Monday, May 31, 2010

Pakistani journalist Talat Hussain onboard the Gaza Aid Ship - now in Israeli custody

PM assures govt’s complete support to wife of Talat
Dawn, June 1, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday talked to the wife of Syed Talat Hussain, Director Current Affairs and anchorperson of AAJ TV on telephone and assured her that the government was doing everything possible for the safety of her husband.

Earlier the Prime Minister specially directed Interior Minister Rehman Malik to personally visit the family of Syed Talat Hussain and assure them that the government would extend all possible cooperation to them to inquire about the whereabouts and welfare of Talat Hussain.

It needs to be mentioned that the Interpol has informed the Government of Pakistan that Talat Hussain is in safe hands.

For complete article, click here
Related:
UK leader David Cameron 'deplores' Gaza aid ship deaths - BBC
Australian shot in Israel ship attack: foreign minister - AFP
Israeli Raid Complicates U.S. Ties and Push for Peace - NYT

Frayed ends of sanity

Frayed ends of sanity
Nadeem F. Paracha, Dawn, May 29, 2010

Over and over again I have been using Dawn and Dawn.com to hit home the point about the vicious, soul destroying mindset the bulk of Pakistan’s urban middle-classes (especially in the Punjab) have fallen in to.

I have tried to give numerous examples to highlight this devastating observation and here again is another one: On May 28 when terrorists associated with what is called the ‘Punjabi Taliban’ attacked various places of worship of the Ahmadiyya community in Lahore, the TV channels were out in force covering the gruesome event. However, that did not stop them from running happy-go-lucky commercials of their corporate sponsors during breaks, giving the whole event a rather surreal feel.

But this can be expected from this unfortunate republic’s many TV channels. There is now not an iota of doubt left about the level of sheer cynicism, sensationalism and demagoguery that they operate on. Most of them have become a reckless reflection of some of the most obnoxious, conspiratorial and chauvinistic sections found within the country’s convulsing middle-classes.

That said, one however does expect some semblance of decency and reason in the polished corridors of the companies that advertise their brands on these channels. Couldn’t any of these companies that always claim to be ‘good social citizens’ have the presence of mind and heart to ask TV channels to stop running their ads during the coverage of blood-splattered events?

Can’t they see how strange their ads look and sound when squeezed between images of blood, gore and tragedy? Don’t these ads with an unending series of plastic smiles and jingly material-worshipping actually end up mocking the tragedy that is unfolding live on the TV screens?

For complete article, click here
Related:
At least twelve people killed in Lahore attack - Dawn, June 1, 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Israel's split with Turkey deepens

Israel's split with Turkey deepens
UPI, May 27, 2010

GAZA, May 27 (UPI) -- Israel has warned that its naval forces will prevent a Turkish-led flotilla of eight blockade-running ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid for the besieged Gaza Strip, a confrontation that could deliver the death blow to the crumbling alliance between Israel and Turkey.

The breakup of that strategic alliance was triggered by Israel's 22-day invasion of Gaza in December 2008.

Turkey's Islamist government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan bitterly and volubly opposed that incursion in which some 1,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed.

The alliance with Muslim Turkey, a member of NATO and a key military power in the region, was of immense importance to Israel. But the collapse of the 1996 pact has left it deeply isolated at a critical time as it comes under unprecedented international scrutiny and quarrels with its longtime benefactor, the United States, over a peace settlement with the Palestinians.

If the convoy crisis ends badly, with the Israelis using force against 700-800 humanitarian activists from 40 countries, its relations with the United States, which needs Turkish help to resolve a range of regional issues, will worsen, too.

The high-profile attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, imposed in 2007 when the fundamentalist Hamas group seized control of the coastal strip, comes as Erdogan is engaged in a major diplomatic drive to restore Turkey's ascendancy in the Middle East and Central Asia.

"There are no good outcomes to the situation for Israel and no bad outcomes for Turkey," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor noted in an analysis Wednesday.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Why is Israel afraid of a few boats? - Middle East Channel, Foreign Policy
Participants in UN meeting in Turkey call for boycotts against Israel - Daily Hurriyet News (Turkey)
Foreign Ministry encourages diplomats to learn Hebrew - Zaman

On Turkish Relations with Iran and the US
Turkey chides US in Iran row, urges support for swap deal - AFP
The Iran nuclear deal and the new premier league of global powers - AFP

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

'First' Kashmir survey produces 'startling' results: BBC

'First' Kashmir survey produces 'startling' results
BBC, By Alastair Lawson, May 27, 2010

A survey which a British academic says is the first systematic attempt to establish the opinions of Kashmiris has produced "striking results".

Robert Bradnock interviewed more than 3,700 people in Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir to assess their views on various issues. One of the key questions put to respondents was how they saw the future of the territory. Nearly half of those interviewed said they wanted independence. Another question asked for their views over the continuing insurgency.

Dr Bradnock - an associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London - says that the survey has produced startling conclusions, especially in relation to the future of the territory.

No 'simple fixes'

It revealed that on average 44% of people in Pakistani-administered Kashmir favoured independence, compared with 43% in Indian-administered Kashmir.

"However while this is the most popular option overall, it fails to carry an overall majority on either side.

"In fact on the Indian side of the Line of Control [LoC] - which separates the two regions - opinions are heavily polarised," Dr Bradnock told the BBC.

The survey found that the "overwhelming majority" of people want a solution to the dispute, even though there are no "simple fixes".

Dr Bradnock said that in the Kashmir valley - the mainly Muslim area at the centre of the insurgency - support for independence is between 74% and 95%. But in the predominantly Hindu Jammu division to the south, support is under 1%.

Other findings include:

•80% of Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC say that the dispute is important to them personally
•Concern over human rights abuses stands at 43% on the Indian side and 19% on the Pakistani side
•Concern over unemployment is strong across the territory - 66% on the Pakistani side and 87% on the Indian side
•Few are optimistic over peace talks - only 27% on the Pakistani side and 57% on the Indian side thought they would succeed.

Dr Bradnock said that it was "clear" that a plebiscite on the future of Kashmir - along the lines envisaged in UN resolutions of 1948-49 - is "extremely unlikely to offer a solution today".
"The results of the polls show that that there is no single proposition for the future of Kashmir which could be put to the population... and get majority support," he said.

"The poll offers no simple fixes but offers signposts - through which the political process, engaging India, Pakistan and wider Kashmiri representation - could move it towards resolution."

For complete technical data of the survey, click here
For a brief summary of the survey, click here

Proposal for Chief of Defence Staff office a non-starter: A Message from GHQ?

Proposal for Chief of Defence Staff office a non-starter: experts
The News, May 27, 2010
By Shakil Shaikh

ISLAMABAD: The civilian administration as well as the military establishment is as yet clueless about the proposal of creating the office of chief of the defence staff (CODS) by the government.

“We are ignorant about this idea, which seems to be a figment of imagination of some people who are not fully aware of the existing armed forces’ set-up,” a senior official told The News on Wednesday.

But one can presume that some naive elements did try to float the proposal of chief of the defence staff (CODS) similar to Britain, Australia, France and others. Five things are very important in this context: First, the government does not seem interested in creating a new office of the CODS in place of chairman joint chiefs of staff committee.
Had it been so, it would have put it in the 18th Amendment, as this subject is dealt with in Part XII (Miscellaneous) Chapter-2 Armed Forces and under proviso-c of Article 243 (2), which provides only four such appointments -- the chairman joint chiefs of staff committee, the chief of the army staff, the chief of the naval staff and the chief of the air staff with determination of their salaries and allowances.

For complete article, click here

Related:
Commanders want extension for Gen Kayani - The News
US wants Kayani to stay for another year - The News
General in the 'Hood' - Times of India
Nuclear fallout rocks Pakistan - Times of India

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Strife in Baluchistan

Six years of strife
Jan Assakzai, The News, May 26, 2010

Since the launch of the 2004 military operation in Balochistan, the landscape and environment in the insurgency-hit province have seen significant shifts. These include rifts within the Baloch insurgents and other Baloch nationalist parties and a further decline in the insurgent groups' power. It is because of the weakened insurgents that the targeting of federal interests in Balochistan has decreased.

This does not mean, however, that more violence does not lie ahead. On the one hand, there is an increase in the number of attacks against ethnic Punjabis and on the other clashes are taking place in educational institutions between militant Baloch and Pakhtun students.

The security landscape in Balochistan remains as much a cause of alarm as it was in August 2004, when President Pervez Musharraf launched his military operation against insurgent nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and other insurgents.

There is no end in sight to the two parallel struggles in Balochistan, between the Baloch separatists and the nationalists, on one hand, and pro-establishment Baloch sardars and nawabs, on the other.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Is Baluchistan more strategically significant than Afghanistan? - Reuters
Assassination spike threatens new Pakistan flashpoint - AFP
AHB package to bring joy in Balochistan, says President - Online
Talibanisation creeping into Balochistan  - Jan Assakzai (DT)
India and the Baloch insurgency - Hamid Mir, The Hindu

Many Faiths, One Truth...

Many Faiths, One Truth
By TENZIN GYATSO, New York Times, May 24, 2010

WHEN I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best — and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today.

Though intolerance may be as old as religion itself, we still see vigorous signs of its virulence. In Europe, there are intense debates about newcomers wearing veils or wanting to erect minarets and episodes of violence against Muslim immigrants. Radical atheists issue blanket condemnations of those who hold to religious beliefs. In the Middle East, the flames of war are fanned by hatred of those who adhere to a different faith.

Such tensions are likely to increase as the world becomes more interconnected and cultures, peoples and religions become ever more entwined. The pressure this creates tests more than our tolerance — it demands that we promote peaceful coexistence and understanding across boundaries.

Granted, every religion has a sense of exclusivity as part of its core identity. Even so, I believe there is genuine potential for mutual understanding. While preserving faith toward one’s own tradition, one can respect, admire and appreciate other traditions.

An early eye-opener for me was my meeting with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton in India shortly before his untimely death in 1968. Merton told me he could be perfectly faithful to Christianity, yet learn in depth from other religions like Buddhism. The same is true for me as an ardent Buddhist learning from the world’s other great religions.

A main point in my discussion with Merton was how central compassion was to the message of both Christianity and Buddhism. In my readings of the New Testament, I find myself inspired by Jesus’ acts of compassion. His miracle of the loaves and fishes, his healing and his teaching are all motivated by the desire to relieve suffering.

For complete article, click here

"Terrorism's real nature" - A View from Pakistan

Terrorism's real nature
The News, May 25, 2010
Saleem Safi
The basic faults in the strategy against terrorism will make success in the war against terror irrelevant at best. While devising a strategy both the US and Pakistan have missed the point: it is a multi-dimensional problem. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are fighting this war professionally and cover all fronts of the war, while the US and Pakistan are fixated on a single point of armed response to the threat. They ignore the ideological, social, political, economic and strategic aspects of the problem.

Terrorism in the region sprouts from ideological and religious sentiments. Al-Qaeda and affiliates believe in a certain interpretation of the Islamic concepts of jihad, state, crusades, non-Muslims and killings of Muslims who support non-Muslims in this conflict. The Afghan war ended but the ideology survived for more than 30 years and a whole generation was brought up on this theology. Al-Qaeda has now shouldered the burden of propagating this ideology through mosque leaders, the internet, CDs and all other means of communications, not only in the region but in the whole world.

Contrary to the ideology of Al-Qaeda and others, the traditional Islamic interpretations eulogise love for humankind, sympathy, peace, respect for life and property of every man and a belief in peaceful means of preaching and propagating Islam. The US and Pakistan needed to counter the Al-Qaeda through promotion of this true interpretations of the concepts of jihad, state, crusades and Muslim-non Muslim relations shared by an overwhelming majority of ulema. The majority of people who oppose Al-Qaeda's interpretation of Islamic concepts are either terrorised into silence or are indirectly used for promotion of that ideology. Only a few, though at the cost of huge threats to their lives, are fighting the Al-Qaeda ideology.

For complete article, click here

Related: On Afghanistan Side
Former Taliban chief who became top policeman says peace will never come - The National

Sunday, May 23, 2010

With love from across the border

With love from across the border
More on the little luxuries that you just can't help fall in love with when in Pakistan.
HINDOL SENGUPTA, The Hindu, May 16, 2010

As promised, since the last time I wrote this column, I have made one more trip to Pakistan. This time I smoked honey cigars in Lahore, shopped at the Islamabad's spectacular Saeed Book Bank, heard Abida Parveen sing and went down tunnels dug by the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the Hindukush hills of Bajaur in the north-west frontier province of Pakistan.
As promised, I spoke to Noor Rahman who still promises to swing by Delhi.
As promised, here is the second of my two-part series on all the things I like (should I say love and face more hate mails?) about Pakistan.

A song, what else?

Someone in Pakistan told me that this is the ultimate song of the lonesome soul. This voice is that sublime thing, music that cleanses that tedium of the mundane. Zeb and Haniya's Paimana from their album “Chup” strings melodies from melancholia and seeks solace from the silent. When you listen to it, you will seek its meaning. Here's what the words, partly in Darri/Farsi and partly in Pashto, mean:

Part one, translated from Darri/Farsi: Paimana bideh ki khumaar astam;/ Man aashiq-e chashm-e mast-e-yarastam;/ Bideh, bideh, ki khumaar astam… (Bring me the glass so I may lose myself;/I am in love with my beloved's intoxicating eyes; Bring (the glass), bring (the glass), so I may lose myself…)

Part two, translated from Pushto: Dilgeer garzama labela taana;/Khabar me waakhla, raasha jaanana;/Khabar me waakhla, raasha jaanana;/Tarso ba garzay te bela mana?(You have captured my heart and I wander aimlessly without you;/My love come/return, and see the state I'm in;/My love come/return, and see the state I'm in;/How long will you wander without me?)
For all the Atif Aslams and Stings and Junoon, this song is Pakistan to me.

For complete article, click here

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Denis MacShane: India is key to solving Afghanistan

Denis MacShane: India is key to solving Afghanistan
It beggars belief that a fellow Commonwealth country - both a democracy and a nuclear-armed power - can be talking about an invasion of Pakistan
Telegraph, 20 May 2010

When will the Commons start telling the truth about Afghanistan? Other than immigration, no other subject was raised so often on the doorstep in the election. But no other issue was less discussed by the party leaders. There is an ever widening gap between the military-political establishment and the people of Britain who fail to understand why so many of their own people are dying or returning home hideously maimed. This is not the Falklands or even a conflict to stop the UK being blown apart by unionist bigotry and IRA terror bombs.

Conservatives talk grandly about creating a "war" cabinet to wage war in Afghanistan. Mr Cameron should find a word other than "war" to use. We are winning battle after battle: when British troops take on the Taliban face to face, there is only one winner, despite the sad sacrifices that are made. But the notion that we will win a war in Afghanistan commands no serious support anywhere, even among those who support our presence there. Talking of war implies victory. It is the dream of the generals as they send young officers and men achieve the unachievable – to win a war in the sense of the destruction of Nazism in 1945.

Can containment replace confrontation as policy? After 1945 the democracies adopted a philosophy of containment rather than military destruction of opposing ideologies. So too in Afghanistan; we cannot keep on sending British soldiers to die in the will-'o-the-wisp search for an ultimate military victory. Instead of warcraft we need statecraft and that must involve a stronger relationship with Pakistan. There has been much talk about Pakistan and the solution to Afghanistan. But there will be no solution in Pakistan until India changes its strategic approach in the area.
According to a report in Le Monde earlier this year, The Times of India reported a secret conclave of the Indian general staff at Simla in December, at which they discussed a "double-front" strategy – an assault on both China and Pakistan. General Kapoor, the Indian chief of staff, has talked about a limited military attack on Pakistan. It beggars belief that a fellow Commonwealth country and nuclear-armed power – and a democracy to boot, can be talking about an invasion of Pakistan, when what we need is a complete re-setting of India-Pakistani relations. As is well known, in 1989 democracy was suspended in Kashmir, and 500,000 Indian troops moved in. Since then, between 50,000 and 70,000 people have been killed in probably the biggest bloodbath of Muslims in recent times under the Indian army occupation. Some of that was in response to Pakistan-initiated terrorism – the horrible explosions at Srinagar and elsewhere, but India is not even on the way to finding a political solution to the problem of Kashmir, and it is under pressure given the Mumbai massacres and other issues.

For complete article, click here
Related from archives:
India-Afghanistan Relations - CFR
The Key to Afghanistan: India-Pakistan Peace - TIME
India Befriends Afghanistan, Irking Pakistan - WSJ
South Asians must stand together - Guardian

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

India-Pakistan Peace Process: When in Doubt, Turn to Poets Faiz, Ghalib

When in Doubt, Turn to Poets Faiz, Ghalib
By Tripti Lahiri, Wall Street Journal blog, May 19, 2010

At a gathering of Indian and Pakistani businessmen in New Delhi that came to a close Wednesday, industry leaders from both countries mostly spoke to each other in English as they suggested ways to increase economic ties between the two countries.
But every now and then, when searching for the mot juste, they turned to Urdu and Hindi, and particularly to the couplets of famous Urdu poets like the 20th century’s Faiz Ahmed Faiz and the 19th century’s Mirza Ghalib, whose work is part of the courtly tradition of mushaira, a form of competitive but friendly spoken word shared by Pakistan and northern India.

Former Pakistani finance minister Shahid Javed Burki drew many laughs with an Urdu colloquialism about fools that he used when speaking about the difficulties that Indian and Pakistani leaders face in taking steps towards each other that might play badly in the news at home.

Wajid Jawad, managing director of Pakistani garment manufacturer Associated Industries, quoted not one but two couplets during his talk on the textile trade, repeating what he had said to a Pakistani journalist about his feelings just ahead of his upcoming trip to New Delhi.

“I recited a couplet from Ghalib who’s buried here in Delhi, the great poet and that was ‘dekhiyen paate hain ushaaq buton se kya faiz, ek brahman ne kaha hai ki ye saal acha hai‘,” said Mr. Jawad.

Loosely, the two lines translate to:

“Let’s see what blessings lovers will get from the beloved,
A wise man has said this year will be a good one.”

He closed by quoting from the Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem “We Who Remain Strangers”:“Khoon ke dhabbe dhulenge kitni barasaaton ke baad?”

The line asks, “How many rains will it take to wash away these blood stains?”

The Indians were slightly less prone to poetry than their Pakistani counterparts but Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chair of Bharti Enterprises, gamely offered a bit of verse from another 20th century Urdu poet after a speech on the “low-hanging fruit” in agricultural ties (the mango, if you must know).

“Since my friend talked about a couplet, and I remember at an Indo-Pak mushaira I heard about one. I just got an SMS so I’ll take the liberty of reading it. It was Ali Sardar Jafri, this was at Ludhiana, he recited a poem and I just have a line of that, ‘Lo hum haath baratein hain, tum bhi haath barao‘,” said Mr. Mittal, “We are extending our hand…I think the time has come for you to extend your hand.”

Why Pakistanis do not trust America: Dawn

Why Pakistanis do not trust America
By Shahid R. Siddiqi, Dawn, 16 May, 2010

THOSE were the good old days — the 1950s. Pakistanis enjoyed hip hop American culture that made inroads into their households without worrying about its mean political attitude. Majority of Pakistanis looked upon America as an icon of capitalism, progress and democracy.
It fascinated young minds with its ideas of freedom of thought and speech. Pakistan’s founding fathers aligned their country with America because its leadership evoked confidence. Sentimental Pakistanis took America to be a friend in literal sense.

But if one was to ask people in the streets of Pakistan today, 7 out of 10 will blame America for all of Pakistan’s ills. They will cite a pattern of deceit, exploitation and misuse of trust by America over five decades.
They perceive America to be an arrogant, war mongering superpower which, propelled solely by its global agenda and imperial hubris, foments trouble, attacks and destroys people and countries.

Over a period of 50 years, Pakistan’s admiration for America has turned into a feeling of suspicion, outrage, even scorn. This is reinforced by the emerging perception elsewhere in the world shown by the polls that America is the most hated country. The wide-eyed Washington beltway insiders shake their heads in disbelief and question this hatred.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Pakistan to America: What have you done for us lately? - Arif Rafiq
In Pakistan, money alone can’t buy US love - Dawn
US encouraged by Pakistani public opinion trends on ties - The News

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

‘Powerless’ Pakistan

‘Powerless’ Pakistan
By Dr Charles K. Ebinger & Kashif Hasnie, Dawn, 17 May, 2010

THE promised four Es — employment, education, energy, environment — of the current PPP government in Pakistan are disintegrating.

Promises to tackle the recent energy crisis by building 8,000MW of new coal, solar, hydroelectric and wind electric generation plants have fallen through the cracks of the proverbial dilatory Pakistani political and bureaucratic elites.

With power demand at about 14,680MW and current supply at 10,200MW, the power supply shortage stands at 4,480MW, providing fertile ground for social and economic chaos. After researching the supply/demand gap and total installed electricity capacity (19,000MW), we concluded the following reasons for the shortage:

1. While hydropower contributes 6,500MW of electric installed capacity, recent excessively dry seasons, mismanagement and trans-boundary water disputes have restricted this capacity to only 1,500MW resulting in a shortage of 4,000MW.

2. Independent power producers (IPPs) generate 6,250MW; however, owing to non-payment in the energy pyramid, a circular debt (currently around $1.3bn) has been created, resulting in a shortage of 1,500MW.

3. Government-owned power generation plants are under-utilised. Most of them operate far below their capacity, either as a result of a lack of funds for maintenance or a shortage of spare parts.

4. Power infrastructure, especially in transmission and distribution, is old and defective, causing heavy line losses of electricity.

5. There is power theft. Public and private theft of power contributes to 32 per cent of these ‘line losses.’

Keeping the above factors in mind, we know that the Pakistani authorities are trying to gather foreign financial and technical assistance to address this crisis. A new $125m USAID energy programme will upgrade five major power stations and replace more than 11,000 tube wells producing water for agriculture, while boosting Pakistan’s overall power production by 10 per cent.

In mid-January, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke launched the first phase of these energy projects in Islamabad, announcing the United States will contribute up to $1bn to the energy sector. Technical support from the US also is being provided by the private sector following a meeting between General Electric’s CEO, Jeff Immelt and President Asif Ali Zardari last year where in an MoU General Electric agreed to provide help in the energy, water and transportation sectors.

Despite these overtures, the crisis cries out for far more help than is being offered. For the Pakistani government and the international donor community wanting to help it, here is an agenda of actions that will begin to stabilise the country’s economic and political future.

1. Both of Pakistan’s natural gas companies (Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd and Sui Southern Gas Company) should make it a priority to produce an additional 300-400 million cubic feet of gas which is quite possible if gas tariffs are raised to economic levels. This will provide enough gas to fuel an additional 2,000MW of electricity.

2. The circular debt ( where none of the energy companies really pay their obligations) between every company in the electricity mix — the Pakistan Electric Power Company, the Water and Power Development Authority, IPPs, fuel suppliers and refineries — needs to be settled to bring modern accounting practices into the sector.

3. The power infrastructure should be upgraded with a modern efficient grid. Without such an investment there will be little improvement even if major new generation facilities are built.

4. Accounts receivables from the public and private sector, including the military, for electricity should be recovered.

5. The relationship of furnace oil and natural gas prices should be monitored closely. Since furnace oil is more expensive, its excessive use has contributed $571m out of the current $1.3bn of circular debt.

6. Energy prices throughout the economy must be rationalised and raised to the level required to pay for their full cost while returning a profit to the producers. Where subsidies are required for social reasons, they should be targeted and paid for out of government revenues not by energy producers.

7. Government-owned power generation companies should be technologically refurbished. This could close the demand and supply gap by 1,500MW.

8. Finally, Pakistan needs to manage its water resources more efficiently. Today, Pakistan faces the Malthusian-plus challenge of dealing with rapidly growing water demands (for energy, agriculture and people) from a resource base that is likely to change substantially as the glaciers of the western Himalayas melt and monsoon patterns change under the onslaught of climate change.

We were compelled to write this article to highlight the fact that even if the Taliban and its Pakistani allies were to disappear tomorrow, Pakistan in the absence of a plan to deal with its energy crisis will remain in darkness — literally and figuratively.

With promises and prospects of a long-term engagement, we believe that ‘smart American power’ projection lies in addressing issues such as energy and water. While short-term aid and a few promises can start to mend a relationship, sustained partnerships, as we have learned in Afghanistan, require a lot more.

Charles K. Ebinger is senior fellow and director of the Energy Security Initiative at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Kashif Hasnie is an expert on international security and natural resource management issues.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Manhattan madness and Muslims: Connecticut Muslims' Responsible Reaction



Manhattan madness and Muslims
NAZIR KHAJA, Arab News, May 15, 2010

The recent New York City terrorist episode is yet another grim wake up call for the Muslims. It should not be ignored or dismissed by the Muslims as a random act of a confused individual who happens to be a Muslim or a Pakistani and that majority of the Muslims have nothing to do with such acts of terrorism. While the statement itself is accurate, yet more and more due to such acts by individuals who happen to be Muslims the perception of Islam by others is becoming for them a seeming reality. What seems more alarming is that in the more recent acts of terror, Muslims with higher levels of education and social interaction are implicated. This group includes those who are born in the West of émigré parents and also converts to Islam. The British last year arrested a group of young physicians who were planning terrorist action and the arrest of some of the converts who became radicalized and involved in the planning and carrying out such action serves to highlight the seriousness of the problem.

For complete article, click here
Related:
E-mails paint Times Square suspect as frustrated Muslim - CNN

'SUPPORT 'Aman Ki Asha'

Sunday, May 16, 2010

AFPAX ? : American Private Spy Ring in Pakistan and Afghanistan: Extensive NYT reporting

U.S. Is Still Using Private Spy Ring, Despite Doubts
By MARK MAZZETTI, New York Times, May 15, 2010

WASHINGTON — Top military officials have continued to rely on a secret network of private spies who have produced hundreds of reports from deep inside Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to American officials and businessmen, despite concerns among some in the military about the legality of the operation.

Earlier this year, government officials admitted that the military had sent a group of former Central Intelligence Agency officers and retired Special Operations troops into the region to collect information — some of which was used to track and kill people suspected of being militants. Many portrayed it as a rogue operation that had been hastily shut down once an investigation began.

But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials and businessmen, and an examination of government documents, tell a different a story. Not only are the networks still operating, their detailed reports on subjects like the workings of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and the movements of enemy fighters in southern Afghanistan are also submitted almost daily to top commanders and have become an important source of intelligence.

The American military is largely prohibited from operating inside Pakistan. And under Pentagon rules, the army is not allowed to hire contractors for spying.

Military officials said that when Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in the region, signed off on the operation in January 2009, there were prohibitions against intelligence gathering, including hiring agents to provide information about enemy positions in Pakistan. The contractors were supposed to provide only broad information about the political and tribal dynamics in the region, and information that could be used for “force protection,” they said.

For complete article, click here
For background:
U.S. Begins Inquiry on Spy Network in Pakistan - NYT
Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants - NYT
AfPax Insider Is Death - Registan.com

Friday, May 14, 2010

Faisal Shahzad used Hawala System?

With Raids in Mass., Arrest in Pakistan, Times Square Bomber Case Expands in Reach
The Takeaway, May 14, 2010

The case of the failed Times Square bombing and it's accused perpetrator, Faisal Shahzad, is rapidly expanding in rea ch. Late Thursday the Pakistan government said it had arrested a man who claims to have acted as an accomplice to Shahzad. And here at home, federal agents raided homes in suburban Massachusetts and Long Island, New York. The details of the Massachusetts and New York raids are still developing.

Toni Waterman, an associate producer for Greater Boston on Takeaway partner station WGBH joins us with the latest news from Massachusetts.

Hassan Abbas, a professor at Columbia University and author of "Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, Then Army and America's War on Terror" offers insight into a practice known as hawala — a type of underground, informal banking, which some reports say helped provide Shahzad with money for his alleged bomb attempt.


OR
To listen to the program, click here

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Inside Kandahar Today

Portraits of a city under siege
The National, May 13, 2010

Alex Strick van Linschoten reports from Kandahar, a city scarred by daily violence and nervously awaiting the attention of America’s next offensive.

If you want to find out how insecure Kandahar has become, visit the glass-fitter in the bazaar. If he’s wearing a new waistcoat you’ll know that business is booming and things are bad: every explosion in the centre of the city blows out most windows in a two kilometre radius. Most offices, shops and government departments are squeezed into a small section of town – Kandahar really does resemble a town more than a city – and all these people have just replaced all their windows for the ninth time in two years.

Almost nine years of mismanagement and neglect have allowed the Taliban to rebuild their movement as a heterogenous collection of insurgent franchises; Afghan government institutions have alienated large swathes of local society and pushed them directly into the hands of Taliban recruiters. The hope and promise of the first few years died a slow death in full view of the public, as allies supported and funded by foreign governments used their influence and power for their own purposes. All this was expertly exploited by the Taliban, who now are the de facto authority in Kandahar City and in the outlying districts: shops and markets pay taxes to a central authority, warning letters to “government collaborators” receive an official “Islamic Emirate” stamp, and deals between district government officials and their Taliban counterparts are par for the course outside the city.

For complete article, click here
Related:
McChrystal: Kandahar push results will take months - AP
Poppy Blight Could Hinder Taliban - WSJ
Clinton to Afghan women: 'We will not abandon you' - AP
Top soldier in southern Afghanistan warns against Taliban 'impunity' - Telegraph
Afghans wary as NATO rebrands Kandahar "process" - Reuters
Obama: Afghan war will worsen before it improves - Yahoo News

Pakistan and Times Sq

Pakistan and Times Sq
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, New York Times, May 13, 2010

If we want Times Square to be safer from terrorists, we need to start by helping make Pakistan safer as well.

People with links to Pakistan have been behind a hugely disproportionate share of international terror incidents over the last two decades: the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center attacks; Richard Reid’s failed shoe bombing in 2001; the so-called Bojinka plot in 1995 to blow up 12 planes simultaneously; the 2005 London train and bus bombings; the 2001 attacks on the Indian Parliament; and attacks on two luxury hotels and a Jewish center in Mumbai in 2008.

So it came as little surprise that the suspect in the attempted car bombing in Times Square, Faisal Shahzad, is a Pakistani-American.

Why does an ostensible “ally” seem to constitute more of a threat than, say, Iran? Or Lebanon or Syria or Iraq? Or Egypt, birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood brand of militant Islam? Or the West Bank and Gaza, where resentment of America’s Middle East policies is centered?

One answer, I think, is that Pakistan’s American-backed military leader of the 1970s and 1980s, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, drove the country off course, seeking to use fundamentalism as a way to buttress the regime. Instead of investing in education and infrastructure, he invested in religious sanctimony.

The public education system, in particular, is a catastrophe. I’ve dropped in on Pakistani schools where the teachers haven’t bothered to show up (because they get paid anyway), and where the classrooms have collapsed (leaving students to meet under trees). Girls have been particularly left out. In the tribal areas, female literacy is 3 percent.

There’s an instructive contrast with Bangladesh, which was part of Pakistan until it split off in 1971. At that time, Bangladesh was Pakistani’s impoverished cousin and seemed pretty much hopeless. Henry Kissinger famously described Bangladesh as an “international basket case.”

But then Bangladesh began climbing a virtuous spiral by investing in education, of girls in particular. It now has more girls in high school than boys, according to Unicef. This focus on education has bolstered its economy, reduced population growth rates, nurtured civil society and dampened fundamentalism.

For complete article, click here

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

U.S. Weighs Official “Terrorist Organization” Status for the Pakistani Taliban

U.S. Weighs Official “Terrorist Organization” Status for the Pakistani Taliban
Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, May 12, 2010

In light of evidence that the group known as the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted May 1 Times Square bombing, the Obama administration is “actively considering” designating it as a ”foreign terrorist organization” in the next few weeks —a move that would allow the U.S. government to freeze any assets belonging to the group and make it a federal crime to assist the group, officials said Tuesday. But the disclosure, first made by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, immediately raised questions among some counterterrorism experts as to why Washington didn’t act sooner. “I’m pretty surprised that it has taken the U.S. government such a long time to do this,” says Hassan Abbas, a Columbia University professor and former Pakistani police officer who is considered the leading academic expert on the Pakistani Taliban. “This is certainly one of the most lethal [terrorist] groups in South Asia and I would rank it in the top five of all international terror groups.”
The Pakistani Taliban – actually a coalition of militant groups known collectively as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- didn’t even exist until December 2007, when the group was launched in response to the bloody siege of Islamabad’s Red Mosque in Islamabad. The siege ended when Pakistani troops stormed the building, killing more than 100 Islamic radicals. Abbas says the TTP has grown rapidly since then, with a core of as many as 3,000 members and roughly 15,000 fighters belonging to tribal militias who can be called on at short notice. That makes the TTP far larger and arguably more dangerous at this point than Al Qaeda, with which it is loosely allied, Abbas adds. The group’s attacks have grown in brazenness and sophistication, resulting in the deaths of more than 4,000 Pakistani military and law enforcement officers, according to Abbas.

For complete article, click here

Obama, please phone the Muslim 'street vendor hero' too: CNN

Obama, please phone the Muslim 'street vendor hero' too
By Hamid Dabashi, Special to CNN May 11, 2010

Editor's note: Hamid Dabashi is the author of "Iran: A People Interrupted." He is the Hagop Kevorkian professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University in New York.

New York (CNN) -- Dear Mr. President: How good of you, sir, to have personally telephoned two New York heroes whose timely diligence prevented a lunatic from causing a catastrophe in Times Square.

We New Yorkers are happy to hear you called Mr. Lance L. Orton Sr. and Mr. Duane Jackson to thank them for their vigilance. But there is a third vendor, Mr. President, whom you forgot to call. His name is Alioune B. Niass, and he is an immigrant from Somalia who said he was the first person to notice the smoking Nissan Pathfinder.

"I thought I should call 911," Niass later told a reporter, "but my English is not very good and I had no credit left on my phone, so I walked over to Lance, who has the T-shirt stall next to mine, and told him. He said we shouldn't call 911. Immediately he alerted a police officer nearby."
Here in New York, Mr. President, we are not particular about which one of these great New Yorkers saw that deadly car first, alerted the police and prevented a disaster. The Big Apple has a big heart, and the magnificent city of New York has room for plenty of heroes. But we are also very fair people. So we would be grateful if you could kindly call Mr. Niass and thank him for us.

There is another reason besides fairness. Mr. Niass is a Muslim from Somalia, and some of us Muslim-Americans have a suspicion that your staff might not have brought him to your attention because the idea of a Muslim hero in New York does not quite dovetail with the stereotype.

If there is an American of Muslim descent who commits, or tries to commit, a criminal act, as Faisal Shahzad apparently did, we Muslims feel we are all suddenly suspects. We feel we need to explain ourselves. Yet if there is a hero among us whose love for our city does not fit the stereotype, he is ignored. This is not fair, and we believe you, as our president, can do much to alleviate this burden on us and our children.

Imagine millions of Muslim children who go to school across America every day, just like your own children. Imagine how proud they would feel if you were to call Mr. Niass. That pride of place, that we and our children deserve, would go a long way to alleviating the pain of the bigotry and racism that is aimed at us. We too would feel at home here and be even more diligent in safeguarding and protecting our cities from criminal atrocities.
You recall, Mr. President, during your presidential campaign you were, and still are, repeatedly "accused" of being a Muslim -- as if being a Muslim were a crime. We were hoping every time you denied being a Muslim that you would add, "and if I were a Muslim, there is nothing wrong with it."

Finally, it was former Secretary of State Colin Powell who came out and said so when answering people who claimed you are Muslim: "He's a Christian; has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, 'What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?'" We were relieved and grateful.

For complete article, click here

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

New Report: Prospects for Security and Political Reconciliation in Afghanistan

Prospects for Security and Political Reconciliation in Afghanistan Examined in Harvard Kennedy School/Tufts Report - May 2010

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Tufts University’s Institute for Global Leadership are pleased to publish “Prospects for Security and Political Reconciliation in Afghanistan: Local, National, and Regional Dimensions.”

The report, written by workshop co-conveners Matan Chorev and Jake Sherman, and based on two days of intense discussions hosted by the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, summarizes the predom­inant views of a select group of Afghan politicians and former military officials, Pakistani journal­ists and scholars, current and former United Nations officials, diplomats, humanitarian workers, and representatives from the U.S. military on the opportunities for, and obstacles to, security and political reconciliation in Afghanistan.

The report concludes that “the near-term prospects for security and political reconciliation in Afghanistan are bleak. Nonetheless, the United States, its coalition partners, and neighboring states can still assist in shaping sustainable, Afghan-led stabilization.”

“The report offers guideposts to policymakers based on the enormous experience of the participants and eight years of painful lessons learned to guide policy,” says Matan Chorev. “It encourages policymakers to move beyond material incentives in the design of reintegration and reconciliation programs and to give primary focus to the political drivers of the conflict at both the local and national levels. Further, it highlights the overwhelming effect of U.S.-led coalition military operations and the mendicant aid economy on key stakeholders’ incentives and argues that policymakers should take special care to ensure that programs designed to support near-term objectives do not undermine the long-term prospects for the stability of Afghanistan.”

For complete report, click here
The authors can be contacted directly at:
Matan Chorev matan_chorev@harvard.edu; Jake Sherman jake.sherman@nyu.edu

Monday, May 10, 2010

"The consensus about drones" - A Must Read

News analysis: The consensus about drones
By Mosharraf Zaidi, Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Children in Waziristan call them “Ghangai” (emitter of constant humming). Like Scottish folk hero William Wallace — who purportedly shot bolts of thunder from his nether-regions —the legend of the drones grows. Faisal Shahzad’s failed attack on Times Square is the latest stimulant for the drone debates.
What this latest Pakistani terrorist has stimulated is a monster. The truth about the Ghangai has been contested —not only by the supposedly “rabid Pakistani press”, and the “fanatics” that make up this country of 180 million people. It has been contested by American think tanks. It has been contested by US military advisers. It has been contested even by researchers in their own studies, less than six months apart. As always, the truth is the first casualty of war. The contested and amputated truth about the Ghangai is a victim of partisanship and ideology. This is not the first time. In Pakistan, a country whose military and political elite have perfected the art of the dilution of truth, the myth-making is on.

We’ve seen this script before, of course — with Aafia Siddiqui, with the hullabaloo over Blackwater, and with the Kerry Lugar Bill. Each time, Pakistanis are told that their patriotism and sense of dignity is a cover and a code for anti-Americanism. Each time, Americans are told that Pakistan’s rabid anti-Americanism is an existential threat to their lives and the lives of their children. These issues become litmus tests. President Barack Obama’s is a decidedly more thoughtful and constructive approach to dealing with the Muslim world, than George W. Bush’s. Yet it is Bush’s words that continue to define the story of Americans and Pakistanis: “You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists”.

This false choice is at the heart of the dilemma presented by the ghangais or the drones. It is entirely possible to be vehemently, and even existentially opposed to the terrorists, and to also be opposed to the clumsy and insensitive manner in which the United States has conducted its pursuit of terrorists in Pakistan. That is a fact that almost every survey conducted in the last two years keeps confirming.

The truth about the drones is located within this context. If it is difficult for Pakistanis to understand why they are expected to celebrate the missiles called “Hellfire” falling on innocent civilians, it is equally difficult for Americans to understand why Pakistanis are resistant to the killing of terrorists, terrorists that wreak more havoc on Pakistanis than they do on Americans.

As the smoke from Times Square suffocates the already emphysemic relationship between Pakistan and the US, clarity is paramount. In a wide series of discussions with key actors, including tribesmen, senior correspondents from FATA, analysts that study the region, and political actors, there is black, and white and grey. In the rush to validate the pre-determined positions that different camps have taken on the drones, some common truths are missed out entirely.

When we conduct debate on the basis of how we feel, the facts don’t matter. In the drone debate, people are being motivated by factors that do not relate to reason. A lot of the debate is being driven by emotions, and by ideology. That is why supporters of drone attacks within Pakistan will cite facts as selectively as opponents of drone attacks. When the facts are accumulated, it is rather easy to draw some big picture conclusions that might even resemble a consensus. If you are motivated by emotions however, those conclusions won’t change how you feel.

What are those conclusions? Essentially, there are three. The first is that drones are not popular. The second is that innocent civilian deaths are real. The third is that drone attacks have been the most effective instrument in beheading the organizations capacities of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Pakistan’s FATA. Beyond these three simple facts, there are nuances, and there are variations in degrees. There are differences in definitions, and there are differences in approach. But nobody in any credible position can dispute these three facts. Drone attacks are not popular, drone attacks kill innocent people and drone attacks have compromised Al-Qaeda and its affilaites’ ability to operate.

These are not easy facts to digest during the same meal.

For complete article, click here

Two faces of fear — Dr Mohammad Taqi

COMMENT: Two faces of fear —Dr Mohammad Taqi
Daily Times, May 11, 2010

We would not apologise for Faisal Shahzad’s actions — for we have stood against his ilk throughout our adult life, while Lieberman’s kind has financed, armed and trained the antecedents of such bigots

Senator Joseph Lieberman’s call to violate section 349 (a) (7), of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, smacks of a desire to go back to the days of the Executive Order number 9066.

The said order was used by Franklin Roosevelt during the Second World War for internment of the Americans of “Foreign Enemy Ancestry” (AFEAs), predominantly the ethnic Japanese, as many as 122,000 of whom were then held in various government-run camps. Following in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, FDR had also suspended the habeas corpus writ.

Title 8, Chapter 12, Sub-chapter III, Part III, Section 1481 of the US Code deals with the potential loss of US nationality by a native-born or naturalised citizen, the voluntary actions leading to such loss and the burden of proof to sustain the charges and the presumptions therein.

For complete article, click here

Is Afghanistan Winnable?

The Ghosts of Gandamak
By WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, New York Times, May 8, 2010

THE name Gandamak means little in the West today. Yet this small Afghan village was once famous for the catastrophe that took place there during the First Anglo-Afghan War in January 1842, arguably the greatest humiliation ever suffered by a Western army in the East.

The course of that distant Victorian war followed a trajectory that is beginning to seem distinctly familiar. In 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan on the basis of dubious intelligence about a nonexistent threat: information about a single Russian envoy to Kabul, the Afghan capital, was manipulated by a group of ambitious hawks to create a scare about a phantom Russian invasion, thus bringing about an unnecessary, expensive and wholly avoidable conflict.

Initially, the British conquest proved remarkably easy and bloodless; Kabul was captured within a few months and a pliable monarch, Shah Shuja, placed on the throne. Then an insurgency began which unraveled that first heady success, first among the Pashtuns of Kandahar and Helmand, then slowly moving northward until it reached the capital.

What happened next is a warning of how bad things could yet become: a full-scale rebellion against the British broke out in Kabul, and the two most senior British envoys were murdered, making the British occupation impossible to sustain. On the disastrous retreat that followed, as many as 18,000 East India Company troops and maybe half again as many Indian camp followers (estimates vary), were slaughtered by Afghan marksmen waiting in ambush amid the snow drifts and high passes, shot down as they trudged through the icy depths of the Afghan winter.

The last 50 or so survivors made their final stand at Gandamak. As late as the 1970s, fragments of Victorian weaponry could be found lying in the screes above the village; even today, the hill is covered with bleached British bones. Only one man, Thomas Souter, lived to tell the tale. It is a measure of the increasingly pertinent parallels between the events of 1842 and today’s that one of the main NATO bases in Afghanistan is named Camp Souter.

For the Victorian British, Gandamak became a symbol of the country’s greatest ever imperial defeat, as well as a symbol of gallantry: William Barnes Wollen’s celebrated painting of the Last Stand of the 44th Foot — a group of ragged but determined British soldiers standing in a circle behind their bayonets as the Pashtun tribesmen close in — was one of the era’s most famous images.

For the Afghans themselves, Gandamak became a symbol of freedom, and their determination to refuse to be controlled by any foreign power. It is again no accident that the diplomatic quarter of Kabul is named after the Afghan resistance leader who oversaw the British defeat at Gandamak, Wazir Akbar Khan.

A week or so ago, while doing research for a book on the disaster of 1842, I only narrowly avoided the fate of my Victorian compatriots.

Gandamak backs onto the mountain range that leads to Tora Bora and the Pakistan border, an area that has always been a Taliban center. I was trying to follow the route of the British retreat, but had been advised not to attempt to visit the Gandamak area without local protection. So I set off in the company of a local tribal leader who is also a sports minister in the Karzai government, Anwar Khan Jigdalek. A mountain of a man, Anwar Khan is a former wrestling champion who made his name as the mujaheddin commander against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

For complete article, click here

Sunday, May 09, 2010

How to Rescue Pakistan?

Paying for Pakistan By Mohsin Hamid
Dawn, 07 May, 2010

Here’s the great secret about Pakistan: we aren’t as poor as we like to think. Over the years I’ve travelled a fair bit around our country. I’ve ridden on the back of a motorbike in Gwadar, walked down streets in Karachi, explored bazaars in Peshawar.

I’ve hiked in Skardu, fished (unsuccessfully) in Naran, sat down to a meal in a village outside Multan. I’m no expert, but I believe what my eyes tell me. And there’s no doubt about it: times are incredibly tough.

For most Pakistanis, meat is a luxury. Drinking water is contaminated with urine, faeces or industrial chemicals. School is a building that exists only on paper or otherwise employs a teacher who is barely literate. Electricity is so intermittent as to be almost a force of nature, like rain or a breeze.

The budget says our government plans to raise in taxes about Rs1.5tr this year. There are some 170 million people in our country. So that comes to roughly Rs9,000 each per year. Which is a little over Rs700 for each of us every month.

That isn’t much. Yes, we get money from other sources. We borrow, and sell off state assets, and ask for aid from anyone willing to give it to us. But still, what we can raise ourselves in taxes accounts for most of what our government can spend. And when you’re looking at getting enough power plants and teacher training and low-income support and (since we seem intent on buying them) F-16s for the world’s sixth most populous country, the equivalent of a large Pizza Hut pizza in taxes for each of us every month doesn’t go very far.
Why isn’t Pakistan delivering what we hope for? Because of dictatorships, or India, or the Americans? Well, maybe. But these days a large part of the reason is this: we citizens aren’t paying enough for Pakistan to flourish.

On my travels around our country I haven’t just seen malnourished children and exhausted farmers and hardworking 40-year-old women who look like they’re 80. I’ve also seen huge ancestral landholdings and giant textile factories and Mobilink offices with lines of customers stretching out the door. I’ve seen shopkeepers turn up to buy Honda Civics with cash. I’ve seen armies of private security guards, fleets of private electricity generators. I’ve seen more handwritten non-official receipts than I can possibly count.

Many of our rich have tens of millions of dollars in assets. And our middle class numbers tens of millions of people. The resources of our country are enormous. We’ve just made a collective decision not to use them.

We pay only about 10 per cent of our GDP in taxes. (Our GDP is our total economy, what all of us together earn in a year.) Meanwhile, Sri Lankans pay 15 per cent of their GDP in taxes, Indians pay 17 per cent, Turks pay 24 per cent, Americans pay 28 per cent and Swedes pay a fat 50 per cent. We Pakistanis pay a pittance in comparison.

For complete article, click here

Friday, May 07, 2010

Lessons from Times Square: The Radicalization of Faisal Shahzad - By Hassan Abbas

The radicalization of Faisal Shahzad
By Hassan Abbas, AfPakChannel, Foreign Policy May 7, 2010

The radicalization of Faisal Shazad raises important questions for three sets of actors: the people and government of Pakistan, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement, and American Muslims. Before delving into these aspects further, allow me to present my basic theory about how he got radicalized. Based partly on my studies of Muslim youth in the West, I suspect that Shahzad was first influenced by various websites that encourage and propagate extremist religious views, mixing religious bigotry and dogma with conspiracy theories specifically targeting a younger generation of Muslims living in the West. Secondly, Faisal likely searched for militant training camps in and around Pakistan's troubled frontier after he decided he would try to conduct a terrorist attack in the United States. Economic distress might also have played a role in his radicalization, though the choice of target implies that something greater than personal grievance was at play -- Times Square might have been suggested by his militant trainers in Waziristan, who are well aware of New York's symbolic importance.

In this context, Pakistan's government and military must recognize fully that moving against all varieties of militancy and terrorism simultaneously is critical. The time for a "step by step" approach is over. Hopefully, operations in North Waziristan are next on Pakistan's hit list.

U.S. intelligence as well as the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI must review their watch lists. I suspect the watch lists are bloated and the analysts reviewing them are overstretched. If every Muhammad and Osama is on the list; if everyone who travels to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria is on the list; and if even members of mainstream Muslim organizations like the Islamic Society of North America, the Council on American and Islamic Relations, and the Universal Muslim Association of America are being closely watched, it is very difficult to pursue the real leads. Although this would be unpopular politically in the United States, culling the watch lists is the only way to isolate the significant chatter and stop terrorist attacks in America.

Connecticut's Muslim community maintains that Shahzad was not a regular visitor to any of the mosques or Islamic centers in the state. Still, in the future, American Muslims must be watchful and responsible and not import radical clerics, instead focusing on cultivating educated and broad-minded religious leaders from the United States. Imams who are raised and educated in the United States will be better equipped to communicate with future generations of Muslim Americans.

Related:
Views of AfPak Channel Experts - Foreign Policy
Shahzad Case Highlights Pakistan's Jihad Tourism - TIME
Times Square bomb suspect had ties to key Pakistani militants - Los Angeles Times
Radicalization of Times Square suspect was gradual, investigators say - Washington Post
Faisal Shehzad: a lone wolf operator by Amir Mir - The News

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Faisal Shahzad: 'From Suburban Father to a Terrorism Suspect'

Pak-born New York ‘terrorist’ nailed
The News, May 05, 2010
Times Square bomb Faisal Shahzad charged on five counts including global terrorism
Monitoring Report

RAWALPINDI A Connecticut man pulled off a plane bound for Dubai and arrested in a failed bid to set off a car bomb in Times Square has made statements implicating himself, a law enforcement official said on Tuesday morning.

The man, Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, was taken into custody just before midnight Monday at Kennedy Airport aboard an Emirates flight that had just pulled away from the gate, officials said.
According to a Reuters report, US prosecutors on Tuesday charged the man with five counts, including trying to explode a weapon of mass destruction, and they said he admitted receiving bomb-making training in Pakistan.

Mr Shahzad had apparently driven to the airport in a white Isuzu Trooper that was found in a parking lot with a loaded handgun inside, the official said. Mr Shahzad also told authorities that he acted alone, but hours after he was arrested, security officials in Karachi said they arrested a Pakistani man who had spent time with Mr Shahzad during a recent visit there.

Mr Shahzad, who lives in Bridgeport, Conn, spent four months in Pakistan last year, the authorities said. His ties to that country as well as the arrest there of Mr Ferhan, strengthened suspicions that the Times Square plot had at least some tentacles reaching overseas.

Meanwhile, the United States said it is “working closely” with Pakistan in the probe into the botched New York car bombing. “We are working closely with the government of Pakistan regarding the ongoing investigation of the bomb plot in Times spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

“We have very close law enforcement and intelligence relationships with Pakistan,” he said when asked for details of the cooperation. He also said US officials “appreciate Pakistan’s pledge of full cooperation.”

For complete article, click here
 
Related:
From Suburban Father to a Terrorism Suspect - New York Times
Failed Times Square attack comes at delicate time for U.S.-Pakistan ties - AfPak Channel, Foreign Policy
How Did the Times Square Suspect Become a US Citizen? - Mother Jones
Faisal Shahzad Charged with Five Counts, Admits Training in Pakistan - WSJ
Clumsy but keen: would-be bombers stir concern - Reuters
Faisal Shahzad Facebook mixup highlights hazards of Web journalism - Christian Science Monitor
Faisal Shahzad: Another Well-Heeled Terror Suspect - Sepia Mutiny

Monday, May 03, 2010

India - The Eighth Deadliest Country for Journalists

The Eighth Deadliest Country for Journalists By Krishna Pokharel
Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2010

The Eighth Deadliest Country for Journalists.“There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil,” wrote Walter Lippmann, one of the finest to come from the adversarial American journalism tribe, in his 1920 book Liberty and the News.

India is the eighth most dangerous country in the world for journalists.But will the devil spare the journalists?

In a report published today to mark World Press Freedom day, Reporters Without Borders names 40 such devils around the world that it calls predators of press freedom.

The devils are the “politicians, government officials, religious leaders, militias and criminal organizations that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists,” report says.

In India, the devil is mostly kept at bay because journalists here “take pride in their freedom and will defend it robustly in street protests or before the court,” a separate report maintained online by the world media watchdog says on India.

But the report on India also notes that the safety of journalists is precarious in some Indian states like the Naxalite-affected Chhattisgarh where “local reporters are regularly accused by police of being ‘Maoists’ and by insurgents of being ‘traitors’.”

The organization also notes that foreign journalists are not always welcomed by officials in India. There have been instances in which the visa applications of foreign journalists have been turned down for their coverage of social problems in India. Meanwhile others face excessive delays in getting press visas, according to the report.

Globally, 808 journalists have been killed in the line of duty since 1992 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Iraq is the deadliest country. More than 140 journalists have been killed there in the last 18 years.

India is the eighth deadliest country in the world for journalists and 26 reporters have been killed since 1992. It’s a dangerous neighborhood for journalists in general: Pakistan is seventh with 28 killings, Afghanistan ninth with 21 killed and Sri Lanka is at thirteenth place with 18 killings of the journalists.

Among all the journalists killed in India between 1992 and 2008, 35% were covering politics, 27% were covering business and 23% were covering corruption issues.

India’s vibrant democracy needs its relatively free press to continue battling the country’s devils even if it’s a sometimes dangerous job because as Mr. Lippmann eloquently put it: “The quack, the charlatan, the jingo, and the terrorist, can flourish only where the audience is deprived of independent access to information.”

Khwaja’s murder points to home truths By Zaffar Abbas (Dawn)

Khwaja’s murder points to home truths By Zaffar Abbas
Dawn, 03 May, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Horrific as it was, the brutal killing of an ex-ISI man and pro-Islamist campaigner Khalid Khwaja by members of an Islamist group is also a stark reminder of how the sudden intensification of militancy over the last couple of years, especially by the so-called Punjabi Taliban, is to a large extent a direct reaction to the events of Lal Masjid.

It’s been almost three years since the Pakistan Army stormed the militant-infested Lal Masjid and its adjacent Madressah Hafsa, killing more than a hundred people, including many women and the firebrand cleric Abdur Rasheed Ghazi.
As it turned out, such use of military might was an overreaction by the then president Pervez Musharraf to the killing of some army commandos. Ignoring the advice of some of his commanders against the abandoning of negotiation process, he had ordered the use of brute force against a handful of militants and others holed up inside the mosque and the Madressah.

As it soon dawned on the authorities the killing of armed militants and razing of the women’s Madressah in the heart of Islamabad to the ground sent a wave of anger and hatred amongst Islamist groups.

The blowback was so severe that the country’s security establishment is still trying to cope with the situation.

Khalid Khwaja’s abduction and violent death have added an entirely new dimension to the militant movement. Indications are that his abductors and a few other new factions of the so-called Punjabi Taliban, mostly drawn from the former mainstream pro-Kashmiri groups, regard the Pakistan Army and its intelligence outfits as their biggest enemies.

And Mr Khwaja’s taped ‘confessional statement’, which he was forced to record, clearly shows such militants are not prepared to forget the Lal Masjid saga.

For complete article, click here
Related:
Still shying away from condemning suicide bombings - Dawn
In Pakistan, ex-spy Khalid Khawaja's killing is surrounded by mystery - Washington Post
Who killed the ex-ISI official? - AfPak channel

Saturday, May 01, 2010

No 'good' Taliban indeed...

No 'good' Taliban
The News, May 01, 2010
Zafar Hilaly

The regularity with which the military claims to be killing as many as 30-40 militants in a day may be gratifying, but the frequency with which the Taliban are bombing schools and police stations and killing friendly tribals, police, political workers and innocent civilians is alarming.

As the military is spreading out the Taliban are re-infiltrating. Those who surrendered are being released by the military along with "surrender letters" allowing them to return home unmolested, which they do gladly, and then rejoin the fray. Others are released for "want of evidence," or freed on bail. The kind of evidence required by the law suggests that unless the enemy is found with the head of his victim in his hands, he is let off. As for those on bail, the next time anyone them is on the battlefield, on the opposing side.

This war is going nowhere; much is amiss that had better be rectified quickly because affection for the state is diminishing by the day. Just winning battles will not suffice. We can win every battle and lose the war. It is strategy, both military and political, as much as pre- and post-battle, which will eventually determine the outcome. What, then, are the flaws of our present strategy?

To begin with, we have no clear notion of who is the "enemy." We have divided the Taliban into "good" Taliban and "bad" Taliban. And say that it is the "bad" Taliban whom we oppose because they kill our soldiers. Frankly, that's Greek to the populace. Besides, no one can keep abreast when the "good" one day become the "bad" the next. Of that Swat was living proof. To persevere with a failed approach would be a foolish way of dealing with fanatics like the Taliban.

The second is to believe that all we need to do is assert control over the areas where the Taliban are strong, and eventually they will see reason, lay down their arms and cease to fight. Not so. That has never happened. War is their favourite pastime. For the Taliban it is either victory or death. We cannot, therefore, afford to sheathe the sword until the Taliban are destroyed.

Third, it is absurd to brand as "good" those Taliban who attack the US, but not Pakistan. It is intellectually dishonest and self-defeating. Because, we know that the moment they are victorious in Afghanistan they will turn on Pakistan. The TTP is living proof of their intention to do so. Any peace concluded with the Afghan Taliban by the Americans must extend to the activities of their surrogates, the TTP.

Four, the preoccupation with FATA leaves the Punjabi Taliban free to spread their poison. They are the more dangerous and determined foe. Already, their actions in bringing India and Pakistan to the verge of war have hobbled the peace process. And their hold on the minds of the populace is growing.

Five, our resettlement strategy is all akimbo. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Thousands have received nothing; thousands more too little. Government officials entrusted with implementing the programme are too scared to visit. Eventually we may have to consider voluntary relocation of the population, if that is what is required to drain the swamp of the enemy who seek refuge within them.

For any strategy to succeed, the public must be convinced that both the TTP and the Afghan Taliban have common origins, a common cause and work in tandem. At the moment, while the former have been recognised by the populace for the criminals and monsters that they have proved to be in Swat and elsewhere, the Afghan Taliban remain well regarded.

The five-year record of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, like that of America under Bush, was an abject failure. It had to be because both sought to change the world without bothering to understand it. About the only thing the Taliban brought to Afghanistan was peace, the peace of the grave. The Americans did not even bring that.

For those who believe that the Afghan Taliban are a distinct entity, it is worth recalling, thanks to fresh research on the subject, what Faqir Mohammad and Maulvi Omar, Naib Amir and official spokesman of the TTP, respectively, said when asked if the TTP maintained relations with their counterpart across the border. Faqir Mohammed replied:

"No questions about it. They are the true Muslims and everybody has acknowledged them as such. We still support the Afghan Taliban, as they are the only ones who implemented the Shariah in Afghanistan. We are their staunch supporters and there is no difference in our beliefs."

As for Al Qaeda being the international face of the Taliban ideology, this is what Maulvi Omar (of the TTP) had to say:

"There is no difference between Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The formation of Taliban and al Qaeda was based on ideology. Whoever works for these organisations fights against kafirs. However, those fighting in foreign countries are called al Qaeda and those fighting in Pakistan and Afghanistan are called Taliban. In fact both are the name of one ideology. The aims and objectives of both organisations are the same."

The extent of cooperation between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban is intense, on going and growing. For example, Ziaur Rahman of the TTP launched his bid for the leadership of the TTP in Bajaur in late 2007 on his proximity to Arab Al Qaeda commanders linked to the Afghan Taliban. He even married his daughter to an Al Qaeda commander and bandied it about as a badge of honour.

Baitullah Mahsud's links with the leadership of the Afghan Taliban were profound. His "Mahsud boys," aged 16-20, the future suicide bombers, were trained by a team of Afghan Taliban, led by Mullah Dadullah, who had sent them to Iraq to learn the trade from his friend Al Zarqawi. The first recruits were trained in Waziristan because the Afghan Taliban needed a safe training ground which Mahsud was happy to offer.

Mullah Omar often communicated with Baitullah. In fact, the Afghan Taliban direct the TTP as if they were another of their wilayats, or governorates. Policy is dictated by Mullah Omar's circle but the central leadership does not, as a rule, interfere in local matters.

Of course it suited Mullah Omar to deny any association with Baitullah when the latter was inflicting causalities on Pakistan. That was typical of the Taliban. Double-dealing is their forte. As someone remarked, "It merely means that it will be spun in Pakistan as being out of control. After all, the TTP is Mullah Omar's knife held at Islamabad's throat and much too precious an asset to be eliminated."

The military is currently attempting to divide the TTP by pitting the Waziris against the Mahouts. It hopes to weaken the TTP and cut off Omar's fount of recruits and suicide bombers. Needless to say, Omar will react and try to unite the Waziris and Mahsuds. He wants control of all, not only some, of the Pukhtun tribes of Pakistan. Ultimately, it is the Pakistani Pukhtuns who are the great prize of the ongoing conflict. Whoever wins their favour will eventually prevail.

Peace, therefore, is nowhere near at hand. While the Americans can slink away, we cannot. The US departure will only intensify the struggle and a new phase will begin. We had better steel ourselves to confront with iron, blood, wile and wits the current and forthcoming challenge. The question we must ask ourselves is, are we ready with a good-enough strategy?

The writer is a former ambassador