NOVANEWS

NOVANEWS

by Ismail Salami
Global Research,
Death is whimsical these days, manifesting itself in shapes most repellent to man: men posing with the mangled parts of dead bodies; men urinating on dead bodies; men cutting out the eyes of their brothers and killing them in the name of religion.   A human tragedy of inconceivable magnitude is taking place in some parts of Pakistan which are being inexcusably and consciously ignored by Western media.   Only in April 2012, more than 250 Shia Muslims were maimed and killed in broad daylight. Around 150 pairs of Shias’ eyes were cut out of their sockets; many of them died while their faces had been smashed with stones or sprayed with acid. According to witnesses, who had managed to flee the scene of the crime, the Wahhabi attackers were void of any mercy; the criminals are now free and keep on partaking in their feast of blood.   All these massacres are being legitimated and orchestrated by a Wahhabi group known as Sepah Sahabeh who emerged in 1985 in the Pubjab province of Pakistan as a reaction to the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the burgeoning Shia Muslims who had gradually entered the political and economical positions in the Pakistani government. The extremist group was considerably beefed up and enlarged under support of the then Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent Wahhabi state in Pakistan and eliminating the Shia minority in the country. In fact, it is widely believed that the then Pakistani president Zia ul-Haq generously contributed to the emergence and development of such extremist groups and implicitly gave them carte blanche to engage in liquidating the Shia minority. The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif which to a large extent relied on the Wahhabi extremists for political support went silently by this spate of violence. However, in January 2001, Sepah Sahabeh was branded as a terrorist group under the then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. A violent crackdown soon ensued as a result of which many members went into hiding but the group later re-emerged and branched out under different names such as Lashkar Jangawi and Jaish Muhammad. After all, Tahrik-e Taliban euphemistically called “Student Movement of Pakistan” is an offshoot of the terrorist group.   Apart from the mass killing of the Shia groups, many individuals also became the target of these terrorists backed by the Pakistani intelligence agencies, inter alia, ISI.   A large number of Shia elite including doctors, engineers, university professors and top students were brutally assassinated by this insidious group in areas such as Gilgit, Baltistan, Parachinar, Quetta, and even in major cities including Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Southern Punjab, and Islamabad.   Interestingly enough, not a single soul has been arrested to account for these gruesome murders over the past years. It is extremely unfortunate to note that no practical steps have been taken on the part of the government in order to stall the activities of these extremists. The only group which used to support the minorities including the Shia Muslims in this bias-benighted country is the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which has been recently plagued by indifference. The current PPP rulers seem to have shut their eyes to the woes of the minorities especially Shia Muslims who have contributed tremendously to the economic and social progress of the country. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was himself a Shia Muslim who healed the image of the country in the eyes of the international community.   Conversely, the Shia community has, during all these years, been on the path of patience and has never responded wrath with wrath and hatred with hatred.   Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain promote Wahhabism and conduce to extremism by importing only non-Shia workers from Pakistan. Media reports suggest that Bahrain has hired retired Pakistani army officers to suppress the popular uprising in the country. Also, recent reports indicate that the Shia minority are being discriminated against in different government organizations in Pakistan. This is indeed an indirect act of promoting extremism within the Pakistani society.   Be it as it may, the target killings have not only destabilized Pakistan but also deprecated the country as a hotbed of extremism and terrorism on an international level.    These killings have provoked the ire of Sunni Muslims all across the country who believe atrocities of this nature gravely shake the very pillars of Pakistan, disrupt national unity, strengthen the enemies and drag the country into abysmal extremism beyond salvation.   If the Pakistani establishment is really intent on stopping the spread of extremism in the country, they should cut off the invisible hands which buttress these extremist groups within the civilian government, military, intelligence services and the judiciary system.

NOVANEWS

More lies cannot sustain the occupation

The author is a former U.S. Army infantryman, Iraq war veteran and a member of March Forward!.Today, May 7, the Associated Press reported yet another killing of a NATO troop by an Afghan National Army soldier. Last week, two U.S. soldiers were also killed by their Afghan “partners.”

BY KEVIN BAKER

“KABUL – Army Command Sgt. Major John Troxell is one of the highest ranking, most experienced U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan this year. His counterpart in the Afghan army has the same prestige.

“They trust each other, but whenever they meet one another, each soldier brings a personal security team.

“’I always have someone locked and loaded, passively watching,’ Troxell said.”

So begins an article posted by Adam Ashton April 20 on the The News Tribune online blog.Troxell is also one of the highest ranking senior non-commissioned officers in Afghanistan. This excerpt reveals how he feels about “his Afghan counterparts” and sheds light on the claim that the United States trusts Afghan soldiers.

The U.S. government has made its case for continuing the wildly unpopular, criminal war in Afghanistan, based on the claim that “progress” is being made and Afghan military forces will take over the job, allowing for a U.S. withdrawal. This is what President Obama recently reiterated during his surprise photo-op to Afghanistan, where he gave the illusion that the war was winding down and could soon be taken over by Afghan forces (he then proceeded to sign a pact that will keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2024.)

If the occupation of Afghanistan is such a success and the end of the war is right around the corner, why does Troxell need a personal security team every time he meets his Afghan counterpart?

We have all heard the phrase, “If you lie and lie and lie, eventually you will get caught.” The U.S. government and its top military leadership have been caught yet again in a lie about their claims of Afghan support for U.S. goals and progress toward being able to turn over Afghanistan to reliably pro-imperialist forces.

Ashton’s post comes while what are referred to as “green on blue” killings are at an all-time high. What this means is that U.S.-funded Afghan soldiers are killing U.S. troops, becoming one of the biggest threats to the lives of U.S. soldiers.

CSM Troxell continues to spew lies and ignorance in the post, which quotes him as saying that soldiers should be cautious with new Afghan recruits: “Often, the Afghans are young and poorly educated. They have likely heard anti-Western propaganda all their lives.”

The post continues: “‘What we have to do is educate these young men,’ he said. His safety precautions are being replicated throughout the NATO headquarters where he works and its connected bases around Kabul.”

‘They have likely heard anti-Western propaganda all their lives’

For the past 10 years, the United States has waged a brutal occupation that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Afghan people and plunged their country into a chaotic quagmire—a country where over 92 percent of young men have never even heard of the 9/11 attacks or the World Trade Center. The war is at an all-time high in unpopularity among both U.S. and Afghan people as well as service members.

The Afghan people do not exactly “hear” anti-Western propaganda. They see it and feel it every day in the form of missiles, Apache strikes, night raids and the funerals of their family members.

This begs the question: What must these young men be educated in? It does not take a genius to realize that no one of any nationality wants to have their country occupied for any amount of time.

The ‘progress’ we have been dying for

Last year, an article featured a company commander who absurdly boasted that they can successfully maneuver 100 meters (about the size of a football field) from their combat outpost without being shot at—where before they would be shot at instantly upon leaving their outpost. Nine years to clear 100 meters … hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of tax dollars. Sounds like real progress.

Those 100 meters have come at a heavy price for people in the U.S. and an even heavier price for the people of Afghanistan.

As we see atrocity after atrocity erupt in Afghanistan, from the video of Marines urinating on the dead, the burning of Qurans, the Afghan kill team, the Staff Sgt. Bales massacre that left over a dozen Afghans dead in the middle of the night—should it really be any surprise that the people of Afghanistan are rejecting the U.S./NATO occupation of their country? Can anyone really blame them for doing so?

In fact, the reason so many U.S. service members turned against the wars after fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan is because they realized: “If I was in their position, I would be doing the same exact  thing.”

The ‘partnership’ Washington boasts about

Ashton’s post continues to show the “partnership” between Afghan and US forces: “Flora is working with a three-star Afghan general at the Ministry of Defense’s ground forces command. Afghans are not allowed to bring weapons in American offices. A U.S. soldier always has a loaded weapon when entering the Afghan side of their complex.

“Likewise, on the Afghan air force wing of the base here, U.S. airmen wear their body armor and carry rifles to their work. Their Afghan counterparts are prohibited from bringing their weapons into joint facilities.”

This does not sound like a partnership between U.S. and Afghan forces against the Taliban as Washington and the Pentagon would have us believe, but rather a failing policy that is continuing to cause more suffering, death and misery. Opposition to the U.S./NATO occupation is so widespread, so popular, that it penetrates the highest levels of the Afghan government, police and military, in the “safest” of areas.

Of course, as far as CSM Troxell’s friends in the White House, Congress, the officer corps, the Pentagon and the parasitic war profiteers are concerned—they will never be placed in harm’s way. They are in no rush to end an occupation that they know is doomed to fail. In fact, this war was lost the day that it began.

The leaders of the military are consciously sending young men and women to their deaths knowing full well that the U.S. strategy is incapable of being successful. They are knowingly lying to our loved ones, friends, family members and the people of the United States. They are forcing an occupation on a sovereign people who overwhelmingly want us out, killing thousands.

No victory in sight for the corporate politicians and their financiers

Just recently, an 84-page report was released to the public by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis that destroys the castle of lies built by Washington regarding the “success of the Afghan war” and the promise that it will end.

Davis states that there is absolutely no way this war is winnable or has even affected the Taliban. “Even a cursory observation of key classified reports and metrics,” Davis explains, “leads overwhelmingly to the conclusion that over the past two years, despite the surge of 30,000 American soldiers, the insurgent force has gained strength….”

The report continues to state that the Afghan army and police are “a barely functioning organization” and that they often refuse to even leave cover to investigate possible insurgent activity.

President Obama’s promise that the U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan is premised entirely on replacement by Afghan puppet forces (also widely hated among Afghans). But those intended puppets are not dancing as Washington is assuring the public they will.

The reason there is such a lack of desire by the Afghan police and military to engage the Taliban is because even many among the Afghan police and military overwhelmingly disagree with the U.S. occupation. The United States has failed so miserably in Afghanistan that what should be the most pro-occupying force in the country, the Afghan military, has rejected the U.S./NATO-led debacle.

They are able to fill its ranks with the promise of a paycheck (in the second-poorest country on the planet) but actual support for the U.S. occupation is non-existent, not just among the populace, but among those on the U.S. payroll who are supposed to be the most dedicated supporters.

Why are we killing and dying for this?

What does this mean for enlisted service members? It shows that we have no reason to take part in their war and in fact have the right to reject participating in Washington’s tragic failure. The war is a massive tragedy for the Afghan people, who are not our enemies, and a disaster for us and our families.

As soldiers continue to return from the field of slaughter in Afghanistan, as more and more of the undeniable truth is revealed to us, we will continue to build against the officer corps and their lap dogs the senior non-commissioned officers like CSM Troxell. We will continue to raise the slogan that service members have the absolute right to refuse to take part in this war.

Those who are profiting and expanding their profits from these wars will soon find themselves with no one willing to lose their lives or kill for them.

The shameless lies told by the military leadership can no longer cover up the predatory aims of the war. No longer will national chauvinism work to trick service members into dying for the profits of Big Oil and the defense industry. The truth is on full display for the world to see.

The military has run out of places to hide their skeletons.

NOVANEWS

NOVANEWS

Pakistan is under attack once  again from the unified force of Deadly Zionism and  Killer Hindutva. (Graphic by Skulz Fontaine)

by Jonathan AzaziahHow much more blood must be shed in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan before it is understood that the country is being torn to shreds from the inside out in a foreign-sponsored 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) campaign? How many more men, women and children must have their lives snuffed out before a little, not a goliath amount, but a little bit of attention is given to this horrific and blood-soaked crisis that deepens every day? The geopolitical implications will surely be drastically and negatively groundbreaking if Pakistan plunges into the unadulterated chaos that its enemies, “Israel,” Hindutvadi India and the Zionist-occupied United States government, so passionately and stridently desire. Pakistan, the “child of Jinnah, child of ‘Allama Iqbal”, indeed stands on the brink.Hideous sectarian killings across the country since the start of April have revealed the deepening of a plot engineered by the forces of Zionism and Hindutva, its ugly first cousin. Whilst the Zionist media coverage has typically and predictably attempted to depict the bloodshed as “Sunni-Shi’a” strife, it is quite revealing that its coverage has been scarce, with the weight of reportage being carried by Pakistani and Iranian outlets. Additionally, the evidence will show that this sectarianism, drenched in innocent blood, is a product of the Zionist-Hindutvadi nexus, with the sect of oppressed being butchered by the sect of the supremacist oppressor.

It began on April 9th, 2012 in Pakistan’s turbulent Balochistan province, in which masked gunmen on motorbikes carried out a monstrous shooting spree, leaving 14 dead, including 2 women, and dozens of others wounded. The worst of the attacks was in the Hazara region at the busy Prince Road of Balochistan’s largest city and provincial capital, Quetta, where four 4 Shi’a Muslims were shot dead (1), and then, according to later reports in the Urdu and Farsi presses, brutally mutilated, thus betraying the entire bout of killing as a specific targeted operation. As the casualties count rose to 6 dead and 3 critically wounded the following day, this notion was further confirmed when Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani fired six police officers for complicity in the Quetta bloodshed (2), revealing that the gunmen had “men on the inside” to protect their operation from scrutiny.

The Pakistani province of Balochistan is a hotbed of Zionist-Hindutvadi intrigue.

In response to the martyrdom of 6 members from their community, leaders of the Hazara Democratic Party, which represents the interests of the downtrodden Shi’a of Balochistan, adamantly and eloquently blasted the cowards that perpetrated the crimes. They then called for a 10 day strike, from April 20th to April 30th, demanding justice for their fallen. Hundreds across Balochistan honored the call by protesting and shutting down shops, markets and educational institutions (3). Following the call of the Hazara Shi’a, more than 2,500 Pakistanis, Sunni and Shi’a alike, in a beautiful and righteously ferocious display of solidarity, hit the streets of Islamabad right outside the Pakistani Parliament building and chanted for the government to take action against the persons responsible for the violence. Similar demonstrations were held in Quetta, Muzaffarabad and Multan, where protesters supplicated for the Quetta victims as well as the more than 2,000 Shi’a murdered in the Kurram region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) since 2007 (4). The ostensible drift from blood-spilling to reconciliation and justice came to a screeching halt on April 14th, 2012 as Balochistan was rocked by tragedy yet again. In the same fashion as the previous killings, masked gunmen laid siege to the Barori Road, Sabzol Road and Qali Chaltan Road areas of Quetta, firing shots at dozens of Shi’a Muslims, wounding at least six and murdering at least 10 (5). This death toll would rise to more than 30, including women and children, and on April 16th, another Shi’a was gunned down by masked men in Quetta, prompting Chief Minister Raisani to thunderously call for assistance from the Pakistani Army and declare that if something wasn’t done to stop the atrocities soon, Balochistan would descend into civil war (6). The obvious purpose of the cowardly masked men’s assault was to foment division but this has failed as Sunni-Shi’a unity protests raged forward, with women and children participating, and not just in Pakistan, but all over the globe, including America, the UK and Canada (7).On April 18th, 2012, Imran Zaidi, the vice principal of Jinnah Polytechnic College and a Shi’a Muslim himself, was shot dead by masked men on motorbike in the important Pakistani port city of Karachi (8), once again betraying the signature of an intelligence agency’s “targeted” operation. The massacring of Shi’a continued three days later, with another attack in Quetta by masked gunmen on motorbike, shooting two more innocents dead (9). Immediately following the latest round of killing in Quetta, protests across Pakistan erupted yet again with Shi’a marching through the streets of Lahore and joint Sunni-Shi’a rallies being staged in Abbottabad, Quetta, Rawalpindi and other cities (10). A sigh of relief swept through the nation when Pakistani security forces stormed the outskirts of Quetta in a search and seizure operation, uncovering the safehouse where the carnage has been launched from. Three terrorists were detained, all of whom were connected to none other than the Tehrik-I-Taliban of Pakistan {TTP} (11), the infamous and brutal proxy force of Pakistan’s enemies. Two more fighters connected to the Shi’a killings,Ali Sher Haidri, spokesperson of the TTP-allied Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeT), and his well-known terrorist accomplice, Gul Jan aka Hafiz Naseer, were killed in another operation (12). 

The Hindu supremacist regime’s RAW and the Zionist entity’s Mossad are tearing Pakistan apart through their monstrous creation, the TTP.

Created in 2004 to coincide with the inauguration of the CIA’s genocidal drone program, the TTP is the perfected product of an ongoing, incestuous relationship between the Zionist entity’s Mossad, Hindutvadi India’s RAW and the CIA itself. One month after Mossad’s false flag attack on September 11th, 2001 and just three days after the criminal invasion of Afghanistan, two “Israeli” agents with Mossad and IOF connections were apprehended inside the Mexican Congress building of Mexico City with 9mm handguns, nine grenades, C-4 explosives, three detonators, 58 bullets and fake Pakistani passports. Their mission was to destroy the Mexican Congress. This false flag operation was intended to be phase II of 9/11, triggering a NATO invasion of Pakistan. When the mission failed, the Zionist entity activated its contingency plan: the Dragon Policy, an updated version of the Oded-Yinon-strategy of balkanizing Islamic states on ethno-sectarian lines (13).Following the failure in Mexico City, the upper echelons of Zionist and Hindutvadi intelligence erected four new clandestine agencies solely dedicated to the destruction of Pakistan, which would immediately be followed by the originally-intended aggression to denuclearize the bulwark of Islamic Resistance to international Zionism. The highest ranking figures of Pakistan’s financial, political, military and religious sectors were on the hitlist and every successful attack was meant to soften up Pakistan for the imminent invasion. Using funds from the unlimited bank accounts of Mossad and Aman, the Zionism-Hindutva intelligence nexus established 57 training camps across the northern frontiers of India and occupied Kashmir, kidnaping and blackmailing Resistance fighters to fight against their own comrades while simultaneously forging alliances with mafia bosses and narcotics tycoons and training them in the finer arts of black ops. These various elements served as the perfect puppets as any rebellion whatsoever would be punished with imprisonment in the harshest of dungeons. These men would be deployed into the field under Mossad-RAW guidance and once an attack was completed, the Zionist media would report it as an ‘act of Islamic terrorism.’ If a ‘checkout’ was not secured, senior operatives of the “Israeli”-Indian nexus would finish the job (13).

The CIA has been a vital  assistant to Mossad and RAW in implementing the Dragon Policy in Pakistan.

The CIA and its corporate offshoot, Blackwater (also known as Xe and Academi), a festering bubble of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hatred and deep pro-“Israel” sentiments, joined the Dragon Policy in 2004. Blackwater agents became integrated with the ordnance units of Mossad and RAW. The CIA took a more proactive role by absorbing past recruits of the Zionist-Hindutvadi intelligence training camps and cultivated them into a powerful proxy force that specialized in guerilla tactics and sectarian warfare: the Tehrik-I-Taliban. The name was chosen for a very sinister, deceptive and specific reason: to despicably smear the real Taliban in occupied Afghanistan, a Resistance force fighting a ‘7arb el 7uriyeh(war of liberation)’ against NATO invaders. It is classic psychological warfare. The Taliban, not surprisingly, has rightfully maintained its innocence and condemned Blackwater for being behind bombings and other provocations in Pakistan. Since its birth, the Tehrik-I-Taliban has murdered or wounded more than 100,000 Pakistanis and caused more than $50 billion in damage to Pakistan’s economy. Prior to the most recent operation, the Pakistani army had already arrested hundreds of TTP militiamen. Proxy agents detained in Waziristan, Karachi and Balochistan were caught with sophisticated, military-grade weaponry manufactured by the Zionist entity (13).This string of horrible bloodshed that claimed the lives of dozens of Shi’a Muslim men, women and children, along with several other Sunni Muslims who stood in solidarity with them, is reminiscent of a very similar Mosssad-RAW-backed TTP campaign that targeted prominent Shi’a and Sunni figures back at the start of 2012. Tearing Pakistan apart through the “sectarianism” of the Zionist-Hindutvadi Dragon Policy, leaving it open to denuclearization and balkanization and eventually fomenting the ethnic cleansing of all Muslims from occupied Kashmir is indeed the “endgame” plot (13). The innocent Pakistani blood spilled throughout April means nothing to the supremacist oppressors or their quislings, and this is why the great Pakistani luminary Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid declared recently in one of his highly-regarded email bulletins that, “Pakistan’s entire political leadership is now compromised to the enemies. These ones want to compromise our honor, faith, history, land and water,” in fact, he continues, “the idiots we have today have already auctioned it.” And if the Pakistani Armed Forces didn’t perform the way that they did in Quetta, ending the catastrophe (at least for now), it is safe to say that the enemies would be further along in their plot.

Occupied Kashmir, one of the most beautiful places on the face of this planet, has been transformed into a training ground for anti-Pakistan warfare by Zionism and Hindutva.

Occupied Kashmir: The “Israeli”-Indian “Training Ground” For Anti-Pakistan WarfareIt is a well-established and internationally-accepted fact that the Zionist entity’s military and arms industries are imposing behemoths and completely unrivaled on the international stage. What is lesser-known, or rather, ruthlessly suppressed by the Zionist media as a means of keeping it far from the global public’s vision, is that“Israel” uses the occupied West Bank (and by extension, occupied al-Quds) as a laboratory for the research and design of its newest weapons. Zionist occupation forces use the hundreds of Palestinian villages in the West Bank as ‘live’ training grounds (14). Though this certainly qualifies as “sick,” as well as “twisted,” as Zionism always does, it gets even more depraved.On March 27th, 2012, the undercover unit “Israeli” military intelligence known as Duvdevan, which is responsible for the murder of beloved Palestinian-Jewish activist and director Juliano Mer-Khamis (15), as well as a laundry list of extrajudicial executions dating back to the FirstIntifada, savagely murdered 28-year old Palestinian Rashad Shawakha and badly wounded two of his brothers during a ‘live’ training exercise in the occupied West Bank Village of Rammoun (16). For the very first time, as revealed herein by Mask of Zion’s ever-vigilant and exceptionally reliable Kashmiri sources, it is now known that these slaughterous and utterly insidious “live training” and “weapons testing” methods have been exported to occupied Kashmir, the land known as “heaven on Earth” illegally occupied by Hindutvadi India for 65 years and already infested with Zionist-Hindutvadi training facilities for the Dragon Policy.

Zionism and Hindutva are intertwined at every level, thus revealing  a relationship of  supreme geopolitical closeness.

For the historical record, it is integral to note“Israel” is not only the top defense supplier for India (17), but the usurping Jewish entity and the Hindu supremacist regime are deeply intertwined at every level, from military to intelligence, economics to politics, communications to ideology, and this cooperation not only amounts to a frightening hegemonic agenda, but tens of billions of dollars in profit generation (13). The two occupation entities even collaborate in ventures to provide cell phone gaming services for their brainwashed populations (18);the Zionism-Hindutva relationship is one of the utmost geopolitical intimacy.Ironically and ominously, although perhaps not unintentionally, one year ago to the day before the barbaric massacres of Shi’a Muslims began in Balochistan, a terrible tragedy occurred in occupied Kashmir that shocked and saddened the people of the Vale. Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah, a pseudo-controversial but much-loved cleric who served as the President of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, was murdered in a brutal bombing during Friday prayers at a mosque in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar. So abominable was the attack that it prompted a harsh condemnation from every major Azadi(Kashmiri word for freedom) organization throughout occupied Kashmir, as well as the government of Pakistan (19). Survived by his wife, son, daughter and mother, well-known across the Vale for his honesty and dedicated to the cause of Azadi by all accounts, Shah had been arrested and imprisoned under the Hindutvadi occupation’s draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) many times before, and on at least two other occasions, there were attempts on his life. Dating back to 1990, a phenomenon known in occupied Kashmir as the “unidentified killings” has claimed the lives of dozens of doctors, academics, clerics, philanthropists, Resistance fighters and human rights activists, including Muslims, Pandits and secularists. All evidence indicates that RAW’s “Special Operations Group” is behind the murders (20). The most recent target, prominent religious scholar Peer Jalaludin, barely escaped with his life after being critically injured in a shooting. Azadi leaders pegged Hindutva as the culprit behind the barbarous attack, stating that it was trying to divide the Kashmiri struggle through sectarianism (21).

The intelligence agencies of the usurping Jewish entity and the Hindutvadi occupation regime are tormenting the Kashmiri people.

Mask of Zion contacted several Resistance fighters and Azadiactivists to learn more about these disturbing developments and what was uncovered during these inquiries turned out to be nothing short of shocking and enlightening, as well as exceedingly revealing. One 46-year old veteran fighter, who, for security reasons asked to be identified by the alias “Rehman Zahid”, an eloquent man with vast experience in the Azadi struggle as he fought the Hindutvadi occupation head-on during the epic Kashmiri intifada of 1989, explained to Mask of Zion the nature of what he referred to as “SOG,” the RAW Special Operations Group, “The SOG is active all over Asia. It is in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia, Malaysia and as far north as Japan. It is responsible for assassinations and surveillance and anything else the accursed Hindutvadis ask for, may ALLAH (SWT) curse them to the hellfire. Curse them! But here, here in Kashmir, my beloved that they have been raping since before Palestine was raped by the Zionists, my land of treasures and rushing rivers, the SOG is subordinate to an ‘Israeli’ named Katzir. You know him, yes?”“Yes, of course,” I stated anxiously. Brother Rehman continued, “The ‘Israeli’ is governing dozens of SOG agents with full approval from the Hindutvadis in Delhi. He’s integrated them into the units made up from the elites of his counter-terrorism team and calls these units the ‘Yehoshua Brigades’, named after Joshua from the Jewish Bible who was a destroyer and murderer of children, a rapist of land and thief of Canaan.” Understandably, brother Rehman paused to take a deep breath. I saw this as an opportunity to interject, “These Yehoshua Brigades aren’t regular military units then, and the operations of the SOG aren’t normal operations, are they?”

General Sundararajan  Padmanabhan, the Hindutvadi  fundamentalist behind the Cold Start Doctrine, is so hated by  the Kashmiri Resistance that he  is simply referred to as “the monster.”

The Kashmiri Resistance veteran paused for yet another moment and solemnly said, “No, not at all. He named them ‘Yehoshua’ because these units are those which will carry out Operation Kurukshetra, a creation of Katzir and the monster, {a reference to former Indian Chief of Staff, General Sundararajan Padmanabhan, the Hindutvadi fundamentalist architect of the Cold Start Doctrine known throughout the Vale for his sadistic brutality during the 1989intifada and the immediate years after it (13)} to cleanse us from the land like Joshua and his band of murderous yahoud cleansed Canaan thousands of years ago and cleansed it again in 1948. Every assassination that they’ve done in the last decade was designed to provoke us into attacking them so they can make Kurukshetra a reality. Curse them, ya ALLAH (SWT)! Curse them!”“Would we be providing a most accurate description,” I asked, “if we designated the Yehoshua Brigades, in all honesty, as an exclusivist Jewish-Hindu death squad motivated by the Zionist-Hindutvadi leadership’s desire to attain ethno-religious and regional supremacy?” Without hesitation, Rehman Zahid, a man who had stared into the eyes of the cruel and torturous Indian soldiers who waged an unrelenting campaign of brutality under General Sundararajan Padmanabhan during the 1989 Kashmiri intifada, stated, “Absolutely. Absolutely accurate. Supremacist is what they are. Exclusivist! Separatist is what they are! They call us separatists but they are the separatists! They want to separate from all other humans, with yahoud being with yahoud and Hindutvadi being with Hindutvadi while we suffer under them. They think of us as dogs. Enemies of Islam! Enemies of humanity! Enemies of the Kashmiri, the Palestinian, the Lebanese! Enemies of Pak Sarzameen and the dunya and even the Akhira! Curse them! May ALLAH (SWT) give us strength to fight them and free ourselves from them!”Brother Rehman had become thoroughly flustered and quite upset and therefore, out of respect for and empathy with him, I had no interest in prolonging the discussion for any serious length of time; I only had one more question, “Akhi Rehman, this information is indeed critical and it most certainly explains a great deal, but what about the assassination of Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah? Was the attack on his person a hyper-specific one?” Obligingly, Rehman replied, “Not necessarily, but, Shahid Maulana was their highest-level target yet methinks. Every killing that Yehoshua does is based on its objective of driving us into civil conflict and hurting our struggle. There is another goal for them though. The explosive used to martyr Maulana, a sticky bomb, was a modified, military-grade version of what was used in the July 11th Bombings and the Malegaon Blasts {which were false flag attacks carried out by the Zionist entity’s Mossad and Hindu supremacist elements close to RAW to set the stage for their ‘masterpiece’ false flag on 26/11, an event that ‘changed the game’ in the region (22)}.Yehoshua and Katzir’s regular units and even the Hindutvadi occupiers themselves are always testing new weapons for ‘Israel,’ may ALLAH (SWT) curse them to the hellfire. We’re like their playthings.”

The Jewish-Hindu death squad known  as the Yehoshua Brigades is spilling rivers of Kashmiri blood, all for the sake of eventually taking down Pakistan.

He continued, “We are armed with minimal weaponry here, anyone can see this, even the blind ones. What do they need heavy automatics, laser snipers, drones, pistols with silencers and upgraded military explosives for? Are they that afraid of our youths who pelt stones? Do our stonepelters make the Hindutvadi and the Zionist shake? Maybe we do, by ALLAH (SWT) maybe we do, but this isn’t the reason. They’re testing their weapons here because these are the weapons that they use on Pakistan to make chaos there. Kurukshetra is the final part of the Hindutvadi Cold Start Doctrine. BeforeYehoshua Brigades are released to make the Kashmiri Nakba, India and the NATO will have turned Pakistan into Iraq or Libya with Cold Start, may ALLAH (SWT) damn them for what they did to those countries and the orphans. Yehoshua Brigades try and kill Peer Jalaludin, may ALLAH (SWT) protect him, right outside of his home with new never-before-seen heavy automatics and not even a week after this, not even a week by ALLAH (SWT)! These weapons are in the hands of TTP terrorists who spill blood in Pakistan. This is the pattern. Like I said, we are their playthings. Pak Sarzameen is the grand prize in all of this. We are the small fish.”I thanked brother Rehman for his time and Muhammad Isma’il Bhat, the friend of mine who put me in contact with the Kashmiri veteran, told me in the clearest language possible that everything he said was on the money. I relayed this information to human rights activists “Zubair Zubair” in Srinagar and “Abu Ghulam” in Kupwara, who had contributed to a previous earth-shattering Mask of Zion report on Pakistan and occupied Kashmir, and both of them reaffirmed it unequivocally. It was official. Occupied Kashmir, “heaven on earth,” was being used by the Zionist entity and Hindutvadi India as a “live testing ground” for Dragon Policy directives that will later be carried out in Pakistan, with every killing aimed at disuniting the anti-occupation movement and delivering it into the jaws of destruction. The Kashmiri people were at the mercy of a Jewish-Hindu death squad known as the YehoshuaBrigades, with every moment of their day passing by as if it were their last.Once again, this shows that the fates of the Pakistani and Kashmiri people are interlocked and Azadi for one from the machinations of Zionism and Hindutva means Azadi for the other. And with Kashmiris preparing to launch another intifada, like they always do, seemingly every two years (23), there is no doubt that this theme will permeate protests and marches. There is no doubt that they will demonstrate for dignity and with vigor. There is no doubt that the oppressed people of the Vale will not relent until their Zionist and Hindutvadi tormentors are brought to justice and it is known that Kashmiris are the “playthings” of nobody.

According to the disturbed minds of Zionists and Hindutvadis, Pakistan must be destroyed for Greater “Israel” and Hindutva to flourish. (Graphic by Skulz Fontaine)

Conclusion: A Modern Day Agartala Conspiracy – The Separation of Balochistan and Operation Blue Tulsi ExposedAforementioned Pakistani luminary Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid has repeatedly likened what the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is fighting today to the “Agartala Conspiracy” of 1971, in which RAW, CIA and elements of the Soviet KGB created, trained, armed and funded the Mukti Bahini terror squads that broke down the Pakistani Armed Forces through guerilla warfare, setting the stage for the breakaway of East Pakistan, known today as the nation-state of Bangladesh. There was no “popular Bengali uprising” as it often parroted by Zionist media and academia, there was a plot of subversion directed by the enemies of Pakistan with Hindutva at the head (24). This is further confirmed by the Syed in which he points out that the Pakistani Army was 10,000 miles away from base, fighting 4GW in the streets while India invaded from three sides with 500,000 soldiers and 250,000 more Mukti Bahini terrorists. The “soldiers of Jinnah, soldiers of ‘Allama Iqbal” were overwhelmed, and the dismemberment of Pakistan was completed (25). It is highly critical to add that the Zionist regime assisted India in this plot (26),as balkanizing and weakening Islamic states is a cornerstone of the Jewish supremacist entity’s foreign policy, as discussed earlier in the chronicling of the TTP’s history.The modern day “Agartala Conspiracy” can be accurately referred to as the “Balochistan Conspiracy.” Just before the Mossad-and-RAW-backed TTP began carrying out its latest massacre of Shi’a Muslims in an attempt to drum up more sectarian tension across Pakistan, which, by the way, is an ongoing machination as Pakistani security forces just stopped another possible attack on Kirani Road in the Hazara Town neighborhood of Quetta (27), a tragedy of literally mountainous proportions struck the Pakistan nation on April 7th, 2012 as an avalanche on the famed Siachen Glacier, a massively geopolitically important strategic nexus and integral, ancestral part of Pakistan’s national and cultural heritage, slammed down upon the headquarters of the 6NLI battalion of the Pakistani Army, trapping at least 139 soldiers and civilians underneath the frozen tundra. Illegally occupied by Hindutva in April 1984 in Operation Meghdoot, Siachen is once again back in the spotlight and reminding Pakistanis that the agreement signed between their nation and India in 1989 to secure the withdrawal of all forces has been consistently ignored because of Hindutva’s intransigence and its dreams of supremacist expansionism (28). 

The illegal Indian occupation of the Siachen Glacier is key to the overall Zionist-Hindutvadi strategy vis-à-vis Pakistan.

Developed by the Indian Armed Forces’ Western Command in 1978 and actually engaged by the Indian Armed Forces’ Northern Command, Operation Meghdoot was launched to capture Karakoram Highway (KKH), therefore disconnecting Pakistan’s road links to China, as well as to capture the passes that connect Siachen Glacier to Gilgit-Baltistan, therefore confiscating yet another piece of land historically linked with occupied Kashmir. This act of Hindutvadi criminality was meant to bog down large numbers of Pakistan’s best and brightest forces in high altitude warfare, while continuing the build-up towards the initiation of the Cold Start Doctrine and Operation Kurukshetra. Moreover, what is additionally and most importantly attached to the “bog-down” strategy of the illegal Indian occupation of Siachen is its policy of supporting terrorists in Balochistan, specifically the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and of course, the TTP (28). Hindutva and its allies in the CIA and Britain’s MI6 are also funding, arming and training the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and Lashkar-e-Balochistan. RAW and CIA have set up 60 training camps across Balochistan to maintain this destabilization, which is occurring just 100 miles east of Iran (29).  Where there is Hindutva, Zionism is never too far away and this is especially true for Balochistan. Another vital asset of the gaggle of secessionist-terrorist elements being utilized by the enemies of Pakistan to plunge the Islamic nation into devastation is the shadowy group known as Jundallah, which has been trained and armed by Mossad for years now. Mossad has used Jundallah against the Islamic Republic of Iran on numerous occasions in bloody, bloody slaughterous attacks and even Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei himself has made mention of it (30). 

Mossad operatives posed as CIA agents to recruit Jundallah terrorists into causing a rift between Pakistan and Iran; a  classic “Israeli” false flag.

In its typical use of its classic and favorite tactic, the false flag, operatives of Mossad have also posed as CIA agents and flaunted wads of American cash and US passports to recruit Jundallah into carrying out bombings against Iranian women and children to terrorize the Zionist entity’s most hated enemy. While this has been analyzed in journalistic spheres on and off the Internet, what hasn’t been discussed is that a main objective of this particular Zionist false flag was to drive a wedge between Pakistan and Iran and foment suspicion between them (31). Thankfully, despite the terrible, terrible loss of Iranian life, the brotherly Islamic Republics have gotten over this and are moving forward with an important gas project in the face of immense pressure from the Zionist-occupied United States government (32). William Safire, infamous neconservative ideologue and member of the Jewish-Zionist brain trust that planned the annihilation of Iraq, was well-known for supporting the formation of a Kurdish state because it would weaken the Zionist entity’s three greatest enemies, Iraq, Iran and Syria (33). This exact line of Zionist thinking is present in the minds of Safire’s constituents at the powerful neoconservative think tank, the Brookings Institution, which produced a policy paper entitled, “Which Path To Persia?” that lays out numerous Israelcentric strategies for America and “Israel” to destroy Iran, including the launch of an insurgency in Balochistan with Pakistan being transformed into a total slave-state to support the terrorism against Iran by proxy. “Which Path To Persia?” was authored by notorious ‘Iranophobe’ and Jewish supremacist Kenneth M. Pollack, world-renowned lobbyist for the usurping Zionist regime Martin Indyk, Jewish-Zionist CIA stalwart and developer of Obama’s Af-Pak strategy Bruce Reidel, Jewish supremacist defender of the criminal “Israeli” practice of “targeted killings” Daniel L. Byman and neoconservative shabbos goyim Suzanne Maloney and Michael E. O’Hanlon (34).

Oded Yinon’s plan made manifest in Pakistan: Balochistan and Pashtunistan secede, leaving the mighty Islamic Republic in Zionist-made shambles.

“Israeli” foreign policy advisor Oded Yinon’s “A Strategy For Israel In The 1980s”, the monumental 1982 paper that documented in detail how the Jewish occupation regime plans to balkanize its enemies through infiltration, subversion and terrorism, rendering them non-existent as robust nation-states and turning them into satellites of Zionist hegemony, was instrumental in the Jewish decimation of Iraq (35), and it is now being implemented in numerous nations across the continent of Africa (36). The Yinon plan is also very much underway in Pakistan, with the ultimate territorial goal of the Zionist entity being to break off Balochistan from the Islamic Republic, as well as a larger chunk of land in the western part of the country to make way for a gutted Afghanistan called “Pashtunistan (37),” thus crippling Pakistan in a devastating way, essentially reincarnating and modernizing the “Agartala Conspiracy” of 1971.The convergence of Zionist-Hindutvadi objectives in Balochistan is by no means a coincidence. It is in fact exceedingly deliberate. A sister of the Dragon Policy, the Yinon-styled infiltration of Balochistan is a plot more than 10 years old known as “Operation Blue Tulsi.” The resurrection of the BLA and its offshoots, the training camps set up for them, the bases set up by Mossad, RAW and the occasional cluster of CIA agents to run the terror squads, the BLA designs to overthrow the Islamabad government in 2004, the setup of a Baloch regime office in occupied al-Quds to better coordinate Mossad-RAW-CIA subversion schemes, the assassinations of top military and intelligence officials followed by their replacement with infiltrators from the Zionist-Hindutvadi nexus, and all other facsimile events are part and parcel of Operation Blue Tulsi (38), which is being executed simultaneously alongside Cold Start and Operation Kurukshetra.On a side note, it is interesting to record that the “Pakistani” troops exported to Bahrain to be used in the crackdown on a revolutionary uprising in that country at the behest of its ruling regime, the criminal and barbaric Al-Khalifa monarchy, which has bragged about its ties to Mossad and has told all of its top officials not to refer to “Israel” as the “enemy” or the “Zionist entity (39),” are not from the nationalistic and anti-Zionist military-intelligence apparatus of Pakistan, but from Balochistan (40).Not only is Mossad-RAW-backed terrorism from Balochistan wreaking havoc on the lives of innocent Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but Bahrainis too.

There isn’t a single aspect of Pakistan’s tragic political history  that hasn’t been dirtied by the hands of “Israel”  and India.

With revelations having emerged from Jewish former US Ambassador to India John Gunther Dean that Mossad and RAW orchestrated the “accident” that murdered General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1988 (41), it seems that there isn’t a single segment of the tragic aspects of Pakistan’s tumultuous history that Zionism and Hindutva didn’t have their dirty hands in. Moreover, the Zionist-controlled United States has started bombing the “child of Jinnah, child of ‘Allama Iqbal” once again with drones as sadistic revenge for cutting off NATO supplies to occupied Afghanistan (42); the latest attack has left four little Pakistani girls slaughtered (43). And with the egregious and monstrous human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir continuing en masse, as most recently evidenced by the Indian occupation army being implicated in punishing Kashmiris through slave labor (44), and the more than1,332 Kashmiris locked up in Hindutvadi dungeons through the draconian PSA over the last three years (45), the aforesaid plans for another intifada in the Vale couldn’t have come at a better time. The filthy and pernicious plots of the Zionist-Hindutvadi alliance against the peoples of Pakistan and occupied Kashmir must be confronted and stopped once and for all.

One day, the breathtakingly gorgeous land of Kashmir will be free of Hindutva’s military occupation and Zionism’s plots of subversion and balkanization.

NOVANEWS

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials on Monday condemned the U.S. for carrying out its first drone strike in the country since parliament demanded they end two weeks ago, but qualified that it should be seen in light of the presence of Islamist militants on Pakistani soil.

The mixed signals indicate the delicate tightrope the government is trying to walk with the American attacks. They are very unpopular in Pakistan, so opposing them makes sense for political reasons. But the government does not seem to want the strikes to torpedo attempts to patch up ties with the U.S., which could free up over $1 billion in American military aid.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the strikes which killed three suspected militants in the North Waziristan tribal area Sunday “are in total contravention of international law and established norms of interstate relations.”

“The government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that drone attacks are violative of its territorial integrity and sovereignty,” it said.

Pakistan’s parliament demanded an end to the strikes in mid-April when it approved new guidelines for the country’s relationship with the U.S.

Washington had hoped that parliament’s decision would pave the way for Pakistan to reopen supply lines for NATO troops in Afghanistan that were closed in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops.

The drone attacks have been a stumbling block. But Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani struck a moderate tone Monday when he seemed to link the strikes to the continued ability of Islamist militants fighting the government and international forces in Afghanistan to operate on Pakistan’s territory.

He pointed out that the resolution passed by parliament also stipulated that foreign fighters must be expelled from the country and Pakistani soil should not be used to attack other countries.

“So, when we plan a strategy (with the U.S.), all these aspects would be discussed,” said Gilani.

The U.S. has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan target Taliban and al-Qaida militants who use its territory to launch cross-border attacks.

The Pakistani military has refused, claiming its forces are stretched too thin by operations against homegrown militants battling the government. However, many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target militants with whom it has historical ties because they could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

The drone issue is complicated by the fact that some elements of the Pakistani government, including the military, have helped the U.S. carry out strikes in the past. That cooperation has come under strain as the relationship between the two countries has deteriorated, but many analysts believe some in the government still support the program at some level.

Even those Pakistani officials believed to support the attacks often protest them in public because they are so unpopular in the country. Many Pakistanis believe they most kill civilians, an allegation disputed by the U.S. and independent research.

A Pakistani intelligence official said the most recent strike seemed to be a message from the U.S.

“It’s a message that things are going to continue as usual irrespective of what we say,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

It’s not the first time the U.S. has ignored Pakistan’s parliament, which has called for the drone strikes to end since 2008.

President Barack Obama significantly ramped up strikes in Pakistan when he took office in 2009, and while the U.S. has said little publicly about the attacks, American officials have argued in private that they are critical to targeting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters who threaten the West.

Drones are not the only issue complicating Pakistan’s decision to reopen the NATO supply lines.

The country’s parliament has also demanded that the U.S. provide an “unconditional apology” for the deaths of the Pakistani troops in November. The U.S. has expressed regret, but has declined to apologize – a decision that appears to be driven by domestic political considerations. The U.S. has said its troops fired in self-defense – a claim disputed by Pakistan – and the White House could be concerned about Republican criticism if it apologizes.

NOVANEWS

by Asif Haroon Raja

Among the seven agreements made by Gen Musharraf with Washington in September 2001, free passage of NATO containers from Karachi Port to Afghanistan via Torkham and Chaman and also air supplies were included. But for the supply routes, the ISAF couldn’t have sustained war on terror in Afghanistan and also conducted covert war against Pakistan for such a long period. In spite of free flow of massive supplies plying daily, the ISAF started sinking into the quagmire of Afghanistan because of stiff resistance put up by Mullah Omar led Taliban and al-Qaeda from 2008 onwards enabling them to make southern and eastern Afghanistan into their strongholds and pushing ISAF on the back foot.

Troop surges made by USA failed to contain resurgence of the Taliban. From 2010 onward, battle casualties and cases of mental disorders and indiscipline of ISAF rose sharply. Critical security situation in Afghanistan coupled with mounting domestic pressure to bring home US troops, growing unpopularity of the war, downslide in economy and 2012 as election year impelled Obama to announce drawdown plan, starting July 2011 and finishing by end December 2014. He directed Pentagon to expedite training of Afghan Army and Police so that security duties could be handed over to them. He also directed his political section to establish contacts with Taliban and work out a negotiated political settlement. Efforts were made to befriend Taliban leaders and convince them to get detached from al-Qaeda which had been the principle source of their woes.

Hamid Karzai, his half-brother Wali Karzai and Burhanuddin Rabbani were also encouraged to play their part to woo as many Taliban leaders. They might have succeeded in convincing Taliban Shura to accept Karzai’s offer of preferring peace over violence and sharing power with Northern Alliance. However, America’s three conditions of renouncing violence, severing ties with al-Qaeda and accepting US drafted western model democracy impeded reconciliation efforts. Opening of backdoor secret channels to induce and bribe moderate as well as hard line Taliban leaders with a view to isolating Mullah Omar were other factors which made the Taliban wary. In other words, the spoilers hypocritically worked on the strategy of dividing the Taliban to weaken them and then negotiating from position of strength. The military hawks didn’t sheathe the military prong since they felt that without using this instrument they may not be able to achieve their objective.

Meetings of Taliban with US officials were held twice in Munich and once in Doha between November 2010 and May 2011. UNSC separated the ‘1267’ joint list of names of members of al-Qaeda and Taliban as a move to win over Taliban. Process of reconciliation suffered a setback after military targets in Wardak and Kabul were struck and Burhanuddin murdered by Taliban in September 2011. Flummoxed by the ever growing power of Taliban and not knowing how to contain it, spin doctors of ISAF started fabricating excuses to hide poor performance of US military. The US gave vent to its enragement by throwing the blame at the doorsteps of Pakistan and making it the scapegoat. From 22 September onward, the US officials kept firing salvos at Pakistan relentlessly and also stepped up their efforts to woo the Taliban. The breakthrough achieved in Doha retarded as a consequence to series of events taking place in Afghanistan in first quarter of 2012. Acceleration of night raids together with incident of burning of copies of Quran in Baghram base and killing spree of Sergeant Bales heightened anti-Americanism and impelled the Taliban to discontinue negotiations. Multiple attacks in Kabul on April 15 were retaliatory acts.

Strains in Pak-US relations had started appearing from 2010 onwards because of hawkish behavior of the US officials, their never ending do more mantra, leveling of baseless allegations against Pakistan and propaganda campaign by US-Western media. Relations became frostier after Raymond Davis episode, Abbottabad assault and Mike Mullen’s invectives after Kabul attacks by Taliban, but broke down after unprovoked attack by NATO helicopters at Salala on 26 November. America’s ever growing involvement in internal affairs, presence of Blackwater, Dyncorps and CIA network, drone war and its heavy leaning towards India in disregard of Pakistan’s security concerns and appeasement policy of our rulers had make the people highly resentful. Accumulated pent up ill-will made the rupture imminent and call for severing relations with USA and terminating US sponsored war on terror became louder.

Mounting public anger and Army’s pressure compelled the government to hesitatingly take tough measures so as to curb America’s unbridled intrusions. It also set up a Parliamentary Committee on National Security to revise terms of engagement with the US, NATO and ISAF. Of all the measures taken by Pakistan, closure of NATO supplies hurt ISAF the most since it affects its operational efficiency and also CIA led covert war against Pakistan. Instead of mollifying Pakistan by offering an apology and promising compensation to the families of victims, the US behaved snobbishly. It refused to offer apology over Salala massacre and held Pakistan equally responsible. The US was confident that because of precarious socio-politico-economic situation, Pakistan would soon cave in and go back to business as usual. It was sure that the appointed Committee would make recommendations favoring USA. This crude response further vitiated the atmosphere and hardened the stance of Pakistan.

Unlike the poor track record of outcome of parliamentary committees, the Parliamentary Committee under Senator Rabbani worked hard and made further revisions in recommendations because of opposition’s objections. It put up its report to the Parliament containing several well-measured recommendations for debate and decision. Washington eagerly waited for the resumption of supply routes but gave no assurance that drone strikes would stop, or promised that no further unilateral attacks would be undertaken. On the contrary Obama and visiting US official Thomas Nides gave veiled warnings that Pakistan must remain mindful of US security needs. The government which was all set to give a green signal to appease the US had to apply brakes in the wake of intense public protests. The religious forces insist that opening of supplies should be made conditional to cessation of drone attacks and release of Aafia Siddiqui. Taliban from both sides of the border have also asked Islamabad not to feed the killers in Afghanistan. Difa-e-Pakistan Council and Fazlur Rahman warned that supply roads will be physically blocked if the government permits NATO containers to ply.

Finding himself cornered, the PM took the matter to the DCC with a hope of obtaining a favorable decision, but the DCC wisely decided to defer resumption of NATO supplies because of the outrage of the people. The principled democratic course adopted by the government to deal with issues of national importance is encouraging. Skeptics however say that the decision to restore supply lines for NATO has already been taken and will be announced before Chicago meeting next month which will be attended by Zardari. The President and PM must not forget the fact that great majority oppose reopening of transit facility for the ISAF whose intelligence agencies are involved in clandestine operations against Pakistan. Blow back may be severe. Policy makers must also recognize the hard reality that Pak-US interests are at variance and not in congruence and must therefore stop chasing rainbows that the US would treat Pakistan and its sovereignty with respect. We must not forget that the US nurtures sinister designs against our nuclear program. What is needed is to help the ISAF in extricating 130,000 troops, 70,000 vehicles and 120,000 containers via Pakistan’s land routes rather than reinforcing the ISAF and saboteurs and thus adding to the woes of people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.