Tacstrat: What the vote counts for

Tacstrat Analysis

29 November 2012: despite aggressive lobbying by the US and Israel, 138 member states voted for uplift of Palestine’s status, 41 (including Australia) abstained while only 9 voted against. France, Spain and Belgium voted in favor, while the US, Israel were only able to convert Canada, Czech Republic, Panama, Palau, Nauru, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands to their cause. Even after the highest world forum has made its decision to acknowledge Palestinians’ right to self determination the United States remains loyal to her ally. The United States has threatened to withhold funds to the Gaza strip; Netanyahu condemned President Abbas for spreading hatred and war crime rumors. He criticized Abbas for blowing the matter out of proportion; for his hypocrisy in preferring the General Assembly over a trip for ‘peace talks’ with the Likud government in Jerusalem. So how successful has dialogue between the two been?

In 1949 “Palestine” had been wiped off the map. 78% of the country had become Israel, the other 22% divided between Jordan and Egypt. The very existence of a Palestinian people was vehemently denied by the Israeli establishment. This denial had been turned into an article of faith, an inseparable part of the Zionist ideology that had brought the Jews to the Promised Land. Much later, Golda Meir famously declared that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people”. Respected charlatans wrote popular books “proving” that the Arabs in Palestine were pretenders who had only recently arrived. The Israeli leadership was convinced that the “Palestinian problem” had disappeared, once and forever.

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Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

FORT WORTH – Brigitte Gabriel bounced to the stage at a Tea Partyconvention last fall. She greeted the crowd with a loud Texas “Yee-HAW,” then launched into the same gripping personal story she has told in hundreds of churches, synagogues and conference rooms across the United States:

Brigitte Gabriel spoke to a Tea Party event in September. She says her views were shaped while growing up in Lebanon.

As a child growing up a Maronite Christian in war-torn southern Lebanon in the 1970s, Ms. Gabriel said, she had been left lying injured in rubble after Muslims mercilessly bombed her village. She found refuge in Israel and then moved to the United States, only to find that the Islamic radicals who had terrorized her in Lebanon, she said, were now bent on taking over America.

“America has been infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America,” she said. “They have infiltrated us at the C.I.A., at the F.B.I., at the Pentagon, at the State Department. They are being radicalized in radical mosques in our cities and communities within the United States.”

Through her books, media appearances and speeches, and her organization, ACT! for America, Ms. Gabriel has become one of the most visible personalities on a circuit of self-appointed terrorism detectors who warn that Muslims pose an enormous danger within United States borders.

Representative Peter T. King, Republican of Long Island, will conduct hearings Thursday in Washington on a similar theme: that the United States is infiltrated by Muslim radicals. Mr. King was the first guest last month on a new cable television show that Ms. Gabriel co-hosts with Guy Rodgers, the executive director of ACT! and a Republican consultant who helped build the Christian Coalition, once the most potent political organization on the Christian right.

Ms. Gabriel, 46, who uses a pseudonym, casts her organization as a nonpartisan, nonreligious national security group. Yet the organization draws on three rather religious and partisan streams in American politics: evangelical Christian conservatives, hard-line defenders of Israel (both Jews and Christians) and Tea Party Republicans.

She presents a portrait of Islam so thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable to those who study or practice the religion. She has found a receptive audience among Americans who are legitimately worried about the spread of terrorism.

But some of those who work in counterterrorism say that speakers like Ms. Gabriel are spreading distortion and fear, and are doing the country a disservice by failing to make distinctions between Muslims who are potentially dangerous and those who are not.

Brian Fishman, a research fellow at both the New America Foundation in Washington, and the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point, said, “When you’ve got folks who are looking for the worst in Islam and are promoting that as the entire religion of 1.5 or 1.6 billion people, then you only empower the real extremists.”

Ms. Gabriel is only one voice in a growing circuit that includes counter-Islam speakers likePamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Walid Shoebat. What distinguishes Ms. Gabriel from her counterparts is that she has built a national grass-roots organization in the last three years that has already engaged in dozens of battles over the place of Islam in the United States. ACT! for America claims 155,000 members in 500 chapters across the country. To build her organization, Ms. Gabriel has enlisted Mr. Rodgers, who had worked behind the scenes for the Christian Coalition’s leaders, Ralph Reed and the television evangelist Pat Robertson. (Ms. Gabriel herself was once an anchor for Mr. Robertson’s Christian television network in the Middle East).

As national field director, Mr. Rodgers planted and tended Christian Coalition chapters across the country, and is now using some of the same strategies as executive director of ACT! Among those tactics is creating “nonpartisan voter guides” that rank candidates’ responses and votes on issues important to the group.

Just as with the Christian Coalition’s voter guides, the candidates whose positions most often align with ACT!’s are usually Republicans. Mr. Rodgers previously served as campaign manager for Patrick J. Buchanan’s presidential run in 1996, and as a consultant for John McCain in 2008.

Ms. Gabriel and Mr. Rodgers declined to be interviewed in person or over the telephone, but agreed to respond to questions by e-mail. They permitted interviews with only their national field director and two chapter leaders they selected, though half a dozen other interviews were conducted with chapter leaders before they were told not to talk.

Ms. Gabriel says she is motivated not by fear or hatred of Islam, but by her love for her adopted country.

“I lost Lebanon, my country of birth, to radical Islam,” she wrote. “I do not want to lose my adopted country America.”

She insists that she is singling out only “radical Islam” or Muslim “extremists” – not the vast majority of Muslims or their faith. And yet, in her speeches and her two books, she leaves the opposite impression. She puts it most simply in the 2008 introduction to her first book, “Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America.”

“In the Muslim world, extreme is mainstream,” she wrote. She said that there is a “cancer” infecting the world, and said: “The cancer is called Islamofacism. This ideology is coming out of one source: The Koran.”

In what ACT! is calling “Open a Koran” day this September, the group plans to put up 750 tables in front of post offices, libraries, churches and synagogues and hand out leaflets selectively highlighting verses that appear to advocate violence, slavery and subjugation of women.

In the last year, the group played a key role in passing a constitutional amendment in Oklahoma banning the use of Shariah, a body of Islamic law derived from the Koran and from the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s teachings, sayings and acts. Most Muslims draw selectively on its tenets – in the same way that people of other faiths pick and choose from their sacred texts.

But group members and their allies have succeeded in popularizing the notion that American Muslims are just biding their time until they gain the power to revoke the Constitution and impose Shariah law in the United States.

“We can’t let Shariah law take hold,” said Susan Watts, who leads a large chapter in Houston.

ACT! members are challenging high school textbooks and college courses that they deem too sympathetic to Islam. A group leader in Eugene, Ore., signed up to teach a community college course on Islam, but it was canceled when a Muslim group exposed his blog postings denouncing Islam and denying the scope of the Holocaust.

A chapter in Colorado recently featured a guest speaker on “How to minister to Muslims,” and “Conversion success stories.” Mr. Rodgers said in a written response that ACT! does not encourage such activities.

Ms. Gabriel’s approach and her power appear rooted in her childhood trauma in the civil war in southern Lebanon. The war was a chaotic stew in which ever-shifting alliances of clan-based militias made up of Christian, Shiite, Sunni, Palestinian and Druse made war on one other, often with the backing of other countries. But in the rendering Ms. Gabriel shares with her American audiences, it was black and white. As her father explained to her, “The Muslims bombed us because we are Christians. They want us dead because they hate us.” (The refrain became the title of her first book.)

She moved to Israel in her early 20s to work for Middle East Television. Ms. Gabriel often mentions in lectures that she was an anchor for the network, but does not reveal that Middle East Television was then run by Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network to spread his politically conservative, Pentecostal faith in the Middle East.

On air as a reporter, Ms. Gabriel used the name Nour Saman. She married an American co-worker and in 1989 moved to the United States. They started a film and television production company, which says it has produced programs on terrorism for “Good Morning America” and “Primetime.”

She said she uses a pseudonym, voted on by her organization’s board, because she has received death threats.

Ms. Gabriel has given hundreds of lectures, including to the Heritage Foundation and the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va. Her salary from two organizations she founded, American Congress for Truth and ACT! for America, was $178,411 in 2009. And the group’s combined income was $1.6 million.

In Fort Worth, Ms. Gabriel spent nearly an hour after her speech signing books and posing for pictures with gushing fans.

“She really opened up my eyes about Islam,” said Natalie Rix Cresson, a composer, clutching a signed copy of Ms. Gabriel’s book. “I didn’t realize it was so infiltrated in the schools, everywhere.”

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Lebanon.

WikiLeaks: Israel’s secret hotline to the man tipped to replace Mubarak

By Tim Ross, Christopher Hope, Steven Swinford and Adrian Blomfield

The new vice-president of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, is a long-standing favourite of Israel’s who spoke daily to the Tel Aviv government via a secret “hotline” to Cairo, leaked documents disclose.

Omar Suleiman, left, was Israel’s preferred candidate to replace President Mubarak according to secret cables released to The Daily Telegraph by WikiLeaks

Mr Suleiman, who is widely tipped to take over from Hosni Mubarak as president, was named as Israel’s preferred candidate for the job after discussions with American officials in 2008.

As a key figure working for Middle East peace, he once suggested that Israeli troops would be “welcome” to invade Egypt to stop weapons being smuggled to Hamas terrorists in neighbouring Gaza.

The details, which emerged in secret files obtained by WikiLeaks and passed to The Daily Telegraph, come after Mr Suleiman began talks with opposition groups on the future for Egypt’s government.

On Saturday, Mr Suleiman won the backing of Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, to lead the “transition” to democracy after two weeks of demonstrations calling for President Mubarak to resign.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, spoke to Mr Suleiman yesterday and urged him to take “bold and credible steps” to show the world that Egypt is embarking on an “irreversible, urgent and real” transition.

Leaked cables from American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv disclose the close co-operation between Mr Suleiman and the US and Israeli governments as well as diplomats’ intense interest in likely successors to the ageing President Mubarak, 83.

The documents highlight the delicate position which the Egyptian government seeks to maintain in Middle East politics, as a leading Arab nation with a strong relationship with the US and Israel. By 2008, Mr Suleiman, who was head of the foreign intelligence service, had become Israel’s main point of contact in the Egyptian government.

David Hacham, a senior adviser from the Israeli Ministry of Defence, told the American embassy in Tel Aviv that a delegation led by Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak had been impressed by Mr Suleiman, whose name is spelled “Soliman” in some cables.

But Mr Hacham was “shocked” by President Mubarak’s “aged appearance and slurred speech”.

The cable, from August 2008, said: “Hacham was full of praise for Soliman, however, and noted that a ‘hot line’ set up between the MOD and Egyptian General Intelligence Service is now in daily use.

“Hacham noted that the Israelis believe Soliman is likely to serve as at least an interim President if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated.” The Tel Aviv diplomats added: “We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman.”

Elsewhere the documents disclose that Mr Suleiman was stung by Israeli criticism of Egypt’s inability to stop arms smugglers transporting weapons to Palestinian militants in Gaza. At one point he suggested that Israel send troops into the Egyptian border region of Philadelphi to “stop the smuggling”.

“In their moments of greatest frustration, [Egyptian Defence Minister] Tantawi and Soliman each have claimed that the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] would be ‘welcome’ to re-invade Philadelphi, if the IDF thought that would stop the smuggling,” the cable said.

The files suggest that Mr Suleiman wanted Hamas “isolated”, and thought Gaza should “go hungry but not starve”.

“We have a short time to reach peace,” he told US diplomats. “We need to wake up in the morning with no news of terrorism, no explosions, and no news of more deaths.”

Yesterday, Hosni Mubarak’s control of Egypt’s state media, a vital lynchpin of his 30-year presidency, started to slip as the country’s largest-circulation newspaper declared its support for the uprising.

Hoping to sap the momentum from street protests demanding his overthrow, the president has instructed his deputy to launch potentially protracted negotiations with secular and Islamist opposition parties. The talks continued for a second day yesterday without yielding a significant breakthrough.

But Mr Mubarak was dealt a significant setback as the state-controlled Al-Ahram, Egypt’s second oldest newspaper and one of the most famous publications in the Middle East, abandoned its long-standing slavish support for the regime.

In a front-page leading article, the newspaper hailed the “nobility” of the “revolution” and demanded the government embark on irreversible constitutional and legislative changes.

JB Campbell: Anti-American

by J. Bruce Campbell

The leakers are being called “anti-American.”

What decent person, anywhere in the world today, is not anti-American? Is there anyone more dangerous than our typical ignorant, arrogant American “citizen,” who very likely couldn’t find America on a marked map of the world? Well, yes: the American military man, who is the most dangerous son of a bitch on the planet. And I don’t mean that in a good way.

I’m anti-American. I really wasn’t until I returned to Rhodesia in January, ’73 to join up and help in their struggle against Communist terrorists. I’d been down there in ’71 for discussions with the government on bringing Americans and others wanting to be part of a new country project based on a book by my boss, Michael Oliver, called A New Constitution for a New Country. The plan was to have a minimum of a hundred square miles with no taxes and no draft, replacing the former tax-haven in Freeport, Bahamas. Thousands of productive Americans and others were ready to relocate.

Mike’s real name was Olitsky and he was a Lithuanian Jew who’d fled into Germany to escape Stalin’s Red Army. He wound up in Dachau for four years. He introduced me to Holocaust Revisionism when I ventured to ask him about his experience. He shrugged and said, “It was a factory. We worked during the day and stayed in a dormitory at night.”

“But what about the, uh, the-”
“The what?”
“You know, the killings.”
“I never saw any of that.”

Four years in Dachau, never saw any of that. Okay. He did see the US Army “liberate” the camp in April, ’45. The SS and Alpine troops recuperating there had negotiated a surrender to the Americans, who entered the camp and started shooting the guys who thought they were surrendering. Then the Americans marched the surviving soldiers (all the prison guards had fled days earlier) up to a wall near the hospital and set up a machine gun. Three hundred forty-six German soldiers on R&R were slaughtered in a few minutes, five hundred twenty in all that morning. George Patton handled the cover-up and protected the war criminals. The army doctor on the scene, Col. Howard Buechner, described it in his book, Dachau: Hour of the Avenger. Of the 32,000 inmates freed, about 1,200 were Jews, including Mike.

My new country project discussions were with the Rhodesian minister of internal affairs, Jack Howman. He rather indignantly turned us down. Nevertheless, I did return and take part in their war against Communist terror. I suppose it was during those two years that I became reluctantly anti-American. Our country, the good old USA, supported the Communist war of terror against the Rhodesian people, black and white. Our country put Robert Mugabe in power, just as it put Nelson Mandela in power a few years later. Mandela was Member Number One of the South African Communist Party. America put every Communist party in power in every single Communist country since 1917. That includes Lenin & Trotsky, Mao Tse Tung, Kim Il-sung, Ho Chi Minh, Tito, Pol Pot and Fidel Castro. Our government kept Stalin in power from 1924 until his death in ’53. It went to war in ’41 to rescue Stalin from well-deserved German destruction. Billions (trillions in today’s worthless money) were given by America to save Soviet Communism.

An itinerant writer named Robert K. Brown came to Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1974 to interview me. He said he was freelancing for Esquire Magazine and Guns Magazine. He wanted to know what would make a Californian such as I come over to this little country in southern Africa and fight terrorism? The interview eventually appeared in the first issue (Summer ’75) of a strange magazine called “Soldier of Fortune.” I took Brown up to Mt. Darwin and introduced him to my farmer friends who were on the front lines of terrorism every day and night of their lives. I asked him not to quote me because I could be prosecuted for “mercenary activities” by the State Department. He quoted the hell out of me but changed my name to “Mitchell McNair.” But the point of this is that he told me what he did for the CIA back in the ’50s… Brown was in the CIA’s Special Forces and was part of the assassination team that murdered Rafael Trujillo in ’61. But in ’58 and ’59, Brown ran guns to Fidel Castro to assist in his coup against Fulgencio Batista. Once Castro came to power, the CIA pretended to be against Castro to justify its gigantic power-grab of the government. But Castro, along with every other Communist leader in the world, was put in power by the US government. Then our government exploited the “threat” presented by Communism to justify “defense spending” and lucrative no-win wars. Today, the Chicoms, those ultimate Communists, are our business partners and we have arranged for the anti-Communist Moslems to be our new worst enemies.

Brown’s magazine was funded by the CIA and was immediately put to use in recruiting mercenaries for their ludicrous operation in Angola. I called Brown in Boulder at one point to ask why the hell he was recruiting for the foul Angolan terrorist, Holden Roberto? He said lamely, “Well, the CIA likes him.” Any questions so far?

The more I studied US history over the next few years, the more I came to hate everything this country stands for, or pretends to stand for. American history turns out to be one gigantic lie, as phony as a Hollywood movie. In fact, all we have come to believe about ourselves has pretty much come from Hollywood. This is no exaggeration. The American myth was created by a few Russian Jews who ripped off Tom Edison’s film process in New Jersey and split for the coast to avoid prosecution. Neal Gabler wrote a book entitled An Empire of Their Own, How the Jews Invented Hollywood. The inescapable fact is that not only did they invent Hollywood, but the entire myth of America as the promised land.

For Russian Jews, it was. America was the land of milk, honey and suckers by the millions. Our self-image as Americans is a Jewish image. The slaughter and rip-off and exile of American Indians to Bantustans we call “reservations” was glamorized (authorized) by Hollywood Jews. The reality of this genocide makes American condemnation of Zionist genocide of Palestinians meaningless. That is, it would be meaningless if any American politician condemned Israel, which hasn’t happened yet. If we had some bacon we could have bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs.

The whole American experience is based on mass murder and land-grabs and lies (broken treaties). Not one treaty made by the US Army with the Indians was left unbroken. Maybe the one with the Yakimas, but I’m not sure about that. Up in this country where we live, you see the slogan once in a while, “Custer Had It Coming.” When you investigate what all he did to the Lakota, Cheyenne and others, such as mass murdering women and children, for no reason other than ethnic cleansing, you have to conclude that he and his war criminals definitely had it coming.

Custer worked for Phil Sheridan and Bill Sherman, both of whom are in the War Crimes Hall of Fame. Their crimes against the Southern people and the Indian people will turn your hair white with shock. American (Yankee) war of aggression and genocide are the bases of all modern total war. The buffalo were exterminated just to cripple the Plains Indians. To punish the Nez Perce for resisting another broken treaty, the army slaughtered thousands of their Appaloosa horses. The army put the Nez Perce in boxcars in the winter of ’77 and shipped them to Ft. Leavenworth. This is the actual American way.

I’ll skip over our genocidal adventures in the Philippines and our Jewish-engineered role in the Great War and go right to the World War, or rather its aftermath in Europe. Our mopping-up method is described above with the Dachau massacre of surrendered troops. Such sadistic butchery was encouraged by a 1941 book “highly recommended” to the troops by Franklin Roosevelt, a book by an obscure Jew in advertising named Theodore Kaufman, entitled “Germany Must Perish!” It was the basis for what became known as the Morgenthau Plan for Germany, which called for the extermination of a large percentage of Germans, the forced sterilization of the rest and the destruction of all industry or its removal to the Soviet Union, flooding all mines and turning Germany into a goat pasture. Henry Morgenthau was FDR’s Jewish treasury secretary. George Patton writes in his memoirs that Eisenhower gave Morgenthau his plan, which was eventually drafted by another Jew named Weiss (Harry Dexter “White”). Upon war’s end, Eisenhower put the plan into effect with his order to starve to death all captured German PoWs. This is documented in James Bacque’s Other Losses. Over a million German prisoners died eating grass and bugs out in open fields in the American starvation program from May to December, 1945.

Then, Ike starved millions more German civilians throughout that period ’til 1947, when the Cold War started and America needed Germany to pretend to fight our erstwhile ally, Stalin. This merciless starvation program is documented also by Bacque in his Crimes & Mercies. Naïve people have doubted this crime against humanity and asked, “Why didn’t the Germans complain, if what you say is true?” Answer: For one thing, the Germans are not a complaining people, the way Jews are. This is not a good thing, but it’s the way they are. They shut up and take it. But the real point is, to whom could they complain if they were complaining people? The Americans? The British, the Soviets, the French, all of whom were participants in the American genocide program? Bacque estimates that between nine and thirteen million Germans were slaughtered in Eisenhower’s starvation and forced exposure operation in two years.

Then there was the Eisenhower program officially called by the army, Operation Keelhaul. If you still think that being an American is a good thing, consider this one… During the war, millions of Russians, Ukrainians, Cossacks and others escaped from Soviet slave-terror into Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia and other countries. Many of them were Red Army soldiers captured by the German army at Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kursk and countless other battles and sent to PoW camps in Germany and Poland and Italy. The hysterical beast, Josef Stalin, who fled Moscow at the approach of the German army, gave the order that any Red Army soldier who surrendered was to be shot when the war was over. This was well-known. Nevertheless, Dwight Eisenhower broke all international laws regarding treatment of captured enemy forces and ordered the rounding up and handing over of these men and their families. Approximately five million of them were forced into boxcars by US Army soldiers at bayonet point and sent east to Hungary, where they were taken off the trains and either shot by the tracks or sent to the Gulag Archipelago to be worked to death over the next year. This was documented also by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his monumental record of Soviet/American bestiality. I have interviewed veterans who participated in this unimaginable betrayal of humanity.

Reportedly, the only photo on Ike’s Oval Office desk was one of Josef Stalin-autographed.

In 1956, our President Eisenhower encouraged the Hungarians to rise up and kick the Soviets out of Budapest, promising them American help if they showed they deserved it. So the Hungarians rose up and seized all the Jews that Khrushchev and Stalin had installed over them, hanging and shooting many hundreds, and forced the Soviets out of Budapest. Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that he waited a couple of weeks for Eisenhower to follow through on his promise of aid, but it never came. So he ordered the tanks back in and the wiping out of the freedom fighters.

This is the actual American way, administered by respectable political pukes such as Dwight David Eisenhower, nicknamed in the 1915 West Point yearbook as “The Terrible Swedish Jew.”

We are just now learning what the army and air force did to the Koreans during the Korean War. Millions were slaughtered. We Americans wonder why the crazy North Koreans are so paranoid and ready to fight? We wonder because we don’t know what the hell our government did to those people in the 1950s. We have no idea that our government approved the Soviet occupation of North Korea in 1945, making it Communist in ’48. Then we drew an arbitrary line across the 38th parallel and created “South Korea” and prepared to go to war against “North Korea” when everyone was ready in 1950. War made to order with unbelievable profits to the bankers and “defense contractors.” 34,000 Americans killed – for what?

Viet Nam. Did you know that Ho Chi Minh was a US intelligence agent during World War II? He made his reports to the OSS at the Texaco office in Hanoi. Did you know that the American OSS installed Ho Chi Minh in power in the northern half of Indochina in 1945? An arbitrary line was drawn across the 17th parallel in ’54 and our northern puppet started the war against our southern puppet in ’59, which we of course lost in ’75. Another war made to order with unbelievable profits to the bankers and “defense contractors.” Millions of Vietnamese slaughtered by our wonderful boys, 58,000 of whom were also slaughtered – for what?

The United Nations is a US front. It was devised by American traitors in the Council on Foreign Relations in 1945 and has always been housed in New York. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated the sixteen acres in Manhattan and built the edifice in 1951. Its first crime against humanity was the creation of the Israeli nation of parasites in 1948, while the UN was still headquartered on Long Island. The UN waged war against Rhodesia and South Africa throughout the ’60s and ’70s, always subsidized by American taxpayers. Most Americans don’t know or remember that the Korean War was fought by American soldiers under the blue and white flag of the United Nations.

And now, our wonderful boys are fighting for Israel against Moslems in Iraq and Afghanistan and secretly killing thousands in Pakistan and Yemen. These wars are based on Israeli lies stemming from their massacre of 9/11. Even though the American FBI director, Mueller, admitted there was no evidence of Moslem hijackers, we invaded Afghanistan. Americans don’t know that the Taliban were our guys until they objected to a Unocal pipeline being constructed across their country. Richard Armitage told them they could either have a carpet of gold (if they went along with the pipeline) or a carpet of bombs if they didn’t cooperate. They didn’t cooperate and virtually overnight, the Americans categorized them as the enemy, showering our gold on a rival group, the Northern Alliance. Our former friends, the Taliban, are kicking our butts, which is only fair. You invade someone’s country based on your own lies, you deserve to have your butt kicked.

Football star and millionaire Pat Tillman fell for the 9/11 legend and joined the Army Rangers to hunt down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. But then he and his brother were sent to Iraq, which puzzled them both. Why Iraq? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 (but neither did Osama or Afghanistan). Pat Tillman signed his own death warrant with his questions and complaints about invading Iraq. So he was sent back to Afghanistan to be silenced. In one of the dumbest excuses for a skirmish I’ve ever heard of, he was sent forward to engage with some non-existent enemy fighters. Then he was shot at by his own guys behind him. The odd thing is that his forehead had three .22 caliber bullet holes in it. The M-4 rifle shoots a .22, of course, but it’s a high-power, high-velocity .223 that does serious damage. The fact that his forehead had three .22 holes and wasn’t obliterated means he was executed with three low-powered. 22LR bullets from a pistol. The general in charge of the official heroic lies about enemy action and then “friendly fire” was Stanley McChrystal, an infamous black ops leader of The Secret Team and organizer of many, many assassinations.

And so, I’m anti-American. I suspect that if Pat Tillman were alive he’d be just as anti-American. Real patriots can get that way quickly when they realize they’ve been hustled.

Don’t start about the Constitution. Don’t tell me that if we just stuck to the Constitution we’d be in good shape. I’ve found that people who go on about the Constitution have never read it. They don’t understand that it’s just a seven-part plan for running the government. They don’t understand that it was crafted by Freemasons using Masonic lodge rules of order as a template. They don’t know or forgot that the founders sneaked the Constitution on us when they were supposed to modify the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States.

The Bill of Rights was our friend and it was added by Patrick Henry and truly patriotic friends to protect us from the Constitutional government. But George Bush and his PATRIOT Act destroyed the Bill of Rights. Obama is a foreign-born CIA asset so he has no understanding of the Bill of Rights. Apparently both he and his strange wife lost their law licenses several years ago anyway and I suspect they missed Bill of Rights day in law school.

I’m not sure what it is about America that we’re expected to love. The government? The Federal Reserve? The IRS? Our banking system? Wall Street? How about our schools? The way we conduct our foreign policy? How about the CIA and sanctioned kidnapping, torture and false imprisonment and killing Israel’s enemies with our cowardly Predator flying death machines? Maybe the FBI, America’s number one terrorist organization?

Tell me, what is there to love? Our farms and Monsanto suicide seeds and all our fake food? Our labor unions that don’t try to protect American jobs? How about NAFTA that was jammed down our throats by Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh? You don’t remember that 1994 tag-team?

Maybe we should love Wal-Mart and all the Chinese junk inside. How about our great industries? Wait a minute-we don’t have any industries. They’re all in China.

Should we love our cities? How about the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. We really need a War on Warmongers and Profiteers. I won’t even ask if we’re supposed to love our politicians, our judges and our news media. Our ranches are nice, except the cattle are full of growth hormones and antibiotics.

Nope. Sorry. Nothing here to love, if we’re honest. Maybe if we brought our occupation forces home from the 120 countries they’re occupying, this country wouldn’t be so hateful. But there’s a gene in us that makes us extremely dangerous and destructive. We have been conditioned to view ourselves as exceptional-better than other people-and deserving of whatever other people have, such as land, gold, oil, water, whatever. You can see this gene metastasizing in the leaked videos of Americans slaughtering Iraqi civilians from our multi-million dollar attack helicopters. I say they’re ours because we’re on the hook for them.

Somebody is going to say, Well partner, you better love your right to shoot your mouth off and you can thank a veteran for that right. Uh, huh. You mean the guy over in Iraq, blowing away a family that misunderstood orders in a foreign language to stop at this goddamned roadblock (that wasn’t here yesterday)? You think I owe my free-speech right to a guy who spent the war spraying Agent Orange on foreign civilians? Do you think any of the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights was reinforced by the crew of the Enola Gay? My old man was a marine in the first World War. I said to him, Man, you made the world safe for Democracy! He just looked at me, like, very funny.

It is not safe to shoot your mouth off these days and hasn’t been for a long time. The military is not making it any safer, in fact, just the opposite. The US military is breaking the law wholesale by acting as “law enforcement,” in complete violation of the law (Posse Comitatus). But shut my mouth, because there is no law anymore. We’re under the law of the gun, or Deuteronomy, which is the same thing.

Most people today are afraid even to READ my material, let alone comment on it. Let alone write something along these lines. Why do you suppose there’s so much fear in this country since 9/11? Is the military relieving this fear or reinforcing it? What about the reports that the military will be rounding up dissidents? Don’t believe them? They’re already illegally working as cops. The military does not protect ANYONE’s rights. The military kills people and destroys property. No American is safer because our military is killing Moslems in Iraq or Afghanistan-just the opposite. Not only is the military killing the world with depleted uranium munitions, but it is causing a blinding hatred of us. Just imagine armed thugs breaking into your house or your relative’s house and what it would do to your mind, assuming they didn’t blow you away because of the look of resentment on your face.

I discovered myself, years ago, that the FEMA camps are staffed by the 300th Military Police POW Command headquartered in Inkster, Michigan.

An honest American has to admit that he hates this country, not just the government. The government is a reflection of the people who pay for it. This country isn’t what you thought it was and it never has been. We’ve been conditioned to pledge allegiance to the flag and to the nation for which it stands, but what it stands for isn’t what Hollywood has had us believing since we were little kids.

All leaks are good, as long as they’re the real deal, not redacted or altered to make us support Israel. The only way we can survive is to know the truth about what government and the corporations have been secretly doing to us and others. The truth may be anti-American, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

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.

Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly proceedings

GILGIT: The Jang Group and Geo TV once again came under fire in Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly on Wednesday after an independent lawmaker once again pinpointed its senior staff for ‘spreading despondency’ in the society, demanding exemplary punishment and also their exile from the country.

“The senior members of the group, including Kamran Khan, Ansar Abbasi, Hamid Mir, and senior analysts Hassan Nisar, Irfan Siddiqi and Haroon ur Rashid are agents of Israel, India, and Russia. They are traitors, therefore they should be arrested and hanged,” said Raziuddin Razi, a lawmaker who has recently been made chairman public accounts committee. He said that after the analysis of these journalists every night it seems that the government and also the country will cease to exist the next day, “but it is not the reality”. He said that these people have no right to be called analysts or journalists. They want to topple an elected government.

Raziuddin also said in his emotional speech that these journalists be arrested and exiled. Raziuddin wanted the treasury benches, ministers and parliamentary secretaries to support him in the noble cause of ‘crusade’ against the blackmailers and said that these people always preferred to be with dictators instead of democratic forces.

In the previous day of proceedings, the Minister for Health and Information Ali Madad Sher had officially distanced his party [PPP] after a similar onslaught was unleashed by some members against the group. However, today [Wednesday] the senior minister, Mohammad Jaffer, who was also acting chief minister in Mehdi Shah’s absence, moved one step ahead in their self-imposed animosity against the Jang Group, saying that the group and its staff [Hamid Mir, Ansar Abbasi, Kamran Khan etc] were true foreign agents who not only draw money from India, Russia and Israel but also America to conspire against the state. “Not only are they being paid by India, Israel and Russia but also they are being paid by America,” he said while talking to media after the proceedings.

Lawmakers from opposition benches vehemently defended media especially the Jang Group and Geo TV, terming their presence a symbol of stability and rule of law in a country robbed by the so-called elected government of PPP.

Janbaz Khan, the PML-N lawmaker, and Raja Azam Khan a MQM member once again rose to their feet and defended the Jang Group, saying that because of this group a check on the ruling party’s corruption has been possible.

They said that these are those ‘hate mongers’ who stood firmly against Musharraf’s dictatorship and helped revive democracy in the region. “The government is just trying to hide their inefficiency behind the animosity of media.

MQM member Raja Azam Khan said that they would also support media and the Jang Group for their bold stance against the corrupt government. A PPP lawmaker, Wazir Hassan said that these anchorpersons don’t speak against the MQM because they know that if they uttered words against them they would be killed by this party.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Jang-Geo Group said that the Group was determined to continue bringing facts to the people. He said, the Group exposed many corruption cases including Swiss cases. It played unprecedented role in rule of law in the country, the spokesman said. The lawmakers in Gilgit-Baltistan assembly on the 5th day of its 9th session Wednesday voiced concern over the illegal chopping off of trees in forests of Astore and Skardu, demanding an in-depth inquiry into the matter.

“Is there any department to ask the forests officials as to why such deforestation is taking places in Gilgit-Baltistan,” said Abdul Hamid, a PPP lawmaker from Astore while speaking on a point of order. He demanded inquiry into the matter to stop the ‘crime’ otherwise the situation would become worse.

Wazir Shakil, another lawmaker said that deforestation is also common in his area adding that people responsible for it be brought to book. He said that the stock of trees would deplete soon if the chopping off of trees was not controlled. Deputy speaker Jamil Ahmed, who was conducting the session in the absence of the speaker, asked the advisor on forests Aftab Haider to conduct an inquiry into the matter and submit a report to the house.

The “pure food act” was presented in the house after the provincial Law Minister Wazir Shakeel submitted the bill for approval. The deputy speaker passed on the bill to a select committee for finalization and onward submission in the house.

Al-Qaeda is a front organization of CIA and MOSSAD

The Mumbai based group alleged that Al-Qaeda is a front organization of CIA and MOSSAD. “There is enough evidence that the Al-Qaeda is a front organization of the CIA and MOSSAD. The Bush junta has used the bogey of terror and of Al Qaeda to justify his unending and ever expanding Global War on Terror, which is only a means of capturing the resources of the world and of establishing the sole hegemony of Israel in West Asia,” said the group of activists and intellectuals. The group is holding a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday to “expose the links between Al-Qaeda and the CIA-MOSSAD”.

Holding American-Israeli operation accomplices of the 9/11 attack on the WTC, the spokesman of the group said that this has been widely written about in USA and Europe itself and more than 50% of the American people and far more Europeans, now believe and are convinced about this fact. He said that sections of the Indian ruling political and military elite are importing the same Bush-Olmert formula into India. “The increasing terror attacks only serve the cause of the Indian elite and divide the masses along communal lines. It is only the ordinary Indians who are the victims of terror either in temples, mosques, buses or trains,” he said adding that practically no political leader suffers a similar fate, where the terrorists are apprehended and killed in “encounters”.

“Every terror attack is meant to push and drag the Indian masses further into the waiting arms of Uncle Sam and the Israeli Goliath. Every terror attack spreads further hatred for Muslims and Islam and weakens the Indian Muslim community,” he said.

Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace

By KARL VICK / JERUSALEM

Israelis at the beach in Tel Aviv

Heli and Eli sell condos on Exodus Street, a name that evokes a certain historical hardship in a neighborhood that suggests none at all, the ingathering of the Jews having entered a whole new realm here. The talk in the little office is of interest rates and panoramic sea views from handsomely appointed properties selling on the Ashdod waterfront for half what people are asked to pay in Tel Aviv, 18 miles (29 km) to the north. And sell they do, hand over fist – never mind the rockets that fly out of Gaza, 14 miles (22.5 km) to the south. “Even when the Qassams fell, we continued to sell!” says Heli Itach, slapping a palm on the office desk. The skull on her designer shirt is made of sequins spelling out “Love Kills Slowly.” “What the people see on the TV there is not true here,” she says. “I sold, this week, 12 apartments. You’re not client, I tell you the truth.”

The truth? In the week that three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They’re otherwise engaged; they’re making money; they’re enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still define their country by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on.

Now observing 2½ years without a single suicide bombing on their territory, with the economy robust and with souls a trifle weary of having to handle big elemental thoughts, the Israeli public prefers to explore such satisfactions as might be available from the private sphere, in a land first imagined as a utopia. “Listen to me,” says Eli Bengozi, born in Soviet Georgia and for 40 years an Israeli. “Peace? Forget about it. They’ll never have peace. Remember Clinton gave 99% to Arafat, and instead of them fighting for 1%, what? Intifadeh.”

But wait. Deep down (you can almost hear the outside world ask), don’t Israelis know that finding peace with the Palestinians is the only way to guarantee their happiness and prosperity? Well, not exactly. Asked in a March poll to name the “most urgent problem” facing Israel, just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty. Israeli Arabs placed peace first, but among Jews here, the issue that President Obama calls “critical for the world” just doesn’t seem – critical.

Another whack for the desk. “The people,” Heli says, “don’t believe.” Eli searches for a word. “People in Israel are indifferent,” he decides. “They don’t care if there’s going to be war. They don’t care if there’s going to be peace. They don’t care. They live in the day.”

When Will We See the Next Mass Murder?

By Jeff Gates

(Special to Opinion Maker) Here’s a news flash for Tel Aviv: it’s not a sign of respect when the bulk of humanity views you as psychopathic. Pakistan, in particular, should be concerned.

The concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are misplaced. The legitimacy of Israel is no longer threatened. It’s already lost. Long gone. Kaput.

Nation states are shared states of mind. The mindset in Iceland differs from India. Israel is the most unlike of all. Founded by extremists and terrorists, it’s been downhill ever since.

Psychopaths want to be loved. That’s why they’re so charming, albeit only superficially. They’re also pathological liars, egocentric, callous and remorseless.

Those qualities have long been familiar to Israel’s neighbors, particularly the Palestinians. After WWII, Harry Truman was charmed into treating this extremist enclave as an ally.

That decision may well go down in history as America’s greatest mistake.

Though we’ve served for 62 years as Israel’s patron, pocketbook and apologist, the respect and affection has flowed in only one direction.

Psychopaths should not be confused with megalomaniacs. The mental states are quite different. Megalomaniacs seek to be feared, not loved. Control is the common trait.

That not-so-subtle distinction matters, at least for those of us who are not dual citizens.

For instance, it’s now known that Israel and its advocates fixed the intelligence that took us to war in Iraq. That fact is no longer in dispute.

That fact alone confirms the split personality evident in the shared state of mind we call Israel. Those who share that state charmed us into committing our blood and treasure for goals long sought by Israel. That’s the psychopath component.

The megalomaniac component felt they had a right to make us fearful. As Chosen (by a god of their own choosing), devotees of this shared mindset truly believe it’s their right to deceive. Those complicit see themselves as “of us but above us.”

When we dispatched our military to pursue their goals, Americans were killed and maimed as we borrowed our way into a fiscal morass from which there’s no clear route to recovery.

Score another victory for the U.S.-Israel special relationship.

Why Don’t Americans Get It?

Nothing about this “state” is legit. Never was. Its founding traces to a multi-decade reign of terror built on a phony historical foundation. Even the most dull-witted now question how Israel came into being. And why the U.S. ever deemed it special.

Americans are learning to fear Israel-as they should. A few of us remain charmed-despite the facts. For the True Believer, facts are likely to remain irrelevant.

Those familiar with the facts know better. Thus the fast-growing concern that troublesome behavior patterns are emerging once again.

Those most knowledgeable are deeply concerned about recent events.

On August 26th, a leaked memo from the Central Intelligence Agency cited American Jews as exporters of terrorism. Then came the news on August 30th from Sephardi chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who urged that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas “vanish from our world” and that “God strike (Palestinians) down with a plague.”

Neither story gained traction in mainstream U.S. media. Instead, news coverage was reserved for August 31st when four Israelis were shot dead in the West Bank.

The most lethal attack in four years-blamed on Hamas-occurred just hours before Netanyahu’s scheduled meeting with Hamas leaders and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The timing revived memories of the many well-timed “incidents” during the reign of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. No one dares suggest that Tel Aviv may be the source of this latest incident. Yet consider just a few of the many precedents:

On April 12, 2002, at the same moment Secretary of State Colin Powell was meeting with Ariel Sharon, a suicide bombing occurred in Israel, killing 8 and injuring 22.

On May 10, 2002, at the same moment President Bush was meeting with Ariel Sharon, a suicide bombing occurred in Israel.

On June 11, 2003, on the same day Ariel Sharon visited the White House, a suicide bombing killed 17 and wounded 100 on a bus in Jerusalem.

On November 11, 2003, while the president of Italy was visiting the U.S., Italy suffered its greatest wartime casualties since WWII when 19 Italians were killed in Iraq.

On November 20, 2003, while President Bush was visiting Prime Minister Tony Blair in London, the British envoy to Istanbul was among 27 killed by a blast.

On November 30, 2003, while the president of Spain was visiting the U.S., seven Spanish intelligence officers were killed in Iraq.

The Source of Terror

What happens to Israel’s fast-fading legitimacy if the fear of terrorism-all of it-traces back to those long known for their expertise at waging war “by way of deception.” That’s the founding credo of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign operations directorate infamous for its worldwide expertise as an agent provocateur.

Would a state founded by terrorists resort to terror to sustain a narrative essential to its survival? Would Tel Aviv again deceive the U.S. to pursue its expansionist goals?

Zionist media mogul Haim Saban spoke candidly when, in the May 10th issue of The New Yorker, he boasted of “three ways to be influential in American politics:” make donations to political parties, establish think tanks and control media outlets.

His only omission: terror.

Was this dual citizen conceding how the U.S. was induced to war-for Israel?

Was he describing how Zionists shape U.S. policy-in plain sight?

Was he describing how psychopaths wage war on the U.S.-from within?

Was he divulging how megalomaniacs influence U.S. decision-making-with fear?

Americans have long been charmed by this “special” relationship. Now it’s time to be fearful. When a mental state of this malevolent sort becomes transparent and its operatives apparent, that’s when “psycho-megalomania” becomes its most dangerous.

Will we see another terrorist attack? You can bet on it. The only question is: When?

Special days are often chosen for special events. Will the next mass murder be on Rosh Hashanah (September 8th)? How about the ninth anniversary of September 11th? Or Yom Kippur on September 17th?

Will the next incident be nuclear or conventional? Will it be staged in the U.S. or the E.U.?

And most important of all: will it be blamed on Hezbollah or Hamas? Or will the “Pakistan Taliban” be portrayed as the requisite Evil Doer responsible for the next mass murder?

Stay tuned.

A Vietnam veteran, Jeff Gates is a widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide. He served for seven years as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. He is widely published in the trade, popular and academic press. His latest book is Guilt by Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War. His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. Topical commentaries appear on the Criminal State website.

Hezbollah: Iran Can Equip Lebanese Army

The Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) – The leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group says authorities should formally ask Iran to help equip the country’s military.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vows his Iranian-backed group would use its friendship with Iran to secure assistance to the national army.

His televised comments Tuesday were in response to a decision by a U.S. congressman this month to suspend $100 million worth of American military aid over concerns the weapons could be turned on Israel and that the militant Hezbollah group may have influence over the Lebanese army.

The Lebanese government has since opened an account at the central bank to receive donated funds to buy weapons for the country’s military.

Israelization of Iraq and Indianization of Afghanistan

By Engr. Mansoor A. Malik in Opinion Maker

Rumsfeld’s Pentagon had novel ideas of their own. With people like Dick Cheney in the White House to oil his ego and his boss the President who knew only childhood cowboy’s tricks, had a free hand to think and act on his own. The somber and popular Secretary of State, Gen Collin Powell was made to look like a comedian in a Greek Tragedy Drama. The checks and balances which the US Congress had put in place after the Vietnam War debacle was conveniently set aside after the 9/11 fiasco and the Pentagon’s young Turks like Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and other likeminded skewed intellectuals in their Policy Planning committee was unleashed to the world in general and our world in particular.

The Babylonian Civilization of Iraq had to be taught new lessons in Democracy ala Israel to make it subservient to this so called shinning nuclear armor in the Nejaf Desert. But first and foremost, on occupation of this country, all the Babylonian artifacts had to be robbed and stolen to make this country free from its past. After this historic banditry, this country had to be de-stabilized from North-South and East-West in order to rebuild it on Democratic Topography of Shia-Sunni on one hand and Kurds-Turkmen on the other. The annihilation of Iraq was carried out thru the earnings of its Petro-dollars and the Israeli area of influence, courtesy Uncle Sam, spread from the Palestinian lands West of Jordan Valley to the Euphrates & Tigress Rivers of Babylon. Israel now had direct access to the two most important Muslim countries of the region i.e. Ottoman’s Turkey in the Northern fringes of Iraq and The Golden Bird, Iran on its Eastern flank. The re-drawing of the Middle-Eastern map to suit Israel was carried out in real earnest by Dum Dum Rumsfeld’s Pentagon. Before that it was Afghanistan’s turn in our midst.

The Shock and Awe of Mr. Rumsfeld’s War on Afghanistan was in full display for the whole world to see. The Daisy Cutters and heavy bombardment of B-52 bombers from the air on dilapidated mud houses in Afghanistan and on the ground the troops from the US Special Forces riding on horse backs and mules along with the Northern Alliance troops entering Kabul appeared to be projected out from the American Comical Characters of yore. The Lone Rangers had arrived in our neighborhood. Nine years down the line the Lone Rangers along with more than hundred thousand crack troops on the ground are still faced with stubborn resistance from the local inhabitants. The Indians caught up in the Kashmir quagmire over the last 60 years got their golden opportunity to jump into the American Bandwagon in Afghanistan to check mate Pakistan and divert the world attention from its own human atrocities in Kashmir. The singular most suffering country from The War on Terror in terms of men and material and lost opportunities, Pakistan was being painted differently by the Indians in cohort with the Israelis. The Indianization of Afghanistan may not be as smooth as Israelization of Iraq. The Indo-Israeli nexus had been working secretly for many years and had started showing their muscles openly after the 9/11 Tragedy. Such was their combined reach that they in turn started calling the shots at the Pentagon under the Tutelage of old, haggard and deranged Rumsfeld.

Earlier, the Israeli lobby with Uncle Sam’s blessings had penetrated the Dardanelle Straights of Turkey in order to establish their hold on the old champions of the Muslim World. Professor Erbakan, head of the Islamic Rifah Party in the early 1990s’ and an Opposition Leader in Turkey realized this onslaught and his Policy Planning team put up a strategic paper on the concept of the Developing Eight (D-8) Muslim Countries Grouping i.e. Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangla Desh, Egypt and Nigeria as a counter weight to the growing influence of Israel entering our region on an American horse. The first D-8 Summit was soon held in Turkey when Mr. Erbakan became Turkey’s Prime Minister in the mid 1990s’. The last Summit was recently held in Abuja, Nigeria. The present leadership of Turkey is indebted to the role played by Prof Erbakan in bringing back this country to the fold of the Muslim Nations. The recent aggressive mis-handling of the Turkish Humanitarian Flotilla by the Israeli sharks near the Palestinian lands only aggravated the feelings amongst all sensible and sensitive people of the world at the high handedness of the Israeli government and their backers sitting thousands of miles away in their Comfort Zones.

After Israelization of Iraq and Indianization of Afghanistan what is next on their agenda? This million dollar question has to be addressed by every member of the D-8 lest one by one each of them are reduced to a surrogate status. It appears that the appetite of the wolves has not been fully met after the annihilation of the Babylonian lands and the rich Persian Empire may now be under their focus. Malaysia under Dr. Mahathir barely survived the Economic onslaught a few years back along with the political crisis of East Timor in Indonesia. Nigeria and Egypt the only two D-8 countries from the African Continent are undergoing their political leadership transition crisis. Pakistan is under the anvil of Destabilization and Distortion of its image as the first and only Nuclear power in the Muslim World. Bangla Desh has been absorbed by the Indians in South Asian politics and is not free to look elsewhere. We are, therefore, left with only Turkey and Iran in the D-8 countries with Space and Time in their favour, although Iran is in a nut cracker situation under the Most Sanctioned Regime. These are the fault lines within the leading players of the Muslim World which are being fully exploited in the present Power Equilibrium.

Destroying Muslim lands through the American Shock and Awe under the watchful Indo-Israeli nexus could be carried out by high altitude B-52 Bombers flying from Safety Zones but what next? Iraq is no more a country within the grip of its own people while its forty years of development has been overturned into rubble; Afghanistan already a medieval country stuck in the Middle Ages has been unleashed to make other countries in its close vicinity look similar. The division of the Victor and the Vanquished soon disappears when militaries are fighting whole nations. American Military appeared victorious in the Vietnam War till the Rescue Helicopters from the US Naval Fleet were positioned at the roof tops of the Presidential Palace in Saigon to evacuate the marooned Americans and Pro-American leaders from the Palace before their capitulation to the Viet Conges. The Soviets with their draconian Heli-copter Gunships were routing out their enemies in the mountains of Afghanistan till their open and frank leadership of the time admitted and called their Afghan Campaign a “Bleeding Wound” and withdrew from Afghanistan with whatever was left of their pride. The Israelis launched their Armored Pride into Lebanon in the not too distant past only to be check mated for the first time by the rockets fired from the most novel and mobile rocket launchers mounted on motor bikes of the Lebanese volunteers. The historical victors of the First World War may have got the vanquished Germans sign the “Treaty of Versailles” but within twenty years had to face the onslaught of Hitler’s Blitzkrieg in all of Europe. Nations cannot be won by militaries alone. This lesson was very much known in Confucian China of old and in modern times of Jean Paul Sartre’s France, during the Algerian War. Will think tanks in Washington and their cohorts in Tel Eviv and New Delhi draw a lesson or two from the past? Only time will tell.

Mansoor Malik, is Member Board of Advisors, Opinion Maker. In brief, he has been Director General with over 33 year of experience in planning, establishing and managing national level, strategic, high-tech organizations.Director General, Marketing & Industrial Relations Organization (MIRO). Commandant, College of Aeronautical Engineering, Risalpur.

Senior Engineering Manager, PAF Project where he was responsible for the smooth induction of F-16 Aircraft Weapons System in the PAF and making them fully operational.

His experience is very versatile in different fields of technology and education. He is consultant to number of organizations and the Universities of Pakistan.

U.S. Company Faces Penalties for Alleged Nuclear Export Attempts to India, Israel

by David Albright, Paul Brannan, and Andrea Stricker

Time to seek pledges from our allies that they will not violate U.S. laws to outfit their nuclear weapons and missile programs and will cooperate in any prosecution of alleged violators

In the spring of 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) charged the U.S.-based Telogy LLC and its Belgian affiliate with violating U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR) for attempting to export controlled goods to Israel, India, China, and South Africa. These charges followed a voluntary self-disclosure by the companies.

In the case of Israel and India, the goods could have been intended for nuclear weapons and missile programs. India’s attempted acquisition of oscilloscopes shows that the country may continue to acquire items illicitly from abroad for its missile programs or unsafeguarded nuclear programs, including its nuclear weapons program. Recently, India has also sought vacuum pumps from European manufacturers that are believed to be for its unsafeguarded uranium enrichment program. The large scale oscilloscope purchases made by Israel bring into question its continued commitment to halting its illicit procurement of equipment for its nuclear program, which it made as a result of U.S. pressure during the 1990s.

The public typically focuses on the export control violations of U.S. adversaries or competitors, such as Iran, North Korea, or China. However, some U.S. allies also break U.S. or foreign trade control laws to outfit their missile or nuclear weapons programs. Although the BIS did not identify the suspected purchasers of these goods in Israel or India, this case highlights the need for the U.S. government to develop a more formal process to discourage allies from violating U.S. trade control laws.

To that end, the United States should obtain formal pledges from its allies, in particular India, Israel, and Pakistan, that they will not seek to violate U.S. laws, or for that matter supplier-country laws, in order to outfit their ballistic missile programs or unsafeguarded nuclear programs. These allies should also be expected to cooperate fully with U.S. authorities in any investigation or prosecution of alleged violations, including efforts to collect evidence, extradite violators, and obtain the return of goods sent under false pretenses to a nuclear weapons or missile program. In the absence of adequate cooperation, the United States should impose additional licensing requirements on the export of any dual-use goods to these countries. The United States can already impose sanctions on Indian, Israeli, and Pakistani entities and nationals that violate U.S. laws, but for egregious violations it should seek United Nations Security Council sanctions on responsible entities and individuals.

For a more comprehensive discussion of illicit nuclear trade and improved methods to detect or thwart it, see a new book by David Albright, Peddling Peril, or a recent ISIS article, “Detecting and Disrupting Illicit Nuclear Trade after A.Q. Khan,”published in The Washington Quarterly.

The Cases

Telogy, based in Union City, California, was charged with three violations of the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), pursuant to a voluntary self-disclosure made by the company. 1 BIS also charged Telogy’s Belgian affiliate, Telogy International NV, with twenty-three violations of the EAR, also the result of a voluntary self-disclosure. 2 Between 2003 and 2007, Telogy LLC and Telogy International NV (hereafter referred to as Telogy Intl) allegedly cooperated to attempt to export oscilloscopes to India and Israel. These oscilloscopes are controlled because of their potential application in nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. 3 Telogy Intl is also charged with allegedly re-exporting twenty-two oscilloscopes to Israel. 4 Telogy LLC and Telogy Intl allegedly cooperated to export a spectrum analyzer, monitoring equipment controlled for national security reasons, to China. Telogy Intl is also charged with allegedly re-exporting a spectrum analyzer to South Africa. 5 The companies neither admit nor deny these allegations. 6

According to BIS settlement agreements, Telogy LLC was given a suspended fine of $76,000; Telogy Intl must pay $75,000 and faces a suspended fine of $362,000. 7 The suspended fines will be waived if the companies do not commit additional export violations for a period of one year.

Telogy LLC

Between 2005 and 2007, Telogy LLC allegedly attempted to export two oscilloscopes to India, one oscilloscope to Israel, and a spectrum analyzer to China. 8 Oscilloscopes are equipment that exhibit graphs of electrical signals and track the timing of signals and are controlled for export because of their potential use in nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. Spectrum analyzers are controlled exports for national security reasons due to their potential uses in surveillance and monitoring. They observe the frequency and amplitude of signals emitted from a source.

In May 2005, Telogy LLC received an order for two oscilloscopes destined for India from its Belgian affiliate, Telogy Intl, and according to BIS, took actions “with intent to evade” the EAR. According to BIS, Telogy LLC was aware that an export license was required for shipping oscilloscopes to India, and therefore arranged to ship them first to Telogy Intl “with the understanding that the items would then be sent to India.” 9 BIS documents do not indicate whether the items were actually sent to India.

In June 2005, Telogy LLC received an order from Telogy Intl for a spectrum analyzer, destined for China. According to BIS, Telogy LLC was aware that an export license was required for shipping a spectrum analyzer to China, and therefore arranged with Telogy Intl to ship the item to a California-based import/export company chosen by Telogy Intl “with the understanding that the item would then be sent to [China].” 10 BIS documents do not indicate whether the item was actually sent to China.

In June or July 2007, Telogy LLC received an order from Telogy for one oscilloscope, destined for Israel. According to BIS, Telogy LLC was aware that an export license was required for shipping an oscilloscope to Israel, and therefore arranged with Telogy Intl to ship the item to a company located in Canada chosen by Telogy Intl “with the understanding that the item would then be sent to Israel.” 11 BIS documents do not indicate whether the item was actually sent to Israel.

Telogy LLC filed a voluntary self-disclosure of its actions with BIS’s Office of Export Enforcement. It was assessed a suspended civil penalty of $76,000, which can be waived if the company commits no further export violations for one year. 12 It neither admits nor denies the allegations contained in the BIS charging letter. 13

Telogy Intl

Between 2003 and 2007, Telogy Intl of Belgium allegedly re-exported twenty-two oscilloscopes to Israel, and one spectrum analyzer to South Africa. According to BIS, on twenty-two occasions, Telogy Intl re-exported oscilloscopes from Belgium to Israel without a license. 14 In May 2007, Telogy Intl allegedly re-exported a spectrum analyzer from Belgium to South Africa without a license. 15 BIS documents from the case do not indicate whether the oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzer were sent to Telogy Intl by Telogy LLC explicitly for these alleged sales, or whether they were U.S.-made equipment already possessed by the Belgian affiliate for distribution purposes.

Telogy Intl filed a voluntary self-disclosure of its actions with BIS’s Office of Export Enforcement. It was assessed a penalty of $437,000, of which it was ordered to pay $75,000 within thirty days. The remainder of the penalty, $362,000, was suspended for one year and can be waived if the company commits no further export violations during the period. 16 The company neither admits nor denies the allegations contained in the BIS charging letter. 17

Lessons and Observations

These alleged instances show that countries which are U.S. allies knowingly violate U.S. export laws and regulations to procure goods for their nuclear, missile, or military programs. They use methods that differ little from those pursued by U.S. adversaries, such as Iran or North Korea. The United States should take several actions to discourage U.S. allies from violating U.S. trade control laws:

1. It should determine if the alleged Indian procurement attempt was for its unsafeguarded nuclear program and in violation of the letter or spirit of U.S.-India peaceful nuclear cooperation agreements. To that end, the United States should secure an Indian commitment that it will not procure goods from abroad for its nuclear, missile, or military programs in violation of U.S. or other suppliers’ trade control laws.
2. The United States should also follow up on Israel’s acquisition of oscilloscopes to determine whether Israel has contravened its stated commitment from the 1990s not to engage in illicit trade for its unsafeguarded nuclear program and seek affirmation of its pledge not to do so.
3. The United States should insist that allies cooperate fully with U.S. authorities in any investigation or prosecution of alleged violations, including in efforts to collect evidence, extradite violators, and obtain the return of goods sent under false pretenses to a nuclear weapons or missile program. This cooperation should extend equally to the activities of state-controlled entities ordering the equipment and domestic trading companies contracted to seek the items abroad. The United States should impose additional licensing requirements on the export of any dual-use goods to countries that refuse to cooperate.
4. The United States should state as a matter of policy that if any country knowingly seeks goods abroad for its nuclear weapons program in violation of U.S. or other supplier countries’ laws, it may be subject to unilateral and multilateral sanctions. It should seek to make egregious violations of internationally accepted export controls, such as Nuclear Supplier Group guidelines, a sufficient rationale for imposing U.N. Security Council sanctions on a country, in particular state-controlled entities, companies, and persons that are responsible for illicit purchases.

A proper investigation

The prime minister should know that only a real, skillfully conducted and credible investigation lays the groundwork for the possibility that the Americans will refrain from supporting an international investigation.

By Ze’ev Segal

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indeed supports a serious investigation into the Gaza flotilla affair, as his associates adamantly suggest, and is not merely sufficing with an investigation for show, a golden opportunity has fallen into his lap that he will be able to promote at this morning’s cabinet meeting.

Contrary to what is believed in Israel, the Americans are meticulously examining this country’s constitutional state of affairs. They understand the difference between a state commission of inquiry, whose members are appointed by the Supreme Court president exercising his or her own judgment, and a government investigative committee appointed by ministers with a connection to the matter at hand.

These two types of panel are different from the informal committee headed by Jacob Turkel to look into the flotilla incident. Turkel’s committee lacks a real mandate, public status and investigative powers. Forming it was cooked up by various cabinet advisers, led by Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, to reveal little and leave much undisturbed.

The prime minister should know that only a real, skillfully conducted and credible investigation lays the groundwork for the possibility that the Americans will refrain from supporting an international investigation. At this stage, the Americans have made it clear they don’t rule out support for an international inquiry.

Under the existing circumstances, the chances for the preferred option of a state commission of inquiry are slim unless other ministers demand it of the prime minister and unless Defense Minister Ehud Barak agrees. At the same time, a decision to convert the Turkel Committee, in a properly expanded format, into a government investigative committee as provided for by law, with full investigatory powers, would also be significant.

Providing the committee with investigative authority, however, would only accomplish half the job. What the committee would examine is no less important. Without a broad mandate, the committee would resemble an empty shell. If its current mandate is left in place, as the parties involved in the matter seek, the Turkel Committee would be useless, of no advantage either domestically or internationally.

Its current mandate is limited, inadequate and turns it into a forum for legal debate with authorization only to examine a few subjects: the military circumstances surrounding the naval blockade on Gaza and its conformity with international law; the conformity with international law of Israel’s steps to enforce the blockade; and an examination of the flotilla organizers’ actions and the quality of Israeli supervisory mechanisms in cases of violation of the international laws of war.

The Turkel Committee was not authorized to look at how preparations for the the flotilla’s arrival were carried out on the political level in Israel or to examine the actions of senior military officials such as the naval commander. The emphasis in the current mandate, which with respect to the military only authorizes the committee to request information from the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and to receive summaries of the military investigations, explicitly contradicts the broad authority needed for a serious inquiry.

The current mandate pales in comparison to the mandate given to the government committee of inquiry headed by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd that examined the Second Lebanon War. That committee’s authority included the preparations for and conduct of the war on the political and military levels. It covered all relevant aspects including the conduct of the campaign from its political, military and civilian aspects. The Winograd Committee was authorized to develop findings and conclusions and submit recommendations as it saw fit.

Usually a committee convened as a state commission of inquiry via a cabinet decision or appointed by ministers on a subject within their area of responsibility sticks to its mandate. At the same time, it has happened that a commission of inquiry – the Kahan Commission that investigated the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Lebanon – declared that it could not carry out its work properly if it did not “to a certain extent” exceed the authority provided by the cabinet’s resolution. Exceeding authority in a limited manner is possible, but the cabinet’s decision narrowing the committee’s range of action could foil the investigation if the committee conducts itself “by the book,” as is the accepted practice.

A serious cabinet debate either today or at a later session cannot suffice with approving full investigative powers of a government investigative committee. Without a comprehensive and broad mandate, it would not be worth the efforts of the committee’s members. Judge Turkel has reportedly demanded that the committee’s investigative powers be expanded, but only if it is given a real mandate will it be able do its work with the integrity expected of it.

Israeli Official Assails Plans for Demolition of Arab Homes

By DINA KRAFT

TEL AVIV – A top Israeli official scolded local officials on Tuesday for giving preliminary approval to a plan calling for the demolition of 22 Palestinian homes, in an echo of past stumbles over Jewish development in East Jerusalem.

The official, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, was on a visit to Washington, where tensions have run high over Jewish housing in East Jerusalem. A member of the Labor Party, the only centrist element in a right-leaning government, Mr. Barak seemed annoyed by the move, which threatened to upset the indirect, American-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a statement released by his office, Mr. Barak said that the municipal authorities were “not demonstrating any common sense or any sense of timing – and it is not the first time.”

The Israeli government is still repairing damage done to its relations with the United States when the Interior Ministry announced, during a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in March, approval for the building of over 1,000 homes for Jews in East Jerusalem.

In Washington on Tuesday, P. J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, expressed concern that the proposed plan could compromise the new peace negotiations. “This is expressly the kind of step that we think undermines trust that is fundamental to making progress in the proximity talks,” he said.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war, a move that was not recognized internationally. Palestinians predominate in the area and claim it as their future capital. They view efforts by Israel to increase the Jewish presence there as hostile acts intended to thwart any future division of the city.

The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, speaking during a trip to Jordan on Tuesday, criticized the building plan and called on the United States to help block it.

Jerusalem, with its biblical resonance and deep historical roots and symbolism, remains the most volatile issue between Israel and the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in keeping with his predecessors, has held firmly that Jerusalem will remain united as Israel’s capital.

But his office, apparently in a bid to stave off another confrontation with the White House, issued a statement playing down the plan. “We are talking about a process at its very initial stages,” the statement read. “The plan is still up for debate and comments from the city hall’s local council and then in the district committee of the Interior Ministry, where the stance of the local residents will be heard.”

The statement also expressed the desire that a solution be found that would satisfy local residents.

Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, rejected the criticism, including Mr. Barak’s comments.

The city’s plan, which he has been spearheading, is to raze 22 out of 88 homes that the city said were built illegally on public land in the neighborhood of Silwan, nestled in a valley just below the stone walls of the Old City. Once the homes are cleared in the area called Al Bustan, Mr. Barkat has said there will be room for a large archeological park, about 1,000 new apartments for local residents, shopping and boutique hotels. He sees the package as an important tourist draw that will be good both for local residents and Jerusalem.

He envisions the creation of 1,000 more apartment units through the city’s approval of four-story buildings where currently only two stories are allowed. Other plans approved in a preliminary step on Monday would legalize a seven-story apartment building in Silwan where Jewish settlers live.

Prepare for a fallout

By Zafar Hilaly

Iran wants the bomb and not because of some fixation with Israel; it goes beyond that. Possessing nuclear weapons will elevate Iran’s global status; consolidate her claim to be a regional power and provide her with a credible deterrent against powerful international adversaries.

With the bomb, Iran, in league with Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria could challenge Israel’s hegemony and once Egypt sheds Mubarak, possibly extricate the region from western clutches. The fact that Saudi Arabia would become infinitely more pliable, and the Gulf sheikhdoms more amenable to settle their territorial disputes with Iran, would provide Tehran the proverbial icing on the cake.

To achieve all this Iran needed time and adroit diplomacy to bring her nuclear plans to fruition. Unfortunately, diplomacy has never been revolutionary Iran’s strongpoint and certainly not that of the Ahmadinejad administration. In it bluster and bluff prevail together with sad, implausible takes on world history and interminable and cantankerous sermonising. True, Ahmadinejad’s utterances warm the cockles of the hearts of many who loath the West but they do little else and did not prevent China and Russia from supporting the western-engineered UN resolution imposing sanctions on Iran.

The Iranian president’s criticism of China for supporting sanctions is an indication of how self-defeating his utterances can be and how he has misread China. He forgets that China is no longer a revolutionary but a status quo power. She is plugged into the world economy and certainly that of America’s. China has a vested interest in seeing the US prosper; at least long enough to pay back its debts and especially the $1 trillion China has invested in US treasury bonds. And to keep the dollar, which forms a sizable portion of the $2.5 trillion that China has in foreign currency reserves a viable currency while the world struggles to discover an alternative.

Perhaps Ahmadinejad was misled by China’s dependency on Iranian oil, which makes up as much as 10 per cent of her imports. However, for China the risk of war, if America were to be left on its own, was considerably greater and especially the dislocation of supplies and the spike in oil prices resulting from war. For Beijing, therefore, sanctions were a way of defusing the pressure on America for military action and, at the same time, signalling Ahmedinijad to engage more convincingly in negotiations.

Ahmadinejad must have found Russia’s ganging up with the US less surprising though no less galling given the substantial and long-standing defence relationship with Moscow. Tehran should have known that for both China and Russia, America is far more important than Iran and if anything this equation will get more pronounced.

Or perhaps Ahmadinejad never stood a chance of winning Chinese and Russian backing. First because the P5 have made it evident that they mean to preserve their nuclear monopoly come what may – the NPT is about as discriminatory a treaty as one can imagine. And, secondly, because none of the P5 can stomach another nuclear weapon state in the Middle East and most definitely not one with Ahmadinejad’s finger on the nuclear trigger.

Though Iran failed to parry UN sanctions the outcome of the UN vote did give some cause for hope. The nuclear swap deal with non-permanent Security Council members Turkey and Brazil keeps alive the faint hope that a negotiated settlement may eventually be possible. If nothing else the swap arrangement “amounts to an interesting starting point” for further negotiations. Besides, when Washington brusquely rejected it out of hand, the outcry prevented a unanimous vote in favour of the resolution thereby diluting its moral force.

With irate Brazil and Turkey leading the charge for further negotiations and a diplomatic solution to the crisis most of the Muslim and non-aligned world will back their initiative. However, not Saudi Arabia, which has long been greasing the skids for Iran’s fall. And although Riyadh has denied that it has granted Israeli planes the right to overfly the Kingdom to attack Iran no one believes that the Saudis would put up any resistance were Israel to do so.

Predictably Ahmadinejad has scoffed at sanctions comparing them to “used handkerchiefs”. Of greater consequence was the remark of Iran’s representative on the IAEA who said, “Not only will Iran continue her enrichment activities but even a second enrichment activity will not be suspended.” He was referring to Iran’s recent move to enrich uranium to a higher level of purification, an unmistakable sign that Iran remains defiant and is willing to up the ante.

There remains a year or two before matters come to a head and either Iran caves in or the West adopts a more emollient attitude. And if neither happens then Israel will likely have its way which is to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites and some infrastructure critical to the Revolutionary Gaurds – the current guardians of the clerics who rule Iran.

Were war to break out between Iran and the US or Israel the impact on Pakistan could be enormous. Anti-Taliban sentiments would subside with public ire focussing on symbols of western presence. If disturbances intensify and spread there will be the usual doubts about the safety of our nuclear arsenal, which may well prompt further threats from Israel and America backed up by India.

It will take a lot of cool heads and a willingness to take extreme measures to retain control in the wake of disturbances that may follow a US-Iran war. Bitterness and hostility towards the West, already high, could reach explosive levels. And if, by some chance, Muslim shrines in Iran were hit by accident or design the kind of mayhem witnessed in Pakistan following the Mecca incident of 1979 may very well follow. But, most threatening of all would be the spread of the Salafi-Shia tensions.

While there is nothing that Pakistan can do to prevent a US military strike against Iran we should be aware of its dangerous implications and do a lot better at managing our internal situation. Currently, the central and provincial governments are struggling to deal with the home-grown Taliban. The present lawlessness bordering on anarchy puts at risk our strategic interests. Even without the additional dangers posed to society by an Iran-US conflict we are fighting desperately for our survival. Therefore, unless we are prepared for the likely fallout of that conflict, we will be courting disaster.

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com