Earlier, the news agency reported that the US trainers, which were sent back from Pakistan after Salala attack, have returned to Pakistan, in a sign the two nations may be able to achieve some low-level cooperation against militants despite a string of confrontations that have left Washington’s relations with Islamabad in crisis.
According to report, speaking on the condition of anonymity a U.S. official said that almost 10 U.S. special operations soldiers have been sent to a training site near the border city of Peshawar, where they will instruct trainers from Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) in counter-insurgency warfare.
The number of American military instructors in Pakistan dropped to zero after U.S. aircraft Martyred 24 Pakistani soldiers in late November. Nato labeled the border incident an accident but it enraged Pakistanis and sent already tense ties with the United States into a tailspin.
India recently tested a long range missile the AGNI V. India also has plans for Ballistic Missile Defense Systems (BMD) as well as missiles with Multiple Warheads– MIRVs. India is also moving towards Sea Launched Ballistic Missiles ( SLBMs). For Pakistan India’s message is that it should not concern itself with these developments because India is developing a deterrent and defense capability against the ‘threat’ from China. India has a strategic relationship with the US and the US India Civilian Nuclear Technology Agreement endorsed by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) gives India access to nuclear materials even while maintaining eight unsafeguarded facilities. India is at pains to point out that its BMD and MIRV plans are simply ‘technology demonstrators’ and not being developed as part of a strategic policy. Can there be strategic weapons development without a strategy? The US is drawing India into the Pacific region as well as into Afghanistan and there is very little doubt that US policy in South Asia has India as a pivotal nation. India’s development plans have full US support.
Pakistan sees its growing assymmetry with India and also sees India’s weapons development strategy as a bid for nuclear superiority—not deterrence or defense. Many other countries in the region and beyond are likely to reach a similar conclusion. Pakistan has no option but to factor in its nuclear deterrence by not agreeing to a No First Use policy and by preparing to meet the full spectrum of the Indian threat including its stated policy of retaliation against a non state actor initiated terrorist act by ’cold starting’ an attack on Pakistan. Pakistan tested a long range missile and has just carried out the second test of its nuclear capable 60 km range missile. If India goes ahead with BMD and MIRVs Pakistan will have to reasses its options and it is for this reason that Pakistan cannot support the FMCT.
If nuclear weapons and missile proliferation is to be halted then India and Pakistan must work out a strategic restraint regime even factoring in India’s concerns about China. It would be a pity if Indian strategic weapons development without a strategy is allowed to drive the region into a race that can only have disastrous consequences. Just as India and Pakistan were about to consider some kind of resolution of the Siachen dispute the outgoing Indian Chief of Army Staff has stated that the Indian Army would never allow a resolution that meant vacating any part of the area currently held by India in the glaciated region. There has been no response from India’s government probably because they are all waiting for this particular Army Chief to retire and leave—he has spoken far too often and rarely with wisdom.
Tacstrat Analysis
The way the war on terrorism was initiated soon after the 9/11 incident has ditched the countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ironically no Afghani or Pakistani citizen was involved in planning or execution of the incident. They were all from the Arabic belt, yet, America attacked Afghanistan to teach a lesson to this part of the world. The war on terrorism is like a genocidal attempt of the masses of these two countries as thousands and thousands of citizens have been killed so for. Whereas in 9/11 only 3 thousand people were killed and all of them were not American, they hailed from different countries of the world. Although their lives were precious yet it doesn’t justify killing the innocent citizens of the South Asian countries.
It seems war on terrorism is a war of two different cultures but has been termed as war on terror to satisfy the educated tax payers of the America and other allied countries. Howeer more than 48 countries are butchering people through air strikes, drones attacks etc. Almost all of the war strategies being appalied to curb the terrorism backed fire and dragged the NATO and allied forces away from the success. Don’t know why people of this region were hopeful when Mr. Obama was elected as president of the United States. He gave Af-Pak Strategy that too has been failed. If so ever that had been a successful strategy that would have never allowed the American and NATO forces to attack on Salala. This attempt derailed the smoothly going relationship between Pakistan and USA. Pakistani masses were highly perturbed on this incident so its reaction was obvious. Pakistan immediately stopped the NATO routes, people held anti America relies and the Defah-e-Pakistan council emerged out of that reaction. Now Pakistan govt is facingpublic pressure and many of the media groups are also in their editorials, columns and current affairs programs instigating the govt to say big No on reopening the routes. Certain factions have attached the NATO supply with ghairat and ego of the nation. Certain decisions require a deliberate home work and consideration.
Pakistan govt is really in the state of indecisiveness due to the internal pressures. That’s why the parliament couldn’t reach to the consensus. However NATO and the American establishment need to realize that drone attacks must be stopped as these are causing negative impact for Pakistani society. America has stopped giving Pakistan its share of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) since July 2010. That may be released at earliest. One is amazed America has failed to provide the CSF yet it keep on asking to do more. America knows very well that Pakistan doesn’t possess the resources that it can fight globally initiated war on terrorism alone. Yet more than 40 thousands of its citizens have given their lives and about 5 thousand of its troops have lost their lives fighting war on terror. Moreover Pakistan army is fighting this war from its own reserve resources which depicts its sincerity and resolve to curb the menace.
On the other the NATO forces have many a times violated Pakistani borders. Terrorists residing in the safe havens of Kunner and Nuristan on number of occasions have attacked on the villages and the Pakistani post inside the territory of Pakistan. Salala was another example of distrust andpain set by the American forces. The American and the allied forces have yet not apologized on the same which depicts their inhuman and rude attitude towards the masses of the third world. Although stopping the NATO routes for longer run may prolong NATO forces stay in Afghanistan as the material and the equipment which was used for deployment of the forces in Afghanistan has to be shifted back. America should also realize that 2 May drama and the Salala like incidents have deteriorated Pak-US relations. America is already discourteous enough to appreciate Pakistan services in the war. However NATO supply is political issue which has to solved through Pak–US negotiations. If it really wants to get out of this war it should accept the responsibility of Salala attacks and then should request Pakistan to reopen the routes. Although NATO does say that Pakistan’s role is crucial and the routes should be reopened yet it has to show through actions despite of the statements. It is fact however that Pakistan must not get itself isolated because of the issue. The things have to proceed further. NATO and American are in contact with Pakistan to resolve the issue. However president Zardari has apprised the world during the recent Chicago conference that Pakistan requirement and the sacrifices have to be kept in mind. He has clearly asked to halt the drones, give CSF and seek apology on Salala, if so ever they, the counterparts, are willing to step forward.
—The writer is Rawalpindi-based freelance columnist.
Courtesy: PAKISTAN OBSERVER
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the SPY EYES Analysis and or its affiliates. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). SPY EYES Analysis and or its affiliates will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements and or information contained in this article.
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| This handout photograph released by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) office shows a Hatf IX short-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile launched from an undisclosed location in Pakistan on May 29, 2012. PHOTO: AFP
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan successfully conducted the test fire of indigenously developed, nuclear capable Hatf IX (NASR) missile, on Tuesday a statement issued by Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) said.
Hatf IX NASR is a short-range surface to surface multi tube missile. With a range of 60km, it can carry nuclear warheads of appropriate yield, with high accuracy, and possesses shoot and scoot attributes. This quick response system addresses the need to deter evolving threats – especially at shorter ranges.
The test was witnessed by Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai (Retd), Chairman NESCOM Irfan Burney, Commander Army Strategic Forces Command Lieutenant General Tariq Nadeem Gilani, senior officers from the strategic forces and scientists and engineers from strategic organisations.
The Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai (Retd), termed the NASR Missile as a weapon of peace. He further stated that the test was a major development which will consolidate Pakistan’s deterrence capability at all levels of the threat spectrum, thereby ensuring peace in the region.
The successful test has also been warmly appreciated by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, who have congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding success.
Source: http://tribune.com.pk
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A new report by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) circulating in the Kremlin today on this past weeks violent shaking of the Norwegian Sea floor after it was hit by a powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake at the shallow depth of 8.8 km (5.5 miles) states that this event also caused an “unexpected and rapid”
shifting of the magnetic North Pole by nearly 1,000 km (621 miles)
these scientists claim can only be attributed to as an yet unidentified
planet in our solar system recently confirmed to exist by one of the world’s top astronomers from the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
Unknown to most people, and as reported
by London’s Independent newspaper, the magnetic north pole is moving
faster than at any time in human history, threatening everything from
the safety of modern transport systems to the traditional navigation
routes of migrating animals.
Scientists say that magnetic north,
which for two centuries has been in the icy wilderness of Canada, is
currently relocating towards Russia at a rate of about 40 miles a year.
The speed of its movement has increased by a third in the past decade,
prompting speculation that the field could be about to “flip”,
causing compasses to invert and point south rather than north,
something that happens between three and seven times every million
years.
Already the phenomenon is causing
problems in the field of aviation. Tampa International airport in
Florida spent a month last year renaming its three runways, which in
common with those at most US airports are identified using numbers that
correspond to the direction, in degrees, that they face on a compass. “Everything had to be changed; it was a huge project,” Brenda Geoghagan, a spokeswoman for the airport, said.
RAS scientists in this report further
warn that this rapid shifting of the North Pole will increase the
destabilization of our Earth’s weather systems which has caused historic
droughts to occur world-wide, most importantly in the United States, Mexico-Central America and Brazil’s Amazon forest regions.
Confirming the conclusions reached by RAS scientists, London’s Daily Mail newspaper reported this past week that the evidence for “Planet X” – the mysterious hypothesized planet on the edge of our solar system – has taken a new turn thanks to the mathematics of the noted astronomer Rodney Gomes.
Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the
National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, says the irregular
orbits of small icy bodies beyond Neptune imply that a planet four times
the size of Earth is swirling around our sun in the fringes of the
solar system. Planet X – perhaps misnamed now that Pluto has been
demoted to a dwarf planet – has been widely hypothesized for decades,
but has never been proven.
Gomes measured the orbits of 92 Kuiper
belt objects – small bodies and dwarf planets – and said that six
objects appeared to be tugged off-course compared to their expected
orbits. He told astronomers at the American Astronomical Society on
Tuesday that the most likely reason for the irregular orbits was a “planetary-mass solar companion”- a distant body of planet size that is powerful enough to move the Kuiper belt objects.
He further suggested this mysterious
planet would be four times bigger than Earth – around the size of
Neptune and would be 140 billion miles from the sun, or about 1,500
times further than the Earth.
Though Gomes may have, indeed, found the mysterious Planet X, he was not the first man to suggest that it was hidden behind Neptune, which is 4 times larger than planet Earth and was discovered in the 1840′s.
French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier
used Newtonian mechanics to analyze perturbations in the orbit of
Uranus and hypothesized that they were caused by the gravitational pull
of a yet-undiscovered planet. Le Verrier predicted the position of this
new planet and sent his calculations to German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
On 23 September 1846, the night following his receipt of the letter, Galle and his student Heinrich d’Arrest
discovered Neptune, exactly where Le Verrier had predicted. There
remained some slight discrepancies in the gas giants’ orbits. These were
taken to indicate the existence of yet another planet orbiting beyond Neptune.
Interesting to note about these “modern”
discoveries of Planet X by mainstream scientists coincide exactly with
the myths and legends of our Earth’s oldest peoples as gathered this
past century by the Russian-born American independent scholar and author
Immanuel Velikovsky who noted them all in, perhaps, the most controversial book of the 20th Century titled “Worlds in Collision”.
In his book Velikovsky proposed that
around the 15th century BCE, Venus was ejected from Jupiter as a comet
or comet-like object, passed near Earth (an actual collision is not
mentioned). The object changed Earth’s orbit and axis, causing
innumerable catastrophes which were mentioned in early mythologies and
religions around the world.
Fifty-two years later, it passed close
by again, stopping the Earth’s rotation for a while and causing more
catastrophes, then, in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Mars (itself
displaced by Venus) made close approaches to the Earth; this incident
caused a new round of disturbances and disasters. After that, the
current “celestial order” was established. The courses of the planets stabilized over the centuries and Venus gradually became a “normal” planet.
Most critical to note about Velikovsky’s
discoveries among the ancient myths and legends was the prophecy that
what had happened before would happen again, and if they are to be
believed would be happening in our lifetime-namely the early 21st Century.
According to these ancient myths, this mysterious Planet X (upon which live the “gods” who made humans) would once again appear from the South…“the lands of the cross”. The “cross” referred to by these ancient peoples is known today as the Crux
which is the smallest of the 88 modern constellations, but is one of
the most distinctive and can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere.
Its name is Latin for cross, and it is dominated by a cross-shaped
asterism that is commonly known as the Southern Cross, and though it is now associated with Christianity it is, by far, the most ancient and revered of all the symbols of mankind.
Interesting to note is that this past week it was announced in Holland that both Australia and South Africa (both located in the Southern Hemisphere) would share in the building of history’s largest telescope known as the Square Kilometer Array which are a series of 3,000 connected radio telescopes that will scan the southern heavens and cost an estimated $2 billion.
To what will be found in the southern
heavens regarding the mysterious Planet X, the most astounding advice on
what to release to the public was made by New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman
who called for space aliens to invade earth so that the government
would spend money to mount a defense thereby stimulating the economy.
And as quoted directly from Krugman during his appearance last year on HBO’s Real Time:
To if Krugman will be proved right and “…there were no aliens”, or, should the ancients be proved right and “something wicked this way comes” no one honestly knows…but from all accounts we’re all about to find out soon enough.
The Article was originally published on www.pakalertpress.com
The Article was originally published on www.pakalertpress.com
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| Andrew Pike, a veteran of the US Army 82nd Airborne who was shot and paralyzed during the Iraq war |
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced some 1.6 million veterans – 720,000 of them (45 per cent) are now seeking service-related compensation. Each one of them claims an average of eight to nine ailments.
By comparison, only 21 per cent of Gulf War veterans who were deployed to battlefields in the early 1990s claimed disability, while the average Vietnam veteran receives compensation for fewer than four ailments.
Out of 720,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets currently seeking VA care:
- over 400,000 have mental health problems, most commonly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- over 350,000 report tinnitus
- over 177,000 have hearing loss
- over 1,600 have lost a limb
- over 200 need face transplants
- at least 127 have been blinded
Statistics by the Associated Press
The staggering increase in figures is driven by many factors. A major one is a higher survival rate, as modern body armor and improved battlefield care protect from wounds that in past wars proved fatal. Over 95 per cent of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have lived. - over 400,000 have mental health problems, most commonly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- over 350,000 report tinnitus
- over 177,000 have hearing loss
- over 1,600 have lost a limb
- over 200 need face transplants
- at least 127 have been blinded
Statistics by the Associated Press
On the other hand, this means new veterans return with unprecedented injuries, some missing as many as three limbs. Tens of thousands suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) – mostly mild concussions from bomb blasts – and doctors cannot say what’s in store for them in the long term.
Many have back, shoulder and knee problems from carrying heavy packs and wearing the body armor that helped keep them alive.
‘Is your back worse?’ – ‘No, I’ve lost my job’
The weak economy also pushes veterans to the Department of the Veteran Affairs (VA). The officers meet more people with disabilities that do not prevent them from doing certain jobs – but for the fact the veterans cannot find any work, or have been fired.Barry Jesinoski, executive director of advocacy group Disabled American Veterans, says that he often hears the same story in his office when veterans come: "We'll say, 'Is your back worse?' and they'll say, 'No, I just lost my job.'"
VA payments range from $127 a month for a 10 per cent disability to $2,769 for a full one. But as the piles of claims build up, the speed at which they are processed drops. For each case, it must be proved that the disability is indeed service-related.
As a result, nowadays a frustrated, injured veteran might spend up to eight months without any income. Over 560,000 claims from veterans of all wars are currently backlogged, having been filed earlier than 125 days ago.
Projected veteran expenses dangerously exceed budget:
Recent veterans are seeking a level of help the government did not anticipate, and for which there is no special fund set aside to pay. Nevertheless, the VA, scrambling through thousands of outstanding claims, still wants the veterans “to have what their entitlement is."
Cost of War
America’s War on Terror, which ensued after 9/11, includes Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq; and Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), covering domestic security. Various contesting reports have been filed on the costs of these operations, citing many hidden expenses. According to a study by Brown University, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have cost the US up to $4 trillion, while a total of 236,000 have been killed, over 6,000 American soldiers are among them.
But for taxpayers the ordeal is just beginning, warns Harvard economist Linda Bilmes. With any war, the cost of caring for veterans rises for several decades and peaks 30 to 40 years later, when diseases of aging are more common, the economist told the Associated Press. She estimates the health care and disability costs of the recent wars at $600-900 billion.America’s War on Terror, which ensued after 9/11, includes Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq; and Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), covering domestic security. Various contesting reports have been filed on the costs of these operations, citing many hidden expenses. According to a study by Brown University, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have cost the US up to $4 trillion, while a total of 236,000 have been killed, over 6,000 American soldiers are among them.
"This is a huge number and there's no money set aside," says Bilmes. "Unless we take steps now into some kind of fund that will grow over time, it's very plausible many people will feel we can't afford these benefits we overpromised."
This year’s budget puts aside some $130 billion for veterans' benefits and services, with the VA Department's share set at up to $70 billion. At the same time, the DoD’s budget runs close to $700 billion – this includes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The tendency is to reduce costs, but who could promise cuts discussed for 2013 would only affect the defense? And how would this play to US veterans, who all volunteered and now expect the government to keep its end of the bargain?
"The deal was, if you get wounded, we're going to supply this level of support," says Bilmes. Right now, "there's a lot of sympathy and a lot of people want to help. But memories are short and times change."
The US military-controlled Bagram prison in Afghanistan is expected to release 33 Pakistani prisoners soon, an official from the ministry of foreign affairs told The Express Tribune.
Discussion was opened after a list of the 33 prisoners was handed over to the prison’s authority a long time ago. “Negotiations with US military authorities in charge of Bagram prison are in progress to secure the freedom of 33 Pakistanis detained for several years,” the source said.
It is feared that the number of Pakistanis being held in the US military prison and other Afghan jails is higher than 33. However, through diplomatic channels, the ministry of foreign affairs has so far obtained information about 33 people.
The list included those seven Pakistanis who were abducted from Pakistan and taken to Bagram under mysterious circumstances in 2003.
“We are preparing some documents sought by US officials to establish the innocence of our citizens,” the source said. Interestingly, the American officials are also demanding a guarantee that the 33 prisoners will not be subjected to any interrogation once they return home.
About the nature of crime allegedly committed by the 33 prisoners, the official said that some of them are accused of being involved in objectionable activities. However, many of them were arrested merely on suspicion for having links with opposition forces of the US-backed Afghan regime.
A Pakistani contractor, Tariq Siddiqi, is among the detainees who were taken into custody in Kandahar on a complaint by his Afghan business rival. That Afghan implicated Siddiqi in anti-Afghanistan activities and accused him of maintaining close contacts with the Afghan Taliban in Kandahar.
Sultana Noon, a representative of a non-profit law firm Justice Project Pakistan and a fellow of the UK-based organisation, Reprieve, filed a petition with the Lahore High Court stating that seven people had been abducted from Pakistan and transferred to Bagram prison in 2003.
After hearing the petition, LHC directed the ministry of foreign affairs in March to write a letter to the US government seeking an explanation for the arrest of the seven people and their detention in Bagram prison.
The court further directed the ministry to ensure the freedom of detainees Awwal Khan, Hamidullah Khan, Abdul Haleem Saifullah, Fazal Karim, Amal Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Younas Rehmatullah.
The US and Afghanistan have signed an accord to transfer control of Bagram prison to the Afghan government. Under the agreement, Bagram prison, commonly called ‘Afghanistan’s Guantanamo Bay’ will be handed over to the Kabul appointed administrator within six months.
The troops are coming home, at least some of them.
President Obama will announce his much-anticipated Afghanistan withdrawal plan on Wednesday, with one administration official telling CNN that the commander in chief will bring home 30,000 U.S. “surge” forces by the end of 2012.
Sources told the L.A. Times that about 10,000 troops will come home by the end of this year.
There are now 100,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, including the 30,000 that Obama ordered late last year in an effort to curb rising violence.
Perhaps we have all heard the oft repeated joke; when an American tourist came to Israel with the intention of visiting the Kotel (the Wailing Wall) but he forgot what it was called. When he stepped into a taxi, he said to the driver,
Can you please take me to the place where all Jews cry? Do you know where this is?
The taxi driver answered,
Beseder – I’ll take you there.
And he drove him straight to the taxation office!
When I stepped outside the Easy Jet terminal on Tel Aviv International Airport, I felt chills travelling down my spine. They were partly due to the baggage of history being a British Pakistani entering Israel, perhaps the most hated place on earth in Pakistan, its ideological twin; and mainly, it was the weather.
Tel Aviv was almost bordering zero degrees with strong winds that made it feel even worse; I had left London basking in glorious sunshine that resembled more of spring than fall.
However my racing heart started calming down when we entered the modern airport building. It all looked like the usual business day. There were passengers trolling their luggage and scurrying around. The airport staff was amicable and polite. We were showered with smiles, which was quite unusual for immigration staff at an international airport.
Quite importantly, there were no armed policemen around; compared to the British airport we flew from.
Gradually I noticed my group members, mostly senior British Pakistani businessmen, easing up which might sound a little odd, us being in Israel and all.
Our next few days in Israel were spent on a rollercoaster.
We had been travelling, attending meetings, speaking at receptions, engaging in discussions and waiting for the most coveted moment of our lives; offering Friday prayers at al Aqsa Mosque which is one of the three holiest places in Islam.
My trip to Israel was myth-shattering in several ways.
Israel was not the garrison state it was branded to be in the media. No scary atmosphere. No guns totting policemen. No siren-blazing police cars buzzing around; as commonly seen in London.
Surprisingly enough, Israeli chefs at the Grand Beech Hotel, when they figured out my Pakistani roots, knew how to prepare the big spicy mother of omelettes for the hectic day ahead.
Amongst many of my discoveries, I found out that Zionism had a separate existence from Judaism. This, I found out, when two orthodox Jews criticised Israeli atrocities on my flight from London to Tel Aviv. I was also kind of shocked when I heard from a senior retired air force officer ’what America blundered by creating a jihadi industry in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Israelis floundered by supporting Hamas against al Fatah’.
I met Israeli businessmen who whined about Israel’s isolation in the global fraternity due to its Zionist movers and shakers.
We were invited by the Federation of the Israeli Chamber of Commerce and Industry to look into its technologically advanced market economy.
Being the 24th largest economy in the world, and ranking 17th among 187 world nations on the UN Human Development Index,Israel’s economy also ranks 17th amongst the world’s most economically developed nations.
I was shocked when a senior Israeli businessman mentioned that the leading Israeli manufacturer of tankers, aircraft refuelers, fire fighting trucks, armoured vehicles and special purpose trailers, Hatehof Ltd., provided Pakistan’s Air Force with military equipment under a clandestine contract through Turkey; which was used in the much acclaimed JF Thunder aircraft. An Israeli press television aired a similar broadcast as well.
As the trip was organised from a business perspective, we missed the chance of visiting Palestinian areas, particularly the Gaza Strip. When I contrasted the developed State of Israel with underprivileged areas of the Palestinian territory, the Israelis claimed that they had handed control to Palestinian authorities who wanted to keep it as it is to showcase their miseries.
They also blamed rampant corruption in Palestinian authorities as another source of underdevelopment. The construction of the wall to isolate Palestinian areas from Israeli areas, an act of raising barriers, in the 21st century, in which humanity claims to have come a long way from since demolition of the Berlin Wall, however, does raise questions;
I roamed Jerusalem donning a keffiyeh; a traditional Arab headdress fashioned from square cotton; a scarf made popular by Yasser Arafat.
Past the Wailing Wall, I saw two fully armed Israeli soldiers in an alert position for the first time and stopped there to recollect ourselves. As a memento, we took a photograph of the contradictory scene that captured us.
The photograph shows the three faces cracking wide grins, holding guns with barrels that reached the ground; a weird mix of guns and roses.
It made me wonder if roses will have conquered guns by the time I make my next visit to the Holy Land; which, I thought, was definitely spacious enough to accommodate all Abrahamic faiths.
Founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear program Dr Abdul Qadir Khan has said that Pakistan was capable of shooting down US drones but it needs courage.
He was speaking to a private television on Monday as the nation commemorated Youme-e-Takbir, the day when Pakistan became seventh nuclear power of the world and sole nuclear power of the Muslim world.
Khan said “We have gotten the ability to shoot down such planes 15 years ago in Kahuta research laboratories by making shoulder-fired missiles. “We are being abused, we are being attacked by drones but we do nothing. Helicopters come, violating our sovereignty but we do nothing,” the nuclear scientist said.
“Our army has taken oath for country’s defence, what happened to that oath,” Khan added.
A Palestinian human rights
activist warned against the Israeli planting process of thousands of fake Jewish
graves in the land surrounding al-Aqsa Mosque and the old town in occupied
Jerusalem, pointing out this process is part of a campaign of falsification of
the facts and deceit practiced by the occupation against the history of the city
of Jerusalem.
The Chairman of the Committee for Defense of Silwan
Fakhri Abu Diab told Quds press that the occupation besieged Al Aqsa Mosque by
thousands of fake Jewish graves and a chain of Talmudic gardens within the
Zionist plan, "holy house envelope", aims to isolate it from the old city and
the Arab population.
The occupation authorities began planting the graves
in the late seventies during closing the main street of the town of Silwan, near
to the Al Aqsa Mosque where the occupation implanted thousands of fake Jewish
graves, he explained.
He added that the "Tsunami of fake Jewish graves"
stretching from the east to the south of the city of Jerusalem had increased
since 2003 where the occupation, through its executive power in the city of
Jerusalem, implanted thousands of fake Jewish graves around Al-Aqsa Mosque and
in the Old City, under governmental decisions.
He pointed out that the number of the Jewish graves
built since the beginning of the year is ten times than the real number of the
Jewish deaths in the same period which confirms that hese graves are fake.
It is noted that the Israeli authorities prohibit the
restoration of the Islamic historical graves in the city of Jerusalem and are
demolishing and washing away hundreds of them.
By Khalid Amayreh
Thanks to the fact that much of the western media
deliberately avoids exposing Israeli criminality, probably for fear of being
accused of anti-Semitism, much of the brutal ugliness of the Jewish state
remains unknown to millions of Europeans and North Americans.
This is the reason that many people in the west are
still buying the big, obscene lie that Israel is a western democracy which
upholds basic human rights and civil liberties. But the facts on the ground are
much uglier than many people think, irrespective of how vociferous and dogged
Israeli hasbara operatives get when defending and justifying Israeli misdeeds
and crimes.
The truth of the matter is that institutionalized
oppression, racism and terror against the native Palestinians have always
constituted and continue to constitute Israel's modus operandi.
Yes, the shipyard dogs of Israeli propaganda will
concoct a thousand lies and point to a thousand red herrings to divert attention
from the subject. They would invoke the holocaust, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen,
Treblinka, the Jewish origin of Christianity and many other impertinent issues
in an effort to justify or more correctly distract attention from the real
issue, namely the brazen evil fact of Jewish Nazism.
They would fornicate with the truth and with language
in order to convince misinformed and often gullible westerners that Israel has
to behave the way it does because otherwise its very survival would be in
danger.
But the truth remains sufficiently plain for anyone
willing to call the spade a spade. The task is certainly not easy, but not quite
impossible, provided one maintains a respectable degree of rectitude and
honesty.
I am saying this because the bulk of Israel's
supporters are malicious liars, e.g, know well they are supporting oppression
and evil, or ignoramuses, like most Israel's supporters on the American
arena.
We don't deny the obvious fact that there are in the
region other nefarious regimes which savage, torment and murder their own people
in order to remain in power. However, violence in the neighborhood, however
pornographic it may be, should never make Israel look good.
After all, Israel itself remains a crime against
humanity, if only because it uprooted, supplanted and is seeking the national
obliteration of millions of Palestinians whose main "guilt" is their being
non-members of the holy tribe.
Israel stole their land, demolished their homes,
destroyed their villages, burned their fields and then expelled them to the four
winds, while filling the ether with endless mendacious hasbara about Jewish
democracy, morality and genius.
This week, the London-based human rights
organization, Amnesty International, published its 2012 report about the status
of human rights all over the world.
The group accused Israel of a long list of
violations, including torture, restricting movement, limiting freedom of speech,
detaining people without charge or trial for prolonged periods as well as
maintaining a siege that strangles 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip.
The truth of the matter, however, is that
quasi-academic reports of Israeli human rights violation, even those published
by respectable human rights groups, remain quite insufficient to fully
communicate the ugly reality of the Israeli state. In the final analysis, Israel
is sinking in a sea of racism, fascism (it doesn't matter if it is blunt or
insidious racism), oppression and terror. One Israeli cabinet minister declared
a few months ago that "we are already a fascist state."
When I was studying at the University of Oklahoma in
the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jewish circles, such as the Bnai Brith
organization left no stone unturned, protesting a local Baptist minister who
claimed that God didn't hear prayers of Jews since Jews didn't recognize Jesus
as their personal lord and Savior. After an avalanche of protests, the priest
apologized.
Today in Israel, there are prominent politicians and
religious leaders who shamelessly claim that non-Jews are donkeys in human
shape, whose lives have no sanctity and who are not entitled to human dignity.
There are rabbis who issue fatwas or edicts allowing Jewish doctors to let
non-Jews injured in a car accident on Saturday die of their wounds rather than
give them medical treatment.
There are even rabbis who would permit Jews to murder
non-Jews in order to harvest their organs if the Jews needed one.
Unfortunately, such scandalous abominations raise
very few eyebrows in Israel. This happens at a time when Jewish leaders
routinely, even innately, hurl the charges of hate and immorality at anyone and
everyone who mentions Israeli criminality.
But so what? Israel and Jews have nothing to fear or
worry about as long the US, its government, congress, and media, are in the
Jewish pocket. The fact that the powerful and intimidating Jewish lobbies have
succeeded in morphing most American politicians into absolutely docile political
whores readily at Israel's beck and call.
Interestingly, this had a profound insolent effect on
Israel. It was rumored a few years ago that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon sought to silence Shimon Peres, then foreign minister, telling him "don't
worry about American pressure on Israel. We control the American people and the
stupid Americans know it."
Besides, the ruling elite in Israel seems to have
discovered that the more extremist and the more criminal and murderous Israel
becomes, the more support and backing it receives from a disgracefully pliant
Washington.
It is difficult to explain this strange phenomenon
from the point of view the political sociology or political psychology. The only
plausible explanation is that Jewish money and power have thoroughly corrupted
American political culture so much that the U.S. is sinking down the drain,
definitely though no dramatically.
I have no doubt that the Palestinian people will
never be able to deliver themselves from the clutches of Zio-Nazism as long as
America remains thoroughly enslaved, beguiled and manipulated by world
Zionism.
Zionism might soon switch alliance to China the
moment China's ascendancy to the helm of the world and America's demotion to the
status of second or third-class global power is asserted.
In any case, the peace and stability of the world
depends to a large extent on the world community's willingness and ability to
check the cancerous growth and lebensraum of Zionism.
To be sure, Zionists will not raise the white flag
upon the first clash with a determined world community that is serious about
justice and peace; they are too powerful and too arrogant to do that.
However, a meaningful transformation in the
willingness of the international community to check the Nazi-like Zionist
hegemony and supremacy will definitely make Zionism think twice before pursuing
it genocidal drive toward world domination.
I have no doubt that Israel will
disappear one day. I don't know when that day will come, but I feel it will come
sooner than many people think. Israel is based on evil and oppression. It
carries the seeds of its own destruction.
Pakistani authorities confirmed last week in a media release that the recently inaugurated Naval Strategic Force Command (NSFC) is the custodian of the nation’s second strike capability.
The latest development is likely to tilt the nuclear equilibrium, since earlier it was believed that the Pakistan is only capable of launching a nuclear strike from land based (missiles such as Nasr, Babur, and Shaheen) or air-launched (from bomber aircraft such as Nanchang A-5C, Mirage and F-16, as well as the Ra’ad missile) platforms.
The possession of second strike capability means that Pakistan is capable of a retaliatory nuclear strike against its rivals, even if its first line nuclear weaponry (land-based nuclear capable ballistic missiles and aircraft) is taken out in case of any sudden attack. More importantly, this means that the rivals of Pakistan, especially India won’t be able to win a nuclear war between the two nations by undertaking a first strike (a pre-emptive surprise attack destroying all land based nuclear weapons of its rival).
The statement was made by Admiral Asif Sandila, the Chief of Naval Staff of the Pakistan Navy on May 19. During the inauguration of the NSFC Headquarters, he said that the Pakistani Naval Strategic Forces are now entrusted with the second strike capability by the government. Pakistani defence analyst, Mansoor Ahmed said that the statement by Adm. Sandila confirms that the Pakistan Navy (PN) is in the possession of a number of nuclear capable submarine launched variant of the Babur cruise missile.Usman Shabbir, another Pakistani defence expert argued that the latest development does not come as a total surprise. He said that the Pakistani defence scientists have been working on the submarine-launched variant of the Babur ever since 2005, when it was inducted in to the army. He said that the missiles are likely to be deployed in PN’s French developed Agosta class submarines. PN is operating a total of five Agosta class subs: PNS Hashmat, PNS Hurmat, PNS Khalid, PNS Sa’ad, and PNS Hamza. Currently the subs are armed with the French anti-ship missile SM39 Exocet.However, Australian defence expert Brian Cloughley criticized the Pakistani plan and said that PN must focus more on upgrading its existing submarines and expanding its fleet before arming them with nuclear weapons. Cloughley further claimed that the Pakistani Armed Forces does not need the second strike capability as of now. He urged the PN to increase its submarine fleet, from the present number of five to 14.
TERRORIST groups are using Facebook to recruit loners from Western countries like Australia to their cause and authorities are struggling to stop it, a leading counter-terrorism expert says.
The Australian Ambassador for Counter Terrorism, Bill Paterson, says terrorists have embraced the rise of technology, particularly the internet, to spread their messages and attract followers.
Social media is making things even easier still, he says.
“Established terrorist cells have found social media to be a useful communication tool – Facebook, Twitter, that sort of thing,” he told AAP.
“Facebook can be a recruitment tool … (but) Twitter is more for operational communication.”
He said social media has also encouraged the rise of home-grown terrorism, particularly among “disaffected loners sometimes on the margins of society”.
Accused Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik is a prime example, he said.
Mr Paterson said that while the trend has been more prevalent in Europe, it could catch on in Australia.
“It’s something that we are concerned is a possibility,” he said.
But in democratic countries where internet censorship is seen as an “infringement of freedom of information” or a breach on civil liberties, stopping terrorists from communicating on social media is difficult.
“If you’re in an authoritarian country you just do it but you can’t in a country like Australia,” he said.
Mr Paterson will discuss the issue and other ways terrorism is changing during a public lecture at Brisbane’s Griffith University tomorrow.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the SPY EYES Analysis and or its affiliates. The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). SPY EYES Analysis and or its affiliates will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements and or information contained in this article.
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