was interviewed by several publications regarding the Mumbai tragedy and repeatedly stated, “There’s absolutely nothing Al Qaeda-like about it. Did you see any suicide bombers? And there are no fingerprints of Lashkar. They don’t do hostage-taking, and they don’t do grenades.”
Lashkar has always claimed responsibility for any attacks that they have done, and they have never attacked civilians. In 2001, after Indian parliament was attacked India started blaming Lashkar for the attacks but never came out with any evidence till this day. They blamed Lashkar for Samjotha Express but it turned out that their own extremist Hindus were involved led by Col. Purohit. Lashkar has been involved with fighting Indian army and police in occupied Kashmir until Musharraf put a stop to that in 2002. Since then Lashkar has been busy social activities. They worked the most in Kashmir area after the earthquake. During that time army medical corps of different countries was there working side by side Lashkar. American and Pakistani intelligence agencies have been keeping an eye on Lashkar's movement since then. In this circumstance it’s really difficult for Lashkar to organize any act of terror. Lashkar’s history also shows that it has only been interested in fighting for Kashmir cause. Indian public and their media are now realizing that Pakistan had nothing to do with these attacks and now people are voicing their opinions. Salman Khan, famous Bollywood star said that Pakistan had nothing to do with these attacks. “In an interview aired on CNN-IBN on Tuesday, December 8, Salman Khan slammed terrorists but defended Pakistan saying it too was a victim of terrorism.”Pakistan itself is in the grip of terrorism - Benazir Bhutto was killed, multiple attempts were made to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf's life, the Marriott hotel was blown up. "I don't read Pakistani news papers but when such incidents occur there; do they blame India for it? No."
The point to think about is what can Pakistan gain by organizing such attacks? Nothing. No political or strategic advantage at all. Our army is busy fighting Indian-CIA sponsored terrorists in our Tribal Areas. Our economy is in a bad shape, our government is unstable, and there are numerous issues within Pakistan, like law and order issue, judiciary issue. Pakistan cannot possibly gain anything by organizing such attacks. It’s interesting to note that as soon as the attacks took place India started by demanding Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel and Tiger Memon from Pakistan. Then all of a sudden this demand died down. Condi Rice came on TV and said that we have evidence that Lashkar is behind these attacks. Why did the U.S. take over the Indian demand to handover Dawood Ibrahim and co? Answer lies in Wayne Madsen’s analysis. Madsen is a journalist, and author. Madsen was in U.S Naval Intelligence then spent time in National Security Agency (NSA, the second most powerful intelligence agency in U.S). all in all he has twenty years of experience in intelligence affairs. “ The first question he raises is with respect to the so-called security-camera shot of the alleged terrorist, Qasab (the terrorist shown on TV repeatedly, who was wearing Hindu saffron band in his right hand, Its almost laughable, the entire footage that is!). “The angle,” Madsen argues, “is too narrow for a train station which would have a wider angle and be shot from higher up than the photo being shopped by Indian police.”
Dawood Ibrahim, one of the 20 fugitives on India’s demand list, is someone that Madsen too feels may be involved, however. But Madsen claims that India is trying to boost the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks while downplaying the role of Ibrahim. The son of a Mumbai police constable, Ibrahim has informants and agents peppered throughout Indian police. Yet, Madsen states that “there is also evidence that rightwing Hindu elements of RAW were aware of Ibrahim’s hit on Mumbai beforehand but allowed it to play out in order to carry out a “soft coup” by rightwing Hindu nationalists against the Congress government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Madsen further makes the claim that more than one group may have been involved in the terrorism. On the one hand, Ibrahim and his group may have attacked the Oberoi-Trident and Chabad House, where large numbers of Israelis were present, who may have been working for the Russian-Israeli mafia that was poised to rival Ibrahim’s gangs in their drug and other smuggling operations. Chabad Houses, Madsen claims, have often been used as fronts for money laundering operations. Moreover, “the Oberoi hostages were shot in the back of their heads, a typical gangland execution method preferred by Ibrahim and not the firing squad method used by Lashkar,” Madsen explains.
Madsen also believes that some of the terrorists were Hindus, tipped off by RAW officials who sympathize with rightwing Hindus and who learned of the attack beforehand but did not act to prevent it. According to Madsen, the Hindu terrorists killed Hemant Karkare in “false flag” attacks later blamed on the Muslims. Madsen also believes that the photograph being splashed around in the media of one alleged Qasab
is actually one of the Hindu terrorist? According to Madsen, Ibrahim has ties that link him to some of India’s most prominent politicians and Bollywood stars, not to mention the extensive connections in Mumbai’s very corrupt police force. If Madsen is to be believed, Ibrahim was also an on-and-off CIA asset, and could potentially uncover very embarrassing ties to Langley”.
There are ample reports and news articles that can point out severe flaws in the entire drama that took place in Mumbai. Bottom line is that India is now in a position to gain upper hand and it has done so. First attempt was to start propaganda and media warfare against Pakistan. This failed miserably thanks to our media. Times of India, Hindu, and other Indian newspaper had to acknowledge that the Indian media onslaught was ripped apart by Pakistani media. Sadly, as always Pakistan has lost ground at the diplomatic front. This has been Pakistan’s failure since Tashkent Agreement. Pakistan always loses the battle at the diplomatic front. This is because of our incompetent, corrupt, sellout leaders and governments. With this background in mind it is important to realize the great game that is being played on in this region and in particularly in Pakistan. India had many things to gain from all this. They have cornered us diplomatically, they are pressurizing us militarily. They have the sympathies of U.S and the rest of the world. Out of 600 districts of India independence movement is going on in 208 districts. All the Eastern States from Assam down to Tamil Nadu are busy fighting for their independence. The Naxalite Movement going on in the seven sister states has been called the gravest threat to the Indian federation by Manmohan Singh. Extremist Hindus are on a killing rampage. Thousands of churches have been burned, not only is the violence directed towards Muslims, Christians, and other minorities but also Dalit, the low caste Hindus, themselves. These attacks put tremendous pressure on Congress government, and takes pressure off of BJP and its extremist parties.
What are the main objectives of India, Israel, and U.S? With regards to pakistan, these three countries form a nexus. They have common agenda for the most part. They want to finish off our nuclear program, disband our eyes and ears i.e. the ISI, break pakistan into three or four smaller parts since it is easier to govern a country with 180 million people if its broken down into smaller pieces, disband our army, make pakistan a satellite state of India, just like Nepal or Bangladesh. These are the real designs of U.S, Israel and India troika. These designs are not so hidden anymore either. Pakistan and Afghanistan are already part of Middle East in the new Middle East plan that U.S is working on since 9/11. At the turn of the twentieth century during the first and Second World War periods, and between the world wars, the British Empire drew maps of all the countries in the Middle East and most countries in Africa. U.S now wants to change this map again in order to consolidate its position in Middle East, and Central Asia. Hence the term ‘redrawing the map of middle east’ is used by Western think tanks again and again.
India is now a strategic ally of U.S. India is moving its troops into Afghanistan, so that it can corner Pakistan from both fronts. U.S wants India to move its troops into Afghanistan so that they can support U.S and NATO troops in the war against Taliban. Intelligence agency for any country is the first line of defense. It’s the eyes and ears without which any military force can’t function. All western and Indian propaganda against ISI are baseless and ridiculous. All officers of ISI are taken from the armed forces. There can be no political appointee. Where as RAW, in India has political appointees, during the last BJP government there were many political appointees in RAW. Once ISI disbanded our nuclear weapons will be compromised, and Pakistan will be a walk over for Indian military. The important thing to keep in mind for all those pacifist, candle light vigilantes, is that peace process between India and Pakistan only started after Pakistan became a declared nuclear power. That is when India understood that war between two nuclear power countries cannot be thought about. That’s when confidence building measures, trade links, cultural exchanges, sports, etc, took place. As long as Pakistan was not a declared nuclear weapon state India maintained a threatening attitude towards Pakistan. Without nuclear weapons I can say confidently that India will leave no chance to annihilate us. The problem with Western experts on South Asia is that they don’t understand the dynamics of Pakistan – India conflict. The root cause of conflict between Pakistan and India is that of Kashmir. Without the resolution of this conflict permanent peace between India and Pakistan cannot be achieved. There is peace in Europe today because they have resolved their problems and disputes and all countries treat each other with equal respect. Not to forget that two brutal world wars were fought in Europe that completely devastated Europe. After such devastation Europe got together and realized that mutual peace is must for coexistence. Peace between two countries can only be on equal terms. U.S and Soviet Union were able to co-exist because both had nuclear weapons. It’s not possible that Pakistan as a country is allowed to be destroyed while India remains intact and remains prosperous. When experts come on TV they say that extremist on both sides don’t want peace. This is utter rubbish. Only extremist in India don’t want peace with Pakistan! Why? Because in order for Pakistan and India to have lasting peace Kashmir dispute must be resolved according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Does anyone in Pakistan not want resolution of Kashmir dispute? No. Is there anyone in India who doesn’t want resolution of Kashmir? Yes, their military establishment, their foreign policy establishment, BJP led extremist parties, and majority of the Indian people. Why do they not want the resolution of Kashmir dispute? Firstly they call it their internal issue and say it is our ‘Atut Tang’. Secondly, there are so many independence movements going on inside India that they can’t afford setting an example of Kashmiri independence. Recall that India functions on Bharat Mata ideology and they will never give up Kashmir. Everyone in Pakistan is ready for resolution of Kashmir dispute so it’s baseless to say that hawkish elements in Pakistan do not want good relations with India. RSS, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, and even members of BJP have openly said again and again that Pakistan must be destroyed. These are not just small groups; these parties have formed government in India. There are no groups in Pakistan that have ever called to destruction of India. Only group that has called for destruction of India is Hizbut-Tehreer, which is based and operates from U.K, and has not been added to the list of terrorist organizations by Britain.
Talha Mujaddidi
Dec 13th 2008
Point of this article is to identify some thought provoking points about the Mumbai attacks, with historical background. Then to focus on U.S, Israeli, and Indian assault against Pakistan. Then to focus on greater agenda that Uncle Sam has for this region.
Part 1
Analysis of the Drama
Now that the dust is beginning to settle down after the Mumbai drama it is time that I shed some relevant light on this topic. The problem with modern day media is that in times of security crisis, it becomes just an arm of a nation’s foreign policy. As far as Indian media is concerned it’s more than just an arm of Indian foreign policy, it’s their mouthpiece. India, we should all remember is nothing like U.S. Until early 90’s it was staunchly a socialist country. Everything was state owned. India was in Soviet Camp from the day one. Pakistan from day one was in U.S and British Camp. There is a huge difference in the mindset of people who grew up in Pakistan at the height of cold war then those who grew up in India. The point is that no matter what the world media tells us and what the Indian media tells us the mindset of average Indian is democratic but the mindset of their foreign policy is nowhere close to democratic. It is in fact, very conservative mindset and it is based on Chankya’s ideology. Who was Chankya? and what was his ideology? this is a long debate. The bottom line is India’s military establishment, their intelligence agencies, and their foreign policy is still working on Chankya’s ideology. The synopsis of that ideology is that all of India’s neighbors are its enemies and all of the neighbors of India’s neighbors are India’s friends. That’s why India has bad relations with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and even Bhutan. India has always had very good relations with Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia. Chankya ideology also states clearly that India is the super power of the region (Bharat Mata), and all its neighboring countries are its proxies or satellites only. This is from where the rhetoric of regional economic block, regional zone and nefarious designs like that comes from. This understanding is very important before we move on to the Mumbai attacks.
When a terrorist attack takes place the first thing to ask is who is the target? Who benefits from it? Who is the net loser? and who gets to gain strategic objectives? The most important thing is how the entire scenario unfolds in a terrorist attack. As soon as the attacks took place entire Indian media, started saying that Pakistan is behind these attacks. This is not surprising; India has a history of pointing fingers at Pakistan. After Samjotha Express was burned, and 68 people were burned alive, mostly Pakistanis, they pointed the finger at Pakistan and ISI, it turned out the real culprits were their own splinter cell of Hindu extremist who had infiltrated into their intelligence agencies. Lt. Col. Purohit was the culprit who confessed masterminding the attacks; it’s extremely alarming that serving Indian army colonel who has worked for their intelligence agencies is involved in terrorist activities. The chief investigating officer was Haimant Karkare. Interestingly he was the one who was killed as soon as this drama started. What a perfect time to kill the man who is trying to catch a group of terrorist. When Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed they pointed the finger to ISI, when asked for evidence they could not present any evidence. Talat Hussain of Aaj News presented concrete evidence in his show proving that Pakistan has nothing to do with this attack. Neither Pakistan nor any group from Pakistan could have been involved in this staged drama. His show is available on the internet and is a must watch. The entire drama is now unfolding and Indian media itself is exposing the flawed theories, and fake information that was given out. First the media said that Deccan Mujahedeen named group has claimed responsibility. All I can do with this regard is to quote Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and Indian himself, he said that this is all baseless allegations, and Hyderabad Deccan has never produced any terrorist ever. As far as the Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba accusation goes, Christine Fair, a senior political scientist and South Asia expert at the RAND Corporation, was interviewed by several publications regarding the Mumbai tragedy and repeatedly stated, “There’s absolutely nothing Al Qaeda-like about it. Did you see any suicide bombers? And there are no fingerprints of Lashkar. They don’t do hostage-taking, and they don’t do grenades.”
Lashkar has always claimed responsibility for any attacks that they have done, and they have never attacked civilians. In 2001, after Indian parliament was attacked India started blaming Lashkar for the attacks but never came out with any evidence till this day. They blamed Lashkar for Samjotha Express but it turned out that their own extremist Hindus were involved led by Col. Purohit. Lashkar has been involved with fighting Indian army and police in occupied Kashmir until Musharraf put a stop to that in 2002. Since then Lashkar has been busy social activities. They worked the most in Kashmir area after the earthquake. During that time army medical corps of different countries was there working side by side Lashkar. American and Pakistani intelligence agencies have been keeping an eye on Lashkar's movement since then. In this circumstance it’s really difficult for Lashkar to organize any act of terror. Lashkar’s history also shows that it has only been interested in fighting for Kashmir cause. Indian public and their media are now realizing that Pakistan had nothing to do with these attacks and now people are voicing their opinions. Salman Khan, famous Bollywood star said that Pakistan had nothing to do with these attacks. “In an interview aired on CNN-IBN on Tuesday, December 8, Salman Khan slammed terrorists but defended Pakistan saying it too was a victim of terrorism.”Pakistan itself is in the grip of terrorism - Benazir Bhutto was killed, multiple attempts were made to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf's life, the Marriott hotel was blown up. "I don't read Pakistani news papers but when such incidents occur there; do they blame India for it? No."
The point to think about is what can Pakistan gain by organizing such attacks? Nothing. No political or strategic advantage at all. Our army is busy fighting Indian-CIA sponsored terrorists in our Tribal Areas. Our economy is in a bad shape, our government is unstable, and there are numerous issues within Pakistan, like law and order issue, judiciary issue. Pakistan cannot possibly gain anything by organizing such attacks. It’s interesting to note that as soon as the attacks took place India started by demanding Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel and Tiger Memon from Pakistan. Then all of a sudden this demand died down. Condi Rice came on TV and said that we have evidence that Lashkar is behind these attacks. Why did the U.S. take over the Indian demand to handover Dawood Ibrahim and co? Answer lies in Wayne Madsen’s analysis. Madsen is a journalist, and author. Madsen was in U.S Naval Intelligence then spent time in National Security Agency (NSA, the second most powerful intelligence agency in U.S). all in all he has twenty years of experience in intelligence affairs. “ The first question he raises is with respect to the so-called security-camera shot of the alleged terrorist, Qasab (the terrorist shown on TV repeatedly, who was wearing Hindu saffron band in his right hand, Its almost laughable, the entire footage that is!). “The angle,” Madsen argues, “is too narrow for a train station which would have a wider angle and be shot from higher up than the photo being shopped by Indian police.”
Dawood Ibrahim, one of the 20 fugitives on India’s demand list, is someone that Madsen too feels may be involved, however. But Madsen claims that India is trying to boost the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks while downplaying the role of Ibrahim. The son of a Mumbai police constable, Ibrahim has informants and agents peppered throughout Indian police. Yet, Madsen states that “there is also evidence that rightwing Hindu elements of RAW were aware of Ibrahim’s hit on Mumbai beforehand but allowed it to play out in order to carry out a “soft coup” by rightwing Hindu nationalists against the Congress government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Madsen further makes the claim that more than one group may have been involved in the terrorism. On the one hand, Ibrahim and his group may have attacked the Oberoi-Trident and Chabad House, where large numbers of Israelis were present, who may have been working for the Russian-Israeli mafia that was poised to rival Ibrahim’s gangs in their drug and other smuggling operations. Chabad Houses, Madsen claims, have often been used as fronts for money laundering operations. Moreover, “the Oberoi hostages were shot in the back of their heads, a typical gangland execution method preferred by Ibrahim and not the firing squad method used by Lashkar,” Madsen explains.
Madsen also believes that some of the terrorists were Hindus, tipped off by RAW officials who sympathize with rightwing Hindus and who learned of the attack beforehand but did not act to prevent it. According to Madsen, the Hindu terrorists killed Hemant Karkare in “false flag” attacks later blamed on the Muslims. Madsen also believes that the photograph being splashed around in the media of one alleged Qasab
is actually one of the Hindu terrorist? According to Madsen, Ibrahim has ties that link him to some of India’s most prominent politicians and Bollywood stars, not to mention the extensive connections in Mumbai’s very corrupt police force. If Madsen is to be believed, Ibrahim was also an on-and-off CIA asset, and could potentially uncover very embarrassing ties to Langley”.
There are ample reports and news articles that can point out severe flaws in the entire drama that took place in Mumbai. Bottom line is that India is now in a position to gain upper hand and it has done so. First attempt was to start propaganda and media warfare against Pakistan. This failed miserably thanks to our media. Times of India, Hindu, and other Indian newspaper had to acknowledge that the Indian media onslaught was ripped apart by Pakistani media. Sadly, as always Pakistan has lost ground at the diplomatic front. This has been Pakistan’s failure since Tashkent Agreement. Pakistan always loses the battle at the diplomatic front. This is because of our incompetent, corrupt, sellout leaders and governments. With this background in mind it is important to realize the great game that is being played on in this region and in particularly in Pakistan. India had many things to gain from all this. They have cornered us diplomatically, they are pressurizing us militarily. They have the sympathies of U.S and the rest of the world. Out of 600 districts of India independence movement is going on in 208 districts. All the Eastern States from Assam down to Tamil Nadu are busy fighting for their independence. The Naxalite Movement going on in the seven sister states has been called the gravest threat to the Indian federation by Manmohan Singh. Extremist Hindus are on a killing rampage. Thousands of churches have been burned, not only is the violence directed towards Muslims, Christians, and other minorities but also Dalit, the low caste Hindus, themselves. These attacks put tremendous pressure on Congress government, and takes pressure off of BJP and its extremist parties.
What are the main objectives of India, Israel, and U.S? With regards to pakistan, these three countries form a nexus. They have common agenda for the most part. They want to finish off our nuclear program, disband our eyes and ears i.e. the ISI, break pakistan into three or four smaller parts since it is easier to govern a country with 180 million people if its broken down into smaller pieces, disband our army, make pakistan a satellite state of India, just like Nepal or Bangladesh. These are the real designs of U.S, Israel and India troika. These designs are not so hidden anymore either. Pakistan and Afghanistan are already part of Middle East in the new Middle East plan that U.S is working on since 9/11. At the turn of the twentieth century during the first and Second World War periods, and between the world wars, the British Empire drew maps of all the countries in the Middle East and most countries in Africa. U.S now wants to change this map again in order to consolidate its position in Middle East, and Central Asia. Hence the term ‘redrawing the map of middle east’ is used by Western think tanks again and again.
India is now a strategic ally of U.S. India is moving its troops into Afghanistan, so that it can corner Pakistan from both fronts. U.S wants India to move its troops into Afghanistan so that they can support U.S and NATO troops in the war against Taliban. Intelligence agency for any country is the first line of defense. It’s the eyes and ears without which any military force can’t function. All western and Indian propaganda against ISI are baseless and ridiculous. All officers of ISI are taken from the armed forces. There can be no political appointee. Where as RAW, in India has political appointees, during the last BJP government there were many political appointees in RAW. Once ISI disbanded our nuclear weapons will be compromised, and Pakistan will be a walk over for Indian military. The important thing to keep in mind for all those pacifist, candle light vigilantes, is that peace process between India and Pakistan only started after Pakistan became a declared nuclear power. That is when India understood that war between two nuclear power countries cannot be thought about. That’s when confidence building measures, trade links, cultural exchanges, sports, etc, took place. As long as Pakistan was not a declared nuclear weapon state India maintained a threatening attitude towards Pakistan. Without nuclear weapons I can say confidently that India will leave no chance to annihilate us. The problem with Western experts on South Asia is that they don’t understand the dynamics of Pakistan – India conflict. The root cause of conflict between Pakistan and India is that of Kashmir. Without the resolution of this conflict permanent peace between India and Pakistan cannot be achieved. There is peace in Europe today because they have resolved their problems and disputes and all countries treat each other with equal respect. Not to forget that two brutal world wars were fought in Europe that completely devastated Europe. After such devastation Europe got together and realized that mutual peace is must for coexistence. Peace between two countries can only be on equal terms. U.S and Soviet Union were able to co-exist because both had nuclear weapons. It’s not possible that Pakistan as a country is allowed to be destroyed while India remains intact and remains prosperous. When experts come on TV they say that extremist on both sides don’t want peace. This is utter rubbish. Only extremist in India don’t want peace with Pakistan! Why? Because in order for Pakistan and India to have lasting peace Kashmir dispute must be resolved according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Does anyone in Pakistan not want resolution of Kashmir dispute? No. Is there anyone in India who doesn’t want resolution of Kashmir? Yes, their military establishment, their foreign policy establishment, BJP led extremist parties, and majority of the Indian people. Why do they not want the resolution of Kashmir dispute? Firstly they call it their internal issue and say it is our ‘Atut Tang’. Secondly, there are so many independence movements going on inside India that they can’t afford setting an example of Kashmiri independence. Recall that India functions on Bharat Mata ideology and they will never give up Kashmir. Everyone in Pakistan is ready for resolution of Kashmir dispute so it’s baseless to say that hawkish elements in Pakistan do not want good relations with India. RSS, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, and even members of BJP have openly said again and again that Pakistan must be destroyed. These are not just small groups; these parties have formed government in India. There are no groups in Pakistan that have ever called to destruction of India. Only group that has called for destruction of India is Hizbut-Tehreer, which is based and operates from U.K, and has not been added to the list of terrorist organizations by Britain.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Solution is a complete U – Turn!!!
This article will be in two parts and contains many historical events that can’t be covered in detail here only the gist of it is mentioned here. If you need to know more details about historical events than feel free to ask.
Pakistan finds itself in a quagmire today. It’s really a very bad situation for Pakistan at the moment. There is a way out of this mess that has been created by Neo-cons Zionist. But before we get to that solution we have to recognize in more detail what is going on in our country?
After the brutal bombing of Marriott hotel, U.S and our media have labeled the ongoing war on terror as ‘Pakistan’s War’. The U.S wants us to believe that U.S ‘war on terror’ is also Pakistan’s war. This line was picked up by our CIA sponsored government. Then the media tagged along with this statement. What does our president keep saying again and again? Pakistan needs to be saved. Why? Is Pakistan going to be finished? What does General Patraeus keep saying? He says that Pakistan needs to be saved and for that U.S military needs to do airstrikes inside Pakistan? Why? Is Pakistan going to be finished? Seems like someone wants that and our president is tagging along the slogan.
First of all what is America’s War on Terror? When Bush announced his plan for war against terror he used the famous slogan ‘you are with us or against us’ and he used the term ‘Crusades’ in his speech. This was clear enough message for the entire Muslim world to realize that this war on terror would be nothing more than a war against Muslim world. The Crusades was a Holy War that lasted around two centuries. The Crusades was basically Christian Europe’s combined effort to attack and conquer Jerusalem and other parts of Middle East in the name of Christianity from Muslim control. It was a Holy War as pope Urban called it, against the infidel Muslims. When the Muslim world was battling to survive against the crusaders a group of Takfiri (heretic Muslims who think that all other Muslims are kafir) Muslims started creating havoc amongst the Muslims by declaring war on Muslims. This was Hashshashin sect (the word assassin came from Hashshashin), Hashshashins were Muslims who had becomed Heretics believing that other Muslims are Kafir (infidels) and need to be killed by any means necessary. Their doctrine was known as Fedayeen (a person ready to sacrifice his life for a mission). While the Muslim armies were fighting the Crusaders, these Hashshashins also declared war on Muslims. Muslims had to fight with two brutal armies at the same time. Often the Hashshashins would fight along with the crusaders against the Muslim armies. They would assassinate Muslim scholars, political leaders, and civilians ruthlessly.
With this history in mind we should recognize that America’s war on terror is not any Muslim nation’s war. Communism was the main threat to Western ideology (Capitalism) after the Second World War. After the collapse of communism Francis Fukuyama said that ‘it’s the end of history’, meaning that no other ideology is left to challenge capitalism. But the Neo-Cons were not convinced; they wanted to destroy political Islam. Political Islam is basically a system that has challenged American hegemony in different parts of the world. Khomeini’s revolution in Iran was part of political Islam. His revolution kicked out American backed Shah and his thugs from Iran. Similarly Hezbollah in Lebanon is another group that is a political Islam entity. Afghan war against Soviets was also a struggle of political Islam. There are still other groups throughout the Muslim world that will never accept American hegemony in Muslim countries. The biggest target for the neo-cons is Pakistan and Iran at the moment. This was mentioned clearly by Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. They said that we can never accept nuclear weapons of Pakistan and Iran because they pose significant threat to Israel. This and other statements of both Republican and Democratic Party members give support to the analysis of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their best seller book “The Israel lobby and the U.S foreign policy” that U.S foreign policy is severely under influence from Zionist Jews supported by Neo-con Zionist. It is clear that U.S foreign policy has been hijacked by Zionist Jews and their main target is the destruction of Pakistan and Iran’s nuclear weapons followed by both countries becoming local American proxies like Egypt, Jordan or Iran was under Shah’s rule. Why can’t Muslim nations have nuclear weapons? When no Muslim country has said that Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal pose threat to the Muslim world than how come the Israelis are scared of our nuclear weapons? In fact in 1973 Arab-Israel war it were the Israelis who blackmailed Kissinger that they would drop nuclear bombs on Egypt and Saudi Arabia if the U.S doesn’t force Egypt to ceasefire.
When Pakistan joined U.S in its war on terror we made a U-turn in our already flawed Afghan policy. There were to be more grave errors made by Musharraf either knowingly or unknowingly. When the Taliban were ruling in Afghanistan we had no problem with them at all. Taliban destroyed poppy cultivation in their country. They kicked out all those who were Indian assets and anti-Pakistani assets from power. No terrorist ever came from Afghanistan into Pakistan. We did not even require 5000 soldiers on Pak-Afghan border. There is no doubt that Taliban’s internal governing policies were flawed. But a lot of that had to do with Afghan culture and nothing to do with Islam. Go to Afghanistan now you will still find majority of the women wearing full burka and being beaten around by their men. These are part of those brutal Afghan cultural traits that Afghans still follow. Islam is not flawed religion and neither is Islam’s political system if it is implemented in its purity. Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who was kidnapped by Taliban during their rule, remained their captive and was then released. She converted to Islam after her release. Now she campaigns for Islam throughout the world. If Islam is preached properly to non-Muslims mostly they will recognize the beauty of Islam. The point is that as far as Pakistan was concerned we had no trouble what so ever with Taliban. Benazir who was prime minister at that time supported Pakistan maintaining diplomatic relationship with Taliban government and she was right.
When we ditched Taliban to fight with the U.S against the Taliban we sold our sovereignty for security since we were scared that U.S would attack Pakistan in its anger over 9/11 and send us back to stone age, a claim that in itself is misleading and unconfirmed. Well to bad, today U.S military has said clearly that they will continue attacking us until they are satisfied. Otto Von Bismarck the German Chancellor and political thinker said correctly that ‘those nations who barter away their sovereignty for security shall neither get sovereignty nor security’. This is what happened to us after Musharraf made that fatal u-turn. Today our security situation is a mess and our sovereignty is molested everyday by U.S military. The real question that Musharraf and we as a nation should have asked us after 9/11 is ‘do you like to be killed by your own brother or your enemy?’ We chose to be killed by our own brother. This is what we have achieved. While our security agencies were busy hunting Al-Qaeda and runaway Taliban members inside Pakistan, U.S, and India and newly created Afghan intelligence agency (NDS) were busy plotting and planning against Pakistan. Their first step was to make a new group inside Pakistan based on the same ideology of Hashshashins. They created Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). During the Afghan war the Soviets tried many times to give money and weapons to tribal elders in Pakistan’s tribal area and tried very hard to make them fight against Pakistan but they did not. Sometimes they even took money but still never fired a bullet against Pakistan. The Americans knew this history so they created TTP led by Abdullah Mehsud and his brother Baitullah in FATA area and Maulvi Fazullah in Swat area. The question here is that how come there were no suicide bombers in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004? Baitullah mehsud was there armed and ready but he did not attack anyone. Fazlullah was there too in Swat, he has been there since 1995. It was U.S pressure on Musharraf to attack these people first and start military operation in Waziristan that started this war. There is no doubt that TTP is a deadly anti-Pakistan, RAW and CIA supported Takfiri terrorist cult but still Musharraf was the first to start fighting with them. After Oklahoma bombings in Oklahoma City, Timothy Mcveigh who was responsible for the bombing was sentenced to death. Was he acting alone? No, he represented the hate filled neo-Nazi ideology that white supremacist groups follow in U.S. like Michigan militia and others; there are hundreds of these groups inside U.S calling for a bloody revolt against other races inside the U.S. After the bombings Clinton who was president at that time could have started a campaign against such groups most of these groups were armed and were considered dangerous. Why did Clinton not resort to anything like that? Simply because it’s not advisable to provoke a cult that is ready to kill civilians and is ready to die defending their ideology. You have to neutralize such groups through dialogue and better police work. That’s what the Americans did in their own country. Pakistan provoked them first then we allowed the U.S military to continue missile strikes in FATA which resulted in killing of innocent people. This was the beginning of the chaos. Following that a series of deadly suicide bombings started creating carnage in our country. Uncle Sam was not satisfied with the workings of ISI they did not trust the ISI. They persuaded Musharraf to start a campaign against Lal Masjid. Contrary to the popular opinion that Lal Masjid suddenly became flashpoint of huge proportions that needed to be dealt with in terms of firepower the reality is that the entire scene was created systematically. There is no doubt the Maulvi Rasheed and Ghazi took the bait that was setup for them and resorted to such acts but the way Musharraf handled it was neither wise nor was reflective of his commando past. Root cause of terrorism is always political injustice, racism, cast, creed, religion, nationalism, communism, acts as catalysts. As noted by Professor Robert Pape of University of Chicago, “Beneath the religious rhetoric with which [such terror] is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims. Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism. Though it speaks of Americans as infidels, Al-Qaeda is less concerned with converting us to Islam than removing us from Arab and Muslim lands”.
The recent research study by RAND Corporation tells us that up to forty three percent of all terrorist groups since 1968 were diffused by involving them into political process, forty percent were neutralized by better police work, ten percent achieved victory, and only seven percent were crushed by brute military force. The report says “How do terrorist groups end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. Rather, most groups end because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they join the political process. This suggests that the United States should pursue a counterterrorism strategy against Al Qaeda that emphasizes policing and intelligence gathering rather than a “war on terrorism” approach that relies heavily on military force”. Like IRA in Ireland, Basque separatists, and other examples. The report also shows that force cannot crush militant group. If such was the case than Sri Lanka would have been able to crush Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and Israel would have been able to crush Hezbollah in 2006, although it has been trying to do so since 1980’s. While British Ambassador to Afghanistan, NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S officials, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and the U.N are all saying that it’s time to bring Taliban into mainstream political process and have dialogue with them and that Taliban can’t be crushed by sheer force, our president Zardari is saying that ‘we will completely crush the Taliban’. Such statements made by him are utter nonsense, laughable, deplorably and shows his total lack of understanding of the situation. Taliban are not just some small group of guerillas, they represent entire Pashtun population both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This is the brief look at events of the past. What is the situation right now? American war on terror is not ours. They killed hundreds and thousands of people in Afghanistan and at least one million in Iraq in the name of war on terror. They also kill our people, including women and children in FATA under the pretext of war on terror. So it’s clearly not our war. Our Yankee puppet government keeps saying so but it is a bluff. Our war is the war against TTP and their supporters mainly Indian intelligence agency RAW and Afghan intelligence agency NDS and their allies. This is our real war! As mentioned Pakistan has now reached a point where so many fatal policy errors have been made that it is not easy to escape this catch-22. Why are we not winning this war? According to some of our media, opposition politicians, senior journalist, political analyst, retired generals, our government does not have the guts to tell the country that Afghanistan, India, and CIA are responsible for creating troubles inside Pakistan and supporting TTP and other groups like BLA. We are fighting TTP and inflicting upon them severe casualties. But this is only 50% of the fight. How can we win against Afghan-India supported war when our president is hugging Hamid Karzai who is our biggest enemy? How can we win when our government allows transit trade to India for Afghanistan so that Indian cargo through Wagha border can go unchecked into Afghanistan even if it is carrying weapons for TTP? The governments claim that there is no concrete evidence against RAW or NDS is a blunt white lie.
To be concluded.
Talha Mujaddidi
http://reserruction.blogspot.com/
Oct 11th 2008
Pakistan finds itself in a quagmire today. It’s really a very bad situation for Pakistan at the moment. There is a way out of this mess that has been created by Neo-cons Zionist. But before we get to that solution we have to recognize in more detail what is going on in our country?
After the brutal bombing of Marriott hotel, U.S and our media have labeled the ongoing war on terror as ‘Pakistan’s War’. The U.S wants us to believe that U.S ‘war on terror’ is also Pakistan’s war. This line was picked up by our CIA sponsored government. Then the media tagged along with this statement. What does our president keep saying again and again? Pakistan needs to be saved. Why? Is Pakistan going to be finished? What does General Patraeus keep saying? He says that Pakistan needs to be saved and for that U.S military needs to do airstrikes inside Pakistan? Why? Is Pakistan going to be finished? Seems like someone wants that and our president is tagging along the slogan.
First of all what is America’s War on Terror? When Bush announced his plan for war against terror he used the famous slogan ‘you are with us or against us’ and he used the term ‘Crusades’ in his speech. This was clear enough message for the entire Muslim world to realize that this war on terror would be nothing more than a war against Muslim world. The Crusades was a Holy War that lasted around two centuries. The Crusades was basically Christian Europe’s combined effort to attack and conquer Jerusalem and other parts of Middle East in the name of Christianity from Muslim control. It was a Holy War as pope Urban called it, against the infidel Muslims. When the Muslim world was battling to survive against the crusaders a group of Takfiri (heretic Muslims who think that all other Muslims are kafir) Muslims started creating havoc amongst the Muslims by declaring war on Muslims. This was Hashshashin sect (the word assassin came from Hashshashin), Hashshashins were Muslims who had becomed Heretics believing that other Muslims are Kafir (infidels) and need to be killed by any means necessary. Their doctrine was known as Fedayeen (a person ready to sacrifice his life for a mission). While the Muslim armies were fighting the Crusaders, these Hashshashins also declared war on Muslims. Muslims had to fight with two brutal armies at the same time. Often the Hashshashins would fight along with the crusaders against the Muslim armies. They would assassinate Muslim scholars, political leaders, and civilians ruthlessly.
With this history in mind we should recognize that America’s war on terror is not any Muslim nation’s war. Communism was the main threat to Western ideology (Capitalism) after the Second World War. After the collapse of communism Francis Fukuyama said that ‘it’s the end of history’, meaning that no other ideology is left to challenge capitalism. But the Neo-Cons were not convinced; they wanted to destroy political Islam. Political Islam is basically a system that has challenged American hegemony in different parts of the world. Khomeini’s revolution in Iran was part of political Islam. His revolution kicked out American backed Shah and his thugs from Iran. Similarly Hezbollah in Lebanon is another group that is a political Islam entity. Afghan war against Soviets was also a struggle of political Islam. There are still other groups throughout the Muslim world that will never accept American hegemony in Muslim countries. The biggest target for the neo-cons is Pakistan and Iran at the moment. This was mentioned clearly by Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. They said that we can never accept nuclear weapons of Pakistan and Iran because they pose significant threat to Israel. This and other statements of both Republican and Democratic Party members give support to the analysis of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their best seller book “The Israel lobby and the U.S foreign policy” that U.S foreign policy is severely under influence from Zionist Jews supported by Neo-con Zionist. It is clear that U.S foreign policy has been hijacked by Zionist Jews and their main target is the destruction of Pakistan and Iran’s nuclear weapons followed by both countries becoming local American proxies like Egypt, Jordan or Iran was under Shah’s rule. Why can’t Muslim nations have nuclear weapons? When no Muslim country has said that Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal pose threat to the Muslim world than how come the Israelis are scared of our nuclear weapons? In fact in 1973 Arab-Israel war it were the Israelis who blackmailed Kissinger that they would drop nuclear bombs on Egypt and Saudi Arabia if the U.S doesn’t force Egypt to ceasefire.
When Pakistan joined U.S in its war on terror we made a U-turn in our already flawed Afghan policy. There were to be more grave errors made by Musharraf either knowingly or unknowingly. When the Taliban were ruling in Afghanistan we had no problem with them at all. Taliban destroyed poppy cultivation in their country. They kicked out all those who were Indian assets and anti-Pakistani assets from power. No terrorist ever came from Afghanistan into Pakistan. We did not even require 5000 soldiers on Pak-Afghan border. There is no doubt that Taliban’s internal governing policies were flawed. But a lot of that had to do with Afghan culture and nothing to do with Islam. Go to Afghanistan now you will still find majority of the women wearing full burka and being beaten around by their men. These are part of those brutal Afghan cultural traits that Afghans still follow. Islam is not flawed religion and neither is Islam’s political system if it is implemented in its purity. Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist who was kidnapped by Taliban during their rule, remained their captive and was then released. She converted to Islam after her release. Now she campaigns for Islam throughout the world. If Islam is preached properly to non-Muslims mostly they will recognize the beauty of Islam. The point is that as far as Pakistan was concerned we had no trouble what so ever with Taliban. Benazir who was prime minister at that time supported Pakistan maintaining diplomatic relationship with Taliban government and she was right.
When we ditched Taliban to fight with the U.S against the Taliban we sold our sovereignty for security since we were scared that U.S would attack Pakistan in its anger over 9/11 and send us back to stone age, a claim that in itself is misleading and unconfirmed. Well to bad, today U.S military has said clearly that they will continue attacking us until they are satisfied. Otto Von Bismarck the German Chancellor and political thinker said correctly that ‘those nations who barter away their sovereignty for security shall neither get sovereignty nor security’. This is what happened to us after Musharraf made that fatal u-turn. Today our security situation is a mess and our sovereignty is molested everyday by U.S military. The real question that Musharraf and we as a nation should have asked us after 9/11 is ‘do you like to be killed by your own brother or your enemy?’ We chose to be killed by our own brother. This is what we have achieved. While our security agencies were busy hunting Al-Qaeda and runaway Taliban members inside Pakistan, U.S, and India and newly created Afghan intelligence agency (NDS) were busy plotting and planning against Pakistan. Their first step was to make a new group inside Pakistan based on the same ideology of Hashshashins. They created Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). During the Afghan war the Soviets tried many times to give money and weapons to tribal elders in Pakistan’s tribal area and tried very hard to make them fight against Pakistan but they did not. Sometimes they even took money but still never fired a bullet against Pakistan. The Americans knew this history so they created TTP led by Abdullah Mehsud and his brother Baitullah in FATA area and Maulvi Fazullah in Swat area. The question here is that how come there were no suicide bombers in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004? Baitullah mehsud was there armed and ready but he did not attack anyone. Fazlullah was there too in Swat, he has been there since 1995. It was U.S pressure on Musharraf to attack these people first and start military operation in Waziristan that started this war. There is no doubt that TTP is a deadly anti-Pakistan, RAW and CIA supported Takfiri terrorist cult but still Musharraf was the first to start fighting with them. After Oklahoma bombings in Oklahoma City, Timothy Mcveigh who was responsible for the bombing was sentenced to death. Was he acting alone? No, he represented the hate filled neo-Nazi ideology that white supremacist groups follow in U.S. like Michigan militia and others; there are hundreds of these groups inside U.S calling for a bloody revolt against other races inside the U.S. After the bombings Clinton who was president at that time could have started a campaign against such groups most of these groups were armed and were considered dangerous. Why did Clinton not resort to anything like that? Simply because it’s not advisable to provoke a cult that is ready to kill civilians and is ready to die defending their ideology. You have to neutralize such groups through dialogue and better police work. That’s what the Americans did in their own country. Pakistan provoked them first then we allowed the U.S military to continue missile strikes in FATA which resulted in killing of innocent people. This was the beginning of the chaos. Following that a series of deadly suicide bombings started creating carnage in our country. Uncle Sam was not satisfied with the workings of ISI they did not trust the ISI. They persuaded Musharraf to start a campaign against Lal Masjid. Contrary to the popular opinion that Lal Masjid suddenly became flashpoint of huge proportions that needed to be dealt with in terms of firepower the reality is that the entire scene was created systematically. There is no doubt the Maulvi Rasheed and Ghazi took the bait that was setup for them and resorted to such acts but the way Musharraf handled it was neither wise nor was reflective of his commando past. Root cause of terrorism is always political injustice, racism, cast, creed, religion, nationalism, communism, acts as catalysts. As noted by Professor Robert Pape of University of Chicago, “Beneath the religious rhetoric with which [such terror] is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims. Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism. Though it speaks of Americans as infidels, Al-Qaeda is less concerned with converting us to Islam than removing us from Arab and Muslim lands”.
The recent research study by RAND Corporation tells us that up to forty three percent of all terrorist groups since 1968 were diffused by involving them into political process, forty percent were neutralized by better police work, ten percent achieved victory, and only seven percent were crushed by brute military force. The report says “How do terrorist groups end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. Rather, most groups end because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they join the political process. This suggests that the United States should pursue a counterterrorism strategy against Al Qaeda that emphasizes policing and intelligence gathering rather than a “war on terrorism” approach that relies heavily on military force”. Like IRA in Ireland, Basque separatists, and other examples. The report also shows that force cannot crush militant group. If such was the case than Sri Lanka would have been able to crush Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and Israel would have been able to crush Hezbollah in 2006, although it has been trying to do so since 1980’s. While British Ambassador to Afghanistan, NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S officials, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and the U.N are all saying that it’s time to bring Taliban into mainstream political process and have dialogue with them and that Taliban can’t be crushed by sheer force, our president Zardari is saying that ‘we will completely crush the Taliban’. Such statements made by him are utter nonsense, laughable, deplorably and shows his total lack of understanding of the situation. Taliban are not just some small group of guerillas, they represent entire Pashtun population both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This is the brief look at events of the past. What is the situation right now? American war on terror is not ours. They killed hundreds and thousands of people in Afghanistan and at least one million in Iraq in the name of war on terror. They also kill our people, including women and children in FATA under the pretext of war on terror. So it’s clearly not our war. Our Yankee puppet government keeps saying so but it is a bluff. Our war is the war against TTP and their supporters mainly Indian intelligence agency RAW and Afghan intelligence agency NDS and their allies. This is our real war! As mentioned Pakistan has now reached a point where so many fatal policy errors have been made that it is not easy to escape this catch-22. Why are we not winning this war? According to some of our media, opposition politicians, senior journalist, political analyst, retired generals, our government does not have the guts to tell the country that Afghanistan, India, and CIA are responsible for creating troubles inside Pakistan and supporting TTP and other groups like BLA. We are fighting TTP and inflicting upon them severe casualties. But this is only 50% of the fight. How can we win against Afghan-India supported war when our president is hugging Hamid Karzai who is our biggest enemy? How can we win when our government allows transit trade to India for Afghanistan so that Indian cargo through Wagha border can go unchecked into Afghanistan even if it is carrying weapons for TTP? The governments claim that there is no concrete evidence against RAW or NDS is a blunt white lie.
To be concluded.
Talha Mujaddidi
http://reserruction.blogspot.com/
Oct 11th 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
From Musharraf to Zardari
By Talha Mujaddidi in Pakistan. Axis of Logic Exclusive
Oct 7, 2008, 13:39
What is common between former president Musharraf and current president Asif Zardari? Musharraf was a military dictator and Zardari is becoming a civilian dictator. Zardari has kept the Seventeenth amendment in his hands so that in future he can remove the prime minister, dissolve the parliament, and remove the powerful Army Chief if it pleases him. He has installed judges of his choice in High Courts and Supreme Court of Pakistan. His henchmen are on the brink of making political alliance with Muslim League Q (party that was made out of thin air by Musharraf literally in few hours). This and complete support of Uncle Sam will ensure that Zardari remains a formidable civilian dictator in Pakistan.
What is wrong with Asif Zardari as President of Pakistan? Well, if the only concern was that there will be more corruption during his rule, we could have lived with that. The real irony is that there is a greater drama that is being set up behind the scene. Why is it that Zardari, Nawaz Sharif (main opposition leader), Hussain Haqqani (currently our ambassador to U.S; before that he was working for Brookings Institute in the U.S.), Rehman Malik and other individuals working at key positions are all unelected? Why is Zalmay Khalilzad calling Zardari every other day and giving him advice? I wonder what the advice might be about. Maybe they will go hunting together when Khalilzad is president of Afghanistan (something that Khalilzad wants).
Let’s recall who Khalilzad is, he was former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan and also served in Iraq and is currently U.S. ambassador to U.N. - looks good so far, but now it gets ugly. He is also one of the founding members of Project for New American Century (PNAC) of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). We all know what the goals of PNAC are we have seen the results in Afghanistan, Iraq and we are seeing the results now in Pakistan. Zardari has said clearly that he will continue the American war on terror and will cooperate fully with the American military. The first stunt that was pulled was to put ISI (Pakistan premier intelligence agency) under civilian control of Interior Ministry. This midnight stunt to put ISI under control of interior ministry failed but rest-assured that the stunt will be repeated again in near future. What will the results be? Let’s leave that for our imaginations to play with.
After this President Zardari invited Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his inauguration ceremony. What was wrong with that move? The vast majority of Afghani population and almost all Pakistanis think of Hamid Karzai as nothing more than an American stooge. A less known fact is that his younger brother is the biggest drug baron of Afghanistan but the widely known fact inside Pakistan is Karzai’s hate speech against Pakistan. To invite someone like Karzai to Presidential inauguration ceremony was nothing less than outrageous.
What’s with Zardari going around giving speeches with Late Benazir’s picture on the podium? It’s really sad that he is still using Benazir for his personal fame. If it were not for his corruption and nepotism, the two governments of Benazir during the 1990’s could have been very much successful and Pakistan and the rest of the region could have been in better shape than it is now. After Zardari’s recent tour to the U.S. (forget about his cameo with Sarah Palin, which was overblown in the media), a majority of people in Pakistan are seeing Zardari just as a continuation of Musharraf and his policies.
The elections which were held in February had around 40% turnout. From this the PPP got 25% of the votes. The President in Pakistan is elected indirectly by the parliament when they vote for the president; therefore, it is not direct voting. 75% of the population did not vote for PPP and their presidential nominee. This is the democracy that the U.S is supporting.
The point to keep in mind is that public opinion against the U.S. “War on Terror” is the lowest since 9/11. The people of Pakistan are now realizing that the elections provided no respite from Musharraf era policies and violence. Instead the Army operation in Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan has escalated as have the U.S missile strikes. This has led to half a million people from that area being displaced and sent to live in tents. The International Red Cross has declared Pakistan ‘A War Zone Country’. There is a growing anger against this government and in turn against U.S. foreign policy. The Army is behaving neutral at the moment. At least it is neutral on the surface and in the media. This means that all U.S and internal political pressure will be directed towards Zardari and his government.
The War on Terror is not the only disturbing issue. There is a serious economic crisis that has rapidly engulfed Pakistan. The trade deficit is more than $20 billion dollars already. The foreign exchange reserves are going to be empty by the end of next month. If the Saudis don’t come to rescue Pakistan’s oil import bill, how will the government provide oil to 180 million people The inflation in the country has now past 35%. With all this economic chaos, war on terror, and terrorist activities in Pakistan it is only a matter of time before the Army will put their feet down and assert itself. This is what has happened in Pakistan’s political past.
The army cannot remain neutral for long and when it does decide to come back into power it will be interesting to see how the U.S government deals with the Army. Previously, presidents Clinton and Carter have not enjoyed cozy relationship with Pakistan army. The Republican presidents, Bush, Bush Senior, and Reagan have all enjoyed good relationship with Pakistan Army. If Democrats come back into power and continues Bush administration’s policy of air strikes and use of brute military force inside Pakistan’s Tribal area, Pakistan will become a very chaotic place not only for the region but for the whole world.
Along with 180 million people, the big Pakistani army is becoming more skeptical of the success of American missile strikes, nuclear weapons. The growing resentment amongst the population against the U.S. military and its foreign policy will result in a disaster for people of Pakistan, Middle East and U.S as well. At the same time the question remains as to how long will Zardari and his government be able to hold up against public opinion in Pakistan. Musharraf lasted eight years; he had complete support of the Army. Zardari has support of the U.S. but not much support from the Army because the of the Army’s neutrality for the moment. Pundits say you need three A’s to be able to rule Pakistan successfully, “Allah (god), America, and Army”. Zardari has the American A, can’t really tell on which side of Allah he is on but the Army certainly is not with Zardari.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
Talha Mujaddidi is a writer/analyst and Axis of Logic correspondent, living in Pakistan.
Oct 7, 2008, 13:39
What is common between former president Musharraf and current president Asif Zardari? Musharraf was a military dictator and Zardari is becoming a civilian dictator. Zardari has kept the Seventeenth amendment in his hands so that in future he can remove the prime minister, dissolve the parliament, and remove the powerful Army Chief if it pleases him. He has installed judges of his choice in High Courts and Supreme Court of Pakistan. His henchmen are on the brink of making political alliance with Muslim League Q (party that was made out of thin air by Musharraf literally in few hours). This and complete support of Uncle Sam will ensure that Zardari remains a formidable civilian dictator in Pakistan.
What is wrong with Asif Zardari as President of Pakistan? Well, if the only concern was that there will be more corruption during his rule, we could have lived with that. The real irony is that there is a greater drama that is being set up behind the scene. Why is it that Zardari, Nawaz Sharif (main opposition leader), Hussain Haqqani (currently our ambassador to U.S; before that he was working for Brookings Institute in the U.S.), Rehman Malik and other individuals working at key positions are all unelected? Why is Zalmay Khalilzad calling Zardari every other day and giving him advice? I wonder what the advice might be about. Maybe they will go hunting together when Khalilzad is president of Afghanistan (something that Khalilzad wants).
Let’s recall who Khalilzad is, he was former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan and also served in Iraq and is currently U.S. ambassador to U.N. - looks good so far, but now it gets ugly. He is also one of the founding members of Project for New American Century (PNAC) of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). We all know what the goals of PNAC are we have seen the results in Afghanistan, Iraq and we are seeing the results now in Pakistan. Zardari has said clearly that he will continue the American war on terror and will cooperate fully with the American military. The first stunt that was pulled was to put ISI (Pakistan premier intelligence agency) under civilian control of Interior Ministry. This midnight stunt to put ISI under control of interior ministry failed but rest-assured that the stunt will be repeated again in near future. What will the results be? Let’s leave that for our imaginations to play with.
After this President Zardari invited Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his inauguration ceremony. What was wrong with that move? The vast majority of Afghani population and almost all Pakistanis think of Hamid Karzai as nothing more than an American stooge. A less known fact is that his younger brother is the biggest drug baron of Afghanistan but the widely known fact inside Pakistan is Karzai’s hate speech against Pakistan. To invite someone like Karzai to Presidential inauguration ceremony was nothing less than outrageous.
What’s with Zardari going around giving speeches with Late Benazir’s picture on the podium? It’s really sad that he is still using Benazir for his personal fame. If it were not for his corruption and nepotism, the two governments of Benazir during the 1990’s could have been very much successful and Pakistan and the rest of the region could have been in better shape than it is now. After Zardari’s recent tour to the U.S. (forget about his cameo with Sarah Palin, which was overblown in the media), a majority of people in Pakistan are seeing Zardari just as a continuation of Musharraf and his policies.
The elections which were held in February had around 40% turnout. From this the PPP got 25% of the votes. The President in Pakistan is elected indirectly by the parliament when they vote for the president; therefore, it is not direct voting. 75% of the population did not vote for PPP and their presidential nominee. This is the democracy that the U.S is supporting.
The point to keep in mind is that public opinion against the U.S. “War on Terror” is the lowest since 9/11. The people of Pakistan are now realizing that the elections provided no respite from Musharraf era policies and violence. Instead the Army operation in Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan has escalated as have the U.S missile strikes. This has led to half a million people from that area being displaced and sent to live in tents. The International Red Cross has declared Pakistan ‘A War Zone Country’. There is a growing anger against this government and in turn against U.S. foreign policy. The Army is behaving neutral at the moment. At least it is neutral on the surface and in the media. This means that all U.S and internal political pressure will be directed towards Zardari and his government.
The War on Terror is not the only disturbing issue. There is a serious economic crisis that has rapidly engulfed Pakistan. The trade deficit is more than $20 billion dollars already. The foreign exchange reserves are going to be empty by the end of next month. If the Saudis don’t come to rescue Pakistan’s oil import bill, how will the government provide oil to 180 million people The inflation in the country has now past 35%. With all this economic chaos, war on terror, and terrorist activities in Pakistan it is only a matter of time before the Army will put their feet down and assert itself. This is what has happened in Pakistan’s political past.
The army cannot remain neutral for long and when it does decide to come back into power it will be interesting to see how the U.S government deals with the Army. Previously, presidents Clinton and Carter have not enjoyed cozy relationship with Pakistan army. The Republican presidents, Bush, Bush Senior, and Reagan have all enjoyed good relationship with Pakistan Army. If Democrats come back into power and continues Bush administration’s policy of air strikes and use of brute military force inside Pakistan’s Tribal area, Pakistan will become a very chaotic place not only for the region but for the whole world.
Along with 180 million people, the big Pakistani army is becoming more skeptical of the success of American missile strikes, nuclear weapons. The growing resentment amongst the population against the U.S. military and its foreign policy will result in a disaster for people of Pakistan, Middle East and U.S as well. At the same time the question remains as to how long will Zardari and his government be able to hold up against public opinion in Pakistan. Musharraf lasted eight years; he had complete support of the Army. Zardari has support of the U.S. but not much support from the Army because the of the Army’s neutrality for the moment. Pundits say you need three A’s to be able to rule Pakistan successfully, “Allah (god), America, and Army”. Zardari has the American A, can’t really tell on which side of Allah he is on but the Army certainly is not with Zardari.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
Talha Mujaddidi is a writer/analyst and Axis of Logic correspondent, living in Pakistan.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Between two scoundrels and a flip flop
Here we go again, just one day to go before presidential elections. We have three candidates, Asif Zardari, Saleem uz Zaman Siddiqui, and Mushahid Hussain. Before we come to these three candidates let us ask ourselves a question as a nation. If we had the choice to turn back time to February 2007, would we or would we not? Of course anyone in their sane mind would. Even if Musharraf was ruling as President and Army Chief I would be happy to go back to Feb 2007 anytime. Democracy can never work in Pakistan! Why? Because Prof. D. Scheuman, American expert on South Asian politics said on June 3rd 1949, “A state of Pakistan recently came into being in South Asia. It’s a state manifest with enormous pitfalls unique to itself. Its existence is vulnerable as times will show - in less than half a century the state will collapse because of its people - who are born in chains of slavery, whose thoughts cannot see love of a free country and whose minds can’t function beyond the scope of personal selfishness. Mark my words.”
This is what he said about average Pakistani. We can imagine if that average Pakistani is Nawaz or Zaradari what they can achieve. How did we get to this point? Well it’s a long story but suffice is to say that this is what happens when nations are left to be governed by crooks, and goons.
What is wrong with Asif Zardari becoming president? Well, if the only concern was that there will be more corruption during his rule than we could have lived with that. The really irony is that there is a greater drama that is being set up behind the scene. Why is it that Zardari, Nawaz, Hussain Haqqani (our ambassador to U.S, before that he was working for a think tank in America with links to the CIA), Rehman Malik and other individuals are working at key positions are all unelected? Why is Zalmay Khalilzad calling Zardari every other day and giving him advice? I wonder what the advice might be about. Maybe they will go hunting together when Zardari is president of Pakistan and Khalilzad is president of Afghanistan (something that Khalilzad wants). Let’s recall who Khalilzad is, he was former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan and also served in Iraq and is currently American ambassador to U.N. looks good so far, but now it gets ugly, he is one of the founding members of Project for New American Century (PNAC) of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). We all know what the goals of PNAC are we have seen the results in Afghanistan, Iraq and we are seeing the results now in Pakistan. Zardari has said clearly that he will continue the American war on terror and will cooperate fully with the American military. His law minister has said that the current Chief Justice should be accepted as the “Chief Justice” which basically means that Iftikhar Choudary will not be restored. The economic situation is a disaster and will become worst. The midnight stunt to put ISI under control of interior ministry badly failed but rest assured that the stunt will be repeated again in near future. What will the results be? Let’s leave that for our imaginations to play with. Sufficient is to say that as long as ISI is intact our nuclear weapons are intact and once they are compromised than this nation will see the real face of our easterly neighbor (which also happens to be accumulating troops to our west in Afghanistan, now I hope everyone knows what Pakistan meant by strategic depth when we used to use that term and politicians with monkeys in their head used to laugh at the term). Basically nothing changed for the better and is soon to get worst, so why were we hell bound to remove Musharraf? How come the lawyers and their cheerleader Atizaz don’t speak a word about his own beloved judges betraying Chief Justice Choudary and taking oath under the new Chief Justice? I think that Zardari will not let go of seventeenth amendment. He will retain as much power as he can. Americans like that they don’t want a parliament that is strong and is in a position to make legislations and define national and foreign policies. The example of Turkey is in front of us which has repeatedly defied American interests. Ron Suskind’s new book, “The way of the world” shows the deep level of U.S government and covert agencies involvement in our politics.
Meet Nawaz Sharif. Poor soul was made to live in exile in Saudi Arabia, how many times have he heard this lame mantra from TV anchors and journalist and himself and his party members. As if Nawaz was living in some mud shack in the middle of the desert in Saudi. The crook who looted this country of billions of dollars then went into exile in Saudi, setup a steel mill there, with tax exemption, lived like a king there now he comes back cleansed of his sins just because he used to perform Umrah and Hajj there. His nomination for presidential candidate is Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui. The biased media has forgotten the history of Siddiqui. We need to take a trip down memory lane. When Nawaz was Prime Minister in 1997 and started on a path to become completely autocratic, his tussle with then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah started. In this tussle Shah was going to restore the thirteenth amendment and give powers back to Leghari who was president at that time. Nawaz decided to buy the judiciary. He sent his cunning henchman Rafiq Tarar, to buy off the judges in his private plane. Tarar flew from Peshawar to Quetta and back to Lahore buying loyalties of judges. Siddiqui was indeed one of those judges who revolted against his own chief justice (Shah). This is his ugly past and that of Nawaz himself. Nawaz does not trust anyone at president’s post that is why he has nominated Siddiqui, since he can be president just like Tarar was ‘a sitting duck’. Nawaz should have given someone else from his party the nomination for presidential election but he does not trust anyone. The media is lip-stuck at these points, no one has the guts to ask Siddiqui how come he was all quiet when PML (N) thugs were creating havoc in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and for the first time in history a sitting prime minister attacked his own supreme court. Our media is not ready to ask independent questions and daring questions like Indian media and media in other countries. Why don’t the media ask all the lawyers from where they are getting money since the last one and half year to travel the length and breadth of the country, organize rallies, bhashans, dinners, and massive media coverage? Boycotting court proceedings on a regular basis, and severely disrupting the working of the courts. What about their personal finances. I am not going to believe that our lawyers and Judges live on their monthly salaries. According to Amnesty international there is 96% corruption in Pakistani courts moving up from civil courts all the way up to Supreme Court. Can any new channel make a report on this? Does anyone has courage to tell the people that 60% people in our jails are those who are wrongfully accused of crimes they never committed and they are in jail for years just waiting for their case to be heard before a judge. Can any journalist ask lawyers and judges about this? Hazrat Ali once said “A nation based on Kufr (disbelief) can survive but a nation based on injustice will perish.” I don’t want to mention some names but you just have to see the history of our journalists. How they sucked up to different politicians and then went on to become Pakistani ambassadors to different countries. All Nawaz wants is to gain power again, for the third time, and he will again try to become autocratic ruler just like he was for a brief time in 1999.
The third candidate is Mushahid Hussain. Apart from the fact that he is basically been part of every government since as far back as I can recall. There is not much else in his closet. Or maybe there is and we just don’t know about it. Oh yea he was also a journalist back in time. God, if I knew journalist make so much in roads I would have done journalism instead of engineering.
With all this drama going on in the political front, our country is repeatedly being abused by U.S, NATO and Afghan air strikes, missile attacks, and now intrusion. Shaheen Shebai has said in his article that Gen. Kiyani needs to change all the wrongs with a magic stick. Well if Gen. Kiyani had to do all the changing then what was the need for all drama, political turmoil, and removing Musharraf? I said once that Pakistan’s politics is like a loop in a computer program. Democracy, bad governance, democracy, bad governance, military coup, the loop just continues. How long will this loop continue? I hope not long because now it’s getting to really hurt us directly as a nation and our national security interests are also getting compromised. This is not just good old politics of 1960’s. This is post 9/11 world where Pakistan is stuck between clash of super power regions and the nefarious designs of PNAC. We need to wake up and realize what is going on.
This is what he said about average Pakistani. We can imagine if that average Pakistani is Nawaz or Zaradari what they can achieve. How did we get to this point? Well it’s a long story but suffice is to say that this is what happens when nations are left to be governed by crooks, and goons.
What is wrong with Asif Zardari becoming president? Well, if the only concern was that there will be more corruption during his rule than we could have lived with that. The really irony is that there is a greater drama that is being set up behind the scene. Why is it that Zardari, Nawaz, Hussain Haqqani (our ambassador to U.S, before that he was working for a think tank in America with links to the CIA), Rehman Malik and other individuals are working at key positions are all unelected? Why is Zalmay Khalilzad calling Zardari every other day and giving him advice? I wonder what the advice might be about. Maybe they will go hunting together when Zardari is president of Pakistan and Khalilzad is president of Afghanistan (something that Khalilzad wants). Let’s recall who Khalilzad is, he was former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan and also served in Iraq and is currently American ambassador to U.N. looks good so far, but now it gets ugly, he is one of the founding members of Project for New American Century (PNAC) of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). We all know what the goals of PNAC are we have seen the results in Afghanistan, Iraq and we are seeing the results now in Pakistan. Zardari has said clearly that he will continue the American war on terror and will cooperate fully with the American military. His law minister has said that the current Chief Justice should be accepted as the “Chief Justice” which basically means that Iftikhar Choudary will not be restored. The economic situation is a disaster and will become worst. The midnight stunt to put ISI under control of interior ministry badly failed but rest assured that the stunt will be repeated again in near future. What will the results be? Let’s leave that for our imaginations to play with. Sufficient is to say that as long as ISI is intact our nuclear weapons are intact and once they are compromised than this nation will see the real face of our easterly neighbor (which also happens to be accumulating troops to our west in Afghanistan, now I hope everyone knows what Pakistan meant by strategic depth when we used to use that term and politicians with monkeys in their head used to laugh at the term). Basically nothing changed for the better and is soon to get worst, so why were we hell bound to remove Musharraf? How come the lawyers and their cheerleader Atizaz don’t speak a word about his own beloved judges betraying Chief Justice Choudary and taking oath under the new Chief Justice? I think that Zardari will not let go of seventeenth amendment. He will retain as much power as he can. Americans like that they don’t want a parliament that is strong and is in a position to make legislations and define national and foreign policies. The example of Turkey is in front of us which has repeatedly defied American interests. Ron Suskind’s new book, “The way of the world” shows the deep level of U.S government and covert agencies involvement in our politics.
Meet Nawaz Sharif. Poor soul was made to live in exile in Saudi Arabia, how many times have he heard this lame mantra from TV anchors and journalist and himself and his party members. As if Nawaz was living in some mud shack in the middle of the desert in Saudi. The crook who looted this country of billions of dollars then went into exile in Saudi, setup a steel mill there, with tax exemption, lived like a king there now he comes back cleansed of his sins just because he used to perform Umrah and Hajj there. His nomination for presidential candidate is Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui. The biased media has forgotten the history of Siddiqui. We need to take a trip down memory lane. When Nawaz was Prime Minister in 1997 and started on a path to become completely autocratic, his tussle with then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah started. In this tussle Shah was going to restore the thirteenth amendment and give powers back to Leghari who was president at that time. Nawaz decided to buy the judiciary. He sent his cunning henchman Rafiq Tarar, to buy off the judges in his private plane. Tarar flew from Peshawar to Quetta and back to Lahore buying loyalties of judges. Siddiqui was indeed one of those judges who revolted against his own chief justice (Shah). This is his ugly past and that of Nawaz himself. Nawaz does not trust anyone at president’s post that is why he has nominated Siddiqui, since he can be president just like Tarar was ‘a sitting duck’. Nawaz should have given someone else from his party the nomination for presidential election but he does not trust anyone. The media is lip-stuck at these points, no one has the guts to ask Siddiqui how come he was all quiet when PML (N) thugs were creating havoc in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and for the first time in history a sitting prime minister attacked his own supreme court. Our media is not ready to ask independent questions and daring questions like Indian media and media in other countries. Why don’t the media ask all the lawyers from where they are getting money since the last one and half year to travel the length and breadth of the country, organize rallies, bhashans, dinners, and massive media coverage? Boycotting court proceedings on a regular basis, and severely disrupting the working of the courts. What about their personal finances. I am not going to believe that our lawyers and Judges live on their monthly salaries. According to Amnesty international there is 96% corruption in Pakistani courts moving up from civil courts all the way up to Supreme Court. Can any new channel make a report on this? Does anyone has courage to tell the people that 60% people in our jails are those who are wrongfully accused of crimes they never committed and they are in jail for years just waiting for their case to be heard before a judge. Can any journalist ask lawyers and judges about this? Hazrat Ali once said “A nation based on Kufr (disbelief) can survive but a nation based on injustice will perish.” I don’t want to mention some names but you just have to see the history of our journalists. How they sucked up to different politicians and then went on to become Pakistani ambassadors to different countries. All Nawaz wants is to gain power again, for the third time, and he will again try to become autocratic ruler just like he was for a brief time in 1999.
The third candidate is Mushahid Hussain. Apart from the fact that he is basically been part of every government since as far back as I can recall. There is not much else in his closet. Or maybe there is and we just don’t know about it. Oh yea he was also a journalist back in time. God, if I knew journalist make so much in roads I would have done journalism instead of engineering.
With all this drama going on in the political front, our country is repeatedly being abused by U.S, NATO and Afghan air strikes, missile attacks, and now intrusion. Shaheen Shebai has said in his article that Gen. Kiyani needs to change all the wrongs with a magic stick. Well if Gen. Kiyani had to do all the changing then what was the need for all drama, political turmoil, and removing Musharraf? I said once that Pakistan’s politics is like a loop in a computer program. Democracy, bad governance, democracy, bad governance, military coup, the loop just continues. How long will this loop continue? I hope not long because now it’s getting to really hurt us directly as a nation and our national security interests are also getting compromised. This is not just good old politics of 1960’s. This is post 9/11 world where Pakistan is stuck between clash of super power regions and the nefarious designs of PNAC. We need to wake up and realize what is going on.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Vultures robbing us of everything leaving nothing but change!!!!
As mentioned in my last article our former finance minister and Prime Minister Shaukat (Shortcut Aziz as he was known in Pakistan) Aziz was nothing less than an economic hit man (EHM). He had many magic tricks up his sleeves but no magic trick is better than stealing someone’s treasures and giving them to someone else. Well he was not a magician but he certainly did authorize the sale of our gold and copper reserves to the largest gold mining and copper mining companies in the world.
There is a place in Baluchistan named RekoDiq, in Chagai district, latitude 28.8125 and Longitude 64.7. RekoDiq has fifth largest reserves of gold and copper in the world. Two large companies were given licenses to explore and extract gold and copper from RekoDiq. One of those companies is Barrick Gold Corporation. Barrick is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa, Pakistan, Argentina and Tanzania. Barrick is owned and was founded by Peter Munk. (For interested souls Munk’s history is worth looking into)
The other company is Antofagasta PLC a Chilean business that operates in various sectors of the economy. It is one of the most important conglomerates of Chile with equity participation in Antofagasta Minerals, the railroad from Antofagasta to Bolivia, Aguas Antofagasta in Chile, Tethian in Australia and other investments in different parts from the world. The company is still 65% owned by the Chilean Luksic family.
Now according to the information available from Pakistani, international newspapers and interest groups, RekoDiq have vast reserves of copper and gold deposits. The area is of prime importance to these giant mining companies. Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) is an Australian company that had stake in RekoDiq project. Barrick bought shares of TCC for the
RekoDiq project. RekoDiq contains 12.3 million tons of copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold, and, and the deposits could me more than the current estimates. The copper-gold deposits at RekoDiq are believed to be even bigger than Sarcheshmeh in Iran and Escondida in Chile. The RekoDiq copper deposits which are in the neighborhood of Saindak copper project, is four times larger in copper ore tonnage than Saindak, Balochistan. The most credible international surveys suggest that RekoDiq is one of the biggest undeveloped copper projects in the world with over 11 billion pounds of copper and nine million ounces of gold. According to the current gold and copper prices, 20.9 million ounces of gold is worth$17.34 billion and 12.3 million tons of copper would be worth $86 billion. If there are more deposits than the price goes up.
With this is mind now we come to the real stuff. The real stuff is that without any independent and open bidding the government of Pakistan gave the contracts to these companies. The details were not disclosed to the public or media. Just like Steel Mills was about to be sold to phony company until Chief Justice Choudary intervened and stopped the sale, these reserves of gold and copper were sold to giant corporations for dirt cheap. The details of the contract are very sketchy and not clear. The only thing we know is that Pakistan government will get only 25% of the money. 25% only, 75% will be taken away by these corporations. It’s a heist, a huge plunder of our natural mineral resources. Why did the government of Musharraf and he chief wizard not disclose to the public the deals of these resources? Why was the deal so hidden? What kind of an agreement gives 75% of your resources to a private company? This agreement is worse than the Saudis and other Middle Eastern Countries did with Western Oil companies to extract their oil. Where did this come from? To answer that question we have to realize that we are going through a Shock, an economic, political, social shock. It’s called Shock Doctrine by famous Canadian journalist and author Naomi Klein, in her best-seller, eye opener book “Shock Doctrine”. Here is a quote from her recent article that explains the recent oil contact signed by puppet Iraqi government and oil companies. “According to Iraq's oil minister, the long-term contracts will be signed within a year. While ostensibly under control of the Iraq National Oil Company, foreign firms will keep 75 percent of the value of the contracts, leaving just 25 percent for their Iraqi partners”. This is from where 75-25 ratio comes from. Its part and parcel of such agreements that EHM writes.
Now, a brief introduction of so called ‘Baloch nationalist’. Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has got nothing to do with Baloch Nationalist. Late Bughti was a nationalist and he supported Pakistan’s independence but BLA certainly is not working in the interest of Pakistan or Balochistan. BLA is getting money and aid from Afghanistan, India, and British intelligence. Recall in history that Gwadar was not part of Pakistan at the time of independence. This was because during Khan of Kalat had sold Gwadar to ruler of Muscat, Oman. Pakistan had to pay money to Oman to buy back Gwadar from Oman. No wonder that BLA has not uttered a word about RekoDiq. BLA only attacks Pakistan’s government officials, police, army, and projects that effect the entire country.
You think that this is an eye opener well it is but it just gets better. There is an area in Sind it’s called Thar. Thar has the largest deposits of Coal in the entire world. When Shaukat Aziz was finance minister and later PM, American and Chinese companies were interested in starting a coal power plant project that would have generated over 5000MW of electricity. Aziz sidelined the project. The Chinese company was furious and sent review summaries to Presidents office but to no avail. If the project would have been approved back then, there would have been sufficient electricity for the citizens of this country. Now the Federal government in Islamabad is fighting with Sind government over who will own this coal. How much coal is there in Thar area? Thar has around 175 billion tons of coal sufficient enough to cater to all the energy needs of the country for the next three centuries. How much is this coal worth, according to a rough estimate based on current coal prices $1.57 trillion. That’s right trillion with a T. How much electricity can this project produce? 100,000 MW. The current shortfall facing Pakistan is around 6500MW. We are sitting with all this coal and we are importing coal from other countries. Recently Thar coal project conference was organized in U.S to attract investors. Why can’t the conference be held in Pakistan? When will our leaders come on TV and tell the public that Pakistan possess such mineral reserves? Are we again headed for the 25-75% disaster?
Pakistan has all the mineral and natural resources that we need. What we need are leaders who are nationalist and patriotic. We can’t afford leaders who are corrupt scoundrels. Hats off to all our leaders as they are unwilling to talk about these issues. They are too busy fighting each other for the presidential palace. No TV channel is willing to invite some government official and ask them some hard questions. It’s not a surprise, with all this money in the eyes of the investors I am sure they can spend some money to keep some mouths shut.
There is a place in Baluchistan named RekoDiq, in Chagai district, latitude 28.8125 and Longitude 64.7. RekoDiq has fifth largest reserves of gold and copper in the world. Two large companies were given licenses to explore and extract gold and copper from RekoDiq. One of those companies is Barrick Gold Corporation. Barrick is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa, Pakistan, Argentina and Tanzania. Barrick is owned and was founded by Peter Munk. (For interested souls Munk’s history is worth looking into)
The other company is Antofagasta PLC a Chilean business that operates in various sectors of the economy. It is one of the most important conglomerates of Chile with equity participation in Antofagasta Minerals, the railroad from Antofagasta to Bolivia, Aguas Antofagasta in Chile, Tethian in Australia and other investments in different parts from the world. The company is still 65% owned by the Chilean Luksic family.
Now according to the information available from Pakistani, international newspapers and interest groups, RekoDiq have vast reserves of copper and gold deposits. The area is of prime importance to these giant mining companies. Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) is an Australian company that had stake in RekoDiq project. Barrick bought shares of TCC for the
RekoDiq project. RekoDiq contains 12.3 million tons of copper and 20.9 million ounces of gold, and, and the deposits could me more than the current estimates. The copper-gold deposits at RekoDiq are believed to be even bigger than Sarcheshmeh in Iran and Escondida in Chile. The RekoDiq copper deposits which are in the neighborhood of Saindak copper project, is four times larger in copper ore tonnage than Saindak, Balochistan. The most credible international surveys suggest that RekoDiq is one of the biggest undeveloped copper projects in the world with over 11 billion pounds of copper and nine million ounces of gold. According to the current gold and copper prices, 20.9 million ounces of gold is worth$17.34 billion and 12.3 million tons of copper would be worth $86 billion. If there are more deposits than the price goes up.
With this is mind now we come to the real stuff. The real stuff is that without any independent and open bidding the government of Pakistan gave the contracts to these companies. The details were not disclosed to the public or media. Just like Steel Mills was about to be sold to phony company until Chief Justice Choudary intervened and stopped the sale, these reserves of gold and copper were sold to giant corporations for dirt cheap. The details of the contract are very sketchy and not clear. The only thing we know is that Pakistan government will get only 25% of the money. 25% only, 75% will be taken away by these corporations. It’s a heist, a huge plunder of our natural mineral resources. Why did the government of Musharraf and he chief wizard not disclose to the public the deals of these resources? Why was the deal so hidden? What kind of an agreement gives 75% of your resources to a private company? This agreement is worse than the Saudis and other Middle Eastern Countries did with Western Oil companies to extract their oil. Where did this come from? To answer that question we have to realize that we are going through a Shock, an economic, political, social shock. It’s called Shock Doctrine by famous Canadian journalist and author Naomi Klein, in her best-seller, eye opener book “Shock Doctrine”. Here is a quote from her recent article that explains the recent oil contact signed by puppet Iraqi government and oil companies. “According to Iraq's oil minister, the long-term contracts will be signed within a year. While ostensibly under control of the Iraq National Oil Company, foreign firms will keep 75 percent of the value of the contracts, leaving just 25 percent for their Iraqi partners”. This is from where 75-25 ratio comes from. Its part and parcel of such agreements that EHM writes.
Now, a brief introduction of so called ‘Baloch nationalist’. Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has got nothing to do with Baloch Nationalist. Late Bughti was a nationalist and he supported Pakistan’s independence but BLA certainly is not working in the interest of Pakistan or Balochistan. BLA is getting money and aid from Afghanistan, India, and British intelligence. Recall in history that Gwadar was not part of Pakistan at the time of independence. This was because during Khan of Kalat had sold Gwadar to ruler of Muscat, Oman. Pakistan had to pay money to Oman to buy back Gwadar from Oman. No wonder that BLA has not uttered a word about RekoDiq. BLA only attacks Pakistan’s government officials, police, army, and projects that effect the entire country.
You think that this is an eye opener well it is but it just gets better. There is an area in Sind it’s called Thar. Thar has the largest deposits of Coal in the entire world. When Shaukat Aziz was finance minister and later PM, American and Chinese companies were interested in starting a coal power plant project that would have generated over 5000MW of electricity. Aziz sidelined the project. The Chinese company was furious and sent review summaries to Presidents office but to no avail. If the project would have been approved back then, there would have been sufficient electricity for the citizens of this country. Now the Federal government in Islamabad is fighting with Sind government over who will own this coal. How much coal is there in Thar area? Thar has around 175 billion tons of coal sufficient enough to cater to all the energy needs of the country for the next three centuries. How much is this coal worth, according to a rough estimate based on current coal prices $1.57 trillion. That’s right trillion with a T. How much electricity can this project produce? 100,000 MW. The current shortfall facing Pakistan is around 6500MW. We are sitting with all this coal and we are importing coal from other countries. Recently Thar coal project conference was organized in U.S to attract investors. Why can’t the conference be held in Pakistan? When will our leaders come on TV and tell the public that Pakistan possess such mineral reserves? Are we again headed for the 25-75% disaster?
Pakistan has all the mineral and natural resources that we need. What we need are leaders who are nationalist and patriotic. We can’t afford leaders who are corrupt scoundrels. Hats off to all our leaders as they are unwilling to talk about these issues. They are too busy fighting each other for the presidential palace. No TV channel is willing to invite some government official and ask them some hard questions. It’s not a surprise, with all this money in the eyes of the investors I am sure they can spend some money to keep some mouths shut.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
FROM CITIBANK TO PM HOUSE
With Musharraf gone soon dust will settle and historians will decide where to place Musharraf in history. A lot has been said about Musharraf and lot more will be said but at the moment it’s crucial that we analyze the destructive role that Shaukat Aziz played in wrecking the backbone of Pakistan’s economy.
Aziz was not someone who came out of the blue he was the most lethal economic manager that was sent to Pakistan by our masters in the West. When Pakistan’s experiment with democracy started again in 1988 former executives from IMF, World Bank and other shady organizations started flying into Pakistan and taking over Finance and Economic affairs into their hands. Shaukat Aziz was not just another finance minister of the Bank or IMF he was an EHM (Economic Hit Men).John Perkins was economic hit men for the National Security Agency and now has come clean and wrote the details of his working career into two bestselling books. This is how he explains what an EHM is “Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM.” (Confessions of an economic hitmen by John Perkins)
The people who think that Aziz did wonders for Pakistan’s economy are totally mistaken. Sustained economic growth does not take place unless there is investment in research and development, expansion of industrial base, expansion of social economic projects, and real development of rural and urban areas. What Aziz did was totally different he started expanding the economy at the macro level resulting in increase demand of luxury goods from foreign countries. This resulted in widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The economy of Pakistan is in utter chaos. Inflation, trade deficit, sky rocketing fuel prices, shortage of power generation, and weakened Pakistani rupee have caused the economy of Pakistan to go into a whirlpool. On the surface the issues of inflation, trade deficit, fuel prices looks simple yet inside look at these issues reveal a different story. The economic managers have masterfully planned and executed economic policies that have turned out to be total disaster for the country. Pakistan’s economy was in chaos when General Musharraf took power; there were sanctions on Pakistan which were imposed after 1998 nuclear test. IMF had cut off aid to Pakistan; this aid started flowing again when Mr. Shaukat Aziz was installed as finance minister of Pakistan by Gen. Musharraf. Once he was installed the ball was set rolling for big corporations to come and invest in Pakistan at their own terms. Monetary policies were liberalized and investment was encouraged. For example all the international companies that have invested in Pakistan got huge tax benefits from the government. Then they were allowed to take all their profit out of the country and were not required to invest any amount in research and development. What we see all around us is that Telenor, Warid, and other companies are setting up cellular networks in our country. But what are the costs associated with it? For example the only country in the world where Telenor has 100% ownership is Pakistan. This in itself is extremely flawed policy that the government approved. All these companies and their associated cell phone manufacturing companies did no investment in Pakistan resulting in Pakistan importing over $1 billion of cell phones. This surely is a unique statistic for a third world nation like Pakistan. During the first three years of Shaukat Aziz’s tenure as finance minister, many macro-economic indicators recorded downward trend for three consecutive years in a row. Even after 9/11 econimc situation was not good. Once Pakistan became the frontline state in war against terror and strategic partner of the United States the economy showed signs of improvement due to financial support of US including cash grants, re-profiling of external debt of $ 12.5 billion, fresh loans from International Financial Institutions (IFIS) on soft terms and market access. Post 9/11 also saw huge quantities of remittances pouring into Pakistan from overseas Pakistanis. The total remittances to Pakistan in post 9/11 era from September, 2001 up to December 31, 2005 stood at over $ 16 billion. This resulted in Pakistan foreign currency exchange to increase sufficiently. These are only macroeconomic level gains and they don’t trickle down to 80% of the population. Today trickle down economic theory has been discredited and thrown away for good by all first world industrialized nations of the world. It is no surprise that those policies are still continued in countries like India, Pakistan, Argentina, Central Asian republics, and other countries.
First and foremost Pakistan started taking structural adjustment loans from IMF and World Bank. Banking sector was the first to be reformed. Interest rates were lowered first, and then money supply was increased to the public. Increase in remittances, allowed the banks to make liberal advances even at lower interest rates. It was the first time in history of Pakistan that banks allowed financing at rates lower than the inflation rate. The GDP growth rate of 7%, 8% during 2005, 2006, and onwards was consumption-led growth rather than real industrial production. Banks started issuing loans to consumers for auto financing, home financing, and other such schemes. Most importantly credit cards were handed out to middle class and lower middle class people as well. The biggest problem with banking operations in Pakistan is that banks throughout the world operate on a profit margin between 8 – 10 %. Banks in Pakistan are allowed to operate at a very healthy profit margin of 30% or even 35%. The result of increasing the money supply was that the lower and middle class now had access to small loans and credit cards this resulted in sudden increase in demand for air conditioners, televisions, microwaves, washing machines, and refrigerators. This in turn put tremendous burden on the national electricity grid. There was a plan which involved constructing the Thar Coal Power Project which could have generated 5000MW of electricity. An American company was interested in pursuing this project but the project was vetoed by Shaukat Aziz, later on a Chinese company was interested in the same project but it was again vetoed by Shaukat Aziz, who by now was also the Prime Minister of the country. A review petition was also filed by the Chinese company to President Musharraf but to no avail. Thar Coal power project was deliberately put aside so that in future the energy crisis in Pakistan could worsen. Indeed it has worsened, as right now there is shortage of at least 3000MW. Now Pakistan is going to import 1000MW electricity from Iran. Kalabagh dam has been ready for construction since 1985 but no sign that the dam would be built anytime soon. This increase in demand of electricity based goods resulted in increased demand for import of more technical products. Pakistan is unfortunately a country where assembly of most goods takes place but manufacturing is not done. For example, air conditioners are made but compressors are imported, similarly motors, chassis for cars, engines for small and large vehicles, generators, copper wiring, machine tools, and many other products are imported. The textile sector which is the biggest exporter of Pakistan was hit very badly by the power crisis. This has resulted in decline of exports from textile sector. The textile sector and the agricultural sector was badly ignored and left to rot.
Privatization was another important goal of Shaukat Aziz, he sought to privatize, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Steel Mills, PTCL, among many other banks and corporations. PSO is our economic backbone it has 80% of our oil carrying and refining capacity. PSO supplies oil to PIA, Pakistan armed forces and all government related institutions. Aziz did not get adequate time to sell off PSO. The plan was to get Chief Justice Chowdary out of the way and then go after PSO. Steel Mills privatization was stopped by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdary after the news leaked that it was sold for a value less than the cost of the land on which the mill is located. We should keep in mind that at the moment Steel is a hot commodity and it is in high demand in emerging economic giants like China and India. Well renowned Indian industrial tycoons are buying steel mills in other countries, for example, England, Brazil. It is no wise decision to allow foreign investors to buy the nations steel mills, and allow the investor the luxury to sell it in future to any buyer who may even be an Indian National.
PTCL is another organization which was sold to Etisalat. PTCL was sold for less than its real value. When the bid was filed by Etisalat for the purchase of PTCL there initial offer was low. The irony was that there offer was accepted. Etisalat defaulted on timely payments of their installments. At this moment the bid should have been cancelled and Etisalat should have been reprimanded according to the procedure. Instead a summary was sent to President Musharraf by Shaukat Aziz asking him to allow PTCL to be sold to Etisalat at a new price and new terms and conditions. Shockingly this was accepted by President. The result was the disaster that we all are facing right now. Since Etisalat took over PTCL they have fired many technical staff through the golden shake hand scheme. They have increased the local call rates exorbitantly that has caused difficulties for the local caller. Local calls are generally free within the city in most parts of the world. But in Pakistan local call rates have been increased a lot. Rates for dial up internet have also been increased resulting in per hour cost to be around thirty rupees. The results of PTCL privatization are now coming clean as for weeks thousands of its employees were on strike. Privatization of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation was another disaster. The biggest disastrous law was the exemption of capital gains tax on stock market investment. For all his tenure stock market was exempt from capital gains tax. This resulted in billions of rupees being invested by the elite 0.5% and in return they made more money and in the end paid no taxes. They invested this money in real estate throughout Pakistan. They did this because there is no real estate investment tax. This resulted in property prices being jacked up by the elite class who holds houses and plots for investment purposes, artificially increasing the prices. This is not all during his time as finance minister and prime minister more than Rs. 600 billion of loans were written off. The burden of all this was and still is suffered by the people of Pakistan. The oil prices and 16% general sales tax (GST) are an example. There is no place in the world where the government collects 16% GST. It has to be world record of some kind that a third world country charges 16% GST from its citizenry. The government did this because it was unable to impose agriculture tax and get tax money out of the filthy rich elite.
The list of economic disasters that were deliberately carried out by Shaukat Aziz are long and good enough to fill a book but these are just some examples of what he did and what he tried to do. Irony is that right after coming into power this government has carried on exactly where Aziz left. As per instructions from IMF they have agreed to end all subsidies by December 2008. Subsidies on oil, gas, electricity, and agriculture will be finished. This will result in 100% increase in prices of all these commodities. The GST was 15% during Aziz’s time now its 16%. The parliament (house of crooks) has passed a law which states that Kalabagh dam will never be build. This is a real shocking decision that will destroy Pakistan’s water resources and our agriculture sector but not surprisingly none of the political parties even bothered to talk about it. No NGO, Lawyers, media, no private enterprise none what so ever raised their voice. Without Kalabagh dam Pakistan will become a land where there will be severe food and water crisis within the next decade.
Late finance minister of Pakistan Dr. Mahbul ul Haq (who is also known as father of modern development economics, and was roommate of Amartya Sen at Cambridge) said in 1985 that Pakistan is heading towards becoming Congo no one believed him but we are still heading in that direction.
Talha Mujaddidi
Aug 19th 2008
Aziz was not someone who came out of the blue he was the most lethal economic manager that was sent to Pakistan by our masters in the West. When Pakistan’s experiment with democracy started again in 1988 former executives from IMF, World Bank and other shady organizations started flying into Pakistan and taking over Finance and Economic affairs into their hands. Shaukat Aziz was not just another finance minister of the Bank or IMF he was an EHM (Economic Hit Men).John Perkins was economic hit men for the National Security Agency and now has come clean and wrote the details of his working career into two bestselling books. This is how he explains what an EHM is “Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM.” (Confessions of an economic hitmen by John Perkins)
The people who think that Aziz did wonders for Pakistan’s economy are totally mistaken. Sustained economic growth does not take place unless there is investment in research and development, expansion of industrial base, expansion of social economic projects, and real development of rural and urban areas. What Aziz did was totally different he started expanding the economy at the macro level resulting in increase demand of luxury goods from foreign countries. This resulted in widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The economy of Pakistan is in utter chaos. Inflation, trade deficit, sky rocketing fuel prices, shortage of power generation, and weakened Pakistani rupee have caused the economy of Pakistan to go into a whirlpool. On the surface the issues of inflation, trade deficit, fuel prices looks simple yet inside look at these issues reveal a different story. The economic managers have masterfully planned and executed economic policies that have turned out to be total disaster for the country. Pakistan’s economy was in chaos when General Musharraf took power; there were sanctions on Pakistan which were imposed after 1998 nuclear test. IMF had cut off aid to Pakistan; this aid started flowing again when Mr. Shaukat Aziz was installed as finance minister of Pakistan by Gen. Musharraf. Once he was installed the ball was set rolling for big corporations to come and invest in Pakistan at their own terms. Monetary policies were liberalized and investment was encouraged. For example all the international companies that have invested in Pakistan got huge tax benefits from the government. Then they were allowed to take all their profit out of the country and were not required to invest any amount in research and development. What we see all around us is that Telenor, Warid, and other companies are setting up cellular networks in our country. But what are the costs associated with it? For example the only country in the world where Telenor has 100% ownership is Pakistan. This in itself is extremely flawed policy that the government approved. All these companies and their associated cell phone manufacturing companies did no investment in Pakistan resulting in Pakistan importing over $1 billion of cell phones. This surely is a unique statistic for a third world nation like Pakistan. During the first three years of Shaukat Aziz’s tenure as finance minister, many macro-economic indicators recorded downward trend for three consecutive years in a row. Even after 9/11 econimc situation was not good. Once Pakistan became the frontline state in war against terror and strategic partner of the United States the economy showed signs of improvement due to financial support of US including cash grants, re-profiling of external debt of $ 12.5 billion, fresh loans from International Financial Institutions (IFIS) on soft terms and market access. Post 9/11 also saw huge quantities of remittances pouring into Pakistan from overseas Pakistanis. The total remittances to Pakistan in post 9/11 era from September, 2001 up to December 31, 2005 stood at over $ 16 billion. This resulted in Pakistan foreign currency exchange to increase sufficiently. These are only macroeconomic level gains and they don’t trickle down to 80% of the population. Today trickle down economic theory has been discredited and thrown away for good by all first world industrialized nations of the world. It is no surprise that those policies are still continued in countries like India, Pakistan, Argentina, Central Asian republics, and other countries.
First and foremost Pakistan started taking structural adjustment loans from IMF and World Bank. Banking sector was the first to be reformed. Interest rates were lowered first, and then money supply was increased to the public. Increase in remittances, allowed the banks to make liberal advances even at lower interest rates. It was the first time in history of Pakistan that banks allowed financing at rates lower than the inflation rate. The GDP growth rate of 7%, 8% during 2005, 2006, and onwards was consumption-led growth rather than real industrial production. Banks started issuing loans to consumers for auto financing, home financing, and other such schemes. Most importantly credit cards were handed out to middle class and lower middle class people as well. The biggest problem with banking operations in Pakistan is that banks throughout the world operate on a profit margin between 8 – 10 %. Banks in Pakistan are allowed to operate at a very healthy profit margin of 30% or even 35%. The result of increasing the money supply was that the lower and middle class now had access to small loans and credit cards this resulted in sudden increase in demand for air conditioners, televisions, microwaves, washing machines, and refrigerators. This in turn put tremendous burden on the national electricity grid. There was a plan which involved constructing the Thar Coal Power Project which could have generated 5000MW of electricity. An American company was interested in pursuing this project but the project was vetoed by Shaukat Aziz, later on a Chinese company was interested in the same project but it was again vetoed by Shaukat Aziz, who by now was also the Prime Minister of the country. A review petition was also filed by the Chinese company to President Musharraf but to no avail. Thar Coal power project was deliberately put aside so that in future the energy crisis in Pakistan could worsen. Indeed it has worsened, as right now there is shortage of at least 3000MW. Now Pakistan is going to import 1000MW electricity from Iran. Kalabagh dam has been ready for construction since 1985 but no sign that the dam would be built anytime soon. This increase in demand of electricity based goods resulted in increased demand for import of more technical products. Pakistan is unfortunately a country where assembly of most goods takes place but manufacturing is not done. For example, air conditioners are made but compressors are imported, similarly motors, chassis for cars, engines for small and large vehicles, generators, copper wiring, machine tools, and many other products are imported. The textile sector which is the biggest exporter of Pakistan was hit very badly by the power crisis. This has resulted in decline of exports from textile sector. The textile sector and the agricultural sector was badly ignored and left to rot.
Privatization was another important goal of Shaukat Aziz, he sought to privatize, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Steel Mills, PTCL, among many other banks and corporations. PSO is our economic backbone it has 80% of our oil carrying and refining capacity. PSO supplies oil to PIA, Pakistan armed forces and all government related institutions. Aziz did not get adequate time to sell off PSO. The plan was to get Chief Justice Chowdary out of the way and then go after PSO. Steel Mills privatization was stopped by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdary after the news leaked that it was sold for a value less than the cost of the land on which the mill is located. We should keep in mind that at the moment Steel is a hot commodity and it is in high demand in emerging economic giants like China and India. Well renowned Indian industrial tycoons are buying steel mills in other countries, for example, England, Brazil. It is no wise decision to allow foreign investors to buy the nations steel mills, and allow the investor the luxury to sell it in future to any buyer who may even be an Indian National.
PTCL is another organization which was sold to Etisalat. PTCL was sold for less than its real value. When the bid was filed by Etisalat for the purchase of PTCL there initial offer was low. The irony was that there offer was accepted. Etisalat defaulted on timely payments of their installments. At this moment the bid should have been cancelled and Etisalat should have been reprimanded according to the procedure. Instead a summary was sent to President Musharraf by Shaukat Aziz asking him to allow PTCL to be sold to Etisalat at a new price and new terms and conditions. Shockingly this was accepted by President. The result was the disaster that we all are facing right now. Since Etisalat took over PTCL they have fired many technical staff through the golden shake hand scheme. They have increased the local call rates exorbitantly that has caused difficulties for the local caller. Local calls are generally free within the city in most parts of the world. But in Pakistan local call rates have been increased a lot. Rates for dial up internet have also been increased resulting in per hour cost to be around thirty rupees. The results of PTCL privatization are now coming clean as for weeks thousands of its employees were on strike. Privatization of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation was another disaster. The biggest disastrous law was the exemption of capital gains tax on stock market investment. For all his tenure stock market was exempt from capital gains tax. This resulted in billions of rupees being invested by the elite 0.5% and in return they made more money and in the end paid no taxes. They invested this money in real estate throughout Pakistan. They did this because there is no real estate investment tax. This resulted in property prices being jacked up by the elite class who holds houses and plots for investment purposes, artificially increasing the prices. This is not all during his time as finance minister and prime minister more than Rs. 600 billion of loans were written off. The burden of all this was and still is suffered by the people of Pakistan. The oil prices and 16% general sales tax (GST) are an example. There is no place in the world where the government collects 16% GST. It has to be world record of some kind that a third world country charges 16% GST from its citizenry. The government did this because it was unable to impose agriculture tax and get tax money out of the filthy rich elite.
The list of economic disasters that were deliberately carried out by Shaukat Aziz are long and good enough to fill a book but these are just some examples of what he did and what he tried to do. Irony is that right after coming into power this government has carried on exactly where Aziz left. As per instructions from IMF they have agreed to end all subsidies by December 2008. Subsidies on oil, gas, electricity, and agriculture will be finished. This will result in 100% increase in prices of all these commodities. The GST was 15% during Aziz’s time now its 16%. The parliament (house of crooks) has passed a law which states that Kalabagh dam will never be build. This is a real shocking decision that will destroy Pakistan’s water resources and our agriculture sector but not surprisingly none of the political parties even bothered to talk about it. No NGO, Lawyers, media, no private enterprise none what so ever raised their voice. Without Kalabagh dam Pakistan will become a land where there will be severe food and water crisis within the next decade.
Late finance minister of Pakistan Dr. Mahbul ul Haq (who is also known as father of modern development economics, and was roommate of Amartya Sen at Cambridge) said in 1985 that Pakistan is heading towards becoming Congo no one believed him but we are still heading in that direction.
Talha Mujaddidi
Aug 19th 2008
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