nandigramunited

Chandigarh Tribune

India takes off against 'Red Taliban'

Asia Times Online - Sudha Ramachandran - ‎Oct 15, 2009‎

Not only will the air operations take the bloodletting in India's "Red Corridor" to a new level, but also "the use of conventional war tactics against the ...

Anti-Naxal offensive to begin in 11 places Hindustan Times

all 386 news articles »

Video: Mourning, with anger, for 18 cops massacred

BBC News

Maoists ready for talks with Bengal

Hindustan Times - ‎Oct 9, 2009‎

... Jharkhand besides smaller, simultaneous operations through the vast swathe of dense jungles that the Maoists call the Red Corridor, reports Aloke Tikku. ...

NDTV.com Video: Mourning, with anger, for 18 cops massacred

NDTV.com

Battle reaches Maoist terror heartland Times Now.tv

Naxals remain defiant, kill 17 state cops Economic Times

Radio Australia - TopNews

all 582 news articles »

Pakistan will survive...

Ahmedabad Mirror - ‎Oct 31, 2009‎

"India will not be able to wean China away from Pakistan until Indian economy grows so big that the Asian behemoth will find it more lucrative to engage ...

GulfNews

Maoists a 'spent force' in Andhra Pradesh

GulfNews - Omer Farooq - ‎Oct 29, 2009‎

... Communist Party of India-Maoist created mayhem and a war-like situation with a series of major attacks along the "Red Corridor" spread from Gadchiroli ...

India anti-Maoist drive draws applause, concern

AFP - ‎Oct 26, 2009‎

Operation Green Hunt was drawn up by the central government as a concerted assault on the Maoist rebels' jungle bases in the so-called "red corridor" that ...

India anti-Maoist offensive draws applause, concern DAWN.com

all 21 news articles »

Maoist Naxalites grow in India for the double standard leadership

HotnHitNews - ‎Oct 29, 2009‎

However, the main reason is that the so-called 'Red Corridor' is full of minerals, where the Adivasis have been residing for centuries. ...

Not through force DAWN.com

all 3 news articles »

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262519

AFP

Indian Maoists vow 'tornado' uprising: report

AFP - ‎Oct 19, 2009‎

The interview was conducted at an undisclosed jungle location in eastern India, part of a vast, Maoist-affected region known as the "red corridor," which ...

HardNews Magazine

Whose WAR?

HardNews Magazine - Rakhi Chakrabarty - ‎3 hours ago‎

Even as the Red Corridor expanded insidiously, the Centre's response remained inert. According to the Union home ministry, 721 civilians and security force ...

Banks in Red Corridor face Maoist threat

Financial Express - ‎Oct 22, 2009‎

... a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in West Midnapore on Tuesday has put services of 400-odd branches of the bank along the red corridor in jeopardy. ...

Stay up to date on these results:

'...If the tribals have taken up arms, they have done so because a government which has given them nothing but violence and neglect now wants to snatch away the last thing they have - their land. ... ... It would be a grave mistake to imagine that the paramilitary troops, the Rajnandgaon air base, the Bilaspur brigade headquarters, the Unlawful Activities Act, the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and Operation Green Hunt are all being put in place just to flush out a few thousand Maoists from the forests. In all the talk of Operation Green Hunt, whether or not Mr Chidambaram goes ahead and .presses the button., I detect the kernel of a coming state of Emergency. (Here.s a math question: If it takes 6,00,000 soldiers to hold down the tiny valley of Kashmir, how many will it take to contain the mounting rage of hundreds of millions of people?) ...'

Mr Chidambaram's War

A math question: How many soldiers will it take to contain the mounting rage of hundreds of millions of people?

ARUNDHATI ROY (http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262519)

Nov 03, 2009 05:22 PM

180

Dear Friends,

What Arundhati Ray exposes in detail about so called Infrastructure, Development, Foreign capital Inflow, Free market democracy and Corporate Raj, EVERY Thing is True. We Must Congratulate Outlook India and Ms Ray to focus on those facts quite HIDDEN in Media Mind Contron and Nuclear Shinging India Reality Sho Biz, parliamentary Soap Opera, Misinformation Campaign,Hindutva Zionsm Globalisation , Ethnonationalism Hype and Intense hate campaaign against Aboriginal Indigenous Black Untouchable Negroid Dravid nag People.

The Brahaminical Ruling Hegemony Bias and Expertise are Best Exposed in this debate as well.

I have worked in Jharkhand as a Working Journalist and investigated every Mines Accident during the period joining classes in Indian School of Mines. I was Involved in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattish Garh Nationality movement and I myself belong to the most Untouchable landscape of Himalayas having ROOTS in the most Untouchable Human scpae in the Bay of Bengal.

What MS Ray emphasies about the MOW zone is also RELEVANT in SEZ Drive, Unique Identity Number Game and Citizensshipamendment Act, anti People Legislation, Extra constitutional India Inc governance and policy Making Defence shopping and the most Corrupt role of Civil Society, Intelligentsia, NGOS and Media.

I have been a Marxist since my Childhood and I know well about the Class struggle. I have experienced well the Scientific Manusmriti Rule sustained by Brahaman Front Gestapo as welll as Resistance Hegemony.

What I have to say, the People like Arundhati Ray, Mahashweta Debi and Medha Patkar, Binayak Sen and so on HAVE all the Concern and Committment with the Tribal People but they would Never STAND United with ABORIGINALIndigenous Mulnivasi Combined Persecuted Masses Majority up against the BRAHAMINICAL ZIONIST SATANIC Hegemony. They would Never speak against the ETHNIC Cleansing of Tamil and Bengali SC Refugees and SC and OBC People while theysyampathise with the tribal World or maoist Movement. They would Never quote BR Ambedkar and Glorifay MK Gandhi and Indira gandhi. They would not speak against SIKH Genocide and limit themselves within Gujarat. They would speak against RSS and Hindusm but they would try their best to sustain the DIVIDE and Never like the TRIBALS stand UNITED with the SC, OBC and Refugees so that we all may sustain in the Free Market Democracy. This CORPORATE Raj may be OVERTHROWN only with and National International ST, SC, OBC , Minrity Combined Mass Movement in Organised as Well as DisorganisedSecotors. Like the HolyScripts the Marxist and Maoist Ideologies and Maoist Menace led by the BRMIN Polit Bureau and central committee with Brahamin General Secretaries only Help to Justify and Create the Grounds of Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Destruction.

Palash Biswas

Kolkata, India

Army Chief Deepak Kapoor today warned that 26/11-type Mumbai terror attacks were a possibility and that India has to take all steps to counter such strikes. "We have to take all steps to prevent any Mumbai-type attacks.

We cannot rule out apprehensions of such possibilities," Kapoor told reporters here on the sidelines of an Army function. To a question if there were any terror alerts in the recent times, he said the South Asian region is infested with terror groups.

Be it India, Afghanistan or Pakistan, "we have to collectively battle such threats." Noting that Pakistan too had come under terror attacks in recent times, he said both Defence Minister A K Antony and Home Minister P Chidambaram had asked us to be cautious against such threats.

To allegations from Pakistan Army that they have seized some Indian-made weapons from terrorists involved in recent attacks, the Army chief said India had no intention of causing trouble inside Pakistan and that it did not support any terror group in the region. "We want Pakistan to be stable and peaceful," he said.

Leonard Peltier Supporters to seek Clemency at Meeting with Obama
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:58:58 -0500
From: nycjericho@gmail.com
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/67580927.html

Others can certainly join and support, as long as we are respectful of the Native American leadership at this event. Please do forward widely.

WASHINGTON Leonard Peltier supporters will seek clemency for the imprisoned American Indian Movement activist during a historic meeting between President Barack Obama and hundreds of tribal leaders of federally recognized nations.

The Circle for Clemency for Leonard Peltier is organizing a peaceful and prayerful act of solidarity "to bring attention to Mr. Peltier's continued unjust imprisonment as a Native American political prisoner", according to Rob Fife, one of the organizers.

The event will take place in conjunction with the first-of-its- kind White House Tribal Nations Conference on [Thursday] Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.. at the Interior Department building in Washington, D.C.

Fife, a Nez Perce Cayuse Indian, and Ben Carns, a member of the Choctaw Nation, fasted and offered prayers for seven days in September in front of the White House in the hope of having an audience with Obama and asking him to consider issuing an executive order of clemency for Peltier. The meeting did not occur, but the gesture gave rise to a renewed focus on Peltier's plight in the indigenous community.

The Circle for Clemency was founded in October by Fife, Carns, and indigenous rights activists Wanbli Tate, Larry Monterrey and Barbara Low.

Peltier has been in prison for more than 33 years. He was convicted in 1977 and given two consecutive life sentences for the murder of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, who were killed during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota June 26, 1975.

Although Peltier has served more than the minimum sentence required for the crime, he was denied parole Aug. 21. Parole officials said granting parole would diminish the seriousness of the crime.

The 64-year-old Peltier has maintained his innocence, but controversy over whether he committed the murders, and over the fairness of his trial persist. Those convinced of his guilt say he shot the two agents in cold blood and deserves to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Peltier's supporters, which include a huge international component and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, say he is America's most famous and longest serving political prisoner.

Fife, a horse-trainer, said he has never met Peltier, but he has signed petitions and written letters in support of him. The decision to deny Peltier parole was devastating both to Peltier and his supporters, Fife said.

"I wouldn't really describe myself as an activist, but I want to do the right thing by my mother's side of the family and more than anything I want my country to do the right things as they promised, but they're making up the laws as we go along.

Fife said Peltier's innocence or guilt is no longer relevant.

"There are people who have committed much more heinous crimes.

Leonard has served his time. There are people who can argue Leonard's innocence or guilt much better than I can. But I do know the guilt of this nation in dealing with Leonard and with indigenous people and doing it in a way that's different from the way they deal with people of European ancestry.

The White House Tribal Nations Conference seemed like the logical next step to take in pushing forward Peltier's cause, Fife said.
"We wanted to find a spiritual connection to this so it wasn't just a protest or demonstration, but something that is unifying and would bring attention to Leonard's imprisonment again, bring it back into the public eye.

The Circle for Clemency and supporters will gather at Lafayette Park in front of the White House for sunrise prayers conducted by traditional spiritual leaders at 6 a.m. [Thursday] Nov. 5. Then they will walk to the Interior Department building "to respectfully greet their tribal representatives, welcome them to the conference and ask that each of them include within their individual nation's agenda a simple request for clemency regarding Leonard Peltier, Fife said.

The participants will spend the rest of the day in a prayer vigil for Peltier's release at the Interior Department.

Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives .org

Free All Political Prisoners!
nycjericho@gmail.com www.jerichony.org

Received from Comrade DP:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friends, The appearance and timing of this article on the front page of the Sunday New York Times--the leading voice of the U.S. imperialists--is very significant. The Indian military is just starting an unprecentedly large offensive in the regions of the central and eastern India where the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has a strong popular base, especially among the adivasis (tribals). A number of Indian intellectuals and human rights advocates who oppose this offensive have pointed out that these areas of Maoist support contain a vast trove of bauxite, iron ore and other minerals whose "development" requires removing the adivasis from their ancestral lands.

A major battle shaping up on the ground and in the media. This situation require those who value social justice--including those of us outside India--to call for an end to the military offensive and to meet the demands of the adivasis for economic and social development that they control. One way you can do so is to add your name to the statement initiated by Sanhati in West Bengal, which you can read below at the end of the NYT article. DP

Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India

By JIM YARDLEY

Published: October 31, 2009

BARSUR, India — At the edge of the Indravati River, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, India effectively ends. Indian paramilitary officers point machine guns across the water. The dense jungles and mountains on the other side belong to Maoist rebels dedicated to overthrowing the government.

Graphic

Maoists in India

"That is their liberated zone," said P. Bhojak, one of the officers stationed at the river's edge in this town in the eastern state of Chattisgarh.

Or one piece of it. India's Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers, a figure almost as high as the more than 1,100 members of the coalition forces killed in Afghanistan during the same period.

If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologues, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down the guerrillas in some of the country's most rugged, isolated terrain.

For India, the widening Maoist insurgency is a moment of reckoning for the country's democracy and has ignited a sharp debate about where it has failed. In the past, India has tamed some secessionist movements by coaxing rebel groups into the country's big-tent political process. The Maoists, however, do not want to secede or be absorbed. Their goal is to topple the system.

Once considered Robin Hood figures, the Maoists claim to represent the dispossessed of Indian society, particularly the indigenous tribal groups, who suffer some of the country's highest rates of poverty, illiteracy and infant mortality. Many intellectuals and even some politicians once sympathized with their cause, but the growing Maoist violence has forced a wrenching reconsideration of whether they can still be tolerated.

"The root of this is dispossession and deprivation," said Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian based in Bangalore. "The Maoists are an ugly manifestation of this. This is a serious problem that is not going to disappear."

India's rapid economic growth has made it an emerging global power but also deepened stark inequalities in society. Maoists accuse the government of trying to push tribal groups off their land to gain access to raw materials and have sabotaged roads, bridges and even an energy pipeline.

If the Maoists' political goals seem unattainable, analysts warn they will not be easy to uproot, either.

Here in the state of Chattisgarh, Maoists dominate thousands of square miles of territory and have pushed into neighboring states of Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, part of a so-called Red Corridor stretching across central and eastern India.

Violence erupts almost daily. In the past five years, Maoists have detonated more than 1,000 improvised explosive devices in Chattisgarh. Within the past two weeks, Maoists have burned two schools in Jharkhand, hijacked and later released a passenger train in West Bengal while also carrying out a raid against a West Bengal police station.

Efforts are under way to open peace negotiations, but as yet remain stalemated. With the government offensive drawing closer, the people who feel most at risk are the tribal villagers who live in the forests of Chattisgarh, where the police and Maoists, sometimes called Naxalites, are already skirmishing.

"Earlier," said one villager, "we used to fear the tigers and wild boars. Now we fear the guns of the Naxalites and the police."

The counterinsurgency campaign, called Operation Green Hunt, calls for sending police and paramilitary forces into the jungles to confront the Maoists and drive them out of newer footholds toward remote forest areas where they can be contained.

"It may take one year, two years, three years or four," predicted Vishwa Ranjan, chief of the state police in Chattisgarh, adding that casualties would be inevitable. "There is no zero casualty doctrine," he said.

Once an area is cleared, the plan also calls for introducing development projects such as roads, bridges and schools in hopes of winning support of the tribal people. Also known as adivasis, they have faced decades of exploitation from local officials, moneylenders and private contractors, numerous government reports have found.

"The adivasis are the group least incorporated into India's political economy," said Ashutosh Varshney, an India specialist at Brown University, calling their plight one of the "unfinished quests of Indian democracy."

The Maoist movement first coalesced after a violent 1967 uprising by local Communists over a land dispute in a West Bengal village known as Naxalbari, hence the name Naxalites.

Some Communists would enter the political system; today, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is an influential political force that holds power in West Bengal. But others went underground, and by the 1980s, many found sanctuary in Chattisgarh, especially in the region across from the Indravati River known as Abhujmad. From here, the Maoists recruited and trained disgruntled tribal villagers and slowly spread out. For years, the central government regarded them as mostly a nuisance. But in 2004, the movement radicalized, authorities say, when its two dominant wings merged with the more violent Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Indian officers patrolled a forest around their base in Barsur, right on the edge of rebel-controlled territory in Chattisgarh.

Authorities in Chattisgarh then deputized and armed civilian posses, which have been accused by human rights groups of terrorizing innocent villagers and committing atrocities of their own in the name of hunting Maoists. Now, violence is frequent, if unpredictable, like the ambush near the village of Laheri, in Maharashtra State, carried out by the Maoists on Oct. 8.

That morning, following a tip, a police patrol chased two Maoist fighters and stumbled into a trap. Two hundred Maoists with rifles and machine guns lay waiting and opened fire when the officers came into an exposed area of rice paddies. Seventeen officers died, fighting for hours until they ran out of ammunition.

"They surrounded us from every side," said Ajay Bhushari, 31, who survived the ambush and is now the commanding officer in Laheri. "They were just stronger. They had more people."

The Maoists felled trees across the only road leading to the village. The police, already wary of using roads because of improvised explosive devices, marched their reinforcements 10 miles through the jungle, arriving too late at the scene.

Officer Bhushari said violence in the area had risen so sharply that the police now left the fortified defenses of their outpost only in large groups, even for social outings. The Maoists also killed 31 police officers from other nearby outposts in attacks in February and May.

"It's an open jail for us," he said. "Either we are sitting here, or we are on patrol. There is nothing else."

About 40 miles from Laheri, a processing plant owned by Essar Steel has been closed for five months. Maoists sabotaged Essar's 166-mile underground pipeline, which transfers slurry from one of India's most coveted iron ore deposits to the Bay of Bengal. "I've told my management that I'll take a team and do the repairs," said S. Ramesh, the project manager for Essar. "But I can't promise how long it will last."

The Essar plant is part of broader undertaking by the government and several private mining companies to extract the resources beneath land teeming with guerrillas. Mr. Ramesh said 70 percent of India's iron ore lay in states infiltrated by Maoists; production in this area is stalled at 16 million tons a year even though the area has the potential to produce 100 million tons.

Mr. Ramesh fretted that India's growth would be stunted if the country could not exploit its own natural resources. Yet he also cautioned that the counterinsurgency operation was no cure-all. "That alone is not going to help," he said. "We are not fighting an enemy here. We are fighting citizens."

With police officers dying in large numbers and Maoists carrying out bolder attacks, the debate around the insurgency has sharpened in India's intellectual salons and on the opinion pages and talk shows.

The writer Arundhati Roy recently called for unconditional talks and told CNN-IBN that the Maoists were justified in taking up arms because of government oppression. Others who are sympathetic to the plight of the adivasis say the Maoist violence has become intolerable.

"You can't defend the tactics," said Mr. Varshney, the Brown University professor. "No modern state can accept attacks on state institutions, even when the state is wrong."

Local people are caught in the middle. On a recent market day in the village of Palnar, women balancing urns of water on their heads and bare-footed, emaciated men came out of the forests to shop for vegetables, nuts or a rotting fruit fermented to produce local liquor. As peddlers spread their wares over blankets, the nearby government office was locked behind a closed gate.

"It's a bad situation," said one villager who asked not to be identified, fearing retribution from both sides. "The Naxalite activities have increased. They have their meetings in the village. They tell the people they have to fight. The people here do not vote out of fear."

Another man arrived on a motorcycle from a more distant village. Several months ago, the police raided his village and arrested more than a dozen people after accusing them of being collaborators. A few were Maoist sympathizers, the man on the motorcycle said, but most were wrongly swept up in the raid. Now, Operation Green Hunt portends more confrontation.

"Life is very difficult," the man said. "The Naxalites think we are helping the police. The police think we are helping the Naxalites. We are living in fear over who will kill us first."

___________________________

Please consider adding your endorsement to this very important statement.

The list of Indian signatories includes Arundhati Roy, Mahashwata Devi, Dr. Vandana Shiva and Mira Nair.

The international signatories include Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, John Bellamy Foster and David Barsamian.

Statement against Government of India's planned military offensive in adivasi-populated regions: National and international signatories

as of October 12, 2009

Sanhati, a collective of activists/academics who have been working in solidarity with peoples' movements in India by providing information and analysis, took the initiative to bring together voices from around the world against the Government of India's planned military offensive in Central India.

A statement and a background note were drafted in consultation with Indian activists, and duly circulated for endorsement.

Readers are encouraged to endorse by mailing sanhatiindia@sanhati.com with full name and affiliation.

To: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, Government of India

South Block, Raisina Hill

New Delhi, India-110 011.

We are deeply concerned by the Indian government's plans for launching an unprecedented military offensive by army and paramilitary forces in the adivasi (indigeneous people)-populated regions of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal states. The stated objective of the offensive is to "liberate" these areas from the influence of Maoist rebels. Such a military campaign will endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of the poorest people living in those areas, resulting in massive displacement, destitution and human rights violation of ordinary citizens. To hunt down the poorest of Indian citizens in the name of trying to curb the shadow of an insurgency is both counter-productive and vicious. The ongoing campaigns by paramilitary forces, buttressed by anti-rebel militias, organised and funded by government agencies, have already created a civil war like situation in some parts of Chattisgarh and West Bengal, with hundreds killed and thousands displaced. The proposed armed offensive will not only aggravate the poverty, hunger, humiliation and insecurity of the adivasi people, but also spread it over a larger region.

Grinding poverty and abysmal living conditions that has been the lot of India's adivasi population has been complemented by increasing state violence since the neoliberal turn in the policy framework of the Indian state in the early 1990s. Whatever little access the poor had to forests, land, rivers, common pastures, village tanks and other common property resources has come under increasing attack by the Indian state in the guise of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other "development" projects related to mining, industrial development, Information Technology parks, etc. The geographical terrain, where the government's military offensive is planned to be carried out, is very rich in natural resources like minerals, forest wealth and water, and has been the target of large scale appropriation by several corporations. The desperate resistance of the local indigenous people against their displacement and dispossession has in many cases prevented the government-backed corporations from making inroads into these areas.

We fear that the government's offensive is also an attempt to crush such popular resistances in order to facilitate the entry and operation of these corporations and to pave the way for unbridled exploitation of the natural resources and the people of these regions. It is the widening levels of disparity and the continuing problems of social deprivation and structural violence, and the state repression on the non-violent resistance of the poor and marginalized against their dispossession, which gives rise to social anger and unrest and takes the form of political violence by the poor. Instead of addressing the source of the problem, the Indian state has decided to launch a military offensive to deal with this problem: kill the poor and not the poverty, seems to be the implicit slogan of the Indian government.

We feel that it would deliver a crippling blow to Indian democracy if the government tries to subjugate its own people militarily without addressing their grievances. Even as the short-term military success of such a venture is very doubtful, enormous misery for the common people is not in doubt, as has been witnessed in the case of numerous insurgent movements in the world. We urge the Indian government to immediately withdraw the armed forces and stop all plans for carrying out such military operations that has the potential for triggering a civil war which will inflict widespread misery on the poorest and most vulnerable section of the Indian population and clear the way for the plundering of their resources by corporations. We call upon all democratic-minded people to join us in this appeal.

Click here for list of National Signatories

Click here for list of International Signatories

Detailed Background Note for the statement

Check for updated list of signatories at http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1824/#2

Awami Bharat

"For a national patriotic struggle against imperialism, bramhanism & Zionism"

Awami Bharat Vs Abhinav Bharat / Sanatan Sanstha

press release

The Sanatan santha terror org. has once again targeted a awami bharat for the exposure of the bramhanical terror network.

Do note that we have not called for the ban but we have always demanded an investigation into the terror network of the abhinav bharat by lt. col.purohit , himani sawarkar & the rest of the predominantly chitpavan brahman leadership.

We also demand that the supreme court institute the high level judicial commission of inquiry to be led by the CBI.

Special investigation of Jaywant Athawale is necessary as he is the mastermind of the all India terror network with international linkages

We do not trust the Maharashtra ATS led by Raghuwamshi or even the intelligence Beuro (IB) has they have both been severely compromise by the infiltration of the bramhanical RSS elements as well as those from within the congress who r aligned with the pro -US/ Israel lobby.

We have time & time again been proved right in our dharam-uddha which we have waged to expose the anti national bramhanical cast - class- elite of which sanatan sanstha & abhinav bharat are an integral part.

If sanatan sanstha wishes to take us to court we the members of awami bharat are more than willing to accept the challenge.

Feroze Mithiborwala, Kishor Jagatap
Awami bharat
awamibhart.blogspot.org
9820897517/ 9004351455

http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/8141.html

Goa Blast Issue : 'Awami Bharat's false accusation against Sanatan Sanstha

November 1, 2009

Kartik Shuddha Chaturdashi, Kaliyug Varsha 5111

Read Here: The Real Story of truth of Margao, Goa Blast

Isreal will carry fake attack on The Holy places of Jews in India with the help of Sanatan Sanstha !- 'Awami Bharat's' Invention

As Israel's racialist nature is being exposed, now it may attack its Synagogues (The Holy place of Jews) in India with the help of militant organizations Sanatan Sanstha and Abhinav Bharat and will try to defame Muslims through it. (Had Sanatan Sanstha and Abhinav Bharat be militant organizations, could Awami Bharat have dared to speak against it? Act of calling Hindus as terrorists in a Hindu majority nation proves that there is no saviour of Hindus left in this nation. Sanatan Sanstha is seeking legal advice about these terrible allegations made by 'Awami Bharat' ! – Editor SP)

United Nations Human Rights Commission has submitted a Goldstone report. This report has blamed Israel of doing racial destruction in the world. The report has also mentioned about the threat that Israel poses to the Al Absta Mosque. While USA has opposed this report, India has supported it along with Russia, China, South Africa and Pakistan. 'Awami Bharat' has welcomed this move by India and has expressed satisfaction over India restarting Gandhi – Nehru and Ambedkar's anti-Israel tradition. (Israel is the only example in the world, which has successfully awakened a nationalist spirit in all elements of the society and created the awareness among citizens about their duty towards nation. Creating doubts about such a nation is like opposing nationalist thoughts ! – Editor SP)

Sanatan Sanstha has carried out the Margao blast in Goa on this background only. (This exposes the conspiracy of 'Awami Bharat' to defame Sanatan Sanstha by making false allegations against it, despite the fact that Goa Chief Minister himself has clarified that Sanatan Sanstha has no role in the Margao explosions. Sanatan Sanstha is seeking legal advice in this matter ! – Editor SP )
Sanatan Sanstha and Abhinav Bharat are pro Israeli organizations and they want to break India into pieces by pushing their Pro-Brahmin agenda. ('Awami Bharat' is acting like a thief who accuses others of stealing! Pro Hindu organizations are working day and night for the benefit of this nation. Whereas it is proven beyond doubt that Muslims are trying to divide this country into pieces by cooperating with Pakistan sponsored terrorists. Why is 'Awami Bharat' silent over it ? - Editor SP)

'Awami Bharat' demanded that Sanatan Sanstha, Abhinav Bharat and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh should be banned. India should also ban racist country like Israel. (What else can 'Awami Bharat' think, which is functioning only for Muslim benefit? Had 'Awami Bharat' demanded ban on terrorist organisation like SIMI, who is seeking ban on organisations working for welfare of Nation ! – Editor SP)

Judges lift veil, just about

Most SC justices make assets public, some lawyers find details 'sketchy'

The Chief Justice and other Supreme Court judges today made their assets declarations public for the first time, but legal experts found much of the information sketchy and suggested some of the valuations may not have been based on market rates. ... | Read..

Staple grounds Kashmir scientist

A scientist has joined the scores of Kashmiris prevented from visiting China because of a stapled visa. ... | Read..

Peace on Basu's lips, cadre finger on trigger

Some 500 alleged CPM workers armed with guns today terrorised two Hooghly villages that had switched loyalties, raising the spectre of another Nandigram and suggesting ... | Read..

Govt squeeze on sham spas

Left ministers will soon be able to look beyond Vedic Village for a massage. What's more, they can now choose their spa by looking up the government's accreditation ... | Read..

Tender row hits police gear

Tender anomalies have stalled the purchase of bulletproof supplements for the police, in what is a blow for the security forces now gearing up for a prolonged offensive ... | Read..

http://www.telegraphindia.com/section/frontpage/index.jsp
Source: Daily Sanatan Prabhat

Protecting our Children in a World Gone Mad
Karin Friedemann
1 November 2009
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2009/November/opinion_November1.xml§ion=opinion&col=

When I spent a year teaching 6-8 grade students in Detroit, Michigan, I had hoped that with my high ideals, I could influence the children to become thinkers, perhaps even sway them towards a Godly life. But I found a tragic situation. American children of today are seriously brain damaged from computer games, TV, movies and pop music. They have an attention span no longer than a commercial and if something is not flashing lights and making bleeping noises they have no interest in it. They have a huge problem translating their thoughts into written words and they have a hard time sitting still. They really require - and want - adults to manage their behavior.

Concerning sex education, it was painfully clear that there was nothing I could do for these kids, except maybe an occasional isolated miracle. How do you convince a girl not to date boys when her own mother goes out on dates? You and I know that she is too young to think about such things, but the fact is, by 6th grade these kids' minds are set into the pattern created by the mass media. It made me realize that you really have to focus on protecting your kids from a very young age and arm them with knowledge.

The religious kids, if they are going to stay clean and innocent, they have to have made that choice well before 6th grade. Parents need to realize that the kids are going to learn everything about the facts of life - if not from school then from the songs playing in the supermarket - so we have to protect them. We have to tell them that they are persons of value who deserve to be respected and cherished and to enjoy happy and healthy relationships. Many children never hear these words from their parents so they seek affection and positive encouragement elsewhere. Most kids chase after boyfriends or girlfriends because the media tells them this is how you find happiness. Parents really need to walk the middle line between saying too much and not saying enough.

Young kids don't need the "details" of how babies are made but they do need to be told at a young age, for example, which parts of their body are off limits, even to family members, and the child should be made to promise to report any violations even if done in jest. Since they are giggling about boys as early as first grade, girls need to be advised well in advance that their lives will be miserable if they fall in love with boys before they are old enough to get married. They need to know the rules of clothing. They need to be instructed never to be alone in a room with a boy. Their brother should go with them if they are visiting the neighbor kids or cousins. You really can't be under-prepared.

A child needs to make an internal promise to keep chaste until marriage, if it is to be. If the kid has not gotten any good advice by age eleven, he or she may easily get lost. Whatever you tell your kids, it has to make sense within the context of the way that their peers explain the world. Although, "We don't do that because we are Muslim (or whatever religion)" goes a long way.

American children have full knowledge of how babies are made and how to prevent them, but they are very protected from knowing how babies come out. I believe that in families where the mother gives birth at home and the children are there to emotionally support her and know what women go through, these children will probably have a healthier attitude and reverence for their bodies and for life itself and will be less likely to make light-hearted decisions. Even many religious men, who were chaste until marriage, still lack the appropriate respect and reverence for the extreme sacrifice that a woman makes when she obeys her husband. A man that heard his mother's screams when he was a boy will probably be more helpful and more emotionally supportive towards his wife than if he was raised in ignorance.

The good news is that there seem to be more and more kids in high schools and colleges that choose to be chaste and who give each other moral support, and I have to assume it's because their parents talked to them about when sex is appropriate. Looking at online teen discussions it seems clear that there is a group of kids who have zero self esteem and are actively striving to crash their lives because they have no guidance other than the desire to be "cool" - while there is another group of kids who are actively striving to be responsible. When I was a kid there were no kids striving to be responsible in matters of chastity. If anyone was religiously motivated they would be treated like a mentally ill person and no one would be their friend. America is becoming better in many ways. At least, there are better choices available. As parents we have to make sure our children are aware of the choices we hope our kids will make, to balance the information they are getting from society about the choices that corporate military consumer culture hopes they make.

Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based writer on Middle East affairs and US politics. She is Director of the Division on Muslim Civil Rights and Liberties for the National Association of Muslim American Women.

Nov 03, 2009 05:03 AM

167

Biswas

You are true slave. You and your kind of people should live in the US as slaves to white people. Ms. Roy will join you. You are a pathetic hatemonger. You seem to be worse than any group you are accusing. May be in Calcutta, you sick people have nothing but fight over caste. No one boycotts some person in Hyderabad. May be you live in a sick world of Bengal.

VIvek

Hyderabad, India

Nov 03, 2009 04:35 AM

166

In spite of Saraswati's assertions I do belive that democracy with all its limitations has provided certain balancing act in India. Only the political engagement can empower the tribal poor for asserting their rights. Instead of lecturing me on Indian election process, be more educated on all the research about people's participation in elections. In India despoite all the vote rigging and manipulations, elections still attract the poor more than the rich to vote en masse and demand change. Indian politicians have realized the power of the voters from time to time.
Instead of looking at this fairly complex issue as a rich vs, poor battle you should also look at all the perspectives.
Firstly there is politics of Arundhati Roy.As a leftist political activist Arundhati has always been self serving and is manipulative in her own way to exaggerate her points and understate or omit a contradicting evidence.
You need to keep in mind the politics of the Maoists as well. Maoists are not the leftist liberals or are not fighting for a better living for the Adivasis. They are after power just like any other politician and their ideology is to usurp power through armed insurgency. They are no Robin Hoods, but they are as power hungry as politicians. They have resorted to violence, killed their dissidents who are also poor adivasis, and often protested development work in their constituency.In effect a perpetuation of poverty and exploitation of the poor people helps their political objectives. And Maoists very well know that common Indians (read voters) will always dislike any military action against the exploited Adivasis. That's why Maoists despite their refusal to join mainstream politics keep in touch with the media. Media is too powerful in forming opinions. Maoists are aware of it.

Another political dimension is the involvement of big corporations in influencing the government. Worldover unharnessed mineral resources are available in far flung areas in mountaneous terrains and dense forests often inhabitated by the tribals. The lands often belong to the government. If large businesses with their bulge wallet can influence the politicians for the purchase of mining rights by displacing the tribals without giving them just compensation it is absolutely unjust.
Remote and sparsely populated areas are often ignored by the political leaders because of the smaller size of vote banks and are neglected by the entire government machinery because of inaccessability and lack of representation of the tribals in media and politics. Indian government machinery in any case is corrupt and inefficient. The impact is more severe in those far flung areas.
Politics of environmentalism also is another associated issue. Harnessing natural resources does not come without causing environmental problems. Mining industries are huge polluters. Especially in the third world countries without adequate environment protection laws or without enforcement of the extant environmental laws in far flung areas, mining can lead to more problems than solutions for the society.
Once we accept that displacement of the local tribals and pollution of land, air and water are problems then we get into a debate about what constitutes development. You can be a Gandhian to endorse primitive societies in natural habitats wiithout any need for modern amenities. Or you can believe like Tagore or Gandhi that we want western model of industrialization for the develoipment of the country. You can always argue that the tribals will be better off if there is industrialization in tribal areas because it would create jobs, build infrastructure , improve communication and resolve many of their problems of living in far flung areas. But you can also counter-argue that mining or industrialization once starts will not decelerate and the profits from these ventures may help generate employment and create wealth , but may not actually compensate all the displaced adivasis. Nor would better benefits for the capitalists offset the long term cost for the environment. We can also argue that perhaps it is possible to take a middle path of looking at sustainable development . That means mining and industrialization should happen in a balanced manner to moderate the impact of industrialization on displacement of tribals, destruction of habitas, pollution of environment. Can we achieve it? Will big industry agree to reserve jobs for the local tribals and install costly technology in their mines and factories for environment protection? Will the government pay fair compensation to the tribals for their displacement? Will Arundhati Roy and other self serving activists refrain from scuttling any settlement with the tribals? Will the leftist ideologues agree to give up their pet issues like environmentalism and big business/ MNC bashing? Will the right wingers accept environment -friendly development as an issue? This is where politics comes into play , through debates and discussions and political affiliations we can figure out the right compromise for the way forward.
Maoists cannot solve such a complex issue merely with violence.

NEW YORK, United States

Nov 03, 2009 03:27 AM

165

Looking at the Hindu caste system, after living and traveling around the world for many years, makes one realize that it is nothing more than an Ancient Apartheid system ( as was practiced in S. Africa till Mandela came along ) sanctioned by a religion custom - designed to sanctify it. The problem is that the early invaders / migrants from Central Asia to India who set up the Hindu system and then intermingled with the darker aborigines ( Aborigenes and Dravidians ) became soft and fractious, thus incompetent to resist a later bunch of invaders - this time the Islamic hordes.

Social fragmentation is the greatest weakness of Indian society. After millenia plus subjugation by Moslems, the British came and rescued Hindus from Islamic tyranny. Hindu upper classes should think twice before they mess up this second life ( indpependence ) too.

Its time they put their sanctimoniousness and victimhood away and started acting sincerely to make all sections of Indian society ( including even the destitute Adivasis ) more prosperous.

Otherwise all those recent chest thumping of Brahminic smarts and Bania instinct to make profit are just so much boasts from small - time crooks.

Gau_Rav1

nowhereland, Japan

Nov 03, 2009 12:36 AM

162

Apropos to Arundhati Roy's article, I deem it appropriate to invite attention of all to what US Congress in a historic Concurrent House Resolution [no. 139] on India's discrimination and untouchability had observed in May 2007. Highlighting the anatomy of untouchability the Resolution says:
"The Untouchables, now known as the Dalits and the forest tribes of India, called Tribals, who together number approximately 250,000,00 to 300,000,00 people, are the primary victims of the caste discrimination in India."
The dimension of the problem, by the sheer size of its sufferers, is difficult to comprehend with equanimity of mind. With such large a population under groaning distress and exploitation, nowhere under the sun peace, stability and unity can be achieved or secured.

2. The aforesaid Resolution adds further :
"Discrimination against the Dalits and the Tribals has existed for more than 2000 years and has included educational discrimination, economic disenfranchisement, physical abuse, discri-mination in medical care, religious discrimination and violence targeting Dalit and Tribal women."
Untouchability and discrimination in India is as old as the Himalayas. Discrimination against human being based on birth is India's cardinal philosophy since ancient times.

3. The media and intellectual class have successfully brashed the aforesaid Resolution under the carpet and public in general do not know it. The Government of India must be aware of it. Nothing has been done to reverse the ongoing atrocities, discrimination, hatred based on caste and humiliation of the dalit and tribal. The dalit and tribal communities have been allowed to willow in illiteracy as required by policy outlined and ordained by ancient Hindu scriptures lest there are no clamour for spaces under the sun for them.
4. If the threat of war really fructify in full scale, I am afraid, there will be deluge and the fate of India appears sealed. No security forces which will kill at will and result in genocidal extermination of their target groups will ultimately be in a position to keep the nation in one piece.
5. Let the government, first of all, crush those brutal hands that indulge in cruelty, atrocities, practioners of untouchability and discrimination against dalit and tribal with the force they propose to employ for suppressing naxal/Maoists instead.

A.K.B iswas

Calcutta, India

Nov 03, 2009 12:24 AM

161

attn moderator/ vinod mehta and a roy

all problems in india are because of brahmins, bjp
rss, and neofascists hindutwawadis.

india would be a great place if we left the country.
dalits,tribals,muslims,christians will build this country from scratch.

i am happy to say that i am out of the way of the true
liberal secularists.

good luck

gayatri devi

delhi, India

Nov 02, 2009 09:51 PM

157

These sympathisers of Maoist criminals have problem with Salwa Judum, hey even Salwa Judum comprises of the same naked poor tribals. As long as naked criminals come for Maoist it's fine but the moment some other equally deprived guy stands to these criminals it becomes mass hysteria from maiost ideologues

Anil Kumar

Toronto, Canada

Nov 02, 2009 06:00 PM

151

Madam, Roy, there is no salwa judamm in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, can Ms Roy including civil rights activists,journalists, human right activists, intellectuals, authors and writers as to why there are naxal activities of killings in these states?

SC Aggarwal

new delhi, India

Nov 02, 2009 11:22 AM

147

There is no Maoism in Muslim majority Kashmir valley.There is no Maoism in Christian states like Nagaland or Mizoram.There is Maoism only in the Hindu majority states likes Orissa or W.Bengal or Andhra.Firstly, the Muslim and Christian states get disproportionately huge amounts of funds from the central government.Manmohan Singh gave away a mind boggling 24,000 crores to J&K when Gulam Nabi Azad was the CM,and this for a population of less than 2crores.At the same time, Orissa was given a paltry 800 crores.Nagaland and Mizoram get huge central funds,which are distributed only by the Church.They are also tribals,but look how well fed and dressed are these people.The Hindu tribals are pushed to penury by the government ,and then descend the vultures,the evangelists,in the garb of Maoists to capitalise on their poverty.The evangelists putup Hindu faces as Maoist leaders.This is exactly the same as what is happening in Nepal,where churches have sprung up everywhere after the Maos captured power.Maoists are stooges of the evangelists.Our intellectuals say that tribals are not Hindus,but they dare not say that the Nagas,Mizos,or Bodos who are also tribals are not Christians.Mr Chidambaram,should concentrate on poverty alleviation of the Hindu tribals,by rightful sanction of funds by diverting disproportionarte large funds presently going to the Christian states.In India Maoism and evangelism are two faces of the same coin.

S.S.Nagaraj

Bangalore, India

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262519

National / Cover Stories / Essays

Magazine | Nov 09, 2009

Forsaken god: Will someone tell Copenhagen, leave the bauxite in the mountain

essay

Mr Chidambaram's War

A math question: How many soldiers will it take to contain the mounting rage of hundreds of millions of people?

Arundhati Roy

The low, flat-topped hills of south Orissa have been home to the Dongria Kondh long before there was a country called India or a state called Orissa. The hills watched over the Kondh. The Kondh watched over the hills and worshipped them as living deities. Now these hills have been sold for the bauxite they contain. For the Kondh it's as though god has been sold. They ask how much god would go for if the god were Ram or Allah or Jesus Christ?

Red terror?: A tribal woman with her children in Dantewada

Perhaps the Kondh are supposed to be grateful that their Niyamgiri hill, home to their Niyam Raja, God of Universal Law, has been sold to a company with a name like Vedanta (the branch of Hindu philosophy that teaches the Ultimate Nature of Knowledge). It's one of the biggest mining corporations in the world and is owned by Anil Aggarwal, the Indian billionaire who lives in London in a mansion that once belonged to the Shah of Iran. Vedanta is only one of the many multinational corporations closing in on Orissa.

If the flat-topped hills are destroyed, the forests that clothe them will be destroyed too. So will the rivers and streams that flow out of them and irrigate the plains below. So will the Dongria Kondh. So will the hundreds of thousands of tribal people who live in the forested heart of India, and whose homeland is similarly under attack.

In our smoky, crowded cities, some people say, "So what? Someone has to pay the price of progress." Some even say, "Let's face it, these are people whose time has come. Look at any developed country, Europe, the US, Australia—they all have a 'past'." Indeed they do. So why shouldn't "we"?


	The Niyamgiri hills have been sold for their bauxite. For the Kondhs, their god's been sold. How much, they ask, would god go for if he was Ram, Allah or Christ?

In keeping with this line of thought, the government has announced Operation Green Hunt, a war purportedly against the "Maoist" rebels headquartered in the jungles of central India. Of course, the Maoists are by no means the only ones rebelling. There is a whole spectrum of struggles all over the country that people are engaged in—the landless, the Dalits, the homeless, workers, peasants, weavers. They're pitted against a juggernaut of injustices, including policies that allow a wholesale corporate takeover of people's land and resources. However, it is the Maoists who the government has singled out as being the biggest threat. Two years ago, when things were nowhere near as bad as they are now, the prime minister described the Maoists as the "single-largest internal security threat" to the country. This will probably go down as the most popular and often-repeated thing he ever said. For some reason, the comment he made on January 6, 2009, at a meeting of state chief ministers, when he described the Maoists as having only "modest capabilities" doesn't seem to have had the same raw appeal. He revealed his government's real concern on June 18, 2009, when he told Parliament: "If left-wing extremism continues to flourish in parts which have natural resources of minerals, the climate for investment would certainly be affected."

Who are the Maoists? They are members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist)—CPI (Maoist)—one of the several descendants of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), which led the 1969 Naxalite uprising and was subsequently liquidated by the Indian government. The Maoists believe that the innate, structural inequality of Indian society can only be redressed by the violent overthrow of the Indian State. In its earlier avatars as the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in Jharkhand and Bihar, and the People's War Group (PWG) in Andhra Pradesh, the Maoists had tremendous popular support. (When the ban on them was briefly lifted in 2004, one-and-a-half million people attended their rally in Warangal.) But eventually their intercession in Andhra Pradesh ended badly. They left a violent legacy that turned some of their staunchest supporters into harsh critics. After a paroxysm of killing and counter-killing by the Andhra police as well as the Maoists, the PWG was decimated. Those who managed to survive fled Andhra Pradesh into neighbouring Chhattisgarh. There, deep in the heart of the forest, they joined colleagues who had already been working there for decades.


	A concerted campaign has been orchestrated to shoehorn myriad resistances into a simple George Bush binary: if you're not with us, you're with the Maoists.

Not many 'outsiders' have any first-hand experience of the real nature of the Maoist movement in the forest. A recent interview with one of its top leaders, Comrade Ganapathy, in Open magazine didn't do much to change the minds of those who view the Maoists as a party with an unforgiving, totalitarian vision, which countenances no dissent whatsoever. Comrade Ganapathy said nothing that would persuade people that, were the Maoists ever to come to power, they would be equipped to properly address the almost insane diversity of India's caste-ridden society. His casual approval of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka was enough to send a shiver down even the most sympathetic of spines, not just because of the brutal ways in which the LTTE chose to wage its war, but also because of the cataclysmic tragedy that has befallen the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, who it claimed to represent, and for whom it surely must take some responsibility.

Licence to kill: Greyhounds, Scorpions, Cobras.... Now the IAF can fire

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262519

cover story

Ten Years Ago...

From "The Greater Common Good", Outlook, May 24, 1999

Like his neighbours in Kevadia Colony, Bhaiji Bhai became a pauper overnight.

Bhaiji Bhai and his people, forced to smile for photographs on government calendars. Bhaiji Bhai and his people, denied the grace of rage. Bhaiji Bhai and his people, squashed like bugs by this country they're supposed to call their own.

It was late evening when I arrived at his house. We sat down on the floor and drank over-sweet tea in the dying light. It broke my heart, the patience with which he told his story. I could tell he had told it over and over and over again, hoping, praying, that one day, one of the strangers passing through Undava would turn out to be Good Luck. Or God.

Bhaiji Bhai, Bhaiji Bhai, when will you get angry? When will you stop waiting? When will you say 'That's enough!' and reach for your weapons, whatever they may be? When will you show us the whole of your resonant, terrifying, invincible strength?

When will you break the faith? Will you break the faith? Or will you let it break you?"

—From The Greater Common Good, Outlook, May 24, 1999

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262531

Dear All, This is proof of the role of 'Blackwater-Xe' fomenting terror within Pakistan, with the protection of the Pro-US elite within the Military & the ISI.

Also do look at "Blackwater in India" -

Blackwater moves into India through Blackstone. - Alex Gean

It's getting more & more frightening & bizarre.

Read on -

Regards, Feroze.

Islamabad: Americans Dressed as Afghans Caught With Illegal Weapons and Explosives

2009 October 28

tags: 9/11, Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, America, Americans Dressed As Afghans, Barack Obama, Blackwater, CIA, Interior Ministry, ISI, Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Politics, PPP, Rehman Malik, Taliban, terrorism, United States, USA, war on terror, Xe, Xe Worldwide, Zionist

by pakalert

23 Votes

300px-M16a1m16a2m4m16a45wi

ISLAMABAD – FOUR American citizens were caught red-handed by Capital Police in the early hours of Tuesday for photographing sensitive buildings. All four were dressed in traditional Afghan outfits and were found to be in possession of illegal weapons and explosives

According to details, police personnel deployed here at Nawaz Chowk, sector F-8, intercepted two suspicious vehicles in the early hours of Tuesday. During the search, police recovered weapons from their custody. The riders of these vehicles were found to be American citizens. They were all dressed as Afghans.

The number plates on both vehicles (IDM 2030 & LG 501) were found to be fake. The police personnel called for backup when the Americans refused to allow them to search the car. High Ranking Capital Police officials reached the site within minutes and had the vehicles searched, recovering 2 M-16A1 rifles, 2 handguns and 2 hand-grenades.

The police held the American citizens in custody for an hour before the Interior Ministry interefered and had them released without charge even as preliminary investigation was being carried out.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/28-Oct-2009/Nabbed-with-illegal-arms-again

Interior Ministry Covering Up For US Mercenaries And Terrorists

15304659_dec9999702 In 2005, Iraqi Police arrested and locked up TWO British operatives in Basra who were dressed in local Arab gear, shooting at innocent civilians in a busy market with automatic rifles and driving a vehicle laden with explosives, intended to go off in the middle of the busy market. British tanks tore into the prison and rescued both these men. In Pakistan, it seems all the Americans need to do is make a call to the Interior Ministry and have their terrorists released.

PKKH Editorial

There have been several incidents during the last few months of foreigners carrying illegal arms in the federal capital. Some foreigners were found not only carrying illegal weapons, but also threatening, harassing and frightening the public in Islamabad. The law enforcement agencies have been particularly efficient in tightening security measures around the city as a response to citizen complaints.

In the most recent incident, four American nationals who were disguised as Afghans were caught with illegal arms on Tuesday at a posh sector of Islamabad inhabited mostly by senior Pakistani diplomats and politicians. The police personnel intercepted two suspicious vehicles and recovered illegal weapons from in posession of the Americans in both vehicles.

The Americans were also seen taking photographs of buildings around the area while some videos of sensitive locations in Islamabad were also found with them. During the preliminary investigation, the Americans falsely claimed that they were US Marines – and were taken to the police station for further investigation. After the personal intervention of those high up in the Interior Ministry, the Americans were allowed to leave without being charged. Some sources disclose that the US Embassy officials intervened in the matter by contacting higher-ups of Pakistan's Interior Ministry and had the culprits freed.

The Interior ministry, when approached for comments on this story, affirmed once again that there existed no law in Pakistan that might allow any foreigner or diplomat, including Americans, to move on busy roads of federal capital with illegal arms.

It was not the first incident of such kind in the Federal Capital where foreigners were picked up by police for posession of illegal arms. It has become almost a norm that police intercepts foreigners violating national laws including posession of illegal weapons, and are freed after Pakistani "influentials" come to their rescue.

Some days ago, police officials deployed at a security check post in Islamabad stopped two Dutch personnel and recovered sophisticated weapons including hand grenades, bombs, and sophisticated guns from their custody. The police lodged a formal complaint, however, no action was initiated on directions of Interior Ministry and the matter was hushed.

William Ven and Tomas Smith were the two Dutch men caught roaming around with sophisticated weapons, bombs and hand grenades in a blue BMW, registered number of which was IDL 4191. Sources on the condition of anonymity reveal that both officials were working for the notorious Blackwater Co. (Xe) and were almost certainly out on an assassination mission, target of which is still unknown. Sunny Christopher, a U.S. embassy official who was following the blue BMW was out there to provide cover.

Before the security agencies could confirm their connection with Blackwater (Xe), the interior ministry again came to their rescue and saying that the men were 'Dutch embassy officials' – which appears to be an attempt to cover up Blackwater's questionable activities on the media. During the past few weeks the local media had been particularly vocal on the Blackwater issue and this incident would have further fueled calls for action against the various US-linked private security companies operating on Pakistan soil involved in suspicious activities. What's not so surprising is that no probe was done with the alleged 'Dutch diplomats' and no explanation or apology was offered.

Both dutch men were released a while later after the U.S. embassy intervened, and were put on the next flight out of Islamabad immediately.

What is particularly alarming is that such incidents continue to occur in the nation's very own capital city while government in their attempts to temporarily 'settle' the matter issues hollow statements. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, has stated on many occasions that no foreigner would be allowed to carry illegal arms. "The violators would be dealt with an iron hand," he adds.

However the Americans have relentlessly continue to violate the the law of the land and no iron hand strikes – and in fact the violators are given a safe passage each time.

Special Report: US Embassy Personnel Caught Spying On Pakistani Nukes

GHQ Attack: Time To End Foreign Meddling In Pakistan

Picture Alert: US Hummers Enter Pakistan, Undercover American Soldiers In Islamabad

ALERT: Blackwater Recruiting Agents Fluent In Urdu & Punjabi For Pakistan

Picture Alert: US Recruiting Retired Pakistani Military Officers

Husain Haqqani To ISI: Let Blackwater In

LET BLACKWATER IN: Pakistan's Ambassador to USA Hussain Haqqani ...

The U.S. Invades and Occupies Pakistan

A US Counteroffensive In Pakistan

CIA hires Blackwater to take serious actions on Pakistani soil

Video: Blackwater / Xe in Pakistan – Full Version

Blackwater Watch by Citizens of Pakistan | Teeth Maestro

US soldier caught with cache of military explosives

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:31:00 GMT

A stack of C-4 explosives

A US Army soldier has been detained and charged with possession of a large amount of stolen military ordnance.

US Army and federal investigation agents confirmed the arrest of an unnamed Army Special Forces trooper around Clarksville on the Tennessee-Kentucky border.

Around 100 pounds of the military explosive C-4 was discovered at his residence in the state of Tennessee.

The soldier was taken into custody without bail after the investigators recovered the explosives on Sunday, AP reported.

The authorities are conducting an investigation to determine the man's motive for stealing army ordnance, but no further details on the arrest of the soldier based at Fort Campbell were given.

Earlier in October another soldier from the base was arrested while attempting to sell a number of grenades and an anti-tank rocket to an undercover agent.

India's Terror Dossier: Further
Evidence Of A Conspiracy

By Raveena Hansa

05 February, 2009
Countercurrents.org

On 5 January 2009, the Indian government handed a 69-page dossier of material stemming from the ongoing investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 26-29 November 2008 to the Pakistani government. This was subsequently made accessible to the public [1], so it is possible for us to examine it.

The most striking point about the dossier is its vague and unprofessional character. Enormous reliance is placed on the interrogation of the captured terrorist, Mohammed Amir Kasab, despite the fact that there is an abundance of other evidence – eyewitness accounts, CCTV and TV footage, forensic evidence, etc. – which could have been called upon to establish when, where, and what exactly happened during the attacks. This gives rise to the suspicion that the interrogation is being used as a substitute for real investigation because it can be influenced by intimidation or torture, whereas other sources of evidence cannot be influenced in the same way.

The account gleaned from interrogation would be far more convincing if it were corroborated by evidence from other sources. Thus it seems to have been established that Kasab is from Faridkot in Pakistan, and we also know from eyewitness accounts that he was captured at Girgaum, thanks to the heroism of Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Ombale. But a real charge-sheet would require the rest of the account supplied by Kasab to be confirmed by other evidence. For those who know Bombay, who were glued to their TV screens while the ghastly events unfolded, and who also followed reports in the print media, including Marathi newspapers, the account in the dossier just won't do.

A Very Significant Omission

Let us follow one trail from the point where the terrorists landed. According to the dossier, all ten terrorists landed at Badhwar Park on Cuffe Parade in an inflatable dinghy, then split into five pairs, and took taxis to their destinations. Kasab and Ismail Khan were assigned to CST station (better known as VT), and allegedly entered the station and started firing indiscriminately at 'about 21.20 hrs' (p.5). But according to an eyewitness at VT, Bharat Patel, a chef at Re-Fresh Food Plaza which was riddled with bullet-holes, firing in the mainline station started at 9.55 p.m. [3]. According to CCTV footage, it was at 21.55 that passengers, who had earlier been walking around normally, began running for cover in the suburban part of the station while the railway police attempted to take on the terrorists, and at 22.13 p.m., the terrorists were still in VT station [4]. Motorman O.M.Palli said, 'I heard the last bullet sound at 10.32,' and when asked how he could be so sure of the time, replied, 'I am a motorman; I keep time by the seconds' [5]. So why does the dossier prepone the assault by 35 minutes, when there is evidence which enables us to establish its timing far more precisely?

VT station opens onto Dadabhai Naoroji (DN) Road, which runs northwards parallel to the railway tracks and becomes Mohammed Ali Road; Mahapalika Marg begins in front of VT, going off DN Road to the northwest. Travelling from VT along Mahapalika Marg, one passes, on the right, the Municipal Corporation buildings, the Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Cama Hospital, and St. Xavier's College; it then carries on to Metro Junction. The third side of the triangle is constituted by Lokmanya Tilak Marg, on which the Police Headquarters is located, which runs between Metro Junction and Mohammed Ali Road. However, a large part of the triangle is occupied by a police complex, including police residential quarters. Running between DN Road and Mahapalika Marg is a lane, at least part of which is named Badaruddin Tyabji Marg, which goes off DN Road opposite the middle of VT station, turns right, going past the back of the Esplanade court and Cama Hospital on the left, then some distance further passes the CID Special Branch Building which houses the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (the southernmost part of the large and sprawling police complex) on the right, turns sharp left, passes the side of St Xavier's College on the left, and exits onto Mahapalika Marg (see [2]). It is important to keep this geography in mind when assessing the account in the dossier.

The dossier continues, 'They left the station, crossed an over-bridge and fled into a lane towards Cama hospital. Near Cama hospital they were challenged by a police team and there was an exchange of fire. As they exited the lane, they fired on a police vehicle carrying three senior police officers and four policemen' (p.6). The reader of this account is being asked to believe that Kasab and his colleague were involved in two encounters, presumably survived the first to be able to engage in the second, and that these encounters occurred in relatively quick succession. Prima facie, none of this sounds credible. In fact, what the dossier has done is to transpose an incident that occurred in Cama Hospital to the area just outside the hospital, in the lane at the back. What happened in Cama Hospital for Women and Children is that two Marathi-speaking terrorists armed with AK-47s and grenades killed two guards and spared a third who was in civilian dress and begged for his life [6], and then made a beeline for the terrace of the hospital, taking the liftman Tikhe with them [7]. After 15-30 minutes, a police party led by officer Sadanand Date arrived, was taken up to the 6th floor (which had no wards and was therefore empty at night) by another guard, Ghegadamal, after which a fierce battle ensued for 30-45 minutes, during which Date was seriously injured and two policemen died [8].

The fact that an incident took place in Cama Hospital involving two Marathi-speaking attackers, and that this was widely reported in the papers, would obviously be a source of embarrassment if the dossier is bent on showing that the terror attacks of late November involved only Pakistani nationals. Presumably that is why this whole sequence of events (in Cama Hospital) has been omitted from the dossier? In fact, this omission raises several other questions. First and foremost, who were these Marathi-speaking terrorists, why were they in Cama Hospital, and what happened to them afterwards?

Second, and no less important, is the question asked by Minority Affairs Minister A.R.Antulay: if there was no hostage situation in the hospital, why was an officer of the rank of ATS Chief Karkare sent there, and not to the Taj, Oberoi or Nariman House, where battles would have been raging by this time [9]? According to constable Arun Jadhav, who is the only eyewitness cited in the dossier (p.6), Hemant Karkare and others were called to Cama only after Date was wounded and had to retreat, which could not have been before 23.40, and was possibly somewhat later [10].

This timing is corroborated by the account given by a government driver, Maruti Phad, who lived off the lane in which the officers were reportedly killed. He stated on NDTV that at 23.30 he received a call from his boss, the Medical Education Secretary, summoning him to Mantralaya. As he drove down the lane to Mahapalika Marg, there was firing, and he was hit in the hand by bullets. He had the presence of mind to duck and reverse rapidly, and when the car stopped, pretended to be dead. The last thing Mr Phad added as he concluded his account of this episode was, 'Karkare mere pichhe thha' ('Karkare was behind me') [11]. Again, a proper investigation would have to reconstruct details from his eyewitness testimony. Here the suggestion seems to be that the killers of Karkare, whoever they were, were waiting at the corner outside St Xavier's College, and mistook Phad's vehicle for the one which Karkare was using.

In fact, the battle in which Karkare and his companions were reportedly killed was not at the exit of the lane but several yards before the exit, in front of the branch of Corporation Bank at the side of St Xavier's College, which bore the marks of several bullet-holes. If we accept that Kasab and Ismail conducted the massacre in VT, then they would have escaped from VT station, crossed the footbridge over DN Road and run along the lane going past the back of Cama Hospital around 22.40. If they were not involved in the attack inside Cama, what possible reason would they have for hanging around for at least an hour in a lane which is on the edge of a police complex and would have been full of cops by then due to the standoff at Cama, when they could have hijacked any number of cars from the main road (Mahapalika Marg) and escaped? Even in the event that they had been told Karkare was a target (extremely unlikely, since Karkare's revelations regarding the Samjhauta blasts (see below) had been welcomed in Pakistan), neither they nor their handlers in Pakistan could possibly have known that he would be coming down that lane an hour later. Give all this, it seems most unlikely that they could have been the killers of the police officers and constables killed in Badaruddin Tyabji Lane. Which leaves us with the crucial question: who killed Hemant Karkare?

A.R.Antulay was by no means alone in raising doubts about who exactly had killed Hemant Karkare, nor were such questions raised only by Muslims. Starting with an investigation into a terrorist attack in Malegaon in September 2008, Karkare had begun unearthing a terrorist network linked to Hindu extremist organisations with huge ramifications, some leading to military and bomb-making training camps and politicised elements in the army, others to religious figures like Sandhvi Pragyasingh Thakur and Dayanand Pandey, and yet others to organisations and political leaders affiliated to the BJP. These revelations confirmed an earlier enquiry by the ATS, which had linked Hindu extremist groups to several terrorist attacks in Maharashtra, but had never been followed up. One of the most potentially explosive discoveries was that a serving military intelligence officer, Lt.Col. Srikant Purohit, had procured 60 kg of RDX from government supplies, some of which was used in the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express (the India-Pakistan 'Understanding' train) in February 2007, in which 68 people were killed, the majority of them Pakistanis. Leading members of the BJP and Shiv Sena had vented open hostility against Karkare and the Malegoan investigation, demanded that he be removed from the case, organised support for the accused, and planned to hold a bandh against him on 1 December. Indeed, earlier on the 26th, an editorial in the Shiv Sena's Saamna attacked the investigation, and Karkare received a death threat [12].

When someone who has been vilified and threatened with death is killed under mysterious circumstances, it is only logical to suspect those who had been conducting a campaign against him of having a hand in his death. The way the dossier constructs its narrative points in the same direction.

Other Anomalies and Omissions

According to Jadhav's original testimony, Kasab and Ismail hijacked the the police vehicle in which Karkare had been travelling and drove it first to Metro Junction, where they fired three rounds at journalists and police vans (see [10]). There was indeed a shootout at Metro, captured on camera by a TV crew [13], but there is no mention at all of this incident in the dossier. Why not? Again, the implication is that the terrorists involved in the incident at Metro were not Kasab and Ismail but members of the other group, who drove there after killing Karkare and his companions.

Secondly, the dossier mentions that the return journey to Pakistan was charted on the GPS instrument (p.22-23), yet the terrorists, unlike those who hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar, made no attempt to use their hostages to secure their own or anyone else's escape. If, for example, they had announced, via the e-mail connection they used to claim the attacks for the 'Deccan Mujahideen', the names of some high-profile and foreign hostages, there would have been enormous pressure on the Indian government from family, friends and governments of the hostages to get them released. The fact that there was no such attempt suggests that this was a suicide mission; in which case, why was a return journey to Pakistan charted on the GPS when no one would be returning?

Thirdly, the intercepted calls cited in the dossier are emphatic that no Muslims should be killed (p.53, 54), yet in the carnage at VT station, 22 of the victims – well over one-third of the total – were Muslims [14]. The Walliullah family lost six members, and many of these victims would easily have been identified as Muslims from their appearance. This almost suggests that Muslims were deliberately being targeted: the exact opposite of what the Pakistani handlers had ordered! One possible explanation of this, also suggested by the fact that there were simultaneous attacks on the mainline and suburban sections of VT, is that there were two pairs of terrorists attacking the station, one of which was not from Pakistan.

Fourthly, it is clear from the translations of selected intercepted calls in the dossier (Annexure VII, p.51-54), that the cellphones of the terrorists were the main means by which they stayed in touch with their handlers and received instructions from them. What is not mentioned is that on 6 December, two people were arrested by the Kolkata police for supplying three SIM cards for these very cellphones: Tausif Rehman and Mukhtar Ahmed. Rehman was reported to have obtained the SIM cards in the name of deceased persons and other fake IDs, while Ahmed passed them on to LeT operatives.

Initially seen as a breakthrough in the investigation, the arrests soon became an embarrassment when it was discovered that Ahmed was an Indian intelligence operative who had infiltrated LeT. This incident has been used to make the charge that the whole Mumbai terrorist attack was a 'false flag' operation masterminded by Indian, US and Israeli intelligence services [15]. This seems far-fetched, but it certainly appears that something more sinister than a mere 'intelligence failure' on the part of Indian intelligence services is involved. What the SIM card episode and other reports suggest is that some parts of the Indian intelligence establishment had prior intimation that an attack was being planned. This prior intelligence was specific enough to identify seaside targets, in particular hotels. Hotel managements were in fact issued a general security alert some weeks before the attacks. Despite this, no attempt was made to prevent the attacks.

A month after the attacks, the government of Maharashtra appointed a two-member enquiry committee consisting of former Union Home Secretary Ram Pradhan and retired Indian Police Service officer V.Balachandran to investigate the occurrence of the terrorist attack and management of the ensuing crisis by the state administration. One hopes that these professionals will look at the evidence in its totality, sifting the more reliable pieces of information from those which are either patently false or contrived in some way.

Conspiracy Theories versus Supernatural Explanations

Most people react negatively to conspiracy theories. It is as if, when you are a child, someone tells you that your mother or father is a criminal: the first response is denial, even if you know in your heart of hearts that there is something in the accusation. From this comes the stereotype of 'conspiracy theorists' as crackpots.

Yet there are occasions when the conspiracy theory makes sense, and it is those who deny it who have to resort to supernatural explanations. A famous case is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Commission, set up to enquire into the assassination, came out with the theory that he was killed by a lone assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was subsequently himself assassinated. But several books, as well as Oliver Stone's film JFK, showed that the official version rested on the assumption of three bullets fired from the same location, one of which changed direction more than once, went through President Kennedy and Governor Connally, and emerged in an almost pristine condition. Against this 'magic bullet' theory, the alternative explanation – that there was more than one assassin – sounds more plausible, especially given eyewitness accounts that there were more than three shots, and that they came from different directions. But the failure to pursue this line of investigation strongly suggests a conspiracy, and a large majority of Americans believe in it.

Closer to our time, the 9/11 Commission report gave rise to considerable criticism in the US; by November 2008, there were apparently some 150 million web pages devoted to 9/11 conspiracy theories, several books had been written, and a large number of Americans believed the attack had been an 'inside job' designed to provide a pretext for military attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq [16]. (For these people, incidentally, the claim that '26/11 was India's 9/11' would mean that the Indian state is implicated in the Mumbai attacks!) It would be hard to prove that all these people are crackpots: many are scholars, pilots, architects, engineers and other professionals with specialised knowledge, as well as eyewitnesses. One of the criticisms related to the claim that it was the fire generated by the planes crashing into the WTC towers that led to their collapsing on their own footprint. Never before or since has fire led to buildings collapsing in this way, they argue, whereas this is exactly what happens when a controlled demolition takes place. They clinch the argument by referring to WTC Tower 7, which collapsed on its footprint without even being hit by a plane. Controlled demolitions imply that explosives had been laid beforehand, and that evidence for them was covered up afterwards: i.e., a conspiracy. But, like the JFK assassination, this is a case where the conspiracy theory complies with the laws of nature whereas the official version does not.

It is not necessary to allege that the government or head of state is involved in a conspiracy: it would be absurd, for example, to suspect that President Kennedy was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate himself. All that is required is that some elements in the state are involved. So what would a conspiracy theory of the Bombay terrorist attacks look like? One hypothesis is that Hindu nationalist elements in the Indian state had fairly precise intelligence of the planned terrorist attacks in Bombay, but instead of acting to prevent them, decided to enhance them instead, by adding more terrorists to the operation at VT, putting bombs in the taxis which blew up at Dockyard Road and Vile Parle, and positioning gunmen throughout the area, including Cama and the vicinity of the Metro.

Why would they have conspired in this way? Two reasons. The first and most pressing reason was that Hemant Karkare was rapidly uncovering just how extensive their network was, and how deeply they were implicated in a large number of terrorist attacks which had previously been attributed to Muslim jihadi groups. He had to be stopped at all costs, but an obvious murder by Hindutva terrorists could lead to a backlash against them. A terrorist attack by Pakistanis provided the perfect cover for the assassination. The second reason was that several Assembly elections were pending, and the BJP would be able to take advantage of the attack to accuse the UPA of being 'soft on terrorism'. In fact, the disappointment and dismay of BJP leaders after the election results came out was very evident, when they discovered that they had not gained as much as they hoped from the Mumbai attacks. But this disappointment was offset by the elimination of Karkare. The Minister of External Affairs, Prime Minister, Defence Minister, etc. immediately blamed 'Pakistan' for the attack, and the whole discourse of the media, which had been following the Malegaon case, shifted decisively back to 'terrorists from Pakistan'.

This 'conspiracy theory' is able to explain several things which remain unexplained in the 'official version', for example: (a) why, despite prior intelligence of the attacks, nothing was done to prevent them; (b) the Cama Hospital incident involving Marathi-speaking terrorists, and the outbreak of firing and general mayhem at Metro Junction; (c) the carnage at VT, where far more people were killed than at any other location, and the high proportion of Muslims killed there (contrary to the instructions given to the main group of terrorists); and (d) last but not least, the murder of Hemant Karkare at a time when Pakistani terrorists could only have been present at that location if time had stood still during the hour or more when the battle at Cama Hospital was raging.

Providing Justice to the Victims and Security to the Public

The main requirement for providing justice to the victims of the attack is to identify and punish all those involved in perpetrating it. This should be done in a manner that satisfies the requirements of the law. The Lockerbie case, which involved a terrorist attack on a plane over Scotland, victims from the US, UK and France, and accused from Libya, was tried by a Scottish court sitting in The Hague. A similar model would be ideal in this case: trial by an Indian court, since the attack took place in India and most of the victims were Indian, but in The Hague, since there were also victims from fifteen other countries (see p.14 of the dossier) and the accused are from Pakistan. It is especially important to have transparent legal proceedings that conform to international standards in order to help ensure that the case is conducted to the satisfaction of all parties, and also help to defuse the tension between Pakistan and India.

The broader aim of providing security to the public requires that members of terrorist networks in both countries should be rounded up and put behind bars. It is good that the international community is putting pressure on the government of Pakistan to do this in their country, and it is essential that this pressure should be sustained till results are achieved. As long as the Pakistan-based terror networks remain intact, further strikes cannot be ruled out, and these could have catastrophic political consequences for the subcontinent. But focusing simply on those networks will not, by itself, provide safety to us in India. Our security in addition requires the government here to eliminate terrorist networks in this country, including Hindutva ones. It is heartening that the ATS is proceeding with the prosecution of the Malegaon blast accused, and has presented the 4250-page charge-sheet that Hemant Karkare risked his life to work on, although it remains to be seen whether convictions will follow or the accused will be acquitted on some pretext. But even if there are convictions, that is not enough; Karkare was only able to uncover the tip of the iceberg before he was struck down, and a great deal more remains to be done. If it is not, we can predict with a fair degree of certainty that the Hindutva terrorists would strike again before the Lok Sabha elections, and the parties that are linked to the terrorists would use the opportunity to accuse the UPA of being 'soft on terrorism' in order to come to power. If they succeed, we could be faced with the horrific prospect of a military conflict between India and Pakistan that escalates into nuclear war.

[1] See http://www.hindu.com/nic/dossier.htm for a scanned copy of the dossier.

[2] See http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=badaruddin%
20tyabji%20marg&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl (the link takes you to a map of the US, and asks, 'Did you mean: Badaruddin Tyabji Marg… etc.' If you click on this link you go to the correct map.)

[3] Rahi Gaikwad, 'Retracing the CST Attack,' The Hindu, 4 December 2008, http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/04/
stories/2008120461882000.htm

[4] http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news
/1950266-see-cctv-of-chhatrapati-
shivaji-terminus-cst-terrorist-attack-at-mumbai

[5] Rahi Gaikwad, 'A hero at work,' Frontline, 20/12/2008,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2526/stories/
20090102252602800.htm

[6] Maharashtra Times and Navakaal of 29/12/2008,; see also
http://www.twocircles.net/2008nov29/
mumbai_attack_terrorists_spoke_marathi.htm

[7] http://www.monstersandcritics.com
/news/southasia/news/article_
1445785.php/SIDEBAR_Hospital_
staffer_recounts_escape_from_terrorists_

[8] http://spoonfeedin.blogspot.com/2008/12
/india-mumbai-attackscama-staff-rose-to.html

[9] Manoj C.G. and Seema Chishti, Indian Express, 17/12/2008,
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news
/Antulay-selfgoal-sees-a-Malegaon-
mystery-in-Karkare-Mumbai-murder/399670/

[10] Indian Express, 29/12/2008
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/witness-account
-of-karkare-kamte-and-salaskars-death/392181/

[11] Prachi Jawdekar Wagh, 'Mumbai driver recounts battle for survival,' 6/12/2008
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/
ndtv/mumbaiterrorstrike/Story.aspx?ID=
NEWEN20080075496&type=News

[12] Y.P.Rajesh, Indian Express, 27/11/2008,
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/ATS-chief-
Hemant-Karkare-dies-a-heros-death/391325/

[13] 'ATS Chief Hemant Karkare Killed: His Last Pics: IBNLive.com,'
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/79133/ats-
chief-hemant-karkare-killed--his-last-pics.html

[14] Srinivasan Ramani, 'Attack on "Everyday India",' Pragoti, 9/12/2008, http://www.pragoti.org/node/2720

[15] Kurt Nimmo, PrisonPlanet, 7/12/2008,
http://www.prisonplanet.com/
arrest-provides-more-evidence-india
-israel-and-the-us-behind-mumbai-attacks.html

[16] See, for example, http://bushstole04.com/ , http://www.911truth.org/ , and millions of other websites that come up if you type '9/11 truth' into Google.

Taliban denies Peshawar blast role:
Thursday, October 29, 2009
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/10/2009102995252334582.html

The Taliban and al-Qaeda have distanced themselves from Wednesday's deadly market blast in Peshawar that claimed 105 lives, saying "their main targets are the security forces, and not innocent civilians".

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in a statement sent to the media on Thursday, condemned the car bomb attack that tore through a crowded market and denied any involvement in the explosion.

However, Pakistani government officials have said the attack was in revenge for the army's offensive against Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, and that the military campaign would go on.

The attack on the busy Mina Bazaar, which also injured more than 200 people, was the deadliest to hit Pakistan this year.

Many of those killed were women and children and on Thursday, residents of the troubled city began burying the dead.

'Rogue elements'

Lieutenant-General Asad Durrani, the former head of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), told Al Jazeera the current situation in the country was grim and that it could take years for the situation to be brought under control.

"American help in our efforts of counter- insurgency are very unhelpful because this alliance is a very unpopular one. The public are not in favour of America and Pakistan co-ordinating..."

Durrani said that rising civilian casualties were also eroding the support for the anti-government groups.

"The most dangerous category of groups are the so-called rogue elements, their agenda is neither Afghanistan-oriented nor Pakistan. They carry out certain acts and atrocities which makes the situation even more complex," he said.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to the UK, told Al Jazeera: "The Taliban are losing the war, losing history. And while doing that they will kill as many as they would like to.

"But I can tell you, as our foreign minister said, we'll not buckle down. We fight them and we'll destroy them."

Clinton visit

The attack came as Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, touched down in Islamabad for talks with government officials.

Speaking in the Pakistani capital, she expressed her support for the military's offensive against the Taliban and pledging continued US assistance.

The blast hit a crowded market in the old part of the city [AFP]

"These extremists are committed to destroying that which is dear to us, as much as they are committed to destroying that which is dear to you, and to all people," Clinton said.

"So this is our struggle as well, and we commend the Pakistani military for their courageous fight, and we commit to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Pakistani people in your fight for peace and security."

Imran Khan, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, said officials had told him that a car drove into a narrow and packed market place before exploding.

"The bomb disposal squad are at the location and are looking for clues as to what type of explosive was used," he said.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, condemned the "appalling bomb attack".

"I want to express my outrage at the loss of so many innocent lives," he told a news conference in New York.

The blast comes as Pakistan's military is fighting members of the TTP in the country's semi-autonomous tribal region of South Waziristan.

The military launched its offensive nearly two weeks ago, pitting about 30,000 Pakistani troops against an estimated 10 to 12,000 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.

'Reckless acts'

Tariq Azeem Khan, a Pakistani senator and a former minister of state for information, told Al Jazeera that the attack showed the Taliban were becoming "reckless" in their choice of targets.

October attacks in Pakistan

Oct 28: Blast rocks a women's market in Peshawar, killing at least 80.
Oct 23: A suicide bomber kills seven people close to an air force complex in northwestern Pakistan.
Oct 22: Gunmen shoot and kill a senior army officer and a soldier in Islamabad.
Oct 20: Two suicide bombers attack the International Islamic University in Islamabad, killing six people.
Oct 16: Three suicide attackers hit a police station in Peshawar, killing 13.
Oct 15: Teams of gunmen attack three security facilities in the eastern city of Lahore, leaving at least 28 people dead, while car bombs kill 11 people in northwestern Kohat district and a 6-year-old boy in Peshawar.
Oct 12: A suicide car bomb explodes near a market in the northwestern Shangla district, killing 41.
Oct 10: A raid on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi leads to a 22-hour standoff that leaves nine rebels and 14 others dead.
Oct 9: A suicide car bomb in Peshawar kills 53 people.

"When they cannot get to the main targets because they are well guarded, they are doing these explosions all over the place - in the main shopping centres without any pre-determined targets.

"There's very little the government can do to try to protect every single shopping mall. It's a difficult task, but they are doing their best. Pakistan is paying a very high price at the moment.

Since the South Waziristan assault began, the military says it has killed at least 231 fighters, and lost 29 soldiers.

However, independent figures are impossible to come by as journalists and aid agencies are barred from the conflict zone.

More than 125,000 people have been registered as displaced by Pakistan's offensive since October 13, United Nations officials have said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said that humanitarian access to people in need remains the key challenge for agencies, given the volatile security environment in the displacement areas.

The military has given no figures for civilian casualties, but those fleeing say many people caught in the crossfire have been killed.

===

Taliban Chief Blames Blackwater for Peshawar Blast:
http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?668599

Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has claimed that the controversial American security firm Blackwater was behind the deadly bomb attack on a market in Peshawar that killed over 100 people.

Hakimullah questioned why the Taliban should target the public when it was capable of carrying out attacks in Islamabad and targeting the army's General Headquarters.

In an interview with BBC Urdu, he claimed Blackwater and "Pakistani agencies" were involved in attacks in public places to discredit the militants.

A powerful car bomb exploded at a crowded market in Peshawar yesterday, killing more than 100 and injuring 200 more. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had earlier said it was behind an attack on the army's headquarters earlier this month.

About 15 people were killed during that attack. A group of militants took nearly 50 people hostage before they were gunned down or blew themselves up.

Reports in the Pakistani media have claimed that Blackwater has established a presence in the country by tying up with local security firms but these allegations have been rejected by the US administration.

When Hakimullah was asked about the perception among people that militants are involved in attacks on public places, he said: "Our war is against the government and the security forces and not against the people. We are not involved in blasts."

Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq, who was present along with Hakimullah, warned that the militants could target media organisations that are "defaming" the Taliban.

North West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain and chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas have blamed militants for the blast in Peshawar.

They said militants are targeting the people because they are facing defeat in South Waziristan tribal region, where the army has launched a major ground offensive.

===

Mossad-Taliban whistleblower killed in Pakistan
Agencies

A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief
Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.

The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after
he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.

Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who
had called Mehsud "an American agent" was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.

Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud's use of suicide bombings targeting civilians.

In an interview with local media the defector said that Mehsud had established strong links with Israeli intelligence services, which were destabilizing the nuclear armed country. "These people (Mehsud and his men) are working against Islam."

Mehsud, a warlord in his late 30s, has claimed responsibility for dozens of devastating string attacks on both civilians and security forces throughout the feared region.

Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on civilian and religious centers in major cities across Pakistan, which has fueled anti-Taliban sentiments among the Pakistani people.

The US invaded Afghanistan more than seven years ago to allegedly eradicate insurgency and arrest Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.

The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has resulted in the spread of
violence into neighboring Pakistan. Taliban militants have turned the restive tribal belt between the two neighbors into a scene of daily violence.

===

Occupiers involved in drug trade: Afghan minister
Press TV
Sunday, Nov 1st, 2009

The Afghan minister of counter narcotics says foreign troops are earning money from drug production in Afghanistan.

General Khodaidad Khodaidad said the majority of drugs are stockpiled in two provinces controlled by troops from the US, the UK, and Canada, IRNA reported on Saturday.

He went on to say that NATO forces are taxing the production of opium in the regions under their control.

Afghanistan is the world's biggest supplier of opium.

Drug production in the Central Asian country has increased dramatically since the US-led invasion eight years ago.

A recent report by the United Nations states that Afghan opium is having a devastating impact on the world, killing thousands in consumer countries.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Ahmad Wali Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president, is involved in the opium trade, meets with Taliban leaders, and is also a CIA operative.
The opium trade is the major source of Taliban financing.

===

Afghan troops kill 25 "militants" :
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/29/content_12355163.htm

KABUL, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops in the northwest Badghis province have killed over two dozen Taliban insurgents, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

"In a joint operation of Afghan and international forces launched Monday in the Bom valley of Qadis district 25 rebels had been killed until Wednesdays night," daily Arman-e-Millie reported.

Quoting a military commander of the Afghan national army in the province Colonel Zainudin, the newspaper added that aerial bombardment had eliminated the insurgents and destroyed their hideouts.

Six Afghan soldiers sustained injuries in the operation, the newspaper said.

Bom is regarded as a stronghold of Taliban fighters in Badghis province where a NATO's helicopter crashed a couple of days ago and Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the incident.

===

Canadian occupation force soldier killed by IED in Afghanistan
Wed. Oct. 28 2009
http://snipurl.com/swrk2

A Canadian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, and two others injured, after an improvised explosive device detonated in the turbulent Panjwaii district.

The slain soldier has been identified as 26-year-old Lt. Justin Garrett Boyes, a member of 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.

"He was mentoring the Afghan local police, when his patrol was struck," Jonathan Montpetit, a reporter with The Canadian Press, told CTY News Channel by phone from Kandahar.

The two injured soldiers were treated at a medical facility at Kandahar Airfield, and are now listed in good condition.

Boyes was just 10 days into his deployment in Afghanistan.

"So early in the deployment, Justin's death is going to be difficult to accept by his brothers in arms, but will not deter any of us from continuing with our mission," Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance, the commander of Task Force Kandahar, said.

Vance said Boyes was excited for a chance to train Afghan police and contribute to the "effort to provide stability to the population so we could, in concert with the Afghan government, extend basic services and humanitarian assistance to those in need."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement offering his condolences to Boyes' family and friends.

"The dedication, bravery and remarkable commitment of Canadians like Lt. Boyes will bring safety and stability to the people of Afghanistan," Harper said. "Their ultimate sacrifice will not be forgotten."

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff also expressed his condolences.

"Today's loss of this brave solider reminds Canadians of the dangerous but important work our men and women of our Armed Forces carry out to ensure peace and security for the people of Afghanistan and the region. Lt. Boyes took on the challenge of defending peace and today we remember his courage and dedication to the mission," Ignatieff said.

Boyes recently joined the Princess Pats as a regular, after six years in the reserves.

Boyes grew up in Saskatchewan and leaves behind his wife, Alanna and three-year-old son, James.

"He was an easy-going Prairie boy who preferred sitting around the backyard with good friends, his family and a cold drink," Vance said.

NATO forces have had a particularly difficult week, with 14 U.S. soldiers killed in two separate helicopter crashes last Monday, and another eight killed by two IED explosions on Tuesday.

Canada has now lost 132 military personnel in the war-torn country, since the mission began in 2002.

===

US has no plans to quit AFPAK operations: White House
2009-10-29
http://snipurl.com/swrkg

The White House has said that it has no plans to quit its operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan inspite of Wednesday's blast in a Peshawar bazaar.

Recent reports had suggested that a rapid increase in attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan might force the Obama administration to leave the country, but the White House said that US troops would stay put.

"The president began the meetings on the assessment with saying we were not leaving Afghanistan. We understand that we have a role to play in ensuring stability in the region, which is why the president is taking his time to get this policy right," The Dawn quoted Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, as saying.

Gibbs also said President Obama will meet US military chiefs on Friday to review military strategy in Afghanistan.

"This is a meeting requested by the president to see the Joint Chiefs and to have a chance to talk to them and to other service branches about the ongoing assessment in Afghanistan and Pakistan," he added.

Earlier, Obama had held a meeting with his top advisers on the region to have a new policy to confront Taliban and Al Qaeda militants threatening the Governments of both countries. It was also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently in Pakistan on a three-day official visit.

Media reports had speculated that the consultations might lead to the announcement of a timeline for withdrawing US troops from the region.

===

U.N. cutting staff in Afghanistan:
http://snipurl.com/swrl1

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Non-essential U.N. staff across Afghanistan have been ordered to pack their bags and be ready for evacuation after a deadly attack on a U.N. guesthouse, a senior U.N. official said Thursday.

The staff members will leave the country because of security concerns, according to the official, who said a smaller staff will reduce exposure during the upcoming presidential runoff, but will not affect U.N. capabilities to support the election.

The United Nations also reduced non-essential staff ahead of the August 20 election, the official said.

The order comes a day after Taliban militants stormed the guesthouse in an early morning raid on Wednesday, killing five U.N. staff members and wounding nine more. At least 25 U.N. employees were staying at the guesthouse, including 17 members of the U.N. election team.

Afghanistan's presidential runoff election is scheduled for November 7. Taliban militants have threatened to disrupt the polling.

The United Nations said it was reviewing its security procedures in the aftermath of Wednesday's attack.

"This is a sad day and very difficult day for the United Nations," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, condemning the "shocking and shameless act and the terrorists who committed this crime" and noting that the incident is a reminder of how tough the U.N. job is in Afghanistan.

Video: Gunfire wakes CNN crew Ban said he was assured by Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had instructed his Interior Ministry to strengthen security, and he said the United Nations would do likewise -- in Kabul as well as elsewhere in the country.

"We will, of course, review our security procedures, as we do regularly for the Afghanistan mission as a whole. We will take all necessary measures to protect our staff," Ban said.

In the strike, weapons fire and explosions pounded the heart of the capital starting about 6 a.m. local time. The fighting began as sporadic gunfire, but intensified over time, lasting more than an hour.

The attack took place in a relatively secure section of the capital, in the vicinity of a number of government buildings. The firefight, which included machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, appeared to be concentrated near the guesthouse.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying on an insurgent Web site that three militants had killed 50 foreigners, who were election organizers. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

Officials said three militants were killed.

International troop levels increased this year, to provide security for the Afghan election in August, and the United States is considering deploying more troops.

===

Obama breaks from Bush by saluting coffins of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan:

http://snipurl.com/swrl6

President Obama publicly rejected the cloak of secrecy surrounding the return of US military dead late last night when he met the coffins of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan in a solemn, unannounced ceremony.

Mr Obama, under intense political pressure to make a decision on his future strategy on the war, offered prayers over each of the casualties before they were returned to US soil at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

On a cold and blustery night, the President marched briskly up a ramp on to the Air Force C-17 transport aircraft which had carried home the latest victims of an increasingly bloody and unpopular war.

Inside the cavernous plane, he privately paid tribute to each of the eight Army soldiers killed by a roadside bomb and to the seven servicemen and three Drug Enforcement Administration agents who died in a helicopter crash this week.

One-by-one their coffins, wrapped in the American flag, were carried out into the night. Most were borne by fellow soldiers wearing Army fatigues, combat boots and white gloves.

Seventeen of the bodies were driven away in private, before members of the media were invited by the family of one soldier to witness the return of his body.

Mr Obama stood silent and motionless in salute as six soldiers slowly carried a casket bearing the body of Sergeant Dale Griffin, from Indiana, out of the aircraft.

The respectful return of the bodies, pointedly not referred to as a ceremony by officials, was broadcast to the public in a break from almost two decades of secrecy over repatriations.

President Bush tightened a ban on media coverage of returning US soldiers that has been in place since the first Gulf War in 1991.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon lifted its 18-year moratorium on coverage providing family permission is granted.

In the surprise move shortly after midnight last night a few members of the press and some Administration officials accompanied the President to America's largest military mortuary which serves as the entry point for most service members killed abroad.

Mr Obama landed in Marine One, the presidential helicopter, before privately meeting the families of many of the casualties in a chapel near the airfield.

He was accompanied into the aircraft by Eric Holder, the Attorney General, and Michele Leonhart, the DEA Acting Administrator before returning to Washington in the middle of the night to continue his deliberations on the course of the war.

Polls show Americans increasingly weary of the war, which analysts say is likely to help define the Obama presidency. There is also scepticism among his fellow Democrats over sending more troops.

Tomorrow's war council is expected to provide the final lobbying opportunity for senior military figures backing a strategy that would deploy at least four extra Nato brigades to protect Afghan towns and cities.

Implicit in the strategy would be an admission that the forces could not hope to eliminate the Taleban entirely from the country's rural areas. Given normal US brigade strengths of 3,000 to 4,000 troops, this would mean deploying up to 16,000 extra soldiers.

The White House insisted yesterday that the President "has not settled on anything" and that all the myriad options discussed in the Situation Room over the past month remained on the table.

The Administration's continued refusal to show its hand has led to renewed claims that his indecision is frustrating America's allies and commanders.

Policy on Afghanistan "has been reviewed time and again" and yet more delay was "not helpful to our effort", Senator John McCain said.

However, behind the "dithering" alleged by the former Vice-President Dick Cheney, some observers believe that Mr Obama may be close to making up his mind.

"The signs from the White House are that the President has settled on a resource-intensive counter-insurgency approach but because resources are finite there will be an envelope around it," one official close to the negotiations said.

===

Taliban Take Over Afghan Province
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23837.htm

October 29, 2009 "Asia Times" -- ISLAMABAD - The United States has withdrawn its troops from its four key bases in Nuristan, on the border with Pakistan, leaving the northeastern province as a safe haven for the Taliban-led insurgency to orchestrate its regional battles.

The US has retained some forces in Nuristan's capital, Parun, to provide security for the governor and government facilities. The American position concerning the withdrawal is that due to winter conditions, supply arteries are choked, making it difficult to keep forces in remote areas. The US has pulled out from some areas in the past, but never from all four main bases.

The move by the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChystal, follows the death on October 3 of eight US soldiers as well as a number of Afghan National Army forces when their outpost in Kamdesh was attacked by more than 300 militants. On July 13, 2008, nine American soldiers were killed when their outpost in Wanat was attacked by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Nuristan is strategically located in the Hindu Kush mountains, the vast and rugged region in which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his associates are believed to hide.

The province is now under the effective control of the network belonging to Qari Ziaur Rahman, a Taliban commander with strong ties to Bin Laden. This makes Nuristan the first Afghan province to be controlled by a network inspired by al-Qaeda.

In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, a militant linked to Rahman said that now that they had control of Nuristan, the militants are "marching towards Mohmand and Bajaur to help their fellow Taliban fighting against Pakistani troops", referring to two tribal agencies across the border.

Rahman is not the son of a legendary mujahideen commander, but of a cleric named Maulana Dilbar. His ties do not lie with Pakistan, but with Bin Laden, having instructed him in the lessons of the Prophet Mohammed's life.

Ziaur, in his early thirties, was raised in the camps of Arab militants, who instilled in him the passion to fight against the Americans - not only in Afghanistan, but across the globe. Ziaur did not get his command as any hereditary right. First he had to prove himself on the battlefield, which he did by taking on US troops in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. He was the first to mount operations against the US in the Karghal district of Kunar and he engineered encounters in Nuristan. (See A fighter and a financier Asia Times Online, May 23, 2008.)

Mountainous Nuristan - and adjoining Kunar province and the Mohmand and Bajaur tribal areas - provide a natural labyrinth, ideal for insurgents to establish safe heavens. The majority of Nuristan's people adhere to the strict Salafi school of thought. As a result, Arab fighters, who are mostly Salafis, have always been drawn to the area. This happened during the jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s, when a virtually autonomous Salafi "kingdom" was established with aid from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This was later eliminated by the Taliban.

In recent years, several top al-Qaeda leaders have been spotted in the area, including al-Qaeda deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, who escaped two missile attacks by US Predator drones. During the Soviet invasion, Nuristan was one of the few areas of the country that was never under occupation. Since the US-led invasion of 2001, it, along with Kunar, has been a hot-bed of activity.

The Taliban's control of Nuristan coincides with the big Pakistani military operation in the South Waziristan tribal area against the al-Qaeda-backed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has been underway for the past two weeks. As the militant who spoke to Asia Times Online said, there is now the opportunity to open a new front, with Rahman's forces on the Afghan side and those of Moulvi Faqir Mohammad on the Bajaur and Mohmand side.

This region is also home to displaced militants from Pakistan's Swat Valley, who withdrew earlier this year after a military offensive in that area. They are believed to have regrouped and are preparing for new action in Swat once the winter snows block passes, making it difficult for the army's supply lines.

The latest developments in Nuristan mark a dramatic about-turn. In late 2008, coalition forces, along with the Pakistani military, launched Operation Lion Heart. The idea was that militants would be squeezed between coalition forces in Kunar and Nuristan on the one side, and Pakistani troops in Mohmand and Bajaur on the other. Several months later, both armies announced - clearly prematurely - that they had succeeded in flushing out the insurgent sanctuaries in the region.

Lion Heart was planned following US and Pakistani intelligence reports that the Taliban bases in Mohmand and Bajaur and in Nuristan and Kunar fed into a network that went on to the Taghab Valley in Kapisa province, which is just to the north of the capital, Kabul. From here, the Taliban have been able to launch suicide squads for attacks in Kabul.

The US withdrawal from Nuristan, if it becomes permanent, will give an unprecedented boost to the Taliban in the whole region. In the immediate term, they are better placed than ever to disrupt next month's presidential election runoff between the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. The Taliban have already issued calls for people to boycott the voting.

In a foretaste of what is to come, the Taliban on Wednesday attacked a guest house in Kabul, killing at least 12 people, including six United Nations employees, two security officials and a civilian, according to police and UN officials. Kabul police said that three attackers, all wearing suicide vests, had also been killed.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

===

U.S. To Protect 10 Afghan Population Centers
By Thom Shanker, Peter Baker and Helene Cooper
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23836.htm

October 29, 2009 "Post-Gazette" -- WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's advisers are coalescing around a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers, administration officials said yesterday, describing an approach that would stop short of an all-out assault on the Taliban while still seeking to nurture long-term stability.

Mr. Obama has yet to make a decision, but as officials described it, the debate is no longer over whether to send more troops, but how many more will be needed to guard the country's most vital parts. The question of how much of the country should fall under direct protection of U.S. and NATO forces will be central to deciding how many troops Mr. Obama will dispatch.

In southern Afghanistan yesterday, eight U.S. military members died in combat, bringing October's total to 53 and making it the deadliest month for Americans in the eight-year war. September and October were both deadlier months overall for NATO troops.

The U.S. troops, along with an Afghan interpreter accompanying them, were killed and an undisclosed number of troops injured in several attacks involving "multiple, complex" improvised bombs, according to a statement by the NATO-led coalition.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said Taliban fighters had blown up two armored vehicles carrying the troops near Zabul province. He also said the Taliban had engaged in a fierce firefight lasting more than a half-hour with Afghan police in Zabul and killed eight.

His report could not be verified because the U.S. military is withholding additional information until families of the dead have been notified.

On Monday, two helicopter crashes resulted in the death of 11 U.S. troops and three federal drug enforcement agents, but hostile fire was almost certainly not a factor in those cases, according to a military spokesman.

The October toll of 53 U.S. soldiers killed exceeds that of August, when 51 died, according to icasualties.org, a Web site tracking military losses in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also yesterday, the U.S. and NATO-led forces said an Army plane missing since Oct. 13 was found Wednesday with the remains of three civilian crew members in high mountains of northeastern Afghanistan over Nuristan province, where the military has been conducting extensive operations. The army said the plane's disappearance had not been announced until recovery efforts were complete.

The aircraft was stripped of all sensitive materials and destroyed in place, a statement from the NATO-led forces said. The case is under investigation, but the military said it did not think hostile action was the crash cause.

The United States has been increasing the number of soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan, and many have gone into some of the country's toughest areas. Southern Afghanistan has been the most contested ground, with both locally based insurgents and fighters who cross the border from Pakistan.

Under the strategy officials described yesterday, the administration now is looking at protecting Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Herat, Jalalabad and a few other village clusters. The first of any new troops sent to Afghanistan would be assigned to secure Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, seen as a center of gravity in pushing back insurgent advances.

But military planners are also pressing for enough troops to safeguard major agricultural areas, like the hotly contested Helmand River valley, as well as regional highways essential to the economy -- tasks that would require significantly more reinforcements beyond the 21,000 deployed by Mr. Obama this year.

One administration official said Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, had briefed Mr. Obama's advisers on how he would deploy any new troops under the approach being considered by the White House.

Administration and military officials emphasized that the strategy would include other elements, such as accelerated training for Afghan troops, expanded economic development and reconciliation with less-radical Taliban members.

But such a strategy would be open to complaints that U.S. and allied forces were, in effect, giving insurgents free rein across large swaths of the nation, allowing the Taliban to establish mini-states complete with training camps that could be used by al-Qaida. "We are not talking about surrendering the rest of the country to the Taliban," a senior administration official said.

Military officers said they would maintain pressure on insurgents in remote regions by using surveillance drones and reports from people in the field to find pockets of Taliban fighters and guide attacks, in particular by Special Operations forces.

But a range of officials made the case that many insurgents fighting Americans in distant locations are motivated not by jihadist ideology, but by local grievances, and therefore are not much threat either to the United States or the Kabul government.

At this strategy's heart is the conclusion that the United States cannot completely eradicate the insurgency in a nation where the Taliban is an indigenous force -- nor does it need to do so to protect U.S. national security. Instead, the focus would be on preventing al-Qaida from returning in force, while containing and weakening the Taliban long enough to build Afghan security forces eventually to take over the mission.

In effect, the approach blends ideas advanced by Gen. McChrystal and by Vice President Joseph R. Biden, seen as opposite poles in the internal debate. Gen. McChrystal has sought at least another 40,000 troops for a counterinsurgency strategy aimed at protecting Afghan civilians, so they will support the central government. Mr. Biden has opposed a buildup on the grounds that a bigger military footprint could be counterproductive, and that fighting al-Qaida in Pakistan should be the main priority.

A strategy of protecting major Afghan population centers would be "McChrystal for the city, Biden for the country," as one administration official put it. Officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates was playing a crucial role, balancing the case made by commanders and the skepticism of some civilians on Mr. Obama's war council, as the debate entered its final days.

A senior military officer said Gen. McChrystal wants the most expansive definition of population centers to include fertile valleys and economic belts as well as major roadways -- in particular the national ring road that is the central link for commerce -- as well as four or five roadways linking Afghanistan eastward to Pakistan and westward to Iran.

The New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin contributed to this report.

===

U.S. Dependence On Afghan Warlords
By Gareth Porter
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23840.htm

October 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (IPS) - The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.

U.S. and other NATO military contingents operating in the provinces of Afghanistan's predominantly Pashtun south and east have been hiring private militias controlled by Afghan warlords, according to these sources, to provide security for their forward operating bases and other bases and to guard convoys.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has acknowledged that U.S. and NATO ties with warlords have been a cause of popular Afghan alienation from foreign military forces. But the policy is not likely to be reversed anytime soon, because U.S. and NATO officials still have no alternative to the security services the warlords provide.

A report published by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University in September notes that U.S. and NATO contingents have frequently hired security providers that are covertly owned by warlords who have "ready-made" private militias which compete with state institutions for power.

The report cites examples of major warlords or their relatives or allies who have been contracted for security services in four provinces.

In Uruzgan province, both U.S. and Australian Special Forces have contracted with a private army commanded by Col. Matiullah Khan, called Kandak Amniante Uruzgan, with 2,000 armed men, to provide security services on which their bases there depend. That case was reported in detail in April 2008 by two reporters for The Australian, Mark Dodd and Jeremy Kelly.

Col. Khan's security force protects NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) convoys on the main road from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt, where more than 1,000 Australian troops are based at Camp Holland, according to the The Australian in April 2008.

Col. Khan gets 340,000 dollars per month - nearly 4.1 million dollars annually - for getting two convoys from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt safely each month. Khan, now police chief in Uruzgan province, evidently got his private army from his uncle Jan Mohammad Khan, a commander who helped defeat the Taliban in Kandahar in 2001 and was then rewarded by President Karzai by being named governor of Uruzgan in 2002.

The Australian Defence Force claimed to The Australian that Col. Khan is paid by the Afghan Ministry of Interior to provide security on the main highways of Uruzgan province. The Australian military had previously refused to confirm or deny Australian payments to Col. Khan.

CanWest News Service's Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda reported in November 2007 that the Canadian military had hired a "General Gulalai" to provide security for an undisclosed forward operating base. Gulalai is a warlord in southern Afghanistan who drove the Taliban out of Kandahar in 2001.

The same reporters revealed that Col. Haji Toorjan, a local warlord allied with Kandahar governor and major warlord Gul Agha Sherzai, was hired to provide security for Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City, where Canada's provincial construction team is located.

Blanchfeld and Mayeda found that the Canadian military had given 29 contracts worth 1.14 million dollars to a company identified as "Sherzai", suggesting strongly that the former governor of Kandahar, who had become governor of Nangarhar province, was the owner.

The Canadian military refused to confirm whether Gul Agha Sherzai is indeed the owner.

In Badakhshan province, Gen. Nazri Mahmed, a warlord who is said to "control a significant portion of the province's lucrative opium industry", has the contract to provide security for the German Provincial Reconstruction Team, according to the NYU report.

The report suggests that the U.S. and NATO contingents are spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on contracts with Afghan security providers, most of which are local power brokers guilty of human rights abuses.

In addition to Ahmed Wali Karzai, it names Hashmat Karzai, another brother of President Karzai, and Hamid Wardak, the son of Defence Minister Rahim Wardak, as powerful figures who control private security firms that have gotten security contracts without registering with the government.

Two anonymous United Nations sources cited in the report estimate that 1,000 to 1,500 unregistered armed security groups have been "employed, trained, and armed by ISAF" and "Coalition Forces" for security services. As many as 120,000 armed individuals are estimated by the U.N. sources to belong to about 5,000 private militias in Afghanistan.

Most Afghan warlords are widely reviled, mainly because the private armies they continue to control carry out theft and violence against civilians without any accountability.

In his initial assessment last August, Gen. McChrystal referred to "public anger and alienation" toward ISAF, of which he is commander, as a result of the perception that ISAF is "complicit" in "widespread corruption and abuse of power".

That remark suggests that McChrystal, who had carried out the Special Forces' policy of relying on Afghan warlords for security in the past, was now expressing concern about its political consequences.

Jake Sherman, a co-author of the NYU report, was a United Nations political officer involved in the effort to disarm warlords from 2003 to 2005. He is sceptical that U.S. policy ties with the warlords will be ended.

"I don't see how U.S. and other contingents could sustain forward operating bases without paying these guys," said Sherman in an interview with IPS.

Beyond their continuing dependence on the warlords for security services, Sherman sees another reason for keeping them on the payroll. If the U.S. and NATO military commanders tried to cut their ties with the private militias, Sherman said the warlords "would actually become a security threat".

Sherman recalled that during his period working for the United Nations in northern Afghanistan, local police were hired to guard a World Food Programme warehouse in Badakhshan. After a rocket attack on the warehouse, an investigation quickly turned up the fact that the police themselves had carried out the attack to pressure the U.N. to hire more guards.

The present U.S. and NATO dependence on warlord armies is rooted in the policy of the George W. Bush administration in the early years after the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The Central Intelligence Agency put the commanders of the forces who had defeated the Taliban on the payroll and gave them weapons and communications equipment to help U.S. counterterrorism squads locate any al Qaeda remnants in Afghanistan.

The commanders used the U.S. support to consolidate their political control over different provinces or sub-provincial areas. Human Rights Watch observed in a June 2002 report on the new relationships forged between the United States and the warlords, "While the U.S. government does not view this policy as actively supporting local warlords, the distinction is often lost on Afghan civilians who see coalition forces openly interacting with the warlords."

Larry Goodson of the National War College, who participated in the 2002 process called the Loya Jirga under which the first post-Taliban Afghan government was established, told IPS he had recommended from the beginning a "de-warlordisation" process, in which "we took nasty, sleazy characters and turn them into less nasty, sleazy bosses."

But the warlords were kept on the payroll, Goodson recalls, mainly because the troops controlled by the former commanders were seen as "force multipliers", in a situation where foreign troops were in short supply.

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006.

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Patient Dies After PM's Security Stops Him

Outlook - ‎1 hour ago‎

The family of a kidney patient today alleged that he died as their vehicle failed to reach the emergency section of PGIMER hospital here due to tight security measures for the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh even as the PMO sought a report on ...

Family blames PM's security for man's death Sify

PM in city today Indian Express

Hindustan Times - Times Now.tv - Myiris.com - IBNLive.com

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Video: Yechury backs Basu's appeal

The Hindu

Congress rejects Basu's appeal

Indian Express - ‎48 minutes ago‎

The state Congress unit today rejected veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu's appeal to its party supporters and sympathisers to vote for the Left Front candidates in the upcoming Assembly by-polls, saying it was a desperate and absurd move by the Left to ...

NDTV.com Video: Yechury backs Basu's appeal

NDTV.com

TMC, CPM workers clash in West Bengal, 20 injured Hindustan Times

Economic Times - Calcutta Telegraph - Sify - Hindu

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World »

BBC News

Blair 'unacceptable' as president

BBC News - ‎2 hours ago‎

The British people would find Tony Blair "unacceptable" as president of the European Council, Conservative leader David Cameron has warned.

Czech court gives go-ahead to Lisbon treaty Times Online

Czech court endorses Lisbon Treaty Xinhua

guardian.co.uk - Telegraph.co.uk - Aljazeera.net - AFP

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Lloyds Banking Group rights issue: what investors need to know

Telegraph.co.uk - ‎33 minutes ago‎

About 2.8 million shareholders in Lloyds Banking Group will soon receive a large envelope from the giant bank with details of the company's £13.5bn rights issue.

Lloyds and RBS Announce Major Shuffle New York Times

INSTANT VIEW: UK bank shake-up, record cash call for Lloyds Reuters

guardian.co.uk - Bloomberg - BBC News - Reuters India

Aid workers worry over Pakistan war zone AFP

Boston Globe

Pakistan Taliban: 'We are prepared for a long war'

The Associated Press - ‎24 minutes ago‎

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Taliban spokesman has denied Pakistan's claims of battlefield victories in an offensive in tribal South Waziristan, saying the militants are drawing government soldiers into a trap.

21 militants killed in Pakistan's S Waziristan operation Xinhua

Bloomberg - Zee News - Daily Times - Radio Australia

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Business »

Rediff

Nifty ends below 4550; Suzlon,Hindalco,DLF fall

Economic Times - ‎1 hour ago‎

MUMBAI: Indian markets ended with huge losses Tuesday as traders offloaded positions after European markets extended losses. ( Watch ) National Stock Exchange's Nifty closed at 4545.15, down 166.55 points or 3.53 per cent.

Stock recommendations on Nov 03 Sify

Markets plunge on weakness in metals, realty Business Standard

Press Trust of India - NDTV.com - Myiris.com

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BOM:500440

WRAPUP 2-India buys half of IMF's gold for sale; who's next?

Reuters - Surojit Gupta, Lesley Wroughton - ‎1 hour ago‎

MUMBAI/WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has sold 200 tonnes of gold to the Reserve Bank of India for $6.7 billion, quietly executing half of a long-planned bullion sale that has ...

India Buys Gold From IMF as Dollar Decline Prompts Banks to Diversify Bloomberg

Gold rallies to all-time peak on higher global cues Press Trust of India

Rediff - Wall Street Journal - All India Radio

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UPDATE1-Bajaj Hind, Balrampur deny stake reports

Reuters India - Swati Pandey - ‎1 hour ago‎

MUMBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Sugarmakers Balrampur Chini Mills (BACH.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Bajaj Hindusthan (BJHN.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday denied that they were in stake sale talks, sending the former's shares ...

Bajaj Hindustan erases gains on deal call-off Business Standard

Bajaj Hind-Balrampur deal called off on differences:Sources Moneycontrol.com

India Infoline.com - Equity Bulls - Economic Times

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BOM:500032 - BOM:500038 - NSE:BAJAJHIND.BL

IGNOU to conduct B.Tech entrance test again in 10 days Sify

Sci/Tech »

Mobiletor.com

Its first online test fails, IGNOU blames rivals

Indian Express - ‎56 minutes ago‎

India's largest distance education university's first experiment with online testing collapsed within minutes of taking off Saturday, a disaster which the university suspects resulted from a malicious cyber attack.

IGNOU and Ericsson join hands to proivde IGNOU courses on mobile phones Mobiletor.com

Daily News & Analysis - Times of India - The Hindu - Express Buzz

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Bad karma for Linux koalas Telegraph.co.uk

Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Ubuntu 9.10 is causing outrage and frustration, with early adopters wishing they'd stuck with previous versions of the Linux distro.

Ubuntu 9.10 test drive Inquirer

Product Reviews (blog) - Livemint - TG Daily - Techie Buzz

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Techtree.com

Orkut Gets New Version

Techtree.com - ‎Nov 1, 2009‎

Google seems to have had enough of Facebook's meteoric rise and has now sprung into action with a host of new design changes to its social networking website, Orkut.

Orkut quicker and richer & safer features aim to retrieve base Ub News

New Improvements of Orkut Thelatest News

IBTimes - Merinews - India Today - BollyPatrika.com (blog)

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Entertainment »

Indian Express

Now Kareena Kapoor promotes 'size zero' laptops

Sify - ‎39 minutes ago‎

After promoting her size zero figure in India, actress Kareena Kapoor has chosen to endorse Sony's newly launched half-inch thin notebook VAIO X because the product goes well with her looks - "thin and lightweight", the actress said on Tuesday.

Saif and I talk about marriage: Kareena Kapoor Oneindia

I am proud to be India's size zero: Kareena Kapoor Press Trust of India

bollywoodhungama - BehindWoods - GlamSham - MSN India

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Hindustan Times

Shah Rukh Khan says year 2009 was dull because of his shoulder injury!!

stardustco.in - ‎1 hour ago‎

Shah Rukh Khan, the badshah of bollywood who celebrated his 44th birthday on Monday with his wife Gauri Khan and children- Aryan, Suhani- has rued the fact that last year was not as great as he expected it to be in terms of success.

SRK promises more action next year Times of India

I feel like a 25-year-old: Shah Rukh Khan Hindu

News Line 365 - NDTV.com - Hindustan Times - Oneindia

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World News

'The frontal nudity scene is an essential element of Jail'

Rediff - ‎2 hours ago‎

Neil Nitin Mukesh is not one to play a chocolate boy hero despite looking very much like one. His first movie Johnny Gaddaar saw him portray a character with grey shades while his second New York was not a conventional hero-centric role either.

Neil Nitin Mukesh willing to strip again Oneindia

Jail team promotes film behind bars, literally IBNLive.com

Mid-Day - Sify - GlamSham - Galatta.com

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Video: Mahendra Singh Dhoni on India's loss to Australia in Mohali

Sports »

Sydney Morning Herald

All square as India stumble

Indian Express - ‎58 minutes ago‎

Ricky Ponting wouldn't have minded taking a few of the Indian batsmen out for dinner last night, but the Aussie skipper spent time celebrating with his own team, relieved at having escaped defeat, and pleased at having thrown a punch or two at the ...

ITN NEWS Video: Mahendra Singh Dhoni on India's loss to Australia in Mohali

ITN NEWS

Injured Siddle adds to Aussie woes in India AFP

PunjabNewsline.com - Cricket Nirvana - Reuters India - BBC Sport

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India's armed forces refuse to play in Kashmir AFP

Farooq to go to PM about Services' no to cricket in Srinagar

Sify - ‎5 minutes ago‎

/New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) Reacting sharply to the Services' team refusing to play a cricket match in Srinagar, a furious union minister and Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) chief Farooq Abdullah Tuesday said he would take up the issue with ...

Just not cricket: Srinagar waits, Services won't play Ranji match Indian Express

Times of India - CricInfo.com - Merinews - Zee News

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Video: Fan: Yankees 'Terrific So Far'

Washington Post

Utley keeps Phillies hopes alive

BBC Sport - ‎3 hours ago‎

Philadelphia Phillies kept alive their hopes of retaining the World Series by beating New York Yankees 8-6 - although the Phillies trail 3-2 in the series.

The Associated Press Video: Fan: Yankees 'Terrific So Far'

The Associated Press

Chase Utley hits two home runs in Phillies win over New York Yankees in World ... Times Online

ESPN - SkySports - New York Baseball Digest - National Post

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Health »

Video: H1N1 Vaccine and Pregnancies

Kids will need two doses of H1N1 flu vaccine

Reuters - Maggie Fox - ‎8 hours ago‎

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Up to 30 million doses of vaccine against the pandemic H1N1 flu have been delivered to the US government and production is now picking up, officials said on Monday.

CBS Video: H1N1 Vaccine and Pregnancies

CBS

Province gets F for flu plan Edmonton Sun

Lancaster Eagle Gazette - Toronto Star - Newnan Times-Herald - Globe and Mail

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The Hindu

Honouring Apollo Hospital's services

Express Buzz - ‎10 hours ago‎

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu's Deputy chief minister MK Stalin and A Raja, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, released a Rs 5 postage stamp in honour of Apollo Hospitals and its services in the healthcare industry across the country.

Apollo Knee Clinics Planned in 12 Locations MedIndia

Postage stamp in name of Apollo Hospitals released Press Trust of India

Daily News & Analysis - pharmabiz.com - Business Standard - The Hindu

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TheMedGuru

There is no specific cure for dengue

Times of India - ‎13 hours ago‎

Dengue is a mosquito-borne seasonal viral infection caused by any of four closely related viruses (DENV 1-4). The virus is transmitted by a bite of female mosquito of any of two species of mosquitoes of the genus Aedes.

391 Dengue Cases reported in Delhi BreakingNewsOnline.

Dengue infection tally climbs to 391 TheMedGuru

PRESS TV - Sunday Observer - Colombo Page - VOVNews.vn

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E.Guinea pardons mercenary behind 2004 coup plot AFP

Profile: Simon Mann

BBC News - ‎15 minutes ago‎

Simon Mann, a former British commando, businessman, and one-time actor, who was jailed for 34 years for leading a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, has been pardoned by the country's president.

Eq. Guinea pardons UK ex-soldier Mann over plot Reuters

The Associated Press - Times Online - Telegraph.co.uk - Bloomberg - Wikipedia: Simon Mann

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SINDH TODAY

Not allowed to fly with stapled Chinese visa: Kashmiri prof

Indian Express - ‎1 hour ago‎

Immigration officials at the Delhi airport on Sunday stopped a professor of Kashmir University from taking a plane to China because they would not accept the stapled visa that China continues to issue to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the professor ...

China concerned over India's employment visa policy Press Trust of India

Staple grounds Kashmir scientist Calcutta Telegraph

Hindustan Times - Rising Kashmir - SamayLive - TopNews

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Indian Express

SC judges list their assets for the people

Indian Express - ‎1 hour ago‎

After months of controversy over transparency and accountability, a heated public debate in Parliament and outside, and even a battle in court, Chief Justice of India Justice KG Balakrishnan and all other judges of the Supreme Court on Monday ...

Justice must begin at Home HardNews Magazine

SC judges declare assets on website Times of India

BBC News - Hindu - Economic Times - Calcutta Telegraph

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