NOVANEWS

NOVANEWS 

by Asif Haroon Raja

The majestic and ravishing landscape of the Kashmir Valley is so enchanting that whosoever happens to visit it gets spell-bounded and overawed by its natural beauty and longs to revisit it. The fairy land is rich in gem stones, timber and is laden with juicy fruits of all kinds; the men are fair colored, handsome, hardworking and skilled in handicrafts; and the women are beautiful and charming. The valley is rightly called the paradise on earth. It is, however, irony of fate that its beauty, fruits and freshness of air have only been enjoyed by foreign invaders and by tourists and not by the inhabitants of Kashmir. All the conquerors treated the people of Kashmir like slaves. This serene and enthralling valley has been converted into virtual hell for the Kashmiris. Except for 1-2% affluent Kashmiris, it is difficult for the rest to keep body and soul together.

Notwithstanding the cruel rules of earlier rulers, Kashmir was subjected to worst excesses in 1846 AD, when she passed into the hands of Dogra chieftain Maharaja Gulab Singh for a paltry sum of seven and a half million rupees through infamous Sale Deed of Amritsar, executed by the British conquerors of Sikh territory. The Dogra Hindu rule extending over more than a hundred years from 1846 till 1947 was one of the blackest periods in the history of Kashmir. Gulab Singh (1846-56) sucked the very life blood of the people. The last of the autocratic Dogra rulers was Hari Singh who had to abdicate power on 26 October 1947 in the face of freedom movement launched by Azad forces of Kashmir and tribal lashkar. The latter had come to the rescue of Kashmiri Muslims on 24 October 1947 after learning that they were being brutally butchered by Dogra Army and Hindu terrorist gangs.

By that time Pakistan had come on the world map but was only two months old. 80% of Muslim subjects of Kashmir under the leadership of Ghulam Abbas, chairing Muslim Conference had aspired to join up with Pakistan and had moved a resolution to that effect. But for the wily role of pro-Indian National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah who was duped by Nehru, machinations of Congress leaders and Mount Batten would have failed.

Despite the mismatch, Pakistan forces put up a valiant fight and succeeded in keeping Kashmir a disputed territory requiring resolution through a fair and free plebiscite under the supervision of the UN so as to allow right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir. One-third of Kashmir which is known as Azad Kashmir was retained by Pakistan, which acts as the operational base for the freedom struggle in two-third Indian occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan had laid claims on Kashmir on the basis of ideological, religious, political and geographical linkages. Pakistan shared with Kashmir three of its rivers namely Indus, Chenab and Jhelum which originate from Himalayan part of Kashmir and form the backbone of its agriculture and literally the aqua vital. The other three rivers flowing into West Pakistan were Ravi, Sutlej and Beas had its origins in Indian Territory. Pakistan being a lower riparian was placed at a distinct disadvantage at the very outset particularly when viewed in context with India’s bellicosity and expansionist designs and its failure to reconcile with existence of Pakistan. Hindu leaders had agreed to the creation of Pakistan under the illusion that it would live as a satellite under the gigantic shadow of Indian military, or would beg for re-integration into Indian Union within six months of its birth.

The 15-month 1948 war ended in January 1949 as a result of UNSC arranged ceasefire which was requested by India. Nehru agreed to stop the war after he assessed that major part of Kashmir including the enchanting vale, Jammu and origins of three rivers had been annexed, and that Pakistan being a lower riparian would be perpetually at its mercy. Liaquat Ali Khan accepted the ceasefire since at that time fledgling Pakistan was too deeply immersed in host of intractable problems. Prolongation of war would have been at the cost of survival of Pakistan. He was sure that the pledges given by Nehru and UNSC to hold a free and fair plebiscite under the auspices of the UN would be honored.

Nehru however made a u-turn on his promises and not only disregarded the UN resolutions but also started integrating Kashmir into Indian Union through deception, fraud and use of brute force. India’s negative attitude and flagrant disregard of UN resolutions on Kashmir thwarted all attempts to settle the dispute by peaceful means. Instead of reaching an amicable settlement with Pakistan, it all along tried to pressurize Pakistan into giving up its demand for a just and fair settlement of the issue. Its obduracy and bellicosity led to 1965 Indo-Pak war and even the 1971 war was a result of unsettled Kashmir dispute. The two sides came close to war in 1990-91 and clashed with each other in Dras-Kargil sectors in the summer of 1999 due to Kashmir. Decision of the two countries to go nuclear in 1998 was also motivated by Kashmir, India wanting to retain its illegal hold over it and Pakistan wanting a just solution.

Laws framed by the US on terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 suited India and Israel the most. Encouraged by the US, the two terrorist and expansionist states involved in massive human rights against Palestinians and Kashmiris respectively for decades became more barbaric. Pakistan by agreeing to become a front line state at the behest of USA to combat global terrorism got completely distracted from Kashmir and got deeply immersed in fighting its own people. Indo-Pak peace treaty signed between Gen Musharraf and Vajpayee in January 2004 gave new hopes of resolution of Kashmir dispute and other core issues. However, tall promises made by India proved elusive since it wasted time in futile CBMs and kept the core issues on the sidelines. India availed the elusive peace along the LoC to its advantage by intensifying its atrocities against marooned Kashmiri Mujahideen, devoid of support from Jihadi groups based in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan.

When India could no more drag its feet and situation in Occupied Kashmir became explosive following dispute over Shri Amarnath land, India’s RAW in connivance with Mossad and CIA engineered Mumbai attacks drama on 26 November 2008, blamed Pakistan, stalled composite dialogue and reverted to its old hostile posture. Whole-hearted support of the US, western world and Israel as well as of Afghanistan together with easy induction of sophisticated weaponry from advanced world made the Indian leaders highly belligerent and uncompromising. Its military leaders openly talked of resorting to Cold Start doctrine to overrun Pakistan.

Pakistan tardily realized that it had been deceived by India under the garb of peace treaty and its real motive was to proceed with its covert war from Afghanistan and cultural war from its own soil so as to encircle Pakistan in a three-directional pincer and make it powerless. FATA and Balochistan were made volatile to play the Balochistan and Pashtunistan cards and to force Pakistan to give up Kashmir. Water war was operationalized by building dams over the three rivers flowing into Pakistan from Occupied Kashmir to choke Pakistan.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had rightly termed Kashmir as the jugular vein of Pakistan since cutting of the jugular vein causes instant death to a person, and if it is pressed hard, it renders the person half-dead. Sensing the wicked designs of the Hindu leaders, Jinnah could foresee that if the jugular vein gets severed in the process of partition of India, it would cause death to Pakistan, and if it is choked it would make Pakistan comatose. An enemy grip on the hill courses of these three rivers could starve West Pakistan. Furthermore, it could enable India to either flood Pakistanis living in low lying West Punjab, or choke water flow and cause drought and kill them, or flood or dry up canals suiting its military design during war.

He had rightly decided to stand up to the Indian aggression in 1948 irrespective of the fact that in that timeframe newly born Pakistan was engulfed in multi-dimensional problems. Had the two ill-equipped infantry brigades together with Azad forces and tribesmen not resisted Indian military’s Summer Offensive launched in April 1948, whole of Kashmir would have been annexed by India. And had we not agreed to ceasefire as desperately demanded by India and continued fighting, our forces could have pushed out the thoroughly demoralized and exhausted Indian forces from Kashmir.

His apprehensions have come true and India is doing exactly what he had visualized in 1947. Despite signing Indus Basin Treaty in 1960, which gave exclusive water rights of Western Rivers Jhelum, Chenab and Indus flowing down from Occupied Kashmir to Pakistan, India in blatant violation of the said treaty has not only usurped the full quota of the three eastern rivers namely Beas, Sutlej and Ravi, but taking full advantage of the jugular vein which is in its iron grip is pressing it from many points by building dozens of dams to suffocate Pakistan to death or to make it gasp for life and thus forget about Kashmir.

India has ventured upon an ambitious plan worth $120 billion to divert waters of Rivers Jhelum, Chenab and Indus flowing from north to south and turn fertile lands of Pakistan into a desert. So far, it has built 65 dams and headworks, but has plans to build a total of 300 small and big size dams so as to gain total control over the three rivers. It is constructing a 3800 km long canal in order to divert water from River Indus to River Sutlej. This project will be completed by 2014. In addition, construction of series of canals measuring 14000 km is also in the pipeline, which will help connect 14 rivers of India. From 2008 onwards, West Punjab’s standing crops are getting severely damaged due to water shortage caused by Baghliar dam.

Violation of Indus Basin Treaty is in line with India’s national policy of backtracking from its pledges and breaking international agreements and defying the UN. India intends to complete its water denial plan to Pakistan by 2016 after which Pakistan will get deprived of its share of water. Pakistan’s condition will become worse than Somalia and Ethiopia, the two drought ridden countries. If India opens the gates of these illegal dams, it can sink Pakistan within 48 hours.

With no end to its malevolence, India has now managed to coax its strategic partner Afghanistan to build dams over River Kabul and has offered its full assistance. This would further worsen water problem of Pakistan. India has full backing of USA, UK and Israel as well as the western world as a whole since none has ever taken notice of this most pitiless form of terrorism against humanity. Among host of coercive tactics applied by the gang of six based in Kabul, water terrorism is one of the cruelest forms to overawe Pakistan and break its will to resist. I wonder what the preachers of Aman-ki-Asha who are spending their entire energies to present the soft image of India have to say about the excessive human rights violations of Indian security forces against the Kashmiris including teenagers and water terrorism against Pakistan, which will suck the very life blood of the people of Pakistan. Brahman Hindus are far crueler than Hindu Dogras in Kashmir.

Unlike India which starts howling like a spanked child on slightest suspicion, or procurement of a weapon by Pakistan, or a terrorist attack and makes a mountain out of a mole, and the US led western world rush forward to extend their wholehearted support to anguished India lamenting over cooked up grievances, our leaders on the other hand for unexplained reasons remain tightlipped even when the very survival of Pakistan is at stake. Our lackadaisical approach encouraged India to build dams in contravention to the treaty. India managed to build so many dams illegally since we didn’t make noise and failed to take up the case with international bodies in time. Jamaat Ali Shah, deputed to protect Pakistan’s water interests remained in a laid-back position thereby allowing India to complete construction of Baghliar dam and now the Kishinganaga dam. He has gone in exile.

Pakistan should immediately take up this grave matter in the UNSC and International Court of Justice and under the UN deputed unbiased Commission carryout on spot inspection of all the spots on Rivers Chenab, Jhelum and Indus where dams have been/are being built and put an end to India’s madness.

NNNEWS

by  Asif Haroon Raja

Pakistan commemorates Kashmir solidarity day on 5 February every year to demonstrate their unequivocal support for the valiant struggle of the Kashmiri people in achieving their legitimate right to self -determination.

The purpose of commemorating of this day by people of Pakistan is to help raise awareness among the new generation about the historic and just struggle of Kashmiris desiring freedom from the slavery of India.

Kashmir Day is also meant to pay tributes to tens of thousands Kashmiri men, women and children who lost their lives at the hands of Indian security forces.

Their sole crime was that they didn’t want to live as subjugated people under the oppressive Indian rule and desired to be freed. They wanted their inalienable right of self-determination as provided for in the UN Resolutions.

They wanted a free and fair plebiscite supervised by the UN to decide whether to tie their destiny with India or Pakistan as promised to them by Jawahar Lal Nehru, Pakistan and the UN.

To silence them from seeking their just right of self-determination, they were tormented, tortured and brutally persecuted. Their marked and unmarked graves together with mass graves in Vale of Kashmir will keep pricking the conscience of the world, which is dead.

Fed up of unfulfilled promises of Indian leaders and lackadaisical attitude of the world including the UN, the US and Pakistan, the Kashmiri youth decided to take their fate in their own hands. They took up arms against the state forces in 1989 which soon got converted into a full blown freedom movement.

The Truth of Kashmir Lurks Behind the Mountain fog

Massively rigged state elections in 1987 followed by brutal repression of protests in fact triggered the uprising.

Younger generation of Kashmir who were better educated and politically more savvy than the older generation, resorted to violence when they saw all other avenues for dissent blocked.

It was wholly an indigenous movement but India blamed Pakistan that it was aiding terrorists and frenetically started pumping in additional security forces.

In quick time the small valley was saturated with over 700,000. Pakistan was threatened and a full blown war became a distinct possibility in 1990-91.

Instead of dealing with the explosive situation politically, India got unduly alarmed and over reacted by choosing to quash the insurgency through brute force.

A reign of terror was unleashed by the occupation forces which paled the atrocities committed by Changez Khan into insignificance.

Besides massive extra judicial killings in fake encounters and in torture chambers where third-degree methods are used, tens of thousands have been crippled for life, thousands orphaned, widowed and raped.

Torture, custodial killings and gang rape has been used as weapons to break the will of the people of Kashmir. Thousands are languishing in secret dens of intelligence agencies bearing inhuman torture.

Unknown numbers died in custody and are still dying. Those who are lucky to survive are living in perpetual agony. Their houses and properties have been ransacked and their fundamental rights usurped.

The Indian security forces comprising army soldiers, Black Cat Commandos, BSF, CRPC and police have been given license to kill under draconian laws and Indian courts protect them. The enchanting valley popularly known as Paradise on Earth has been converted into an open prison and a virtual hell.

Kashmiris

Tens of thousands of refugees from occupied Kashmir living in camps in Azad Kashmir narrating tales of horror didn’t evoke any sympathy from the civilized world.

Washington also made it clear that it had no intention of acting as a mediator unless India agreed to accept third party involvement.

Neither the UN nor any other country was willing to put pressure on India on this count. While Pakistan was blamed for supporting Kashmiris, India was not asked to stop human rights abuses.

In a matter of two decades over one lac Kashmiris have been martyred. The repression and atrocities fanned the struggle and hardened postures.

The freedom movement instead of getting contained continued to gain momentum and attracted the attention of the world, particularly of the Muslim world. The freedom fighters drew inspiration from Afghan Jihad in which many had voluntarily taken part.

It was a consequence to unsolved Kashmir dispute that Kargil conflict took place in the summer of 1999.

It was a dismal end to a brilliant combat performance by few Pakistan irregular NLI regiments and 2-300 Mujahideen at the highest battlefield of the world.

India once again over reacted by using up all its infantry units including a division from Strategic Reserve and one from NEFA and made maximum use of air and artillery power, but even then failed to evict handful of freedom fighters and irregulars.

The encounter virtually brought the Indian military might to its knees. The US and G-8 countries had to coerce Pakistan to vacate the captured heights and bailout India from an extremely humiliating situation.

While Clinton pressured Nawaz Sharif to pullback from Indian side of Line of Control (LoC), but didn’t ask Vajpayee to withdraw its forces from Pakistan side of LoC. Although the conflict internationalized the Kashmir issue, it gave reason to India to dub freedom fighters as terrorists and Pakistan an abettor of terrorism.

From late 1990s onwards, western opinion colored by Indian lobbies started to insist that UN resolutions and promise of plebiscite were outdated. India took the plea that elections are a substitute for a plebiscite not realizing that issue of Kashmir is not about territory, but about right of a people to self-determination.

It is a poignant human issue calling for a human approach.

A Troubled Territory Filled with Troubled Peoples

After Kargil conflict, India changed tack by emphasizing that LoC must be respected by both sides and it formally placed the notion of the LoC as the international border. While the US and UK promptly accepted the idea but the duo didn’t take into account previous violations of LoC and occupations by Indian troops like the Siachin Glacier.

Neither was it realized that the UN and USA cannot alter the nature of dispute by accepting India’s proposal of LoC.

The movement that had assumed dangerous proportions for India in 2001 received a set back after 9/11 since all freedom movements were put in the category of terrorism. Terrorism became the buzzword and India fully cashed it to its advantage.

In order to demonize the Kashmiri fighters, drama of attack on Indian parliament by unknown 5-6 terrorists was enacted in December 2001. Pakistan was blamed and the event was equated with 9/11 and war hysteria created which continued for ten months, with troops on both sides in eyeball to eyeball contact.

General Musharraf

General Musharraf signed peace treaty with India in 2004 and agreed to ceasefire along the LoC.

Under intense pressure from India and USA, Gen Musharraf banned six jihadi groups based in Azad Kashmir that were actively supporting the freedom struggle in Occupied Kashmir and their funds frozen.

India was also allowed to fence the LoC. APHC which was providing leadership to the movement was cleverly divided into two factions so as to isolate hard line Geelani. Moderate leaders led by Mir Waiz were induced by giving false promises that Kashmir issue would be solved through dialogue.

Putting aside the sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris and their aspirations, Gen Musharraf swayed by western opinion secretly gave his consent to the Indian proposal of accepting LoC as permanent border.

It was in this context that he came out with harebrained out of box solution to Kashmir dispute and sacrificing UN resolutions. Had he not been caught up in lawyer’s movement in 2007 which led to his ouster, he would have implemented this infamous scheme.

All these developments gave a severe blow to the freedom struggle and instances of clashes with Indian security forces dropped down substantially. Indian military started bragging that the terrorist movement abetted by Pakistan had been successfully quashed.

However, contrary to claims made, it refused to scale down its presence in Kashmir and continued with its killing spree and violation of human rights.

India’s tall promises proved elusive. While no progress on core issues of Kashmir, Siachin, Sir Creek and water was made, India kept wasting time on elusive CBMs, which amounted to putting the cart before the horse.

It made no change in its stated stance and kept singing the old mantra that Kashmir is Atoot Ang (indivisible part) of India and that India will never accept its vivisection for the second time.

It kept building dams on the three rivers flowing into Pakistan from Occupied Kashmir with a view to convert fertile lands of Pakistan into desert. The much trumped up composite dialogue got stalled after Mumbai attacks on 26 November 2008. India refused to resume talks despite Pakistan’s best efforts.

Seeing that they had again been betrayed by India and their own leaders as well as by Pakistan, the Kashmiri teenagers spearheaded unarmed movement in 2009. This cycle of protests by teenagers carrying pebbles in their small hands was repeated in the summers of 2010 and 2011.

Disregarding their small age and the fact that they didn’t carry any arms, the barbaric gun totting and trigger happy Indian security forces sprayed bullets on them mercilessly killing and injuring hundreds.

Under international pressure and owing to deteriorating situation in Occupied Kashmir, Manmohan Singh softened his stance slightly by agreeing to resume composite dialogue but didn’t refrain from imposing unreasonable conditions.

Pakistan on the other hand kept up with its flawed policy of appeasement to calm down Indian leaders and to renew talks. RAW-created ‘Aman ki Asha’ forum is another farce to befool the world and to buy time.

How can India seek peace with Pakistan when its forces are callously shedding blood of unarmed Kashmiris and dishonoring the women and not agreeing to resolve the chronic dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiris and UN Resolutions?

On what moral grounds preachers of ‘Aman ki Asha’ desire peaceful co-existence when RAW continues to support anti-Pakistan terrorist groups in Balochistan and FATA and conspires to breakup Pakistan?

Coming Home.

While the world looks the other way to Indian atrocities and massive human rights abuses, the Kashmiris continue to resist and shed blood and raise Azadi slogans. For over six decades they have borne the cruelties of Indian military.

The younger generations having grown up amidst the din of rattle tattle of guns and sound of explosions, refuse to be cowed down. But so far there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

India is now the strategic partner of the sole super power which looks the other way to Indian human rights violations and its refusal to resolve the oldest dispute.

The US on which Pakistan pinned high hopes sides with the aggressor. It is bent upon making India the policeman of the region. The US wants solution of dispute on Indian terms which envisages conversion of LoC into permanent border.

For 65 years the international community has maintained a studied ambivalence towards the Kashmir issue. Tangled knot of Kashmir has not been untangled because of India’s pigheadedness and the US led civilized world’s insensitivity.

NOVANEWS

AFGHAN POLICY OR KILL TEAM ?

These days, when I watch state-run Afghan TV, which is funded by American money, I am surprised by how openly Afghan experts criticize US military tactics in Afghanistan. This is new.

By Hanan Habibzai

Kapisa district police chief Abdul Hamid Erkin told AFP: “Two nights ago foreign special forces carried out a raid on a house in Geyawa village in Nejrab district.” The next morning their plane carried out an airstrike on a house in the village as a result of which seven children and one adult were martyred.”

He said commanders of French troops who operate in the area “claimed that the target was a group of Taliban facilitators, but we checked the area and there were no Taliban.” In fact the people in the area have very strong anti-Taliban feelings. We filmed the victims, who were children, and showed it to the French commanders,” district police chief told AFP.

Presidential statement confirmed Thursday that NATO airstrike killed eight children in Kapisa province northeast of the capital Kabul. The children were aged between  seven and 15, he said, while the adult was a mentally-handicapped 20-year-old. The tragic incident comes about two weeks after Four French soldiers were killed by a loyalist Afghan officer in the same province (Kapisa) last month, pressuring French mission in Afghanistan.

President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately announced that France will pull out its soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of 2013, a year before the international deadline for a pulling out of combat forces in 2014.

An article that I wrote almost two years ago on a similar case is still relevant, I’d like to share that again.

 Promote peace talks, Afghan war is not a success

The attack on Kabul on January 17,2010 which took place only metres away from the Presidential Palace, was evidence that not only have the international community and the Afghan government failed to win the people’s hearts and minds, but also they have lost their trust. The military conflict has now reached even the heart of Kabul. It is hard to imagine anywhere safe in the whole country.

But at this time of intensification of conflict, a debate is taking place among Afghan parliamentarians questioning the presence of the US and NATO in Afghanistan.

This is the anti-Western sentiment that the Taliban have for long been whispering into the ears of ordinary Afghans in the villages and valleys of the restive regions. Those Afghans who saw their children die, those who watched their women and elders in pools of blood, are increasingly becoming susceptible to this type of rhetoric.  Many are in the process of changing their minds about the international troops.

The military commanders say that they have now made “protecting civilians” their priority, but just last month, 10 children were killed during a night-time raid carried out by US-special forces in eastern Kunar Province. As long as these incidents keep happening public anger against the US presence in Afghanistan will continue to grow.

Military attacks carried out by foreigners and that result in the killing of civilians are an insult to Afghans’ traditions and beliefs. In many instances, when the local population accuse international forces of killing civilians, the troops deny it and often dismiss evidence provided by Afghans. Also commonly heard is that troops were targeting terrorists in a raid, even when the victims are school children, or mothers with young children.

Sadly these tradgedies overshadow the killing of civilians in suicide attacks  by the Taliban – preventing the public mourning of the innocents who lose their lives in such attacks. It has given cover to Taliban attacks that result in civilian killings across the country. Ordinary Afghans are now only talking against US military behaviour and forget attacks by Taliban which have killed hundreds of civilians.

In 2003 and 2004, I was reporting for international media agencies on clashes between two notorious warlords in the north, Rashid Dostom and Atta Mohammad. At the time I regarded the American presence in Afghanistan as crucial for protecting the country from war criminals and for helping to bring stability to the country. But now, I have begun to lose hope. The international security forces are creating such a terrifying atmosphere that it is hard for people to sleep at night.

These days, when I watch state-run Afghan TV, which is funded by American money, I am surprised by how openly Afghan experts criticize US military tactics in Afghanistan. This is new. A recent discussion program featured an influential historian and supporter of President Karzai, Habibullah Rafi. Rafi was talking about civilian casualties and warning American troops to end their animosity towards Afghan people.

The other guest, parliamentarian Iqbal Safi, warned that if American troops continue to kill civilians, they will face the same fate as the Red Army, which left Afghanistan, defeated, and shamed.The MP’s anger was clearly visible. The tension between Afghans and Americans is just beginning to surface but both countries are yet to see the terrible consequences of the discrepancy.

Americans should stop their stubborn approach in Afghanistan and take a more diplomatic and talk oriented track. Afghan Taliban should be brought to the political process and should be recognised as a political entity in Afghanistan.

Traditionally, mosques are run and controlled by Mullahs and historically they have enormous impact on peoples’ opinion in Afghanistan. One of the most effective ways to achieve stability in Afghanistan is to win the support of Mullahs and of influential religious leaders.  I recommend that the international community negotiates with Taliban.  War alone will never produce a brighter future for Afghans; it can only result in the loss of more and more lives.

Only when the violence ebbs will the torch of democracy be lit. As long as the fear and instability spreads, as long as each family is mourning a loss, so the enmities will deepen between families and tribes, and between the US and Afghanistan. Negotiation is always going to be more productive than violence.

Some will say that the Taliban are too cruel, and that if they become a part of the government, they may not allow women to go to work or school. Others will say that before negotiations there needs to be political reform to remove the warlords who massacred thousands, and some of whom were backed by the United States. There will be questions, and concerns. But in spite of these, there can be no doubt that what Afghans want more than anything is for the violence and killing to stop.

NOVANEWS 

CHARLIE WHITE OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF INDIANA

Secretary of State, GOP-er, Convicted of 6 Counts of Election Rigging

 by  Gordon Duff, 

It has taken me a long time to get over the idea that Communism is a “left” thing.  I now know better, that “Neocon” means “Commie.”  For years we were told that right wingers were Nazi’s.  Imagine, having to apologize to Nazis. 

The problem is spreading but the worst places, of course, have been Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.  A group there of what we now know to be communists have taken over the government pretending to be conservatives.

They have been working to break trade unions and replace them, not with capitalism. They want a Stalinist police state with gun seizures, neighborhood spy groups that they call “anti-terrorist watches” and, at the same time, destroy the middle class and education systems which might threaten totalitarian rule.

We thought “ground zero” would be Wisconsin but it is now Indiana where a jury just convicted Secretary of State Charlie White, the man who runs the state’s elections with 6 felony counts of voter fraud.

The governor tried to keep him in office anyway and has appointed his assistant, someone who may also face similar charges in what we have been told is a secret Federal Grand Jury investigation, as his replacement.

Is there no shortage of communists in Indiana?  Why Indiana?  Why the resurgence of communism?  How did communists get control of the Republican party?

Mike Connell literally had a falling out – of the sky

The verdict against White came back yesterday at 2 pm while Whites assistant in all his acts on behalf of what we can now call the Socialist Republic of Indiana, Jerry Bonnet, has taken up his gauntlet.

The basis of communism is the elimination of free elections, we know this well in Ohio.

In our last election, the governors attempt to use his socialist, Republican party to take over the state’s labor unions was defeated by a massive margin, a governor whose election itself was likely voter fraud as were the two Bush wins in Ohio.

A website had been set up offering a $10,000 reward for proof of the murder of Michael Connell, the Republican party programmer who admitted to rigging the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections for Bush.

Connell died in a mysterious plane crash after asking for protection.  He was to testify against Bush advisor Karl Rove in an election fraud civil trial.

Connell had agreed to testify

A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell’s life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather.   VR’s attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody.  VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell’s not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. 

Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two  months because of suspicious problems with his plane.  On  December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people.  It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

On October 31, Mr. Connell appeared before a federal judge in Ohio after being subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit investigating the rigging of the 2004 election under the direction of Karl Rove.  The judge ordered Mr. Connell to testify under oath at a deposition on November 3^rd, the day before the presidential election.  

Velvet Revolution received confidential information that the White House was extremely concerned about Mr. Connell talking about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.

An associate of Mr. Connell’s told VR that Mr. Connell was involved with the destruction of the White House emails and the setting up of the off-grid White House email system.

Rove had threatened Connell, who had requested to be put in witness protection.  The Bush Justice Department had refused to protect Connell who was quickly eliminated.   Sources in the intelligence community said the same group that was responsible for the murder of Senator Paul Wellstone and his family were used to kill Connell.

As a final reminder of how far things have gone, please watch the following video which includes two classified news reports and police recordings from 9/11:

Both CNN and CBS now say they never made the recordings you just saw.

Van Mural

You imagined them.

Those who were arrested as the police network recording indicated, disappeared.  Their arrest records no longer exist.

All forensic evidence of the truck explosion is gone.

All witness statements, number, we are told, 188 eyewitnesses, disappeared as well.

The arresting officers “no longer exist” as does the dispatcher.

Video of the incident, both “dashcam” and CCTV have disappeared as have all legal records.

In fact, this one small incident, the explosion on the Garden State Parkway, is the biggest and certainly the best documented coverup in American history.

Truck Mural

More arrests were made by NYPD of a similar truck outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

Results?

The same, no records, no police, no arrestees, no records, no video, nothing.

On this basis, we are ready to believe that 9/11 may never have happened at all, in fact we are waiting for the announcement that the twin towers had never been built.

We had already been told the 3rd tower, “Building 7″ had never existed.

The following video would be humor were it not for several hundred dead, victims of the building that never existed, whose destruction you watch while, in fact, the building still stands virtually undamaged:

NOVANEWS 

US foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan

by  Colonel Eugene Khrushchev (ret),

What Will the Legacy of Enduring Freedom Really Be?

Washington’s policy of “managed chaos” has backfired in Afghanistan and  Pakistan. 

VT Editor, Colonel Eugene Khrushchev says the  US excelled at chaos building but has yet to succeed at managing it.

The sleep of reason brings forth monsters.

­El sueño de la razon produce monstruos.

­  …Francisco José de Goya

­Afghanistan is in dire straits due to the United Kingdom’s ‘divide &  rule’ colonial legacy and an unholy alliance with the United States  circa Charlie Wilson’s endless War, which mutated from carefully  inflamed anti-Soviet insurgency into anti-American jihad.

The  most notorious hallmark of British Great Game machinations and resultant  invasions is the Durand Line, which arbitrarily sliced through  Pushtunistan, planting an irredentist time bomb between Afghanistan and  Pakistan.

While artificial demarcation has neither been  addressed nor defused, it has continually undermined Afghan-Pakistani  and American-Pakistani security cooperations via cross-border sorties  and gunfire on both sides of the Durand Line.

The catastrophic  success of the proxy war, led by the CIA from Pakistan, denied the USSR  its strategic intent to modernize Afghanistan on par with Soviet Central  Asian republics and to forestall violent extremism on its southern  flank.

The Cost is Never Equally Shared

However, this Pyrrhic victory quickly unraveled with  Afghanistan sinking into anarchy and civil war, culminating in the  full-fledged blowback which rocked the United States on 9/11.

Since its inception, the US overt invasion in Afghanistan, codenamed  Operation Enduring Freedom, has been plagued by a profound  misunderstanding of the root cause of the problem and, consequently, a  decade-long wild goose chase for an elusive victory with no end in  sight. Thus, the vicious circle of mission creep has inexorably set in.

A  meaningful, long-term, cohesive and comprehensive US strategy towards  Afghanistan and Pakistan has been a non-starter from day one.

Having  been defenestrated by the Manichean paranoia and messianic crusade of  the previous administration’s neo-con cowboys, further attempts at  resuscitation have been thwarted by internal bickering within the White  House Afghan Team and perennial inter-agency turf battles.

A  crystal-clear strategy has been hijacked by a smorgasbord of fuzzy  tactical adjustments that have been hyped, tried and failed in an orderly fashion.

It began with counter terrorism’s ‘small foot print’, then to the fancy ‘ink-blot’ security spread, followed by the COIN-lite  ‘condition,  clear, hold & build’ population-centric doctrine,  which was  abruptly superseded by the bizarre ‘fight, talk, build’ triple chase.

In  Afghanistan, Washington ignored Bert Lance’s quip, ‘if it ain’t broke,  don’t fix it’, echoed by Colin Powell’s maxim ‘you break it, you own  it’.

Will Enduring Freedom be Our Enduring Tar Baby

As a result, America is wrestling with a Hindu Kush tar baby– the longest and one of the most expensive US military occupations  in history.

Thanks to US foreign policy wonks’ strategically blind flight of mind, Afghanistan has degenerated into the epicenter of  the Global Drug War against humanity.

Over the last 10 years, it has wiped out 1 million people abroad, while Al-Qaeda Central in Pakistan  has successfully metastasized in the Arab Peninsula as well as the  Maghreb.

The only way to save the day and avoid a disgraceful  dénouement for the USA is to jettison ‘feel-good’ political correctness  and the conventional ‘more of the same’ mentality.

As an opener,  the question should be not ‘what can America do for Afghanistan?’ but  ‘who could extricate America from Afghanistan? with a follow-up poser:  ‘how to rescue the future of Afghanistan from its past and present  demons of destruction?

­Sleeping Station

­Historically speaking, Afghanistan has never been a top priority for the US in the grand scheme of things. Initially the country was relegated to the bottom of the State Department’s pecking order with ‘benign  neglect’ as a cheesy substitute for a vigorous foreign policy – for  better or worse.

­Observation Post

­As the Soviet Union kept expanding its bilateral relations with  Afghanistan, the US Embassy in Kabul was ordered to wake up and train a spyglass on the growing economic and trade cooperation between the two  countries.

Without much hoopla, a dormant diplomatic mission was  reactivated as an intel shop, the first CIA footprint in Afghanistan, to be expanded later into a narco-terrorism R&D field lab.

­Quiet Competition

­When the USSR embarked on a full-scale central planning infrastructure build-up in Afghanistan, the United States, however reluctantly, reacted in kind – sort of – as a CIA low-key eavesdropping mission was beefed up with USAID window-dressing.

All in all, in the Afghan economic  stand-off between the USSR and the USA, the Soviet Union won hands down, having strictly adhered to a long-term ‘win-win’ strategy  vis-à-vis its neighbor, while the United States was dabbling in a  haphazard catch-up game against its Cold War sworn foe on the opposite side of the globe.

­Tendency towards dependency

During this unprecedented period of tranquility and development, it  seemed like the countervailing pressures of socialist vs. capitalist competition allowed Afghanistan to enjoy the best of both worlds. As one US diplomat quipped at the time,

‘Kabul prefers to strike American cigarettes with Soviet matches’.

From then on, the country’s successive rulers, having being spoiled by the superpowers’ economic competition, devolved into freebie junkies hooked on foreign investment and aid – to the detriment of national  sovereignty, self-determination, as well as social and economic  development.

­Clarion call

­After the victory of the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan (the Afghan  Spring) and the Islamic Revolution in Iran (the Persian Spring), within a year the USA had lost two adjacent springboards in its ‘sphere of  interests’ to project its military power and directly threaten the  southern borders of the USSR.

Suddenly, gripped by a siege mentality and Cold War paranoia, the United States jettisoned all false  pretenses to ‘aid’ Afghanistan.

Having failed to demonstrate and  explore the advantages of capitalism vs. socialism, the US bells and whistles policy in Afghanistan went down the drain and the White House  went ballistic.

­Target of opportunity

­As the State Department and USAID were consigned to the backseat, the CIA and USIA took the steering wheel to drive home a newly unfolding  mission: to arrest an alleged Soviet thrust towards the Indian Ocean.

In  a rare consensus between the Pickle and Fudge Factories of US intelligence and foreign services, Afghanistan was quickly identified as the most vulnerable high-value target to hit the Soviet Union where it hurts.

­Wilson’s War 1: Anti-Soviet jihad

­

Congressman Charlie Wilson Moonlighting in Afghanistan

An Executive Order – signed by the US president and endorsed by the US  Congress – set in motion the largest crusade against the USSR since the WW2.

The immediate goal was, under the cover of plausible deniability,  to create a proxy force in Pakistan to destabilize and conflagrate  Afghanistan; with the follow-up to provoke the Soviet Union to come to the rescue, and the ultimate goal to entrap the USSR in a bleeding war of attrition.

The US Information Agency, in order to create a  United Front against the Soviet Union, overtly orchestrated a global  propaganda and disinformation campaign, whipping up media frenzy over  the Kremlin’s allegedly nefarious foreign policy.

In perfect unison with the USIA, the CIA covertly conducted psychological  operations in Afghanistan to foment anti-Soviet sentiments and promote radical Islamization in Pakistan to harbor, finance and train wannabe  Afghan jihadists.

­Damned if you do and damned if you don’t

­

Did Afghanistan End Up a Cold War Football?

The Soviet gerontocracy was suddenly struck with a stark dilemma in  Afghanistan: to abandon a long-time, though fragile, friend under mounting internal and external pressures, or to succor its next-door neighbor by proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the USSR was an  all-weather ally and true-blue partner.

At a time when the United States couldn’t have cared less, the  Soviet Union was the first foreign power to recognize Afghanistan’s  independence and sovereignty, thus establishing amicable diplomatic and trade relations – without any hidden agenda of ‘vital interests’  directed against other states in the region.

While multiple adventures in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world were  ideologically motivated by the Cold War stand-off, Soviet foreign policy in Afghanistan was an exception rather than the rule.

Since its inception, it was based on a steady strategy of social and economic  development through accelerated industrialization and universal education, what in current terminology would be properly described as an  open-ended commitment to nation-building.

There was another important factor which came to the fore as a security risk: unlike faraway brotherly Cuba, Afghanistan was the nearest neighbor whose political stability and territorial integrity were exposed to irredentist claims by Pakistan, which had been recruited as the US’s  ‘indispensable ally’ against the Soviet Union.

Contrary to USIA  malicious innuendo, the USSR wasn’t itching for a casus belli to ‘invade  and conquer Afghanistan, eradicate Islam and impose atheistic Communism’.

At the time, the Brezhnev Doctrine of peaceful  coexistence and détente was anything but Trotsky’s idée fixe on  permanent revolution. Rather, the Politburo had become a parody of its  former self when compared with the bygone Comintern era, schlepping through its last years as an octogenarian club of status-quo apparatchiks.

Leonid Brezhnev speaks at 18th Komsomol Congress opening

The agonizing decision-making process in Moscow was focused not on a panzer blitzkrieg, but rather on an incremental  remedial course to mitigate the Stalinesque excesses of the Kabul  revolutionary leadership and to solidify and protect a successful Soviet  legacy of comprehensive long-term development in Afghanistan.

And that’s exactly what the CIA was aiming for. However, what was supposed to be a Soviet quick-fix palace coup and stability and peacekeeping  follow-up, ended up as an American-led ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan, conducted from Pakistan as asymmetrical guerrilla warfare by the pre-paid and trained proxy force.

Thus, the USSR took the bait and got trapped into a nine-year-plus war of, with the Soviet Armed Forces’ robust ability to address the insurgency’s root cause compromised by the  Politburo’s skittish unwillingness to give the marching orders to cross  the border and nip the Pakistani-based American Frankenstein in the bud.

­Out of sight, out of mind

­

Soviet Afghan Veterans Memorial

As soon as the 40th Army pulled out of Afghanistan on February 15 1989,  the ‘mission accomplished’ jamboree was swiftly arranged at the CIA HQ to celebrate in anticipation of Wilson’s War victory in Kabul.

In a state of euphoria, the US intelligence community boasted  that the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan would collapse within hours  after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Oops – it took a little more time, almost three years.

The newly discovered CIA core incompetence was further aggravated by the agency’s unavailing efforts to reconcile and unite the ragtag factions of its rented extremists, the predecessors of the Taliban, into the united political and military  front against a recalcitrant ‘infidel’ government of Afghanistan.

The  USIA open-air propaganda warfare against the USSR in Afghanistan was over, and the pliant mainstream media, as if by a wave of the magic wand, canceled in one day its decade-long PR campaign of rebranding  firebrand assassins for hire as the ‘moral equivalent of America’s  founding fathers’ and ‘freedom-fighters’.

Nevertheless, in violation of a UN-brokered agreement on Afghanistan, the United States  continued its clandestine CIA/ISI joint operation to supply extremist bands with the wherewithal and weapons to dislodge the stand-alone DRA  under the rule of Dr. Najibullah.

When the jihadists had  eventually taken over the country’s capital, the White House briefly indulged in self-adulation – only to pull the rug out from under Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Gates at the CIA – Earlier Days

Dr. Robert Gates, the top CIA spook  who used to be at the helm of the Ghost War against the Soviet Union in  Afghanistan, in his reincarnation as the DOD chief in 21st century,  expressed a reserved regret that the United States had precipitously abandoned Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was rather a disingenuous statement: the United States couldn’t have abandoned Afghanistan and Pakistan, because it never had any long-term commitment for this particular duo – before or after the Soviet pullout.

In US  foreign policy deliberations, these Cold War ‘allies’ were nothing more than pre-paid expendables in a long-distance proxy war of attrition, to be discarded as spent cartridge shells.

A glaring display of the  cynical approach to bilateral relations and gentlemen agreements – Uncle Sam doesn’t abandon places, it only betrays allies – was a rude awakening to American sidekicks who aspired to be treated as equal and  respectable partners.

A generation later, the US of A still hasn’t formulated any comprehensive strategy that would transcend the  patron/client fly-by-night transactional approach.

Small wonder  that the post 9/11 re-engagement of Pakistan and Afghanistan by the USA  has been met with deep-rooted anti-American resentment in the region.

­Wilson’s War 2: Chaosistan: Bellum omnium contra omnes

­In Washington DC an arduous quest to conceptualize chaos theory beyond  the realm of mathematics has been at the heart of iconoclastic  aspirations to tame entropy in foreign affairs as a sine qua non for the  New Global Order, made in the USA for the USA.

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Inspired by management consultant guru Tom Peters’ seminal book,  “Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution”, the stewards  of US National Security have bestowed upon the world the beta versions  of the new foreign policy paradigm: ‘managed chaos’ propagated by  Zbigniew Brzezinski, to be followed by another derivative, ‘creative  chaos’, attributed to Condi Rice.

The place where the theoretically lofty vision faced the crash test in reality was Afghanistan, with  the results falling in full accordance with the law of unintended  consequences as the can of worms was yanked wide open without any  meaningful idea of how to ‘thrive on’, ‘manage’ or ‘be creative’ about  the ghastly content.

When General McChrystal was the US Commander in Afghanistan, in his sales pitch revelation to the Commander in  Chief, he deftly coined ‘Chaosistan’ to evoke the terrifying sensation of preordained apocalypse – lest the surge of salvation failed to get  authorized.

He should have known better: that’s exactly what ‘the freedom fighters’ turned Afghanistan into – Chaosistan – when they interpreted the US freedom agenda as a free license to kill, kidnap  and pillage: anybody, anytime, anywhere.

They claimed to be ‘holy  warriors’, the mujahedin, but their unholy acts of unbridled violence and despicable atrocity against the Muslims of Afghanistan were completely incompatible with the intrinsic notions of Islam and Jihad.

The armed anti-government opposition had a historical opportunity to embark on a path of peace and prosperity for the sake of creating the UAE –  Untied Afghan Emirate – as an Islamic alternative to Islamism,  socialism, capitalism and all other -isms – admired by everyone, feared by no one.

However, for more than 10 years, under the aegis of  the CIA & ISI, with Saudi Arabia financing and Wahhabist  indoctrination, the Afghan and Arab recruits in Pakistani boot camps had honed a different type of skill set: insurgency HR management  (propaganda, intimidation, torture & assassination), IED product placement (infrastructure destruction & demolition), business development (opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking) and hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

Afghanistan – Another Day, another Bombing

Left to their own devices, the CIA-sponsored ‘liberators’ happened to be no more than a bunch of rival tribal militias – run by land and drug war-lords – hell-bent on ripping the country into grisly narco fiefdoms.

Ahmad Shah Massoud, the famous Lion of Panjshir, as the spiritual and military leader, was the only patriotic warrior who had the vision and wisdom to save the war-ravaged country from sliding into the abyss of omnivorous anarchy.

But even the revered Hero of Afghanistan didn’t have a silver bullet to reverse the momentum and arrest the excruciating erosion of nationhood  or the abrogation of law and order.

­Wilson’s War 3: Jihadistan: The Blowback

Charlie’s Last Words

What was dismissed by the USIA disinformation campaign as Soviet propaganda against noble ‘freedom fighters’ has ricocheted as a self-fulfilling prophecy of the post-mortem Democratic Republic of  Afghanistan.

The moral decay of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and the rise of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was a sweeping  transition from the dollar-driven decadent disorder of rapacious warlords and druglords to the fulminating fundamentalist order of the Taliban.

The common denominator for both regimes, under the guise  of the similarly misleading ‘Islamic’ and ‘mujahedin’ noms de guerre had been their bare-knuckle Islamist and jihadist self-identity,  inherently inimical to the puritanical peace-loving preaching of Islam.

Superficially, as the saying goes, ‘All Pashtuns are not the Taliban, but all the Taliban are Pashtuns’. However, the issue is much more complicated than  that.

Firstly, the Taliban is not in any way, shape or form a national liberation movement of Pushtunistan. Secondly, the Taliban’s definition has been liberally interpreted and perceived as a generic  insurgency against the Karzai regime and the foreign occupation led by the US.

The Taliban is a jihadist network of predominantly Deobandi Pashtuns, including Haqqani and Hekmatyar offshoots, with  Salafi/Wahhabi Arab “message force multipliers” on both sides of the  Afghan/Pakistani border.

A vestige of the anti-Soviet insurgency betrayed by the CIA, the Taliban was reconstituted and rejuvenated as the ‘veritable arm’ of the ISI to fix the anarchy of American ‘freedom  fighters’ and install an Islamabad-friendly government in Kabul.

Even  after the UBL declared global jihad against the USA and redeployed  Al-Qaeda to Afghanistan to partner the Taliban, Uncle Sam, habitually quick on the draw and trigger-happy, was suddenly playing a slow-mo  gun-shy babe in the woods.

Thus, multiple requests by the JSOC  for carte blanche to terminate without remorse ‘the clear and present  danger’, the CIA’s prodigal asset cut loose, had been effectively stonewalled – that is, until 9/11 hit the USA out of a clear blue sky.

­Wilson’s War 4: When chickens come home to roost

­

Putin

While President Putin was the first foreign head of state after 9/11 to  convey his sincere condolences to President Bush, for the skeptical Soviet veterans of the CIA Ghost War in Afghanistan, it took a  suspension of disbelief to consider Al-Qaeda, the OGA’s favorite jihadist outfit in the days of yore, as the main and only perpetrator of this heinous crime against the American people.

Without a smoking gun, the official storyline about the true cause of the 9/11 disaster was inconclusive; numerous  botched attempts  to suppress mounting evidence to the contrary or discredit it as a loony conspiracy theory only further ignited sinister suspicions about ‘an inside job.’

The 9/11 Commission, hand-picked by the Bush administration, tried to make the CIA and the FBI designated scapegoats  for failing to anticipate and prevent the sneak attack on the US  homeland.

No doubt, the absence of the US National Security ISR  fusion center, excessive compartmentalization and a lack of  interoperability between US intelligence, counterintelligence and law enforcement agencies, had effectively neutered the early warning system against imminent threats, whether domestic or foreign in origin.

However,  in the broader historical context of US policy making, whatever the  federal agencies do or don’t do – R&D of STD/HIV in Africa, LSD in  America or narco-insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan – the buck stops right at the White House.

Wilson’s War 1, which was  sanctioned  by the POTUS and launched by America in 1978 as an anti-Soviet jihad in  Afghanistan by a proxy force from Pakistan, boomeranged with a vengeance as the anti-American jihad, the mutated Wilson’s War 4, launched by the usual suspects against their own master.

Both former and current White House officials have yet to come clean and admit that it was the Machiavellian foreign policy of their own making which triggered a chain of events that led to the 9/11 tragedy.

­Operation Enduring FUBAR

The 9/11 tragedy could and should have catalyzed deathbed  repentance and soul searching for the US Chief Executive and his  predecessors. A collective catharsis at the White House might have  revealed that:

• Foreign policy should not be shaped by the exigencies and expediencies of bipartisan internal politics with moral authority and intellectual integrity being swapped for narrow-minded bigotry, messianic exceptionalism and pharisaic duplicity;
• International relations are a much more complicated and enduring endeavor than a linear quarter-mile drag race; therefore, supercharging the Pentagon power plant with trillion-dollar injections is detrimental to US stability and security and will invariably backfire;
• To substitute strategy for tactics is a cardinal sin for any commander in chief; to employ the right tactics for a wrong or nonexistent strategy – winning battles to lose the war – only postpones the inevitable debacle and makes it more expensive and humiliating; to pursue the wrong strategy with the wrong tactics is the worst endgame possible.

­Until that enlightening eventuality comes true, US foreign policy,  especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan, keeps mangling the wrong thing wrong, dealing with the devil – ‘freedom fighters’ turned jihadists, warlords and druglords – for the sake of spreading chaos as an excuse  for establishing a permanent  ‘small footprint’ military presence, time and again.

Editing:  Jim W. Dean

Related Posts:

• COL. EUGENE KHRUSHCHEV: UNAMA Devil’s Advocate: Part One

• Ex Bush Official Willing to Testify Bush, Cheney Knew Gitmo Prisoners Innocent

• Obama Administration Cautions Against An Overly Ambitious Outlook for Afghanistan

• Seven Days in January

• Connecting the Military Dots

NOVANEWS

by David Swanson

 A 24-member delegation from Japan is in Washington, D.C., this week opposing the presence and new construction of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. Participating are members of the Japanese House of Councilors, of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, and of city governments in Okinawa, as well as leading protest organizers and the heads of several important organizations opposed to the ongoing U.S. military occupation of Okinawa.

The famously stingy U.S. tax payer, frequently seen bitterly protesting outrageously wasteful spending of a few million dollars, is paying billions of dollars to maintain and expand some 90 military bases in Japan (and to make those who profit from such business filthy rich). Thirty-four of those bases, containing 74% of their total land area, are in Okinawa, which itself contains only 0.6% of Japanese land. Okinawa is dominated by U.S. military bases and has been for 67 years since the U.S. forcibly appropriated much of the best land.

The people of Okinawa tell pollsters year after year that they oppose the bases. Year after year they elect government officials who oppose the bases. Year after year they march, sit-in, protest, and demand to be heard. Year after year, the national Japanese government confronts the issue and fails to take any decisive steps to resolve it. Year after year, the people of the United States remain blissfully unaware that, as in so many other places around the world, our military occupation of Okinawa is ruining people’s lives.

Members of the delegation spoke at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., Monday night. Toshio Ikemiyagi thanked people who came to hear them and pointed out that we all looked healthy and alert. That, he said, is because you have all had sleep. You’ve been able to sleep at night without deafening jet noise, he said. Ikemiyagi is the lead attorney on a lawsuit challenging the Kadena Air Base’s noise pollution. He played us a video on Monday of what it is like. For the people who live there, he said, the war that ended 67 years ago has never ended.

Keiko Itokazu, a Member of the Japanese National Diet, depicted in this painting, said the Okinawan people had been heartbroken since having been unable to protect a 12-year-old girl from gang rape by U.S. troops in 1995. The Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Japan gives U.S. troops immunity from Japanese prosecution. Between 1979 and 2008, U.S. forces in Okinawa caused 1,439 accidents (487 of them airplane related), and 5,584 criminal cases (559 of them involving violent crimes). The list includes fatal driving incidents, residential break-ins, taxi robberies, sexual violence, and other serious crimes against local citizens.

I spoke recently with Maria Allwine who describes herself as “a former Marine Corps spouse.” She said, “It is common practice for military personnel to use Japanese women as ‘mama-sans,’ exchanging house cleaning and sexual favors for money. Nothing new, but it’s given a wink and a nod by military brass. Those who don’t cheat are considered abnormal by their peers.”

The sex police are as absent as the skinflints from their usual place of prominence in U.S. political debate when it comes to occupying other people’s countries. Imagine, however, just for a moment, that even one Japanese military base existed in the United States, and imagine that even one Japanese soldier committed a single crime. Can you imagine some things that U.S. television talking heads might say?

Our military is trying to build yet more bases in Okinawa. Why, you ask? Word around town is that even the Pentagon thinks it serves no purpose, but the Marine Corps likes to hold onto anything it’s got. The Marines have even named one of their bases in Okinawa for Smedley Butler, the author of “War Is A Racket,” and a man whom the Marines once imprisoned at Quantico for having spoken badly of Benito Mussolini. Don’t look for logic. Look for petty rivalry and power, combined with unaccountability and we the people missing in action.

The least popular base in Okinawa is probably Futenma Air Base, which sits in the middle of a city, near schools, a hospital, and houses — houses which military helicopters have been known to crash into. The Marine Corps plans to bring the accident-prone MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to Futenma in 2012. Overwhelmingly, the people of Okinawa want the base closed, and do not want it relocated to a less populated area, and do not want it combined with another existing base. For the past 16 years, residents of Henoko, a location under consideration for relocation of the base, have held a continuous sit-in protest without pause. They have also risked their lives hanging onto a floating platform in the ocean, surrounded by supportive fishing boats, successfully preventing the military from surveying the site for construction.

Hiroshi Ashitomi has been a leader of the nonviolent resistance in Henoko for 16 years. “We use our own bodies,” he said on Monday, “to resist aggressive actions by the Japanese government.” Pointing to the picture of Gandhi in the collage on the wall at Busboys, Ashitomi said, “We follow the example of Gandhi. It is not easy. We receive threats from the police. But we are determined to use nonviolent resistance, and we get a lot of support from all over Japan. We are trying to protect the environment, so many young people from all over Japan come to our tent

and participate in our resistance.”

In fact, the environment and the rights of certain endangered species have come to dominate the anti-base movement in Okinawa. Apparently the rights of humans are far less interesting than the rights of the black naped tern, the blue coral, or above all the dugong. The dugong is the manatee-like creature in this photo. Osamu Makishi of the Citizens’ Network for Okinawan Biodiversity spoke movingly about these species and their ecosystem on Monday, which he said are protected by treaty.

The Japanese delegation is meeting with Congress Members, including Senator Jim Webb on Wednesday, urging them to close and consolidate bases. I once accompanied a group of Italians on almost identical visits to Congress. The people of Vicenza, Italy, oppose the bases the U.S. military and the national Italian government impose on them, just as the people of Okinawa do. The congress members and staffers we met with at that time gave not the slightest damn for human rights or the environment or popular opinion. I don’t think any of the Japanese delegates expect to encounter such humanity this week either. Their hope is to highlight the financial costs to the United States of the occupation of Japan. My hope is that we can help them by telling our misrepresentatives that we agree with the members of the delegation. If you’re inclined to help, please call your rep and two senators with that message.

Specifically, the delegation is asking for the closure of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station; cancellation of plans to construct a new Marine Corps air base at Cape Henoko; reduction of unbearable noise caused by air operations at Kadena Air Base; withdrawal of any proposal to integrate Futenma’s helicopter squadrons into Kadena’s operations; an end to the construction of six new helipads in the Yanbaru forest in northern Okinawa; and revision of the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement to allow fair prosecutions of crimes.

Ultimately, however, the members of the delegation want the bases all to be closed. And they do not want them relocated to Guam or Australia or anywhere else, except perhaps to the United States. Itokazu suggested that the U.S. government could save money and produce jobs by bringing bases home. But, of course, we don’t want a military occupation any more than Japan does, and the same money would produce more jobs if spent on a non-military industry.

Base opponents in Okinawa work with others in Korea, Guam, and Hawaii, and with former residents of Diego Garcia, as well as others around the world. An international conference called “Dialogue Under Occupation” was held in Okinawa last summer. In fact, people are working extremely hard in cities around the world to shut down or prevent the construction of giant military bases that we in the United States pay for and are endangered by but have very little awareness of.

John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies (see closethebase.org ) believes Futenma can be closed and can serve as a model for closing more. It is very difficult, however, Feffer says, to accomplish base closings cleanly without some sort of asterisk attached. When a base was closed in Seoul, Korea, a new one was opened outside it. When bases were closed in the Philippines, a Visiting Forces Agreement was drawn up. Yet, the Navy left Vieques, and the President of Ecuador seems to have found the magic formula in his proposal that any U.S. base in Ecuador be matched by an Ecuadorean base in Florida.

Here is another proposal: bring in the IAEA for inspections. No independent organization has verified U.S. claims to no longer be storing nuclear weapons in Japan. On the model of Iran, if full inspections are not permitted by, say, Thursday, or even if they are, we should seriously consider launching preemptive strikes against ourselves. The Constitution that the United States imposed on Japan 65 years ago forbids war preparation, yet the United States trains its forces in Japan to fight wars elsewhere in the world. Are we spreading democracy or hypocrisy? Are we building trust or animosity?

Ikemiyagi says democracy requires U.S. withdrawal from Okinawa. As with the location of nuclear power plants in Japan, he says, the Japanese government wants the military bases out of sight. If Tokyo wants bases, he says, then put them in Tokyo. The people of Okinawa have had enough.

Haven’t we all?

NOVANEWS 

by Asif Haroon Raja

It is now an established fact that PPP as a party claiming to be champions of democracy, rule of law and rights of the poor is in actuality anti-democratic, lawbreaker and anti-people. PPP and democracy repel each other since the two are synonymous.

PPP leaders have remained too engrossed in filling their coffers with ill-gotten money and in striving to complete their five-year tenure by hook or crook.

The only change the PPP leaders have brought in them from their deleterious conduct from 1988 till 1999 is to adopt a policy of selective reconciliation.

Under this policy, those cooperating with them or suiting their psyche are to be shielded and protected from the hand of law and rewarded.

They have been merrily working on the concept of making hay as long as the sun shines. Their closeness with Army leadership was a marriage of convenience to ensure their survival. The moment they suspected that they could be evicted from power by the Army, they became officious and belligerent.

Having remained out of power for 12 years and gone through trials and tribulations, PPP leaders have turned into hungry predators with ravenous appetite for power and wealth. They consider it their right to plunder because of their prolonged suffering. 12-year inaction has made them languid and inefficient.

They swing into action only when their self interests are involved. During their period of exile the runaways had developed contacts with foreign agencies and in their greed to return to corridors of power and to further their selfish interests they sold their souls and agreed to accept any number of demands howsoever injurious to national interests.

Pakistani Former General Musharraf

Among many blunders committed by Gen Musharraf during his nine-year rule, secret deal with Benazir Bhutto (BB) hatched by USA and UK in July 2007 which paved the way for issuance of black law known as National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) on 5 October 2007 was his gravest sin.

It resulted in takeover of power by the NRO washed vultures as a consequent to massively rigged elections in February 2008. Notwithstanding her flaws, BB was charismatic, visionary and had earned a place among world comity.

Her sudden death generated a huge sympathy wave which enabled the PPP to capture power.

Those in good books of BB were sidelined and the hypocrites adept only in misusing power, disregarding rule of law and multiplying wealth through corrupt practices took up top slots.

They befool the jayalas by raising emotional slogans in BB’s memory but have taken no steps to locate her murderers or to fulfill her mission of providing food, shelter and clothes to the poor.

It was owing to over three million bogus voters and programmed pre-poll rigging that the dream team of the US comprising three liberal parties assumed power.

Although the manifestos and ideology of PPP, MQM and ANP were different, corruption became the unifying factor.

Above all, the master coordinator made the three bedfellows. JUI-F was also shoved in the same bed since greedy Fazlur Rahman was Maulana in name only. Since PML-N’s victory in Punjab was not in the script, Salman Taseer was appointed as governor to keep Shahbaz ministry under pressure.

No sooner the government was formed under PM Gilani; the legislators and bureaucrats pounced upon the body of Pakistan and started eating its flesh voraciously.

While PPP politicians feasted upon state corporations and foreign aid, MQM milked Karachi and ANP devoured railways. While ANP has remained a steadfast ally of PPP, MQM has been coming in and out of coalition quite frequently. Divided PML-Q is the recent ally.

In accordance with the given agenda by Washington, the ruling clique had consented to denuclearize and secularize Pakistan; minimize the role of military establishment in Pakistan’s decision making processes and to convert Pak Army into a counter terror force only; to place ISI under interior ministry.

They pushed for the Kashmir issue to back burner,  the Indian plan to make Line of Control as permanent border; and to accept India’s hegemony and virtually convert Pakistan into a compliant state.

They agreed to appoint Washington nominated persons on key posts. These included Maj Gen ® Mehmud Durrani as Defence & Foreign Affairs adviser to PM, Husain Haqqani as Ambassador in Washington, Wajid Shams as Ambassador in London, Rahman Malik as interior minister.

They agreed to make Pakistan’s economy subservient to IMF; to fight war on terror unquestioningly with full force; to allow drone strikes in FATA from Shamsi airbase; to abide by written and unwritten secret agreements between the US and Mush regime.

Making Zardari as the most powerful civilian president in August 2008, making the legislature under Gilani as a dummy and keeping judiciary under PCO judges were part of the plan to maintain one-window operation between Presidency in Islamabad and power centres in Washington.

The slogan of supremacy of parliament was designed to bring heads of three services and ISI completely under the effective control of executive head and supreme commander.

A grant of 3-year extension to Gen Kayani and one-year to Lt Gen Pasha on persuasion of Gilani were aimed at making them do as told to do and also to ensure safety of PPP’s fulltime tenure.

Generals Pasha and Kayani with Prime Minister Gilani

When Kayani thwarted government attempts to place ISI under Malik and not to restore sacked judges, and after Raymond’s arrest when he and Pasha started taking preventive measures to safeguard Pakistan’s security interests and that of the two premier institutions, ‘Operation Get Geronimo’ was conceived by CIA.

British PM, Zardari, Haqqani, Wajid Shams, Rahman Malik and Salman Faruqui were taken into confidence. False-flag operation was undertaken to belittle Army, ISI and PAF and to undermine the credibility of heads of these institutions so that they could be made pliant.

Rulers gladly accepted the US plan since they lacked moral authority to keep the military under their thumb because of their involvement in mal administration and mal practices and loss of confidence of the people.

Since the top leaders were part of the conspiracy, instead of feeling shocked and finding out who were responsible for the security lapse, Zardari and Gilani declared the US intrusion on 2 May as ‘historic’ and ‘great victory’. Haqqani and Wajid’s statements to the media were meaningful.

However, when they found that the Army and ISI had taken the incident too seriously and were groping for clues to get to the bottom of the stealth incursion by an ally, and the public was on a rampage, Zardari panicked fearing his involvement might not get exposed.

The reason why he got nervous was the intelligence fed to him on 4 May by US Ambassador Munter on the advice of CIA that Army was contemplating a coup. He suggested to him to approach Pentagon since in his view Admiral Mullen could be the only one to restrain Kayani.

When jangled nerved Zardari approached sneaky Haqqani, the latter suggested that unless the yearning desires of Washington were fulfilled it would be difficult for him to convince the US CJSC to twist Kayani’s arm and tell him to keep his hands off civilian government.

Admiral Mullen (on left) with Generals Kayani and Pasha

Getting a nod from him, Haqqani hastened to draft the memo containing six offers and took his old friend Mansoor Ijaz into confidence.

He selected him to deliver the explosive memo to Mullen since he like him was anti-Army/ISI and both had been exchanging notes since 2005. Mansoor had also written several articles in newspapers against Pak Army and ISI.

Another reason of confiding in him was his close associations with high officials of US military establishment.

Whether Haqqani himself chose him, or someone else advised him, or whether Zardari told Haqqani to draft and deliver the memo, or Salman Faruqui conveyed the message of Zardari to him, or Haqqani suggested to him; or Haqqani did it at his own accord, or Mansoor approached him and fed this idea to him at the behest of CIA are some of the puzzles yet to be solved.

My hunch is that memo was engineered by CIA to pitch Army against the government and compel Kayani to takeover power.

Whatever be the hypothesis, it is a proven fact that memo is a reality which was conceived and formulated in early May.

It is also a fact that Haqqani and Mansoor traveled to London on 9 May where their meetings with two British senior officials were arranged by Wajid Shams and they flew back to Washington the same day.

Mansoor delivered the memo to James Jones and the same was forwarded by him to Mullen on 10 May. Both Jones and Mullen have confirmed receiving the memo on prescribed dates. It is also known that Mullen didn’t take any action on the memo since he had not been fed with intelligence by CIA about the possibility of a coup as feared by Zardari.

Mullen was otherwise in no position to caution Kayani who in that timeframe was in black mood and Pak-US military relations had dipped low. Another known fact is that between 9 and 11 May, Haqqani and Mansoor had extensive chats on Blackberry cell phones and also exchanged messages on laptop.

Once the 2 May crisis cooled down and things began to normalize, Zardari and Haqqani forgot about the memo. In their bid to gain confidence of the two generals under fire of media and politicians, Gilani went out of the way to bail them out when they attended All Parties Conference and explained their point of view on 14 May. It was another attempt to make them submissive.

Raymond Davis – Three Deaths and Battered Pakistani Relations

Rather than getting defensive and acquiescent, Kayani and Pasha went about dismantling CIA’s network which had tentacles in all important urban centres and also got hold of CIA’s informers.

ISI had a mammoth task to locate thousands of CIA agents that had sneaked in on the quiet with the help of Haqqani and Malik and with the blessing of Gilani. Besides CIA, Blackwater and five other intelligence agencies operating from Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan were also to be taken care of.

The US and UK trainers involved in espionage were booted out. Diplomats and NGOs engaged in subversive activities were kept under scrutiny.

Security forces continued to maintain offensive posture to keep foreign paid terrorists in FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on the run. Cross border terrorism from Kunar and Nuristan was plugged.

These tough measures were not to the liking of Pakistan’s adversaries who had spent colossal amounts to get closer to nuclear sites and destroy them.

Not only they were not succeeding in taming Pak Army and ISI, Afghan Taliban were getting more and more stronger. Series of offensive attacks by Taliban in and around Kabul in August-September unnerved the US military and intelligence leadership.

CIA then decided to play up memo that was lying in pending tray of the new CJSC. This time the purpose was to provoke the Army and ISI to topple the government or as a minimum spoil civil-military relations and then keep provoking both sides and create favorable situation for a headlong clash.

Fame hungry Mansoor was nudged to leak the story in Financial Times on 10 October and to gradually heat it up. His story came as a rude shock for Haqqani but he, Zardari and Gilani played it down thinking that Mansoor being a chronic Army basher would not pursue it and also that none will believe him.

However, memo case took a dramatic turn after Gen Pasha held a secret meeting with Mansoor in London on 22 October. The meeting convinced the spy chief that memo was not a fantasy but a reality and someone had made a dangerous plan to cause immeasurable harm to Pakistan with the help of US military.

Promises made by the architects of memo had grave implications upon security interests of Pakistan and gave an insight to vile intentions of the authors of memo. The very sovereignty and integrity had been bartered away just to restrain Gen Kayani from launching a perceived coup to let the gang of corrupt remain in power.

Playing the film fast forward, Haqqani has been sacked, put on exit control list and a three-member judicial commission is presently investigating the case in response to the petitions filed by seven petitioners including Nawaz Sharif who himself appeared before the SC to submit his petition. While Mansoor has surrendered his rights of his phones, Haqqani has not done so for obvious reasons and has hidden his Blackberry sets saying he has misplaced them.

Haqqani wants the case to be closed forthwith and allowed to proceed abroad since he imagines that he may be killed, but Mansoor wants the probe to reach its conclusion and is ready to come to Pakistan despite threats to his life.

The government is also striving hard to dissuade the Supreme Court (SC) to terminate the probe and is also creating hurdles for Mansoor to block his entry in Pakistan thereby heightening suspicions as to why it doesn’t want to ascertain the truth. Mansoor is expected to present himself on 26 January, but being a CIA man, he cannot be fully trusted.

When the memo case took an ominous turn for the schemers and not only put the government in the dock but also Haqqani – the blue-eyed boy of USA, and the Army kept up its defiance against the US dictates, the US military in collaboration with Afghan military attacked Salala Army border posts on 26 November killing 24 soldiers.

This blatant intrusion meant to intimidate the Army also backfired. Vital NATO supply lines to Afghanistan remain closed; military and intelligence cooperation has almost ceased.

Pakistan Army has rejected US military report on Salala terming it as biased and a mixture of half-truths. Closure of Shamsi base has drastically reduced drone strikes. In two months, only two strikes have taken place.

Parliamentary Committee has formulated new terms of engagement with USA. A strategic shift of the government is on the cards. This can be discerned from five-day visit of Gen Kayani to China and Foreign Minister Rabbani’s intended visit to Moscow.

Finding itself in a fix, the US once again fed false news to the government that Army had got aligned with the judiciary and was contemplating a coup. It baffled the already jittery duo owing to closing jaws of memo and NRO and on two occasions with short intervals Gilani spoke offensively against the COAS and DG ISI.

Sacking of Secretary Defence was also a knee-jerk reaction which reflected poorly upon Gilani’s conduct particularly when he blew hot and cold and chewed his own words repeatedly. While maintaining an aggressive posture against the Army, Gilani and his legal team also adopted a non-cooperative attitude towards the SC hearing implementation of NRO case.

Gilani and Babar Awan stubbornly maintained that no letter would be written to Swiss courts to reopen money laundering case pending against Zardari since he enjoyed immunity. The President emphatically stated that he will not allow trial of grave of Benazir Bhutto and that he will accept Parliamentary Committee’s decision on memo and not that of SC.

When the judicial commission gave itself six options to proceed against the delinquent on 10 January and fixed 16 January as the cutout date to deliver the hammer, Gilani tried to counter the dual threat of judiciary and Army by seeking fresh vote of confidence in National Assembly and to pass a resolution authorizing him to confront the two institutions frontally.

The allied parties however opted reconciliation over confrontation and rendered support for continuation of democracy only. On the 16^th, the SC finally struck and issued a show cause notice to Gilani on the charge of contempt of court and asked him to present himself on 19^th to explain his point of view before the final verdict was announced.

Cooked Goose – Hmmm, Looks Delicious!!

Gilani may either be disqualified or imprisoned unless he renders apology to SC and agrees to write a letter to Swiss court, or resigns.

Notwithstanding his last minute theatrics, for all practical purposes he has cooked his goose.

Chairman NAB who had been behaving arrogantly has come down to earth and submitted his unconditional apology to SC which has been accepted.

Babar Awan’s legal license has been temporarily suspended. Decisions of the SC have been hailed by all and sundry except for beneficiaries of NRO who number 8041.

Whatever the decision of the SC on the next hearing, it will not help in stabilizing the political situation which is in a flux, nor in steadying the continuously plummeting economy, or in alleviating the problems of the people, or in ending the war on terror.

Although SC will reestablish that it has teeth and can bite, but clash of institutions will benefit the adversaries of Pakistan only. It will be in fitness of things if the government honors the decisions and directives of SC gracefully rather than continuing with its confrontational attitude and making a mockery of itself.

Instead of wasting its energies in belittling premier institutions, the government should divert its defiance towards the adversaries of Pakistan. It should sincerely concentrate on solving multitude of problems of the state, or else throw in its towel and let a better team to steer the country out of multiple crises.