Iran Nabs Top NATO Terrorist With Pakistan Help

PakAlertPress

By Webster Tarpley

On Tuesday Feb. 23, Iran announced the capture of Abdulmalek Rigi, the boss of the terror organization Jundullah, which works for NATO. The capture of Rigi represents a serious setback for the US-UK strategy of using false flag state-sponsored terrorism against Iran and Pakistan, and ultimately to sabotage China’s geopolitics of oil. The Iranians claim to have captured Rigi all by themselves, but the Pakistani ambassador to Teheran is quoted in The Dawn as claiming an important role for Pakistan. The Iranians say that Rigi was attempting to fly from Dubai to Kyrgystan, and that his plane was forced to land in Iran by Iranian interceptors. This exploit recalls Oliver North’s 1985 intercept of the accused Achille Lauro perpetrators, including Abu Abbas, forcing their Egyptian plane to land at Sigonella, Sicily. But other and perhaps more realistic versions suggest that Iran was tipped off by the Pakistanis, or even that Rigi was captured by Pakistan and delivered to the Iranians.

Jundullah, otherwise known as the Rigi organization, is a clan-based Mafia organization that has long infested the Iran-Pakistan border. The Rigis are traditionally smugglers and drug pushers of royalist persuasion, and now they have branched out into terrorism. Jundullah is mounting a Sunni rebellion against the Shiite Iranian regime in Iranian Baluchistan. They have blown up a Shiite mosque, killing 25, and managed to kill 50 in a bombing in Pishin last October, where their victims included some top commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, against which Mrs. Clinton has now declared war. There is no doubt that Jundullah is on the US payroll. This fact has been confirmed by Brian Ross of ABC News, the London Daily Telegraph , and by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. Hersh noted that Jundullah has received some of the $400 million appropriated by the US Congress in the most recent Bush-era regime change legislation targeting Iran.

Jundullah is a key part of the US-UK strategy of fomenting ethnic and religious civil war in both Iran and Pakistan. Jundullah is a twofer in this context, since it can help destabilize both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border. Baluchistan has special importance because any oil pipeline linking Iran with China must go straight across Baluchistan. Jundullah’s false flag jihad is a means to make sure that strategic pipeline, which would help solve China’s energy problem, is never built.

There is also no doubt that Jundullah functions as an arm of NATO, a kind of irregular warfare asset similar in some ways to the KLA of Kosovo. Rigi is reported by the Iranians to have met with Jop de Hoop Scheffer when he was NATO Secretary General. Rigi has also met with various NATO generals operating in Afghanistan. Who knows — he may have met with McChrystal himself, a covert ops veteran from Iraq.

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This capture comes at a moment when Baluchistan is the object of intense US-UK exertions. The current US-NATO offensive in southern Afghanistan targets Marjah and the rest of Helmand province, which directly faces Baluchistan. Many observers were puzzled when the US and NATO publicized the Marjah offensive in advance. Militarist talking heads like General Barry McCafferty responded that the main goal of the Marjah offensive was not to destroy the Taliban, but to drive them out of the province. It was thus clear from the beginning that the real goal was to drive the Helmand Taliban fighters into Pakistani Baluchistan. Why?

A statement from the Afghan Taliban covered on the RIA Novosti web site suggests that the real goal of the US-NATO offensive in Marjah-Helmand is to attack Chinese economic interests in Pakistani Baluchistan, and especially the port of Gwadar, one of China’s largest overseas projects. If the US can push the Taliban into Pakistani Baluchistan and into the area around Gwadar, they will have a pretext for militarization ­ perhaps through Blackwater mercenaries, who are already operating massively in Pakistan, or perhaps through direct US military involvement in the zone. US jackboots on the ground in Baluchistan would interfere mightily with Chinese economic development plans. They would also allow the US to commandeer Gwadar as the home port of a new NATO supply line into southern Afghanistan, allowing the avoidance of the Khyber Pass bottleneck. The US could also use Baluchistan as a springboard for bigger and better terror ops into Iran, electronic surveillance of Iranian activities, and so forth.

The US and NATO had evidently planned a double envelopment of Baluchistan, with Taliban fighters from Helmand arriving from the north, while the Jundullah escalated their own activity on the ground. Now that Rigi has joined his brother in Iranian jails, Jundullah has been decapitated, and the NATO strategy has consequently been undermined. Iran has bagged a dangerous terrorist foe. Another winner is Pakistan, where The Dawn celebrated the capture of Rigi as “a godsend” and “a lucky break” for Pakistan. By helping Rigi to fall into Iranian hands, Pakistan may have finally found an effective way to counter the US-UK strategy, which notoriously aims at the breakup and partition of Pakistan. The coming Iranian trial of Rigi may go far towards exposing the real mechanism of terrorism in today’s world, with the CIA sitting in the dock next to Rigi.

The Path Forward In Balochistan

QUETTA: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that all the demands of the people of Balochistan were acceptable to the government.

“There is not even a single demand which is unacceptable to us,” he said while addressing the 5th draw of the Waseela-e-Haq programme here on Thursday. He also met different delegations at the Governor House.
“I have good knowledge of the problems of Balochistan. I need some time to solve these problems,” he said. “We know that some estranged people have no faith in our promises, so we have decided to do some practical work before going for a dialogue.”
Zardari arrived in the city on a two-day visit on Thursday. Extraordinary security measures were adopted during the president’s visit. Additional deployment of security personnel was made to avert any untoward incident.
Zardari urged the Baloch leaders not to resort to violence for their rights. “I am here to give you the rights and develop the province.” He went on to say: “We know there is a feeling of sadness in Balochistan. The people here do not sob, and prefer to pick up guns.”
Zardari said he wanted to develop a Pakistan where Balochistan would be the hub of progress and development. “The history will recall that a soldier of Bhutto came here and pledged to make Balochistan the centre of world’s attention.”
He sought the help of all the political parties to resolve the issues of the province. “There might not be any immediate relief, but over a period of time, you will witness significant change in your lives,” he added.
“We have the same love, respect and regard for the people of Balochistan as we have for the people of other parts of the country.” The president said more National Highway Authority projects would be initiated to improve the communication network in the province.
Earlier, Zardari performed the fifth draw of the Waseela-e-Haq Programme, under which successful families would get loans of Rs 300,000 to start their own businesses. He also distributed cheques among women hailing from different parts of the province. Compensation cheques were given to those women whose close relatives were injured or died in acts of terror or natural calamities.
Meanwhile, PPP Balochistan President Senator Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani and other provincial leaders of the party staged a walkout after PPP workers were denied entry into the Governor House to meet the president and attend the PPP provincial council meeting.
After an hour’s break, Lashkari again approached the Governor House, seeking entry of the PPP council members, but again they were refused on the ground that the function was over and the president had moved to the CM Secretariat for the provincial cabinet meeting.
Earlier, addressing a high-level meeting at the Governor House, Zardari issued directives to the concerned authorities to ensure timely completion of development projects in the province. Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, Federal Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Khan Kakar, Federal Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira, Federal Minister for Postal Services Mir Israrullah Zehri, Chairman BISP. Farzana Raja were present during the meeting.
APP adds: Talking to the Balochistan cabinet members, Zardari said the federal government was working to introduce a constitutional package in March which would ensure rights to provinces. “Balochistan has a specific strategic importance which cannot be ignored.”

This tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all

By Seumas Milne | The Guardian

The attempt to drive Islamists and young Asian activists out of the political mainstream is a dangerous folly.

If young British Muslims had any doubts that they are singled out for special treatment in the land of their birth, the punishments being meted out to those who took part in last year’s London demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza will have dispelled them. The protests near the Israeli embassy at the height of the onslaught were angry: bottles and stones were thrown, a Starbucks was trashed and the police employed unusually violent tactics, even by the standards of other recent confrontations, such as the G20 protests.

But a year later, it turns out that it’s the sentences that are truly exceptional. Of 119 people arrested, 78 have been charged, all but two of them young Muslims (most between the ages of 16 and 19), according to Manchester University’s Joanna Gilmore, even though such figures in no way reflect the mix of those who took part. In the past few weeks, 15 have been convicted, mostly of violent disorder, and jailed for between eight months and two-and-a-half years – having switched to guilty pleas to avoid heavier terms. Another nine are up to be sentenced tomorrow.

The severity of the charges and sentencing goes far beyond the official response to any other recent anti-war demonstration, or even the violent stop the City protests a decade ago. So do the arrests, many of them carried out months after the event in dawn raids by dozens of police officers, who smashed down doors and handcuffed family members as if they were suspected terrorists. Naturally, none of the more than 30 complaints about police violence were upheld, even where video ­evidence was available.

Nothing quite like this has happened, in fact, since 2001, when young Asian Muslims rioted against extreme rightwing racist groups in Bradford and other northern English towns and were subjected to heavily disproportionate prison terms. In the Gaza protest cases, the judge has explicitly relied on the Bradford precedent and repeatedly stated that the sentences he is handing down are intended as a deterrent.

For many in the Muslim community, the point will be clear: not only that these are political sentences, but that different rules apply to Muslims, who take part in democratic protest at their peril. It’s a dangerous message, especially given the threat from a tiny minority that is drawn towards indiscriminate violence in response to Britain’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and rejects any truck with mainstream politics.

But it’s one that is constantly reinforced by politicians and parts of the media, who have increasingly blurred the distinction between violent and non- violent groups, demonised Islamism as an alien threat and branded as extremist any Muslim leader who dares to campaign against western foreign policy in the Muslim world. That’s reflected in the government’s targeting of “nonviolent extremism” and lavish funding of anti-Islamist groups, as well as in Tory plans to ban the nonviolent Hizb ut-Tahrir and crack down ever harder on “extremist written material and speech”.

In the media, it takes the form of relentless attempts to expose Muslims involved in wider politics as secret fanatics and sympathisers with ­terrorism. Next week, Channel 4 Dispatches plans to broadcast the latest in a series of undercover documentaries aimed at revealing the ugly underside of British Muslim political life. In this case, the target is the predominantly British-Bangladeshi Islamic Forum of Europe. From material sent out in advance, the aim appears to be to show the IFE is an “entryist” group in legitimate east London politics – and unashamedly Islamist to boot.

As recent research co-authored by the former head of the Metropolitan police special branch’s Muslim contact unit, Bob Lambert, has shown, such ubiquitous portrayals of Muslim activists as “terrorists, sympathisers and subversives” (all the while underpinned by a drumbeat campaign against the nonexistent Afghan “burka”) are one factor in the alarming growth of British Islamophobia and the rising tide of anti-Muslim violence and hate crimes that stem from it.

Last month’s British Social Attitudes survey found that most people now regard Britain as “deeply divided along religious lines”, with hostility to Muslims and Islam far outstripping such attitudes to any other religious group. On the ground that has translated into murders, assaults and attacks on mosques and Muslim institutions – with shamefully little response in politics or the media. Last year, five mosques in Britain were firebombed, from Bishop’s Stortford to Cradley Heath, though barely reported in the national press, let alone visited by a government minister to show solidarity.

And now there is a street movement, the English Defence League, directly adopting the officially sanctioned targets of “Islamists” and “extremists” – as well as the “Taliban” and the threat of a “takeover of Islam” – to intimidate and threaten Muslim communities across the country, following the success of the British National party in baiting Muslims above all other ethnic and religious communities.

Of course, anti-Muslim bigotry, the last socially acceptable racism, is often explained away by the London bombings of 2005 and the continuing threat of terror attacks, even though by far the greatest number of what the authorities call “terrorist incidents” in the UK take place in Northern Ireland, while Europol figures show that more than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe over the past three years were carried out by non-Muslims. And in the last nine months, two of the most serious bomb plot convictions were of far right racists, Neil Lewington and Terence Gavan, who were planning to kill Muslims.

Meanwhile, in the runup to the general election, expect some ugly dog whistles from Westminster politicians keen to capitalise on Islamophobic sentiment. With few winnable Muslim votes, the Tories seem especially up for it. Earlier this month, Conservative frontbencher Michael Gove came out against the building of a mosque in his Surrey constituency, while Welsh Tory MP David Davies blamed a rape case on the “medieval and barbaric” attitudes of some migrant communities.

As long as British governments back wars and occupations in the Middle East and Muslim world, there will continue to be a risk of violence in Britain. But attempts to drive British Muslims out of normal political activity, and the refusal to confront anti-Muslim hatred, can only ratchet up the danger and threaten us all.

Slightly more than peanuts: $3.2 billion US Aid for Pakistan in 2011

RupeeNews

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said her department is seeking 3.2 billion dollar as aid for Pakistan during the next fiscal beginning October 1.

Addressing the Senate appropriations committee, Clinton said the money would be utilised to “combat extremism, promote economic development, strengthen democratic institutions, and build a long-term relationship with the Pakistani people”.

This includes funding through the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, through which the United States has pledged to give 1.5 billion dollars as non-military aid a year for the next five years.

The State Department’s financial requests for 2011 and USAID together accounts 52.8 billion dollars, which is 4.9 billion more than the 2010 budget.

Highlighting the importance of the huge monetary aids, Clinton said with that money Washington aims to strengthen ties with countries across the globe and help countries meet challenges.

“With that money we will address global challenges and strengthen partnerships,” The Dawn quoted Clinton, as saying.

“The defence budget for Iraq will be decreasing by about 16 billion dollar, and that’s a powerful illustration of the return on civilian investment,” she added. (ANI). State Department seeking 3.2 billion dollars for Pakistan for 2011 : Clinton,

Pakistan warns of military growth in India

India’s 24 percent increase in military spending is a serious threat to the region’s stability, Pakistan’s foreign secretary says.

Following the two nuclear-armed neighbors’ talks in New Delhi on Thursday, Salman Bashir said that India is heavily modernizing its military, and the “tremendous boost to the defense spending,” poses a serious threat to stability in a “nuclearized” South Asian region.

The Pakistani foreign secretary warned that India’s new “war doctrine” and induction of new sophisticated weapons systems “are elements that are prejudicial to regional security and stability.”

India is scheduled to unveil its 2010-2011 defense budget on Friday. The budget is increased by 24 percent compared with the previous year, reaching INR 1.42 trillion (USD 28.4 billion).

“We have drawn the attention of the international community to the importance of preserving the regional balance between Pakistan and India,” Bashir said.

On Thursday India and Pakistan held their first round of direct talks at foreign secretary level, since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

UN panel questions ISI chief over Bhutto’s terror

Pakistan has allowed the UN commission investigating the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto to question top military officials in the country.

The commission has questioned Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha in Islamabad as part of its investigation.

The three-member panel has gotten the green light from President Asif Ali Zardari to interview anyone it wishes in Pakistan.

“The stature of Bhutto called for an independent, transparent and above-board investigation so that no accusation of bias of any kind could be made by any circle,” Presidential Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar quoted Zardari, as saying.

This new development reflects a turnaround in Pakistan’s position.

The army chief, the head of Pakistan’s spy agency and other senior military officers are believed to be on the commission’s interviewee wish list.

At the beginning of the current year, Islamabad said no to the UN panel’s request to question the heads of the military.

Bhutto was killed in an attack at a rally in Rawalpindi in December 2007. She was there to campaign ahead of parliamentary elections.

PRESSTV

Reports of Indians training Baloch dissidents

ISLAMABAD: More than 100 Pakistani Baloch dissidents have been sent to India by the Indian consulate located in Kandahar (Afghanistan) for six-month training, The News learnt here on Friday.

“We have credible reports that the Indian consulate in Kandahar dispatched more than 100 Pakistani Baloch dissidents during the second week of December 2009 for six-month training in India,” an intelligence source told The News on condition of anonymity.

The source said the men sent for training in India were selected from areas bordering Pakistan as well as Baloch nationals residing in different camps in Kandahar maintained under arrangements of the Afghan and Indian intelligence operatives.
“They have been promised a monthly salary of $500-1,000 on their return to Afghanistan,” the source said. “They will be imparted training in the fields of sniper shooting, handling of technical equipment such as GPS,

wireless sets and intelligence gathering techniques,” he added.

The source said they had credible reports that upon completion of training under the Indian trainers, half of the strength of the anti-Pakistan elements would report to Commander Abdul Raziq, in charge of Sarhadi Leva (border police) in Spin Boldak close to Chaman while the remaining strength would be placed under Sarhadi Leva post commander in Shorawak district of Kandahar.

“Our informers have also revealed that the handlers of the dissident Baloch elements plan to assign different targets in Balochistan and Sindh provinces to the trained Baloch militants for sabotage and terrorist activities,” the source said.

When contacted for comments, Lt Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, former director-general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), said it might not be the first batch of Baloch dissidents sent to India for training.

He said that India, the arch-rival of Pakistan, was supporting the Baloch dissidents for the past many years.

“The Indians are sitting right at our back and initially they deployed nearly 20 intelligence detachments with a fulltime brigadier being in charge of these detachments,” he said, quoting his own sources in Afghanistan.

The RAW network has been operating in Pakistan since long and it is not surprising that they have hired the Baloch dissidents to destabilise Pakistan, the former general stated.

“Ever since the Taliban were ousted from power and foreign troops landed in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Indians have been using the Afghan soil for sabotage and terror acts in Pakistan,” he said.

The News