Swat Forgets Pain To Join Celebrations

MINGORA: Swat showed no sign of the scars of war on Friday as people showed amazing resilience to celebrate the independence day in a traditional manner.

Mingora’s Nishat and Green Chowks, where militants used to punish their opponents, and the Wadoodia Hall at Saidu Sharif throbbed with life as Swatis of all ages turned out in droves to belie fears that it would be years before a semblance of normality returned to the valley.

Shoppers thronged major bazaars in Mingora and miniature national flags and badges were in great demand.

Shopkeepers indulged their passion for music by making special arrangements to play national songs over loudspeakers.

The most surprising element was that even women were seen with their families celebrating the Independence Day.

‘It is like Eid for me because I am again in my home,’ said Fayyaz Khan, a shopkeeper at Saidu Sharif, who returned to his hometown last week after spending over three months at Jalozai relief camp in Nowshera.

On Friday, thousands of people particularly the youth were seen on the roads while carrying national flags on their motorbikes and cars.

A flag-hoisting ceremony, followed by a special show of the state television, was main event of the day at Wadoodia Hall Saidu Sharif, where federal minister for information and broadcasting Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, provincial ministers from NWFP, Punjab and large number of Swaties were present.

Parliamentarians from Swat, however, could not turn up to the event because they were annoyed with barricades and road blockades right from Amankot to Saidu Sharif, which hindered their movement to the venue.

Similarly, a group of Peshawar-based journalists taken to cover the event were not given the permission.

Speaking on the occasion, the federal information minister paid glowing tribute to people of Swat, saying ‘they have not only fought a war for survival of the country but for the entire whole world.’

The people of Swat, he maintained, had brought an end to phenomenon of violence, militancy and terrorism, which could ensure a lasting peace not only in Swat but throughout the world.

NWFP Information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain delivered an emotional speech that earned him a standing ovation from fully charged gathering.

He said that government was committed to eliminate the militants from their roots, adding now responsibility rests with the public to extend support to security forces in netting out of militants, which he said ‘are on the run.’

He said the Taliban’s network has been dismantled and they were now were running for survival and this could not have been possible without public support.

The minister argued that government would uphold its decision of introducing judicial system based on Islamic teachings because this was not demand of a particular group but in fact it was a long-standing desire of people from all over Malakand.

The Independence Day celebrations in Swat began on Thursday evening thousands of youth on motorbikes, cars and by foot came out on the roads, when they heard that the curfew period was relaxed till midnight for the first time to facilitate the celebrations.

Thousands of people from the city and adjoining villages led by elected representatives marched from Nishat Chowk to Green Chock and changed slogans in favour of security forces and against militants.

Shaukat Aziz first order facilitate U.S. at any cost

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday was told about the first order issued by Shaukat Aziz, soon after taking oath as the prime minister of Pakistan in 2005. It was to give 28 acres of KPT land, worth billions of rupees, to the US for construction of its consulate in Karachi for only Rs 1.1 billion on a 99-year lease.

On the personal instructions of Shaukat Aziz, the Americans were given the land at the laughable rate of Rs 15,000 per square yard against the market rate of Rs 222,000, causing a loss of billions to the country.

When the Aziz scam was being unfolded in the PAC in pindrop silence, his two former cabinet ministers — Hamid Hiraj and Zahid Hamid — and six PML-Q MNAs, now sitting as members of parliamentary accountability, who had voted him to become the premier, were present.

The PAC was told that the 28 acres were actually given to the Americans before the visit of then US President George Bush, who was set to raise this issue in his bilateral talks with President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Bush was informed that the land had already been transferred to America on their own terms and a happy Bush walked out of the conference room with a huge smile on his face. It was disclosed that the secretariat of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), which was the backbone of the cotton economy, was asked to vacate its building urgently so that it could be handed over to the US for construction of the consulate. For the last four years, the PCCC is using a rented building and had paid huge rents to private owners.

The story was unfolded by KPT Chairperson Nasreen Haq. The scam surfaced in the PAC meeting when KPT and Agriculture Ministry officials brought their own controversy over the payment of PCCC building handed over to the Americans. The Agriculture Ministry officials were claiming to have been denied Rs600 million as compensation from the amount to be received from the Americans.

Secretary Establishment Ismail Qureshi was summoned to explain how could he as secretary agriculture had shown no resistance to this move and quietly let the PCCC building be handed over to the US without considering its implications for the cotton committee.

Ch Nisar wondered as to how could all this be done so blatantly by the prime minister of Pakistan and most importantly, how the US could do all this. He said now the Americans might know that why the people of Pakistan did not like them.

“It’s simply mind-boggling,” observed a seriously disturbed Nisar after coming to know the scandalous details. He blasted Shaukat Aziz and said he had already fled the country. “Now what should the PAC do, as the honourable Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had already escaped from the country,” observed Nisar.

Chaudhry Nisar asked the concerned authorities to get the facts verified whether Pakistan was ever given such a huge concession of getting 28 acres of land in Washington, New York or other cities on such concessional rates.

When this correspondent contacted a former official, who was a close associate of Shaukat Aziz, he said only friends of Pakistan were given special treatment during the tenure of the former prime minister. He said the US has always been helping Pakistan in time of need. He said to give concessions to friendly countries is a norm in international relations and unnecessary criticism on this count should be avoided.

This article was published by The News.

ISI role and forigen agencies involvement in Pakistan terrorism

Everyone in Washington and New Delhi mentions ISI when talking about terrorism. Really? What about the Israeli Mossad, the Indian RAW, and the American CIA? Who had links with Al-Qaeda all along? Certainly not the ISI. The fact is that ISI never had links with Al-Qaeda. Others did. And yes, ISI has links with some people inside the Afghan Taliban. But without this link, U.S. soldiers and others in Afghanistan would have been in a worse situation than they are in now.

Strategic Forecasting, Inc., the American private intelligence gathering company better known as STRATFOR, seems to have deviated from its policy of terse insightful articles by putting out a long rambling unsubstantiated tirade against the ISI, one of Pakistan’s three major intelligence agencies.

Recently the company produced a report that was immediately quoted in the western media, dubbing the ISI as a ‘rogue agency’ and a list of other accusations that accurately mirror the motivated and unsubstantiated statements made by the Indians, the U.S. officials and their puppet regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul.]

Kamran Bukhari, the Pakistani researcher working for company and the author of the article, does not offer even a shred of evidence to support the many allegations (none of them new) against the ISI. This inevitably brings the motivation of the exercise into question because so far STRATFOR has been impartial and objective in its reports.

The author or STRATFOR seems to think that ‘overhauling’ the ISI would somehow ward off ‘foreign pressures’, end the ‘jihadist insurgency’ and resolve the ‘crisis in government’ in Pakistan.

Amazingly the U.S. and the incumbent Pakistan government think this is exactly what the present ISI is trying to do against great odds and there is plenty of evidence to support this contention. So an overhaul will not lead to any dramatic results and may be counterproductive.

The author has described the ISI as ‘large, powerful and autonomous’.

It is large and it is powerful – among the most credible spy agencies in the world. But it is not autonomous. It works under the Prime Minister, its director general is appointed by the Prime Minister from a panel of serving three-star generals, all the officers are posted from the three services – army, navy, the air force – and they are all career officers who come for fixed tenures.

The ISI is funded by the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Defense. How can it possibly be autonomous? The ISI’s task is strategic intelligence and if it is directed to do other things then that tasking has to come from the government of the day.

ISI has been placed center-stage in the whole transnational terrorist scene. The CIA, RAW and KHAD and many other intelligence agencies are not mentioned. They all have a role. ISI has been linked to AL Qaeda – actually it is a target of Al Qaeda and there is plenty of evidence to support this. ISI never had links with Al Qaeda.

If today the ISI did not have links with the Taliban then the U.S. and Afghanistan would be in a much greater trouble than they are now. It is the ISI that uses its links to obtain vital intelligence. In some areas there is no substitute for human intelligence.

No organization, and certainly no intelligence agency, would ever tolerate sub-groups within its ranks. The ISI does not have any people within its ranks who would work against the overall policy. Such elements would not be tolerated and the organization would be undermined very quickly. This has never happened.

Freelancing retired personnel of ISI do pick up jobs outside the agency after retirement and get involved in various assignments. But the ISI does not maintain any links with them. If there was any truth in such allegations then names and places would have surfaced a long time ago.

The attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul should not be seen in isolation. It had been preceded by an attack on the Afghan National Day Parade and by a spectacular jail break in Kandahar. In fact, unsubstantiated charges can actually start a proxy war in Kabul between rival intelligence agencies – something that must be avoided at all costs.

ISI is an asset and a vital link in the war against terror. It has proved this again and again.

Everyone in Washington and New Delhi mentions ISI when talking about terrorism. Really? What about the Israeli Mossad, the Indian RAW, and the American CIA? Who had links with Al-Qaeda all along? Certainly not the ISI. The fact is that ISI never had links with Al-Qaeda. Others did. And yes, ISI has links with some people inside the Afghan Taliban. But without this link, U.S. soldiers and others in Afghanistan would have been in a worse situation than they are in now.

Strategic Forecasting, Inc., the American private intelligence gathering company better known as STRATFOR, seems to have deviated from its policy of terse insightful articles by putting out a long rambling unsubstantiated tirade against the ISI, one of Pakistan’s three major intelligence agencies.

Recently the company produced a report that was immediately quoted in the western media, dubbing the ISI as a ‘rogue agency’ and a list of other accusations that accurately mirror the motivated and unsubstantiated statements made by the Indians, the U.S. officials and their puppet regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul.]

Kamran Bukhari, the Pakistani researcher working for company and the author of the article, does not offer even a shred of evidence to support the many allegations (none of them new) against the ISI. This inevitably brings the motivation of the exercise into question because so far STRATFOR has been impartial and objective in its reports.

The author or STRATFOR seems to think that ‘overhauling’ the ISI would somehow ward off ‘foreign pressures’, end the ‘jihadist insurgency’ and resolve the ‘crisis in government’ in Pakistan.

Amazingly the U.S. and the incumbent Pakistan government think this is exactly what the present ISI is trying to do against great odds and there is plenty of evidence to support this contention. So an overhaul will not lead to any dramatic results and may be counterproductive.

The author has described the ISI as ‘large, powerful and autonomous’.

It is large and it is powerful – among the most credible spy agencies in the world. But it is not autonomous. It works under the Prime Minister, its director general is appointed by the Prime Minister from a panel of serving three-star generals, all the officers are posted from the three services – army, navy, the air force – and they are all career officers who come for fixed tenures.

The ISI is funded by the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Defense. How can it possibly be autonomous? The ISI’s task is strategic intelligence and if it is directed to do other things then that tasking has to come from the government of the day.

ISI has been placed center-stage in the whole transnational terrorist scene. The CIA, RAW and KHAD and many other intelligence agencies are not mentioned. They all have a role. ISI has been linked to AL Qaeda – actually it is a target of Al Qaeda and there is plenty of evidence to support this. ISI never had links with Al Qaeda.

If today the ISI did not have links with the Taliban then the U.S. and Afghanistan would be in a much greater trouble than they are now. It is the ISI that uses its links to obtain vital intelligence. In some areas there is no substitute for human intelligence.

No organization, and certainly no intelligence agency, would ever tolerate sub-groups within its ranks. The ISI does not have any people within its ranks who would work against the overall policy. Such elements would not be tolerated and the organization would be undermined very quickly. This has never happened.

Freelancing retired personnel of ISI do pick up jobs outside the agency after retirement and get involved in various assignments. But the ISI does not maintain any links with them. If there was any truth in such allegations then names and places would have surfaced a long time ago.

The attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul should not be seen in isolation. It had been preceded by an attack on the Afghan National Day Parade and by a spectacular jail break in Kandahar. In fact, unsubstantiated charges can actually start a proxy war in Kabul between rival intelligence agencies – something that must be avoided at all costs.

ISI is an asset and a vital link in the war against terror. It has proved this again and again.

Get fake degree, then go places

IN Bangalore city you needn’t have to do a course to get an MBA degree. You can simply buy a certificate for Rs 5,000. The same goes for most degrees.

Though the police exposed a major racket in manufacturing fake Bangalore University marksheets and degree certificates recently, several smaller rackets are believed to be still running in the city. These conmen are said to cater in a big way to applicants of ECNR (Emigration Check Not Required) status in passports.
“We have information of several racketeers manufacturing fake certificates. It is not difficult to catch them. But getting hold of a few blank certificates would not root them out. We have to get the printing press also and seize it. That’s often difficult,” said a police official. This August the Tilaknagar police station seized scores of fake Bangalore University marksheets and degree certificates and arrested six people. The printing press that was producing these genuine-looking documents was also seized. They found blank certificates and marksheets for BA, BCom, LLB, MBA, BE, MBBS and BDS streams. What seemed to be most in demand were certificates for the MBA, hotel management diploma ,BPharm and MPharm. The printing setup was simple, but they managed to print genuine looking Bangalore University certificates.
Passport officer Soumen Bagchi said their office does come across forged certificates and the incidence is particularly high among postal applications. “We cross-check with individual universities as and when a doubt arises. It is impossible to get each university degree certificate verified as our resources are limited. But our staff is very familiar with Bangalore University emblems and signatures and chances of fake BU certificates passing for original are rare,” said Bagchi.
In case of a forged document, the application is rejected and the applicant is penalised. For first time offenders, the penalty is Rs 5,000. Second time offenders are liable to be imprisoned. According to sources in the police department, the fake certificate racket targets ECNR applicants. Except for a few countries, most do not allow foreigners without an ECNR stamp into their country. “The risk of being caught trying to get a job with a fake certificate in India is high because in case of a doubt the employers can at any point get it cross-checked,” sources said.

Written by Panchalee Thakur, Times of India, India

Myths And Facts About al-Qaeda

By: Daily.Pk

The media myth of a global Islamic conspiracy never got much traction in America before 2001 because the minority Muslim American population simply did not seem like much of a threat, because Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are loyal US allies, and because Americans generally have a positive attitude toward wealthy investors.

After 9/11 pro-Israel propagandists exploited public ignorance and created a nightmarish fantasy of al-Qaeda in order to put the US and allies into conflict with the entire Islamic world. What is al-Qaeda? What do they believe? What do they actually do?

Osama bin Laden first used the term “al-Qaeda” in an interview in 1998, probably in reference to a 1988 article written by Palestinian activist Abdullah Azzam entitled “al-Qa`ida al-Sulba” (the Solid Foundation). In it, Azzam elaborates upon the ideas of the Egyptian scholar Sayed Qutb to explain modern jihadi principles. Qutb, author of Social Justice in Islam, is viewed as the founder of modern Arab-Islamic political religious thought. Qutb is comparable to John Locke in Western political development. Both Azzam and Qutb were serious men of exceptional integrity and honor.

While Qutb was visiting the USA in 1949, he and several friends were turned away from a movie theater because the owner thought they were black. ‘But we’re Egyptians,’ one of the group explained. The owner apologized and offered to let them in, but Qutb refused, galled by the fact that black Egyptians could be admitted but black Americans could not,” recounts Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower. Qutb predicted that the struggle between Islam and materialism would define the modern world. He embraced martyrdom in 1966 in rejection of Arab socialist politics.

Azzam similarly rejected secular Palestinian nationalist politics as an impediment to moral virtue. He opposed terrorist attacks on civilians and had strong reservations about ideas like offensive jihad, or preventive war. He also hesitated to designate any Muslim leader as an apostate and preferred to allow God to make such judgments. Inspired by the courage and piety of Afghan Muslims struggling against the Soviets, Azzam reinterpreted Qutb’s concept of individual and collective obligation of Muslims in his fatwa entitled “Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation after Iman (Faith).” Qutb would have prioritized the struggle of Egyptian Muslims to transform Egypt into a virtuous Islamic state while Azzam argued that every individual Muslim had an obligation to come to the aid of oppressed Muslims everywhere, whether they are Afghan, Kosovar, Bosnian, Thai, Filipino, or Chechen.

John Calvert of Creighton University writes, “This ideology would soon energize the most significant jihad movement of modern times.”

At Azzam’s call, Arabs from many countries joined America’s fight against Communism in Afghanistan. No Arab jihadi attack was considered terrorism when Azzam led the group, or later when bin Laden ran the group. Because the global Islamic movement overlapped with the goals of the US government, Arab jihadis worked and traveled frictionlessly throughout the world between Asia, Arabia and America. Azzam was assassinated in 1989, but legends of the courageous sacrifices of the noble Arab Afghans energized the whole Islamic world.

After the Soviets left Afghanistan, bin Laden relocated to Sudan in 1992. At the time he was probably undisputed commander of nothing more than a small group, which became even smaller after he lost practically all his money on Sudan investments. He returned to Afghanistan in 1996, where the younger Afghans, the Taliban welcomed him on account of his reputation as a veteran war hero.

There is no real evidence that bin Laden or al-Qaeda had any connection to the Ugandan and Tanzanian embassy attacks or any of the numerous attacks for which they have been blamed. Pro-Israel propagandists like Daniel Pipes or Matthew Levitt needed an enemy for their war against Muslim influence on American culture more than random explosions in various places needed a central commander. By the time the World Trade Center was destroyed, the Arab fighters surrounding Osama bin Laden were just a dwindling remnant living on past glories of Afghanistan’s struggle against Communism. Al-Qaeda has never been and certainly is not today an immensely powerful terror organization controlling Islamic banks and charities throughout the world.

Al-Qaeda maintained training camps in Afghanistan like Camp Faruq, where Muslims could receive basic training just as American Jews go to Israel for military training with the IDF. There they learned to disassemble, clean and reassemble weapons, and got to associate with old warriors, who engaged in great heroism against the Soviets but did not do much since. Many al-Qaeda trainees went on to serve US interests in Central Asia (e.g. Xinjiang) in the 1990s but from recent descriptions the camps seem to currently provide a form of adventure tourism with no future enlistment obligations.

Although western media treats al-Qaeda as synonymous with Absolute Evil, much of the world reveres the Arab Afghans as martyr saints. Hundreds of pilgrims visit Kandahar’s Arab cemetery daily, believing that the graves of those massacred in the 2001 US bombing of Afghanistan possess miraculous healing powers.

More bad news for Delhi: Mig 35s delayed by a decade

By: Rupee News | Moin Ansari

After the colossla failure of the Kevari engine and the Ligh Combat Aircraft (LCA), which has been in the design phase for more than 20 years, the IAF is struggling to replace its Flying Coffins (Migs 21s). The crash rate of the IAF is the highest in the world. About 300-500 Mig 21s have crashed. Delhi blames Moscow for sending it shoddy planes. Moscow blames Delhi for horrid local parts that don’t work. Desperate for planes, the IAF decided to spend about $10 Billion for foreign air craft. The tender bid for 126 planes has been submitted and a final decision is awaited in a few weeks. The MiG-35 Fulcrum-F, is a stripped down version of the Russian MiG-29M OVT which is exported to third world countries. When, and if, the MiG-35 wins a contract for the Indian MMRCA or any other tender, Sokol would be the manufacturing base for the aircraft. Russia has remianed very vague about the final configuration of the MiG-35’s onboard equipment. There is no information available on the On Board radar. The Zhuk-ME, Bars-29, and ELTA Systems’ EL/M-2052 radars are possible options.

NIZHNY NOVOGORD – Production of MiG-35 multirole fighters offered for sale to India cannot start before 2013 or 2014, a Russian aircraft maker has said.

“We have begun testing the MiG-35 fighter for the Indian tender,” Alexander Karezin, general director of the Sokol company based in Nizhny Novgorod, said Thursday.

Russia’s MiG-35 Fulcrum-F, an export version of the MiG-29M OVT (Fulcrum F), is a highly manoeuvrable air superiority fighter, which won high acclaim during the Le Bourget air show in France last year.

Six major aircraft makers — Lockheed and Boeing from the US, Russia’s MiG, which is part of the UAC, France’s Dassault, Sweden’s Saab and the EADS consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies — are in contention to win the $10 billion contract for 126 light fighters to be supplied to the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Sokol earlier said that the first two MiG-35 aircraft would be delivered to India in August for test flights prior to the award of the tender. In late 2009, Russia will conduct a series of flight tests with live firing for an IAF delegation at a testing ground in Russia.

The fighter is powered by RD-33 OVT thrust vectoring engines. The RD-33 OVT engines provide superior manoeuvrability and enhance the fighter’s performance in close air engagements, its manufacturers say. RIA Novosti

The export versions of Mig 35s are actually part of  the family of MiG-29 fighters that includes the MiG-29M/M2 and the MiG-29K/KUB versions. Lockheed Martin, Saab and Russian Sukho and Migs have all put in thier offer.

Six global aircraft makers – Lockheed and Boeing from the United States, Russia’s MiG, which is part of the UAC, France’s Dassault, Sweden’s Saab and the EADS consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies – are in contention for the $11 billion MMRCA contract for 126 fighters to be supplied to the Indian Air Force. Domain B

The issue is that American private manufacturers will never commit commercial suicide by giving up their secret “Coke Formula“. Similarly one of the biggest exports  for Russia are her planes and missiles. It cannot let a Delhi aligned with Washington have the ability to compete with the Russian arms industry. A decade ago when USSR did not have the oil and it was really hungry for cash, Moscow sold Bharat a lot of equipment. Now things have changed. “Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has said military aircraft will continue to dominate the company’s foreign sales in 2009, and will total about $2.6 billion (Domain B).” The geostrategic landscape in South Asia has been transformed. Moscow watches Delhi’s closeness with Washington with suspicion. Russia has recently reached out to Pakistan to build train and pipelines linking Pakistan to the Tajikistan and Iran. Gorprom, the Russian Oil company is ready to help in building the Iran-Pakistan pipeline.

The fiasco of the price of the Russian Aircraft carrier describes the Delhi-Moscow relationship. The endless haggling over the price of the air craft career predicted Delhi’s predicament on the sale of the Mig 35s. Moscow now informs Delhi that it cannot begin the supply ’till 2014. Based on previous experience, it is a matter of record that planes from Russia are prone to perpetual delays and price hikes. It is not beyond comprehension that sensing a bit of a tiff between Delhi and Washington, Russia is using delay tactics to hike up the price of the Migs that are to be sold to Bharat.

Will the Mig  delay tilt the balance towards Lockheed Martin? Only time will tell.

When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the shipyard responsible for converting the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov for the Indian navy at the beginning of last month, he suggested there would be “serious consequences” if Moscow failed to deliver.

Political hyperbole aside, the fall-out from India’s effort to secure a new aircraft carrier could turn out to be far-reaching. Aviation Week. Russia, India Continue Carrier Haggling, Aug 13, 2009, By Neelam Mathews in New Delhi and Douglas Barrie in London

The threat supposedly hinted at the $10 Billion plane contract. The current news from Ria Ovosti seems to tell the world how much Russia has taken the Bharati threat seriously.

Medvedev, during a visit to the Sevmash shipyard at Severodvinsk, characterized the carrier program as a “very difficult experience.” This is a view shared by India’s comptroller and auditor general, the authority that audits and assists the state and central institutions on accounts and accountability.

The audit body has been critical of the carrier deal, providing opposition parties with ammunition with which to attack the government. One, the Bhartiya Janta Party, accused the government of buying “junk” at an exorbitant price.

India signed up for the program in 2004, with a delivery date of 2008. The new date for the ship—the INS Vikramaditya—is now set for 2012. Aviation Week. Russia, India Continue Carrier Haggling, Aug 13, 2009,   By Neelam Mathews in New Delhi and Douglas Barrie in London

The 12 MiG-29Ks and four MiG-29KUBs, a naval variant of the Fulcrum that came with the Admiral Gorshkov will be delivered a year late. The planes arrive before the Aircraft carrier. However these are meant to land on the Aircraft Career only.

The entire Bharati establishment is built around refurbishing arcane Russian equipment. Introducing Amercan arms with their instrusive inspections, requirements for segration, and pop inspections is going to be a new experience for the IAF. Rupee News would be very surprised if Bharat buys the F-16s. However stranger things have happened in the Bharati quest for modern arms.

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