Pakistan wants combat choppers from US to take on Al Qaeda

Pakistan is asking the US for attack helicopters and other heavy weaponry worth $2.5 billion to take the fight against terror into the mountains of the country’s North West Frontier Province, the lair of the senior Al Qaeda leadership, a media report said Wednesday.

‘I have been ambassador here for two years, and all I have to show for it is eight second hand Mi-17 transport helicopters for a war that requires helicopters to root out Al Qaeda and the Taliban,’ Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani told The Washington Times.

‘Military operations would have been quicker and much easier to plan and execute if we had the equipment. We have had tremendous attrition and a lot of loss of lives because of not having the right equipment.’

Pakistan has a $2.5 billion wish list which includes new helicopter gunships, AH-1W and the Apache-64-D, armed helicopters such as the AH-6 and MD-530 Little Bird, and utility and cargo helicopters such as the UH-60 Black Hawk, the CH-47 D Chinook and the UH-1Y Huey.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said the US government is aware of its ally’s military wish list.

‘The Pakistani military’s interest in additional lift is well-known, and we have tried to help meet their needs by providing several Mi-17s. We will continue to try to help them acquire the helicopters and other equipment they require to defeat the insurgents and terrorists in their midst,’ Morrell said.

Pakistan’s military last year reversed its policy of signing ceasefire agreements with local tribal governors as it did in 2007 and 2008 in the regions thought to be hiding places for senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

The new ’silent surge’, however, also has cost the lives of thousands of Pakistani soldiers, including generals. The ambassador said Pakistan has lost more than 600 officers affiliated with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), its powerful and influential military intelligence arm.

Pakistani military officials have said their forces have a total of just 26 combat and transport helicopters for a counterinsurgency war in a mountainous region where helicopters provide a critical advantage

Pakistani wish list also includes M1A1 tanks and M113A3 armoured personnel carriers, as well as air-defence missiles, such as the Stinger, the Javelin and the Hawk.

The list also includes a request for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), among the newest and deadliest high-tech arms.

Retired Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, who commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005, said the helicopters Pakistan wants would be useful to counter-insurgency operations.

‘My sense is that all of those helicopters are useful in counter-insurgency operations, given the rugged terrain of western Pakistan. It is less clear that is the case with M1 tanks and air-defence missiles.’

The US in the past has quietly attempted to dial back tensions between Pakistan and India, two US allies that have fought four wars in the past 60 years. A sale of battle tanks to Pakistan likely would set off alarms in India.

‘Anything on that list would upset the Indians,’ said Teresita C. Schaffer, director of the South Asia programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

‘That by itself is not really a criterion, though, for these arms sales. Of that list of things, the one that would be most incendiary for the Indians would be the UAVs.’

Schaffer said that UAVs ‘are relevant to the terrorism agenda, but the Indians would see that as a way to do deniable attacks against India.’

Pakistan army chief embarks on China visit

Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani Wednesday left for China on a 5-day official visit, the army said.

He is visiting China at the special invitation of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), an army statement said.

During the visit, he will meet senior military leadership of the PLA and government officials, said the statement from the army ’s Inter-Services Public Relations.

He will discuss issues related to Pakistan-China defence cooperation and measures to further enhance ties between the armies of the two countries, it said.

Lt Gen Khalid Shameem Wnne, Chief of Gen. Staff and other senior military officials and acting Chinese ambassador saw him off at the Islamabad airport.

China to ignore US objections on Nuke deal with Pakistan

NEW DELHI: China is on the verge of unveiling a nuclear deal with Pakistan that will, in effect, be “cocking a snook” at the world as it will be outside the purview of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a noted security expert said on Monday.

After the exception the NSG accorded to India in 2008 to enable the implementation of its civilian nuclear pact with the US, Pakistan had sought a similar deal from Washington and after having been turned down, “it now appears that China will soon announce its deal with Pakistan to export two nuclear reactors”, Commodore (retd) C. Uday Bhaskar, director of think tank National Maritime Foundation (NMF), said.

“One can infer that this is the equivalent of China announcing its own autonomy in the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) domain and that the US is no longer the determining factor in matters nuclear,” Bhaskar contended.

“In effect, this would mean that China is cocking a snook at the NSG, the US and the rest of the world,” he added.

Tracing Pakistan’s missile and nuclear acquisitions and the upcoming deal with China, he said these had “many grave implications” for the region – and particularly India.

“Tracking Pakistan’s nuclear acquisitions, it is evident that Pakistan, which began with an enriched uranium weapon, is now moving toward the plutonium option. This switch has many grave implications for the region – and India in particular.

“This is primarily due to the distinctive status Pakistan has apropos its nuclear weapon:”China is cognisant of this pattern and has yet chosen to continue its support to Pakistan’s nuclear programme,” Bhaskar contended.

In this context, he noted that though the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had come into being in 1970, “concurrently, the world spawned a very complex nuclear eco-system often shrouded and deliberately muddied, with a disconnect between rhetoric and reality. States, state representatives and opaque activities led to selective proliferation and spread”.TOI

Israel Challenges Western Myths On Human Rights – Will They Accept?

Israel’s lethal attack on Gaza aid flotilla on 31st of May has once again put Israel in the realm of Zionist pugnacity that has really shaken the global conscience on human rights. Like such other episodes earlier, this action on the high seas against unarmed activists that were taking much needed aid to besieged Palestinians of Gaza, challenges the Western myths on their human rights beliefs. Is it the time that the West wakes up to the Israeli defiance of international laws or does its conscience awaits more deaths and destruction at its hands before it can be dared to stop? Is it the time that Israel is made accountable for gruesome murders of peace activists aboard the aid flotilla? May be they will since a few Westerners were also killed in the raid.

The dark episode might make them realize the true face of Israel. They had seen it earlier in January last when Israel mercilessly bombed Gaza, they had seen it in December 2008 Israeli Operation Cast Lead (1400 Palestinians dead), its intransigence in expanding Israeli settlements in captured areas, its usage of British and Australian passports in killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. These faces are well known by Palestinians as they see them daily but others have to be naïve not to recognize them.

The dastardly attack created diplomatic crises around the world. The Muslims strongly condemned the brazen attack whereas US, and Europe cautiously regretted it. India, following the global lead, also reluctantly condemned the incident. Amongst Israel’s Muslim friends Egypt condemned the excessive and unjustified use of force while Jordan was contented in handing in a press note. Israel defended its ferocious attack in the name of ‘self defense’ against non armed activists.

Across the world tens of thousands protested on the streets to show their anger and frustration of Israeli intransigence. At places the protestors were so enraged that they burnt effigies of Israeli leaders and their international supporters. The incident once again proved global helplessness to contain Israel as the latter focuses once again on US to head off the clamor over aid flotilla attack. It faced isolation internationally, though momentarily, as the world demanded a globally acceptable inquiry into the incident. Elsewhere in Geneva, the 47-member UN Human Rights Council was due to hold a meeting to discuss appointment of an international fact finding mission. In New York an emergency session of the UN Security Council called for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation that would satisfy international standards. Does the UNSC decision once again appear to buy out time to defuse the existing outrage and anger over the aid flotilla attack by Israelis and bail the latter out of the quagmire? It is still to be seen.

It was quite amazing to observe the news black out that Israel managed and exercised strong control over the Western media wherein only the Israeli spokes persons dominated the air waves over the international incident. The Western media is increasingly fitting itself in the equations of power wherein they appear perform the duties of stenographers to the dictates of global media tycoons most of which happen to be Israelis. The US and other global media stations and publications like BBC, CNN, Time and Newsweek sometimes make it so obvious. The mere fact that Israeli government approved and send its commandos to attack the ship, whatever circumstances of the confrontation arose; it is surely a big war crime. The fact that 1.5 million ordinary Palestinians residing in the Gaza strip are facing starvation for the past four years due to the Israel’s illegal blockade of the sea routes to Gaza is a fit case for crime against humanity.

Why did the activists decide to go to Gaza and help their fellow beings in need? It was due to the fact that world conscience over Israeli atrocities still sleeps. It was because their leaders and politicians had failed their expectations over the right causes. The biggest ally, the God Father of Israel the United States found itself contended in saying that, ‘the Obama administration was working to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy’. No outright condemnation was made just the regret. Seeing the previous US stances over Israeli state terrorism, the international community does not perceive any change in the US approach to the Israel. Had it been a Muslim country US would have taken the decision from the UNSC for invading that country in the name of state terrorism. Media to the likes of CNN, FOX, TIME and NEWSWEEK would have taken out special supplements crying foul all over it. Israeli state terrorism, the words are just not to be found by the US and the West in any dictionary or document. The West has been subjugated completely by the Israeli dictums? The West, India, the advanced and developed nations have learnt to walk hand in hand with Israel on the issues of barbaric killing of Arabs as the Israeli generations and generations learn to grow up through killing of Arabs.

As Israel routinely invests in Western and European countries heavily, especially in the US, it therefore relies on them heavily also to cover its terrorism. If not nailed, Israel one day will take the region down with it. Today it were international waters, tomorrow it can be anywhere deep inside oceans and even the sovereign countries. Israel will continue to follow the path of destruction and mayhem till the time it is made to pay for its state terrorism and crimes. But then who can bell the cat? Will it be the community that calls for sanctity in preserving international laws and human rights? You can draw your own conclusions as no algebra is involved in here. Meantime Israel will take full advantage of US administrations US Congressional elections this November and force the administration not to support any global action and censure for its unbelievable and completely wild action. Let’s see if the Western morals on the issue take priority over routine election campaign in the US.

Having said that all, the final word, Turks have emerged as a strong Muslim nation after the Israel attack. It lost precious Turkish lives at the hands of Israelis. The collective response and actions at diplomatic levels of the Turks and their government on Israeli terrorism at high seas was matchless. The peaceful street protests that followed the incident reflect their ego, the pride and the unity on national security issues. Pakistan is proud to be a friend of Turkey and joins them in their moment of grief with utmost love and sincerity.

By: Bassam Javed

India left out of Iran-Pakistan pipeline deal

With the future energy crunch looming on many countries, Delhi’s decision not to engage Iran and Pakistan may be a huge blunder on its part. Being penny wise and pound foolish may come back and hound Bharat. With the $7.5 billion pipeline ready to start pumping gas in a couple of years, the economies of Pakistan and Iran will begin getting tied it—bringing the countries closer to each other in more than one way. Pakistan will primarily use the piped gas to produce electricity. All indications are the present energy crunch in Pakistan has woken up the entire population to such an extent that the government has had to produce results or be wept out of office.

Pipelinestan is becoming very important.

The current pipeline cannot be elongated to reach Bharat. If Bharat at some stage does decide to join in the project, a new pipeline will have to be laid—a remote prospect which probably has a slim to none chance of happening. The Pakistan-iran project is not subject to the sanctions because it was signed ahead of the UN resolutions. The sanctions wont be lifted in the near future, so no country will be able to take advantage of Iranian gas pipelines.

Pakistan’s next target is the TAP pipeline and then extending the TAP pipeline to China and perhaps stretching the Iran-Pakistan pipeline to China as well.

In any case, the economies of West Asia are getting more and more integrated with roads from Islamabad being built to Fergana and Dushambe. The Mughal emperor Babur would be proud of Islamabad

Tehran, Iran  – After years of negotiations, Iran and Pakistan have finally gone ahead and signed a $ 7.6 billion cross-border gas pipeline deal that would be operational in mid-2014. The third potential party to the project, India, was left out of the project.

The plan for the project was originally conceived in the 1990s but kept getting delayed because of various issues.

The deal was signed between Pakistani Inter-State Gas Limited’s Mohammad Naim Sharafat and Iranian Gas Export Co.’s Reza Kasaeizadeh.

The pipeline will deliver 750 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to Pakistan within four years. The pipeline will connect Iran’s giant South Pars gas fields with the troubled Pakistani provinces of Balochistan and Sindh. The gas pipeline, once operational, is expected to take care of as much as 20 per cent of Pakistan’s energy needs.

Talking to Iranian official news agency IRNA, Iranian oil minister Masood Mir-Kazemi said, “We explicitly announce that as a country having huge gas reserves, Iran will play a key role in guaranteeing global energy security in the future.”

After undertaking a feasibility study in the region, Pakistan will construct about 700 kilometers of the gas transmission network on its side of the border at Nawabshah, near Karachi at a cost of $ 1.65 billion. Iran has already built 900 kilometers of the pipeline within its territory.

India, which was a part of the project earlier, has been reluctant to get involved because of several issues: price of the gas, Islamabad’s reluctance to ensure safety of the pipeline on its soil and the high transit fee asked by Pakistan.

There are conflicting reports about whether India has withdrawn from the. While there has been no confirmation from India, Iranian media reported that New Delhi left the project last year. (AHN). Yamini Kaul – AHN News Contributor.

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7018987825#ixzz0qrYPhuQ6

Iran and Pakistan sign gas export agreement

Iran and Pakistan formally signed yesterday an export deal which commits the Islamic republic to supplying its eastern neighbour with natural gas from 2014.

The contract is the latest step in completing a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan within the next four years.

“This is a happy day,” Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Javad Ouji told reporters at the contract signing ceremony in Tehran. “After decades of negotiations, we are witnessing today the execution of the agreement… to export more than 21 million cubic metres of natural gas daily from 2014 to Pakistan,” he added.

He said that from today, Iran will start building the next 300-kilometre leg of the pipeline from the southeastern city of Iranshahr to the Pakistani border, through the Iranian port of Chabahar.

Iran has already constructed 907km of the pipeline between Asalooyeh, in southern Iran, and Iranshahr, which will carry natural gas from Iran’s giant South Pars field. Pakistan’s Deputy Energy Minister Kamran Lashari, who was present at the signing ceremony, said Islamabad will conduct a one-year feasibility study for building its section of the pipeline.

It will then “take three years for constructing the 700km pipeline” from the Iranian border to the Pakistani city of Nawabshah, he added. The pipeline was originally planned between Iran, Pakistan and India, but the latter pulled out of the project last year. Pakistan plans to use the gas for its power sector.

Growing Pakistan-Turkish-Iranian alliance: RCD to Nuclear ECO

On the sidelines of an emerging Arab unity starting in 1956 with the seizing of the Suez Canal by Egypt, non-Arab Muslim countries Iran, Pakistan and Turkey had established the RCD (Regional Cooperation for Development) in 1964. At that time all three RCD members, along with the UK, had belonged to the CENTO (Central Treaty Organization) or the Baghdad Pact formed in 1955 and which was subsequently officially dissolved on the heels of the Iranian revolution in 1979. Iraq had officially pulled out of CENTO in 1959 following the revolution by Abdul Karim Qassem who overthrew the monarchy in 1958. Gemal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, an Arab nationalist subscribing to growing Soviet influence in the Arab world was a sharp contrast to Iran’s Reza Shah Pehlavi, Pakistan’s Ayub Khan and Turkey’s Suleiman Demirel who were all pro-west and with the exception of Pakistan had diplomatic relations with Israel. CENTO’s goal was to contain Soviet Communist expansion whereas Egypt was strongly promoting Soviet influence along with Syria, Iraq and Jordan.

The entire balance of power in the Middle East started shifting drastically with four critically important events. The first, the Iranian Revolution of 11th February 1979, created a dent in the western agenda of hegemony which still continues to haunt the western powers. The second, the decline of Communism and the end of Soviet expansion completed in 1991 provided a boost to the western powers to pursue their agenda. The third, Pakistan’s declaration of being a nuclear power in 1998, once again created a dent in the pursuit of hegemony. But not easily giving up, the fourth event, was masterfully connived by the western powers and the Zionist regime of Israel on the 11th of September 2001, the war on terror leading up to the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent goal to denuclearize Pakistan. The Soviet threat was replaced by a Muslim threat. If a major imperialist power could be contained, Muslims were perceived to be child’s play. The only thing was to ensure they remain divided.

Two of the four events were spontaneous but the two others, decline of communism and Pakistan’s nuclear entry were time build-up events. The fifth, a spontaneous event, took place on 31st May 2010, the strategic mistake of Israel attacking and killing unarmed civilians on the Mavi Marmara. Turkey, who thus far was a staunch ally of Israel, member of NATO, a country long denied the EU membership (fortunately), a strong western partner and with no ties to Arabs has woken up. In the wake of this event, the US, UK, France and Israel have made no attempts to appease Turkey who is seething and boiling. Turkey is further injured by the latest UN sanctions slapped on Iran. Turkey and Brazil tried to defuse the Iranian nuclear showdown; they’ve failed in the face of US-Israel determination to punish Iran for no reason. Turkey is now wide awake to imperialist designs. Turkey has begun to woo the Arabs.

Arab nations burst into standing applauses as Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan walked to a podium at the Istanbul summit on 10 June. This author does not see Turkey, along with Iran, turning back on its determination to push forward for a political and diplomatic unity among Muslims and some other countries like Brazil. The headlines on the Halifax Metronews read “Arab nations cheer Turkey for tough stance on Israel; Turkish PM criticizes new Iran sanctions”. (http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/world/article/547274–turkey-is-hosting-arab-league-chief-arab-foreign-ministers-in-forum).

Erdogan had tough but true words “Arms, embargoes and exclusion are not working,” adding that “the world was paying a heavy price as a result of such policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are hundreds of thousands of widows, who will account for this? There are orphans, who will account for this? Those who turn this geography into this (mess) have to be held accountable”.

Israeli arrogance and the US support for Israel may well prove to be Israel’s Achilles heel. This alliance is probably in its infancy and if Pakistan the one country that can make a big difference joins the bandwagon, the US-NATO will have to rethink their hegemony strategy. Pakistan is taking a severe whipping at western hands as a result of shifting the war on terror from outside its borders to within its borders and its economy is in dire straits; it is a nuclear power waiting to be stripped. Pakistan clearly has two choices. The first, if it wants to be a winner then it must immediately start negotiations with the “terrorists” and stop the killings of its citizens ; join Turkey, Iran and the Arabs in condemning the Israelis and their western supporters; turn the tables on US-NATO alliance and cease all military operations in the tribal belt. The second, if it wants to be a loser, continue to lick US-NATO boots and eventually allow itself to be stripped. Israel’s Strategic Error: A New Alliance And A Turning Point? By Gulam Mitha, 11 June, 2010, Countercurrents.org

Iran to unveil nuclear fuel advance: top official

TEHRAN: Iran will unveil a new advance in its nuclear program in the coming months, the head of its Atomic Energy Organization was quoted as saying on Saturday, in comments that showed defiance in the face of new U.N. sanctions.

“In the next few months Iran will announce a new nuclear achievement in connection to the production of fuel for its Tehran research reactor,” Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying in the Resalat daily.

He gave no details.

Protest in IOK against student killing

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, the authorities arrested veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani in Srinagar and shifted him to Humhama police station on Saturday.

According to Kashmir media service, the move was made following the killing of an 11th class student, Tufail Ahmed Matoo, by Indian police. Tufail was killed while dozens other people were injured when the police resorted to brute force to break up peaceful demonstrators in Srinagar on Friday.

Gaza Flotilla, US Media and Pakistanis

Aaj TV’s Talat Hussain and his producer Raza Mahmood Agha, and Nadeem Ahmed of Khubaib Foundation are three Pakistanis who joined the Free Gaza Flotilla to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gazans who have been under siege since 2007. All three were on one of the six ships that included the Turkish ship that was brutally attacked by the Israeli commandos, claiming the lives of nine peace activists on board.

The latest reports indicate that all three Pakistanis were detained by the Israeli commandos, and are now at the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv. Their arrival in Pakistan was expected on Wednesday.

“It is a sad incident. The people and government of Pakistan strongly condemn it. There is no moral and legal justification for it,” Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told GeoTV.

“The killing of members of this humanitarian mission, which also included women, is brutal, inhuman and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and norms,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry statement said.

William I. Robinson, a Jewish-American Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has compared Gaza with Nazi concentration camps in Europe. “ Gaza is Israel’s Warsaw — a vast concentration camp that confined and blockaded Palestinians. We are witness to a slow-motion process of genocide,” he wrote last year.

Most of the powerful American news bureaus and offices in the Middle East are staffed by pro-Israeli Jewish-Americans. And the editorial control of reporting from the Middle East is also retained by Jewish-Americans and their allies in the United States. For example, New York Times Jerualem Bureau chief Ethan Bronner is a Jewish-American whose son is currently serving in the Israeli military.

The Israeli lobby has reliable allies in the mainstream American media: the debate among Middle East pundits, the journalist Eric Alterman writes, is “dominated by people who cannot imagine criticizing Israel”.

Here is how John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt describe the US media bias for Israel:

Alterman lists 61 “columnists and commentators who can be counted on to support Israel reflexively and without qualification”. Conversely, he found just five pundits who consistently criticize Israeli actions or endorse Arab positions. Newspapers occasionally publish guest op-eds challenging Israeli policy, but the balance of opinion clearly favors the other side. It is hard to imagine any mainstream media outlet in the United States publishing a piece like this one.

“Shamir, Sharon, Bibi – whatever those guys want is pretty much fine by me,” Robert Bartley once remarked. Not surprisingly, his newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, along with other prominent papers like the Chicago Sun-Times and the Washington Times, regularly runs editorials that strongly support Israel. Magazines like Commentary, the New Republic and the Weekly Standard defend Israel at every turn.

Editorial bias is also found in papers like the New York Times, which occasionally criticizes Israeli policies and sometimes concedes that the Palestinians have legitimate grievances, but is not even-handed. In his memoirs the paper’s former executive editor Max Frankel acknowledges the impact his own attitude had on his editorial decisions: “I was much more deeply devoted to Israel than I dared to assert … Fortified by my knowledge of Israel and my friendships there, I myself wrote most of our Middle East commentaries. As more Arab than Jewish readers recognized, I wrote them from a pro-Israel perspective.”

As expected, the pro-Israeli western media is already busy full time spinning the news of the Gaza Flotilla tragedy as part of the usual campaign to justify all Israeli atrocities.

I see parallels between the Indian and Israeli methods of organizing what Paul Brass calls India’s “production of violence” and the role of Indian media in creating justification for it. All you have to do is substitute “Israeli-Palestinian” for “Hindu-Muslim’” and the picture becomes clear. Here’s Paul Brass’s description of what is often deliberately called “Hindu-Muslim riots”:

“Events labeled ‘Hindu-Muslim riots’ have been recurring features in India for three-quarters of a century or more. In northern and western India, especially, there are numerous cities and towns in which riots have become endemic. In such places, riots have, in effect, become a grisly form of dramatic production in which there are three phases: preparation/rehearsal, activation/enactment, and explanation/interpretation. In these sites of endemic riot production, preparation and rehearsal are continuous activities.

Activation or enactment of a large-scale riot takes place under particular circumstances, most notably in a context of intense political mobilization or electoral competition in which riots are precipitated as a device to consolidate the support of ethnic, religious, or other culturally marked groups by emphasizing the need for solidarity in face of the rival communal group. The third phase follows after the violence in a broader struggle to control the explanation or interpretation of the causes of the violence. In this phase, many other elements in society become involved, including journalists, politicians, social scientists, and public opinion generally.

At first, multiple narratives vie for primacy in controlling the explanation of violence. On the one hand, the predominant social forces attempt to insert an explanatory narrative into the prevailing discourse of order, while others seek to establish a new consensual hegemony that upsets existing power relations, that is, those which accept the violence as spontaneous, religious, mass-based, unpredictable, and impossible to prevent or control fully. This third phase is also marked by a process of blame displacement in which social scientists themselves become implicated, a process that fails to isolate effectively those most responsible for the production of violence, and instead diffuses blame widely, blurring responsibility, and thereby contributing to the perpetuation of violent productions in future, as well as the order that sustains them.”

As the world seeks to find out the full details of what really happened on the Turkish ship yesterday, a powerful campaign is already well underway by the pro-Israel US media to control the explanation of “violence” to suit the Israeli narrative of the latest massacre of unarmed peace activists by the Israelis.

Although the Pakistani media have only a tiny fraction of the power and the reach of the American media, it will still be interesting to hear the eyewitness accounts by Talat Husain and his fellow Pakistani reporters on the scene in the Mediterranean at the time of the Israeli commando assault.

By Riaz Haq