ZoneAsia-Pk: Letting the world slip

By Zara Zulfiqar
ZoneAsia-Pk

Let’s be honest here: taking notice, taking action, and more of the like never work. Our elected governments only make these statements to pacify the panicking masses and well frankly, we all understand the quick sand swallowing us whole is here to stay. The week started with a shocking power breakdown. There was no electricity on the main cities for a few hours as both Mangla and Tarbela dams choked on us simultaneously. Apologists praised the government’s ability to restore energy within hours, although for many cities the breakdown was a much harder ordeal, with up to 21 hours straight in the Stone Age. Many (like myself) were imagining alternatives and tough Pakistan’s ability to mould herself to crises after crises. We always do find a solution, even if the dams fail, the plains flood, the ground shakes; we find a way to build ourselves from scratch around difficult circumstances. And of course if the energy never came back we would have imported solar panels. Iran would have saved us in an attempt to save her own choking economy. Somehow, something is bound to work out.

Read more…

Tacstrat Analysis: The Haqqani question

Tacstrat Analysis

Many analysts have taken up various positions on the subject of the United States, Pakistan and the controversial Haqqani Network. Tough calls have demanded that Pakistan be declared a rogue state, all aid suspended to the country and sanctions imposed. Others digress and say sanctions on Pakistan did not really work. Not only did Pakistan successfully test its nuclear capabilities, the economic toll of the sanctions nearly led to the breaking up of the small state. Unemployment rose exponentially, political tensions led to the overthrow of a democratic government and resulted in a military leadership that ruled over the country for another 9 years. Setting aside the age-old debate on whether sanctions really do work, one must accept the fact that sanctions, in Pakistan’s case, are not a pragmatic option.

As recently as March 1, the United States government has flexed its muscle over the Iran-Pakistan pipeline deal and implied, with strong undertones, that Pakistan should avoid any activity that would invite sanctions. Realistically speaking, the United States in unlikely to impose any such sanctions, over Iran OR the Haqqani Network.

Read more…

Libya: All About Oil

Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank – this before they even had a government. Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:

I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising. This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.

Alex Newman wrote in the New American:

In astatement released last week, the rebels reported on the results of a meeting held on March 19. Among other things, the supposed rag-tag revolutionaries announced the “[d]esignation of the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and appointment of a Governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.”

Newman quoted CNBC senior editor John Carney, who asked, “Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.”

Another anomaly involves the official justification for taking up arms against Libya. Supposedly it’s about human rights violations, but the evidence is contradictory. According to an article on the Fox News website on February 28:

As the United Nations works feverishly to condemn Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi for cracking down on protesters, the body’s Human Rights Council is poised to adopt a report chock-full of praise for Libya’s human rights record.

The review commends Libya for improving educational opportunities, for making human rights a “priority” and for bettering its “constitutional” framework. Several countries, including Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia but also Canada, give Libya positive marks for the legal protections afforded to its citizens – who are now revolting against the regime and facing bloody reprisal.

Whatever might be said of Gaddafi’s personal crimes, the Libyan people seem to be thriving. A delegation of medical professionals from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus wrote in an appeal to Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin that after becoming acquainted with Libyan life, it was their view that in few nations did people live in such comfort:

[Libyans] are entitled to free treatment, and their hospitals provide the best in the world of medical equipment. Education in Libya is free, capable young people have the opportunity to study abroad at government expense. When marrying, young couples receive 60,000 Libyan dinars (about 50,000 U.S. dollars) of financial assistance. Non-interest state loans, and as practice shows, undated. Due to government subsidies the price of cars is much lower than in Europe, and they are affordable for every family. Gasoline and bread cost a penny, no taxes for those who are engaged in agriculture. The Libyan people are quiet and peaceful, are not inclined to drink, and are very religious.

They maintained that the international community had been misinformed about the struggle against the regime. “Tell us,” they said, “who would not like such a regime?”

Even if that is just propaganda, there is no denying at least one very popular achievement of the Libyan government: it brought water to the desert by building the largest and most expensive irrigation project in history, the $33 billion GMMR (Great Man-Made River) project. Even more than oil, water is crucial to life in Libya. The GMMR provides 70 percent of the population with water for drinking and irrigation, pumping it from Libya’s vast underground Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System in the south to populated coastal areas 4,000 kilometers to the north. The Libyan government has done at least some things right.

Another explanation for the assault on Libya is that it is “all about oil,” but that theory too is problematic. As noted in the National Journal, the countryproduces only about 2 percent of the world’s oil. Saudi Arabia alone has enough spare capacity to make up for any lost production if Libyan oil were to disappear from the market. And if it’s all about oil, why the rush to set up a new central bank?

Another provocative bit of data circulating on the Net is a 2007 “Democracy Now” interview of U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.). In it he says that about 10 days after September 11, 2001, he was told by a general that the decision had been made to go to war with Iraq. Clark was surprised and asked why. “I don’t know!” was the response. “I guess they don’t know what else to do!” Later, the same general said they planned to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.

What do these seven countries have in common? In the context of banking, one that sticks out is that none of them is listed among the 56 member banks of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). That evidently puts them outside the long regulatory arm of the central bankers’ central bank in Switzerland.

The most renegade of the lot could be Libya and Iraq, the two that have actually been attacked. Kenneth Schortgen Jr., writing on Examiner.com, noted that “[s]ix months before the US moved into Iraq to take down Saddam Hussein, the oil nation had made the move to accept Euros instead of dollars for oil, and this became a threat to the global dominance of the dollar as the reserve currency, and its dominion as the petrodollar.”

According to a Russian article titled “Bombing of Lybia – Punishment for Ghaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar,” Gadaffi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Gadaffi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency. During the past year, the idea was approved by many Arab countries and most African countries. The only opponents were the Republic of South Africa and the head of the League of Arab States. The initiative was viewed negatively by the USA and the European Union, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa.

And that brings us back to the puzzle of the Libyan central bank. In an article posted on the Market Oracle, Eric Encina observed:

One seldom mentioned fact by western politicians and media pundits: the Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned. . . . Currently, the Libyan government creates its own money, the Libyan Dinar, through the facilities of its own central bank. Few can argue that Libya is a sovereign nation with its own great resources, able to sustain its own economic destiny. One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability. Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations.

Libya not only has oil. According to the IMF, its central bank has nearly 144 tons of gold in its vaults. With that sort of asset base, who needs the BIS, the IMF and their rules?

All of which prompts a closer look at the BIS rules and their effect on local economies. An article on the BIS website states that central banks in the Central Bank Governance Network are supposed to have as their single or primary objective “to preserve price stability.” They are to be kept independent from government to make sure that political considerations don’t interfere with this mandate. “Price stability” means maintaining a stable money supply, even if that means burdening the people with heavy foreign debts. Central banks are discouraged from increasing the money supply by printing money and using it for the benefit of the state, either directly or as loans.

In a 2002 article in Asia Times titled “The BIS vs National Banks,” Henry Liu maintained:

BIS regulations serve only the single purpose of strengthening the international private banking system, even at the peril of national economies. The BIS does to national banking systems what the IMF has done to national monetary regimes. National economies under financial globalization no longer serve national interests.

. . . FDI [foreign direct investment] denominated in foreign currencies, mostly dollars, has condemned many national economies into unbalanced development toward export, merely to make dollar-denominated interest payments to FDI, with little net benefit to the domestic economies.

He added, “Applying the State Theory of Money, any government can fund with its own currency all its domestic developmental needs to maintain full employment without inflation.” The “state theory of money” refers to money created by governments rather than private banks.

The presumption of the rule against borrowing from the government’s own central bank is that this will be inflationary, while borrowing existing money from foreign banks or the IMF will not. But all banks actually create the money they lend on their books, whether publicly-owned or privately-owned. Most new money today comes from bank loans. Borrowing it from the government’s own central bank has the advantage that the loan is effectively interest-free. Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of public projects by an average of 50%.

And that appears to be how the Libyan system works. According to Wikipedia, the functions of the Central Bank of Libya include “issuing and regulating banknotes and coins in Libya” and “managing and issuing all state loans.” Libya’s wholly state-owned bank can and does issue the national currency and lend it for state purposes.

That would explain where Libya gets the money to provide free education and medical care, and to issue each young couple $50,000 in interest-free state loans. It would also explain where the country found the $33 billion to build the Great Man-Made River project. Libyans are worried that NATO-led air strikes are coming perilously close to this pipeline, threatening another humanitarian disaster.

So is this new war all about oil or all about banking? Maybe both – and water as well. With energy, water, and ample credit to develop the infrastructure to access them, a nation can be free of the grip of foreign creditors. And that may be the real threat of Libya: it could show the world what is possible. Most countries don’t have oil, but new technologies are being developed that could make non-oil-producing nations energy-independent, particularly if infrastructure costs are halved by borrowing from the nation’s own publicly-owned bank. Energy independence would free governments from the web of the international bankers, and of the need to shift production from domestic to foreign markets to service the loans.

If the Gaddafi government goes down, it will be interesting to watch whether the new central bank joins the BIS, whether the nationalized oil industry gets sold off to investors, and whether education and health care continue to be free.

Our sectarian divide

By: Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg

The sectarian divide of the Muslim World has been the cause of serious conflicts in the past, and continues to have its toll, particularly for the last thirty years, with external forces exploiting this weakness. The countries which have suffered most are Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Palestine’ Lebanon and Pakistan, and the one being targeted now, is Bahrain, from where the New Great Game begins.

On a larger canvas, one would find that, during the last thirty years, sectarianism has grow into “two centers of power”, namely the Pakhtun Power and the Shia Power, determining the security parameters of the entire Asian region. These ‘centers of power’ can be called, the Sectarian Tectonic Plates, which could shake the world peace if they collide and if they collude, a new era of peace and unity would emerge.

These centers of power, have grown out of the great turmoil caused by contrived wars and conflicts in the region, through interventions, state-sponsored terrorism, contrived conflicts, such as the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in 1980; the eight years war of liberation by the Afghans from 1980 to 88; the eight years Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88); the first Gulf War of 1991; the nine years civil war in Afghanistan from 1992-2001; invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by USA and allies in 2001-2011; invasion and occupation of Iraq by USA in 2003-2011; Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 and the on-going brutal wars in Palestine and Kashmir. As a result, more than six million Muslims have died and many more millions seriously wounded, maimed and decapitated – a brutality, which ironically has earned the title of ‘terrorists’ for the brutalized and the oppressors call themselves the ‘messengers of peace.’ As a reaction to this state- sponsored terrorism, the Islamic Global Resistance grew to contain and curb the menace, and turned into a movement, which has lasted for almost thirty years, giving birth to Pakhtun and Shia Powers.

The Pakhtun Power. The hard core of this power base is in the Pakhtun belt, along the Pak-Afghan borders, with 240 millions of Pakhtuns living in Pakistan and 170 millions in Afghanistan. Its area of influence extends from Karachi with four million Pakhtuns, to the line of Hindukush. It has developed into a formidable base for the “Islamic Resistance, which draws “support of the freedom fighters from seventy countries of the world.” During the last thirty years, it has defeated two super powers, and NATO. The defeated powers, therefore, are now planning “to contain and curb the Pakhtun Power, the greatest threat to US interests in the region” – David Kilkullen, Security Advisor to the former US President. This purpose can be achieved by making the two powers collide with each other.

The Shia Power extends from Iran to Iraq, to Bahrain and to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where significant Shia minority resides. The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, was contrived to create hatred between the Shias and the Sunnis. Iraq has since been occupied and defeated, but Iran is defiant and is being demonized as a threat for the Sunni countries in the region, who out of fear are arming themselves against Iran and have bought military hardware worth over 150xbillion dollars from USA, during the last seven years. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, GCC countries and Jordan are the main recipients of the military hardware, and are preparing themselves to fight the so called Shia threat.

Bahrain, which is a Shia majority country, and is ruled by the Sunni minority, is facing intervention by Saudi and GCC armed forces, under the watchful eyes of the West, as part of the Gulf countries Joint Peninsula Shield Force. Iran calls it as “invasion by an army of occupation,” while the United States has declared that the “entry of foreign troops was not an invasion.” The Shia led protests seeking to break the 200 years old Sunni rule in Bahrain, and military intervention by the neighbouring Sunni countries marks the unfolding of the conspiracy to make the Sunni and Shia countries collide, whereas during the past thirty years, sectarian riots were induced in Iraq and Pakistan and now “the nations are being pitched against each other.” It is the beginning of the New Great Game, to damage the unity of the Muslim World.

The US intelligence agencies operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan are hand-in-glove with the Indian and European intelligence agencies in Afghanistan since 2004, and have been able to turn the Afghan war on Pakistan. Pakistan military thus is engaged in a running battle against its own Pakhtun tribes. Additionally, more than hundred thousand troops are deployed on the Pak-Afghan borders, in support of the American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. In fact, Pakistan has unwittingly become a party to the crime, for defeat and destruction of the Pakhtun Power, which is the name of the New Great Game of the competing powers in the region. Both, the Pakhtun Power and Shia Power, are a significant element of our national power and must be harnessed to enhance our national security at this very critical moment in history, when a strong wind of change is sweeping the Muslim World. In Pakistan, we already have a burning problem in Parachinar, Kurram Agency, due to involvement of the neighbouring countries with so much of blood letting there, since the occupation of Afghanistan in 2001 by foreign powers. It is a dangerous trend, so clearly visible now in Bahrain, where the Saudi and GCC countries have entered to support the Sunni ruler with full blessings of the West. These are very ominous signs, making the Sectarian Tectonic Plates collide and damage the prospects of unity of the Muslim World.

The revolutionary upsurge in the Arab World, demands democratic freedom and social justice and equally ignites the Pakistani mind. Fortunately we have a democratic rule in Pakistan, which can deliver social justice and civil liberties, despite all the faults of the present system. We have to give it a chance to correct itself. We need political peace and stability, which will come if we show patience. And the best to happen to our national security, would be, the departure of the occupation forces from Afghanistan – the Mother of All Evil.

Pakistan thus stands at the choice point to experiment democratic governance, unpolluted and free from foreign intrusions and intrigues. Sectarian divide is a great weakness, which can be overcome democratically, through political wisdom. Also awareness is fast developing in the Muslim society about the negative impacts/consequences of sectarianism.

U.N. Nuclear Aid Linked

Iran, Sudan, Syria, and other countries the U.S. has named state sponsors of terrorism have received millions of dollars in U.N. nuclear technology aid-and Hillary Clinton won’t stop the flow of cash. Laurel Adams of the Center for Public Integrity reports.

The State Department is refusing to block U.N. nuclear technology aid to countries that are on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime.

The reason, says Hillary Clinton’s department, is that such a clampdown would hinder other countries that have nothing to do with terrorism.

The U.S. provides $20 million a year to help finance the International Atomic Energy Agency, which promotes peaceful use of nuclear energy. But some IAEA funds have gone to countries that could potentially use nuclear technology to build weapons, the Government Accountability Office warns in a new report.

Neither the State Department nor the IAEA have sought to limit the so-called technical cooperation aid to terror-linked nations such as Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Cuba, or countries that are not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, such as India, Israel, and Pakistan, the congressional watchdog says.

The former head of the program told investigators that requests for technical assistance are evaluated strictly on technical merits, thwarting efforts to assess national-security concerns.

“State officials told us that the U.S. did not systematically try to limit TC projects in Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria-which the department designated as sponsors of terrorism,” the report says. “These four countries received more than $55 million in TC assistance from 1997 through 2007.”

During the same time frame, India, Israel, and Pakistan received $24.6 million in technical assistance, even though none is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Nuclear equipment and technology, even if geared toward peaceful purposes, also can be used to develop nuclear weapons. Yet the former head of the TC program told the investigators that requests for technical assistance are evaluated strictly on technical merits, thereby thwarting efforts to assess national-security concerns.

The GAO has suggested repeatedly that the State Department withhold the U.S. contribution to IAEA that would go to countries accused of aiding terrorists.

“The United States has applied several types of sanctions limiting foreign assistance and trade to states it has designated as sponsors of terrorism and to other countries. To avoid the appearance of an inconsistent approach and to foster greater cohesion in U.S. policy toward such nations, we believe that it is fair for Congress to consider requiring State to withhold a share of the U.S. contribution,” the GAO says.

Withholding funds would undermine the Obama administration’s ability to convince other member countries to contribute to the fund, and since the funding is not traced to specific projects, it would punish all recipients in the program, the State Department said in response.

The IAEA provides minimal information on project proposals, usually just project titles, which further hinders efforts by the Energy Department to assess the risk of proliferation in countries requesting assistance.

National agenda for real democracy: Nawaz

PML-N Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has stated that he had presented the national agenda for real democracy in the country and for the betterment of people and by implementing this agenda, we can strengthen democracy in the country.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony of Daanish School System here on Thursday.

‘Pakistan is facing very difficult situation and terrorism is a great challenge for us’, he added.

‘We should take brave decisions to eliminate this challenge’, he added.

Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, while addressing the inaugural ceremony of Daanish School at Mud Gaman, stated that ‘we want to establish such a system in the country in which poor people can enjoy equal resources and rights’.

He said only elite class cannot have the right to use these resources of the country.

‘Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Muhammad Iqbal and millions of Muslims of Sub-continent did not create this country for terrorism, corruption and fundamentalism’, he added.

He said that the only hurdle in the country’s development is that we lack education.

‘Although we have all the resources for modern education in our country but the modern schools and colleges in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad are only for rich families children’, Shahbaz added.

He said that without education, justice and peace cannot develop and country cannot progress.He said nation is united against terrorism and fundamentalism and for the elimination of terrorism, Army and police officials sacrificed their lives. He said institutions like Danish school will be established throughout the country and every child will avail the modern education facilities.

Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the Danish school earlier. Ambassadors and representatives of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brunei Darus Salam, Iran, Argentina, Sweden, Australia, UK including World Bank, Asian Development Bank and UNESCO also participated in this event on special invitation of PML-N Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif.

Plot through WikiLeaks

New technology is being utilized by the new warriors to carry out all forms of financial, network and especially media attacks. Most of these attacks are of non-military-types, yet they can be completely viewed as equal to warfare actions. In other words, bloody warfare has been replaced by bloodless warfare as much as possible. In this regard, cyber warfare is the most important domain of the modern wars.

Judging in these terms, release of the new secret documents which have targeted Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria including some other Islamic countries in general and Pakistan in particular are the plot of their collective enemies through WikiLeaks.

In its surprising revelations, the Wikileaks have disclosed that the Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah had made scathing remarks about the leadership of Pakistan, calling President Asif Ali Zardari as the greatest obstacle to Pakistan’s progress, and have also called Pakistan’s politician of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif as a dangerous man.

Showing Saudi Arabia’s anxiety over Iran’s nuclear programme, the US embassy cables have disclosed that on 29 Nov 2010, the King of the Saudi Arabia had urged the US to attack and destroy the Iranian nuclear sites. Several Arab leaders and their representatives are also quoted as urging the US to carry out an attack on Iran.

The cables indicate that in July 2008, Egyptian President Mubarak called Iranians “big fat liars” and remarked that they sponsor terrorism everywhere. According to the cables, in Oct 2008, Iran used the Iranian Red Crescent (IRC) to smuggle agents and weapons into other countries. The IRC facilitated the entry of Qods force officers to Lebanon during the Israel-Hezbollah war in summer 2006, while in March 2009, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ) expressed his grave concerns about the Iranian threat to the region. And in June 2009, Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s administration was blamed for pursuing provocative anti-Sunni practices-harassment of Sunni clergy and congregations including raids on Sunni mosques and other “arrogant” crackdowns.

According to one of the leaked cables, in April 2006, the leadership of the United Arab Emirates considered Hamas a terrorist organization and would not fund Hamas unless they denounce violence and accepted Israel. Another document points outs that in March 2009, Syrian head, Assad hided the Palestinians when asked about human rights violations in Syria.
Regarding Turkey, the document of the web revealed that in January 2010, US Embassy claimed that Turkey was becoming more focused on the Islamic World and its Muslim tradition in its foreign policy.

As regards Pakistan, the WikiLeaks cables show US concern over the safety of nuclear weapons and radioactive material in nuclear power stations of the country, with fears that the same could be used in terror attacks. In this respect, in a May 2009 cable, US ambassador Anne W Patterson said that Pakistan had refused a visit from US experts.

No doubt, Pakistan is the special target of the documents of the WikiLeaks which accused that in a March 12, 2009 cable by the former US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson stated that the head of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, considered pushing Zardari from office and forcing him into exile to resolve a political dispute. She aslo alleged that Pakistan continues to support the militant group which carried out the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai despite its claims to have launched a crackdown on the organisation.

Following the continued blame game of the US high officials and media, the leaked cables incdicated that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI)is behind Lashkar-e-Taiba which had killed 166 people in a series of attacks in Mumbai. In this context, the contradiction of the WikiLeaks is also notable. As it also mentioned that the Chief of Pakistan’s ISI, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha said that he had conveyed to Washington-threat information that an attack would be launched against India between September-November, 2009 and he had been in direct touch with the Israelis on possible threats against Israeli targets in India.

However, the secret US Embassy cables are now available on WikiLeaks, while the debate goes on about the legitimacy of the leaks.

Various questions arise regarding the aims and authenticity of the disclosures of the secret diplomatic documents of the WikiLeaks. Moreover, it is also notable that who are behind the revelations of this website.

In this connection, it is mentionable that by following the old western policy of “divide and rule”, the foremost purpose of the disclosures of the WikiLeaks is to create a rift among the Islamic countries and to further accelerate their sectarian differences not only against each other, but also inside their concerned countries which are most volatile to this plot.

In this respect, secret agencies such as American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad are behind the revelations of the WikiLeaks as part of a plot, while both India and Israel have still a secret collusion and are acting upon a secret diplomacy. Although whole of the Islamic world is target of Indo-Israeli secret collusion, yet the same has intensified in case of Pakistan and Iran. In this regard, US-led some western countries have also been supporting the Indo-Israeli nexus overtly or covertly.

It is worth-mentioning that documents of the WikiLeaks have given only a little bit coverage to the Indian atrocities in the occupied Kashmir, while the same are silent over Israeli brutal treatment and use of chemical weapons in the controlled territories of the Palestine.

The leaked cables have directly or indirectly favoured India because of the fact America has its political and economic interests in that country which serves as the largest market. And the US has its strategic interests in the region, while New Delhi is its main ally to counterbalance China in Asia. In this respect, US, India and Israeli want to ‘denuclearise’ and ‘destablise’ Pakistan which is the only nuclear Islamic country. It is owing to these collective interests that like his predecessor, President Bush, Obama neglects Hindu terrorism which has now become a dangerous reality. Nevertheless, misdeeds of Hindu fundamentalist parties like the BJP, RSS, VHP, Shiv Sina and Bajrang Dal which have also intensified anti-Christian and anti-Muslim bloodshed with the dissemination of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) have been ignored by the WikiLeaks.

It is of particular attention that the documents of the WikiLeaks have also neglected Indian secret activities in Afghanistan from where well-trained militants are being sent to Pakistan in order to attack the security personnel, and to commit suicide attacks, while supporting the separatists of Balochistan. In this regard, while preferring New Delhi over Islamabad, the secret cables pointed out that US special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke had told Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao that Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari’s government was weakening. During a meeting, Rao described the Indian effort in Afghanistan, saying it was focused on strengthening governance by building Afghan capacities and that the Indian engagement is transparent, while Holbrooke also pledged transparency with India on America’s activities in Afghanistan.

Besides other leaders, Pakistan’s former Army Chief Gen (Retd) Mirza Aslam BEg has termed the WikiLeaks report a conspiracy to sabotage relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, adding that US is included in this plot and the report is part of its psychological war. He further explained that US was now giving importance to India by ignoring Pakistan-he had stated 3 years earlier that CIA and Mossad were jointly launching campaign to weaken Pakistan.

In fact, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad with the help of American CIA and strong Indo-Israeli lobbies are working in the US and other European countries against the interests of the Islamic countries-particularly Pakistan. They are well-penetrated especially in the US administration. They have played a key role in preparing and publishing the US embassy cables, especially to malign Pakistan including other Islamic countries and to intensify their blame game against ISI.

Military exercises carried out near nuclear sites: Iran

By: Mitra Amiri

Iran has carried out military exercises near its nuclear facilities, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted as saying on Sunday.

The West suspects Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian research program and is worried about the threat to international security. Tehran says its long concealed uranium enrichment drive is aimed only at generating electricity.

“We carried out military exercises in various places like Fordu, Natanz and Bushehr this year. The drills were exactly like real combats,” Ahmad Miqati told the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant is near the central city of Natanz. A year ago, Iran revealed the existence of its second plant, Fordu, being built inside a mountain bunker near the central city of Qom after keeping it secret for years.

Iran has repeatedly announced advances in its military capabilities, an apparent bid to show its readiness for any military action and warning that its response to any strike would be crushing.

The Islamic state’s arch enemies, the United States and Israel have not ruled out the possibility of a military attack to rein in the country’s nuclear ambitions if diplomacy fails.

Some Western officials suspect Iran’s development of more sophisticated missiles and some much-publicized missile tests could serve the goal of developing a deliverable nuclear weapon.

The Islamic Republic denies such accusations, saying its missile development efforts are for defensive purposes only.

Miqati, a member of Iran’s elite Guards, said Iran’s new locally made missiles will be test-fired during a five-day countrywide wargame, starting on Tuesday, Mehr reported.

“The maneuver is called Modafean-e Aseman-e Velayat-e 3 (defenders of the sky of velayat-e 3) dozens of our missile systems will be deployed in the exercise,” Miqati said.

Iran said earlier this week it had developed its own version of the Russian S-300 missile system and soon would test-fire it. Moscow refused to deliver the system to Tehran in order to comply with U.N. sanctions, imposed on Iran over its disputed nuclear work.

The commander soon Iran would soon have “good news” about its missile systems.

“Our achievements and maneuvers should not be considered as a threat to any friendly neighboring country,” Miqati said.

Tehran has been hit by foreign sanctions for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment related activities. Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or, if taken to a higher level, for atomic bombs.

European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has proposed to meet Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator early next month to discuss Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran has said it is ready to meet the six powers leading efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute diplomatically.

US backing international terrorists: Turkish PM

By Hamid Mir

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the US was supporting some common enemies of Pakistan and Turkey and the time has come to unmask them and act together.

In an exclusive chat with this correspondent in the presence of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Turkish prime minister very candidly answered critical questions not only about Turkey-Pakistan relations but also on some other important issues before leaving Pakistan on Tuesday night.

The Turkish premier said that the people of Pakistan should not fight with each other and they must concentrate on rehabilitation of 20 million flood victims. “Instability and infighting will only help your enemies who are looking for an opportunity to use Pakistanis against Pakistanis.

“If you will not understand the evil designs of your enemies then what will be the future of 20 million flood victims of Pakistan, who will help them if you start fighting with each other,” Erdogan warned.

He said that Pakistan,Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran have a common future, security of one country lies in the security of others but our enemies are creating problems for us. He said: “Pakistan is my second home and I am concerned about the internal situation of my second home”.

He insisted that Pakistan and Turkey must play a decisive role to stabilise Afghanistan. He said that both Pakistan and Turkey suffered from military dictators who were always supported by the USA; politicians were hanged by military regimes in both countries, and both the countries are fighting against terrorism these days. Erdogan said: “We have common problems and common solutions, military dictatorships have always created problems and democracy is a common solution”.

When asked why no military dictator has ever not been tried in courts of Turkey and Pakistan, he said: “I don’t support hanging any military dictator but law must take its action against all those who abrogated constitution”. He said that some foreign hands are supporting terrorists in Pakistan and Turkey directly and also through some NGO’s.

Erdogan was very hard on the “double standards” of the USA and said that a recent Israeli attack on a Turkish ship Freedom Flotilla have unmasked the so-called civilised face of Washington who openly and shamelessly supported the state terrorism of Israel. “Nine Turkish martyrs on the ship received 21 bullets from Israeli soldiers in their bodies, we provided post mortem reports and even the pictures to the EU and USA but Washington is not ready to condemn the state terrorism of Israel against Turkey which means that the USA is supporting an international terrorist who killed our citizens in international waters”.

When asked that Turkey have diplomatic relations with Israel and what would be his advice to Pakistan for making diplomatic relations with Israel, Erdogan responded very carefully and said that “despite diplomatic relations Israel never behaved like a civilised country with Turkey and I cannot give any advice to my Pakistani brothers; it is their right to decide about making relations with Israel”. Erdogan said that Pakistan and India must resolve Kashmir dispute by peaceful talks. “You need strong political will for resolving Kashmir dispute,” he added.

During the conversation of the Turkish prime minister with this scribe, Yusuf Raza Gilani also suggested a question that “what is the procedure for the appointment of judges in Turkey?” Erdogan explained the whole process in detail and said that Parliament has an important role for the appointment of judges in Turkey. “I am facing problems from the courts but I am sure these problems will be resolved.” After listening this answer a very meaningful smile appeared on the face of PM Gilani and he said that “everything will be resolved nothing bad will happen in Pakistan”.

Iran: Israeli attack would mean its own demise

DOHA, Qatar - Iran’s president said Sunday that any Israeli attack against his nation would mean the destruction of the Jewish state.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a joint press conference with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, unseen, at the royal palace in Doha on Sunday Sept. 5, 2010, declaring that any attack on the Islamic republic will result in the destruction of Israel. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

The two nations have exchanged numerous threats and warnings in the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel, the United States and other countries believe is aimed at developing weapons, despite Tehran’s denials.

“Any offensive against Iran means the annihilation of the Zionist entity,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a visit to the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. “Iran does not care much about this entity because it is on its way to decay.”

He said he doubted Israel or the U.S. would dare to stage such an attack because “they know that Iran is ready and has the potential for a decisive and wide-scale response.”

At the same time, Ahmadinejad sought to ease concerns among neighboring Arab nations that Tehran could target them if armed conflict were to break out with the West over its nuclear work.

Many of Iran’s Sunni Arab neighbors, some of which host U.S. bases, fear that Tehran could attack them if such a conflict were to break out.

Ahmadinejad, who met with Qatar’s leader during Sunday’s visit, said there is a need for reconciliation and cooperation between Shiite-dominated Iran and other Gulf nations.

U.S. military chief Adm. Mike Mullen said last month that America’s military has a plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea. Still, he said the risk of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable and he reiterated that “the military option” remains on the table.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Wednesday that Iran’s response to an attack would not be limited to the region, suggesting Iran would target U.S. interests beyond the Persian Gulf.

Is Israel Running The Pakistani Taliban?

Soon after the United States military and intelligence landed in Afghanistan, the region has seen a succession of well-armed and financed ‘iinsurgencies, from Iran to Pakistni Balochistan, to TTP, to the sectarian mess in northern Pakistan all the way to the border with China.

• TODAY’S SUICIDE BOMBING IN QUETTA, PAKISTAN LEAVES A TRAIL TO TEL AVIV
• Junudullah, TTP get support from Washington, Tel Aviv and New Delhi, PKK used to be sponsored by Israel
• Is US military and CIA using air strips in Pakistan’s Balochistan to transport Afghan heroin?

Pakistan is important. For years, the “CIA” and other intelligence organizations have been in Balochistan sneaking in and out of Iran blowing things up. How much of that is CIA and how much is Mossad, nobody knows for sure. This is another terrorist organization, called the “Jundullah.” Like the PKK in Turkey and the Tehrik-i-Taliban, the terrorist group making life in Pakistan a living hell, the Jundullah get all the money, weapons, training, transportation and maybe more, much more, they need to fight covert wars against the targets of Tel Aviv.

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Friday, 3 September 2010.
VeteransToday.com
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

QUETTA, Pakistan-Today, 43 Pakistanis were killed in a terror attack, killed for supporting Palestinians in Gaza. The signs had been there, the Wikileaks attempt to put responsibility for the Taliban on Veterans Today editor General Hamid Gul. This was debunked in a heartbeat. This attack was vicious and clearly the work of Israel. This was a terror attack meant as a message to the people of the world telling them that if they rally in support of those imprisoned in Gaza, they will be murdered.

Is it a gift for the Jewish people of Israel, another revenge attack, seemingly in response to the shooting of 4 Israeli Jews in Hebron, an attack curiously timed to disrupt peace talks between Jewish and Muslim Palestinians in Washington?

This is far from the first time Israel has been caught. The PKK, the Kurdish terrorist group, communists, who have been attacking Turkey from their mountain “caves” in Iraq for over 40 years have long been trained, funded and even recruited by Israel’s Mossad. Now the partnership between India and Israel, helped along, not only by the CIA, the Kazrai brothers “corporation” and MI -6 is becoming difficult to ignore.

With continual terror attacks a daily part of life in Pakistan, several in Lahore this week, there is no ignoring the real culprits. Nearly every contracting firm the United States uses in not only Afghanistan but Pakistan as well is filled to the brim with Israeli operatives. Working with them is the massive CIA assisted drug cartel and its worldwide network of private airlines for shipping heroin and cash and a dozen nations that take part.

All of this is only window dressing for the real show. In 2003, Israel got America to destroy Iraq, well, and itself also. Iraq was suicide for America. It wasn’t until 2007 that America had discovered its own corpse.

The war in Afghanistan is destroying not only that country but Pakistan as well.

Pakistan is important. For years, the “CIA” and other intelligence organizations have been in Balochistan sneaking in and out of Iran blowing things up. How much of that is CIA and how much is Mossad, nobody knows for sure. This is another terrorist organization, called the “Jundallah.” Like the PKK in Turkey and the Tehrik-i-Taliban, the terrorist group making life in Pakistan a living hell, the Jundallah get all the money, weapons, training, transportation and maybe more, much more, they need to fight covert wars against the targets of Tel Aviv.

Baluchistan also has several small airports where heroin can be loaded and flown out. American contracting firms control those facilities and have for years. Narcotics are delivered there from Afghanistan and leave on aircraft meant to supply America’s “black ops” against, well, whoever it is that Israel is angry at.

For Americans, the real question, if Israel is funding terrorist organizations attacking, not only Iran but America’s NATO partner Turkey and longtime ally Pakistan, facts long in evidence everywhere but in the American press, are there also terrorist attacks against American forces and America itself being planned? Have any been carried out and if so, how many?

Does Israel gain when America marches to war against her perceived enemies?

What was obvious today is that the terror attack in Pakistan had nothing to do with Afghan Taliban of any kind. It had only one goal, to punish the people of Pakistan for supporting the Palestinian cause and supporting a two-state solution during the current peace initiative sponsored by President Obama. We know Israel goes after anyone who stands up for Palestine but killing dozens of civilians at a rally in Quetta, Baluchistan is an escalation, even for Israel.

Perhaps the worst part of it is that nobody will say a word about this. Pakistan is broke, even by American standards. They survive off American foreign aid, money they continue to receive as long as they never say a word about Israel of publicly attribute the wave of terrorism they have been subjected to where the real blame belongs. I have seen the head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the current Director General of the ISI, hint at Osama bin Laden being dead. I have interviewed him about it personally.

I was sworn to keep the discussion private and confidential. I will keep my word.

Pakistan is being held hostage. Mrs. Clinton continually chastises them about failing to find long dead Osama bin Laden, the imaginary planner of 9/11. Former ISI Director General Hamid Gul, now retired and known for his outspoken honesty, places the blame for 9/11 exactly where it belongs, where he placed on the day it happened. With the Israeli lobby in control of Washington and Washington’s money in control of Pakistan, this won’t be the last terror attack.

The next time anyone anywhere tries to aid Palestinians or to get the truth about Israel’s apartheid policies and ethnic cleansing past the corporate controlled press, expect another suicide bombing. Look at the way the press handled Israeli murder and piracy with the Freedom Flotilla? Less than 5% of Americans know that Israel was caught back in 1967 knowingly attacking an American ship, the USS Liberty. It wasn’t the first Israeli terror attack on Americans and there have been dozens since. You will never read a word about them.

With another 9/11 anniversary coming up, Palestine peace talks going on and Israel doing everything in its power to force America to attack Iran, security forces throughout the United States are on high alert for Islamic terrorists.

Everyone ‘in the know” understand that the warning is really for Israeli terrorists. Will the United States Air Force be there if needed, unlike during 9/11? Will terrorists all show up with fresh student visas courtesy of the State Department like during 9/11?

Are we past the time when America is willing to look the other way when a thousand strange coincidences bring about that “perfect storm,” exactly when and where needed, a “storm” to eclipse 9/11 in horror, enough to send a war weary people, long lied to, no longer trusting their government, down the road to war for Israel again?

Four dead Israelis in Hebron was a clue. The 43 dead in Quetta is another. The imaginary Amsterdam hijackers were meant to be one also. More will come with each day, more clues, more planted news stories, more staging, more preparing the minds to expect what so many of us know is coming.

Who do you think recruits terror cells? Who has been doing it forever? Who can travel freely, use passports of any nation and has endless money? You think there really is an Al Qaeda?

Why does everything Al Quade do only help Israel?

Is Al Qaeda another Mossad front?

Mr. Duff is Senior Editor at VeteransToday.com, a website focused on American military veterans. This is an extracted version of the original column published at VeteransToday.com

IRAN – DESPITE EVERYTHING

The Star Students Of Iran
Forget Harvard-one of the world’s best undergraduate colleges is in Iran.

Newsweek

In 2003, administrators at Stanford University’s Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. That the whiz kids weren’t American wasn’t odd; students from Asia and elsewhere excel in U.S. programs. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran.

Stanford has become a favorite destination of Sharif grads. Bruce A. Wooley, a former chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, has said that’s because Sharif now has one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world. That’s no small praise given its competition: MIT, Caltech and Stanford in the United States, Tsinghua in China and Cambridge in Britain.

Sharif’s reputation highlights how while Iran makes headlines for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s incendiary remarks and its nuclear showdown with the United States, Iranian students are developing an international reputation as science superstars. Stanford’s administrators aren’t the only ones to notice. Universities across Canada and Australia, where visa restrictions are lower, report a big boom in the Iranian recruits; Canada has seen its total number of Iranian students grow 240 percent since 1985, while Australian press reports point to a fivefold increase over the past five years, to nearly 1,500.

Iranian students from Sharif and other top schools, such as the University of Tehran and the Isfahan University of Technology, have also become major players in the international Science Olympics, taking home trophies in physics, mathematics, chemistry and robotics. As a testament to this newfound success, the Iranian city of Isfahan recently hosted the International Physics Olympiad-an honor no other Middle Eastern country has enjoyed. That’s because none of Iran’s neighbors can match the quality of its scholars.

Never far behind, Western tech companies have also started snatching them up. Silicon Valley companies from Google to Yahoo now employ hundreds of Iranian grads, as do research institutes throughout the West. Olympiad winners are especially attractive; according to the Iranian press, up to 90 percent of them now leave the country for graduate school or work abroad.

So what explains Iran’s record, and that of Sharif in particular? The country suffers from many serious ills, such as chronic inflation, stagnant wages and an anemic private sector, thanks to poor economic management and a weak regulatory environment. University professors barely make ends meet-the pay is so bad some must even take second jobs as taxi drivers or petty traders. International sanctions also make life difficult, delaying the importation of scientific equipment, for example, and increasing isolation. Until recently, Iranians were banned from publishing in the journals of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the industry’s key international professional association. They also face the indignity of often having their visa applications refused when they try to attend conferences in the West.

Yet Sharif and its ilk continue to thrive. Part of the explanation, says Mohammad Mansouri, a Sharif grad (’97) who’s now a professor in New York, lies in the tendency of Iranian parents to push their kids into medicine or engineering as opposed to other fields, like law. Sharif also has an extremely rigorous selection process. Every year some 1.5 million Iranian high-school students take college-entrance exams. Of those, only about 10 percent make it to the prestigious state schools, with the top 1 percent generally choosing science and finding their way to top spots such as Sharif. “The selection process [gives] universities like Sharif the smartest, most motivated and hardworking students” in the country, Mansouri says.

Sharif also boasts an excellent faculty. The university was founded in 1965 by the shah, who wanted to build a topnotch science and technology institute. The school was set up under the guidance of MIT advisers, and many of the current faculty studied in the United States (during the shah’s era, Iranians made up the largest group of foreign students at U.S. schools, according to the Institute of International Education). Another secret of Sharif’s success is Iran’s high-school system, which places a premium on science and exposes students to subjects Americans don’t encounter until college. This tradition of advanced studies extends into undergraduate programs, with Mansouri and others saying they were taught subjects in college that U.S. schools provide only to grad students.

Several Sharif alumni point to one other powerful motivator. “When you live in Iran and you see all the frustrations of daily life, you dream of leaving the country, and your books and studies become a ticket to a better life,” says one who asked not to be identified. “It becomes more than just studying,” he says. “It becomes an obsession, where you wake up at 4 a.m. just to get in a few more hours before class.”

Iran’s success, in other words, is also the country’s tragedy: students want nothing more than to get away the moment they graduate. That’s a boon for foreign universities and tech firms but a serious source of brain drain for the Islamic republic. There simply are not enough quality jobs for graduates in Iran, says Ramin Farjad Rad, another Sharif grad (’97) who’s now an executive at Aquantia in Silicon Valley. What’s worse, star students who stay in Iran and try to launch businesses complain that predatory government officials demand a cut of their profits or impose unnecessary obstacles. Thus many Iranians who can’t make it to the West head to Dubai instead. As one Sharif grad in the Persian Gulf port city puts it, “Here, our education is properly valued. We are given freedom to succeed. In Iran, we are blocked.”

Such frustrations augur ill for Iran’s future. True, it’s produced a startling number of top students in recent years. And the country’s history is rich with achievement, featuring Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina), the medieval world’s greatest scientist; Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, the ninth-century inventor of the mathematical algorithm (the basis of computer science), and Omar Khayyam, the famed mathematician and astronomer. That’s a fine legacy. But unless the Islamic republic changes directions soon, all of that history and potential could be squandered.

Iran, Israel and Netanyahu

By George F. Will

JERUSALEM: When Israel declared independence in 1948, it had to use mostly small arms to repel attacks by six Arab armies. Today, however, Israel feels, and is, more menaced than it was then or has been since. Hence the potentially world-shaking decision that will be made here, probably within two years.

To understand the man who will make it, begin with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s belief that stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program is integral to stopping the worldwide campaign to reverse 1948. It is, he says, a campaign to “put the Jew back to the status of a being that couldn’t defend himself — a perfect victim.”

Today’s Middle East, he says, reflects two developments. One is the rise of Iran and militant Islam since the 1979 revolution, which led to al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The other development is the multiplying threat of missile warfare.

Now Israel faces a third threat, the campaign to delegitimize it in order to extinguish its capacity for self-defense. After two uniquely perilous millennia for Jews, the creation of Israel meant, Netanyahu says, “the capacity for self-defense restored to the Jewish people.” But note, he says, the reflexive worldwide chorus of condemnation when Israel responded with force to rocket barrages from Gaza and from southern Lebanon. There is, he believes, a crystallizing consensus that “Israel is not allowed to exercise self-defense.”

From 1948 through 1973, he says, enemies tried to “eliminate Israel by conventional warfare.” Having failed, they tried to demoralize and paralyze Israel with suicide bombers and other terrorism. “We put up a fence,” Netanyahu says. “Now they have rockets that go over the fence.” Israel’s military, which has stressed offense as a solution to the nation’s lack of strategic depth, now stresses missile defense.

That, however, cannot cope with Hamas’s tens of thousands of rockets in Gaza and Hezbollah’s up to 60,000 in southern Lebanon. There, U.N. Resolution 1701, promulgated after the 2006 war, has been predictably farcical. This was supposed to inhibit the arming of Hezbollah and prevent its operations south of the Litani River. Since 2006, Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal has tripled and its operations mock Resolution 1701. Hezbollah, learning from Hamas, now places rockets near schools and hospitals, certain that Israel’s next response to indiscriminate aggression will turn the world media into a force multiplier for the aggressors.

Any Israeli self-defense anywhere is automatically judged “disproportionate.” Israel knows this as it watches Iran.

Last year was Barack Obama’s wasted year of “engaging” Iran. This led to sanctions that are unlikely to ever become sufficiently potent. With Russia, China and Turkey being uncooperative, Iran is hardly “isolated.” The Iranian democracy movement probably cannot quickly achieve regime change. It took Solidarity 10 years to do so against a Polish regime less brutally repressive than Iran’s.

Hillary Clinton’s words about extending a “defense umbrella over the region” imply, to Israelis, fatalism about a nuclear Iran. As for deterrence working against a nuclear-armed regime steeped in an ideology of martyrdom, remember that in 1980, Ayatollah Khomeini said:

“We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.”

You say, that was long ago? Israel says, this is now:

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, says that Israel is the “enemy of God.” Tehran, proclaiming that the Holocaust never happened and vowing to complete it, sent an ambassador to Poland who in 2006 wanted to measure the ovens at Auschwitz to prove them inadequate for genocide. Iran’s former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is considered a “moderate” by people for whom believing is seeing, calls Israel a “one-bomb country.”

If Iran were to “wipe the Zionist entity off the map,” as it vows to do, it would, Netanyahu believes, achieve a regional “dominance not seen since Alexander.” Netanyahu does not say that Israel will, if necessary, act alone to prevent this. Or does he?

He says that CIA Director Leon Panetta is “about right” in saying Iran can be a nuclear power in two years. He says that 1948 meant this: “For the first time in 2,000 years, a sovereign Jewish people could defend itself against attack.” And he says: “The tragic history of the powerlessness of our people explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defense.” If Israel strikes Iran, the world will not be able to say it was not warned.

Iran ready to escort Gaza ships

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday.

“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities,” Ali Shirazi, Khamenei’s representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Any intervention by the Iranian military would be considered highly provocative by Israel which accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza.

NSS and human rights agenda

By Jackson Diehl

What sort of international order does Barack Obama seek? Last week he gave a detailed answer: “One that can resolve the challenges of our times — countering violent extremism and insurgency; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials; combating a changing climate and sustaining global growth; helping countries feed themselves and care for their sick; resolving and preventing conflict, while also healing its wounds.”

That’s a big agenda. But isn’t something missing? Nowhere in that long sentence, in the introduction to his new national security strategy, does Obama suggest that the international “engagement” he proposes should serve to combat tyranny or oppression, or promote democracy. In that sense, it is typical of the first comprehensive account Obama has offered of his administration’s goals in the world. In theory — as in the practice of his first year — human rights come second.

Big, set-piece Washington policy statements often provide a road map to the struggles over policy inside an administration, and the 52-page paper Obama released last Thursday is no exception. The White House’s left-leaning “realists” — who seek to limit U.S. foreign engagements, shift resources to domestic programs and jettison the “freedom agenda” of George W. Bush — seem to have won all of the big arguments. Definitions of strategy throughout the report, from how to defeat al-Qaeda to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to dealing with North Korea and Iran, exclude any mention of democracy or human rights.